4. “Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, and fall among the slain.” With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out.
5. “Woe to Ashshur, the rod of My displeasure and the staff in whose hand is My displeasure.
6. “Against a defiled nation I send him, and against the people of My wrath I command him to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mud of the streets.
7. “But he does not intend so, nor does his heart think so, for it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few nations.
8. “For he says, ‘Are not my princes sovereigns?
9. ‘Is not Kalno like Karkemish? Is not Ḥamath like Arpaḏ? Is not Shomeron like Damascus?
10. ‘As my hand has found the reigns of the idols, whose carved images excelled those of Yerushalayim and Shomeron,
11. as I have done to Shomeron and her idols, do I not do also to Yerushalayim and her idols?’
12. “And it shall be, when יהוה has performed all His work on Mount Tsiyon and on Yerushalayim, that I shall punish the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the sovereign of Ashshur, and the boasting of his haughty looks.
13. “For he has said, ‘By the power of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have been clever. And I remove the boundaries of the people, and have robbed their treasuries. And I put down the inhabitants like a strong one.
14. ‘And my hand finds the riches of the people like a nest. And I have gathered all the earth like forsaken eggs are gathered. And there was no one who moved his wing, nor opened his mouth with even a peep.’ ”
15. Would the axe boast itself over him who chops with it, or the saw exalt itself over him who saws with it? As a rod waving those who lift it up! As a staff lifting up that which is not wood!
16. Therefore the Master, יהוה of hosts, sends leanness among his fat ones. And under his esteem he kindles a burning like the burning of a fire.
17. And the Light of Yisra’ĕl shall be for a fire, and his Set-apart One for a flame. And it shall burn and devour his weeds and his thornbushes in one day,