4 Yet for all this Yahwehs anger does not subside,
4 his hand is poised to strike.
Assyria: instrument of God
:B:5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, the staff of my fury!
6 Against a godless nation I send him,
6 against a people who provoke my wrath I dispatch him,
6 to plunder and pillage,
6 to tread them down like mud in the streets.
7 But the mind of his king is far from this,
7 his heart harbors other thoughts
7 what he wants is to destroy,
7 to make an end of all nations.
8 For he says:
8 Are not my commanders like kings?
9 Was it not the same for Calno as for Carchemish,
9 for Hamath as for Arpad,
9 and for Samaria as for Damascus?
10 Just as my hands have seized idolatrous kingdoms, whose graven images excelled those of Samaria and Jerusa lem,
11 just as I have dealt with Samaria and her idols, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 When Yahweh has finished all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the king of Assyria for his willful pride and arrogant insolence. 13 For the king says
13 By my own strength I have done this
13 and by my own wisdom, for I am clever.
13 I have moved the frontiers of peoples,
13 I have plundered treasures,
13 I have brought inhabitants down to the dust,
13 I have toppled kings from their thrones.
14 As one reaches into a nest,
14 so my hands have reached into na tions wealth.
14 As one gathers deserted eggs,
14 so have I gathered the riches of the earth.
14 No one flapped a wing
14 or opened its mouth to chirp a pro test.
15 Does the axe claim more credit
15 than the man who wields it?
15 Does the saw magnify itself
15 more than the one who uses it?
15 This would be like a rod wielding the man who lifts it up
15 will those not made of wood, be controlled by the cudgel?
16 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh Saba oth,
16 is ready to send a wasting sickness
16 upon the kings sturdy warriors.
16 Beneath his plenty, a flame will burn
16 like a consuming fire.
17 The Light of Israel will be a fire
17 and his Holy One a flame
17 to burn and devour his thorns and briers
17 all in a single day.
18 The splendor of his forest and fruitful land
18 comes undone and raves,
18 body and soul disappears and passes away.
19 The remnant of the trees in his forest
19 will be so few, so easy to count,
19 that a child could make a list of them.
A remnant will return
:B:20 On that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the people of Jacob will no longer rely upon the tyrant who struck them down, but instead will truly rely upon the Holy One of Israel. 21 A remnant will return a remnant of Jacob to the mighty God.
22 Yes, Israel! Though your people be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return
24 Thus says the Lord, Yahweh Sa baoth,
24 O my people, who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians who strike you with the rod and lift up their staff against you as did the Egyptians. 25 In a little while my anger against you will be over and will be directed to their destruction.
26 Yahweh Sabaoth will lash at them with a scourge, as he did with the Midia nites at the rock of Oreb, as he did in Egypt when he raised his rod over the sea.
27 On that day, their burden will be lifted off your shoulders, their yoke lift ed off your neck. The yoke will be destroyed.