| New Living Translation | Berean Study Bible |
| 1What sorrow awaits the unjust judges and those who issue unfair laws. | 1Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees, |
| 2They deprive the poor of justice and deny the rights of the needy among my people. They prey on widows and take advantage of orphans. | 2to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder. |
| 3What will you do when I punish you, when I send disaster upon you from a distant land? To whom will you turn for help? Where will your treasures be safe? | 3What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? |
| 4You will stumble along as prisoners or lie among the dead. But even then the LORD’s anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike. Judgment against Assyria | 4Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. |
| 5“What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger. I use it as a club to express my anger. | 5Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath. |
| 6I am sending Assyria against a godless nation, against a people with whom I am angry. Assyria will plunder them, trampling them like dirt beneath its feet. | 6I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets. |
| 7But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool; his mind does not work that way. His plan is simply to destroy, to cut down nation after nation. | 7But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations. |
| 8He will say, ‘Each of my princes will soon be a king. | 8“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says. |
| 9We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish. Hamath fell before us as Arpad did. And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus. | 9“Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? |
| 10Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom whose gods were greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria. | 10As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria, |
| 11So we will defeat Jerusalem and her gods, just as we destroyed Samaria with hers.’” | 11and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?” |
| 12After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant. | 12So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes. |
| 13He boasts, “By my own powerful arm I have done this. With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it. I have broken down the defenses of nations and carried off their treasures. I have knocked down their kings like a bull. | 13For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers. |
| 14I have robbed their nests of riches and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs. No one can even flap a wing against me or utter a peep of protest.” | 14My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’ ” |
| 15But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it? Is the saw greater than the person who saws? Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it? Can a wooden cane walk by itself? | 15Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood! |
| 16Therefore, the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, will send a plague among Assyria’s proud troops, and a flaming fire will consume its glory. | 16Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame. |
| 17The LORD, the Light of Israel, will be a fire; the Holy One will be a flame. He will devour the thorns and briers with fire, burning up the enemy in a single night. | 17And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles. |
| 18The LORD will consume Assyria’s glory like a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land; it will waste away like sick people in a plague. | 18The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man. |
| 19Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive— so few that a child could count them! Hope for the LORD’s People | 19The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them. |
| 20In that day the remnant left in Israel, the survivors in the house of Jacob, will no longer depend on allies who seek to destroy them. But they will faithfully trust the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. | 20On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. |
| 21A remnant will return; yes, the remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God. | 21A remnant will return—a remnant of Jacob—to the Mighty God. |
| 22But though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant of them will return. The LORD has rightly decided to destroy his people. | 22Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness. |
| 23Yes, the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, has already decided to destroy the entire land. | 23For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land. |
| 24So this is what the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, says: “O my people in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they oppress you with rod and club as the Egyptians did long ago. | 24Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, who strikes you with a rod and lifts his staff against you as the Egyptians did. |
| 25In a little while my anger against you will end, and then my anger will rise up to destroy them.” | 25For in just a little while My fury against you will subside, and My anger will turn to their destruction.” |
| 26The LORD of Heaven’s Armies will lash them with his whip, as he did when Gideon triumphed over the Midianites at the rock of Oreb, or when the LORD’s staff was raised to drown the Egyptian army in the sea. | 26And the LORD of Hosts will brandish a whip against them, as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise His staff over the sea, as He did in Egypt. |
| 27In that day the LORD will end the bondage of his people. He will break the yoke of slavery and lift it from their shoulders. | 27On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders, and the yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large. |
| 28Look, the Assyrians are now at Aiath. They are passing through Migron and are storing their equipment at Micmash. | 28Assyria has entered Aiath and passed through Migron, storing their supplies at Michmash. |
| 29They are crossing the pass and are camping at Geba. Fear strikes the town of Ramah. All the people of Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, are running for their lives. | 29They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees. |
| 30Scream in terror, you people of Gallim! Shout out a warning to Laishah. Oh, poor Anathoth! | 30Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! O wretched Anathoth! |
| 31There go the people of Madmenah, all fleeing. The citizens of Gebim are trying to hide. | 31Madmenah flees; the people of Gebim take refuge. |
| 32The enemy stops at Nob for the rest of that day. He shakes his fist at beautiful Mount Zion, the mountain of Jerusalem. | 32Yet today they will halt at Nob, shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem. |
| 33But look! The Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, will chop down the mighty tree of Assyria with great power! He will cut down the proud. That lofty tree will be brought down. | 33Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts will lop off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be cut down, the lofty ones will be felled. |
| 34He will cut down the forest trees with an ax. Lebanon will fall to the Mighty One. | 34He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One. |
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