Woe to Tyrants

1Wo [to] those decreeing decrees of iniquity, And writers who have prescribed perverseness.

2To turn aside from judgment the poor, And to take violently away the judgment Of the afflicted of My people, That widows may be their prey, That the fatherless they may spoil.

3And what do ye at a day of inspection? And at desolation? — from afar it cometh. Near whom do ye flee for help? And where do ye leave your honour?

4Without Me it hath bowed down In the place of a bound one, And in the place of the slain they fall. With all this not turned back hath His anger, And still His hand is stretched out.

Judgment on Assyria

5Wo [to] Asshur, a rod of Mine anger, And a staff in their hand [is] Mine indignation.

6Against a profane nation I send him, And concerning a people of My wrath I charge him, To spoil spoil, and to seize prey, And to make it a treading-place as the clay of out places.

7And he — he thinketh not so, And his heart reckoneth not so, For — to destroy [is] in his heart, And to cut off nations not a few.

8For he saith, ‘Are not my princes altogether kings?

9Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?

10As my hand hath got to the kingdoms of a worthless thing, and their graven images, [Greater] than Jerusalem and than Samaria,

11Do I not — as I have done to Samaria, And to her worthless things, So do to Jerusalem and to her grievous things?

12And it hath come to pass, When the Lord doth fulfil all His work In mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I see concerning the fruit of the greatness Of the heart of the king of Asshur. And concerning the glory of the height of his eyes.

13For he hath said, ‘By the power of my hand I have wrought, And by my wisdom, for I have been intelligent, And I remove borders of the peoples, And their chief ones I have spoiled, And I put down as a mighty one the inhabitants,

14And my hand as to a nest Getteth to the wealth of the peoples, And as a gathering of forsaken eggs All the earth I — I have gathered, And there hath not been one moving wing, Or opening mouth, or whispering.’

15— Doth the axe glorify itself Against him who is hewing with it? Doth the saw magnify itself Against him who is shaking it? As a rod waving those lifting it up! As a staff lifting up that which is not wood!

16Therefore doth the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, Send among his fat ones leanness, And under his honour He kindleth a burning As the burning of a fire.

17And the light of Israel hath been for a fire, And his Holy One for a flame, And it hath burned, and devoured his thorn And his brier in one day.

18And the honour of his forest, and his fruitful field, From soul even unto flesh He doth consume, And it hath been as the fainting of a standard-bearer.

19And the rest of the trees of his forest [are] few, And a youth doth write them.

A Remnant of Israel Shall Return

20And it hath come to pass, in that day, The remnant of Israel, And the escaped of the house of Jacob, Do not add any more to lean on its smiter, And have leant on Jehovah, The Holy One of Israel, in truth.

21A remnant returneth — a remnant of Jacob, Unto the Mighty God.

22For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, A remnant doth return of it, A consumption determined, Overflowing [with] righteousness.

23For a consumption that is determined, The Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, Is making in the midst of all the land.

24Therefore, thus said the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, ‘Be not afraid, my people, inhabiting Zion, because of Asshur, With a rod he doth smite thee, And his staff lifteth up against thee, in the way of Egypt. 25For yet a very little, And the indignation hath been completed, And Mine anger by their wearing out. 26And awaking for him is Jehovah of Hosts, A scourge like the smiting of Midian at the rock Oreb, And his rod [is] over the sea, And he hath lifted it in the way of Egypt. 27And it hath come to pass, in that day, Turned is his burden from off thy shoulder, And his yoke from off thy neck, And destroyed hath been the yoke, because of prosperity.

28He hath come in against Aiath, He hath passed over into Migron, At Michmash he looketh after his vessels.

29They have gone over the passage, Geba they have made a lodging place, Trembled hath Rama, Gibeah of Saul fled.

30Cry aloud [with] thy voice, daughter of Gallim, Give attention, Laish! answer her, Anathoth.

31Fled away hath Madmenah, The inhabitants of the high places have hardened themselves.

32Yet to-day in Nob to remain, Wave its hand doth the mount of the daughter of Zion, The hill of Jerusalem.

33Lo, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, Is lopping a branch with violence, And the high of stature are cut down, And the lofty are become low,

34And He hath gone round the thickets of the forest with iron, And Lebanon by a mighty one falleth!