2. that let you cheat the poor and needy and rob widows and orphans.
3. But what will you do when you are fiercely attacked and punished by foreigners? Where will you run for help? Where will you hide your valuables?
4. How will you escape being captured or killed? The Lord is still angry, and he isn't through with you yet!
5. The Lord says:I am furious! And I will use the king of Assyria as a club
6. to beat down you godless people. I am angry with you, and I will send him to attack you. He will take what he wants and walk on you like mud in the streets.
7. He has even bigger plans in mind, because he wants to destroy many nations.
8. The king of Assyria says:My army commanders are kings!
9. They have already captured the cities of Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, Arpad, Samaria, and Damascus.
10-11. The gods of Jerusalem and Samaria are weaker than the gods of those powerful nations. And I will destroy Jerusalem, together with its gods and idols, just as I did Samaria.
12. The Lord will do what he has planned against Jerusalem and Mount Zion. Then he will punish the proud and boastful king of Assyria,
13. who says:I did these things by my own power because I am clever and wise. I attacked kings like a wild bull, and I took the land and the treasures of their nations.
14. I have conquered the whole world! And it was easier than taking eggs from an unguarded nest. No one even flapped a wing or made a cheep.
15. King of Assyria, can an axe or a saw overpower the one who uses it? Can a wooden pole lift whoever holds it?
16. The mighty Lord All-Powerful will send a terrible disease to strike down your army, and you will burn with fever under your royal robes.
17. The holy God, who is the light of Israel, will turn into a fire, and in one day you will go up in flames, just like a thorn bush.
18. The Lord will make your beautiful forests and fertile fields slowly rot.
19. There will be so few trees that even a young child can count them.