18. The rich forests and farmlands will be totally destroyed, in the same way that a fatal sickness destroys a person.
19. There will be so few trees left that even a child will be able to count them.
20. A time is coming when the people of Israel who have survived will no longer rely on the nation that almost destroyed them. They will truly put their trust in the Lord, Israel's holy God.
21. A few of the people of Israel will come back to their mighty God.
22. Even though now there are as many people of Israel as there are grains of sand by the sea, only a few will come back. Destruction is in store for the people, and it is fully deserved.
23. Yes, throughout the whole country the Sovereign Lord Almighty will bring destruction, as he said he would.
24. The Sovereign Lord Almighty says to his people who live in Zion, “Do not be afraid of the Assyrians, even though they oppress you as the Egyptians used to do.
25. In only a little while I will finish punishing you, and then I will destroy them.
26. I, the Lord Almighty, will beat them with my whip as I beat the people of Midian at the Rock of Oreb. I will punish Assyria as I punished Egypt.