15. Will the ax boast against the one who hews with it?Will the saw exalt itself above the one who wields it?As if a rod could sway the one who lifts it,or a staff could lift the one who is not wood!
16. Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts,will send leanness among his fat ones,And under his glory there will be a kindlinglike the kindling of fire.
17. The Light of Israel will become a fire,the Holy One, a flame,That burns and consumes its briersand its thorns in a single day.
18. And the glory of its forests and orchardswill be consumed, soul and body,and it will be like a sick man who wastes away.
19. And the remnant of the trees in his forestwill be so few,that any child can record them.
20. On that dayThe remnant of Israel,the survivors of the house of Jacob,will no more lean upon the one who struck them;But they will lean upon the Lord,the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob,to the mighty God.
22. Though your people, O Israel,were like the sand of the sea,Only a remnant of them will return;their destruction is decreed,as overflowing justice demands.
23. For the Lord, the God of hosts, is about to carry out the destruction decreed in the midst of the whole land.
24. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: My people, who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian, though he strikes you with a rod, and raises his staff against you as did the Egyptians.
25. For just a brief moment more, and my wrath shall be over, and my anger shall be set for their destruction.