4. Lest it sink beneath the captiveor fall beneath the slain?For all this, his wrath is not turned back,his hand is still outstretched!
5. Ah! Assyria, the rod of my wrath,the staff I wield in anger.
6. Against an impious nation I send him,and against a people under my wrath I order himTo seize plunder, carry off loot,and to trample them like the mud of the street.
7. But this is not what he intends,nor does he have this in mind;Rather, it is in his heart to destroy,to make an end of not a few nations.
8. For he says, “Are not my commanders all kings?”
9. “Is not Calno like Carchemish,Or Hamath like Arpad,or Samaria like Damascus?
10. Just as my hand reached out to idolatrous kingdomsthat had more images than Jerusalem and Samaria—
11. Just as I treated Samaria and her idols,shall I not do to Jerusalem and her graven images?”
12. But when the Lord has brought to an end all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,I will punish the utteranceof the king of Assyria’s proud heart,and the boastfulness of his haughty eyes.
13. For he says:“By my own power I have done it,and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd.I have moved the boundaries of peoples,their treasures I have pillaged,and, like a mighty one, I have brought down the enthroned.
14. My hand has seized, like a nest,the wealth of nations.As one takes eggs left alone,so I took in all the earth;No one fluttered a wing,or opened a mouth, or chirped!”