13. He boasts, “By my own powerful arm I have done this.With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it.I have broken down the defenses of nationsand carried off their treasures.I have knocked down their kings like a bull.
14. I have robbed their nests of richesand gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs.No one can even flap a wing against meor utter a peep of protest.”
15. But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it?Is the saw greater than the person who saws?Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it?Can a wooden cane walk by itself?
16. Therefore, the Lord, the lord of Heaven’s Armies,will send a plague among Assyria’s proud troops,and a flaming fire will consume its glory.
17. The lord, the Light of Israel, will be a fire;the Holy One will be a flame.He will devour the thorns and briers with fire,burning up the enemy in a single night.
18. The lord will consume Assyria’s glorylike a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land;it will waste away like sick people in a plague.
19. Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive—so few that a child could count them!
20. In that day the remnant left in Israel,the survivors in the house of Jacob,will no longer depend on allieswho seek to destroy them.But they will faithfully trust the lord,the Holy One of Israel.
21. A remnant will return;yes, the remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.
22. But though the people of Israel are as numerousas the sand of the seashore,only a remnant of them will return.The lord has rightly decided to destroy his people.
23. Yes, the Lord, the lord of Heaven’s Armies,has already decided to destroy the entire land.
24. So this is what the Lord, the lord of Heaven’s Armies, says: “O my people in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they oppress you with rod and club as the Egyptians did long ago.
25. In a little while my anger against you will end, and then my anger will rise up to destroy them.”
26. The lord of Heaven’s Armies will lash them with his whip, as he did when Gideon triumphed over the Midianites at the rock of Oreb, or when the lord’s staff was raised to drown the Egyptian army in the sea.
27. In that day the lord will end the bondage of his people.He will break the yoke of slaveryand lift it from their shoulders.
28. Look, the Assyrians are now at Aiath.They are passing through Migronand are storing their equipment at Micmash.
29. They are crossing the passand are camping at Geba.Fear strikes the town of Ramah.All the people of Gibeah, the hometown of Saul,are running for their lives.
30. Scream in terror,you people of Gallim!Shout out a warning to Laishah.Oh, poor Anathoth!
31. There go the people of Madmenah, all fleeing.The citizens of Gebim are trying to hide.
32. The enemy stops at Nob for the rest of that day.He shakes his fist at beautiful Mount Zion, the mountain of Jerusalem.