1
Woe to those who decree decrees of crookedness, and to the scribes who write oppression,
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to turn aside the poor from Judgment, and to rob the afflicted of My people of justice, that widows may become their spoil, and that they may plunder the fatherless.
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And what will you do in the day of visitation, and in the devastation that shall come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory?
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Without Me they shall bow among the prisoners, and among the slain they shall fall. For all this His anger has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out.
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Woe, Ashshur, the rod of My anger, and the staff in their hand is My indignation.
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Against a profane nation I send him, and against the people of My wrath I command him, to take spoil, and to seize plunder, and to make them a trampling place like the mire of the streets.
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But he does not think this, and his heart does not reckon so. For it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations, not a few.
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For he says: “Are not my rulers altogether kings?
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Is not Kalno like Karkemish? Is not Chamat like Arpad? Is not Shomron like Dammeseq?
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As my hand has reached the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Yerushalayim and Shomron,
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shall I not, as I have done to Shomron and her idols, so do to Yerushalayim and her images?”
12
And it shall come to pass, when Adonai has completed all His work upon Mount Tziyon and upon Yerushalayim, that I will visit upon the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Ashshur and upon the glory of his lifted eyes.
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For he has said: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I understand. And I removed the borders of peoples, and their treasures I plundered, and like a mighty one I brought down those who sat upon thrones.
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And my hand found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples. And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. And there was none who moved a wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped.”
15
Shall the axe boast over the one who chops with it? Or shall the saw magnify itself against the one who moves it? As though a rod should move the one lifting it, or as though a staff should lift what is not wood.
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Therefore Adonai, Yahuah of Hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones, and beneath his glory a burning shall burn like the burning of fire.
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And the Light of Yisra’el shall become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it shall burn and consume his thorn and his brier in one day.
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And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field He shall consume from being even to flesh, and it shall be as when a sick man wastes away.
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And the remainder of the trees of his forest shall be few in number, and a child shall write them.
20
And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Yisra’el and those who escaped from the House of Yaaqov shall no longer lean upon the one striking them, but shall lean upon Yahuah, the Holy One of Yisra’el, in truth.
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A remnant shall return, the remnant of Yaaqov, to the Mighty El.
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For though your people, Yisra’el, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant among them shall return. Destruction is determined, overflowing with Righteousness.
23
For a complete destruction, and one determined, Adonai Yahuah of Hosts shall make in the midst of all the land.
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Therefore thus says Adonai Yahuah of Hosts: “My people who dwell in Tziyon, do not fear Ashshur, though he strikes you with the rod and lifts his staff against you in the way of Mitzrayim.
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For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall be completed, and My anger toward their destruction.”
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And Yahuah of Hosts shall awaken a scourge against him like the striking of Midyan at the rock of Orev, and His rod shall be over the sea, and He shall lift it in the way of Mitzrayim.
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And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall turn aside from upon your shoulder, and his yoke from upon your neck, and the yoke shall be broken because of fatness.
28
He has come upon Ayat. He has passed through Migron. At Mikhmash he deposits his equipment.
29
They have crossed the pass. At Geva they lodge. Ramah trembles. Givah of Shaul flees.
30
Lift up your voice, daughter of Gallim. Give ear, Layishah. Afflicted Anathot!
31
Madmenah has wandered away. The inhabitants of Gevim seek refuge.
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Yet this day he shall halt at Nov. He shall shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Tziyon, the hill of Yerushalayim.
33
See, Adonai Yahuah of Hosts is lopping off the branches with terror. And the high of stature shall be cut down, and the exalted shall be brought low.
34
And He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Levanon shall fall by a Mighty One.