1Woe vnto them that decree wicked decrees, and write grieuous things,
2To keepe backe ye poore from iudgement, and to take away the iudgement of the poore of my people, that widowes may be their pray, and that they may spoyle the fatherlesse.
3What will ye doe nowe in the day of visitation, and of destruction, which shall come from farre? to whom will ye flee for helpe? and where will ye leaue your glorie?
4Without me euery one shall fall among them that are bound, and they shall fall downe among the slayne: yet for all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5O Asshur, the rodde of my wrath: and the staffe in their hands is mine indignation.
6I will sende him to a dissembling nation, and I will giue him a charge against the people of my wrath to take the spoyle and to take the pray, and to treade them vnder feete like the mire in the streete.
7But he thinketh not so, neither doeth his heart esteeme it so: but he imagineth to destroy and to cut off not a fewe nations.
8For he sayeth, Are not my princes altogether Kings?
9Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10Like as mine hand hath founde the kingdomes of the idoles, seeing their idoles were aboue Ierusalem, and aboue Samaria:
11Shall not I, as I haue done to Samaria, and to the idoles thereof, so doe to Ierusalem and to the idoles thereof?
12But when the Lord hath accomplished all his worke vpon mount Zion and Ierusalem, I will visite the fruite of the proude heart of the King of Asshur, and his glorious and proud lookes,
13Because he said, By ye power of mine owne hand haue I done it, and by my wisdome, because I am wise: therefore I haue remooued the borders of the people, and haue spoyled their treasures, and haue pulled downe the inhabitants like a valiant man.
14And mine hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathereth egges that are left, so haue I gathered all the earth: and there was none to mooue the wing or to open the mouth, or to whisper.
15Shall the axe boast it selfe against him that heweth therewith? or shall the sawe exalt it selfe against him that moueth it? as if the rod shoulde lift vp it selfe against him that taketh it vp, or the staffe should exalt it selfe, as it were no wood.
16Therefore shall the Lord God of hostes send amog his fat men, leannes, and vnder his glorie he shall kindle a burning, like the burning of fire.
17And the light of Israel shalbe as a fire, and the Holy one thereof as a flame, and it shall burne, and deuoure his thornes and his briers in one day:
18And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitfull fieldes both soule and flesh: and he shalbe as ye fainting of a standard bearer.
19And the rest of the trees of his forest shalbe fewe, that a childe may tell them.
20And at that day shall the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Iaakob, stay no more vpon him that smote them, but shall stay vpon ye Lord, ye Holy one of Israel in trueth.
21The remnant shall returne, euen the remnant of Iaakob vnto the mightie God.
22For though thy people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, yet shall the remnant of them returne. The consumption decreed shall ouerflow with righteousnesse.
23For the Lord God of hostes shall make the consumption, euen determined, in the middes of all the land.
24Therefore thus saith ye Lord God of hostes, O my people, that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of Asshur: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift vp his staffe against thee after the maner of Egypt:
25But yet a very litle time, and the wrath shall be consumed, and mine anger in their destruction.
26And ye Lord of hostes shall raise vp a scourge for him, according to the plague of Midian in the rocke Oreb: and as his staffe was vpon the Sea, so he will lift it vp after the maner of Egypt.
27And at that day shall his burden be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy necke: and the yoke shalbe destroied because of the anoynting.
28He is come to Aiath: he is passed into Migron: at Michmash shall he lay vp his armour.
29They haue gone ouer the foorde: they lodged in the lodging at Geba: Ramah is afraide: Gibeah of Saul is fled away.
30Lift vp thy voyce, O daughter Gallim, cause Laish to heare, O poore Anathoth.
31Madmenah is remoued: the inhabitants of Gebim haue gathered themselues together.
32Yet there is a time that he will stay at Nob: he shall lift vp his hand towarde the mount of the daughter Zion, the hill of Ierusalem.
33Beholde, the Lord God of hostes shall cut off the bough with feare, and they of high stature shalbe cut off, and the hie shalbe humbled.
34And he shall cut away the thicke places of the forest with yron, and Lebanon shall haue a mightie fall.