5 Woe to aAssyria, the brod of My anger

And the staff in whose hands is cMy indignation,

6 I send it against a agodless nation

And commission it against the bpeople of My fury

To capture booty and cto seize plunder,

And to 1trample them down like dmud in the streets.

7 Yet it adoes not so intend,

Nor does 1it plan so in its heart,

But rather it is 2its purpose to destroy

And to cut off 3many nations.

8 For it says, “Are not my princes 1all kings?

9 “Is not aCalno like bCarchemish,

Or cHamath like Arpad,

Or dSamaria like eDamascus?

10 “As my hand has reached to the akingdoms of the idols,

Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11 Shall I not 1do to Jerusalem and her images

Just as I have done to Samaria and aher idols?”

12 So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His awork on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will 1punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and bthe pomp of 2his haughtiness.”

13 For ahe has said,

“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,

For I have understanding;

And I bremoved the boundaries of the peoples

And plundered their treasures,

And like a mighty man I brought down 1their inhabitants,

14 And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a anest,

And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;

And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”

15 Is the aaxe to bboast itself over the one who chops with it?

Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?

That would be like ca 1club wielding those who lift it,

Or like ca rod lifting him who is not wood.

16 Therefore the Lord, the 1God of hosts, will send a awasting disease among his bstout warriors;

And under his cglory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.

17 And the alight of Israel will become a fire and his bHoly One a flame,

And it will cburn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.

18 And He will adestroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body,

And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

19 And the arest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number

That a child could write them down.