¹Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.

² The people who walk in darkness

will see a great light.

For those who live in a land of deep darkness,

a light will shine.

³You will enlarge the nation of Israel,

and its people will rejoice.

They will rejoice before you

as people rejoice at the harvest

and like warriors dividing the plunder.

⁴For you will break the yoke of their slavery

and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.

You will break the oppressor’s rod,

just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.

⁵The boots of the warrior

and the uniforms bloodstained by war

will all be burned.

They will be fuel for the fire.

⁶For a child is born to us,

a son is given to us.

The government will rest on his shoulders.

And he will be called:

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷His government and its peace

will never end.

He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David

for all eternity.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

will make this happen!

The Lord’s Anger against Israel

⁸The Lord has spoken out against Jacob;

his judgment has fallen upon Israel.

⁹And the people of Israel and Samaria,

who spoke with such pride and arrogance,

will soon know it.

¹⁰They said, “We will replace the broken bricks of our ruins with finished stone,

and replant the felled sycamore-fig trees with cedars.”

¹¹But the Lord will bring Rezin’s enemies against Israel

and stir up all their foes.

¹²The Syrians from the east and the Philistines from the west

will bare their fangs and devour Israel.

But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied.

His fist is still poised to strike.

¹³For after all this punishment, the people will still not repent.

They will not seek the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

¹⁴Therefore, in a single day the Lord will destroy both the head and the tail,

the noble palm branch and the lowly reed.

¹⁵The leaders of Israel are the head,

and the lying prophets are the tail.

¹⁶For the leaders of the people have misled them.

They have led them down the path of destruction.

¹⁷That is why the Lord takes no pleasure in the young men

and shows no mercy even to the widows and orphans.

For they are all wicked hypocrites,

and they all speak foolishness.

But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied.

His fist is still poised to strike.

¹⁸This wickedness is like a brushfire.

It burns not only briers and thorns

but also sets the forests ablaze.

Its burning sends up clouds of smoke.

¹⁹The land will be blackened

by the fury of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

The people will be fuel for the fire,

and no one will spare even his own brother.

²⁰They will attack their neighbor on the right

but will still be hungry.

They will devour their neighbor on the left

but will not be satisfied.

In the end they will even eat their own children.

²¹Manasseh will feed on Ephraim,

Ephraim will feed on Manasseh,

and both will devour Judah.

But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied.

His fist is still poised to strike.

Chapter 10

¹What sorrow awaits the unjust judges

and those who issue unfair laws.

²They deprive the poor of justice

and deny the rights of the needy among my people.

They prey on widows

and take advantage of orphans.

³What will you do when I punish you,

when I send disaster upon you from a distant land?

To whom will you turn for help?

Where will your treasures be safe?

⁴You will stumble along as prisoners

or lie among the dead.

But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied.

His fist is still poised to strike.

Judgment against Assyria

⁵“What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger.

I use it as a club to express my anger.

⁶I am sending Assyria against a godless nation,

against a people with whom I am angry.

Assyria will plunder them,

trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.

⁷But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool;

his mind does not work that way.

His plan is simply to destroy,

to cut down nation after nation.

⁸He will say,

‘Each of my princes will soon be a king.

⁹We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish.

Hamath fell before us as Arpad did.

And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus.

¹⁰Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom

whose gods were greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.

¹¹So we will defeat Jerusalem and her gods,

just as we destroyed Samaria with hers.’ ”

¹²After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant. ¹³He 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 nations

and carried off their treasures.

I have knocked down their kings like a bull.

¹⁴I have robbed their nests of riches

and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs.

No one can even flap a wing against me

or utter a peep of protest.”

¹⁵But 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?

¹⁶Therefore, 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.

¹⁷The 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.

¹⁸The Lord will consume Assyria’s glory

like a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land;

it will waste away like sick people in a plague.

¹⁹Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive—

so few that a child could count them!

Hope for the Lord’s People

²⁰In that day the remnant left in Israel,

the survivors in the house of Jacob,

will no longer depend on allies

who seek to destroy them.

But they will faithfully trust the Lord,

the Holy One of Israel.

²¹A remnant will return;

yes, the remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.

²²But though the people of Israel are as numerous

as the sand of the seashore,

only a remnant of them will return.

The Lord has rightly decided to destroy his people.

²³Yes, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,

has already decided to destroy the entire land.

²⁴So 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. ²⁵In a little while my anger against you will end, and then my anger will rise up to destroy them.” ²⁶The 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.

²⁷In that day the Lord will end the bondage of his people.

He will break the yoke of slavery

and lift it from their shoulders.

²⁸Look, the Assyrians are now at Aiath.

They are passing through Migron

and are storing their equipment at Micmash.

²⁹They are crossing the pass

and are camping at Geba.

Fear strikes the town of Ramah.

All the people of Gibeah, the hometown of Saul,

are running for their lives.

³⁰Scream in terror,

you people of Gallim!

Shout out a warning to Laishah.

Oh, poor Anathoth!

³¹There go the people of Madmenah, all fleeing.

The citizens of Gebim are trying to hide.

³²The enemy stops at Nob for the rest of that day.

He shakes his fist at beautiful Mount Zion, the mountain of Jerusalem.

³³But look! The Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,

will chop down the mighty tree of Assyria with great power!

He will cut down the proud.

That lofty tree will be brought down.

³⁴He will cut down the forest trees with an ax.

Lebanon will fall to the Mighty One.

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