Good News Translation GNT
New International Version NIV
15 But the Lord says, "Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn't lift up a person; a person lifts up a club."
15
Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it? As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up, or a club brandish the one who is not wood!
16 The Lord Almighty is going to send disease to punish those who are now well-fed. In their bodies there will be a fire that burns and burns.
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Therefore, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame.
17 God, the light of Israel, will become a fire. Israel's holy God will become a flame, which in a single day will burn up everything, even the thorns and thistles.
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The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.
18 The rich forests and farmlands will be totally destroyed, in the same way that a fatal sickness destroys someone.
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The splendor of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy, as when a sick person wastes away.
19 There will be so few trees left that even a child will be able to count them.
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And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.
20 A time is coming when the people of Israel who have survived will not rely any more on the nation that almost destroyed them. They will truly put their trust in the Lord, Israel's holy God.
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In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
21 A few of the people of Israel will come back to their mighty God.
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A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.
22 Even though now there are as many people of Israel as there are grains of sand by the sea, only a few will come back. Destruction is in store for the people, and it is fully deserved.
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Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous.
23 Yes, throughout the whole country the Sovereign Lord Almighty will bring destruction, as he said he would.
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The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
24 The Sovereign Lord Almighty says to his people who live in Zion, "Do not be afraid of the Assyrians, even though they oppress you as the Egyptians used to do.
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Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians, who beat you with a rod and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did.
25 In only a little while I will finish punishing you, and then I will destroy them.
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Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.”
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.