New Century Version NCV
New International Version NIV
15 An ax is not better than the person who swings it. A saw is not better than the one who uses it. A stick cannot control the person who picks it up. A club cannot pick up the person!
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 So the Lord God All-Powerful will send a terrible disease upon Assyria's soldiers. like a fire burning until everything is gone.
16
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 be like a fire; the Holy One will be like a flame. He will be like a fire that suddenly burns the weeds and thorns.
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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 fire burns away the great trees and rich farmlands, destroying everything. It will be like a sick person who wastes away.
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The splendor of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy, as when a sick person wastes away.
19 The trees left standing will be so few that even a child could 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 At that time some people will be left alive in Israel from the family of Jacob. They will not continue to depend on the person who defeated them. They will learn truly to depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
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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 Those who are left alive in Jacob's family will again follow the powerful God.
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A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.
22 Israel, your people are many, like the grains of sand by the sea. But only a few of them will be left alive to return to the Lord. God has announced that he will destroy the land completely and fairly.
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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 The Lord God All-Powerful will certainly destroy this land, as he has announced.
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The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
24 This is what the Lord God All-Powerful says: "My people living in Jerusalem, don't be afraid of the Assyrians, who beat you with a rod and raise a stick against you, as Egypt did.
24
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 After a short time my anger against you will stop, and then I will turn my anger to destroying 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 New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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.