Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 You are doomed! You make unjust laws that oppress my people.
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Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write perverseness;
2 That is how you keep the poor from having their rights and from getting justice. That is how you take the property that belongs to widows and orphans.
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to turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
3 What will you do when God punishes you? What will you do when he brings disaster on you from a distant country? Where will you run to find help? Where will you hide your wealth?
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What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your glory?
4 You will be killed in battle or dragged off as prisoners. Yet even so the Lord's anger will not be ended; his hand will still be stretched out to punish.
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They shall only bow down under the prisoners, and shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5 The Lord said, "Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry.
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Ho Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
6 I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample the people like dirt in the streets."
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I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 But the Assyrian emperor has his own violent plans in mind. He is determined to destroy many nations.
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However he doesn't mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
8 He boasts, "Every one of my commanders is a king!
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For he says, Aren't my princes all of them kings?
9 I conquered the cities of Calno and Carchemish, the cities of Hamath and Arpad. I conquered Samaria and Damascus.
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Isn't Calno as Carchemish? Isn't Hamath as Arpad? Isn't Samaria as Damascus?
10 I reached out to punish those kingdoms that worship idols, idols more numerous than those of Jerusalem and Samaria.
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As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
11 I have destroyed Samaria and all its idols, and I will do the same to Jerusalem and the images that are worshiped there."
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shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 But the Lord says, "When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride."
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Therefore it shall happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
13 The emperor of Assyria boasts, "I have done it all myself. I am strong and wise and clever. I wiped out the boundaries between nations and took the supplies they had stored. Like a bull I have trampled the people who live there.
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For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and like a valiant man I have brought down those who sit [on thrones]:
14 The nations of the world were like a bird's nest, and I gathered their wealth as easily as gathering eggs. Not a wing fluttered to scare me off; no beak opened to scream at me!"
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and my hand has found as a nest the riches of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that are forsaken, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or that opened the mouth, or chirped.
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."
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Shall the ax boast itself against him who hews therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? as if a rod should wield those who lift it up, [or] as if a staff should lift up [him 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 will the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory there shall be kindled a burning like the burning of fire.
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 be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.
18 The rich forests and farmlands will be totally destroyed, in the same way that a fatal sickness destroys someone.
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He will consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and it shall be as when a standard-bearer faints.
19 There will be so few trees left that even a child will be able to count them.
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The remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a child may write them.
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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It shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and those who are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 A few of the people of Israel will come back to their mighty God.
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A remnant shall return, [even] the remnant of Jacob, 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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For though your people, Israel, be as the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of them shall return: a destruction [is] determined, overflowing with righteousness.
23 Yes, throughout the whole country the Sovereign Lord Almighty will bring destruction, as he said he would.
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For a full end, and that determined, will the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, make in the midst of all the earth.
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 thus says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, my people who dwell in Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.
25 In only a little while I will finish punishing you, and then I will destroy them.
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For yet a very little while, and the indignation [against you] shall be accomplished, and my anger [shall be directed] to his destruction.
26 I, the Lord Almighty, will beat them with my whip as I did the people of Midian at Oreb Rock. I will punish Assyria as I punished Egypt.
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Yahweh of Hosts will stir up against him a scourge, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up after the manner of Egypt.
27 When that time comes, I will free you from the power of Assyria, and their yoke will no longer be a burden on your shoulders."
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It shall happen in that day, that his burden shall depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed by reason of fatness.
28 The enemy army has captured the city of Ai! They have passed through Migron! They left their supplies at Michmash!
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He is come to Aiath, he is passed through Migron; at Michmash he lays up his baggage;
29 They have crossed the pass and are spending the night at Geba! The people in the town of Ramah are terrified, and the people in King Saul's hometown of Gibeah have run away.
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they are gone over the pass; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul is fled.
30 Shout, people of Gallim! Listen, people of Laishah! Answer, people of Anathoth!
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Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth!
31 The people of Madmenah and Gebim are running for their lives.
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Madmenah is a fugitive; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32 Today the enemy are in the town of Nob, and there they are shaking their fists at Mount Zion, at the city of Jerusalem.
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This very day shall he halt at Nob: he shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 The Lord Almighty will bring them crashing down like branches cut off a tree. The proudest and highest of them will be cut down and humiliated.
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Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, will lop the boughs with terror: and the high of stature shall be hewn down, and the lofty shall be brought low.
34 The Lord will cut them down as trees in the heart of the forest are cut down with an ax, as even the finest trees of Lebanon fall!
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He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.