New International Version NIV
Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,
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Woe to them that make wicked laws: and when they write, write injustice:
2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.
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To oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of the humble of my people: that widows might be their prey, and that they might rob the fatherless.
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?
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What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity which cometh from afar? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
4 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
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That you be not bowed down under the bond, and fall with the slain? In all these things his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5 “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
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Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.
6 I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
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I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will give him a charge against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations.
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But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not think so: but his heart shall be set to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.
8 ‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says.
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For he shall say:
9 ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus?
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Are not my princes as so many kings? is not Calano as Charcamis: and Emath as Arphad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—
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As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idol, so also their idols of Jerusalem, and of Samaria.
11 shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’ ”
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Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.
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And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed all his works in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, I will visit the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.
13 For he says: “ ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings.
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For he hath said: By the strength of my own hand I have done it, and by my own wisdom I have understood: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have taken the spoils of the princes, and as a mighty man hath pulled down them that sat on high.
14 As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as people gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.’ ”
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And my hand hath found the strength of the people as a nest; and as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise.
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!
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Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood.
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.
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Therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory shall be kindled a burning, as it were the burning of a fire.
17 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.
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And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the Holy One thereof as a flame: and his thorns and his briers shall be set on fire, and shall be devoured in one day.
18 The splendor of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy, as when a sick person wastes away.
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And the glory of his forest, and of his beautiful hill, shall be consumed from the soul even to the flesh, and he shall run away through fear.
19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.
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And they that remain of the trees of his forest shall be so few, that they shall easily be numbered, and a child shall write them down.
20 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.
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And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean no more upon him that striketh them: but they shall lean upon the Lord the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.
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The remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say, of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22 Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous.
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For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted, the consumption abridged shall overflow with justice.
23 The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
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For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, and an abridgment in the midst of all the land.
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.
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Therefore, thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: O my people that dwellest in Sion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall strike thee with his rod, and he shall lift up his staff over thee in the way of Egypt.
25 Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.”
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For yet a little and a very little while, and my indignation shall cease, and my wrath shall be upon their wickedness.
26 The LORD Almighty will lash them with a whip, as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the waters, as he did in Egypt.
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And the Lord of hosts shall raise up a scourge against him, according to the slaughter of Madian in the rock of Oreb, and his rod over the sea, and he shall lift it up in the way of Egypt.
27 In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.
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And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall putrefy at the presence of the oil.
28 They enter Aiath; they pass through Migron; they store supplies at Mikmash.
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He shall come into Aiath, he shall pass into Magron: at Machmas he shall lay up his carriages.
29 They go over the pass, and say, “We will camp overnight at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.
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They have passed in haste, Gaba is our lodging: Rama was astonished, Gabaath of Saul fled away.
30 Cry out, Daughter Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Poor Anathoth!
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Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim, attend, O Laisa, poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah is in flight; the people of Gebim take cover.
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Medemena is removed: ye inhabitants of Gabim, take courage.
32 This day they will halt at Nob; they will shake their fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.
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It is yet day enough, to remain in Nobe: he shall shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Sion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low.
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Behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall break the earthen vessel with terror, and the tall of stature shall be cut down, and the lofty shall be humbled.
34 He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
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And the thickets of the forest shall be cut down with iron, and Libanus with its high ones shall fall.
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