New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 What sorrow awaits the unjust judges and those who issue unfair laws.
1
Doom to you who legislate evil, who make laws that make victims -
2 They deprive the poor of justice and deny the rights of the needy among my people. They prey on widows and take advantage of orphans.
2
Laws that make misery for the poor, that rob my destitute people of dignity, Exploiting defenseless widows, taking advantage of homeless children.
3 What 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?
3
What will you have to say on Judgment Day, when Doomsday arrives out of the blue? Who will you get to help you? What good will your money do you?
4 You 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.
4
A sorry sight you'll be then, huddled with the prisoners, or just some corpses stacked in the street. Even after all this, God is still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again. Doom to Assyria!
5 “What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger. I use it as a club to express my anger.
5
"Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger. My wrath is a cudgel in his hands!
6 I 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.
6
I send him against a godless nation, against the people I'm angry with. I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind, and then push their faces in the mud and leave them.
7 But 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.
7
But Assyria has another agenda; he has something else in mind. He's out to destroy utterly, to stamp out as many nations as he can.
8 He will say, ‘Each of my princes will soon be a king.
8
Assyria says, 'Aren't my commanders all kings? Can't they do whatever they like?
9 We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish. Hamath fell before us as Arpad did. And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus.
9
Didn't I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish? Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus?
10 Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom whose gods were greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.
10
I've eliminated kingdoms full of gods far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria.
11 So we will defeat Jerusalem and her gods, just as we destroyed Samaria with hers.’”
11
So what's to keep me from destroying Jerusalem in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?'"
12 After 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.
12
When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he'll say, "Now it's Assyria's turn. I'll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing,
13 He 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.
13
the way he goes around saying, "'I've done all this by myself. I know more than anyone. I've wiped out the boundaries of whole countries. I've walked in and taken anything I wanted. I charged in like a bull and toppled their kings from their thrones.
14 I 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.”
14
I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured as easily as a boy taking a bird's eggs from a nest. Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse, I gathered the world in my basket, And no one so much as fluttered a wing or squawked or even chirped.'"
15 But 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?
15
Does an ax take over from the one who swings it? Does a saw act more important than the sawyer? As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger! As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails!
16 Therefore, 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.
16
Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters. Under the canopy of God's bright glory a fierce fire will break out.
17 The 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.
17
Israel's Light will burst into a conflagration. The Holy will explode into a firestorm, And in one day burn to cinders every last Assyrian thornbush.
18 The 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.
18
God will destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens. The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing like a disease-ridden invalid.
19 Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive— so few that a child could count them!
19
A child could count what's left of the trees on the fingers of his two hands.
20 In 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.
20
And on that Day also, what's left of Israel, the ragtag survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They'll lean on God, The Holy - yes, truly.
21 A remnant will return; yes, the remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.
21
The ragtag remnant - what's left of Jacob - will come back to the Strong God.
22 But 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.
22
Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness.
23 Yes, the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, has already decided to destroy the entire land.
23
For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe.
24 So 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.
24
Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: "My dear, dear people who live in Zion, don't be terrorized by the Assyrians when they beat you with clubs and threaten you with rods like the Egyptians once did.
25 In a little while my anger against you will end, and then my anger will rise up to destroy them.”
25
In just a short time my anger against you will be spent and I'll turn my destroying anger on them.
26 The 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.
26
I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will go after them with a cat-o'-nine-tails and finish them off decisively - as Gideon downed Midian at the rock Oreb, as Moses turned the tables on Egypt.
27 In that day the LORD will end the bondage of his people. He will break the yoke of slavery and lift it from their shoulders.
27
On that day, Assyria will be pulled off your back, and the yoke of slavery lifted from your neck." Assyria's on the move: up from Rimmon,
28 Look, the Assyrians are now at Aiath. They are passing through Migron and are storing their equipment at Micmash.
28
on to Aiath, through Migron, with a bivouac at Micmash.
29 They 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.
29
They've crossed the pass, set camp at Geba for the night. Ramah trembles with fright. Gibeah of Saul has run off.
30 Scream in terror, you people of Gallim! Shout out a warning to Laishah. Oh, poor Anathoth!
30
Cry for help, daughter of Gallim! Listen to her, Laishah! Do something, Anathoth!
31 There go the people of Madmenah, all fleeing. The citizens of Gebim are trying to hide.
31
Madmenah takes to the hills. The people of Gebim flee in panic.
32 The enemy stops at Nob for the rest of that day. He shakes his fist at beautiful Mount Zion, the mountain of Jerusalem.
32
The enemy's soon at Nob - nearly there! In sight of the city he shakes his fist At the mount of dear daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 But 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.
33
But now watch this: The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, swings his ax and lops the branches, Chops down the giant trees, lays flat the towering forest-on-the-march.
34 He will cut down the forest trees with an ax. Lebanon will fall to the Mighty One.
34
His ax will make toothpicks of that forest, that Lebanon-like army reduced to kindling.