Lawmakers, you will have to explain what you have done. What will you do then? Your destruction is coming from a faraway country. Where will you run for help? Your money and your riches will not help you.
You will have to bow down like a prisoner. You will fall down like a dead man, but that will not help you. God will still be angry and ready to punish you.
I will send Assyria to fight against the people who do evil. I am angry with them, and I will command Assyria to fight against them. Assyria will defeat them and take their wealth. Israel will be like dirt in the streets for Assyria to walk on.
When the Lord finishes doing what he planned to Jerusalem and Mount Zion, he will punish Assyria. The king of Assyria is very proud. His pride made him do many bad things, so God will punish him.
The king of Assyria said, "I am very wise. By my own wisdom and power I have done many great things. I have defeated many nations. I have taken their wealth and their people as slaves. I am a very powerful man.
With my own hands I have taken the riches of all these people—like someone taking eggs from a bird's nest. A bird often leaves its nest and eggs, and there is nothing to protect the nest. There is no bird to chirp and fight with its wings and beak, so anyone can come take the eggs. And there is no one to stop me from taking all the people on earth."
An ax is not better than the one who cuts with it. A saw is not better than the one who uses it. Is a stick stronger than the one who picks it up? It can't do anything to the person who is using it to punish someone!
But Assyria doesn't understand this. So the Lord All-Powerful will send a terrible disease against him. He will lose his wealth and power like a sick man losing weight. Then Assyria's glory will be destroyed. It will be like a fire burning until everything is gone.
Then the people from Jacob's family who are left living in Israel will stop depending on the one who beat them. They will learn to depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
Your people are as many as the sands of the sea, but only a few of them will be left to come back to the Lord. They will return to God, but first, your country will be destroyed. God has announced that he will destroy the land, and then justice will come into the land; it will be like a river flowing full.
The Lord God All-Powerful says, "My people living in Zion, don't be afraid of Assyria! Yes, he will beat you, and it will be just as the time when Egypt beat you with a stick.
Then the Lord All-Powerful will beat Assyria with a whip, just as he defeated Midian at Raven Rock. He will punish his enemies, as he did when he raised his stick over the sea and led his people from Egypt.
He will take away the troubles Assyria brought you—troubles like heavy weights carried with a yoke on your neck. But that yoke will be taken off your neck. The burden will be lifted from your shoulders.
The army of Assyria will enter near the "Ruins" (Aiath). The army will walk on the "Threshing Floor" (Migron). It will keep its food in the "Storehouse" (Micmash).
Look, the Lord God All-Powerful will use his great power and chop down that great tree. Their highest officials will be brought down. Their most important leaders will be humbled.