⁴⁵ Therefore hear ye the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.

¹ Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

² To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

³ And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

⁴ Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁵ O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation.

⁶ I will send him against a hypocritical 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 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

⁸ For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?

⁹ Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰ As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images excelled them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

¹¹ Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

¹² Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon 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 For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:

¹⁴ And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

¹⁵ Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth with it? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that moveth it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it, or as if the staff should lift itself, as if it were no wood.

¹⁶ Therefore will the Lord, the LORD of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

¹⁷ And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in One day;

¹⁸ And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.

¹⁹ And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

²⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again lean upon him that smote them; but shall lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹ The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

²² For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

²³ For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.

²⁴ Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.

²⁵ For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and my anger in their destruction.

²⁶ And the LORD of hosts will raise up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

²⁷ 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 be destroyed because of the anointing.

²⁸ He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his furniture.

²⁹ They have gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul hath fled.

³⁰ Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard to Laish, O poor Anathoth.

³¹ Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.

³² As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³ Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts will lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.

³⁴ And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

¹ The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

² Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice to them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

³ I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for my anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.

⁴ The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations assembled: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.

⁵ They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

⁶ Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

⁷ Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:

⁸ And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

⁹ Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he will destroy its sinners out of it.

¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and its constellations shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

¹¹ And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

¹² I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

¹³ Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

¹⁴ And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one to his own land.

¹⁵ Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and Every one that is joined to them shall fall by the sword.

¹⁶ Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be plundered, and their wives ravished.

¹⁷ Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

¹⁸ Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellence, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁰ It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

²¹ But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.

²² And the wild beasts of the isles shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.