1Terrible things will happen to you judges who are unjust
2You refuse to help poor people,
3When I punish you
4You will be able only to stumble along as you are taken away with other prisoners,
5Yahweh says, “Terrible things will happen to Assyria.
6Sometimes I send the armies of Assyria to attack a godless nation,
7But the king of Assyria does not understand,
8He says, ‘All of my army commanders will soon be kings of these nations that I conquer!
9We destroyed Calno city like we destroyed Carchemish city,
10We were able to destroy all those kingdoms that were full of idols,
11So we will defeat Jerusalem and destroy the idols that are there,
12But, I, Yahweh, say that after I have used Assyria to finish what I want to do to punish the people in Jerusalem [DOU], I will punish the king of Assyria because he has been very proud and arrogant/boastful [DOU].
13He says, ‘By my own great power [MTY] I have done these things.
14Like [MET] a farmer reaches into a bird’s nest to take away the eggs,
15But I, Yahweh, say that an axe certainly cannot [RHQ] boast about being stronger than the person who uses it,
16And I, the Commander of the armies of angels, will send a plague among the proud soldiers of Assyria;
17I, Yahweh, who am like [MET] a light for the people of Israel, will be the fire;
18There are glorious forests and fertile farmlands in Assyria, but I will completely destroy them;
19There will be very few trees left in those forests;
20In the future there will be only a few people left in Israel;
21Those Israelis will return to their mighty God.
22Now, the people of Israel are as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore,
23Yes, the Commander of the armies of angels has already decided to destroy the entire land of Israel.
24This is what the Commander of the armies of angels says:
25Soon I will no longer be angry with you,
26The Commander of the armies of angels will whip them.
27Some day, Yahweh will cause the army of Assyria to stop oppressing you, his people;
28The army of Assyria will enter northern Judah near Aiath town,
29They will cross through a mountain pass
30You people of Gallim town will cry out for help.
31The people of Madmenah town north of Jerusalem will all be running away,
32The soldiers of Assyria will stop at Nob city outside Jerusalem.
33But listen to this! The Commander of the armies of angels
34He will destroy the soldiers of Assyria