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1You people are in for trouble! You have made cruel and unfair laws
2that let you cheat the poor and needy and rob widows and orphans.
3But what will you do when you are fiercely attacked and punished by foreigners? Where will you run for help? Where will you hide your valuables?
4How will you escape being captured or killed? The Lord is still angry, and he isn't through with you yet![#10.4 One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.; #10.4 Or “but he hasn't given up on you yet!”]
5The Lord says:[#Is 14.24-27; Nh 1.1—3.19; Zep 2.13-15.]
8The king of Assyria says:
12The Lord will do what he has planned against Jerusalem and Mount Zion. Then he will punish the proud and boastful king of Assyria,
13who says:
15King of Assyria, can an ax or a saw overpower the one who uses it? Can a wooden pole lift whoever holds it?
16The mighty Lord All-Powerful will send a terrible disease to strike down your army, and you will burn with fever under your royal robes.
17The holy God, who is the light of Israel, will turn into a fire, and in one day you will go up in flames, just like a thornbush.
18The Lord will make your beautiful forests and fertile fields slowly rot.
19There will be so few trees that even a young child can count them.
20A time is coming when the survivors from Israel and Judah will completely depend on the holy Lord of Israel, instead of the nation that defeated them.[#10.20 That is, Assyria.]
21-22There were as many people as there are grains of sand along the seashore, but only a few will survive to come back to Israel's mighty God. This is because he has threatened to destroy their nation, just as they deserve.[#Ro 9.27,28.]
23The Lord All-Powerful has promised that everyone on this earth will be punished.[#10.23 Or “in this land.”]
24Now the Lord God All-Powerful says to his people in Jerusalem:
28Enemy troops have reached the town of Aiath. They have gone through Migron, and they stored their supplies at Michmash,[#10.28 Probably Ai (Joshua 7.2).]
29before crossing the valley and spending the night at Geba. The people of Ramah are terrified; everyone in Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, has run away.[#10.29 Only nine kilometers from Jerusalem.]
30Loud crying can be heard in the towns of Gallim, Laishah, and sorrowful Anathoth.
31No one is left in Madmenah or Gebim.
32Today the enemy will camp at Nob and shake a threatening fist at Mount Zion in Jerusalem.[#10.32 Perhaps within three kilometers of Jerusalem.]
33But the Lord All-Powerful
will use his fearsome might
to bring down the tallest trees
and chop off every branch.
34With an ax, the glorious Lord
will destroy every tree
in the forests of Lebanon.