Assyria and Its Future Fall
5Ha!
Assyria, rod of My anger,
In whose hand, as a staff, is My fury!
6I send him against an ungodly nation,
I charge him against a people that provokes Me,
To take its spoil and to seize its booty
And to make it a thing trampled
Like the mire of the streets.
7But he has evil plans,
His mind harbors evil designs;
For he means to destroy,
To wipe out nations, not a few.
8For he thinks,
“After all, I have kings as my captains!
9Was Calno any different from Carchemish?
Or Hamath from Arpad?
Or Samaria from Damascus?
10Since I was able to seize
The insignificant kingdoms,
Whose images exceeded
Jerusalem’s and Samaria’s,
11Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images
What I did to Samaria and her idols?”
12But when my Lord has carried out all his purpose on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, Hea will punish the majestic pride and overbearing arrogance of the king of Assyria. 13For he thought,
“By the might of my hand have I wrought it,
By my skill, for I am clever:
I have erased the borders of peoples;
I have plundered their treasures,
And exiled their vast populations.b
14I was able to seize, like a nest,
The wealth of peoples;
As one gathers abandoned eggs,
So I gathered all the earth:
Nothing so much as flapped a wing
Or opened a mouth to peep.”
15Does an ax boast over him who hews with it,
Or a saw magnify itself above him who wields it?
As though the rod raised him who lifts it,
As though the staff lifted the man! [ . . . ]
32This same day at Nob
He shall stand and wave his hand.c
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Notes
Heb. “I.”
According to vv. 6–7, Assyria was to plunder, but not to exile.
I.e., the Assyrian king, arriving at Nob (close to Jerusalem), shall beckon his army onward.
Or “by the bronze,” connecting Heb. ’addir with Akkadian urudu, “bronze.”
Credits
Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.
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