Time to rebuke the beast of the forest

This silluk (a term for the last of a series of piyyutim written for the first three blessings of the Amidah), preserved in the Cairo Geniza, was to be recited on the Ninth of Av at the conclusion of a long series of piyyutim in the Amidah, before the conclusion of the blessing “. . . who consoles Zion and builds Jerusalem.” The text asks for revenge against Assyria, perhaps a stand-in for contemporary persecutors of the Jews. This silluk serves as a transition to the Kedushah, which begins with the words “Holy, holy, holy”–hence the word holy in the last line. The poem was once attributed to Eleazar be-Rabbi Qillir, although this credit is not generally accepted by scholars today.