¹¹ You conceive^(A) chaff,
    you give birth^(B) to straw;
    your breath is a fire^(C) that consumes you.

¹⁴ Whoever is pregnant with evil
    conceives trouble and gives birth^(A) to disillusionment.

⁷ The Lord is good,^(J)
    a refuge in times of trouble.^(K)
He cares for^(L) those who trust in him,^(M)
8     but with an overwhelming flood^(N)
he will make an end of Nineveh;
    he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.

⁹ Whatever they plot^(O) against the Lord
    he will bring^[a] to an end;
    trouble will not come a second time.
¹⁰ They will be entangled among thorns^(P)
    and drunk^(Q) from their wine;
    they will be consumed like dry stubble.^[b](R)

²³ Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?^(A)
    Against whom have you raised your voice^(B)
and lifted your eyes in pride?^(C)
    Against the Holy One^(D) of Israel!
²⁴ By your messengers
    you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,
    ‘With my many chariots^(E)
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
    the utmost heights^(F) of Lebanon.^(G)
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
    the choicest of its junipers.^(H)
I have reached its remotest heights,
    the finest of its forests.
²⁵ I have dug wells in foreign lands^[a]
    and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
    I have dried up^(I) all the streams of Egypt.^(J)’

²⁶ “Have you not heard?
    Long ago I ordained^(K) it.
In days of old I planned^(L) it;
    now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
    into piles of stone.^(M)
27 Their people, drained of power,
    are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
    like tender green shoots,
like grass^(N) sprouting on the roof,^(O)
    scorched^[b] before it grows up.

²⁸ “But I know where you are
    and when you come and go^(P)
    and how you rage^(Q) against me.
²⁹ Because you rage against me
    and because your insolence^(R) has reached my ears,
I will put my hook^(S) in your nose^(T)
    and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
    by the way you came.^(U)

⁸ “Assyria^(A) will fall by no human sword;
    a sword, not of mortals, will devour^(B) them.
They will flee before the sword
    and their young men will be put to forced labor.^(C)
9 Their stronghold^(D) will fall because of terror;
    at the sight of the battle standard^(E) their commanders will panic,^(F)”
declares the Lord,
    whose fire^(G) is in Zion,
    whose furnace^(H) is in Jerusalem.

³⁰ The Lord will cause people to hear his majestic voice^(A)
    and will make them see his arm^(B) coming down
with raging anger^(C) and consuming fire,^(D)
    with cloudburst, thunderstorm^(E) and hail.^(F)
31 The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria;^(G)
    with his rod he will strike^(H) them down.
³² Every stroke the Lord lays on them
    with his punishing club^(I)
will be to the music of timbrels^(J) and harps,
    as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.^(K)
33 Topheth^(L) has long been prepared;
    it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,
    with an abundance of fire and wood;
the breath^(M) of the Lord,
    like a stream of burning sulfur,^(N)
    sets it ablaze.^(O)