^5-6 Assyria is the whip of my anger; his military strength is my weapon upon this godless nation, doomed and damned; he will enslave them and plunder them and trample them like dirt beneath his feet. ⁷ But the king of Assyria will not know that it is I who sent him. He will merely think he is attacking my people as part of his plan to conquer the world. ⁸ He will declare that every one of his princes will soon be a king, ruling a conquered land.

⁹ “We will destroy Calno just as we did Carchemish,” he will say, “and Hamath will go down before us as Arpad did; and we will destroy Samaria just as we did Damascus. ¹⁰ Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom whose idols were far greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria, ¹¹ so when we have defeated Samaria and her idols, we will destroy Jerusalem with hers.”

¹² After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purpose, then he will turn upon the Assyrians and punish them too—for they are proud and haughty men.

¹³ They boast, “We in our own power and wisdom have won these wars. We are great and wise. By our own strength we broke down the walls and destroyed the people and carried off their treasures. ¹⁴ In our greatness we have robbed their nests of riches and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs, and no one can move a finger or open his mouth to peep against us!”

¹⁵ But the Lord says, “Shall the ax boast greater power than the man who uses it? Is the saw greater than the man who saws? Can a rod strike unless a hand is moving it? Can a cane walk by itself?”

¹⁶ Because of all your evil boasting, O king of Assyria, the Lord of Hosts will send a plague among your proud troops and strike them down. ¹⁷ God, the Light and Holy One of Israel, will be the fire and flame that will destroy them. In a single night he will burn those thorns and briars, the Assyrians who destroyed the land of Israel.^{[a] 18} Assyria’s vast army is like a glorious forest, yet it will be destroyed. The Lord will destroy them, soul and body, as when a sick man wastes away. ¹⁹ Only a few from all that mighty army will be left; so few a child could count them!