Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹³ Assyrian King: I am so smart, so strong, so knowledgeable.
        I am clearly superior to everyone else,
    Moving easily into other countries and using them to suit my needs,
        taking their treasures at will and humbling their citizens.
¹⁴     I just reach out and take the land and the riches I want—
        from all over the earth—as easily as one gathers eggs from a nest.
    They don’t flap their wings;
        they don’t make a sound, while they look on helplessly.

¹⁵ But wow, are they ever mistaken! Assyria seems to think it has used God.
    Can an ax take credit instead of the one who swings it?
Is a saw better than the one who uses it?
    Only if a club or rod can move on its own.
¹⁶ So the Lord, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
    will afflict Assyria’s brawny soldiers with disease,
And they will waste away to nothing.
    God will kindle a roaring fire beneath Assyria’s fleeting glory.
^17-18 The light of God’s people will be like a fire that burns up
    the thorns and briars in a single day.
The Holy One will become a flame and make an end of all of Assyria’s schemes.
    God will consume the grandeur of his forest and fruitful fields;
He will consume both body and soul,
    as when the sick grow weak and waste away.
¹⁹ So few trees will remain of his glorious forest
    that a child could count them.

²⁰ Then, the few that remain of Israel,
    that handful of Jacob’s people who escape,
Will finally quit depending on the power of others
    (others who abuse and take advantage of them)
And will instead lean on the Eternal One, the Holy One of Israel.