All of them will come and make their home in the ravines between the cliffs and in the crevices of the cliffs, in all the thorn bushes, and in all the watering holes.

Darkness Turns to Light as an Ideal King Arrives

They will say to you, “Seek oracles at the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, from the magicians who chirp and mutter incantations. Should people not seek oracles from their gods, by asking the dead about the destiny of the living?”

Then you must recall the Lord’s instructions and the prophetic testimony of what would happen. Certainly they say such things because their minds are spiritually darkened.

They will pass through the land destitute and starving. Their hunger will make them angry, and they will curse their king and their God as they look upward.

For their oppressive yoke and the club that strikes their shoulders, the cudgel the oppressor uses on them, you have shattered, as in the day of Midian’s defeat.

Then the Lord provoked their adversaries to attack them, he stirred up their enemies—

So the Lord was not pleased with their young men, he took no pity on their orphans and widows; for the whole nation was godless and did wicked things, every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again.

They devoured on the right, but were still hungry; they ate on the left, but were not satisfied. People even ate the flesh of their own arm!

to keep the poor from getting fair treatment, and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice, so they can steal what widows own, and loot what belongs to orphans.

For he says: “By my strong hand I have accomplished this, by my strategy that I devised. I invaded the territory of nations, and looted their storehouses. Like a mighty conqueror, I brought down rulers.

The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One will become a flame; it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s briers and his thorns in one day.

So here is what the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, even though they beat you with a club and lift their cudgel against you as Egypt did.

For very soon my fury will subside, and my anger will be directed toward their destruction.”

At that time the Lord will remove their burden from your shoulders, and their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be taken off because your neck will be too large.

They attacked Aiath, moved through Migron, depositing their supplies at Micmash.

This very day, standing in Nob, they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain— at the hill of Jerusalem.

A cow and a bear will graze together, their young will lie down together. A lion, like an ox, will eat straw.

They will swoop down on the Philistine hills to the west; together they will loot the people of the east. They will take over Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

The Lord will divide the gulf of the Egyptian Sea; he will wave his hand over the Euphrates River and send a strong wind; he will turn it into seven dried-up streams, and enable them to walk across in their sandals.

They panic— cramps and pain seize hold of them like those of a woman who is straining to give birth. They look at one another in astonishment; their faces are flushed red.

Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations no longer give out their light; the sun is darkened as soon as it rises, and the moon does not shine.

I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their sin. I will put an end to the pride of the insolent, I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants.

Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives raped.

Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; they have no compassion on a person’s offspring; they will not look with pity on children.

No one will live there again; no one will ever reside there again. No bedouin will camp there, no shepherds will rest their flocks there.