5Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff that is in their hand—my indignation.6I will send him against a profane nation, and I will command him against a people of my fury, to take spoil and to seize plunder and to set them as a trampling like clay in the streets.7Yet he does not intend it this way, and his heart does not plan it this way, for to destroy is in his heart and to cut off nations not a few.8For he says, 'Are not my princes altogether kings?'9Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Damascus like Samaria?10As my hand found the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,11shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?12When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will call to account the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria and the splendor of the loftiness of his eyes.13For he said, 'By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understood; and I removed the borders of the peoples and plundered their stores and brought down those who dwell like a mighty one.'14My hand found the wealth of the peoples like a nest, and like gathering abandoned eggs I gathered all the land, and there was no one who fluttered a wing or opened a mouth or chirped.15Does the axe boast over the one who chops with it? Does the saw exalt itself over the one who waves it—like waving a staff over him who lifts it, like lifting a rod that is not wood?16Therefore the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones, and under his glory a burning will kindle like the burning of fire.17The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame; and it will burn and consume his thornbush and his thorn in a single day.18And the glory of his forest and his plantation he will consume from soul to flesh, and it will be as when one melts and wastes away.19And the remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that a youth can write them.