1 Now thou shalt be besieged by armies, O daughter of the army: he shall lay siege against us; they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Lord in Israel; and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of the ages.
3 Therefore he will give them up until the time that she who travails has brought forth; then the remnant of his brethren shall return with the sons of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide; for now he shall be great unto the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be our peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then we shall raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men.
6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the blade, and the land of Nimrod with their swords; and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes against our land and when he treads within our borders.
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as the dew of the Lord, as the rains upon the grass, which did not expect a man, nor did they expect the sons of men.