13 He boasts, “By my own powerful arm I have done this.With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it.I have broken down the defenses of nationsand carried off their treasures.I have knocked down their kings like a bull.
14 I have robbed their nests of richesand gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs.No one can even flap a wing against meor utter a peep of protest.”
15 But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it?Is the saw greater than the person who saws?Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it?Can a wooden cane walk by itself?
16 Therefore, the Lord, the lord of Heaven’s Armies,will send a plague among Assyria’s proud troops,and a flaming fire will consume its glory.
17 The lord, the Light of Israel, will be a fire;the Holy One will be a flame.He will devour the thorns and briers with fire,burning up the enemy in a single night.
18 The lord will consume Assyria’s glorylike a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land;it will waste away like sick people in a plague.
19 Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive—so few that a child could count them!