1 Doom to those who go off to Egypt thinking that horses can help them, Impressed by military mathematics, awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders-- And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance, not so much as a prayer to GOD.
2 Still, he must be reckoned with, a most wise God who knows what he's doing. He can call down catastrophe. He's a God who does what he says. He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong, stands up against interfering evildoers.
3 Egyptians are mortal, not God, and their horses are flesh, not Spirit. When GOD gives the signal, helpers and helped alike will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.
4 This is what GOD told me: "Like a lion, king of the beasts, that gnaws and chews and worries its prey, Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds who arrive to chase it off, So GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights.
5 And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem. I'll protect and rescue it. Yes, I'll hover and deliver."
6 Repent, return, dear Israel, to the One you so cruelly abandoned.
7 On the day you return, you'll throw away--every last one of you--the no-gods your sinful hands made from metal and wood.
8 "Assyrians will fall dead, killed by a sword-thrust but not by a soldier, laid low by a sword not swung by a mortal. Assyrians will run from that sword, run for their lives, and their prize young men made slaves.
9 Terrorized, that rock-solid people will fall to pieces, their leaders scatter hysterically." GOD's Decree on Assyria. His fire blazes in Zion, his furnace burns hot in Jerusalem.