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The LORD said to me, "Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters: 'Quick Loot, Fast Plunder.'
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Get two reliable men, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, to serve as witnesses."
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Some time later my wife became pregnant. When our son was born, the LORD said to me, "Name him 'Quick-Loot-Fast-Plunder.'
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Before the boy is old enough to say 'Mamma' and 'Daddy,' all the wealth of Damascus and all the loot of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria."
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The LORD spoke to me again.
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He said, "Because these people have rejected the quiet waters of Shiloah Brook and tremble before King Rezin and King Pekah,
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I, the Lord, will bring the emperor of Assyria and all his forces to attack Judah. They will advance like the flood waters of the Euphrates River, overflowing all its banks.
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They will sweep through Judah in a flood, rising shoulder high and covering everything." God is with us! His outspread wings protect the land.
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Gather together in fear, you nations! Listen, you distant parts of the earth. Get ready to fight, but be afraid! Yes, get ready, but be afraid!
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Make your plans! But they will never succeed. Talk all you want to! But it is all useless, because God is with us.
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With his great power the LORD warned me not to follow the road which the people were following. He said,
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"Do not join in the schemes of the people and do not be afraid of the things that they fear.
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Remember that I, the LORD Almighty, am holy; I am the one you must fear.
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Because of my awesome holiness I am like a stone that people stumble over; I am like a trap that will catch the people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the people of Jerusalem.
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Many will stumble; they will fall and be crushed. They will be caught in a trap."
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You, my disciples, are to guard and preserve the messages that God has given me.
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The LORD has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him.
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Here I am with the children the LORD has given me. The LORD Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us as living messages to the people of Israel.
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But people will tell you to ask for messages from fortunetellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, "After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living."
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You are to answer them, "Listen to what the LORD is teaching you! Don't listen to mediums---what they tell you cannot keep trouble away."
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The people will wander through the land, discouraged and hungry. In their hunger and their anger they will curse their king and their God. They may look up to the sky
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or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven.
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There will be no way for them to escape from this time of trouble. The land of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali was once disgraced, but the future will bring honor to this region, from the Mediterranean eastward to the land on the other side of the Jordan, and even to Galilee itself, where the foreigners live.
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The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows, but now light is shining on them.
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You have given them great joy, Lord; you have made them happy. They rejoice in what you have done, as people rejoice when they harvest grain or when they divide captured wealth.
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For you have broken the yoke that burdened them and the rod that beat their shoulders. You have defeated the nation that oppressed and exploited your people, just as you defeated the army of Midian long ago.
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The boots of the invading army and all their bloodstained clothing will be destroyed by fire.
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A child is born to us! A son is given to us! And he will be our ruler. He will be called, "Wonderful Counselor," "Mighty God," "Eternal Father," "Prince of Peace."
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His royal power will continue to grow; his kingdom will always be at peace. He will rule as King David's successor, basing his power on right and justice, from now until the end of time. The LORD Almighty is determined to do all this.
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The Lord has pronounced judgment on the kingdom of Israel, on the descendants of Jacob.
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All the people of Israel, everyone who lives in the city of Samaria, will know that he has done this. Now they are proud and arrogant. They say,
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"The brick buildings have fallen down, but we will replace them with stone buildings. The beams of sycamore wood have been cut down, but we will replace them with the finest cedar."
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The LORD has stirred up their enemies to attack them.
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Syria on the east and Philistia on the west have opened their mouths to devour Israel. Yet even so the LORD's anger is not ended; his hand is still stretched out to punish.
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The people of Israel have not repented; even though the LORD Almighty has punished them, they have not returned to him.
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In a single day the LORD will punish Israel's leaders and its people; he will cut them off, head and tail.
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The old and honorable men are the head---and the tail is the prophets whose teachings are lies!
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Those who lead these people have misled them and totally confused them.
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And so the Lord will not let any of the young men escape, and he will not show pity on any of the widows and orphans, because all the people are godless and wicked and everything they say is evil. Yet even so the LORD's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.
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The wickedness of the people burns like a fire that destroys thorn bushes and thistles. It burns like a forest fire that sends up columns of smoke.
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Because the LORD Almighty is angry, his punishment burns like a fire throughout the land and destroys the people, and it is each of us for ourselves.
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Everywhere in the country people snatch and eat any bit of food they can find, but their hunger is never satisfied. They even eat their own children!
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The people of Manasseh and the people of Ephraim attack each other, and together they attack Judah. Yet even so the LORD's anger is not ended; his hand is still stretched out to punish.
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You are doomed! You make unjust laws that oppress my people.
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That is how you keep the poor from having their rights and from getting justice. That is how you take the property that belongs to widows and orphans.
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What will you do when God punishes you? What will you do when he brings disaster on you from a distant country? Where will you run to find help? Where will you hide your wealth?
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You will be killed in battle or dragged off as prisoners. Yet even so the LORD's anger will not be ended; his hand will still be stretched out to punish.
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The LORD said, "Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry.
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I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample the people like dirt in the streets."
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But the Assyrian emperor has his own violent plans in mind. He is determined to destroy many nations.
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He boasts, "Every one of my commanders is a king!
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I conquered the cities of Calno and Carchemish, the cities of Hamath and Arpad. I conquered Samaria and Damascus.
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I reached out to punish those kingdoms that worship idols, idols more numerous than those of Jerusalem and Samaria.
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I have destroyed Samaria and all its idols, and I will do the same to Jerusalem and the images that are worshiped there."
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But the Lord says, "When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride."
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The emperor of Assyria boasts, "I have done it all myself. I am strong and wise and clever. I wiped out the boundaries between nations and took the supplies they had stored. Like a bull I have trampled the people who live there.
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The nations of the world were like a bird's nest, and I gathered their wealth as easily as gathering eggs. Not a wing fluttered to scare me off; no beak opened to scream at me!"
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But the LORD says, "Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn't lift up a person; a person lifts up a club."
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The LORD Almighty is going to send disease to punish those who are now well-fed. In their bodies there will be a fire that burns and burns.
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God, the light of Israel, will become a fire. Israel's holy God will become a flame, which in a single day will burn up everything, even the thorns and thistles.
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The rich forests and farmlands will be totally destroyed, in the same way that a fatal sickness destroys someone.
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There will be so few trees left that even a child will be able to count them.
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A time is coming when the people of Israel who have survived will not rely any more on the nation that almost destroyed them. They will truly put their trust in the LORD, Israel's holy God.
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A few of the people of Israel will come back to their mighty God.
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Even though now there are as many people of Israel as there are grains of sand by the sea, only a few will come back. Destruction is in store for the people, and it is fully deserved.
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Yes, throughout the whole country the Sovereign LORD Almighty will bring destruction, as he said he would.
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The Sovereign LORD Almighty says to his people who live in Zion, "Do not be afraid of the Assyrians, even though they oppress you as the Egyptians used to do.
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In only a little while I will finish punishing you, and then I will destroy them.
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I, the LORD Almighty, will beat them with my whip as I did the people of Midian at Oreb Rock. I will punish Assyria as I punished Egypt.
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When that time comes, I will free you from the power of Assyria, and their yoke will no longer be a burden on your shoulders."
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The enemy army has captured the city of Ai! They have passed through Migron! They left their supplies at Michmash!
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They have crossed the pass and are spending the night at Geba! The people in the town of Ramah are terrified, and the people in King Saul's hometown of Gibeah have run away.
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Shout, people of Gallim! Listen, people of Laishah! Answer, people of Anathoth!
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The people of Madmenah and Gebim are running for their lives.
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Today the enemy are in the town of Nob, and there they are shaking their fists at Mount Zion, at the city of Jerusalem.
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The LORD Almighty will bring them crashing down like branches cut off a tree. The proudest and highest of them will be cut down and humiliated.
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The LORD will cut them down as trees in the heart of the forest are cut down with an ax, as even the finest trees of Lebanon fall!
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The whole point of what we are saying is that we have such a High Priest, who sits at the right of the throne of the Divine Majesty in heaven.
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He serves as high priest in the Most Holy Place, that is, in the real tent which was put up by the Lord, not by human hands.
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Every high priest is appointed to present offerings and animal sacrifices to God, and so our High Priest must also have something to offer.
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If he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer the gifts required by the Jewish Law.
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The work they do as priests is really only a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. It is the same as it was with Moses. When he was about to build the Sacred Tent, God told him, "Be sure to make everything according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain."
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But now, Jesus has been given priestly work which is superior to theirs, just as the covenant which he arranged between God and his people is a better one, because it is based on promises of better things.
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If there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, there would have been no need for a second one.
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But God finds fault with his people when he says, "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will draw up a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
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It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They were not faithful to the covenant I made with them, and so I paid no attention to them.
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Now, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
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None of them will have to teach their friends or tell their neighbors, 'Know the Lord.' For they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.
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I will forgive their sins and will no longer remember their wrongs."
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By speaking of a new covenant, God has made the first one old; and anything that becomes old and worn out will soon disappear.
