But the Lord says: “Now I will stand up.
Now I will show my power and might.
You Assyrians produce nothing but dry grass and stubble.
Your own breath will turn to fire and consume you.
Your people will be burned up completely,
like thorn bushes cut down and tossed in a fire.
Listen to what I have done, you nations far away!
And you that are near, acknowledge my might!”
The sinners in Jerusalem shake with fear.
Terror seizes the godless.
“Who can live with this devouring fire?” they cry.
“Who can survive this all-consuming fire?”
Those who are honest and fair,
who refuse to profit by fraud,
who stay far away from bribes,
who refuse to listen to those who plot murder,
who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong—
these are the ones who will dwell on high.
The rocks of the mountains will be their fortress.
Food will be supplied to them,
and they will have water in abundance.
Your eyes will see the king in all his splendor,
and you will see a land that stretches into the distance.
You will think back to this time of terror, asking,
“Where are the Assyrian officers
who counted our towers?
Where are the bookkeepers
who recorded the plunder taken from our fallen city?”
You will no longer see these fierce, violent people
with their strange, unknown language.
Instead, you will see Zion as a place of holy festivals.
You will see Jerusalem, a city quiet and secure.
It will be like a tent whose ropes are taut
and whose stakes are firmly fixed.
Isaiah 33:10-20
