Chapter 5

¹Now you shall gather yourself in troops,

Daughter of troops.

He has laid siege against us;

They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

²But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

Being small among the clans of Judah,

Out of you one will come forth to me that is to be ruler in Israel;

Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

³Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth.

Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.

⁴He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh,

In the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God:

And they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.

⁵He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land,

And when he marches through our fortresses,

Then we will raise against him seven shepherds,

And eight leaders of men.

⁶They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword,

And the land of Nimrod in its gates.

He will deliver us from the Assyrian,

When he invades our land,

And when he marches within our border.

⁷The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples,

Like dew from Yahweh,

Like showers on the grass,

That don’t wait for man,

Nor wait for the sons of men.

⁸The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations,

In the midst of many peoples,

Like a lion among the animals of the forest,

Like a young lion among the flocks of sheep;

Who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces,

And there is no one to deliver.

⁹Let your hand be lifted up above your adversaries,

And let all of your enemies be cut off.

¹⁰“It will happen in that day,” says Yahweh,

“That I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you,

And will destroy your chariots.

¹¹I will cut off the cities of your land,

And will tear down all your strongholds.

¹²I will destroy witchcraft from your hand;

And you shall have no soothsayers.

¹³I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars out of your midst;

And you shall no more worship the work of your hands.

¹⁴I will uproot your Asherim out of your midst;

And I will destroy your cities.

¹⁵I will execute vengeance in anger,

And wrath on the nations that didn’t listen.”