They have their plans, but they don’t know what the Lord is planning. He brought them here for a special purpose. They will be crushed like grain on a threshing floor.
I say this because I know the plans that I have for you.” This message is from the Lord. “I have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future.
He will come ready to clean the grain. He will separate the good grain from the straw, and he will put the good part into his barn. Then he will burn the useless part with a fire that cannot be stopped.”
“But Assyria does not understand that I will use him. He does not think of himself as my tool. He only wants to destroy other people. He only plans to destroy many nations.
I will also gather all the nations together. I will bring all these nations down into Jehoshaphat Valley. There I will judge them. Those nations scattered my people, Israel. They forced them to live in other nations, so I will punish those nations. They divided up my land.
This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says: “Babylon is like a threshing floor, where people beat the grain at harvest time. And the time to beat Babylon is coming soon.