Shalmaneser king of Assyria came to attack Hoshea. Hoshea had been Shalmaneser’s servant and had made the payments to Shalmaneser that he had demanded.
He defeated Samaria in the ninth year Hoshea was king, and he took the Israelites away to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.
So the Lord God All-Powerful will send a terrible disease upon Assyria’s soldiers. The strength of Assyria will be burned up like a fire burning until everything is gone.
How will you explain the things you have done? What will you do when your destruction comes from far away? Where will you run for help? Where will you hide your riches then?
You will have to bow down among the captives or fall down among the dead bodies. But the Lord is still angry; his hand is still raised to strike down the people.
The strong, walled cities of Israel will be destroyed. The government in Damascus will end. Those left alive of Aram will be like the glory of Israel,” says the Lord All-Powerful.
This is what will happen all over the earth and to all the nations. The earth will be like an olive tree after the harvest or like the few grapes left on a vine after harvest.
We hear songs from every part of the earth praising God, the Righteous One. But I said, “I am dying! I am dying! How terrible it will be for me! Traitors turn against people; with their dishonesty, they turn against people.”
The people of Manasseh will fight against the people of Ephraim, and Ephraim will fight against Manasseh. Then both of them will turn against Judah. But the Lord is still angry; his hand is still raised to strike down the people.
This is what the Lord says: “A shepherd might save from a lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a scrap of an ear of his sheep. In the same way only a few Israelites in Samaria will be saved— people who now sit on their beds and on their couches.”