Would the axe boast itself over him who chops with it, or the saw exalt itself over him who saws with it? As a rod waving those who lift it up! As a staff lifting up that which is not wood!
“The ravagers have come on all the bare heights in the wilderness, for the sword of יהוה is devouring from one end of the land to the other end of the land. There is no peace to any flesh.
How long shall the land mourn, and the plants of every field wither? The beasts and birds are consumed, for the evil of those who dwell there, because they said, “He does not see our latter ending.”
“And I shall appoint over them four kinds,” declares יהוה, “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
“O sword, awake against My Shepherd, against the Man who is My Companion,” declares יהוה of hosts. “Smite the Shepherd, and let the sheep be scattered. But I shall turn My hand upon the little ones.
And the three companies blew the ram’s horns and broke the jars, and held the torches in their left hands and the ram’s horns in their right hands for blowing. And they cried, “For יהוה and for Giḏ