1Now you shall gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops: he has laid siege against us; they shall strike the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. 2But you, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of you one shall come forth to me who is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. 3Therefore he will give them up, until the time that she who travails has brought forth: then the residue of his brothers shall return to the children of Israel. 4And he shall stand, and shall feed his flock in the strength of Yehovah, in the majesty of the name of Yehovah his God: and they shall abide; for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 5And this man shall be our peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land, and when he treads in our palaces, then we shall raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. 6And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in its entrances: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land, and when he treads within our border. 7And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from Yehovah, as showers upon the grass, that do not wait for man, nor wait for the sons of men. 8And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as 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 your enemies be cut off. 10And it shall come to pass in that day, says Yehovah, that I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, and will destroy your chariots: 11and I will cut off the cities of your land, and will throw down all your strongholds. 12And I will cut off witchcrafts out of your hand; and you shall have no more soothsayers: 13and I will cut off your graven images and your pillars out of the midst of you; and you shall no more bow down to the work of your hands; 14and I will pluck up your Asherim out of the midst of you; and I will destroy your cities. 15And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations which did not hearken.