When word reached the king of Judah that the armies of Syria were already in the territory of Israel, he and all his people were so terrified that they trembled like trees shaking in the wind.

Now you arrogant leaders who rule here in Jerusalem over this people, listen to what the LORD is saying.

You boast that you have made a treaty with death and reached an agreement with the world of the dead. You are certain that disaster will spare you when it comes, because you depend on lies and deceit to keep you safe.

Justice will be the measuring line for the foundation, and honesty will be its plumb line." Hailstorms will sweep away all the lies you depend on, and floods will destroy your security.

It will strike you again and again, morning after morning. You will have to bear it day and night. Each new message from God will bring new terror!

The LORD will fight as he did at Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to do what he intends to do---strange as his actions may seem. He will complete his work, his mysterious work.

The Lord said, "These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized.

God told me to write down in a book what the people are like, so that there would be a permanent record of how evil they are.

They tell the prophets to keep quiet. They say, "Don't talk to us about what's right. Tell us what we want to hear. Let us keep our illusions.

The people of Israel said to Moses, "Then that's the end of us!

If anyone who even comes near the Tent must die, then we are all as good as dead!"

Voices of terror will scream in their ears, and robbers attack when they think they are safe.

They have no hope of escaping from darkness, for somewhere a sword is waiting to kill them,

All around them terror is waiting; it follows them at every step.

But then they will become terrified, as they have never been before, for God will scatter the bones of the enemies of his people. God has rejected them, and so Israel will totally defeat them.

The wicked run when no one is chasing them, but an honest person is as brave as a lion.

Then the kings of the earth, the rulers and the military chiefs, the rich and the powerful, and all other people, slave and free, hid themselves in caves and under rocks on the mountains.

The terrible day of their anger is here, and who can stand up against it?"

And so the Lord will not let any of the young men escape, and he will not show pity on any of the widows and orphans, because all the people are godless and wicked and everything they say is evil. Yet even so the LORD's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample the people like dirt in the streets."

'Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' the king asked him. But the man said nothing.

The master will cut him in pieces and make him share the fate of the hypocrites. There he will cry and gnash his teeth.

So now, just as straw and dry grass shrivel and burn in the fire, your roots will rot and your blossoms will dry up and blow away, because you have rejected what the LORD Almighty, Israel's holy God, has taught us.

the LORD Almighty will rescue you with violent thunderstorms and earthquakes. He will send windstorms and raging fire;

The LORD's power and glory can be seen in the distance. Fire and smoke show his anger. He speaks, and his words burn like fire.

But you, God's people, will be happy and sing as you do on the night of a sacred festival. You will be as happy as those who walk to the music of flutes on their way to the Temple of the LORD, the defender of Israel.

The Assyrians will be terrified when they hear the LORD's voice and feel the force of his punishment.

Long ago a place was prepared where a huge fire will burn the emperor of Assyria. It is deep and wide, and piled high with wood. The LORD will breathe out a stream of flame to set it on fire.

and said, 'The LORD our God showed us his greatness and his glory when we heard him speak from the fire! Today we have seen that it is possible for people to continue to live, even though God has spoken to them.

But why should we risk death again? That terrible fire will destroy us. We are sure to die if we hear the LORD our God speak again.

With their idols they have made me angry, jealous with their so-called gods, gods that are really not gods. So I will use a so-called nation to make them angry; I will make them jealous with a nation of fools.

" 'I will bring on them endless disasters and use all my arrows against them.

He sends down flaming coals and burning sulfur on the wicked; he punishes them with scorching winds.

He will destroy them like a blazing fire when he appears. The LORD will devour them in his anger, and fire will consume them.

Our God is coming, but not in silence; a raging fire is in front of him, a furious storm around him.

When he is angry, who can survive? Who can survive his terrible fury? He pours out his flaming anger; rocks crumble to dust before him.

because our God is indeed a destroying fire.

The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar.

"As they leave, they will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me. The worms that eat them will never die, and the fire that burns them will never be put out. The sight of them will be disgusting to all people."

"If your hand or your foot makes you lose your faith, cut it off and throw it away! It is better for you to enter life without a hand or a foot than to keep both hands and both feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Away from me, you that are under God's curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels!

These, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life."

So if your hand makes you lose your faith, cut it off ! It is better for you to enter life without a hand than to keep both hands and go off to hell, to the fire that never goes out.

And if your foot makes you lose your faith, cut it off ! It is better for you to enter life without a foot than to keep both feet and be thrown into hell.

And if your eye makes you lose your faith, take it out! It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to keep both eyes and be thrown into hell.

"Everyone will be purified by fire as a sacrifice is purified by salt.

and in Hades, where he was in great pain, he looked up and saw Abraham, far away, with Lazarus at his side.

But Abraham said, 'Remember, my son, that in your lifetime you were given all the good things, while Lazarus got all the bad things. But now he is enjoying himself here, while you are in pain.

with a flaming fire, to punish those who reject God and who do not obey the Good News about our Lord Jesus.

will themselves drink God's wine, the wine of his fury, which he has poured at full strength into the cup of his anger! All who do this will be tormented in fire and sulfur before the holy angels and the Lamb.

Then the Devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.