1Now thou shall gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. 2But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which are little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee he 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 sons of Israel. 4And he shall stand, and shall feed [his flock] in the strength of LORD, in the majesty of the name of LORD 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 shall come into our land, and when he shall tread 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 the entrances of it. 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 LORD, as showers upon the grass, that tarry not 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 t 9Let thy hand be lifted up above thine adversaries, and let all thine enemies be cut off. 10And it shall come to pass in that day, says LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy chariots, 11and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and will throw down all thy strongholds. 12And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy hand, and thou shall have no [more] soothsayers. 13And I will cut off thy graven images and thy pillars out of the midst of thee, and thou shall no more worship the work of thy hands. 14And I will pluck up thine Asherim out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy cities. 15And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that did not hearken.