The Divine Storm Confronts Assyria and Tophet

The name of the LORD comes from far in burning anger, and nations are sifted

Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: and his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel. Festival song beside a neck-high stream is Judah's deliverance register, not a cue to sift living peoples. Assyria in this storm remains the ancient empire, not a modern ethnic enemy.

Thunder, hail, and a prepared Tophet confront the Assyrian

And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.

For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. The prepared fire is for the imperial king in the oracle's terrifying imagery. It does not authorize collective punishment, colonial domination, political demonization, or human lighting of a pit for enemies.