Chapter 140 of 379

Isaiah 1

The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

A Rebellious Nation

Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth!

For the LORD has spoken:

“I reared children and brought them up,

but they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows its master,

the donkey its owner’s manger,

but Israel does not know,

my people do not understand.”

Woe to the sinful nation,

a people whose guilt is great,

a brood of evildoers,

children given to corruption!

They have forsaken the LORD;

they have spurned the Holy One of Israel

and turned their backs on him.

5Why should you be beaten anymore?

Why do you persist in rebellion?

Your whole head is injured,

your whole heart afflicted.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head

there is no soundness—

only wounds and welts

and open sores,

not cleansed or bandaged

or soothed with olive oil.

Your country is desolate,

your cities burned with fire;

your fields are being stripped by foreigners

right before you,

laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

Daughter Zion is left

like a shelter in a vineyard,

like a hut in a cucumber field,

like a city under siege.

Unless the LORD Almighty

had left us some survivors,

we would have become like Sodom,

we would have been like Gomorrah.

10Hear the word of the LORD,

you rulers of Sodom;

listen to the instruction of our God,

you people of Gomorrah!

“The multitude of your sacrifices—

what are they to me?” says the LORD.

“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,

of rams and the fat of fattened animals;

I have no pleasure

in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to appear before me,

who has asked this of you,

this trampling of my courts?

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Your incense is detestable to me.

New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—

I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.

14Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals

I hate with all my being.

They have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I hide my eyes from you;

even when you offer many prayers,

I am not listening.

Your hands are full of blood!

Wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds out of my sight;

stop doing wrong.

Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.^,

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

plead the case of the widow.

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”

says the LORD.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.

19If you are willing and obedient,

you will eat the good things of the land;

20but if you resist and rebel,

you will be devoured by the sword.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

See how the faithful city

has become a prostitute!

She once was full of justice;

righteousness used to dwell in her—

but now murderers!

Your silver has become dross,

your choice wine is diluted with water.

Your rulers are rebels,

partners with thieves;

they all love bribes

and chase after gifts.

They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;

the widow’s case does not come before them.

24Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty,

the Mighty One of Israel, declares:

“Ah! I will vent my wrath on my foes

and avenge myself on my enemies.

25I will turn my hand against you;^,

I will thoroughly purge away your dross

and remove all your impurities.

26I will restore your leaders as in days of old,

your rulers as at the beginning.

Afterward you will be called

the City of Righteousness,

the Faithful City.”

27Zion will be delivered with justice,

her penitent ones with righteousness.

But rebels and sinners will both be broken,

and those who forsake the LORD will perish.

“You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks

in which you have delighted;

you will be disgraced because of the gardens

that you have chosen.

30You will be like an oak with fading leaves,

like a garden without water.

31The mighty man will become tinder

and his work a spark;

both will burn together,

with no one to quench the fire.”

The Mountain of the LORD

2:1-4pp —

1This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

In the last days

the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established

as the highest of the mountains;

it will be exalted above the hills,

and all nations will stream to it.

Many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the temple of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

so that we may walk in his paths.”

The law will go out from Zion,

the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations

and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

nor will they train for war anymore.

5Come, descendants of Jacob,

let us walk in the light of the LORD.

The Day of the LORD

You, LORD, have abandoned your people,

the descendants of Jacob.

They are full of superstitions from the East;

they practice divination like the Philistines

and embrace pagan customs.

Their land is full of silver and gold;

there is no end to their treasures.

Their land is full of horses;

there is no end to their chariots.

Their land is full of idols;

they bow down to the work of their hands,

to what their fingers have made.

9So people will be brought low

and everyone humbled—

do not forgive them.^,

Go into the rocks, hide in the ground

from the fearful presence of the LORD

and the splendor of his majesty!

11The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled

and human pride brought low;

the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

12The LORD Almighty has a day in store

for all the proud and lofty,

for all that is exalted

(and they will be humbled),

for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty,

and all the oaks of Bashan,

14for all the towering mountains

and all the high hills,

for every lofty tower

and every fortified wall,

for every trading ship^,

and every stately vessel.

17The arrogance of man will be brought low

and human pride humbled;

the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

and the idols will totally disappear.

People will flee to caves in the rocks

and to holes in the ground

from the fearful presence of the LORD

and the splendor of his majesty,

when he rises to shake the earth.

In that day people will throw away

to the moles and bats

their idols of silver and idols of gold,

which they made to worship.

They will flee to caverns in the rocks

and to the overhanging crags

from the fearful presence of the LORD

and the splendor of his majesty,

when he rises to shake the earth.

22Stop trusting in mere humans,

who have but a breath in their nostrils.

Why hold them in esteem?

Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah

See now, the Lord,

the LORD Almighty,

is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah

both supply and support:

all supplies of food and all supplies of water,

the hero and the warrior,

the judge and the prophet,

the diviner and the elder,

the captain of fifty and the man of rank,

the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

4“I will make mere youths their officials;

children will rule over them.”

5People will oppress each other—

man against man, neighbor against neighbor.

The young will rise up against the old,

the nobody against the honored.

A man will seize one of his brothers

in his father’s house, and say,

“You have a cloak, you be our leader;

take charge of this heap of ruins!”

7But in that day he will cry out,

“I have no remedy.

I have no food or clothing in my house;

do not make me the leader of the people.”

8Jerusalem staggers,

Judah is falling;

their words and deeds are against the LORD,

defying his glorious presence.

9The look on their faces testifies against them;

they parade their sin like Sodom;

they do not hide it.

Woe to them!

They have brought disaster upon themselves.

10Tell the righteous it will be well with them,

for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.

11Woe to the wicked!

Disaster is upon them!

They will be paid back

for what their hands have done.

12Youths oppress my people,

women rule over them.

My people, your guides lead you astray;

they turn you from the path.

The LORD takes his place in court;

he rises to judge the people.

14The LORD enters into judgment

against the elders and leaders of his people:

“It is you who have ruined my vineyard;

the plunder from the poor is in your houses.

What do you mean by crushing my people

and grinding the faces of the poor?”

declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

The LORD says,

“The women of Zion are haughty,

walking along with outstretched necks,

flirting with their eyes,

strutting along with swaying hips,

with ornaments jingling on their ankles.

Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion;

the LORD will make their scalps bald.”

In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces,

the earrings and bracelets and veils,

the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms,

the signet rings and nose rings, 22the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses 23and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.

Instead of fragrance there will be a stench;

instead of a sash, a rope;

instead of well-dressed hair, baldness;

instead of fine clothing, sackcloth;

instead of beauty, branding.

25Your men will fall by the sword,

your warriors in battle.

The gates of Zion will lament and mourn;

destitute, she will sit on the ground.

In that day seven women

will take hold of one man

and say, “We will eat our own food

and provide our own clothes;

only let us be called by your name.

Take away our disgrace!”

The Branch of the LORD

2In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.

Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. 4The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.

Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory^, will be a canopy. 6It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

The Song of the Vineyard

I will sing for the one I love

a song about his vineyard:

My loved one had a vineyard

on a fertile hillside.

He dug it up and cleared it of stones

and planted it with the choicest vines.

He built a watchtower in it

and cut out a winepress as well.

Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,

but it yielded only bad fruit.

3“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

4What more could have been done for my vineyard

than I have done for it?

When I looked for good grapes,

why did it yield only bad?

5Now I will tell you

what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge,

and it will be destroyed;

I will break down its wall,

and it will be trampled.

6I will make it a wasteland,

neither pruned nor cultivated,

and briers and thorns will grow there.

I will command the clouds

not to rain on it.”

7The vineyard of the LORD Almighty

is the nation of Israel,

and the people of Judah

are the vines he delighted in.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Woes and Judgments

Woe to you who add house to house

and join field to field

till no space is left

and you live alone in the land.

9The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:

“Surely the great houses will become desolate,

the fine mansions left without occupants.

A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine;

a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.”

Woe to those who rise early in the morning

to run after their drinks,

who stay up late at night

till they are inflamed with wine.

They have harps and lyres at their banquets,

pipes and timbrels and wine,

but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD,

no respect for the work of his hands.

Therefore my people will go into exile

for lack of understanding;

those of high rank will die of hunger

and the common people will be parched with thirst.

Therefore Death expands its jaws,

opening wide its mouth;

into it will descend their nobles and masses

with all their brawlers and revelers.

15So people will be brought low

and everyone humbled,

the eyes of the arrogant humbled.

16But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,

and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.

17Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;

lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,

and wickedness as with cart ropes,

19to those who say, “Let God hurry;

let him hasten his work

so we may see it.

The plan of the Holy One of Israel—

let it approach, let it come into view,

so we may know it.”

20Woe to those who call evil good

and good evil,

who put darkness for light

and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter.

21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

and clever in their own sight.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine

and champions at mixing drinks,

who acquit the guilty for a bribe,

but deny justice to the innocent.

24Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw

and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,

so their roots will decay

and their flowers blow away like dust;

for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty

and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people;

his hand is raised and he strikes them down.

The mountains shake,

and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

his hand is still upraised.

He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,

he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.

Here they come,

swiftly and speedily!

Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,

not one slumbers or sleeps;

not a belt is loosened at the waist,

not a sandal strap is broken.

Their arrows are sharp,

all their bows are strung;

their horses’ hooves seem like flint,

their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

Their roar is like that of the lion,

they roar like young lions;

they growl as they seize their prey

and carry it off with no one to rescue.

30In that day they will roar over it

like the roaring of the sea.

And if one looks at the land,

there is only darkness and distress;

even the sun will be darkened by clouds.

Isaiah’s Commission

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

He said, “Go and tell this people:

“ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;

be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

Make the heart of this people calloused;

make their ears dull

and close their eyes.^,

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.”

11Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”

And he answered:

“Until the cities lie ruined

and without inhabitant,

until the houses are left deserted

and the fields ruined and ravaged,

until the LORD has sent everyone far away

and the land is utterly forsaken.

13And though a tenth remains in the land,

it will again be laid waste.

But as the terebinth and oak

leave stumps when they are cut down,

so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

The Sign of Immanuel

1When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.

2Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub,^, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.

Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.

Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6“Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” 7Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“ ‘It will not take place,

it will not happen,

for the head of Aram is Damascus,

and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.

Within sixty-five years

Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.

9The head of Ephraim is Samaria,

and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.

If you do not stand firm in your faith,

you will not stand at all.’ ”

10Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz,

“Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”

12But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.”

Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin^, will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.^,

He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.”

Assyria, the LORD’s Instrument

18In that day the LORD will whistle for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. 19They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes.

In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and private parts, and to cut off your beard also. 21In that day, a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats. 22And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. 23In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels,^, there will be only briers and thorns. 24Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. 25As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.

Isaiah and His Children as Signs

The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.”^,

So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.

Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. 4For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

5The LORD spoke to me again:

“Because this people has rejected

the gently flowing waters of Shiloah

and rejoices over Rezin

and the son of Remaliah,

therefore the Lord is about to bring against them

the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—

the king of Assyria with all his pomp.

It will overflow all its channels,

run over all its banks

and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it,

passing through it and reaching up to the neck.

Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land,

Immanuel!”

9Raise the war cry,^, you nations, and be shattered!

Listen, all you distant lands.

Prepare for battle, and be shattered!

10Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;

propose your plan, but it will not stand,

for God is with us.^,

11This is what the LORD says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:

12“Do not call conspiracy

everything this people calls a conspiracy;

do not fear what they fear,

and do not dread it.

13The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,

he is the one you are to fear,

he is the one you are to dread.

He will be a holy place;

for both Israel and Judah he will be

a stone that causes people to stumble

and a rock that makes them fall.

And for the people of Jerusalem he will be

a trap and a snare.

15Many of them will stumble;

they will fall and be broken,

they will be snared and captured.”

Bind up this testimony of warning

and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.

17I will wait for the LORD,

who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob.

I will put my trust in him.

Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.

The Darkness Turns to Light

When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.

Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—

The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness

a light has dawned.

3You have enlarged the nation

and increased their joy;

they rejoice before you

as people rejoice at the harvest,

as warriors rejoice

when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,

you have shattered

the yoke that burdens them,

the bar across their shoulders,

the rod of their oppressor.

Every warrior’s boot used in battle

and every garment rolled in blood

will be destined for burning,

will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace

there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne

and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

with justice and righteousness

from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the LORD Almighty

will accomplish this.

The LORD’s Anger Against Israel

8The Lord has sent a message against Jacob;

it will fall on Israel.

9All the people will know it—

Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—

who say with pride

and arrogance of heart,

“The bricks have fallen down,

but we will rebuild with dressed stone;

the fig trees have been felled,

but we will replace them with cedars.”

But the LORD has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them

and has spurred their enemies on.

Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west

have devoured Israel with open mouth.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

his hand is still upraised.

13But the people have not returned to him who struck them,

nor have they sought the LORD Almighty.

So the LORD will cut off from Israel both head and tail,

both palm branch and reed in a single day;

15the elders and dignitaries are the head,

the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

16Those who guide this people mislead them,

and those who are guided are led astray.

Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men,

nor will he pity the fatherless and widows,

for everyone is ungodly and wicked,

every mouth speaks folly.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

his hand is still upraised.

18Surely wickedness burns like a fire;

it consumes briers and thorns,

it sets the forest thickets ablaze,

so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.

19By the wrath of the LORD Almighty

the land will be scorched

and the people will be fuel for the fire;

they will not spare one another.

On the right they will devour,

but still be hungry;

on the left they will eat,

but not be satisfied.

Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring:

Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh;

together they will turn against Judah.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

his hand is still upraised.

Woe to those who make unjust laws,

to those who issue oppressive decrees,

to deprive the poor of their rights

and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,

making widows their prey

and robbing the fatherless.

3What will you do on the day of reckoning,

when disaster comes from afar?

To whom will you run for help?

Where will you leave your riches?

4Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives

or fall among the slain.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

his hand is still upraised.

God’s Judgment on Assyria

5“Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,

in whose hand is the club of my wrath!

6I send him against a godless nation,

I dispatch him against a people who anger me,

to seize loot and snatch plunder,

and to trample them down like mud in the streets.

7But this is not what he intends,

this is not what he has in mind;

his purpose is to destroy,

to put an end to many nations.

8‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says.

‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpad,

and Samaria like Damascus?

As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols,

kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—

11shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images

as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’ ”

12When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.

For he says:

“ ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this,

and by my wisdom, because I have understanding.

I removed the boundaries of nations,

I plundered their treasures;

like a mighty one I subdued their kings.

14As one reaches into a nest,

so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations;

as people gather abandoned eggs,

so I gathered all the countries;

not one flapped a wing,

or opened its mouth to chirp.’ ”

15Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it,

or the saw boast against the one who uses it?

As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up,

or a club brandish the one who is not wood!

Therefore, the Lord, the LORD Almighty,

will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors;

under his pomp a fire will be kindled

like a blazing flame.

17The Light of Israel will become a fire,

their Holy One a flame;

in a single day it will burn and consume

his thorns and his briers.

The splendor of his forests and fertile fields

it will completely destroy,

as when a sick person wastes away.

19And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few

that a child could write them down.

The Remnant of Israel

20In that day the remnant of Israel,

the survivors of Jacob,

will no longer rely on him

who struck them down

but will truly rely on the LORD,

the Holy One of Israel.

21A remnant will return,^, a remnant of Jacob

will return to the Mighty God.

Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel,

only a remnant will return.

Destruction has been decreed,

overwhelming and righteous.

23The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out

the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says:

“My people who live in Zion,

do not be afraid of the Assyrians,

who beat you with a rod

and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did.

25Very soon my anger against you will end

and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.”

The LORD Almighty will lash them with a whip,

as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb;

and he will raise his staff over the waters,

as he did in Egypt.

In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders,

their yoke from your neck;

the yoke will be broken

because you have grown so fat.

They enter Aiath;

they pass through Migron;

they store supplies at Mikmash.

29They go over the pass, and say,

“We will camp overnight at Geba.”

Ramah trembles;

Gibeah of Saul flees.

Cry out, Daughter Gallim!

Listen, Laishah!

Poor Anathoth!

31Madmenah is in flight;

the people of Gebim take cover.

32This day they will halt at Nob;

they will shake their fist

at the mount of Daughter Zion,

at the hill of Jerusalem.

33See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty,

will lop off the boughs with great power.

The lofty trees will be felled,

the tall ones will be brought low.

34He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax;

Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

The Branch From Jesse

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—

the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and of might,

the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD—

and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

or decide by what he hears with his ears;

4but with righteousness he will judge the needy,

with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;

with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

Righteousness will be his belt

and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

The wolf will live with the lamb,

the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;

and a little child will lead them.

7The cow will feed with the bear,

their young will lie down together,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8The infant will play near the cobra’s den,

and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

9They will neither harm nor destroy

on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea.

10In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush,^, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.

He will raise a banner for the nations

and gather the exiles of Israel;

he will assemble the scattered people of Judah

from the four quarters of the earth.

13Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,

and Judah’s enemies will be destroyed;

Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,

nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.

14They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west;

together they will plunder the people to the east.

They will subdue Edom and Moab,

and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

The LORD will dry up

the gulf of the Egyptian sea;

with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand

over the Euphrates River.

He will break it up into seven streams

so that anyone can cross over in sandals.

16There will be a highway for the remnant of his people

that is left from Assyria,

as there was for Israel

when they came up from Egypt.

Songs of Praise

1In that day you will say:

“I will praise you, LORD.

Although you were angry with me,

your anger has turned away

and you have comforted me.

2Surely God is my salvation;

I will trust and not be afraid.

The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense;

he has become my salvation.”

3With joy you will draw water

from the wells of salvation.

4In that day you will say:

“Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name;

make known among the nations what he has done,

and proclaim that his name is exalted.

5Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;

let this be known to all the world.

6Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,

for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

A Prophecy Against Babylon

1A prophecy against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

Raise a banner on a bare hilltop,

shout to them;

beckon to them

to enter the gates of the nobles.

3I have commanded those I prepared for battle;

I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath—

those who rejoice in my triumph.

4Listen, a noise on the mountains,

like that of a great multitude!

Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,

like nations massing together!

The LORD Almighty is mustering

an army for war.

5They come from faraway lands,

from the ends of the heavens—

the LORD and the weapons of his wrath—

to destroy the whole country.

Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;

it will come like destruction from the Almighty.^,

7Because of this, all hands will go limp,

every heart will melt with fear.

8Terror will seize them,

pain and anguish will grip them;

they will writhe like a woman in labor.

They will look aghast at each other,

their faces aflame.

9See, the day of the LORD is coming

—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—

to make the land desolate

and destroy the sinners within it.

The stars of heaven and their constellations

will not show their light.

The rising sun will be darkened

and the moon will not give its light.

I will punish the world for its evil,

the wicked for their sins.

I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty

and will humble the pride of the ruthless.

I will make people scarcer than pure gold,

more rare than the gold of Ophir.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;

and the earth will shake from its place

at the wrath of the LORD Almighty,

in the day of his burning anger.

Like a hunted gazelle,

like sheep without a shepherd,

they will all return to their own people,

they will flee to their native land.

15Whoever is captured will be thrust through;

all who are caught will fall by the sword.

16Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;

their houses will be looted and their wives violated.

See, I will stir up against them the Medes,

who do not care for silver

and have no delight in gold.

18Their bows will strike down the young men;

they will have no mercy on infants,

nor will they look with compassion on children.

Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,

the pride and glory of the Babylonians,

will be overthrown by God

like Sodom and Gomorrah.

20She will never be inhabited

or lived in through all generations;

there no nomads will pitch their tents,

there no shepherds will rest their flocks.

But desert creatures will lie there,

jackals will fill her houses;

there the owls will dwell,

and there the wild goats will leap about.

Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds,

jackals her luxurious palaces.

Her time is at hand,

and her days will not be prolonged.

1The LORD will have compassion on Jacob;

once again he will choose Israel

and will settle them in their own land.

Foreigners will join them

and unite with the descendants of Jacob.

2Nations will take them

and bring them to their own place.

And Israel will take possession of the nations

and make them male and female servants in the LORD’s land.

They will make captives of their captors

and rule over their oppressors.

3On the day the LORD gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you,

you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has come to an end!

How his fury has ended!

The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked,

the scepter of the rulers,

6which in anger struck down peoples

with unceasing blows,

and in fury subdued nations

with relentless aggression.

All the lands are at rest and at peace;

they break into singing.

Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon

gloat over you and say,

“Now that you have been laid low,

no one comes to cut us down.”

The realm of the dead below is all astir

to meet you at your coming;

it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you—

all those who were leaders in the world;

it makes them rise from their thrones—

all those who were kings over the nations.

10They will all respond,

they will say to you,

“You also have become weak, as we are;

you have become like us.”

11All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,

along with the noise of your harps;

maggots are spread out beneath you

and worms cover you.

How you have fallen from heaven,

morning star, son of the dawn!

You have been cast down to the earth,

you who once laid low the nations!

You said in your heart,

“I will ascend to the heavens;

I will raise my throne

above the stars of God;

I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,

on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”

But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,

to the depths of the pit.

16Those who see you stare at you,

they ponder your fate:

“Is this the man who shook the earth

and made kingdoms tremble,

17the man who made the world a wilderness,

who overthrew its cities

and would not let his captives go home?”

18All the kings of the nations lie in state,

each in his own tomb.

But you are cast out of your tomb

like a rejected branch;

you are covered with the slain,

with those pierced by the sword,

those who descend to the stones of the pit.

Like a corpse trampled underfoot,

20you will not join them in burial,

for you have destroyed your land

and killed your people.

Let the offspring of the wicked

never be mentioned again.

21Prepare a place to slaughter his children

for the sins of their ancestors;

they are not to rise to inherit the land

and cover the earth with their cities.

22“I will rise up against them,”

declares the LORD Almighty.

“I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors,

her offspring and descendants,”

declares the LORD.

23“I will turn her into a place for owls

and into swampland;

I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,”

declares the LORD Almighty.

24The LORD Almighty has sworn,

“Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,

and as I have purposed, so it will happen.

I will crush the Assyrian in my land;

on my mountains I will trample him down.

His yoke will be taken from my people,

and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

This is the plan determined for the whole world;

this is the hand stretched out over all nations.

27For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?

His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

A Prophecy Against the Philistines

28This prophecy came in the year King Ahaz died:

Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,

that the rod that struck you is broken;

from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,

its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.

30The poorest of the poor will find pasture,

and the needy will lie down in safety.

But your root I will destroy by famine;

it will slay your survivors.

31Wail, you gate! Howl, you city!

Melt away, all you Philistines!

A cloud of smoke comes from the north,

and there is not a straggler in its ranks.

32What answer shall be given

to the envoys of that nation?

“The LORD has established Zion,

and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.”

A Prophecy Against Moab

16:6-12pp —

A prophecy against Moab:

Ar in Moab is ruined,

destroyed in a night!

Kir in Moab is ruined,

destroyed in a night!

Dibon goes up to its temple,

to its high places to weep;

Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.

Every head is shaved

and every beard cut off.

In the streets they wear sackcloth;

on the roofs and in the public squares

they all wail,

prostrate with weeping.

4Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,

their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.

Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,

and their hearts are faint.

My heart cries out over Moab;

her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,

as far as Eglath Shelishiyah.

They go up the hill to Luhith,

weeping as they go;

on the road to Horonaim

they lament their destruction.

6The waters of Nimrim are dried up

and the grass is withered;

the vegetation is gone

and nothing green is left.

7So the wealth they have acquired and stored up

they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.

8Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;

their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,

their lamentation as far as Beer Elim.

The waters of Dimon are full of blood,

but I will bring still more upon Dimon—

a lion upon the fugitives of Moab

and upon those who remain in the land.

Send lambs as tribute

to the ruler of the land,

from Sela, across the desert,

to the mount of Daughter Zion.

Like fluttering birds

pushed from the nest,

so are the women of Moab

at the fords of the Arnon.

3“Make up your mind,” Moab says.

“Render a decision.

Make your shadow like night—

at high noon.

Hide the fugitives,

do not betray the refugees.

4Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;

be their shelter from the destroyer.”

The oppressor will come to an end,

and destruction will cease;

the aggressor will vanish from the land.

5In love a throne will be established;

in faithfulness a man will sit on it—

one from the house of David—

one who in judging seeks justice

and speeds the cause of righteousness.

6We have heard of Moab’s pride—

how great is her arrogance!—

of her conceit, her pride and her insolence;

but her boasts are empty.

7Therefore the Moabites wail,

they wail together for Moab.

Lament and grieve

for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.

8The fields of Heshbon wither,

the vines of Sibmah also.

The rulers of the nations

have trampled down the choicest vines,

which once reached Jazer

and spread toward the desert.

Their shoots spread out

and went as far as the sea.^,

9So I weep, as Jazer weeps,

for the vines of Sibmah.

Heshbon and Elealeh,

I drench you with tears!

The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit

and over your harvests have been stilled.

10Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;

no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;

no one treads out wine at the presses,

for I have put an end to the shouting.

11My heart laments for Moab like a harp,

my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.

12When Moab appears at her high place,

she only wears herself out;

when she goes to her shrine to pray,

it is to no avail.

13This is the word the LORD has already spoken concerning Moab. 14But now the LORD says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”

A Prophecy Against Damascus

A prophecy against Damascus:

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city

but will become a heap of ruins.

The cities of Aroer will be deserted

and left to flocks, which will lie down,

with no one to make them afraid.

3The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,

and royal power from Damascus;

the remnant of Aram will be

like the glory of the Israelites,”

declares the LORD Almighty.

4“In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;

the fat of his body will waste away.

It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,

gathering the grain in their arms—

as when someone gleans heads of grain

in the Valley of Rephaim.

6Yet some gleanings will remain,

as when an olive tree is beaten,

leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,

four or five on the fruitful boughs,”

declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

7In that day people will look to their Maker

and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

They will not look to the altars,

the work of their hands,

and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles^,

and the incense altars their fingers have made.

9In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

10You have forgotten God your Savior;

you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.

Therefore, though you set out the finest plants

and plant imported vines,

11though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,

and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,

yet the harvest will be as nothing

in the day of disease and incurable pain.

12Woe to the many nations that rage—

they rage like the raging sea!

Woe to the peoples who roar—

they roar like the roaring of great waters!

13Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,

when he rebukes them they flee far away,

driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,

like tumbleweed before a gale.

In the evening, sudden terror!

Before the morning, they are gone!

This is the portion of those who loot us,

the lot of those who plunder us.

A Prophecy Against Cush

Woe to the land of whirring wings

along the rivers of Cush,^,

which sends envoys by sea

in papyrus boats over the water.

Go, swift messengers,

to a people tall and smooth-skinned,

to a people feared far and wide,

an aggressive nation of strange speech,

whose land is divided by rivers.

3All you people of the world,

you who live on the earth,

when a banner is raised on the mountains,

you will see it,

and when a trumpet sounds,

you will hear it.

4This is what the LORD says to me:

“I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place,

like shimmering heat in the sunshine,

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone

and the flower becomes a ripening grape,

he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,

and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey

and to the wild animals;

the birds will feed on them all summer,

the wild animals all winter.

At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD Almighty

from a people tall and smooth-skinned,

from a people feared far and wide,

an aggressive nation of strange speech,

whose land is divided by rivers—

the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD Almighty.

A Prophecy Against Egypt

A prophecy against Egypt:

See, the LORD rides on a swift cloud

and is coming to Egypt.

The idols of Egypt tremble before him,

and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.

2“I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian—

brother will fight against brother,

neighbor against neighbor,

city against city,

kingdom against kingdom.

The Egyptians will lose heart,

and I will bring their plans to nothing;

they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,

the mediums and the spiritists.

I will hand the Egyptians over

to the power of a cruel master,

and a fierce king will rule over them,”

declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

The waters of the river will dry up,

and the riverbed will be parched and dry.

6The canals will stink;

the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up.

The reeds and rushes will wither,

7also the plants along the Nile,

at the mouth of the river.

Every sown field along the Nile

will become parched, will blow away and be no more.

8The fishermen will groan and lament,

all who cast hooks into the Nile;

those who throw nets on the water

will pine away.

Those who work with combed flax will despair,

the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.

10The workers in cloth will be dejected,

and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.

The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools;

the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

“I am one of the wise men,

a disciple of the ancient kings”?

12Where are your wise men now?

Let them show you and make known

what the LORD Almighty

has planned against Egypt.

The officials of Zoan have become fools,

the leaders of Memphis are deceived;

the cornerstones of her peoples

have led Egypt astray.

14The LORD has poured into them

a spirit of dizziness;

they make Egypt stagger in all that she does,

as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.

15There is nothing Egypt can do—

head or tail, palm branch or reed.

In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them. 17And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the LORD Almighty is planning against them.

In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.^,

In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border. 20It will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them.

So the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the LORD. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and keep them. 22The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

23In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing^, on the earth. 25The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush

In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it—

at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush,^,

so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame. 5Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. 6In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’ ”

A Prophecy Against Babylon

A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea:

Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,

an invader comes from the desert,

from a land of terror.

A dire vision has been shown to me:

The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.

Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!

I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

At this my body is racked with pain,

pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;

I am staggered by what I hear,

I am bewildered by what I see.

My heart falters,

fear makes me tremble;

the twilight I longed for

has become a horror to me.

They set the tables,

they spread the rugs,

they eat, they drink!

Get up, you officers,

oil the shields!

6This is what the Lord says to me:

“Go, post a lookout

and have him report what he sees.

When he sees chariots

with teams of horses,

riders on donkeys

or riders on camels,

let him be alert,

fully alert.”

8And the lookout^, shouted,

“Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;

every night I stay at my post.

Look, here comes a man in a chariot

with a team of horses.

And he gives back the answer:

‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen!

All the images of its gods

lie shattered on the ground!’ ”

My people who are crushed on the threshing floor,

I tell you what I have heard

from the LORD Almighty,

from the God of Israel.

A Prophecy Against Edom

A prophecy against Dumah:

Someone calls to me from Seir,

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?”

12The watchman replies,

“Morning is coming, but also the night.

If you would ask, then ask;

and come back yet again.”

A Prophecy Against Arabia

A prophecy against Arabia:

You caravans of Dedanites,

who camp in the thickets of Arabia,

bring water for the thirsty;

you who live in Tema,

bring food for the fugitives.

15They flee from the sword,

from the drawn sword,

from the bent bow

and from the heat of battle.

This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. 17The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

A Prophecy About Jerusalem

A prophecy against the Valley of Vision:

What troubles you now,

that you have all gone up on the roofs,

you town so full of commotion,

you city of tumult and revelry?

Your slain were not killed by the sword,

nor did they die in battle.

3All your leaders have fled together;

they have been captured without using the bow.

All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,

having fled while the enemy was still far away.

4Therefore I said, “Turn away from me;

let me weep bitterly.

Do not try to console me

over the destruction of my people.”

5The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day

of tumult and trampling and terror

in the Valley of Vision,

a day of battering down walls

and of crying out to the mountains.

Elam takes up the quiver,

with her charioteers and horses;

Kir uncovers the shield.

7Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,

and horsemen are posted at the city gates.

The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah,

and you looked in that day

to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.

You saw that the walls of the City of David

were broken through in many places;

you stored up water

in the Lower Pool.

10You counted the buildings in Jerusalem

and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.

11You built a reservoir between the two walls

for the water of the Old Pool,

but you did not look to the One who made it,

or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.

The Lord, the LORD Almighty,

called you on that day

to weep and to wail,

to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.

13But see, there is joy and revelry,

slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,

eating of meat and drinking of wine!

“Let us eat and drink,” you say,

“for tomorrow we die!”

14The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says:

“Go, say to this steward,

to Shebna the palace administrator:

What are you doing here and who gave you permission

to cut out a grave for yourself here,

hewing your grave on the height

and chiseling your resting place in the rock?

17“Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you

and hurl you away, you mighty man.

He will roll you up tightly like a ball

and throw you into a large country.

There you will die

and there the chariots you were so proud of

will become a disgrace to your master’s house.

19I will depose you from your office,

and you will be ousted from your position.

“In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah.

I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat of honor for the house of his father. 24All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.

25“In that day,” declares the LORD Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The LORD has spoken.

A Prophecy Against Tyre

A prophecy against Tyre:

Wail, you ships of Tarshish!

For Tyre is destroyed

and left without house or harbor.

From the land of Cyprus

word has come to them.

2Be silent, you people of the island

and you merchants of Sidon,

whom the seafarers have enriched.

3On the great waters

came the grain of the Shihor;

the harvest of the Nile^, was the revenue of Tyre,

and she became the marketplace of the nations.

Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea,

for the sea has spoken:

“I have neither been in labor nor given birth;

I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

When word comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

Cross over to Tarshish;

wail, you people of the island.

7Is this your city of revelry,

the old, old city,

whose feet have taken her

to settle in far-off lands?

8Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns,

whose merchants are princes,

whose traders are renowned in the earth?

9The LORD Almighty planned it,

to bring down her pride in all her splendor

and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

10Till your land as they do along the Nile,

Daughter Tarshish,

for you no longer have a harbor.

11The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea

and made its kingdoms tremble.

He has given an order concerning Phoenicia

that her fortresses be destroyed.

He said, “No more of your reveling,

Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed!

“Up, cross over to Cyprus;

even there you will find no rest.”

Look at the land of the Babylonians,^,

this people that is now of no account!

The Assyrians have made it

a place for desert creatures;

they raised up their siege towers,

they stripped its fortresses bare

and turned it into a ruin.

14Wail, you ships of Tarshish;

your fortress is destroyed!

At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

“Take up a harp, walk through the city,

you forgotten prostitute;

play the harp well, sing many a song,

so that you will be remembered.”

17At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.

The LORD’s Devastation of the Earth

See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth

and devastate it;

he will ruin its face

and scatter its inhabitants—

2it will be the same

for priest as for people,

for the master as for his servant,

for the mistress as for her servant,

for seller as for buyer,

for borrower as for lender,

for debtor as for creditor.

3The earth will be completely laid waste

and totally plundered.

The LORD has spoken this word.

4The earth dries up and withers,

the world languishes and withers,

the heavens languish with the earth.

5The earth is defiled by its people;

they have disobeyed the laws,

violated the statutes

and broken the everlasting covenant.

6Therefore a curse consumes the earth;

its people must bear their guilt.

Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,

and very few are left.

7The new wine dries up and the vine withers;

all the merrymakers groan.

8The joyful timbrels are stilled,

the noise of the revelers has stopped,

the joyful harp is silent.

9No longer do they drink wine with a song;

the beer is bitter to its drinkers.

10The ruined city lies desolate;

the entrance to every house is barred.

11In the streets they cry out for wine;

all joy turns to gloom,

all joyful sounds are banished from the earth.

12The city is left in ruins,

its gate is battered to pieces.

13So will it be on the earth

and among the nations,

as when an olive tree is beaten,

or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.

14They raise their voices, they shout for joy;

from the west they acclaim the LORD’s majesty.

15Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD;

exalt the name of the LORD, the God of Israel,

in the islands of the sea.

16From the ends of the earth we hear singing:

“Glory to the Righteous One.”

But I said, “I waste away, I waste away!

Woe to me!

The treacherous betray!

With treachery the treacherous betray!”

17Terror and pit and snare await you,

people of the earth.

Whoever flees at the sound of terror

will fall into a pit;

whoever climbs out of the pit

will be caught in a snare.

The floodgates of the heavens are opened,

the foundations of the earth shake.

19The earth is broken up,

the earth is split asunder,

the earth is violently shaken.

20The earth reels like a drunkard,

it sways like a hut in the wind;

so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion

that it falls—never to rise again.

21In that day the LORD will punish

the powers in the heavens above

and the kings on the earth below.

They will be herded together

like prisoners bound in a dungeon;

they will be shut up in prison

and be punished after many days.

The moon will be dismayed,

the sun ashamed;

for the LORD Almighty will reign

on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

and before its elders—with great glory.

Praise to the LORD

1LORD, you are my God;

I will exalt you and praise your name,

for in perfect faithfulness

you have done wonderful things,

things planned long ago.

2You have made the city a heap of rubble,

the fortified town a ruin,

the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;

it will never be rebuilt.

3Therefore strong peoples will honor you;

cities of ruthless nations will revere you.

4You have been a refuge for the poor,

a refuge for the needy in their distress,

a shelter from the storm

and a shade from the heat.

For the breath of the ruthless

is like a storm driving against a wall

5and like the heat of the desert.

You silence the uproar of foreigners;

as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,

so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare

a feast of rich food for all peoples,

a banquet of aged wine—

the best of meats and the finest of wines.

On this mountain he will destroy

the shroud that enfolds all peoples,

the sheet that covers all nations;

8he will swallow up death forever.

The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears

from all faces;

he will remove his people’s disgrace

from all the earth.

The LORD has spoken.

9In that day they will say,

“Surely this is our God;

we trusted in him, and he saved us.

This is the LORD, we trusted in him;

let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

10The hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain;

but Moab will be trampled in their land

as straw is trampled down in the manure.

11They will stretch out their hands in it,

as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.

God will bring down their pride

despite the cleverness of their hands.

12He will bring down your high fortified walls

and lay them low;

he will bring them down to the ground,

to the very dust.

A Song of Praise

1In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;

God makes salvation

its walls and ramparts.

2Open the gates

that the righteous nation may enter,

the nation that keeps faith.

3You will keep in perfect peace

those whose minds are steadfast,

because they trust in you.

4Trust in the LORD forever,

for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.

5He humbles those who dwell on high,

he lays the lofty city low;

he levels it to the ground

and casts it down to the dust.

6Feet trample it down—

the feet of the oppressed,

the footsteps of the poor.

7The path of the righteous is level;

you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.

8Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,^,

we wait for you;

your name and renown

are the desire of our hearts.

9My soul yearns for you in the night;

in the morning my spirit longs for you.

When your judgments come upon the earth,

the people of the world learn righteousness.

10But when grace is shown to the wicked,

they do not learn righteousness;

even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil

and do not regard the majesty of the LORD.

11LORD, your hand is lifted high,

but they do not see it.

Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;

let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

12LORD, you establish peace for us;

all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

13LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,

but your name alone do we honor.

14They are now dead, they live no more;

their spirits do not rise.

You punished them and brought them to ruin;

you wiped out all memory of them.

15You have enlarged the nation, LORD;

you have enlarged the nation.

You have gained glory for yourself;

you have extended all the borders of the land.

16LORD, they came to you in their distress;

when you disciplined them,

they could barely whisper a prayer.

17As a pregnant woman about to give birth

writhes and cries out in her pain,

so were we in your presence, LORD.

18We were with child, we writhed in labor,

but we gave birth to wind.

We have not brought salvation to the earth,

and the people of the world have not come to life.

But your dead will live, LORD;

their bodies will rise—

let those who dwell in the dust

wake up and shout for joy—

your dew is like the dew of the morning;

the earth will give birth to her dead.

20Go, my people, enter your rooms

and shut the doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while

until his wrath has passed by.

21See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling

to punish the people of the earth for their sins.

The earth will disclose the blood shed on it;

the earth will conceal its slain no longer.

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