1 The oracle concerning fBabylon which gIsaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 On a bare hill hraise a signal;
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for ithem to enter
the gates of the nobles.
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,
my proudly exulting ones.1
4 The sound jof a tumult is on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
kThe Lord of hosts is mustering
a host for battle.
5 lThey come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole land.2
6 mWail, for nthe day of the Lord is near;
as destruction from the Almighty3 it will come!
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart owill melt.
8 They will be dismayed:
ppangs and agony will seize them;
qthey will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
9 Behold, nthe day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and rto destroy its sinners from it.
10 sFor the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
tthe sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
11 I will punish uthe world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will vput an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
wand lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12 I will make xpeople more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the ygold of Ophir.
13 Therefore zI will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with none to gather them,
aeach will turn to his own people,
and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 bTheir infants will be dashed in pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, cI am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.
18 dTheir bows will slaughter4 the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.
19 And Babylon, ethe glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be flike Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20 gIt will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
no hArab will pitch his tent there;
no ishepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But jwild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
and there wild goats will dance.
22 Hyenas6 will cry in its towers,
and ljackals in mthe pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand
and its days will not be prolonged.
1 nFor the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and owill set them in their own land, and psojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And qthe peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land ras male and female slaves.7 sThey will take captive those who were their captors, tand rule over those who oppressed them.
3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this utaunt against the king of Babylon:
“How the oppressor has ceased,
5 The Lord has broken the wstaff of the wicked,
the wscepter of rulers,
6 xthat struck the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
ythey break forth into singing.
8 zaThe cypresses rejoice at you,
bthe cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low,
no woodcutter comes up against us.’
9 Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
10 cAll of them will answer
and say to you:
‘You too have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!’
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
the sound of your harps;
maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,
and worms are your covers.
12 “How dyou are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, eson of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart,
f‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
gI will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;9
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 hBut you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
‘Is this ithe man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
jwho did not let his prisoners go home?’
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb;10
19 but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like a loathed branch,
kclothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit,
like a dead body trampled underfoot.
20 You will not be joined with them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land,
you have slain your people.
“May lthe offspring of evildoers
nevermore be named!
21 Prepare slaughter for his sons
mbecause of the guilt of their fathers,
lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with cities.”
22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and nremnant, odescendants and posterity,” declares the Lord. 23 “And I will make it a possession of the phedgehog,11 and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn:
q“As I have planned,
so shall it be,
and as I have purposed,
so shall it stand,
25 that rI will break the Assyrian in my land,
and on my mountains trample him underfoot;
and shis yoke shall depart from them,
and shis burden from their shoulder.”
26 This is the purpose that is purposed
concerning the whole earth,
and this is tthe hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.
27 uFor the Lord of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
tHis hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?
28 In the year that vKing Ahaz died came this woracle:
29 Rejoice not, xO Philistia, all of you,
that ythe rod that struck you is broken,
for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder,
and its fruit will be a zflying fiery serpent.
30 And the firstborn of athe poor will graze,
and athe needy lie down in safety;
but I will kill your root with famine,
and your remnant it will slay.
31 bWail, O cgate; cry out, O city;
melt in fear, xO Philistia, all of you!
dFor smoke comes out of the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
e“The Lord has founded Zion,
and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”
1 An woracle concerning fMoab.
Because gAr of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone;
because hKir of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone.
2 He has gone up to the temple,12 and to iDibon,
to the high places13 to weep;
Moab kwails.
On every head is lbaldness;
every beard is shorn;
3 in the streets they wear sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
everyone wails and melts in tears.
4 mHeshbon and mElealeh cry out;
their voice is heard as far as nJahaz;
therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
his soul trembles.
5 My heart cries out for Moab;
her fugitives flee to Zoar,
to nEglath-shelishiyah.
For at the oascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;
on the road to oHoronaim
they raise a cry of destruction;
6 the waters of pNimrim
are a desolation;
the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,
the greenery is no more.
7 qTherefore the abundance they have gained
and what they have laid up
they carry away
over the Brook of the Willows.
8 For a cry has gone
around the land of Moab;
her wailing reaches to Eglaim;
her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
9 For the waters of rDibon14 are full of blood;
for I will bring upon Dibon even more,
sa lion for those of Moab who escape,
for the remnant of the land.
1 tSend the lamb to the ruler of the land,
from uSela, by way of the desert,
to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 Like fleeing birds,
like a scattered nest,
so are the daughters of Moab
at vthe fords of the Arnon.
3 “Give counsel;
grant justice;
wmake your shade like night
at the height of noon;
shelter the outcasts;
do not reveal the fugitive;
4 let xthe outcasts of Moab
sojourn among you;
be a shelter to them15
from the destroyer.
When the oppressor is no more,
and destruction has ceased,
and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,
5 ythen a throne will be established in steadfast love,
and on it will sit in faithfulness
in the tent of David
one who judges and seeks justice
and is swift to do righteousness.”
6 zWe have heard of the pride of Moab—
how proud he is!—
aof his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;
in his idle boasting he is not right.
7 Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,
blet everyone wail.
Mourn, utterly stricken,
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and ethe vine of Sibmah;
the lords of the nations
have struck down its branches,
which reached to Jazer
and strayed to the desert;
its shoots spread abroad
and passed over the sea.
9 Therefore fI weep with ethe weeping of Jazer
for the vine of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh;
for over gyour summer fruit and your harvest
the shout has ceased.
10 hAnd joy and gladness are taken away from ithe fruitful field,
and in the vineyards no jsongs are sung,
no cheers are raised;
no ktreader treads out wine lin the presses;
I have put an end to the shouting.
11 Therefore mmy inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab,
and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.
12 And when Moab presents himself, when nhe wearies himself on othe high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.
13 This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab pin the past. 14 But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “In three years, qlike the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be rvery few and feeble.”
1 An soracle concerning tDamascus.
Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of uAroer are deserted;
they will be for flocks,
which will lie down, and vnone will make them afraid.
3 The fortress will disappear from wEphraim,
and the kingdom from wDamascus;
and the remnant of Syria will be
like xthe glory of the children of Israel,
declares the Lord of hosts.
4 And in that day xthe glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and ythe fat of his flesh will grow lean.
5 And it shall be zas when the reaper gathers standing grain
and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in athe Valley of Rephaim.
6 bGleanings will be left in it,
as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
on the branches of a fruit tree,
declares the Lord God of Israel.
7 cIn that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. 8 dHe will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the eAsherim or the altars of incense.
9 fIn that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.
10 For gyou have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not remembered the hRock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
11 though you make them grow16 on the day that you plant them,
and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away17
in a day of grief and incurable pain.
12 Ah, ithe thunder of many peoples;
they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
Ah, the roar of nations;
they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
13 jThe nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
kbut he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased llike chaff on the mountains before the wind
and mwhirling dust before the storm.
14 nAt evening time, behold, terror!
Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
and the lot of those who plunder us.
1 Ah, land of owhirring wings
that is beyond the rivers of pCush,18
2 which qsends ambassadors by the sea,
in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation rtall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
a nation smighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide.
3 All you inhabitants of the world,
you who dwell on the earth,
when ta signal is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet is blown, hear!
4 For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look ufrom my dwelling
like clear heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 vFor before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,
and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.
6 vThey shall all of them be left
to the birds of prey of the mountains
and to the beasts of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.
7 wAt that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of hosts
from a people xtall and smooth,
from a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide,
to yMount Zion, the place of the zname of the Lord of hosts.
1 An aoracle concerning bEgypt.
Behold, the Lord cis riding on a swift cloud
and comes to Egypt;
and dthe idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
and the heart of the Egyptians will emelt within them.
2 And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
fand they will fight, each against another
and each against his neighbor,
city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
3 and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
and I will confound19 their gcounsel;
and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,
and hthe mediums and the necromancers;
4 and I will give over the Egyptians
into the hand of ia hard master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,
declares the Lord God of hosts.
5 And the waters of the sea will be dried up,
and the river will be dry and parched,
6 and its canals will become foul,
and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up,
reeds and rushes will rot away.
7 There will be bare places by the Nile,
on the brink of the Nile,
and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,
will be driven away, and will be no more.
8 The jfishermen will mourn and lament,
all who cast a hook in the Nile;
and they will languish
who spread nets on the water.
9 The workers in kcombed flax will be in despair,
and the weavers of white cotton.
10 Those who are the lpillars of the land will be crushed,
and all who mwork for pay will be grieved.
11 The princes of nZoan are utterly foolish;
the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise,
a son of ancient kings”?
12 Where then are your owise men?
Let them tell you
that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of nZoan have become fools,
and the princes of pMemphis are deluded;
those who are the qcornerstones of her tribes
have made Egypt stagger.
14 The Lord has mingled within her ra spirit of confusion,
and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,
sas a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 And there will be nothing for Egypt
that thead or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.
16 In that day the Egyptians will be ulike women, and vtremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of hosts has purposed against them.
18 wIn that day there will be xfive cities in the land of Egypt that yspeak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.20
19 In that day there will be an zaltar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a apillar to the Lord at its border. 20 aIt will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, bhe will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 cAnd the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day dand worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. 22 eAnd the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.
23 fIn that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, gand the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, ha blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt imy people, and Assyria jthe work of my hands, and kIsrael my inheritance.”
1 In the year that lthe commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to mAshdod and fought against it and captured it— 2 at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking nnaked and barefoot.
3 Then the Lord said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years oas a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,21 4 so shall the pking of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 qThen they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of rthis coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and sto whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’”
1 The toracle concerning the wilderness of uthe sea.
vAs whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
it comes from the wilderness,
from a terrible land.
2 A stern vision is told to me;
wthe traitor betrays,
and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O xElam;
lay siege, O yMedia;
all the zsighing she has caused
I bring to an end.
3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
apangs have seized me,
like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
4 My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;
bthe twilight I longed for
has been turned for me into trembling.
5 cThey prepare the table,
they spread the rugs,22
they eat, they drink.
Arise, O princes;
doil the shield!
6 For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman;
let him announce what he sees.
7 When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him listen diligently,
very diligently.”
8 Then he who saw cried out:23
e“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
whole nights.
9 And behold, here come riders,
horsemen in pairs!”
fAnd he answered,
g“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
hand all the carved images of her gods
he has shattered to the ground.”
10 O imy threshed and winnowed one,
what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, I announce to you.
11 The joracle concerning kDumah.
One is calling to me from lSeir,
“Watchman, what time of the night?
Watchman, what time of the night?”
12 The watchman says:
“Morning comes, and also mthe night.
If you will inquire, ninquire;
come back again.”
13 The ooracle concerning pArabia.
In the thickets in pArabia you will lodge,
14 To the thirsty bring water;
meet the fugitive with bread,
O inhabitants of the land of rTema.
15 For they have fled from the swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow,
and from the press of battle.
16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, saccording to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of tKedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of tKedar will be few, ufor the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.”
1 The voracle concerning wthe valley of vision.
What do you mean that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,
2 you who are full of shoutings,
tumultuous city, xexultant town?
Your slain are ynot slain with the sword
or dead in battle.
3 zAll your leaders have fled together;
without the bow they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured,
though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
alet me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 bFor the Lord God of hosts has ca day
of tumult and dtrampling and econfusion
in wthe valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
and a shouting to the mountains.
6 And fElam bore the quiver
with chariots and horsemen,
and gKir uncovered the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
8 He has taken away hthe covering of Judah.
In that day you looked to ithe weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that jthe breaches of the city of David were many. kYou collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 kYou made a reservoir between lthe two walls for the water of mthe old pool. But nyou did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.
12 In that day othe Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for pbaldness and qwearing sackcloth;
13 and behold, joy and gladness,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine.
r“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
14 The Lord of hosts shas revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely tthis iniquity will not be atoned for you uuntil you die,”
says the Lord God of hosts.
15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to vShebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, wthat you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you xwho cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. yHe will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be zyour glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house. 19 aI will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant bEliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and bI will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be ca father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place don his shoulder ethe key of the house of David. fHe shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him glike a peg in a secure place, and he will become ha throne of honor to his father’s house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, gthe peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”
1 The ioracle concerning jTyre.
Wail, O kships of Tarshish,
for Tyre is laid waste, lwithout house or harbor!
it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;
the merchants of nSidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.
3 And on many waters
your revenue was the grain of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile;
you were othe merchant of the nations.
4 Be ashamed, O nSidon, for the sea has spoken,
the stronghold of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth,
I have neither reared young men
nor brought up young women.”
5 When the report comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish25 over the report about Tyre.
6 pCross over to Tarshish;
wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
7 Is this your exultant city
qwhose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
to settle far away?
8 Who has purposed this
against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?
9 The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
rto defile the pompous pride of all glory,26
to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
10 Cross over your land like the Nile,
O daughter of Tarshish;
there is no restraint anymore.
11 sHe has stretched out his hand over the sea;
he has shaken the kingdoms;
the Lord has given command concerning Canaan
to destroy its strongholds.
12 And he said:
“You will no more exult,
O oppressed virgin daughter of tSidon;
arise, ucross over to vCyprus,
even there you will have no rest.”
13 Behold the land of wthe Chaldeans! This is the people that was not;27 Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected xtheir siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.
14 yWail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your stronghold is laid waste.
15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for zseventy years, like the days28 of one king. At the end of zseventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:
16 “Take a harp;
go about the city,
O forgotten prostitute!
Make sweet melody;
sing many songs,
that you may be remembered.”
17 At the end of aseventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and bwill prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18 Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.
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