Sermon Central
Isaiah 1:18-19:18
View Full Chapter18“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.
21See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her— but now murderers!
22Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.
23Your 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;
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.
28But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.
29“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 1This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2In 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.
3Many 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.
4He 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 6You, 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.
7Their 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.
8Their 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.
10Go 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),
13for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan,
14for all the towering mountains and all the high hills,
15for every lofty tower and every fortified wall,
16for every trading ship
17The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,
18and the idols will totally disappear.
19People 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.
20In that day people will throw away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.
21They 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 1See 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,
2the hero and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder,
3the 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.
6A 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.
13The 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.
15What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
16The 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.
17Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the LORD will make their scalps bald.” 18In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, 19the earrings and bracelets and veils, 20the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, 21the 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.
24Instead 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. 26The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
1In 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.
3Those 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
The Song of the Vineyard 1I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
2He 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 8Woe 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.
10A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath
11Woe 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.
12They 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.
13Therefore 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.
14Therefore 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
18Woe 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.
22Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,
23who 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.
25Therefore 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.
26He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
27Not 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.
28Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hooves seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29Their 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 1In 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. 2Above 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.
3And 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.
5“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.
7With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8Then 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!”
9He said, “Go and tell this people: “ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.
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,
12until 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
7Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “ ‘It will not take place, it will not happen,
8for 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,
11“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.”
13Then 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?
14Therefore the Lord himself will give you
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.
20In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave your heads and private parts, and to cut off your beards 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,
Isaiah and His Children as Signs
1The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: 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:
6“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
7therefore 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
8and 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,
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.
14He 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.”
16Bind 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.
18Here 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 19When 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. 21Distressed 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. 22Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.
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2The 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.
4For 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.
5Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.
6For 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.
7Of 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,
10“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.”
11But the LORD has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them and has spurred their enemies on.
12Arameans 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.
14So 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.
17Therefore 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.
20On 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
1Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,
2to 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.
9‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus?
10As 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.
13For 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
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!
16Therefore, 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.
18The 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,
22Though 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.
24Therefore 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.”
26The 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.
27In 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.
28They 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.
30Cry 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 1A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2The 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 —
3and 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.
5Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
6The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling
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.
11In 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,
12He 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
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.
15The 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
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:
2Raise 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.
6Wail, 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.
10The 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.
11I 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.
12I will make people scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir.
13Therefore 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.
14Like 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.
17See, 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.
19Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians,
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.
21But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. 22Hyenas 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,
4you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury
5The 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.
7All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing.
8Even 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.”
9The 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.
12How 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!
13You 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.
14I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
15But 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.
19But 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.
25I 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.”
26This 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:
29Do 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 1A prophecy against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night!
2Dibon 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.
3In 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.
5My 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.
9The waters of Dimon
1Send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the desert, to the mount of Daughter Zion.
2Like 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
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 1A prophecy against Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.
2The 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.
5It 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.
8They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles
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. 14In 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
1Woe to the land of whirring wings
2which 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.”
5For, 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.
6They 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. 7At 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 1A 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.
3The 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.
4I 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.
5The 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.
9Those 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.
11The 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.
13The 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. 16In 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.
18In 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.