Sermon Central
Isaiah 1-33
1The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
3The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”
4Woe 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.
6From 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.
7Your 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.
8Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.
9Unless 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!
12When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
13Stop 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.
15When 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!
16Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.
18“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!
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.”
28But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.
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:
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.
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),
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.
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?
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.
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!”
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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. 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.
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.”
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!”
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
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.
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:
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,
11This is what the LORD says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:
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.
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. 22Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?’ ”
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.
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.
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!
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 —
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. 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.
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.”
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.
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.
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,
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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
A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush 1In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it—
2at 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. 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 1A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.
4My heart falters, fear makes me tremble; the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me.
6This is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.
7When he sees chariots with teams of horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him be alert, fully alert.”
10My 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
11A prophecy against Dumah
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 13A prophecy against Arabia: You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia,
14bring 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. 16This 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.
2you 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.”
6Elam 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.
8The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.
9You 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.
12The 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.
15This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “Go, say to this steward, to Shebna the palace administrator:
16What 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?
18He 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.
21I 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.
22I 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.
23I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat
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.
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
4Be 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.”
5When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.
6Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island.
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
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.
13Look at the land of the Babylonians,
14Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!
15At 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:
16“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.”
The LORD’s Devastation of the Earth 1See, 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.
8The joyful timbrels are stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent.
10The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred.
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.
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.
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.
22They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished
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.
7On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Deliverance of Israel 1In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword— his fierce, great and powerful sword— Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.
2In that day— “Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.
5Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.”
6In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
7Has the LORD struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?
8By warfare
9By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like limestone crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles
10The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.
11When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor. 13And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah 1Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley— to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!
3That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, will be trampled underfoot.
4That fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like figs ripe before harvest— as soon as people see them and take them in hand, they swallow them.
5In that day the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.
6He will be a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions.
8All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth.
9“Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast?
10For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that
11Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people,
13So then, the word of the LORD to them will become: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there— so that as they go they will fall backward; they will be injured and snared and captured.
14Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood
16So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.
17I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.
18Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it.
19As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through.” The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.
20The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.
22Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land.
24When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?
25When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place,
26His God instructs him and teaches him the right way.
27Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a stick.
28Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever. The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it, but one does not use horses to grind grain. 29All this also comes from the LORD Almighty, whose plan is wonderful, whose wisdom is magnificent.
Woe to David’s City 1Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.
2Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.
3I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.
5But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,
6the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
8as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.
9Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer.
10The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers). 11For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”
12Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
13The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
14Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
15Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?”
17In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest?
18In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
19Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD ; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
22Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale.
2who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge.
3But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.
4Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,
6A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to that unprofitable nation,
9For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD ’s instruction.
10They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.
12Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit,
14It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.”
15This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
16You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift! 19People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 24The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. 25In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill.
26The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.
28His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray.
30The LORD will cause people to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.
31The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria; with his rod he will strike them down.
32Every stroke the LORD lays on them with his punishing club will be to the music of timbrels and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm. 33Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.
Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt 1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD .
2Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words. He will rise up against that wicked nation, against those who help evildoers.
3But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, those who help will stumble, those who are helped will fall; all will perish together.
4This is what the LORD says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey— and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor— so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.
5Like birds hovering overhead, the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.” 6Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against.
7For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.
8“Assyria will fall by no human sword; a sword, not of mortals, will devour them. They will flee before the sword and their young men will be put to forced labor. 9Their stronghold will fall because of terror; at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
The Kingdom of Righteousness 1See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.
2Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.
4The fearful heart will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.
5No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected.
6For fools speak folly, their hearts are bent on evil: They practice ungodliness and spread error concerning the LORD ; the hungry they leave empty and from the thirsty they withhold water.
7Scoundrels use wicked methods, they make up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.
8But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.
The Women of Jerusalem 9You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say!
10In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come.
11Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure! Strip off your fine clothes and wrap yourselves in rags.
12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines
13and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers— yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.
14The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
15till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.
16The LORD ’s justice will dwell in the desert, his righteousness live in the fertile field.
17The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
2LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.
3At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee; when you rise up, the nations scatter.
4Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts; like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it.
7Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
9The land dries up and wastes away, Lebanon is ashamed and withers; Sharon is like the Arabah, and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.
10“Now will I arise,” says the LORD . “Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up.
12The peoples will be burned to ashes; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.”
13You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power!
14The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”
15Those who walk righteously and speak what is right, who reject gain from extortion and keep their hands from accepting bribes, who stop their ears against plots of murder and shut their eyes against contemplating evil—
16they are the ones who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. Their bread will be supplied, and water will not fail them.
18In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror: “Where is that chief officer? Where is the one who took the revenue? Where is the officer in charge of the towers?”
20Look on Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.
21There the LORD will be our Mighty One. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams. No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship will sail them.
22For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us.
23Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder. 24No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.