Isaiah 13-38
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Proclamation against Babylon
13 The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.(A)
2 On a bare hill raise a signal;
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.(B)
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,
to execute my anger.[a](C)
4 Listen, a tumult on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
an army for battle.(D)
5 They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole earth.(E)
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart will melt,(G)
8 and they will be terrified.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.(H)
9 See, the day of the Lord is coming,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.(I)
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.(J)
11 I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
and lay low the insolence of tyrants.(K)
12 I will make mortals more rare than fine gold
and humans than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.(L)
14 Like a gazelle on the run
or like sheep with no one to gather them,
all will turn back to their own people,
and all will flee to their own lands.(M)
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives raped.(N)
17 See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.(O)
18 Their bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.(P)
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.(Q)
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
Arabs will not pitch their tents there;
shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.(R)
21 But wild animals will lie down there,
and its houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will live,
and there goat-demons will dance.(S)
22 Hyenas will cry in its towers
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand;
and its days will not be prolonged.(T)
Restoration of Judah
14 But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel and will settle them in their own land, and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.(U) 2 And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess the nations[c] as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors and rule over those who oppressed them.(V)
Downfall of the King of Babylon
3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve,(W) 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has ceased!
How his insolence[d] has ceased!(X)
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
6 that struck down the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.(Y)
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 The cypresses exult over you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you were laid low,
no one comes to cut us down.”(Z)
9 Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.(AA)
10 All of them will speak
and say to you:
“You, too, have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!”
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
and the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
and worms are your covering.(AB)
12 How you are fallen from heaven,
O Morning Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!(AC)
13 You said to yourself,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
on the heights of Zaphon;[e](AD)
14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”(AE)
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit.(AF)
16 Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,(AG)
17 who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who would not let his prisoners go home?”(AH)
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb,
19 but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like loathsome carrion,[f]
clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the Pit
like a corpse trampled underfoot.(AI)
20 You will not be joined with them in burial
because you have destroyed your land;
you have killed your people.
May the descendants of evildoers
nevermore be named!(AJ)
21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons
because of the guilt of their father.[g]
Let them never rise to possess the earth
or cover the face of the world with cities.(AK)
22 I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says the Lord.(AL) 23 And I will make it a possession of the screech owl[h] and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts.(AM)
An Oracle concerning Assyria
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have designed,
so shall it be,
and as I have planned,
so shall it come to pass:(AN)
25 I will break the Assyrian in my land
and on my mountains trample him under foot;
his yoke shall be removed from them
and his burden from their shoulders.(AO)
26 This is the plan that is planned
concerning the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.(AP)
27 For the Lord of hosts has planned,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?(AQ)
An Oracle concerning Philistia
28 In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:(AR)
29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
that the rod that struck you is broken,
for from the root of the snake will come forth an adder,
and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.(AS)
30 In my pastures the poor[i] will graze
and the needy lie down in safety,
but I will make your root die of famine,
and your remnant I[j] will kill.(AT)
31 Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes out of the north,
and there is no straggler in its ranks.(AU)
32 What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
“The Lord has founded Zion,
and the needy among his people
will find refuge in her.”(AV)
An Oracle concerning Moab
15 An oracle concerning Moab.
Because Ar is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone;
because Kir is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone.(AW)
2 Daughter Dibon[k] has gone up
to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab wails.
Every head is shaved;
every beard is shorn;(AX)
3 in the streets they bind on sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
everyone wails and melts in tears.(AY)
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voices are heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the loins of Moab quiver;[l]
his soul trembles.
5 My heart cries out for Moab;
his fugitives flee to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
they raise a cry of destruction;(AZ)
6 the waters of Nimrim
are a desolation;
the grass is withered; the new growth fails;
vegetation is no more.(BA)
7 Therefore the abundance they have gained
and what they have laid up
they carry away
over the Wadi of the Willows.(BB)
8 For a cry has gone
around the land of Moab;
the wailing reaches to Eglaim;
the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
9 For the waters of Dibon[m] are full of blood,
yet I will bring upon Dibon[n] even more—
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
for the remnant of the land.(BC)
16 Send lambs
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, by way of the desert,
to the mount of daughter Zion.(BD)
2 Like fluttering birds,
like scattered nestlings,
so are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.(BE)
3 “Give counsel;
grant justice;
make your shade like night
at the height of noon;
hide the outcasts;
do not betray the fugitive;(BF)
4 let the outcasts of Moab
settle among you;
be a refuge to them
from the destroyer.”
When the oppressor is no more,
and destruction has ceased,
and marauders have vanished from the land,(BG)
5 then a throne shall be established in steadfast love
in the tent of David,
and on it shall sit in faithfulness
a ruler who seeks justice
and is swift to do what is right.(BH)
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab
—how proud he is!—
of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;
his boasts are false.(BI)
7 Therefore let Moab wail;
let everyone wail for Moab.
Mourn, utterly stricken,
for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.(BJ)
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and the vines of Sibmah,
whose clusters once made drunk
the lords of the nations,
reached to Jazer
and strayed to the desert;
their shoots once spread abroad
and crossed over the sea.(BK)
9 Therefore I weep as Jazer weeps
for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh,
for the shout over your fruit harvest
and your grain harvest has ceased.(BL)
10 Joy and gladness are taken away
from the fruitful field,
and in the vineyards no exultation is heard;
no shouts are raised;
no treader treads out wine in the presses;
the vintage shout is hushed.[o](BM)
11 Therefore my heart moans like a harp for Moab
and my very soul for Kir-heres.(BN)
12 When Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.(BO)
13 This was the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past. 14 But now the Lord says, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all its great multitude, and those who survive will be very few and feeble.”(BP)
An Oracle concerning Damascus
17 An oracle concerning Damascus.
See, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins.(BQ)
2 Her towns will be deserted forever;[p]
they will be places for flocks,
which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid.(BR)
3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim
and the kingdom from Damascus,
and the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of the people of Israel,
says the Lord of hosts.(BS)
4 On that day
the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.(BT)
5 And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain
and their arms harvest the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.(BU)
6 Gleanings will be left in it,
as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
on the branches of a fruit tree,
says the Lord God of Israel.(BV)
7 On that day people will look to their Maker, with their eyes on the Holy One of Israel;(BW) 8 they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles[q] or the altars of incense.(BX)
9 On that day their fortified cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites,[r] which they deserted because of the people of Israel, and there will be desolation.(BY)
10 For you have forgotten God your Savior
and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant gardens
and set out branches of a foreign god,(BZ)
11 though you make them grow on the day that you plant them
and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away
in a day of sickness and incurable pain.(CA)
12 Woe, the thunder of many peoples,
they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
The roar of nations,
they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!(CB)
13 [[When the nations roar like the roaring of many waters,]][s]
he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
and like whirling dust before the storm.(CC)
14 At evening time, sudden terror!
Before morning, they are no more.
This is the fate of those who despoil us
and the lot of those who plunder us.(CD)
An Oracle concerning Cush
18 Woe, land of buzzing[t] wings
beyond the rivers of Cush,(CE)
2 sending ambassadors by the Nile
in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty[u] and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide.(CF)
3 All you inhabitants of the world,
you who live on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet is blown, listen!(CG)
4 For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
like clear heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”(CH)
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks,
and the spreading branches he will hew away.(CI)
6 They shall all be left
to the birds of prey of the mountains
and to the animals of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.(CJ)
7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of hosts from[v] a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.(CK)
An Oracle concerning Egypt
19 An oracle concerning Egypt.
See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
and comes to Egypt;
the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.(CL)
2 I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
and they will fight, one against the other,
neighbor against neighbor,
city against city, kingdom against kingdom;(CM)
3 the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
and I will confound their plans;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead
and the ghosts and the familiar spirits;(CN)
4 I will deliver the Egyptians
into the hand of a hard master;
a fierce king will rule over them,
says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts.(CO)
5 The waters of the Nile will be dried up,
and the river will be parched and dry;(CP)
6 its canals will become foul,
and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up.
Reeds and rushes will rot away,(CQ)
7 the reeds beside the Nile;[w]
all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
be driven away, and be no more.
8 Those who fish will mourn;
all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament,
and those who spread nets on the water will languish.
9 The workers in flax will be in despair,
and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale.
10 Its weavers will be dismayed,
and all who work for wages will be grieved.(CR)
11 Clearly the princes of Zoan are foolish;
the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the sages,
a descendant of ancient kings”?(CS)
12 Where now are your sages?
Let them tell you and make known
what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.(CT)
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,
and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of its tribes
have led Egypt astray.(CU)
14 The Lord has poured into them[x]
a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings
as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.(CV)
15 Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed,
will be able to do anything for Egypt.
16 On that day the Egyptians will be like women and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts raises against them.(CW) 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror[y] to the Egyptians; everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the plan that the Lord of hosts is planning against them.(CX)
Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed
18 On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.[z](CY)
19 On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord at its border.(CZ) 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and will defend and deliver them.(DA) 21 The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day and will serve with sacrifice and offerings, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.(DB) 22 The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing, so that they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their supplications and heal them.(DC)
23 On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.(DD)
24 On that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel my heritage.”(DE)
Isaiah Dramatizes the Conquest of Egypt and Cush
20 In the year that the commander-in-chief, who was sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and took it(DF)— 2 at that time the Lord had spoken to Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet,” and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot.(DG) 3 Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,(DH) 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as captives and the Cushites as exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.(DI) 5 And they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast.(DJ) 6 On that day the inhabitants of this coastland will say, ‘See, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’ ”(DK)
Oracles concerning Babylon, Edom, and Arabia
21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.
As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
it comes from the desert,
from a terrible land.(DL)
2 A stern vision is told to me;
the betrayer betrays,
and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam;
lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
I bring to an end.(DM)
3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me
like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.(DN)
4 My mind reels; horror has appalled me;
the twilight I longed for
has been turned for me into trembling.(DO)
5 They prepare the table;
they spread the rugs;
they eat; they drink.
Rise up, commanders;
oil the shield!(DP)
6 For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, post a lookout;
let him announce what he sees.
7 When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him watch closely,
very closely.”(DQ)
8 Then the watcher[aa] called out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
throughout the night.(DR)
9 Look, there they come, riders,
horsemen in pairs!”
Then he responded,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon,
and all the images of her gods
lie shattered on the ground.”(DS)
10 O my threshed and winnowed one,
what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, I announce to you.(DT)
11 The oracle concerning Dumah.
One is calling to me from Seir,
“Sentinel, what of the night?
Sentinel, what of the night?”(DU)
12 The sentinel says:
“Morning comes and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
come back again.”
13 The oracle concerning the desert plain.
In the scrub of the desert plain you will lodge,
O caravans of Dedanites.(DV)
14 Bring water to the thirsty,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema;
meet the fugitive with bread.(DW)
15 For they have fled from the swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow,
and from the stress of battle.(DX)
16 For thus the Lord said to me: “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end,(DY) 17 and the remaining bows of Kedar’s warriors will be few, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.”(DZ)
A Warning of Destruction of Jerusalem
22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.
What has happened that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,(EA)
2 city full of shouting,
tumultuous city, panic-stricken town?
Your slain are not slain by the sword,
nor are they dead in battle.(EB)
3 Your rulers have all fled together;
they were captured without the use of a bow.[ab]
All of your people who were found were captured,
though they had fled far away.[ac](EC)
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
let me weep bitter tears;
do not try to comfort me
for the destruction of my beloved people.”(ED)
5 For the Lord God of hosts has a day
of tumult and trampling and confusion
in the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
and a cry for help to the mountains.(EE)
6 Elam bore the quiver
with chariots and cavalry,[ad]
and Kir uncovered the shield.(EF)
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the cavalry took their stand at the gates.(EG)
8 He has taken away the covering of Judah.
On that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,(EH) 9 and you saw that there were many breaches in the city of David, and you collected the waters of the lower pool.(EI) 10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it or have regard for him who planned it long ago.(EJ)
12 On that day the Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and putting on sackcloth,(EK)
13 but instead there was joy and festivity,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating meat and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”(EL)
14 The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,”
says the Lord God of hosts.(EM)
Denunciation of Self-Seeking Officials
15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Go to the steward Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him:(EN) 16 What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb[ae] on the height and carving a habitation for yourself[af] in the rock?(EO) 17 The Lord is about to hurl you away violently, my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you, 18 whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there your splendid chariots shall lie, O you disgrace to your master’s house!(EP) 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.
20 “On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah(EQ) 21 and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.(ER) 23 I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house.(ES) 24 And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the Lord has spoken.”(ET)
An Oracle concerning Tyre
23 The oracle concerning Tyre.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your fortress is destroyed.[ag]
When they came in from Cyprus
they learned of it.(EU)
2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast,
O merchants of Sidon;
your messengers crossed over the sea[ah](EV)
3 and were on the mighty waters;
your revenue[ai] was the grain of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile;
you were the merchant of the nations.(EW)
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
the fortress of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth;
I have neither reared young men
nor brought up young women.”(EX)
5 When the report comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish—
wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
7 Is this your exultant city
whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
to settle far away?(EY)
8 Who has planned this
against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?
9 The Lord of hosts has planned it—
to defile the pride of all glory,
to shame all the honored of the earth.(EZ)
10 Cross over to your own land,
O ships of[aj] Tarshish;
this is a harbor[ak] no more.
11 He has stretched out his hand over the sea;
he has shaken the kingdoms;
the Lord has given command concerning Canaan,
to destroy its fortresses.(FA)
12 He said:
“You will exult no longer,
O oppressed virgin daughter Sidon;
rise, cross over to Cyprus—
even there you will have no rest.”(FB)
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined it for wild animals.[al] They erected their siege towers; they tore down her palaces; they made her a ruin.(FC)
14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your fortress is destroyed.(FD)
15 From that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song about the prostitute:(FE)
16 Take a harp;
go about the city,
you forgotten prostitute!
Make sweet melody;
sing many songs,
that you may be remembered.
17 At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her trade and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.(FF) 18 Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated to the Lord; her profits[am] will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in the presence of the Lord.(FG)
Impending Judgment on the Earth
24 Now the Lord is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate,
and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.(FH)
2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the male slave, so with his master;
as with the female slave, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with the creditor, so with the debtor.(FI)
3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled,
for the Lord has spoken this word.(FJ)
4 The earth dries up and withers;
the world languishes and withers;
the heavens languish together with the earth.
5 The earth lies polluted
under its inhabitants,
for they have transgressed laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.(FK)
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled,
and few people are left.(FL)
7 The wine dries up;
the vine languishes;
all the merry-hearted sigh.(FM)
8 The mirth of the timbrels is stilled;
the noise of the jubilant has ceased;
the mirth of the lyre is stilled.(FN)
9 No longer do they drink wine with singing;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of chaos is broken down;
every house is shut up so that no one can enter.(FO)
11 There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
all joy has reached its eventide;
the gladness of the earth is banished.(FP)
12 Desolation is left in the city;
the gates are battered into ruins.
13 For thus it shall be on the earth
and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is ended.(FQ)
14 They lift up their voices; they sing for joy;
they shout from the west over the majesty of the Lord.(FR)
15 Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord;
in the coastlands of the sea glorify the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.(FS)
16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
of glory to the Righteous One.
But I say, “I pine away;
I pine away. Woe is me!
For the treacherous deal treacherously;
the treacherous deal very treacherously.”(FT)
17 Terror, the pit, and the snare
are upon you, O inhabitants of the earth!(FU)
18 Whoever flees at the sound of the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and whoever climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven are opened,
and the foundations of the earth tremble.(FV)
19 The earth is utterly broken;
the earth is torn apart;
the earth is violently shaken.(FW)
20 The earth staggers like a drunkard;
it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
and it falls and will not rise again.(FX)
21 On that day the Lord will punish
the host of heaven in heaven
and on earth the kings of the earth.(FY)
22 They will be gathered together
like prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days they will be punished.(FZ)
23 Then the moon will be abashed
and the sun ashamed,
for the Lord of hosts will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and before his elders he will be glorified.(GA)
Praise for Deliverance from Oppression
25 O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.(GB)
2 For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the palace of foreigners is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.(GC)
3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
4 For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,(GD)
5 the noise of foreigners like heat in a dry place,
you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;
the song of the ruthless was stilled.(GE)
6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.(GF)
7 And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the covering that is spread over all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.(GG)
9 It will be said on that day,
“See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”(GH)
10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.
The Moabites shall be trodden down in their place
as straw is trodden down in the manure.(GI)
11 Though they spread out their hands in the midst of it,
as swimmers spread out their hands to swim,
their pride will be laid low despite the struggle[an] of their hands.
12 The high fortifications of his walls will be brought down,
laid low, cast to the ground, even to the dust.
Judah’s Song of Victory
26 On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
he sets up walls and bulwarks as a safeguard.(GJ)
2 Open the gates,
so that the righteous nation that maintains faithfulness
may enter in.(GK)
3 Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace,
in peace because they trust in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord God[ao]
you have an everlasting rock.(GL)
5 For he has brought low
the inhabitants of the height;
the lofty city he lays low.
He lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.(GM)
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.(GN)
7 The way of the righteous is level;
straight is the path of the righteous that you clear.(GO)
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we have placed hope;
your name and your renown
are the soul’s desire.(GP)
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.(GQ)
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
they corrupt what is upright on the earth
and do not see the majesty of the Lord.(GR)
11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed.
Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.(GS)
12 O Lord, may you ordain peace for us,
for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.(GT)
13 O Lord our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but we acknowledge your name alone.(GU)
14 The dead do not live;
shades do not rise
because you have punished and destroyed them
and wiped out all memory of them.(GV)
15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord;
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
you have enlarged all the borders of the land.(GW)
16 O Lord, in distress they sought you;
they poured out a prayer[ap]
when your chastening was on them.(GX)
17 Like a woman with child
about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we because of you, O Lord;(GY)
18 we were with child; we writhed,
but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
and no one is born to inhabit the world.(GZ)
19 Your dead shall live; their corpses[aq] shall rise.
Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy![ar]
For your dew is a radiant dew,
and the earth will give birth to those long dead.[as](HA)
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath is past.(HB)
21 For the Lord comes out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth will disclose the blood shed on it
and will no longer cover its slain.(HC)
Israel’s Redemption
27 On that day the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.(HD)
2 On that day:
A pleasant vineyard—sing about it!(HE)
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
I guard it night and day
so that no one can harm it;(HF)
4 I have no wrath.
If it gives me thorns and briers,
I will march to battle against it.
I will burn it up.(HG)
5 Or else let it cling to me for protection;
let it make peace with me;
let it make peace with me.(HH)
6 In days to come[at] Jacob shall take root;
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
and fill the whole world with fruit.(HI)
7 Has he struck them down as he struck down those who struck them?
Or have they been killed as their killers[au] were killed?(HJ)
8 By expulsion,[av] by exile you struggled against them;
with his fierce blast he removed them in the day of the east wind.(HK)
9 Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces;
no sacred poles[aw] or incense altars will remain standing.(HL)
10 For the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
the calves graze there;
there they lie down and strip its branches.(HM)
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
For this is a people without understanding;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
he who formed them will show them no favor.(HN)
12 On that day the Lord will thresh from the channel of the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel.(HO) 13 And on that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.(HP)
Judgment on Corrupt Rulers, Priests, and Prophets
28 Woe to the proud garland of the drunkards of Ephraim
and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
at the head of the fertile valley,
those overcome with wine!(HQ)
2 See, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong,
like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,
like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters;
with force he will hurl them down to the earth.(HR)
3 Trampled under foot will be
the proud garland of the drunkards of Ephraim.(HS)
4 And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
at the head of the fertile valley,
will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer;
whoever sees it eats it up
as soon as it comes to hand.(HT)
5 On that day the Lord of hosts will be a garland of glory
and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people(HU)
6 and a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment
and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.(HV)
7 These also reel with wine
and stagger with strong drink;
the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink;
they are confused with wine;
they stagger with strong drink;
they err in vision;
they stumble in giving judgment.(HW)
8 All tables are covered with filthy vomit;
no place is clean.(HX)
9 “Whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from milk,
those taken from the breast?(HY)
10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.”[ax](HZ)
11 Truly, with stammering lip
and with another tongue
he will speak to this people,(IA)
12 to whom he has said,
“This is rest;
give rest to the weary,
and this is repose,”
yet they would not hear.(IB)
13 Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them,
“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little,”[ay]
in order that they may go and fall backward
and be broken and snared and taken.(IC)
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
who rule this people in Jerusalem.(ID)
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol we have an agreement;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
it will not come to us,
for we have made lies our refuge,
and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;(IE)
16 therefore thus says the Lord God,
“See, I am laying[az] in Zion a foundation stone,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation:
‘One who trusts will not panic.’(IF)
17 And I will make justice the line
and righteousness the plummet;
hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and waters will overwhelm the shelter.(IG)
18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be beaten down by it.(IH)
19 As often as it passes through, it will take you,
for morning by morning it will pass through,
by day and by night,
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.”(II)
20 For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it,
and the covering is too narrow to wrap oneself in it.
21 For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim;
he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon
to do his deed—strange is his deed!—
and to work his work—alien is his work!(IJ)
22 Now therefore do not scoff,
or your bonds will be made stronger,
for I have heard a decree of destruction
from the Lord God of hosts upon the whole land.(IK)
23 Listen and hear my voice;
Pay attention and hear my speech.
24 Do those who plow for sowing plow continually?
Do they continually open and harrow their ground?
25 When they have leveled its surface,
do they not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and plant wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place[ba]
and spelt as the border?
26 For they are well instructed;
their God teaches them.
27 For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick
and cumin with a rod.(IL)
28 Grain is crushed for bread,
but one does not thresh it forever;
one drives the cart wheel and horses over it
but does not pulverize it.
29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts;
he is wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.(IM)
The Siege of Jerusalem
29 Woe to Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David encamped!
Add year to year;
let the festivals run their round.(IN)
2 Yet I will oppress Ariel,
and there shall be moaning and lamentation,
and you[bb] shall be to me like an Ariel.[bc](IO)
3 And like David[bd] I will encamp against you;
I will besiege you with towers
and raise siegeworks against you.(IP)
4 Then deep from the earth you shall speak;
from low in the dust your words shall come;
your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,
and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.(IQ)
5 But the multitude of your arrogant ones[be] shall be like fine dust
and the multitude of tyrants like flying chaff.
And in an instant, suddenly,(IR)
6 you will be visited by the Lord of hosts
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.(IS)
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her and her stronghold and who distress her,
shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.(IT)
8 Just as when a hungry person dreams of eating
and wakes up still hungry
or a thirsty person dreams of drinking
and wakes up faint, still thirsty,
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
that fight against Mount Zion.(IU)
9 Be astounded and stunned;
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk but not from wine;
stagger but not from strong drink!(IV)
10 For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep;
he has closed your eyes (the prophets)
and covered your heads (the seers).(IW)
11 The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read with the command, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot, for it is sealed.”(IX) 12 And if it is given to those who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot read.”
13 The Lord said:
Because these people draw near with their mouths
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me
and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote,(IY)
14 so I will again do
amazing things with this people,
shocking and amazing.
The wisdom of their wise shall perish,
and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.(IZ)
15 Woe to those who hide a plan too deep for the Lord,
whose deeds are in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”(JA)
16 You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay?
Shall the thing made say of its maker,
“He did not make me,”
or the thing formed say of the one who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?(JB)
Hope for the Future
17 Shall not Lebanon in a very little while
become a fruitful field
and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?(JC)
18 On that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a scroll,
and freed from gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see.(JD)
19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.(JE)
20 For the tyrant shall be no more,
and the scoffer shall cease to be;
all those alert to do evil shall be cut off—(JF)
21 those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit,
who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate
and undermine justice for the one in the right.(JG)
22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“No longer shall Jacob be ashamed;
no longer shall his face grow pale.(JH)
23 For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will sanctify my name;
they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.(JI)
24 And those who err in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who grumble will accept instruction.”(JJ)
The Futility of Reliance on Egypt
30 Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord,
who carry out a plan but not mine;
who make an alliance but against my will,
adding sin to sin;(JK)
2 who set out to go down to Egypt
without asking for my counsel,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.(JL)
3 Therefore the protection of Pharaoh shall become your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.(JM)
4 For though his officials are at Zoan
and his envoys reach Hanes,(JN)
5 everyone comes to shame
through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
only shame and disgrace.(JO)
6 An oracle concerning the animals of the Negeb.
Through a land of trouble and distress,
of lioness and roaring[bf] lion,
of viper and flying serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels
to a people that cannot profit them.(JP)
7 For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty;
therefore I have called her,
“Rahab who sits still.”[bg](JQ)
A Rebellious People
8 Go now, write it before them on a tablet,
and inscribe it on a scroll,
so that it may be for the time to come
as a witness forever.(JR)
9 For they are a rebellious people,
faithless children,
children who will not hear
the instruction of the Lord;(JS)
10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things;
prophesy illusions;(JT)
11 leave the way; turn aside from the path;
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”(JU)
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you reject this word
and put your trust in oppression and deceit
and rely on them,(JV)
13 therefore this iniquity shall become for you
like a break in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;(JW)
14 its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel
that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a sherd is found
for taking fire from the hearth
or dipping water out of the cistern.(JX)
15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
But you refused(JY) 16 and said,
‘No! We will flee upon horses’—
therefore you shall flee!
and, ‘We will ride upon swift steeds’—
therefore your pursuers shall be swift!(JZ)
17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee
until you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.(KA)
God’s Promise to Zion
18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.(KB)
19 O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.(KC) 20 Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any longer, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.(KD) 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”(KE) 22 Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like impure things; you will say to them, “Away with you!”(KF)
23 He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures,(KG) 24 and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage that has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.(KH)
Judgment on Assyria
27 See, the name of the Lord comes from far away,
his anger burning and his burden heavy;[bh]
his lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;(KI)
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck—
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads them astray.(KJ)
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy festival is kept and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.(KK) 30 And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and tempest and hailstones.(KL) 31 The Assyrian will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord when he strikes with his rod.(KM) 32 And every stroke of the staff of punishment[bi] that the Lord lays upon him will be to the sound of timbrels and lyres with dancing;[bj] with brandished arm he will fight with him.(KN) 33 For his burning place[bk] has long been prepared, also for the king;[bl] its pyre is made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.(KO)
Alliance with Egypt Is Futile
31 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and who rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the Lord!(KP)
2 Yet he is wise and can bring disaster;
he does not depart from his words
but will rise against the house of the evildoers
and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.(KQ)
3 The Egyptians are human and not God;
their horses are flesh and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
the helper will stumble, and the one helped will fall,
and they will all perish together.(KR)
4 For thus the Lord said to me,
“As a lion or a young lion growls over its prey
and, when a band of shepherds is called out against it,
is not terrified by their shouting
or daunted at their noise,
so the Lord of hosts will come down
to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.(KS)
5 Like birds hovering overhead, so the Lord of hosts
will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
he will spare and rescue it.”(KT)
6 Turn back to him whom you[bm] have deeply betrayed, O people of Israel.(KU) 7 For on that day all of you shall throw away your idols of silver and idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.(KV)
8 “Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword not of mortals,
and a sword not of humans shall devour him;
he shall flee from the sword,
and his young men shall be put to forced labor.(KW)
9 His rock shall pass away in terror,
and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion
and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.(KX)
Government with Justice Predicted
32 See, a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes[bn] will rule with justice.(KY)
2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,
a covert from the tempest,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.(KZ)
3 Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed,
and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.(LA)
4 The minds of the rash will have good judgment,
and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.(LB)
5 A fool will no longer be called noble
nor a villain said to be honorable.(LC)
6 For fools speak folly,
and their minds plot iniquity:
to practice ungodliness,
to utter error concerning the Lord,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
and to deprive the thirsty of drink.(LD)
7 The villainies of villains are evil;
they devise wicked devices
to ruin the poor with lying words,
even when the plea of the needy is right.(LE)
8 But those who are noble plan noble things,
and by noble things they stand.(LF)
Complacent Women Warned of Disaster
9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.(LG)
10 In little more than a year
you will shudder, you complacent ones,
for the vintage will fail;
the fruit harvest will not come.(LH)
11 Tremble, you women who are at ease;
shudder, you complacent ones;
strip and make yourselves bare,
and put sackcloth on your loins.(LI)
12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,[bo]
for the fruitful vine,(LJ)
13 for the soil of my people
growing up in thorns and briers,
yes, for all the joyous houses
in the jubilant city.(LK)
14 For the palace will be forsaken,
the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower
will become dens forever,
the joy of wild asses,
a pasture for flocks;(LL)
15 until a spirit from on high is poured out on us,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.(LM)
The Peace of God’s Reign
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness
and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.(LN)
17 The effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.(LO)
18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
19 The forest will disappear completely,[bp]
and the city will be utterly laid low.(LP)
20 Happy will you be who sow beside every stream,
who let the ox and the donkey range freely.(LQ)
A Prophecy of Deliverance from Foes
33 Woe to the destroyer,
who yourself have not been destroyed;
you treacherous one,
with whom no one has dealt treacherously!
When you have ceased to destroy,
you will be destroyed;
and when you have stopped dealing treacherously,
you will be dealt with treacherously.(LR)
2 O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.(LS)
3 At the sound of tumult, peoples fled;
before your majesty, nations scattered.(LT)
4 Spoil was gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
as locusts leap, they leaped[bq] upon it.
5 The Lord is exalted; he dwells on high;
he filled Zion with justice and righteousness;(LU)
6 he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.[br](LV)
7 Listen! The people of Ariel[bs] cry out in the streets;
the envoys of peace weep bitterly.(LW)
8 The highways are deserted;
travelers have quit the road.
The treaty is broken;
its oaths[bt] are despised,
the people are disregarded.
9 The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert,
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10 “Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
“now I will lift myself up;
now I will be exalted.
11 You conceive chaff; you bring forth stubble;
wind like a fire[bu] will consume you.
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
like thorns cut down that are burned in the fire.”
13 Hear, you who are far away, what I have done,
and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting flames?”
15 Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly,
who despise the gain of oppression,
who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,
who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shut their eyes from looking on evil,
16 they will live on the heights;
their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;
their food will be supplied, their water assured.
The Land of the Majestic King
17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;
they will behold a land that stretches far away.
18 Your mind will muse on the terror:
“Where is the one who counted?
Where is the one who weighed the tribute?
Where is the one who counted the towers?”(LX)
19 No longer will you see the insolent people,
the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
stammering in a language that you cannot understand.(LY)
20 Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation, an immovable tent
whose stakes will never be pulled up
and none of whose ropes will be broken.(LZ)
21 But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
a place of broad rivers and streams
where no galley with oars can go
nor stately ship can pass.(MA)
22 For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our ruler;
the Lord is our king; he will save us.(MB)
23 Your rigging hangs loose;
it cannot hold the mast firm in its place
or keep the sail spread out.
Then the blind will divide abundant spoil,[bv]
and the lame will take plunder.(MC)
24 And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;
the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity.(MD)
Judgment on the Nations
34 Draw near, O nations, to hear;
O peoples, give heed!
Let the earth hear and all that fills it,
the world and all that comes from it.(ME)
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations
and furious against all their hordes;
he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.(MF)
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
the mountains shall flow with their blood.(MG)
4 All the host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall wither
like a leaf withering on a vine
or fruit withering on a fig tree.(MH)
5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
upon Edom it will fall,
upon the people I have doomed to judgment.(MI)
6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;
it is gorged with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.(MJ)
7 Wild oxen shall fall with them
and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
and their soil made rich with fat.(MK)
8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of vindication for Zion’s cause.[bw](ML)
9 And the streams of Edom[bx] shall be turned into pitch
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.(MM)
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
no one shall pass through it forever and ever.(MN)
11 But the desert owl[by] and the screech owl[bz] shall possess it;
the great owl and the raven shall live in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion
and the plummet of chaos over it.(MO)
12 They shall call its nobles No Kingdom There,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
an abode for ostriches.(MP)
14 Wildcats shall meet with hyenas;
goat-demons shall call to each other;
there also Lilith shall repose
and find a place to rest.(MQ)
15 There shall the owl nest
and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow;
there also the buzzards shall gather,
each one with its mate.(MR)
16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without its mate.
For his mouth, it has commanded,
and his spirit, it has gathered them.(MS)
17 He has cast the lot for them;
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line.
[[They shall possess it;
from generation to generation they shall live in it.(MT)
The Return of the Redeemed to Zion
35 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus(MU) 2 it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and shouting.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.]][ca](MV)
3 Strengthen the weak hands
and make firm the feeble knees.(MW)
4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you.”(MX)
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be opened;(MY)
6 then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert;(MZ)
7 the burning sand shall become a pool
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp;[cb]
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.(NA)
8 A highway shall be there,[cc]
and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,[cd]
but it shall be for God’s people;[ce]
no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.(NB)
9 No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.(NC)
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.(ND)
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
36 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.(NE) 2 The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller’s field.(NF) 3 And there came out to him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder.(NG)
4 The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you base this reliance of yours?(NH) 5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom, then, do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me?(NI) 6 See, you are relying on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.(NJ) 7 But if you say to me, ‘We rely on the Lord our God,’ [[is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?]][cf](NK) 8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?(NL) 10 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”(NM) 12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!(NN) 14 Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.(NO) 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’(NP) 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree and drink water from your own cistern,(NQ) 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Do not let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?(NR) 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?(NS) 20 Who among all the gods of these countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?”(NT)
21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.(NU)
Hezekiah Consults Isaiah
37 When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.(NV) 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.(NW) 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.(NX) 4 It may be that the Lord your God heard the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”(NY)
[[5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master: Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.(NZ) 7 I myself will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”]][cg](OA)
8 The Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. 9 Now the king[ch] heard concerning King Tirhakah of Cush, “He has set out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,(OB) 10 “Thus shall you speak to King Hezekiah of Judah: Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.(OC) 11 See, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered?(OD) 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my predecessors destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?(OE) 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Laar, Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?”
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.(OF) 17 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.(OG) 18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands(OH) 19 and have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed.(OI) 20 So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”(OJ)
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria,(OK) 22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
She despises you; she scorns you—
virgin daughter Zion;
she tosses her head—behind your back,
daughter Jerusalem.(OL)
23 “Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and haughtily lifted your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!(OM)
24 By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I came to its remotest height,
its densest forest.(ON)
25 I dug wells
and drank waters;
I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.’
26 “Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,(OO)
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded;
they have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops
that is scorched before the east wind.[ci](OP)
28 “I know your rising up[cj] and your sitting down,
your going out and coming in
and your raging against me.(OQ)
29 Because you have raged against me
and your arrogance has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth;
I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.(OR)
30 “And this shall be the sign for you: This year eat what grows of itself and in the second year what springs from that; then in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward,(OS) 32 for from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and from Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.(OT)
33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, shoot an arrow there, come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege ramp against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return; he shall not come into this city, says the Lord. 35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”(OU)
Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death
36 Then the angel of the Lord set out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; when morning dawned, they were all dead bodies.(OV) 37 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left, went home, and lived at Nineveh. 38 As he was worshiping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. His son Esar-haddon succeeded him.(OW)
Hezekiah’s Illness
38 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.”(OX) 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord: 3 “Remember now, O Lord, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.(OY)
4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.(OZ) 6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria and defend this city.(PA)
7 “This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised:(PB) 8 See, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.[ck](PC)
9 A writing of King Hezekiah of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
10 I said: In the noontide of my days
I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
for the rest of my years.(PD)
11 I said, I shall not see the Lord
in the land of the living;
I shall look upon mortals no more
among the inhabitants of the world.(PE)
12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;(PF)
13 I cry for help[cl] until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones;
from day to night you bring me to an end.(PG)
14 Like a swallow or a crane[cm] I clamor;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary with looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security!(PH)
15 But what can I say? For he has spoken to me,
and he himself has done it.
All my sleep has fled[cn]
because of the bitterness of my soul.(PI)
16 O Lord, by these things people live,
and in all these is the life of my spirit.[co]
Oh, restore me to health and make me live!
Footnotes
- 13.3 Gk: Heb for my anger
- 13.6 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
- 14.2 Heb them
- 14.4 Q ms Compare Gk Syr Vg: Meaning of MT uncertain
- 14.13 Or assembly in the far north
- 14.19 Cn Compare Gk: Heb like a loathed branch
- 14.21 Syr Compare Gk: Heb fathers
- 14.23 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 14.30 Heb mss: MT the firstborn of the poor
- 14.30 Q ms Vg: MT he
- 15.2 Cn: Heb the house and Dibon
- 15.4 Or the armed men of Moab cry aloud
- 15.9 Q ms Vg: MT Dimon
- 15.9 Q ms Vg: MT Dimon
- 16.10 Cn Compare Gk: Heb I have hushed
- 17.2 Cn Compare Gk: Heb the cities of Aroer are deserted
- 17.8 Heb Asherahs
- 17.9 Cn Compare Gk: Heb places of the wood and the highest bough
- 17.13 Heb mss Syr lack When . . . waters
- 18.1 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 18.2 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 18.7 Q ms Gk Vg: MT of
- 19.7 Gk: Heb beside the Nile, beside the mouth of the Nile
- 19.14 Gk Compare Tg: Heb it
- 19.17 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 19.18 Q mss Heb mss Tg Vg: MT city of destruction
- 21.8 Q ms Syr Vg: MT a lion
- 22.3 Or without their bows
- 22.3 Gk Syr Vg: Heb fled from far away
- 22.6 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 22.16 Gk Vg: Heb his tomb
- 22.16 Gk Vg: Heb himself
- 23.1 Cn: Heb for it is destroyed, without houses
- 23.2 Q ms: MT crossing over the sea, they replenished you
- 23.3 Heb its
- 23.10 Cn Compare Gk: Heb like the Nile, daughter
- 23.10 Cn: Heb restraint
- 23.13 Or This is the people that was not. Assyria founded it for its fleet.
- 23.18 Heb it
- 25.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 26.4 Heb in Yah, the Lord
- 26.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 26.19 Cn Compare Syr Tg: Heb my corpse
- 26.19 Q ms Compare Gk Syr: MT dust, awake and shout for joy!
- 26.19 Heb to the shades
- 27.6 Heb Those to come
- 27.7 Q ms: MT his slain ones
- 27.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 27.9 Heb Asherahs
- 28.10 Meaning of Heb of this verse uncertain
- 28.13 Meaning of Heb of this verse uncertain
- 28.16 Q mss Compare Syr Tg: MT he laid
- 28.25 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 29.2 Cn Compare Q ms: MT she
- 29.2 That is, altar hearth
- 29.3 Heb mss Gk: MT like a circle
- 29.5 Q ms Compare Gk: MT strangers
- 30.6 Cn: Heb from them
- 30.7 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 30.27 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 30.32 Heb mss Syr: MT foundation
- 30.32 Cn: Heb and with battles
- 30.33 Or Topheth
- 30.33 Or Molech
- 31.6 Heb they
- 32.1 Gk: Heb and for princes
- 32.12 Gk: Heb on the lamenting breasts
- 32.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 33.4 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 33.6 Heb his treasure
- 33.7 Heb mss: Meaning of MT uncertain
- 33.8 Q ms: MT cities
- 33.11 Cn: Heb your breath
- 33.23 Cn: Heb Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided
- 34.8 Or of recompense by Zion’s defender
- 34.9 Heb her streams
- 34.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 34.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 34.17–35.2 Q ms lacks 34.17–35.2
- 35.7 Cn: Heb in the haunt of jackals is her resting place
- 35.8 Q ms Gk Syr: MT A highway and a way shall be there
- 35.8 Or pass it by
- 35.8 Cn: Heb for them
- 36.7 Gk lacks: Heb adds is it not he . . . this altar’?
- 37.5–7 Q ms lacks 37.5–7
- 37.9 Heb he
- 37.27 Q ms: MT and a field before standing grain
- 37.28 Q ms Gk: MT lacks your rising up
- 38.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 38.13 Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 38.14 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 38.15 Cn Compare Syr: Heb I will walk slowly all my years
- 38.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.