Aug 4 - Isaiah 13-18

¹The burden of Babylon which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw²Over the foggy mountain lift up a sign! Raise the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers enter through the gates³In my wrath, I commanded my sanctified ones, and I called my strong ones, those who exult in my glory⁴On the mountains, there is the voice of a multitude, as if of a numerous people, a voice with the sound of kings, of nations gathered together. For the Lord of hosts has given orders to soldiers of war⁵to those who are arriving from a far off land, from the heights of the heavens. It is the Lord and the instruments of his fury, so that he may bring ruin to all the earth⁶Wail aloud! For the day of the Lord draws near! It will arrive like a devastation from the Lord⁷Because of it, every hand will fail, and every heart of man will waste away and be crushed⁸Writhing and pain will seize them. They will be in pain, like a woman in labor. Each one will appear stupefied to his neighbor. Their countenances will be like faces which have been burned up⁹Behold, the day of the Lord approaches: a cruel day, full of indignation and wrath and fury, which will place the earth in solitude and crush the sinners from it¹⁰For the stars of the heavens, in their splendor, will not display their light. The sun will be obscured at its rising, and the moon will not shine in her brightness¹¹And I will act against the evils of the world, and against the impious for their iniquity. And I will cause the pride of the unfaithful to cease, and I will bring down the arrogance of the strong¹²A man will be more precious than gold, and mankind will become like pure refined gold¹³For this purpose, I will stir up heaven, and the earth will be moved from its place, because of the indignation of the Lord of hosts, because of the day of his furious wrath¹⁴And they will be like a doe fleeing away, or like sheep; and there will be no one who may gather them together. Each one will turn to his own people, and every one will flee to his own land¹⁵All who are found will be killed, and all who are caught unaware will fall by the sword¹⁶Their infants will be thrown down violently before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be violated¹⁷Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them. They will not seek silver, nor desire gold¹⁸Instead, with their arrows, they will put the little children to death, and they will take no pity on breastfeeding women, and their eye will not spare their children¹⁹And then Babylon, the glorious one among kingdoms, that famous pride of the Chaldeans, will be destroyed, even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah²⁰It will not be inhabited, even unto the end, and it will not be reestablished, even from generation to generation. The Arab will not pitch his tents there, nor will the shepherds take rest there²¹Instead, the wild beasts will rest there, and their houses will be filled with serpents, and ostriches will live there, and the hairy ones will leap about there²²And the tawny owls will answer one another there, in its buildings, and the Sirens in its shrines of pleasure

Chapter 14

¹Her time is drawing near, and her days will not be prolonged. For the Lord will take pity on Jacob, and he will still choose from Israel, and he will cause them to rest upon their own soil. And the new arrival will be joined to them, and he will adhere to the house of Jacob²And the people will take them, and lead them to their place. And the house of Israel will possess them, in the land of the Lord, as men and women servants. And they will take captive those who had taken them captive. And they will subjugate their oppressors³And this shall be in that day: when God will have given you rest from your labor, and from your oppression, and from the difficult servitude under which you served before⁴you will accept this parable against the king of Babylon, and you will say: "How is it that the oppressor has ceased, along with his tribute⁵The Lord has crushed the staff of the impious, the scepter of despots⁶which struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, which subjugated the nations in fury, which persecuted with cruelty⁷All the earth has become quiet and still; it has been gladdened and has rejoiced⁸The evergreens, too, have rejoiced over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying: ‘Since you have slept, no one has ascended who would cut us down.⁹Hell below was stirred up to meet you at your advent; it has awakened the giants for you. All the leaders of the earth have risen from their thrones, all the leaders among the nations.¹⁰Everyone will respond and will say to you: "Now you are wounded, just as we were; you have become like us¹¹Your arrogance has been dragged down to Hell. Your body has fallen dead. The moths will be strewn beneath you, and the worms will be your covering¹²How is it that you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who used to rise like the sun? How is it that you have fallen to the earth, you who wounded the peoples¹³And you said in your heart: ‘I will climb up to heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be enthroned upon the mountain of the covenant, on the northern parts¹⁴I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.¹⁵Yet truly, you shall be dragged down to Hell, into the depths of the pit¹⁶Those who see you, will lean toward you, and will gaze upon you, saying: ‘Could this be the man who disturbed the earth, who shook kingdoms¹⁷who made the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who would not even open a prison for his prisoners?’ ¹⁸All the kings of the nations throughout the whole world have slept in glory, each man in his own house¹⁹But you have been rejected from your grave, like a useless polluted plant, and you have been bound up with those who were slain by the sword, and who descended to the bottom of the pit, like a rotting carcass²⁰You will not be associated with them, even in the grave. For you have destroyed your own land; you have slain your own people. The offspring of the wicked ones will not be called upon for eternity²¹Prepare his sons for the slaughter, according to the iniquity of their fathers. They will not rise up, nor inherit the earth, nor fill the face of the world with cities²²But I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts. And I will perish the name of Babylon and its remnants: both the plant and its progeny, says the Lord²³And I will appoint it as a possession for the hedgehog, with swamps of water. And I will sweep it out and wear it away with a brush, says the Lord of hosts²⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying: Surely, just as I have considered it, so shall it be, and in the same manner as I have drawn it through my mind²⁵so shall it occur. So shall I crush the Assyrian in my land, and I will trample him upon my mountains, and his yoke will be taken away from them, and his burden will be removed from their shoulder²⁶This is the plan that I have decided, concerning the entire earth, and this is the hand which is extended over all the nations²⁷For the Lord of hosts has decreed it, and who is able to weaken it? And his hand is extended, so who can avert it²⁸In the year in which king Ahaz died, this burden was given²⁹You should not rejoice, all you of Philistia, that the rod of him who struck you has been crushed. For from the root of the serpent will go forth a king snake, and his offspring will engulf that which flies³⁰And the firstborn of the poor will be pastured, and the poor will rest in faithfulness. And I will cause your root to pass away by famine, and I will put to death your remnant³¹Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city! All of Philistia has been prostrated. For a smoke will arrive from the north, and there is no one who will escape his army³²And what will be the response to this news among the nations? It will be that the Lord has established Zion, and that the poor of his people will hope in him

Chapter 15

¹The burden of Moab. Because Ar of Moab has been destroyed by night, it is utterly silent. Because the wall of Moab has been destroyed by night, it is utterly silent²The house has ascended with Dibon to the heights, in mourning over Nebo and over Medeba. Moab has wailed. There will be baldness on all of their heads, and every beard will be shaven³At their crossroads, they have been wrapped with sackcloth. On their rooftops and in their streets, everyone descends, wailing and weeping⁴Heshbon will cry out with Elealeh. Their voice has been heard as far as Jahaz. Over this, the well-equipped men of Moab wail; each soul will wail to itself⁵My heart will cry out to Moab; its bars will cry out even to Zoar, like a three-year-old calf. For they will ascend weeping, by way of the ascent of Luhith. And along the way of Horonaim, they will lift up a cry of contrition⁶For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate, because the plants have withered, and the seedling has failed, and all the greenery has passed away⁷This is in accord with the magnitude of their works and of their visitation. They will lead them to the torrent of the willows⁸For an outcry has circulated along the border of Moab; its wailing even to Eglaim, and its clamor even to the well of Elim⁹Because the waters of Dibon have been filled with blood, I will place even more upon Dibon: those from Moab who flee the lion, and the survivors of the earth

Chapter 16

¹O Lord, send forth the Lamb, the Ruler of the earth, from the Rock of the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Zion²And this shall be: like a bird fleeing away, and like fledglings flying from the nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the passage of Arnon³Form a plan. Call a council. Let your shadow be as if it were night, even at midday. Conceal the fugitives, and do not betray the wanderers⁴My fugitives will live with you. Become a hiding place, O Moab, from the face of the destroyer. For the dust is at its end; the miserable one has been consumed. He who trampled the earth has failed⁵And a throne will be prepared in mercy, and One shall sit upon it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment, and quickly repaying what is just⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud. His pride and his arrogance and his indignation is more than his strength⁷For this reason, Moab will wail to Moab; each one will wail. Speak of their wounds to those who rejoice upon the brick walls⁸For the suburbs of Heshbon are deserted, and the lords of the Gentiles have cut down the vineyard of Sibmah. Its vines have arrived even at Jazer. They have wandered in the desert. Its seedlings have been abandoned. They have crossed over the sea⁹I will weep with the tears of Jazer over this, the vineyard of Sibmah. I will inebriate you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh! For the sound of those who trample has rushed over your vintage and over your harvest¹⁰And so, rejoicing and exultation will be taken away from Carmel, and there will be no jubilation or exultation in the vineyards. He who was accustomed to tread will not tread out the wine in the winepress. I have taken away the sound of those who tread¹¹Over this, my heart will resonate like a harp for Moab, and my inner most being for the brick wall¹²And this shall be: when it is seen that Moab has struggled upon his high places, he will enter his holy places to pray, but he will not prevail¹³This is the word that the Lord has spoken to Moab concerning that time¹⁴And now the Lord has spoken, saying: In three years, like the years of a hired hand, the glory of Moab concerning the entire multitude of the people will be taken away, and what is left behind will be small and weak and not so numerous

Chapter 17

¹The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and it will be like a heap of stones in ruin²The cities in ruin will be left for the flocks, and they will take rest there, and there will be no one who may terrify them³And assistance will cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom will cease from Damascus. And the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the sons of Israel, says the Lord of hosts⁴And this shall be in that day: the glory of Jacob will be thinned, and the fatness of his flesh will be reduced⁵And it shall be like the gathering of the harvest which remains, and his arm will pick the ears of grain. And it shall be like a search for grain in the valley of Rephaim⁶And what is left behind in it will be like one cluster of grapes, or like a shaken olive tree with two or three olives at the top of a branch, or like four or five olives at the top of a tree, says the Lord God of Israel⁷In that day, a man will bow before his Maker, and his eyes will consider the Holy One of Israel⁸And he will not bow before the altars that his hands have made. And he will not consider the things that his fingers have made, the sacred groves and the shrines⁹In that day, his strong cities will be abandoned, like the plows and the grain fields which were left behind before the face of the sons of Israel, and you shall be deserted¹⁰For you have forgotten God your Savior, and you have not remembered your strong Helper. Because of this, you will plant trustworthy plants, but you will sow a foreign seed¹¹In the day of your planting, the wild grapevine and your morning seed will flourish. The harvest has been taken away to the day of inheritance, and you will grieve heavily¹²Woe to the multitude of many peoples, like the multitude of the roaring sea! Woe to the tumult of crowds, like the noise of many waters¹³The peoples will make a noise, like the noise of waters overflowing, but he will rebuke him, and so he will flee far away. And he will be quickly taken away, like the dust of the mountains before the face of the wind, and like a whirlwind before a tempest¹⁴In the time of the evening, behold: there will be a disturbance. When it is early morning, he will not remain. This is the portion of those who have devastated us, and this is the lot of those who have plundered us

Chapter 18

¹Woe to the land, that winged cymbal, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia²which sends ambassadors by sea and in vessels of papyrus above the waters. Go forth, O swift Angels, to a nation which has been convulsed and torn apart, to a terrible people, after whom there is no other, to a nation apprehensive and downtrodden, whose land the rivers have spoiled³All inhabitants of the world, you who dwell upon the earth: when the sign will have been elevated on the mountains, you will see, and you will hear the blast of the trumpet⁴For the Lord says this to me: I will be quiet, and I will consider in my place, as the light at midday is clear, and as a cloud of dew in the day of the harvest⁵For before the harvest, all was flourishing. And it will spring forth with an untimely completion, and its little branches will be pruned with a curved blade. And what is left over will be cut away and shaken off⁶And together they will be abandoned to the birds of the mountains and to the wild beasts of the earth. And the birds will be continuously on them in the summer, and all the wild beasts of the earth will winter over them⁷In that time, a gift will be carried to the Lord of hosts, from a people divided and torn apart, from a terrible people, after whom there has been no other, from an apprehensive nation, apprehensive and downtrodden, whose land the rivers have ruined, and it will be carried to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, to mount Zion