Aug 2 - Isaiah 16-21
Isaiah
1Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.2Like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.3"Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive;4let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,5then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness."6We have heard of the pride of Moab--how proud he is!--of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right.7Therefore let Moab wail for Moab, let everyone wail. Mourn, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.8For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have struck down its branches, which reached to Jazer and strayed to the desert; its shoots spread abroad and passed over the sea.9Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased.10And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; I have put an end to the shouting.11Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.12And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.13This is the word that the LORD spoke concerning Moab in the past.14But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble."
1An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins.2The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.3The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, declares the LORD of hosts.4And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.5And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.6Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten--two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, declares the LORD God of Israel.7In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel.8He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.9In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,11though 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 grief and incurable pain.12Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!13The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.14At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us.
1Ah, land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Cush,2which sends ambassadors by the sea, 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 and conquering, whose land the rivers divide.3All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear!4For 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."5For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks, and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.6They shall all of them be left to the birds of prey of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey will summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.7At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts from 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.
1An oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, each against another and each against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their counsel; and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the necromancers;4and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.5And the waters of the sea will be dried up, and the river will be dry and parched,6and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away.7There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched, will be driven away, and will be no more.8The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast a hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets on the water.9The workers in combed flax will be in despair, and the weavers of white cotton.10Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed, and all who work for pay will be grieved.11The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?12Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13The princes of Zoan have become fools, and the princes of Memphis are deluded; those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have made Egypt stagger.14The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15And there will be nothing for Egypt that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.16In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them.17And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them.18In 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 Destruction.19In 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.20It 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 defender, and deliver them.21And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them.22And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.23In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.24In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,25whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."
1In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it--2at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet," and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.3Then the LORD said, "As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,4so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.5Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast.6And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, 'Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'"
1The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land.2A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end.3Therefore 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.4My heart staggers; horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.5They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink. Arise, O princes; oil the shield!6For thus the Lord said to me: "Go, set a watchman; let him announce what he sees.7When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently."8Then he who saw cried out: "Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am stationed whole nights.9And behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!" And he answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground."10O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.11The oracle concerning Dumah. One is calling to me from Seir, "Watchman, what time of the night? Watchman, what time of the night?"12The watchman says: "Morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; come back again."13The oracle concerning Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge, O caravans of Dedanites.14To the thirsty bring water; meet the fugitive with bread, O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the press of battle.16For 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.17And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken."