Aug 3 - Isaiah 22-25
Isaiah
1An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision: What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs,2O town full of commotion, O city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle.3All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away.4Therefore I said, "Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people."5The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains.6Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses; Kir uncovers the shield.7Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates;8the defenses of Judah are stripped away. And you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest;9you saw that the City of David had many breaches in its defenses; you stored up water in the Lower Pool.10You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.11You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.12The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.13But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! "Let us eat and drink," you say, "for tomorrow we die!"14The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: "Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for," says the Lord, the LORD Almighty.15This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: "Go, say to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace:16What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?17"Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, O you mighty man.18He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die and there your splendid chariots will remain- you disgrace to your master's house!19I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position.20"In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.21I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.22I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.23I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father.24All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots-all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.25"In that day," declares the LORD Almighty, "the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down." The LORD has spoken.
1An oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.2Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched.3On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations.4Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: "I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters."5When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.6Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island.7Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?8Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?9The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.10Till your land as along the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.11The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed.12He said, "No more of your reveling, O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed! "Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest."13Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin.14Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!15At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king's life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:16"Take up a harp, walk through the city, O prostitute forgotten; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered."17At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.18Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.
1See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants-2it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor.3The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word.4The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish.5The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.6Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.7The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan.8The gaiety of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent.9No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers.10The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred.11In the streets they cry out for wine; all joy turns to gloom, all gaiety is banished from the earth.12The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces.13So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.14They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the LORD's majesty.15Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; exalt the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea.16From the ends of the earth we hear singing: "Glory to the Righteous One." But I said, "I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!"17Terror and pit and snare await you, O people of the earth.18Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake.19The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken.20The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls-never to rise again.21In that day the LORD will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below.22They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days.23The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed; for the LORD Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously.
1O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.2You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigners' stronghold a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.3Therefore strong peoples will honor you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you.4You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall5and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled.6On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine- the best of meats and the finest of wines.7On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;8he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.9In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."10The hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain; but Moab will be trampled under him as straw is trampled down in the manure.11They will spread out their hands in it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands.12He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay them low; he will bring them down to the ground, to the very dust.