Aug 6 - Isaiah 33-36
Isaiah
1Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.2O LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.3At the thunder of your voice, the peoples flee; when you rise up, the nations scatter.4Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts; like a swarm of locusts men pounce on it.5The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.6He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.7Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.8The highways are deserted, no travelers are on the roads. The treaty is broken, its witnesses are despised, no one is respected.9The land mourns and wastes away, Lebanon is ashamed and withers; Sharon is like the Arabah, and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.10"Now will I arise," says the LORD. "Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up.11You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw; your breath is a fire that consumes you.12The peoples will be burned as if to lime; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze."13You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power!14The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: "Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?"15He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil-16this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him.17Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar.18In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror: "Where is that chief officer? Where is the one who took the revenue? Where is the officer in charge of the towers?"19You will see those arrogant people no more, those people of an obscure speech, with their strange, incomprehensible tongue.20Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.21There the LORD will be our Mighty One. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams. No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship will sail them.22For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us.23Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder.24No one living in Zion will say, "I am ill"; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.
1Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!2The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter.3Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.4All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.5My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed.6The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat- the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom.7And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat.8For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion's cause.9Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch!10It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again.11The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation.12Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away.13Thorns will overrun her citadels, nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals, a home for owls.14Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also repose and find for themselves places of rest.15The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate.16Look in the scroll of the LORD and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together.17He allots their portions; his hand distributes them by measure. They will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation.
1The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus,2it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.3Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way;4say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."5Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.6Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.7The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.8And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.9No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there,10and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
1In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.2Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field,3Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.4The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah, "'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?5You say you have strategy and military strength-but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?6Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man's hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.7And if you say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God"-isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar"?8"'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses-if you can put riders on them!9How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?10Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.'"11Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall."12But the commander replied, "Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall-who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?"13Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!14This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you!15Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, 'The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'16"Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,17until I come and take you to a land like your own-a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.18"Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, 'The LORD will deliver us.' Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?19Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?20Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"21But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, "Do not answer him."22Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.