A Prophecy Against Babylon

   An oracle concerning the Desert by the sea:

       Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,
          an invader comes from the desert,
          from a land of terror.

       A dire vision has been shown to me:
          The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
       Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
          I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

       At this my body is racked with pain,
          pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
       I am staggered by what I hear,
          I am bewildered by what I see.
       My heart falters,
          fear makes me tremble;
       the twilight I longed for
          has become a horror to me.

       They set the tables,
          they spread the rugs,
          they eat, they drink!
       Get up, you officers,
          oil the shields!

       This is what THE LORD says to me:

       "Go, post a lookout
          and have him report what he sees.
       When he sees chariots
          with teams of horses,
       riders on donkeys
          or riders on camels,
      let him be alert,
          fully alert."

       And the lookout shouted,

       "Day after day, my LORD, I stand on the watchtower;
          every night I stay at my post.
       Look, here comes a man in a chariot
          with a team of horses.
       And he gives back the answer:
          'Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
       All the images of its gods
          lie shattered on the ground!' "

       O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,
          I tell you what I have heard
       from THE LORD ALMIGHTY,
          from THE GOD OF ISRAEL.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 21, verses 1 - 10

A Prophecy Against Edom

       An oracle concerning Dumah:

       Someone calls to me from Seir,
          "Watchman, what is left of the night?
          Watchman, what is left of the night?"
       The watchman replies,
          "Morning is coming, but also the night.
       If you would ask, then ask;
          and come back yet again."


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 21, verses 11 & 12

A Prophecy Against Arabia

       An oracle concerning Arabia:

       You caravans of Dedanites,
          who camp in the thickets of Arabia,
          bring water for the thirsty;
       you who live in Tema,
          bring food for the fugitives.
       They flee from the sword,
          from the drawn sword,
       from the bent bow
          and from the heat of battle.

      This is what THE LORD says to me: "Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar will come to an end. The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few." THE LORD, THE GOD OF ISRAEL, has spoken.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 21, verses 13 - 17

A Prophecy About Jerusalem

   An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision:

       What troubles you now,
          that you have all gone up on the roofs,
       O town full of commotion,
          O city of tumult and revelry?
       Your slain were not killed by the sword,
          nor did they die in battle.
       All 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.
       Therefore I said, "Turn away from me;
          let me weep bitterly.
       Do not try to console me
          over the destruction of my people."

       THE 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.
       Elam takes up the quiver,
          with her charioteers and horses;
          Kir uncovers the shield.
       Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,
          and horsemen are posted at the city gates;
          the defenses of Judah are stripped away.

       And you looked in that day
          to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest;
       you saw that the City of David
          had many breaches in its defenses;
       you stored up water
          in the Lower Pool.
       You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
          and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.
       You 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.

       THE LORD, THE LORD ALMIGHTY,
          called you on that day
       to weep and to wail,
          to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.
       But 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!"

       THE 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.

       This is what THE LORD, THE LORD ALMIGHTY, says:

       "Go, say to this steward,
          to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace:
       What 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?

       "Beware, THE LORD is about to take firm hold of you
          and hurl you away, O you mighty man.
       HE 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!
       I will depose you from your office,
          and you will be ousted from your position.

       "In that day I will summon MY servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I 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. I 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. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots--all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.

       "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.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 22

A Prophecy About Tyre

   An 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.

       Be silent, you people of the island
          and you merchants of Sidon,
          whom the seafarers have enriched.
       On 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.

       Be 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."
      When word comes to Egypt,
          they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

       Cross over to Tarshish;
          wail, you people of the island.
       Is this your city of revelry,
          the old, old city,
       whose feet have taken her
          to settle in far-off lands?
       Who planned this against Tyre,
          the bestower of crowns,
       whose merchants are princes,
          whose traders are renowned in the earth?
       THE LORD ALMIGHTY planned it,
          to bring low the pride of all glory
          and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

       Till your land as along the Nile,
          O Daughter of Tarshish,
          for you no longer have a harbor.
       THE 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.
       HE 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."
       Look 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.
       Wail, you ships of Tarshish;
          your fortress is destroyed!

       At 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:

       "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."

       At the end of seventy years, THE LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitue and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. Yet 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.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 23

THE LORD'S Devastation of the Earth

       See, THE LORD is going to lay waste the earth
          and devastate it;
       HE will ruin its face
          and scatter its inhabitants--
       it 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.
       The earth will be completely laid waste
          and totally plundered.
                                          THE LORD has spoken this word.

       The earth dries up and withers,
          the world languishes and withers,
          the exalted of the earth languish.
       The earth is defiled by its people;
          they have disobeyed the laws,
       violated the statutes
          and broken the everlasting covenant.
       Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
          its people must bear their guilt.
       Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up,
          and very few are left.
       The new wine dries up and the vine withers;
          all the merrymakers groan.
       The gaiety of the tambourines is stilled,
          the noise of the revelers has stopped,
          the joyful harp is silent.
       No longer do they drink wine with a song;
          the beer is bitter to its drinkers.
       The ruined city lies desolate;
          the entrance to every house is barred.
       In the streets they cry out for wine;
          all joy turns to gloom,
          all gaiety is banished from the earth.
       The city is left in ruins,
          its gate is battered to pieces.
       So 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.

       They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
          from the west they acclaim THE LORD'S majesty.
       Therefore in the east give glory to THE LORD;
          exalt the name of THE LORD, THE GOD OF ISRAEL,
          in the islands of the sea.
       From 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!"
       Terror and pit and snare await you,
          O people of the earth.
       Whoever 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.
       The earth is broken up,
          the earth is split asunder,
          the earth is thoroughly shaken.
       The 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.

       In that day THE LORD will punish
          the powers in the heavens above
          and the kings on the earth below.
      They will be herded together
          like prisoners bound in a dungeon;
       they will be shut up in prison
          and be punished after many days.
       The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed;
          for THE LORD ALMIGHTY will reign
      on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
          and before its elders, gloriously.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 24

Praise to THE LORD

       O 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.
       YOU 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.
       Therefore strong peoples will honor YOU;
          cities of ruthless nations will revere YOU.
       YOU 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 wall
          and 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.

       On 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.
       On this mountain HE will destroy
          the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
       the sheet that covers all nations;
          HE 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.

   In that day they will say,

       "Surely this 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."

       The hand of THE LORD will rest on this mountain;
          but Moab will be trampled under HIM
          as straw is trampled down in the manure.
       They 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.
       HE will bring down your high fortified walls
          and lay them low;
       HE will bring them down to the ground,
          to the very dust.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 25

A Song of Praise

   In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

       We have a strong city;
          GOD makes salvation
          its walls and ramparts.
       Open the gates
          that the righteous nation may enter,
          the nation that keeps faith.
       YOU will keep in perfect peace
          him whose mind is steadfast,
          because he trusts in YOU.
       Trust in THE LORD forever,
          for THE LORD, THE LORD, is THE ROCK ETERNAL.
       HE humbles those who dwell on high,
          HE lays the lofty city low;
       HE levels it to the ground
          and casts it down to the dust.
       Feet trample it down--
          the feet of the oppressed,
          the footsteps of the poor.

       The path of the righteous is level;
          O UPRIGHT ONE, YOU make the way of the righteous smooth.
       Yes, LORD, walking in the way of YOUR laws,
          we wait for YOU;
       YOUR name and renown
          are the desire of our hearts.
       My soul yearns for YOU in the night;
          in the morning my spirit longs for YOU.
       When YOUR judgments come upon the earth,
          the people of the world learn righteousness.
       Though grace is shown to the wicked,
          they do not learn righteousness;
       even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
          and regard not the majesty of THE LORD.
       O LORD, YOUR hand is lifted high,
          but they do not see it.
       Let them see YOUR zeal for YOUR people and be put to shame;
          let the fire reserved for YOUR enemies consume them.

       LORD, YOU establish peace for us;
          all that we have accomplished YOU have done for us.
       O LORD, our GOD, other lords besides YOU have ruled over us,
          but YOUR name alone do we honor.
       They are now dead, they live no more;
          those departed spirits do not rise.
       YOU punished them and brought them to ruin;
          YOU wiped out all memory of them.
       YOU have enlarged the nation, O LORD;
          YOU have enlarged the nation.
       YOU have gained glory for YOURSELF;
          YOU have extended all the borders of the land.

       LORD, they came to YOU in their distress;
          when YOU disciplined them,
          they could barely whisper a prayer.
       As a woman with child and about to give birth
          writhes and cries out in her pain,
          so were we in your presence, O LORD.
       We were with child, we writhed in pain,
          but we gave birth to wind.
       We have not brought salvation to the earth;
          we have not given birth to people of the world.

       But your dead will live;
          their bodies will rise.
       You who dwell in the dust,
          wake up and shout for joy.
       Your dew is like the dew of the morning;
          the earth will give birth to her dead.
       Go, my people, enter your rooms
          and shut the doors behind you;
       hide yourselves for a little while
          until HIS wrath has passed by.
       See, THE LORD is coming out of HIS dwelling
          to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
       The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her;
          she will conceal her slain no longer.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 26

Deliverance of Israel

   In that day,

       THE LORD will punish with HIS sword,
          HIS fierce, great and powerful sword,
       Leviathan the gliding serpent,
          Leviathan the coiling serpent;
       HE will slay the monster of the sea.

In that day--

       "Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
          I, THE LORD, watch over it;
          I water it continually.
       I guard it day and night
          so that no one may harm it.
          I AM not angry.
       If only there were briers and thorns confronting ME!
          I would march against them in battle;
          I would set them all on fire.
       Or else let them come to ME for refuge;
          let them make peace with ME,
          yes, let them make peace with ME."

       In days to come Jacob will take root,
          Israel will bud and blossom
          and fill all the world with fruit.

       Has THE LORD struck her
          as HE struck down those who struck her?
       Has she been killed
          as those were killed who killed her?
       By warfare and exile you contend with her--
          with HIS fierce blast HE drives her out,
          as on a day the east wind blows.
       By this, then, will Jacob's guilt be atoned for,
          and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin:
       When HE makes all the altar stones
          to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces,
       no Asherah poles or incense altars
          will be left standing.
       The fortified city stands desolate,
          an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert;
       there the calves graze,
          there they lie down;
          they strip its branches bare.
       When its twigs are dry, they are broken off
          and women come and make fires with them.
       For this is a people without understanding;
          so their Maker has no compassion on them,
          and their Creator shows them no favor.

       In that day THE LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship THE LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.


The Book of Isaiah: chapter 27