The Judge of the Nations and the Refuge of the Poor

13:2Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

13:3I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.

13:4The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! The LORD of Armies is mustering the army for the battle.

13:5They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

13:6Wail, for the LORD’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

13:7Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt.

13:8They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.

13:9Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.

13:10For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.

13:11I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the arrogance of the terrible.

13:12I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir.

13:13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the LORD of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his fierce anger.

13:14It will happen that like a hunted gazelle and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land.

13:15Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

13:16Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.

13:17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.

13:18Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.

13:19Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

13:20It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.

13:21But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.

13:22Hyenas will cry in their fortresses, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.

14:2The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in the LORD’s land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

14:3It will happen in the day that the LORD will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,

14:4that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!”

14:5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,

14:6who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained.

14:7The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out in song.

14:8Yes, the cypress trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us.”

14:9Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

14:10They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?”

14:11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.

14:12How you have fallen from heaven, shining one, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!

14:13You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!

14:14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!”

14:15Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.

14:16Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms,

14:17who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”

14:18All the kings of the nations sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.

14:19But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.

14:20You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The offspring of evildoers will not be named forever.

14:21Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.

14:22“I will rise up against them,” says the LORD of Armies, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says the LORD.

14:23“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the LORD of Armies.

14:24The LORD of Armies has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

14:25that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.

14:26This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

14:27For the LORD of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”

14:28This burden was in the year that King Ahaz died.

14:29Don’t rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.

14:30The firstborn of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed.

14:31Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.

14:32What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge.

15:2They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.

15:3In their streets, they clothe themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.

15:4Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them.

15:5My heart cries out for Moab! Her nobles flee to Zoar, to Eglath Shelishiyah; for they go up by the ascent of Luhith with weeping; for on the way to Horonaim, they raise up a cry of destruction.

15:6For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate; for the grass has withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing.

15:7Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the willows.

15:8For the cry has gone around the borders of Moab, its wailing to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beer Elim.

15:9For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.

16:2For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.

16:3Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive!

16:4Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortionist is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.

16:5A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.

16:6We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.

16:7Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.

16:8For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea.

16:9Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.

16:10Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.

16:11Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.

16:12It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.

16:13This is the word that the LORD spoke concerning Moab in time past.

16:14But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”

17:2The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and no one shall make them afraid.

17:3The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” says the LORD of Armies.

17:4“It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

17:5It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim.

17:6Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says the LORD, the God of Israel.

17:7In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.

17:8They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherah poles or the incense altars.

17:9In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation.

17:10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.

17:11In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

17:12Ah, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!

17:13The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.

17:14At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

18:2that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!”

18:3All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen!

18:4For the LORD said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

18:5For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches.

18:6They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will eat them in the summer, and all the animals of the earth will eat them in the winter.

18:7In that time, a present will be brought to the LORD of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of Armies, Mount Zion.

19:2I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

19:3The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.

19:4I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies.

19:5The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry.

19:6The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away.

19:7The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

19:8The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish.

19:9Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded.

19:10The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul.

19:11The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings”?

19:12Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what the LORD of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt.

19:13The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, those who are the cornerstone of her tribes.

19:14The LORD has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

19:15Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.

19:16In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the LORD of Armies’s hand, which he shakes over them.

19:17The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of the LORD of Armies, which he determines against it.

19:18In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of Armies. One will be called “The city of destruction.”

19:19In that day, there will be an altar to the LORD in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.

19:20It will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of Armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them.

19:21The LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. Yes, they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and will vow a vow to the LORD, and will perform it.

19:22The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to the LORD, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them.

19:23In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

19:24In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing within the earth;

19:25because the LORD of Armies has blessed them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

20:2at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot.

20:3The LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia,

20:4so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

20:5They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

20:6The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?’”

21:2A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.

21:3Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed that I can’t see.

21:4My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.

21:5They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!

21:6For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.

21:7When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.”

21:8He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.

21:9Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

21:10You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

21:11The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”

21:12The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”

21:13The burden on Arabia. You will lodge in the thickets in Arabia, you caravans of Dedanites.

21:14They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.

21:15For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.

21:16For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail,

21:17and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”

22:2You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.

22:3All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away.

22:4Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

22:5For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, GOD of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.”

22:6Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.

22:7Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.

22:8He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.

22:9You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

22:10You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

22:11You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who planned it long ago.

22:12In that day, the Lord, GOD of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth;

22:13and behold, there is joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”

22:14The LORD of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies.

22:15The Lord, GOD of Armies says, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,

22:16‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!”

22:17Behold, the LORD will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly.

22:18He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you disgrace of your lord’s house.

22:19I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.

22:20It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

22:21and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

22:22I will lay the key of David’s house on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.

22:23I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father’s house.

22:24They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers.

22:25“In that day,” says the LORD of Armies, “the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken it.”

23:2Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon that pass over the sea have replenished.

23:3On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations.

23:4Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have not travailed, nor given birth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins.”

23:5When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.

23:6Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast!

23:7Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?

23:8Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth?

23:9The LORD of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

23:10Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more.

23:11He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. The LORD has ordered the destruction of Canaan’s strongholds.

23:12He said, “You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest.”

23:13Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people didn’t exist. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.

23:14Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste!

23:15It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute.

23:16Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

23:17It will happen after the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. She will return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.

23:18Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to the LORD. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.