Isaiah 18:1–22:25
18 Woe ato the land shadowed with buzzing wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of 1Ethiopia,
2 Which sends ambassadors by sea,
Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying,
“Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin,
To a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide.”
3 All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:
bWhen he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;
And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.
“I will take My rest,
And I will 2look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
And take away and cut down the branches.
6 They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey
And for the beasts of the earth;
The birds of prey will summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.
7 In that time ca present will be brought to the Lord of hosts
3From a people tall and smooth of skin,
And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the Lord of hosts,
To Mount Zion.
19 The aburden 1against Egypt.
Behold, the Lord brides on a swift cloud,
And will come into Egypt;
cThe idols of Egypt will 2totter at His presence,
And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.
2 “I will dset Egyptians against Egyptians;
Everyone will fight against his brother,
And everyone against his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3 The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst;
I will destroy their counsel,
And they will econsult the idols and the charmers,
The mediums and the sorcerers.
4 And the Egyptians I will give
fInto the hand of a cruel master,
And a fierce king will rule over them,”
Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
5 gThe waters will fail from the sea,
And the river will be wasted and dried up.
The brooks hof defense will be emptied and dried up;
The reeds and rushes will wither.
7 The papyrus reeds by 3the River, by the mouth of the River,
And everything sown by the River,
Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishermen also will mourn;
All those will lament who cast hooks into the River,
And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.
9 Moreover those who work in ifine flax
And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;
10 And its foundations will be broken.
All who make wages will be troubled of soul.
11 Surely the princes of jZoan are fools;
Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel.
kHow do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise,
The son of ancient kings?”
12 lWhere are they?
Where are your wise men?
Let them tell you now,
And let them know what the Lord of hosts has mpurposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools;
nThe princes of 4Noph are deceived;
They have also 5deluded Egypt,
Those who are the 6mainstay of its tribes.
14 The Lord has mingled oa perverse spirit in her midst;
And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work,
As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 Neither will there be any work for Egypt,
Which pthe head or tail,
Palm branch or bulrush, may do.
16 In that day Egypt will qbe like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, rwhich He waves over it. 17 And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts which He has sdetermined against it.
Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed
18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will tspeak the language of Canaan and uswear by the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of 7Destruction.
19 In that day vthere will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the wLord at its border. 20 And xit will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a ySavior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them. 21 Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will zknow the Lord in that day, and awill make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. 22 And the Lord will strike Egypt, He will strike and bheal it; they will return to the Lord, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.
23 In that day cthere will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will dserve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, 25 whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria ethe work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
The Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia
20 In the year that aTartan 1came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, 2 at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove bthe sackcloth from your 2body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, cwalking naked and barefoot.
3 Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years dfor a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so shall the eking of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, fwith their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 gThen they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. 6 And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for hhelp to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?’ ”
The Fall of Babylon Proclaimed
21 The 1burden against the Wilderness of the Sea.
As awhirlwinds in the South pass through,
So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
2 A distressing vision is declared to me;
bThe treacherous dealer deals treacherously,
And the plunderer plunders.
cGo up, O Elam!
Besiege, O Media!
All its sighing I have made to cease.
3 Therefore dmy loins are filled with pain;
ePangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.
I was 2distressed when I heard it;
I was dismayed when I saw it.
4 My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;
fThe night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.
5 gPrepare the table,
Set a watchman in the tower,
Eat and drink.
Arise, you princes,
Anoint the shield!
6 For thus has the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman,
Let him declare what he sees.”
7 And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,
A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,
And he listened earnestly with great care.
8 3Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!
I stand continually on the hwatchtower in the daytime;
I have sat at my post every night.
9 And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!”
Then he answered and said,
i“Babylon is fallen, is fallen!
And jall the carved images of her gods
He has broken to the ground.”
10 kOh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!
That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel,
I have declared to you.
11 lThe 4burden against Dumah.
He calls to me out of mSeir,
“Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”
“The morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
Return! Come back!”
13 nThe 5burden against Arabia.
In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,
O you traveling companies oof Dedanites.
14 O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Bring water to him who is thirsty;
With their bread they met him who fled.
15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.
16 For thus the Lord has said to me: “Within a year, paccording to the year of a hired man, all the glory of qKedar will fail; 17 and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.”
Proclamation Against Jerusalem
22 The 1burden against the Valley of Vision.
What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
A 2tumultuous city, aa joyous city?
Your slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.
3 All your rulers have fled together;
They are captured by the archers.
All who are found in you are bound together;
They have fled from afar.
4 Therefore I said, “Look away from me,
bI will weep bitterly;
Do not labor to comfort me
Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”
5 cFor it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity
dBy the Lord God of hosts
In the Valley of Vision—
Breaking down the walls
And of crying to the mountain.
6 eElam bore the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And fKir uncovered the shield.
7 It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys
Shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
8 gHe removed the 3protection of Judah.
You looked in that day to the armor hof the House of the Forest;
9 iYou also saw the 4damage to the city of David,
That it was great;
And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses you broke down
To fortify the wall.
11 jYou also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the water of the old kpool.
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.
12 And in that day the Lord God of hosts
lCalled for weeping and for mourning,
mFor baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
13 But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and ndrinking wine:
o“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
14 pThen it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts,
“Surely for this iniquity there qwill be no atonement for you,
Even to your death,” says the …