Isaiah 17–20

The ^aburden of ^bDamascus.

Behold, Damascus is taken away ^cfrom being a city,

And it shall be a ruinous heap.

^2dThe cities of Aroer are forsaken:

They shall be for flocks,

Which ^eshall lie down, and ^efnone shall make them afraid.

^3gThe fortress also shall ^hcease from Ephraim,

And ^gthe kingdom from ^bDamascus, and the remnant of Syria:

They shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.

⁴And in that day it shall come to pass,

That ^gthe glory of Jacob shall be made thin,

And ⁱthe fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.

⁵And it shall be ^jas when the harvestman gathereth the corn,

And reapeth the ears with his arm;

And it shall be as he that gathereth ears in ^kthe valley of Rephaim.

^6lYet ^mngleaning grapes shall be left in it, ^mas the shaking of an olive tree,

^oTwo or three berries in the top of ^pthe uppermost bough,

^qFour or five in ^rthe outmost fruitful branches thereof,

Saith the Lord God of Israel.

⁷At that day shall a man look to ^shis Maker,

And his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸And he shall not look to the altars, ^tthe work of his hands,

Neither shall respect that which his fingers have made,

Either ^uvthe groves, or the ^vimages.

⁹In that day shall his strong cities be

As a forsaken ^wbough, and ^pan uppermost branch,

^xWhich they left because of the children of Israel:

And there shall be desolation.

¹⁰Because thou hast forgotten ^ythe God of thy salvation,

And hast not been mindful of ^zthe rock of thy strength,

Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants,

And shalt set it with strange slips:

¹¹In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow,

And in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish:

But the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

¹²Woe to the multitude of many people,

Which ^bmake a noise like ^athe noise of the seas;

And to ^athe rushing of nations,

That make a rushing like ^athe rushing of ^cmighty waters.

^13aThe nations shall rush like ^athe rushing of many waters:

But God shall ^drebuke them, and they shall flee far off,

And shall be chased ^eas the chaff of the mountains before the wind,

And like ^fa rolling thing before ^gthe whirlwind.

¹⁴And behold at eveningtide trouble;

And before the morning he is not.

^hThis is the portion of them that spoil us,

And the lot of them that rob us.

XVIII.^aWoe to the land shadowing ^bwith wings,

Which is beyond the rivers of ^cEthiopia:

^2dThat sendeth ambassadors by ^ethe sea,

Even in vessels of ^fbulrushes upon the waters, saying,

Go, ye ^gswift messengers,

To ^ha nation scattered and ^jpeeled,

^hTo a people terrible ^kfrom their beginning hitherto;

^hA nation meted out and trodden down,

^hWhose land the rivers have spoiled.

³All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth,

See ye, when he ⁿlifteth up an ensign on the mountains;

And when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.

⁴For so the Lord said unto me,

I will take my rest, and I will consider in ^omy dwelling place

Like a clear heat upon ^pherbs,

And like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

⁵For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect,

And ^qthe sour grape is ripening in ^qthe flower,

He shall both cut off the sprigs with ^rpruning hooks,

And take away and cut down ^sthe branches.

^6tThey shall be left together unto ^uthe fowls of the mountains,

And to the beasts of the earth:

And ^uthe fowls shall summer upon them,

And all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

⁷In that time ^vshall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts

Of ^ha people scattered and peeled,

And from ^ha people terrible from their beginning hitherto;

^hA nation meted out and trodden under foot,

^hWhose land the rivers have spoiled,

To the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.

XIX.The ^aburden of ^bEgypt.

Behold, ^cthe Lord rideth upon a ^dswift cloud, and shall come into Egypt:

And ^dthe idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence,

And ^ethe heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

²And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians:

And they shall fight every one against his brother, and ^fevery one against his neighbour;

City against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

³And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof;

And I will destroy the counsel thereof:

And they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers,

And to ^gthem that have familiar spirits, and to ^gthe wizards.

⁴And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of ^ha cruel lord;

And ^ha fierce king shall rule over them,

Saith ⁱthe Lord, the Lord of hosts.

⁵And the waters shall ^jfail from ^kthe sea,

And ^lthe river ^mshall be wasted and dried up.

⁶And they shall turn the rivers far away;

And ⁿthe brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up:

The reeds and ^oflags shall ^pwither.

⁷The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks,

And every thing sown by the brooks,

Shall wither, ^ppbe driven away, and be no more.

^8qThe fishers also shall mourn,

And all they that cast ^rangle into the brooks shall lament,

And they that spread nets upon the waters ^sshall languish.

⁹Moreover they that work in ^tfine flax,

And they that weave networks, shall be confounded.

¹⁰And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof,

All that make sluces and ponds for fish.

¹¹Surely the princes of ^uZoan are fools,

The counsel of the wise counsellers of Pharaoh ^vis become brutish:

How say ye unto Pharaoh, ^vvI am the son of the wise,

^wThe son of ancient kings?

^12xWhere are they? where are thy wise men?

And let them tell thee now,

And let them know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

¹³The princes of ^uZoan are become fools,

^xThe princes of ^yNoph are deceived;

They have also ^zseduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.

¹⁴The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof:

And they have ^zcaused Egypt to err in every work thereof,

^aAs a drunken man ^zstaggereth in his vomit.

¹⁵Neither shall there be any work for Egypt,

Which ^bthe head or tail, ^bbranch or rush, may do.

^16cIn that day shall Egypt ^dbe like unto women:

And it shall be afraid and fear

Because of ^ethe shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts,

^eWhich he shaketh over it.

¹⁷And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt,

Every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself,

Because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts,

Which he hath determined against it.

^18cIn that day shall ^ffive cities in the land of Egypt

^gSpeak the language of Canaan,

And swear to the Lord of hosts:

One shall be called, The city of ⁱdestruction.

^19cIn that day shall there be ^kan altar to the Lord ^lin the midst of the land of Egypt,

And ^ka pillar at the border thereof to the Lord.

²⁰And it shall be for a sign and ^mfor a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt:

For ⁿthey shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors,

And he shall send them ^noa saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.

²¹And the Lord shall be known to Egypt,

And ^lthe Egyptians shall know the Lord ^cin that day,

And shall do sacrifice and ^poblation;

Yea, ^qthey shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it.

²²And the Lord shall smite Egypt: ^rhe shall smite and heal it:

And they shall return even to the Lord, and ^she shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.

^23cIn that day ^tshall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria,

And the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria,

And the Egyptians shall serve ^uwith the Assyrians.

^24cIn that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria,

Even a blessing in the midst of the land:

²⁵Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying,

Blessed be Egypt ^xmy people,

And Assyria ^ythe work of my hands,

And Israel ^zmine inheritance.

XX.In the year that ^aTartan came unto ^bAshdod, (when ^cSargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it; ²at the same time spake the Lord by ^dIsaiah the son of Amoz, saying,

Go and loose ^ethe sackcloth from off thy loins,

And put off thy shoe from thy foot.

And he did so, walking ^fnaked and ^gbarefoot. ³And the Lord said,

Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked ^fnaked and ^gbarefoot

^hThree years for ⁱa sign and wonder

Upon Egypt and upon ^jEthiopia;

⁴So shall ^kthe king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the ^jlEthiopians captives,

Young and old, ^fnaked and ^gbarefoot,

Even ^mwith their buttocks uncovered,

To the shame of Egypt.

⁵And ⁿthey shall be afraid and ashamed ^oof ^jEthiopia their expectation,

And ^pof Egypt their glory.

⁶And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day,

Behold, such is our expectation,

Whither we flee for help

To be delivered from the king of Assyria:

And how shall we escape?

XXI.