Isaiah 21–23

Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon

21The ^toracle concerning the wilderness of ^uthe sea.

^vAs whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,

it comes from the wilderness,

from a terrible land.

²A stern vision is told to me;

^wthe traitor betrays,

and the destroyer destroys.

Go up, O ^xElam;

lay siege, O ^yMedia;

all the ^zsighing she has caused

I bring to an end.

³Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;

^apangs have seized me,

like the pangs of a woman in labor;

I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;

I am dismayed so that I cannot see.

⁴My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;

^bthe twilight I longed for

has been turned for me into trembling.

^5cThey prepare the table,

they spread the rugs,¹

they eat, they drink.

Arise, O princes;

^doil the shield!

⁶For thus the Lord said to me:

“Go, set a watchman;

let him announce what he sees.

⁷When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,

riders on donkeys, riders on camels,

let him listen diligently,

very diligently.”

⁸Then he who saw cried out:²

^e“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,

continually by day,

and at my post I am stationed

whole nights.

⁹And behold, here come riders,

horsemen in pairs!”

^fAnd he answered,

^g“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;

^hand all the carved images of her gods

he has shattered to the ground.”

¹⁰O ⁱmy threshed and winnowed one,

what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,

the God of Israel, I announce to you.

¹¹The ^joracle concerning ^kDumah.

One is calling to me from ^lSeir,

“Watchman, what time of the night?

Watchman, what time of the night?”

¹²The watchman says:

“Morning comes, and also ^mthe night.

If you will inquire, ⁿinquire;

come back again.”

¹³The ^ooracle concerning ^pArabia.

In the thickets in ^pArabia you will lodge,

O ^qcaravans of ^pDedanites.

¹⁴To the thirsty bring water;

meet the fugitive with bread,

O inhabitants of the land of ^rTema.

¹⁵For they have fled from the swords,

from the drawn sword,

from the bent bow,

and from the press of battle.

¹⁶For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, ^saccording to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of ^tKedar will come to an end. ¹⁷And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of ^tKedar will be few, ^ufor the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.”

An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem

22The ^voracle concerning ^wthe valley of vision.

What do you mean that you have gone up,

all of you, to the housetops,

²you who are full of shoutings,

tumultuous city, ^xexultant town?

Your slain are ^ynot slain with the sword

or dead in battle.

^3zAll your leaders have fled together;

without the bow they were captured.

All of you who were found were captured,

though they had fled far away.

⁴Therefore I said:

“Look away from me;

^alet me weep bitter tears;

do not labor to comfort me

concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

^5bFor the Lord God of hosts has ^ca day

of tumult and ^dtrampling and ^econfusion

in ^wthe valley of vision,

a battering down of walls

and a shouting to the mountains.

⁶And ^fElam bore the quiver

with chariots and horsemen,

and ^gKir uncovered the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,

and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.

⁸He has taken away ^hthe covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to ⁱthe weapons of the House of the Forest, ⁹and you saw that ^jthe breaches of the city of David were many. ^kYou collected the waters of the lower pool, ¹⁰and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ^11kYou made a reservoir between ^lthe two walls for the water of ^mthe old pool. But ⁿyou did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

¹²In that day ^othe Lord God of hosts

called for weeping and mourning,

for ^pbaldness and ^qwearing sackcloth;

¹³and behold, joy and gladness,

killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,

eating flesh and drinking wine.

^r“Let us eat and drink,

for tomorrow we die.”

¹⁴The Lord of hosts ^shas revealed himself in my ears:

“Surely ^tthis iniquity will not be atoned for you ^uuntil you die,”

says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to ^vShebna, who is over the household, and say to him: ¹⁶What have you to do here, and whom have you here, ^wthat you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you ^xwho cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? ¹⁷Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. ^yHe will seize firm hold on you ¹⁸and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be ^zyour glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house. ^19aI will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. ²⁰In that day I will call my servant ^bEliakim the son of Hilkiah, ²¹and ^bI will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be ^ca father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²²And I will place ^don his shoulder ^ethe key of the house of David. ^fHe shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. ²³And I will fasten him ^glike a peg in a secure place, and he will become ^ha throne of honor to his father’s house. ²⁴And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. ²⁵In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, ^gthe peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”

An Oracle Concerning Tyre and Sidon

23The ⁱoracle concerning ^jTyre.

Wail, O ^kships of Tarshish,

for Tyre is laid waste, ^lwithout house or harbor!

From ^mthe land of Cyprus¹

it is revealed to them.

²Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;

the merchants of ⁿSidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.

³And on many waters

your revenue was the grain of Shihor,

the harvest of the Nile;

you were ^othe merchant of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, O ⁿSidon, for the sea has spoken,

the stronghold of the sea, saying:

“I have neither labored nor given birth,

I have neither reared young men

nor brought up young women.”

⁵When the report comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish² over the report about Tyre.

^6pCross over to Tarshish;

wail, O inhabitants of the coast!

⁷Is this your exultant city

^qwhose origin is from days of old,

whose feet carried her

to settle far away?

⁸Who has purposed this

against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,

whose merchants were princes,

whose traders were the honored of the earth?

⁹The Lord of hosts has purposed it,

^rto defile the pompous pride of all glory,³

to dishonor all the honored of the earth.

¹⁰Cross over your land like the Nile,

O daughter of Tarshish;

there is no restraint anymore.

^11sHe has stretched out his hand over the sea;

he has shaken the kingdoms;

the Lord has given command concerning Canaan

to destroy its strongholds.

¹²And he said:

“You will no more exult,

O oppressed virgin daughter of ^tSidon;

arise, ^ucross over to ^vCyprus,

even there you will have no rest.”

¹³Behold the land of ^wthe Chaldeans! This is the people that was not;⁴ Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected ^xtheir siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.

^14yWail, O ships of Tarshish,

for your stronghold is laid waste.

¹⁵In that day Tyre will be forgotten for ^zseventy years, like the days⁵ of one king. At the end of ^zseventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶“Take a harp;

go about the city,

O forgotten prostitute!

Make sweet melody;

sing many songs,

that you may be remembered.”

¹⁷At the end of ^aseventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and ^bwill prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. ¹⁸Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.