Isaiah 21–23

21ST CHAPTER

Babylon Has Fallen

¹This is the divine revelation about the desert by the sea. 

Like a storm sweeping through the Negev, 

an invader will come from the desert, 

from a terrifying land. 

²I was shown a harsh vision. 

The traitor betrays. 

The destroyer destroys. 

Go to war, Elam! 

Surround them, Media! 

I will put an end to all the groaning. 

³That is why my body is full of trembling. 

Pain grips me like the pain of childbirth. 

I’m disturbed by what I hear. 

I’m terrified by what I see. 

⁴I’m confused. 

I’m shaking with terror. 

The twilight hours I longed for make me tremble. 

⁵Set the table. 

Spread the rugs ⸤by the table⸥. 

Eat. Drink. 

Get up, you leaders! 

Prepare your shields for battle! 

⁶This is what the Lord says to me: 

Post a watchman. 

Have him report whatever he sees. 

⁷He will see chariots, pairs of horsemen, 

riders on donkeys, and riders on camels. 

Let him watch carefully, very carefully. 

⁸The watchman^acalled, 

“Sir, I stand on the watchtower every day. 

Every night, I stand guard at my post. 

⁹Look! Here come chariots and horsemen in pairs.” 

Then he said, 

“Babylon has fallen! It has fallen! 

All the idols they worship lie shattered on the ground.” 

¹⁰You, my people, have been threshed and winnowed.^b

I make known to you what I heard from the Lord of Armies, 

the God of Israel. 

Someone Calling from Seir

¹¹This is the divine revelation about Dumah.^c

Someone is calling to me from Seir, 

“Watchman, how much of the night is left? 

Watchman, how much of the night is left?” 

¹²The watchman answers, 

“Morning is coming, and night will come again. 

If you need to ask, come back and ask.” 

Arabia Will Be Punished

¹³This is the divine revelation about Arabia. 

You caravan of travelers from the people of Dedan 

will spend the night in the forest of Arabia. 

¹⁴Bring water for the thirsty, 

you inhabitants of the land of Tema. 

Bring food to the fugitives. 

¹⁵They flee from swords, 

from swords ready to kill, 

from bows ready to shoot, 

and from the thick of battle. 

¹⁶This is what the Lord says to me: All of Kedar’s honor will be gone in another year. I will count it like workers count the years left on their contracts.¹⁷The remaining number of archers, Kedar’s mighty archers, will be few. The Lord God of Israel has spoken. 

22ND CHAPTER

Judah Will Be Punished

¹This is the divine revelation about the valley of Vision. 

What’s the matter with you? 

Why do all of you go up on the roofs? 

²You are a city filled with shouting, 

a town filled with noise and excitement. 

Your people weren’t killed with swords. 

Your dead didn’t die in battle. 

³All your leaders fled together 

and were captured without their bows and arrows. 

All those who were found were taken prisoner 

before any of them could get far away. 

⁴That is why I say, 

“Turn away from me 

so that I can cry bitterly. 

Don’t try to comfort me 

because of the destruction brought on my people.” 

⁵The Almighty Lord of Armies has chosen a special day. 

It will be a day of confusion and trampling 

in the valley of Vision, 

⸤a day of⸥ tearing down walls and crying for help 

in the mountains. 

⁶Elam takes its quiver of arrows, 

manned chariots, and horsemen. 

Kir uncovers its shields. 

⁷Then your fertile valleys will be filled with chariots, 

and horsemen will stand ready in front of the gate. 

⁸On that day the Lord will remove the defenses of Judah. 

You will look for weapons in the House of the Forest.^a

⁹You will see how many places in David’s wall are broken. 

You will store water in the Lower Pool. 

¹⁰You will count the houses in Jerusalem. 

You will tear down those houses in order to fortify the walls. 

¹¹You will build a reservoir between the two walls 

to hold the water of the Old Pool. 

You didn’t look to Jerusalem’s maker. 

You didn’t see the one who formed it long ago. 

¹²On that day the Almighty Lord of Armies 

will call for crying and for mourning, 

for shaving your heads and for wearing sackcloth. 

¹³Instead, you will rejoice, celebrate, 

slaughter cattle, and butcher sheep. 

You will eat meat, drink wine, and say, 

“Let’s eat and drink because tomorrow we’re going to die.” 

¹⁴The Lord of Armies revealed this to me: “Certainly, this wrong will not be forgiven even when you die,” says the Almighty Lord of Armies. 

Shebna’s Position Will Be Given to Eliakim

¹⁵This is what the Almighty Lord of Armies says: 

Go to Shebna, the man in charge of the palace, and say ⸤to him⸥, 

¹⁶“What are you doing here? 

What right do you have to dig a tomb for yourself? 

What right do you have to cut it out in a prominent place? 

What right do you have to carve out 

a resting place for yourself in the rock? 

¹⁷Look, mighty man! 

The Lord will throw you out. 

He will grab you. 

¹⁸He will wrap you up tightly like a turban. 

He will throw you far away into another land. 

There you will die. 

There your splendid chariots will remain. 

There you will become a disgrace to your master’s household. 

¹⁹“I will remove you from your office 

and do away with your position. 

²⁰When that day comes, I will call my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah. 

²¹I will dress him in your linen robe 

and fasten it with your belt. 

I will give him your authority, 

and he will be like a father to those who live in Jerusalem 

and to the nation of Judah. 

²²I will place the key of the house of David around his neck. 

What he opens no one will shut. 

What he shuts no one will open. 

²³I will fasten him firmly in place like a peg, 

and he will be a source of honor for his father’s household. 

²⁴They will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s household, 

descendants and offspring and all the little utensils, 

from bowls to jars of every kind.” 

²⁵The Lord of Armies declares, 

“On that day the peg which I firmly fastened in place will be removed. 

It will be cut off and will fall, 

and everything hanging on it will be destroyed.” 

The Lord has spoken. 

23RD CHAPTER

Tyre Will Be Punished

¹This is the divine revelation about Tyre. 

Cry loudly, you ships of Tarshish! 

Your port at Tyre is destroyed. 

Word has come to the ships from Cyprus. 

²Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants from Sidon. 

Your messengers have crossed the sea. 

³The grain of Shihor is on the Mediterranean. 

The harvest of the Nile River is brought to Tyre. 

Tyre became the marketplace for the nations. 

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon, because the stronghold by the sea has spoken, 

“I’ve never been in labor or given birth. 

I’ve raised no sons. 

I’ve brought up no daughters.” 

⁵When the news reaches Egypt, 

the Egyptians will shudder over the news about Tyre. 

⁶Travel to Tarshish! 

Cry loudly, you inhabitants of the seacoast! 

⁷Is this your bustling city founded in the distant past? 

Is this the city that sent its people to settle in distant lands? 

⁸Who planned such a thing against Tyre, the city that produced kings? 

Its merchants are princes. 

Its traders are among the honored people of the world. 

⁹The Lord of Armies planned this 

in order to dishonor all arrogant people 

and to humiliate all the honored people of the world. 

¹⁰Travel through your country like the Nile, people of Tarshish. 

You no longer have a harbor. 

¹¹The Lord has stretched his hand over the sea to shake kingdoms. 

He has commanded that Canaan’s fortifications be destroyed. 

¹²He says, “You will no longer be joyful, 

my dear abused people Sidon.” 

Get up, and travel to Cyprus. 

Even there you will find no rest. 

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians. 

These people will be gone. 

Assyria gave this land to the desert animals. 

Assyria set up battle towers, 

stripped palaces bare, 

and turned these places into ruins. 

¹⁴Cry loudly, you ships of Tarshish, because your fortress will be destroyed. ¹⁵When that day comes, Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of the 70 years, Tyre will be like the prostitute in this song: 

¹⁶“Take your lyre. 

Go around in the city, you forgotten prostitute. 

Make sweet music. 

Sing many songs so that you’ll be remembered.” 

¹⁷At the end of 70 years the Lord will come to help Tyre. Then she will go back to earning money as a prostitute. She will become a prostitute for all the world’s kingdoms. ¹⁸Her profits and her earnings will be turned over to the Lord for his holy purpose. It won’t be stored or hoarded. Her merchandise will belong to those who live in the presence of the Lord so that they will have plenty of food and expensive clothing.