Isaiah 20–21

20 In the year that aTartan came unto bAshdod, (when cSargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it; 2 At 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. 3 And 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;

4  So 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.

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

And pof Egypt their glory.

6  And 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?

21The aburden of bthe desert of cthe sea.

As dwhirlwinds in the south pass through;

So eit cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.

2  A †grievous vision is declared unto me;

fgThe treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and fthe spoiler spoileth.

Go up, hO Elam: besiege, iO Media;

All the sighing thereof khave I made to cease.

3  Therefore lare my loins filled with pain:

mPangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth:

I was nbowed down at the hearing of it;

I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

4  ||My heart panted, ofearfulness affrighted me:

pThe night of my qpleasure hath he †turned into fear unto me.

5  rPrepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink:

Arise, ye princes, and sanoint the shield.

6  For thus hath the Lord said unto me,

Go, set a watchman,

Let him declare what he seeth.

7  And he saw ta chariot with ua couple of horsemen,

A chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels;

And he hearkened vdiligently with much vheed:

8  And ||he cried, A lion:

My lord, wI stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime,

And wI am set in my ward ||whole nights:

9  And, behold, here cometh ta chariot of men, with ua couple of horsemen.

And he answered and said,

xBabylon is fallen, is fallen;

And yall the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

10  O my zthreshing, and the †corn of amy floor:

That which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,

Have I declared unto you.

11  The bburden of cDumah.

He calleth to me out of dSeir,

Watchman, what of the night?

Watchman, what of the night?

12  The watchman said,

The morning cometh, and also the night:

If ye will inquire, inquire ye:

Return, ecome.

13  The bburden upon cfArabia.

In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge,

O ye gtravelling companies of hDedanim.

14  The inhabitants of the land of iTema ||brought water to him that was thirsty,

They kprevented with their bread him that fled.

15  For they fled ||†from the swords,

From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow,

And from the grievousness of war.

16  For thus hath the Lord said unto me,

Within a year, laccording to the years of an hireling,

And all the glory of mKedar shall fail:

17  And the residue of the number of †archers,

The mighty men of the children of mKedar, shall be diminished:

nFor the Lord God of Israel hath spoken it.