Isaiah 21–23

The Fall of Babylon

21The oracle of the wilderness of the sea:

As storm winds passing over in the Negev,

it comes^a from the desert,

from a frightful land.

²A hard revelation is told to me;

the treacherous deals treacherously,

and the destroyer destroys.

Go up, Elam;

lay siege, Media!

I put an end to all of her sighing.

³Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;

pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman giving birth.

I am too bent to hear,^b

I am too dismayed to see.^c

⁴My mind^d staggers; fear terrifies me;

the twilight I desired^e brought^f me fear.

⁵Set out the table in order!

Spread out the rugs!^g

Eat! drink!

Rise up, commanders;

smear^h the shield!

⁶For the Lord said this to me:

“Go, set a watchman in position.

He must announce what he sees.

⁷Whenⁱ he sees riders,^j

a pair of horsemen,

riders^k of donkeys,^l

riders^m of camels,ⁿ

then^o he must listen attentively,

paying attention, paying special^p attention.”

⁸Then^q the watchman^r called,

“Lord, I am standing on the watchtower continually by day,

and I am standing at my post throughout^s the night.

⁹And look at this! A man’s chariot is coming,

a pair of horsemen!”

Then^t he responded and said,

“It has fallen! Babylon has fallen!

And all the images of her gods are^u smashed on the ground!”

¹⁰My downtrodden people

and the son of my threshing floor,

I will announce to you what I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel.

Oracle regarding Dumah

¹¹The oracle of Dumah:

One is calling to me from Seir,

“Watchman, what of^v the night?

Watchman, what of^w the night?”

¹²The watchman says,

“Morning comes,

and also the night.

If you will inquire, inquire;

come back again.”^x

Oracle against Arabia

¹³An oracle concerning^y Arabia:

You will spend the night in the thicket in a desert-plateau,^z

caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴When you happen to meet^a the thirsty, bring water.

Inhabitants of the land of Tema came to meet the fugitive with his bread.

¹⁵For they have fled from the swords,

from the drawn sword and the bent bow,

and from the heaviness of the battle.

¹⁶For the Lord said this to me:

“In one more year,^b like the years of a hired worker,

all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.

¹⁷And the remainder of the number of the bows^c of the warriors of the sons of Kedar will be few.”

For Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.

Oracle against Jerusalem

22The oracle of the valley of vision:

What business do you have going^a up, all of you, to the roofs,

²noisy,^b tumultuous city,

exultant town?

Your slain are not slain by the sword,

nor are they dead from battle.

³All of your rulers have fled together without a bow;

all of you who were found^c were captured.

They were captured together;

they had fled far away.

⁴Therefore I said,

“Look away from me,

let me weep bitterly;^d

you must not insist on comforting me

for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵For the Lord Yahweh of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion^e in the valley of vision,

a tearing down of walls^f and a cry for help to the mountains.^g

⁶And Elam lifted up the quiver,

with chariots^h of menⁱ and cavalry.

And Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷And this happened:

the choicest of your valleys were full of chariots,^j

and the cavalry confidently stood at the gate.

⁸And he uncovered the covering of Judah.

And you looked, on that day, to the weapons^k of the House of the Forest,

⁹and you saw that the breaches in the walls of the city of David were many,

and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰And you counted the houses of Jerusalem,

and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹And you made a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the old pool,

but you did not look to its maker,

and you did not see the one who created it long ago.^l

¹²And the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, called on that day

for weeping and mourning,

and for baldness and girding with^m sackcloth.

¹³But look! Joy and gladness,

the killing of oxenⁿ and the slaughtering of sheep,

the eating of meat and the drinking of wine!

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

¹⁴And it was revealed in my ears by Yahweh of hosts:

“Surely this sin will not be atoned for you until you die!”

says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

Oracle regarding Shebna

¹⁵The Lord, Yahweh of hosts, says this:

“Go! Go to this steward, to Shebna,

who is over the house:

¹⁶‘What business do you have^o here,

and who do you have^p here,

that you have cut a grave cutting here for yourself,

carving his grave on the height,

a dwelling place for him in the rock?

¹⁷Look! Yahweh is about to really hurl^q you, man!

And he is about to grasp you firmly;

¹⁸he will wind a winding tightly around you like a ball, to a wide land.^r

There you shall die,

and there the chariots of your splendor will be,

disgrace to your master’s house!

¹⁹And I will push you from your office,

and he will throw you down from your position.

²⁰And this shall happen:

On that day I will call to my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah,

²¹and I will clothe him with your tunic,

and I will bind your sash firmly about him,

and I will put your authority into his hand,

and he shall be like a father to the inhabitants^s of Jerusalem

and to the house of Judah.

²²And I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder,

and he shall open and no one will be able to shut;

and he shall shut and no one will be able to open.

²³And I will drive him in like a peg into a secure place,

and he will become like a throne of glory to the house of his father.

²⁴And they will hang all of the heaviness of his father’s house on him,

the offspring and the offshoot,

all of the small vessels,

from the bowls to the jars.^t

²⁵On that day, declares^u Yahweh of hosts, the peg that was driven will move away into a secure place, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on her will be cut off. For Yahweh has spoken.’ ”

Oracle against Tyre

23The oracle of Tyre:

Wail, ships of Tarshish, for the house is destroyed so that no one can enter;^a

it is announced to them from the land of Cyprus.

²Be still, inhabitants of the coast,

merchant of Sidon, who travels over the sea, they filled you.

³And on the great waters is the seed of Shihor,

the harvest of the Nile is its produce,

and she was the merchandise of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea,

the fortress of the sea said, saying,

“I was not in labor,

and I have not given birth,

and I have not reared young men,

brought^b up young women.”

⁵When the report comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish at the report about^c Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish!

Wail, inhabitants of the coast!

⁷Is this your exultant one,^d her origin from the days of long ago?

Her feet brought her to dwell afar as an alien.

⁸Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,^e

whose merchants were princes,

her traders the honored ones of the earth?

⁹Yahweh of hosts has planned it:

to defile the pride of all glory,

to humble all the honored ones of the earth.

¹⁰Cross over your own land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish;

there is no longer a harbor.^f

¹¹He has stretched his hand out over the sea;

he has made kingdoms shake.

Yahweh has commanded concerning Canaan

to destroy her fortresses.

¹²And he said,

“You will not continue^g to exult, crushed one, virgin^h daughter of Sidon.

Arise, cross over to Cyprus! There will be no rest for you even there.”

¹³Look at the land of the Chaldeans!

This people no longer exists.

Assyria destinedⁱ it for wild animals.

They erected its siege towers;

they demolished its citadel fortresses.

It made her like a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, ships of Tarshish!

For your fortress is destroyed.

¹⁵And this will happen on that day: And Tyre will be forgotten seventy years,^j

like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years,^k it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶“Take a harp,

go around the city, forgotten prostitute!

Do it well, playing a stringed instrument!

Make numerous songs,^l that you may be remembered.”

¹⁷And this shall happen:

at the end of seventy years,^m Yahweh will visit Tyre,

and she will return to her harlot’s wages,

and she will commit fornication

with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

¹⁸And this shall happen:

her merchandise and her harlot’s wages will be set apart for Yahweh;

it will not be stored up,

and it will not be hoarded,

but her merchandise will be for those who live before the presenceⁿ of Yahweh,

for eating to satiation and for fine clothing.