Isaiah 17–23

Damascus: A Pile of Dust and Rubble

^1–317A Message concerning Damascus:

“Watch this: Damascus undone as a city,

a pile of dust and rubble!

Her towns emptied of people.

The sheep and goats will move in

And take over the towns

as if they owned them—which they will!

Not a sign of a fort is left in Ephraim,

not a trace of government left in Damascus.

What’s left of Aram?

The same as what’s left of Israel—not much.”

Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

The Day Is Coming

^4–6“The Day is coming when Jacob’s robust splendor goes pale

and his well-fed body turns skinny.

The country will be left empty, picked clean

as a field harvested by field hands.

She’ll be like a few stalks of barley left standing

in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest,

Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked

in the top of the olive tree,

Or the four or five apples

that the pickers couldn’t reach in the orchard.”

Decree of the God of Israel.

^7–8Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They’ll lose interest in all the stuff they’ve made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, hand-made religion—however impressive it is.

⁹And yes, the Day is coming when their fortress cities will be abandoned—the very same cities that the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when Israel invaded! And the country will be empty, desolate.

You Have Forgotten God

^10–11And why? Because you have forgotten God-Your-Salvation,

not remembered your Rock-of-Refuge.

And so, even though you are very religious,

planting all sorts of bushes and herbs and trees

to honor and influence your fertility gods,

And even though you make them grow so well,

bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms,

Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest

you’ll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain.

^12–13Oh my! Thunder! A thundering herd of people!

Thunder like the crashing of ocean waves!

Nations roaring, roaring,

like the roar of a massive waterfall,

Roaring like a deafening Niagara!

But God will silence them with a word,

And then he’ll blow them away like dead leaves off a tree,

like down from a thistle.

¹⁴At bedtime, terror fills the air.

By morning it’s gone—not a sign of it anywhere!

This is what happens to those who would ruin us,

this is the fate of those out to get us.

People Mighty and Merciless

^1–218Doom to the land of flies and mosquitoes

beyond the Ethiopian rivers,

Shipping emissaries all over the world,

down rivers and across seas.

Go, swift messengers,

go to this people tall and handsome,

This people held in respect everywhere,

this people mighty and merciless,

from the land crisscrossed with rivers.

³Everybody everywhere,

all earth-dwellers:

When you see a flag flying on the mountain, look!

When you hear the trumpet blown, listen!

^4–6For here’s what God told me:

“I’m not going to say anything,

but simply look on from where I live,

Quiet as warmth that comes from the sun,

silent as dew during harvest.”

And then, just before harvest, after the blossom

has turned into a maturing grape,

He’ll step in and prune back the new shoots,

ruthlessly hack off all the growing branches.

He’ll leave them piled on the ground

for birds and animals to feed on—

Fodder for the summering birds,

fodder for the wintering animals.

⁷Then tribute will be brought to God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

brought from this people tall and handsome,

This people once held in respect everywhere,

this people once mighty and merciless,

From the land crisscrossed with rivers,

to Mount Zion, God’s place.

Anarchy and Chaos and Killing!

¹19A Message concerning Egypt:

Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud,

moving in on Egypt!

The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake,

Egyptians paralyzed by panic.

^2–4God says, “I’ll make Egyptian fight Egyptian,

brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor,

City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom—

anarchy and chaos and killing!

I’ll knock the wind out of the Egyptians.

They won’t know coming from going.

They’ll go to their god-idols for answers;

they’ll conjure ghosts and hold séances, desperate for answers.

But I’ll turn the Egyptians

over to a tyrant most cruel.

I’ll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king.”

Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

^5–10The River Nile will dry up,

the riverbed baked dry in the sun.

The canals will become stagnant and stink,

every stream touching the Nile dry up.

River vegetation will rot away

the banks of the Nile-baked clay,

The riverbed hard and smooth,

river grasses dried up and gone with the wind.

Fishermen will complain

that the fishing’s been ruined.

Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers

and workers in linen and cotton and wool

Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness—

everyone who works for a living, jobless.

^11–15The princes of Zoan are fools,

the advisors of Pharaoh stupid.

How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh,

“Trust me: I’m wise. I know what’s going on.

Why, I’m descended from the old wisdom of Egypt”?

There’s not a wise man or woman left in the country.

If there were, one of them would tell you

what God-of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt.

As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools

and the princes of Memphis, dunces.

The honored pillars of your society

have led Egypt into detours and dead ends.

God has scrambled their brains,

Egypt’s become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk.

Egypt’s hopeless, past helping,

a senile, doddering old fool.

^16–17On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say “Judah” to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies’ plan against Egypt.

¹⁸On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith and promise to follow God-of-the-Angel-Armies. One of these cities will be honored with the title “City of the Sun.”

^19–22On that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border. It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he’ll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them. God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they’ll get to know him on that Day. They’ll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They’ll make vows and keep them. God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe.

²³On that Day, there will be a highway all the way from Egypt to Assyria: Assyrians will have free range in Egypt and Egyptians in Assyria. No longer rivals, they’ll worship together, Egyptians and Assyrians!

^24–25On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessing from the center. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who blessed Israel, will generously bless them all: “Blessed be Egypt, my people!… Blessed be Assyria, work of my hands!… Blessed be Israel, my heritage!”

Exposed to Mockery and Jeers

^1–220In the year the field commander, sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought and took it, God told Isaiah son of Amoz, “Go, take off your clothes and sandals,” and Isaiah did it, going about naked and barefooted.

^3–6Then God said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked around town naked and barefooted for three years as a warning sign to Egypt and Ethiopia, so the king of Assyria is going to come and take the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles. He’ll take young and old alike and march them out of there naked and barefooted, exposed to mockery and jeers—the bared buttocks of Egypt on parade! Everyone who has put hope in Ethiopia and expected help from Egypt will be thrown into confusion. Everyone who lives along this coast will say, ‘Look at them! Naked and barefooted, shuffling off to exile! And we thought they were our best hope, that they’d rescue us from the king of Assyria. Now what’s going to happen to us? How are we going to get out of this?’ ”

The Betrayer Betrayed

^1–421A Message concerning the desert at the sea:

As tempests drive through the Negev Desert,

coming out of the desert, that terror-filled place,

A hard vision is given me:

The betrayer betrayed, the plunderer plundered.

Attack, Elam!

Lay siege, Media!

Persians, attack!

Attack, Babylon!

I’ll put an end to

all the moaning and groaning.

Because of this news I’m doubled up in pain,

writhing in pain like a woman having a baby,

Baffled by what I hear,

undone by what I see.

Absolutely stunned,

horror-stricken,

I had hoped for a relaxed evening,

but it has turned into a nightmare.

⁵The banquet is spread,

the guests reclining in luxurious ease,

Eating and drinking, having a good time,

and then, “To arms, princes! The fight is on!”

^6–9The Master told me, “Go, post a lookout.

Have him report whatever he spots.

When he sees horses and wagons in battle formation,

lines of donkeys and columns of camels,

Tell him to keep his ear to the ground,

note every whisper, every rumor.”

Just then, the lookout shouted,

“I’m at my post, Master,

Sticking to my post day after day

and all through the night!

I watched them come,

the horses and wagons in battle formation.

I heard them call out the war news in headlines:

‘Babylon fallen! Fallen!

And all its precious god-idols

smashed to pieces on the ground.’ ”

¹⁰Dear Israel, you’ve been through a lot,

you’ve been put through the mill.

The good news I get from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

the God of Israel, I now pass on to you.

^11–12A Message concerning Edom:

A voice calls to me

from the Seir mountains in Edom,

“Night watchman! How long till daybreak?

How long will this night last?”

The night watchman calls back,

“Morning’s coming,

But for now it’s still night.

If you ask me again, I’ll give the same answer.”

^13–15A Message concerning Arabia:

You’ll have to camp out in the desert badlands,

you caravans of Dedanites.

Haul water to the thirsty,

greet fugitives with bread.

Show your desert hospitality,

you who live in Tema.

The desert’s swarming with refugees

escaping…