Isaiah 13:19–23:18

19 And aBabylon, the bbeauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,

Will be as when God coverthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 It will anever be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;

Nor will the bArab pitch his tent there,

Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.

21 But adesert creatures will lie down there,

And their houses will be full of 1owls;

Ostriches also will live there, and 2shaggy goats will frolic there.

22 1Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers

And jackals in their luxurious apalaces.

Her fateful time also 2will soon come

And her days will not be prolonged.

Chapter 14

Israel’s Taunt

1 When the Lord will ahave compassion on Jacob and again bchoose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then cstrangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

2 The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the ahouse of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the Lord bas male servants and female servants; and 1they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

3 And it will be in the day when the Lord gives you arest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved,

4 that you will atake up this 1taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

“How bthe oppressor has ceased,

And how 2fury has ceased!

5 “The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

The scepter of rulers

6 aWhich used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,

Which 1subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

7 “The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;

They abreak forth into shouts of joy.

8 “Even the acypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’

9 “aSheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come;

It arouses for you the 1spirits of the dead, all the 2leaders of the earth;

It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

10 “aThey will all respond and say to you,

‘Even you have been made weak as we,

You have become like us.

11 ‘Your apomp and the music of your harps

Have been brought down to Sheol;

Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you

And worms are your covering.’

12 “How you have afallen from heaven,

O 1bstar of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who have weakened the nations!

13 “But you said in your heart,

‘I will aascend to heaven;

I will braise my throne above the stars of God,

And I will sit on the mount of assembly

In the recesses of the north.

14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

aI will make myself like the Most High.’

15 “Nevertheless you awill be thrust down to Sheol,

To the recesses of the pit.

16 “Those who see you will gaze at you,

They will 1ponder over you, saying,

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who shook kingdoms,

17 Who made the world like a awilderness

And overthrew its cities,

Who bdid not 1allow his prisoners to go home?’

18 “All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

Each in his own 1tomb.

19 “But you have been acast out of your tomb

Like 1a rejected branch,

2Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword,

Who go down to the stones of the bpit

Like a ctrampled corpse.

20 “You will not be united with them in burial,

Because you have ruined your country,

You have slain your people.

May the aoffspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever.

21 “Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter

Because of the ainiquity of their fathers.

They must not arise and take possession of the earth

And fill the face of the world with cities.”

22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon aname and survivors, boffspring and posterity,” declares the Lord.

23 “I will also make it a possession for the ahedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of bdestruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.

Judgment on Assyria

24 The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, ajust as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand,

25 to abreak Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his byoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder.

26 “This is the aplan 1devised against the whole earth; and this is the bhand that is stretched out against all the nations.

27 “For athe Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

28 In the ayear that King Ahaz died this 1boracle came:

Judgment on Philistia

29 “Do not rejoice, O aPhilistia, all of you,

Because the rod that bstruck you is broken;

For from the serpent’s root a cviper will come out,

And its fruit will be a dflying serpent.

30 “1Those who are most ahelpless will eat,

And the needy will lie down in security;

I will 2destroy your root with bfamine,

And it will kill off your survivors.

31 “Wail, O agate; cry, O city;

1Melt away, O bPhilistia, all of you;

For smoke comes from the cnorth,

And dthere is no straggler in his ranks.

32 “How then will one answer the amessengers of the nation?

That bthe Lord has founded Zion,

And cthe afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.”

Chapter 15

Judgment on Moab

1 The 1oracle concerning aMoab.

Surely in a night bAr of Moab is devastated and ruined;

Surely in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.

2 They have gone up to the 1temple and to aDibon, even to the high places to weep.

Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;

Everyone’s head is bbald and every beard is cut off.

3 In their streets they have girded themselves with asackcloth;

bOn their housetops and in their squares

Everyone is wailing, 1cdissolved in tears.

4 aHeshbon and Elealeh also cry out,

Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;

Therefore the 1armed men of Moab cry aloud;

His soul trembles within him.

5 My heart cries out for Moab;

His fugitives are as far as aZoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,

For they go up the bascent of Luhith weeping;

Surely on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress cover their ruin.

6 For the awaters of Nimrim are 1desolate.

Surely the grass is withered, the tender grass 2died out,

There is bno green thing.

7 Therefore the aabundance which they have acquired and stored up

They carry off over the brook of 1Arabim.

8 For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,

Its wail goes as far as Eglaim and its wailing even to Beer-elim.

9 For the waters of Dimon are full of 1blood;

Surely I will bring added woes upon Dimon,

A alion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.

Chapter 16

Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation

1 aSend the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,

From 1bSela by way of the wilderness to the cmountain of the daughter of Zion.

2 Then, like 1afleeing birds or scattered 2nestlings,

The daughters of bMoab will be at the fords of the cArnon.

3 “1Give us advice, make a decision;

2Cast your ashadow like night 3at high noon;

bHide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.

4 “Let the 1outcasts of Moab stay with you;

Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”

For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,

aOppressors have completely disappeared from the land.

5 A athrone will even be established in lovingkindness,

And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of bDavid;

Moreover, he will seek justice

And be prompt in righteousness.

6 aWe have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;

Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;

bHis idle boasts are 1false.

7 Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.

You will moan for the araisin cakes of bKir-hareseth

As those who are utterly stricken.

8 For the fields of aHeshbon have 1withered, the vines of bSibmah as well;

The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters

Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;

cIts tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.

9 Therefore I will aweep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;

I will drench you with my tears, O bHeshbon and Elealeh;

For the shouting over your csummer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.

10 aGladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;

In the bvineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,

No ctreader treads out wine in the presses,

For I have made the shouting to cease.

11 Therefore my 1aheart intones like a harp for Moab

And my 2inward feelings for Kir-hareseth.

12 So it will come about when Moab apresents himself,

When he bwearies himself upon his chigh place

And comes to his sanctuary to pray,

That he will not prevail.

13 This is the word which the Lord spoke earlier concerning Moab.

14 But now the Lord speaks, saying, “Within three years, as 1aa hired man would count them, the glory of bMoab will be degraded along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and 2impotent.”

Chapter 17

Prophecy about Damascus

1 The 1aoracle concerning bDamascus.

“Behold, Damascus is about to be cremoved from being a city

And will become a dfallen ruin.

2 “The cities 1of aAroer are forsaken;

They will be for bflocks 2to lie down in,

And there will be cno one to frighten them.

3 “The 1afortified city will disappear from Ephraim,

And 2sovereignty from Damascus

And the remnant of Aram;

They will be like the bglory of the sons of Israel,”

Declares the Lord of hosts.

4 Now in that day the aglory of Jacob will 1fade,

And bthe fatness of his flesh will become lean.

5 It will be aeven like the 1reaper gathering the standing grain,

As his arm harvests the ears,

Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain

In the bvalley of Rephaim.

6 Yet agleanings will be left in it like the 1shaking of an olive tree,

Two or three olives on the topmost bough,

Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,

Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 In that day man will ahave regard for his Maker

And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

8 He will not have regard for the aaltars, the work of his hands,

Nor will he look to that which his bfingers have made,

…