Isaiah 21–23

God’s Message to Babylon

21This is a message about the Desert by the Sea: ⁿ

Disaster is coming from the desert

like wind blowing in the south.

It is coming from a terrible country.

²I have seen a terrible vision.

I see traitors turning against you

and people taking your wealth.

Elam, attack the people!

Media, surround the city and attack it!

I will bring an end to the pain the city causes.

³I saw those terrible things, and now I am in pain;

my pains are like the pains of giving birth.

What I hear makes me very afraid;

what I see causes me to shake with fear.

⁴I am worried,

and I am shaking with fear.

My pleasant evening

has become a night of fear.

⁵They set the table;

they spread the rugs;

they eat and drink.

Leaders, stand up.

Prepare the shields for battle!

⁶The Lord said to me,

“Go, place a lookout for the city

and have him report what he sees.

⁷If he sees chariots and teams of horses,

donkeys, or camels,

he should pay very close attention.”

⁸Then the lookout called out,

“My master, each day I stand in the watchtower watching;

every night I have been on guard.

⁹Look, I see a man coming in a chariot

with a team of horses.”

The man gives back the answer,

“Babylon has fallen. It has fallen!

All the statues of her gods

lie broken on the ground.”

¹⁰My people are crushed like grain on the threshing floor.

My people, I tell you what I have heard

from the Lord All-Powerful,

from the God of Israel.

God’s Message to Edom

11This is a message about Dumah: ⁿ

Someone calls to me from Edom,

“Watchman, how much of the night is left?

Watchman, how much longer will it be night?”

¹²The watchman answers,

“Morning is coming, but then night will come again.

If you have something to ask,

then come back and ask.”

God’s Message to Arabia

¹³This is a message about Arabia:

A group of traders from Dedan

spent the night near some trees in Arabia.

¹⁴They gave water to thirsty travelers;

the people of Tema gave food

to those who were escaping.

¹⁵They were running from swords,

from swords ready to kill,

from bows ready to shoot,

from a hard battle.

¹⁶This is what the Lord said to me: “In one year all the glory of the country of Kedar will be gone. (This is a year as a hired helper counts time.) ¹⁷At that time only a few of the archers, the soldiers of Kedar, will be left alive.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.

God’s Message to Jerusalem

22This is a message about the Valley of Vision: ⁿ

What is wrong with you people?

Why are you on your roofs? ⁿ

²This city was a very busy city,

full of noise and wild parties.

Now your people have been killed,

but not with swords,

nor did they die in battle.

³All your leaders ran away together,

but they have been captured without using a bow.

All you who were captured

tried to run away before the enemy came.

⁴So I say, “Don’t look at me.

Let me cry loudly.

Don’t hurry to comfort me

about the destruction of Jerusalem.”

⁵The Lord God All-Powerful has chosen a special day

of riots and confusion.

People will trample each other in the Valley of Vision.

The city walls will be knocked down,

and the people will cry out to the mountain.

⁶The soldiers from Elam will gather their arrows

and their chariots and men on horses.

Kir will prepare their shields.

⁷Your nicest valleys will be filled with chariots.

Horsemen will be ordered to guard the gates of the city.

⁸The walls protecting Judah will fall.

At that time the people of Jerusalem depended on

the weapons kept at the Palace of the Forest.

⁹You saw that the walls of Jerusalem

had many cracks that needed repairing.

You stored up water in the lower pool.

¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem,

and you tore down houses to repair the walls with their stones.

¹¹You made a pool between the two walls

to save water from the old pool,

but you did not trust the God who made these things;

you did not respect the One who planned them long ago.

¹²The Lord God All-Powerful told the people

to cry and be sad,

to shave their heads and wear rough cloth.

¹³But look, the people are happy

and are having wild parties.

They kill the cattle and the sheep;

they eat the food and drink the wine.

They say, “Let us eat and drink,

because tomorrow we will die.”

¹⁴The Lord All-Powerful said to me: “You people will die before this guilt is forgiven.” The Lord God All-Powerful said this.

God’s Message to Shebna

¹⁵This is what the Lord God All-Powerful says:

“Go to this servant Shebna,

the manager of the palace.

¹⁶Say to him, ‘What are you doing here?

Who said you could cut out a tomb for your self here?

Why are you preparing your tomb in a high place?

Why are you carving out a tomb from the rock?

¹⁷Look, mighty one! The Lord will throw you away.

He will take firm hold of you

¹⁸and roll you tightly into a ball

and throw you into another country.

There you will die,

and there your fine chariots will remain.

You are a disgrace to your master’s house.

¹⁹I will force you out of your important job,

and you will be thrown down from your important place.’

²⁰“At that time I will call for my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. ²¹I will take your robe and put it on him and give him your belt. I will hand over to him the important job you have, and he will be like a father to the people of Jerusalem and the family of Judah. ²²I will put the key to the house of David around his neck. If he opens a door, no one will be able to close it; if he closes a door, no one will be able to open it. ²³He will be like an honored chair in his father’s house. I will make him strong like a peg that is hammered into a strong board. ²⁴All the honored and important things of his family will depend on him; all the adults and little children will depend on him. They will be like bowls and jars hanging on him.

²⁵“At that time,” says the Lord All-Powerful, “the peg hammered into the strong board will weaken. It will break and fall, and everything hanging on it will be destroyed.” The Lord says this.

God’s Message to Lebanon

23This is a message about Tyre:

You trading ships, cry!

The houses and harbor of Tyre are destroyed.

This news came to the ships

from the land of Cyprus.

²Be silent, you who live on the island of Tyre;

you merchants of Sidon, be silent.

Sailors have made you rich.

³They traveled the sea to bring grain from Egypt;

the sailors of Tyre brought grain from the Nile Valley

and sold it to other nations.

⁴Sidon, be ashamed.

Strong city of the sea, be ashamed, because the sea says:

“I have not felt the pain of giving birth;

I have not reared young men or women.”

⁵Egypt will hear the news about Tyre,

and it will make Egypt hurt with sorrow.

⁶You ships should return to Tarshish.

You people living near the sea should be sad.

⁷Look at your once happy city!

Look at your old, old city!

People from that city have traveled

far away to live.

⁸Who planned Tyre’s destruction?

Tyre made others rich.

Its merchants were treated like princes,

and its traders were greatly respected.

⁹It was the Lord All-Powerful who planned this.

He decided to make these proud people unimportant;

he decided to disgrace those who were greatly respected.

¹⁰Go through your land, people of Tarshish,

like the Nile goes through Egypt.

There is no harbor for you now!

¹¹The Lord has stretched his hand over the sea

and made its kingdoms tremble.

He commands that Canaan’s

strong, walled cities be destroyed.

¹²He said, “Sidon, you will not rejoice any longer,

because you are destroyed.

Even if you cross the sea to Cyprus,

you will not find a place to rest.”

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians;

it is not a country now.

Assyria has made it a place for wild animals.

Assyria built towers to attack it;

the soldiers took all the treasures from its cities,

and they turned it into ruins.

¹⁴So be sad, you trading ships,

because your strong city is destroyed.

¹⁵At that time people will forget about Tyre for seventy years, which is the length of a king’s life. After seventy years, Tyre will be like the prostitute in this song:

¹⁶“Oh woman, you are forgotten.

Take your harp and walk through the city.

Play your harp well. Sing your song often.

Then people will remember you.”

¹⁷After seventy years the Lord will deal with Tyre, and it will again have trade. It will be like a prostitute for all the nations of the earth. ¹⁸The profits will be saved for the Lord. Tyre will not keep the money she earns but will give them to the people who serve the Lord, so they will have plenty of food and nice clothes.