Isaiah 21–23

A Prophecy Against Babylon

21A prophecy^q against the Desert^r by the Sea:

Like whirlwinds^s sweeping through the southland,^t

an invader comes from the desert,

from a land of terror.

²A dire^u vision has been shown to me:

The traitor betrays,^v the looter takes loot.

Elam,^w attack! Media,^x lay siege!

I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

³At this my body is racked with pain,^y

pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;^z

I am staggered by what I hear,

I am bewildered^a by what I see.

⁴My heart^b falters,

fear makes me tremble;^c

the twilight I longed for

has become a horror^d to me.

⁵They set the tables,

they spread the rugs,

they eat, they drink!^e

Get up, you officers,

oil the shields!^f

⁶This is what the Lord says to me:

“Go, post a lookout^g

and have him report what he sees.

⁷When he sees chariots^h

with teams of horses,

riders on donkeys

or riders on camels,ⁱ

let him be alert,

fully alert.”

⁸And the lookout^aj shouted,

“Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;

every night I stay at my post.

⁹Look, here comes a man in a chariot^k

with a team of horses.

And he gives back the answer:

‘Babylon^l has fallen,^m has fallen!

All the images of its godsⁿ

lie shattered^o on the ground!’ ”

¹⁰My people who are crushed on the threshing floor,^p

I tell you what I have heard

from the Lord Almighty,

from the God of Israel.

A Prophecy Against Edom

¹¹A prophecy against Dumah^b:^q

Someone calls to me from Seir,^r

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?”

¹²The watchman replies,

“Morning is coming, but also the night.

If you would ask, then ask;

and come back yet again.”

A Prophecy Against Arabia

¹³A prophecy^s against Arabia:^t

You caravans of Dedanites,^u

who camp in the thickets of Arabia,

¹⁴bring water for the thirsty;

you who live in Tema,^v

bring food for the fugitives.

¹⁵They flee^w from the sword,^x

from the drawn sword,

from the bent bow

and from the heat of battle.

¹⁶This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract^y would count it, all the splendor^z of Kedar^a will come to an end. ¹⁷The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.^b” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.^c

A Prophecy About Jerusalem

22A prophecy^d against the Valley^e of Vision:^f

What troubles you now,

that you have all gone up on the roofs,^g

²you town so full of commotion,

you city of tumult^h and revelry?ⁱ

Your slain^j were not killed by the sword,^k

nor did they die in battle.

³All your leaders have fled^l together;

they have been captured^m without using the bow.

All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,

having fled while the enemy was still far away.

⁴Therefore I said, “Turn away from me;

let me weepⁿ bitterly.

Do not try to console me

over the destruction of my people.”^o

⁵The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day^p

of tumult and trampling^q and terror^r

in the Valley of Vision,^s

a day of battering down walls^t

and of crying out to the mountains.

⁶Elam^u takes up the quiver,^v

with her charioteers and horses;

Kir^w uncovers the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys^x are full of chariots,

and horsemen are posted at the city gates.^y

⁸The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah,

and you looked in that day^z

to the weapons^a in the Palace of the Forest.^b

⁹You saw that the walls of the City of David

were broken through^c in many places;

you stored up water

in the Lower Pool.^d

¹⁰You counted the buildings in Jerusalem

and tore down houses^e to strengthen the wall.^f

¹¹You built a reservoir between the two walls^g

for the water of the Old Pool,^h

but you did not look to the One who made it,

or have regardⁱ for the One who planned^j it long ago.

¹²The Lord, the Lord Almighty,

called you on that day^k

to weep^l and to wail,

to tear out your hair^m and put on sackcloth.ⁿ

¹³But see, there is joy and revelry,^o

slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,

eating of meat and drinking of wine!^p

“Let us eat and drink,” you say,

“for tomorrow we die!”^q

¹⁴The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing:^r “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned^s for,” says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

¹⁵This is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says:

“Go, say to this steward,

to Shebna^t the palace^u administrator:^v

¹⁶What are you doing here and who gave you permission

to cut out a grave^w for yourself^x here,

hewing your grave on the height

and chiseling your resting place in the rock?

¹⁷“Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you

and hurl^y you away, you mighty man.

¹⁸He will roll you up tightly like a ball

and throw^z you into a large country.

There you will die

and there the chariots^a you were so proud of

will become a disgrace to your master’s house.

¹⁹I will depose you from your office,

and you will be ousted^b from your position.^c

²⁰“In that day^d I will summon my servant,^e Eliakim^f son of Hilkiah. ²¹I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash^g around him and hand your authority^h over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. ²²I will place on his shoulderⁱ the key^j to the house of David;^k what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.^{l 23}I will drive him like a peg^m into a firm place;ⁿ he will become a seat^a of honor^o for the house of his father. ²⁴All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.

²⁵“In that day,^p” declares the Lord Almighty, “the peg^q driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The Lord has spoken.^r

A Prophecy Against Tyre

23A prophecy against Tyre:^s

Wail,^t you ships^u of Tarshish!^v

For Tyre is destroyed^w

and left without house or harbor.

From the land of Cyprus

word has come to them.

²Be silent,^x you people of the island

and you merchants^y of Sidon,^z

whom the seafarers have enriched.

³On the great waters

came the grain of the Shihor;^a

the harvest of the Nile^ab was the revenue of Tyre,^c

and she became the marketplace of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon,^d and you fortress of the sea,

for the sea has spoken:

“I have neither been in labor nor given birth;^e

I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

⁵When word comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish^f at the report from Tyre.^g

⁶Cross over to Tarshish;^h

wail, you people of the island.

⁷Is this your city of revelry,ⁱ

the old, old city,

whose feet have taken her

to settle in far-off lands?

⁸Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns,

whose merchants^j are princes,

whose traders^k are renowned in the earth?

⁹The Lord Almighty planned^l it,

to bring down^m her pride in all her splendor

and to humbleⁿ all who are renowned^o on the earth.

¹⁰Till^b your land as they do along the Nile,

Daughter Tarshish,

for you no longer have a harbor.

¹¹The Lord has stretched out his hand^p over the sea

and made its kingdoms tremble.^q

He has given an order concerning Phoenicia

that her fortresses be destroyed.^r

¹²He said, “No more of your reveling,^s

Virgin Daughter^t Sidon, now crushed!

“Up, cross over to Cyprus;^u

even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians,^cv

this people that is now of no account!

The Assyrians^w have made it

a place for desert creatures;^x

they raised up their siege towers,^y

they stripped its fortresses bare

and turned it into a ruin.^z

¹⁴Wail, you ships^a of Tarshish;^b

your fortress is destroyed!^c

¹⁵At that time Tyre^d will be forgotten for seventy years,^e the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶“Take up a harp, walk through the city,

you forgotten prostitute;^f

play the harp well, sing many a song,

so that you will be remembered.”

¹⁷At the end of seventy years,^g the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution^h and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.^{i 18}Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord;^j they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the Lord,^k for abundant food and fine clothes.^l