64 Oh, that You would 1rend the heavens!

That You would come down!

That the mountains might shake at Your apresence—

2 As fire burns brushwood,

As fire causes water to boil—

To make Your name known to Your adversaries,

That the nations may tremble at Your presence!

3 When bYou did awesome things for which we did not look,

You came down,

The mountains shook at Your presence.

4 For since the beginning of the world

cMen have not heard nor perceived by the ear,

Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,

Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

5 You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness,

Who remembers You in Your ways.

You are indeed angry, for we have sinned—

dIn these ways we continue;

And we need to be saved.

6 But we are all like an unclean thing,

And all eour righteousnesses are like 2filthy rags;

We all ffade as a leaf,

And our iniquities, like the wind,

Have taken us away.

7 And there is no one who calls on Your name,

Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;

For You have hidden Your face from us,

And have 3consumed us because of our iniquities.

8 But now, O Lord,

You are our Father;

We are the clay, and You our gpotter;

And all we are the work of Your hand.

9 Do not be furious, O Lord,

Nor remember iniquity forever;

Indeed, please look—we all are Your people!

10 Your holy cities are a wilderness,

Zion is a wilderness,

Jerusalem a desolation.

11 Our holy and beautiful 4temple,

Where our fathers praised You,

Is burned up with fire;

And all hour pleasant things 5are laid waste.

12 iWill You restrain Yourself because of these things, O Lord?

jWill You 6hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?

The Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia

20 In the year that aTartan 1came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, 2 at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove bthe sackcloth from your 2body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, cwalking naked and barefoot.

3 Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years dfor a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so shall the eking of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, fwith their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 gThen they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. 6 And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for hhelp to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?’ ”

The Fall of Babylon Proclaimed

21 The 1burden against the Wilderness of the Sea.

As awhirlwinds in the South pass through,

So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.

2 A distressing vision is declared to me;

bThe treacherous dealer deals treacherously,

And the plunderer plunders.

cGo up, O Elam!

Besiege, O Media!

All its sighing I have made to cease.

3 Therefore dmy loins are filled with pain;

ePangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.

I was 2distressed when I heard it;

I was dismayed when I saw it.

4 My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;

fThe night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

5 gPrepare the table,

Set a watchman in the tower,

Eat and drink.

Arise, you princes,

Anoint the shield!

6 For thus has the Lord said to me:

“Go, set a watchman,

Let him declare what he sees.”

7 And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,

A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,

And he listened earnestly with great care.

8 3Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!

I stand continually on the hwatchtower in the daytime;

I have sat at my post every night.

9 And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!”

Then he answered and said,

i“Babylon is fallen, is fallen!

And jall the carved images of her gods

He has broken to the ground.”

10 kOh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!

That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts,

The God of Israel,

I have declared to you.

Proclamation Against Edom

11 lThe 4burden against Dumah.

He calls to me out of mSeir,

“Watchman, what of the night?

Watchman, what of the night?”

12 The watchman said,

“The morning comes, and also the night.

If you will inquire, inquire;

Return! Come back!”

Proclamation Against Arabia

13 nThe 5burden against Arabia.

In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,

O you traveling companies oof Dedanites.

14 O inhabitants of the land of Tema,

Bring water to him who is thirsty;

With their bread they met him who fled.

15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,

From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.

16 For thus the Lord has said to me: “Within a year, paccording to the year of a hired man, all the glory of qKedar will fail; 17 and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.”

Proclamation Against Jerusalem

22 The 1burden against the Valley of Vision.

What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,

2 You who are full of noise,

A 2tumultuous city, aa joyous city?

Your slain men are not slain with the sword,

Nor dead in battle.

3 All your rulers have fled together;

They are captured by the archers.

All who are found in you are bound together;

They have fled from afar.

4 Therefore I said, “Look away from me,

bI will weep bitterly;

Do not labor to comfort me

Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”

5 cFor it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity

dBy the Lord God of hosts

In the Valley of Vision—

Breaking down the walls

And of crying to the mountain.

6 eElam bore the quiver

With chariots of men and horsemen,

And fKir uncovered the shield.

7 It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys

Shall be full of chariots,

And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

8 gHe removed the 3protection of Judah.

You looked in that day to the armor hof the House of the Forest;

9 iYou also saw the 4damage to the city of David,

That it was great;

And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,

And the houses you broke down

To fortify the wall.

11 jYou also made a reservoir between the two walls

For the water of the old kpool.

But you did not look to its Maker,

Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.

12 And in that day the Lord God of hosts

lCalled for weeping and for mourning,

mFor baldness and for girding with sackcloth.

13 But instead, joy and gladness,

Slaying oxen and killing sheep,

Eating meat and ndrinking wine:

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

14 pThen it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts,

“Surely for this iniquity there qwill