Isaiah 17–23

Proclamation Against Syria and Israel

17The ^aburden ¹against Damascus.

“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,

And it will be a ruinous heap.

²²The cities of ^bAroer are forsaken;

They will be for flocks

Which lie down, and ^cno one will make them afraid.

^3dThe fortress also will cease from Ephraim,

The kingdom from Damascus,

And the remnant of Syria;

They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,”

Says the Lord of hosts.

⁴“In that day it shall come to pass

That the glory of Jacob will ³wane,

And ^ethe fatness of his flesh grow lean.

^5fIt shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain,

And reaps the heads with his arm;

It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain

In the Valley of Rephaim.

^6gYet gleaning grapes will be left in it,

Like the shaking of an olive tree,

Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough,

Four or five in its most fruitful branches,”

Says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷In that day a man will ^hlook to his Maker,

And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.

⁸He will not look to the altars,

The work of his hands;

He will not respect what his ⁱfingers have made,

Nor the ⁴wooden images nor the incense altars.

⁹In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken ⁵bough

And ⁶an uppermost branch,

Which they left because of the children of Israel;

And there will be desolation.

¹⁰Because you have forgotten ^jthe God of your salvation,

And have not been mindful of the Rock of your ⁷stronghold,

Therefore you will plant pleasant plants

And set out foreign seedlings;

¹¹In the day you will make your plant to grow,

And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;

But the harvest will be a heap of ruins

In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.

¹²Woe to the multitude of many people

Who make a noise ^klike the roar of the seas,

And to the rushing of nations

That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

¹³The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;

But God will ^lrebuke them and they will flee far away, And ^mbe chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,

Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

¹⁴Then behold, at eventide, trouble!

And before the morning, he is no more.

This is the portion of those who plunder us,

And the lot of those who rob us.

Proclamation Against Ethiopia

18Woe ^ato the land shadowed with buzzing wings,

Which is beyond the rivers of ¹Ethiopia,

²Which sends ambassadors by sea,

Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying,

“Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin,

To a people terrible from their beginning onward,

A nation powerful and treading down,

Whose land the rivers divide.”

³All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:

^bWhen he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;

And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.

⁴For so the Lord said to me,

“I will take My rest,

And I will ²look from My dwelling place

Like clear heat in sunshine,

Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect

And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,

He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks

And take away and cut down the branches.

⁶They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey

And for the beasts of the earth;

The birds of prey will summer on them,

And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

⁷In that time ^ca present will be brought to the Lord of hosts

³From a people tall and smooth of skin,

And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,

A nation powerful and treading down,

Whose land the rivers divide—

To the place of the name of the Lord of hosts,

To Mount Zion.

Proclamation Against Egypt

19The ^aburden ¹against Egypt.

Behold, the Lord ^brides on a swift cloud,

And will come into Egypt;

^cThe idols of Egypt will ²totter at His presence,

And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.

²“I will ^dset Egyptians against Egyptians;

Everyone will fight against his brother,

And everyone against his neighbor,

City against city, kingdom against kingdom.

³The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst;

I will destroy their counsel,

And they will ^econsult the idols and the charmers,

The mediums and the sorcerers.

⁴And the Egyptians I will give

^fInto the hand of a cruel master,

And a fierce king will rule over them,”

Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

^5gThe waters will fail from the sea,

And the river will be wasted and dried up.

⁶The rivers will turn foul;

The brooks ^hof defense will be emptied and dried up;

The reeds and rushes will wither.

⁷The papyrus reeds by ³the River, by the mouth of the River,

And everything sown by the River,

Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸The fishermen also will mourn;

All those will lament who cast hooks into the River,

And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.

⁹Moreover those who work in ⁱfine flax

And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;

¹⁰And its foundations will be broken.

All who make wages will be troubled of soul.

¹¹Surely the princes of ^jZoan are fools;

Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel.

^kHow do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise,

The son of ancient kings?”

^12lWhere are they?

Where are your wise men?

Let them tell you now,

And let them know what the Lord of hosts has ^mpurposed against Egypt.

¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools;

ⁿThe princes of ⁴Noph are deceived;

They have also ⁵deluded Egypt,

Those who are the ⁶mainstay of its tribes.

¹⁴The Lord has mingled ^oa perverse spirit in her midst;

And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work,

As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

¹⁵Neither will there be any work for Egypt,

Which ^pthe head or tail,

Palm branch or bulrush, may do.

¹⁶In that day Egypt will ^qbe like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, ^rwhich He waves over it. ¹⁷And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts which He has ^sdetermined against it.

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed

¹⁸In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will ^tspeak the language of Canaan and ^uswear by the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of ⁷Destruction.

¹⁹In that day ^vthere will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the ^wLord at its border. ²⁰And ^xit will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a ^ySavior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them. ²¹Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will ^zknow the Lord in that day, and ^awill make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. ²²And the Lord will strike Egypt, He will strike and ^bheal it; they will return to the Lord, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.

²³In that day ^cthere will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will ^dserve with the Assyrians.

²⁴In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, ²⁵whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria ^ethe work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

The Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia

20In the year that ^aTartan ¹came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, ²at 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.

³Then 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, ⁴so 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. ^5gThen they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. ⁶And 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

21The ¹burden against the Wilderness of the Sea.

As ^awhirlwinds in the South pass through,

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

²A 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.

³Therefore ^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.

⁴My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;

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

^5gPrepare the table,

Set a watchman in the tower,

Eat and drink.

Arise, you princes,

Anoint the shield!

⁶For thus has the Lord said to me:

“Go, set a watchman,

Let him declare what he sees.”

⁷And 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.

⁸³Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!

I stand continually on the ^hwatchtower in the daytime;

I have sat at my post every night.

⁹And 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.”

^10kOh, 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

^11lThe ⁴burden against Dumah.

He calls to me out of ^mSeir,

“Watchman, what of the night?

Watchman, what of the night?”

¹²The watchman said,

“The morning comes, and also the night.

If you will inquire, inquire;

Return! Come back!”

Proclamation Against Arabia

¹³ⁿThe ⁵burden against Arabia.

In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,

O you traveling companies ^oof Dedanites.

¹⁴O inhabitants of the land of Tema,

Bring water to him who is thirsty;

With their bread they met him who…