Isaiah 21–23

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 fled.

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

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

¹⁶For 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; ¹⁷and 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

22The ¹burden against the Valley of Vision.

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

²You who are full of noise,

A ²tumultuous city, ^aa joyous city?

Your slain men are not slain with the sword,

Nor dead in battle.

³All 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.

⁴Therefore 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.”

^5cFor 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.

^6eElam bore the quiver

With chariots of men and horsemen,

And ^fKir uncovered the shield.

⁷It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys

Shall be full of chariots,

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

^8gHe removed the ³protection of Judah.

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

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

That it was great;

And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,

And the houses you broke down

To fortify the wall.

^11jYou 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.

¹²And in that day the Lord God of hosts

^lCalled for weeping and for mourning,

^mFor baldness and for girding with sackcloth.

¹³But instead, joy and gladness,

Slaying oxen and killing sheep,

Eating meat and ⁿdrinking wine:

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

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

“Surely for this iniquity there ^qwill be no atonement for you,

Even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts.

The Judgment on Shebna

¹⁵Thus says the Lord God of hosts:

“Go, proceed to this steward,

To ^rShebna, who is over the house, and say:

¹⁶‘What have you here, and whom have you here,

That you have hewn a sepulcher here,

As he ^swho hews himself a sepulcher on high,

Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock?

¹⁷Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently,

O mighty man,

^tAnd will surely seize you.

¹⁸He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball

Into a large country;

There you shall die, and there ^uyour glorious chariots

Shall be the shame of your master’s house.

¹⁹So I will drive you out of your office,

And from your position ⁵he will pull you down.

²⁰‘Then it shall be in that day,

That I will call My servant ^vEliakim the son of Hilkiah;

²¹I will clothe him with your robe

And strengthen him with your belt;

I will commit your responsibility into his hand.

He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem

And to the house of Judah.

²²The key of the house of David

I will lay on his ^wshoulder;

So he shall ^xopen, and no one shall shut;

And he shall shut, and no one shall open.

²³I will fasten him as ^ya peg in a secure place,

And he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.

²⁴‘They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the posterity, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pitchers. ²⁵In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘the peg that is fastened in the secure place will be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off; for the Lord has spoken.’ ”

Proclamation Against Tyre

23The ^aburden ¹against Tyre.

Wail, you ships of Tarshish!

For it is laid waste,

So that there is no house, no harbor;

From the land of ²Cyprus it is revealed to them.

²Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,

You merchants of Sidon,

³Whom those who cross the sea have filled.

³And on great waters the grain of Shihor,

The harvest of ⁴the River, is her revenue;

And ^bshe is a marketplace for the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon;

For the sea has spoken,

The strength of the sea, saying,

“I do not labor, nor bring forth children;

Neither do I rear young men,

Nor bring up virgins.”

^5cWhen the report reaches Egypt,

They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish;

Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!

⁷Is this your ^djoyous city,

Whose antiquity is from ancient days,

Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?

⁸Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, ^ethe crowning city,

Whose merchants are princes,

Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?

⁹The Lord of hosts has ^fpurposed it,

To ⁵bring to dishonor the ^gpride of all glory,

To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

¹⁰Overflow through your land like ⁶the River,

O daughter of Tarshish;

There is no more ⁷strength.

¹¹He stretched out His hand over the sea,

He shook the kingdoms;

The Lord has given a commandment ^hagainst Canaan

To destroy its strongholds.

¹²And He said, “You will rejoice no more,

O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.

Arise, ⁱcross over to Cyprus;

There also you will have no rest.”

¹³Behold, the land of the ^jChaldeans,

This people which was not;

Assyria founded it for ^kwild beasts of the desert.

They set up its towers,

They raised up its palaces,

And brought it to ruin.

^14lWail, you ships of Tarshish!

For your strength is laid waste.

¹⁵Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

¹⁶“Take a harp, go about the city,

You forgotten harlot;

Make sweet melody, sing many songs,

That you may be remembered.”

¹⁷And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire, and ^mcommit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. ¹⁸Her gain and her pay ⁿwill be set apart for the Lord; it will not be treasured nor laid up, for her gain will be for those who dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for ⁸fine clothing.