Isaiah 17–23

Chapter 17

A Message about Damascus and Israel

This message came to me concerning Damascus:

“Look, the city of Damascus will disappear!

It will become a heap of ruins.

²The towns of Aroer will be deserted.

Flocks will graze in the streets and lie down undisturbed,

with no one to chase them away.

³The fortified towns of Israel will also be destroyed,

and the royal power of Damascus will end.

All that remains of Syria

will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,”

declares the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

⁴“In that day Israel’s glory will grow dim;

its robust body will waste away.

⁵The whole land will look like a grainfield

after the harvesters have gathered the grain.

It will be desolate,

like the fields in the valley of Rephaim after the harvest.

⁶Only a few of its people will be left,

like stray olives left on a tree after the harvest.

Only two or three remain in the highest branches,

four or five scattered here and there on the limbs,”

declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁷Then at last the people will look to their Creator

and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸They will no longer look to their idols for help

or worship what their own hands have made.

They will never again bow down to their Asherah poles

or worship at the pagan shrines they have built.

⁹Their largest cities will be like a deserted forest,

like the land the Hivites and Amorites abandoned

when the Israelites came here so long ago.

It will be utterly desolate.

¹⁰Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you.

You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you.

So you may plant the finest grapevines

and import the most expensive seedlings.

¹¹They may sprout on the day you set them out;

yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them,

but you will never pick any grapes from them.

Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain.

¹²Listen! The armies of many nations

roar like the roaring of the sea.

Hear the thunder of the mighty forces

as they rush forward like thundering waves.

¹³But though they thunder like breakers on a beach,

God will silence them, and they will run away.

They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind,

like a tumbleweed whirling before a storm.

¹⁴In the evening Israel waits in terror,

but by dawn its enemies are dead.

This is the just reward of those who plunder us,

a fitting end for those who destroy us.

Chapter 18

A Message about Ethiopia

¹Listen, Ethiopia—land of fluttering sails

that lies at the headwaters of the Nile,

²that sends ambassadors

in swift boats down the river.

Go, swift messengers!

Take a message to a tall, smooth-skinned people,

who are feared far and wide

for their conquests and destruction,

and whose land is divided by rivers.

³All you people of the world,

everyone who lives on the earth—

when I raise my battle flag on the mountain, look!

When I blow the ram’s horn, listen!

⁴For the Lord has told me this:

“I will watch quietly from my dwelling place—

as quietly as the heat rises on a summer day,

or as the morning dew forms during the harvest.”

⁵Even before you begin your attack,

while your plans are ripening like grapes,

the Lord will cut off your new growth with pruning shears.

He will snip off and discard your spreading branches.

⁶Your mighty army will be left dead in the fields

for the mountain vultures and wild animals.

The vultures will tear at the corpses all summer.

The wild animals will gnaw at the bones all winter.

⁷At that time the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will receive gifts

from this land divided by rivers,

from this tall, smooth-skinned people,

who are feared far and wide for their conquests and destruction.

They will bring the gifts to Jerusalem,

where the Lord of Heaven’s Armies dwells.

Chapter 19

A Message about Egypt

This message came to me concerning Egypt:

Look! The Lord is advancing against Egypt,

riding on a swift cloud.

The idols of Egypt tremble.

The hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.

²“I will make Egyptian fight against Egyptian—

brother against brother,

neighbor against neighbor,

city against city,

province against province.

³The Egyptians will lose heart,

and I will confuse their plans.

They will plead with their idols for wisdom

and call on spirits, mediums, and those who consult the spirits of the dead.

⁴I will hand Egypt over

to a hard, cruel master.

A fierce king will rule them,”

says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

⁵The waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields.

The riverbed will be parched and dry.

⁶The canals of the Nile will dry up,

and the streams of Egypt will stink

with rotting reeds and rushes.

⁷All the greenery along the riverbank

and all the crops along the river

will dry up and blow away.

⁸The fishermen will lament for lack of work.

Those who cast hooks into the Nile will groan,

and those who use nets will lose heart.

⁹There will be no flax for the harvesters,

no thread for the weavers.

¹⁰They will be in despair,

and all the workers will be sick at heart.

¹¹What fools are the officials of Zoan!

Their best counsel to the king of Egypt is stupid and wrong.

Will they still boast to Pharaoh of their wisdom?

Will they dare brag about all their wise ancestors?

¹²Where are your wise counselors, Pharaoh?

Let them tell you what God plans,

what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is going to do to Egypt.

¹³The officials of Zoan are fools,

and the officials of Memphis are deluded.

The leaders of the people

have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The Lord has sent a spirit of foolishness on them,

so all their suggestions are wrong.

They cause Egypt to stagger

like a drunk in his vomit.

¹⁵There is nothing Egypt can do.

All are helpless—

the head and the tail,

the noble palm branch and the lowly reed.

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will be as weak as women. They will cower in fear beneath the upraised fist of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ¹⁷Just to speak the name of Israel will terrorize them, for the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has laid out his plans against them.

¹⁸In that day five of Egypt’s cities will follow the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. They will even begin to speak Hebrew, the language of Canaan. One of these cities will be Heliopolis, the City of the Sun.

¹⁹In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and there will be a monument to the Lord at its border. ²⁰It will be a sign and a witness that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is worshiped in the land of Egypt. When the people cry to the Lord for help against those who oppress them, he will send them a savior who will rescue them. ²¹The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians. Yes, they will know the Lord and will give their sacrifices and offerings to him. They will make a vow to the Lord and will keep it. ²²The Lord will strike Egypt, and then he will bring healing. For the Egyptians will turn to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas and heal them.

²³In that day Egypt and Assyria will be connected by a highway. The Egyptians and Assyrians will move freely between their lands, and they will both worship God. ²⁴In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth. ²⁵For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will say, “Blessed be Egypt, my people. Blessed be Assyria, the land I have made. Blessed be Israel, my special possession!”

Chapter 20

A Message about Egypt and Ethiopia

In the year when King Sargon of Assyria sent his commander in chief to capture the Philistine city of Ashdod, ²the Lord told Isaiah son of Amoz, “Take off the burlap you have been wearing, and remove your sandals.” Isaiah did as he was told and walked around naked and barefoot.

³Then the Lord said, “My servant Isaiah has been walking around naked and barefoot for the last three years. This is a sign—a symbol of the terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia. ⁴For the king of Assyria will take away the Egyptians and Ethiopians as prisoners. He will make them walk naked and barefoot, both young and old, their buttocks bared, to the shame of Egypt. ⁵Then the Philistines will be thrown into panic, for they counted on the power of Ethiopia and boasted of their allies in Egypt! ⁶They will say, ‘If this can happen to Egypt, what chance do we have? We were counting on Egypt to protect us from the king of Assyria.’ ”

Chapter 21

A Message about Babylon

This message came to me concerning Babylon—the desert by the sea:

Disaster is roaring down on you from the desert,

like a whirlwind sweeping in from the Negev.

²I see a terrifying vision:

I see the betrayer betraying,

the destroyer destroying.

Go ahead, you Elamites and Medes,

attack and lay siege.

I will make an end

to all the groaning Babylon caused.

³My stomach aches and burns with pain.

Sharp pangs of anguish are upon me,

like those of a woman in labor.

I grow faint when I hear what God is planning;

I am too afraid to look.

⁴My mind reels and my heart races.

I longed for evening to come,

but now I am terrified of the dark.

⁵Look! They are preparing a great feast.

They are spreading rugs for people to sit on.

Everyone is eating and drinking.

But quick! Grab your shields and prepare for battle.

You are being attacked!

⁶Meanwhile, the Lord said to me,

“Put a watchman on the city wall.

Let him shout out what he sees.

⁷He should look for chariots

drawn by pairs of horses,

and for riders on donkeys and camels.

Let the watchman be fully alert.”

⁸Then the watchman called out,

“Day after day I have stood on the watchtower, my lord.

Night after night I have remained at my post.

⁹Now at last—look!

Here comes a man in a chariot

with a pair of horses!”

Then the watchman said,

“Babylon is fallen, fallen!

All the idols of Babylon

lie broken on the ground!”

¹⁰O my people, threshed and winnowed,

I have told you everything the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has said,

everything the God of Israel has told me.

A Message about Edom

¹¹This message came to me concerning Edom:

Someone from Edom keeps calling to me,

“Watchman, how much longer until morning?

When will the night…