Isaiah 17–23

An Oracle concerning Damascus

¹⁷An oracle concerning Damascus.

See, Damascus will cease to be a city

and will become a heap of ruins.^*

²Her towns will be deserted forever;ⁱ

they will be places for flocks,

which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid.^*

³The fortress will disappear from Ephraim

and the kingdom from Damascus,

and the remnant of Aram will be

like the glory of the people of Israel,

says the Lord of hosts.^*

⁴On that day

the glory of Jacob will be brought low,

and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.^*

⁵And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain

and their arms harvest the ears,

and as when one gleans the ears of grain

in the Valley of Rephaim.^*

⁶Gleanings will be left in it,

as when an olive tree is beaten—

two or three berries

in the top of the highest bough,

four or five

on the branches of a fruit tree,

says the Lord God of Israel.^*

⁷On that day people will look to their Maker, with their eyes on the Holy One of Israel;^{* 8}they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles^j or the altars of incense.^*

⁹On that day their fortified cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites,^k which they deserted because of the people of Israel, and there will be desolation.^*

¹⁰For you have forgotten God your Savior

and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;

therefore, though you plant pleasant gardens

and set out branches of a foreign god,^*

¹¹though you make them grow on the day that you plant them

and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,

yet the harvest will flee away

in a day of sickness and incurable pain.^*

¹²Woe, the thunder of many peoples,

they thunder like the thundering of the sea!

The roar of nations,

they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!^*

¹³[[When the nations roar like the roaring of many waters,]]^l

he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind

and like whirling dust before the storm.^*

¹⁴At evening time, sudden terror!

Before morning, they are no more.

This is the fate of those who despoil us

and the lot of those who plunder us.^*

An Oracle concerning Cush

¹⁸Woe, land of buzzing^m wings

beyond the rivers of Cush,^*

²sending ambassadors by the Nile

in vessels of papyrus on the waters!

Go, you swift messengers,

to a nation tall and smooth,

to a people feared near and far,

a nation mightyⁿ and conquering,

whose land the rivers divide.^*

³All you inhabitants of the world,

you who live on the earth,

when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!

When a trumpet is blown, listen!^*

⁴For thus the Lord said to me:

“I will quietly look from my dwelling

like clear heat in sunshine,

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”^*

⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is over

and the flower becomes a ripening grape,

he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks,

and the spreading branches he will hew away.^*

⁶They shall all be left

to the birds of prey of the mountains

and to the animals of the earth.

And the birds of prey will summer on them,

and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.^*

⁷At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of hosts from^o a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.^*

An Oracle concerning Egypt

¹⁹An oracle concerning Egypt.

See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud

and comes to Egypt;

the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,

and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.^*

²I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,

and they will fight, one against the other,

neighbor against neighbor,

city against city, kingdom against kingdom;^*

³the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,

and I will confound their plans;

they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead

and the ghosts and the familiar spirits;^*

⁴I will deliver the Egyptians

into the hand of a hard master;

a fierce king will rule over them,

says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts.^*

⁵The waters of the Nile will be dried up,

and the river will be parched and dry;^*

⁶its canals will become foul,

and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up.

Reeds and rushes will rot away,^*

⁷the reeds beside the Nile;^p

all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,

be driven away, and be no more.

⁸Those who fish will mourn;

all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament,

and those who spread nets on the water will languish.

⁹The workers in flax will be in despair,

and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale.

¹⁰Its weavers will be dismayed,

and all who work for wages will be grieved.^*

¹¹Clearly the princes of Zoan are foolish;

the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

“I am one of the sages,

a descendant of ancient kings”?^*

¹²Where now are your sages?

Let them tell you and make known

what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.^*

¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools,

and the princes of Memphis are deluded;

those who are the cornerstones of its tribes

have led Egypt astray.^*

¹⁴The Lord has poured into them^q

a spirit of confusion;

and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings

as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.^*

¹⁵Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed,

will be able to do anything for Egypt.

¹⁶On that day the Egyptians will be like women and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts raises against them.^{* 17}And the land of Judah will become a terror^r to the Egyptians; everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the plan that the Lord of hosts is planning against them.^*

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed

¹⁸On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.^s*

¹⁹On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord at its border.^{* 20}It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and will defend and deliver them.^{* 21}The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day and will serve with sacrifice and offerings, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.^{* 22}The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing, so that they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their supplications and heal them.^*

²³On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.^*

²⁴On that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel my heritage.”^*

Isaiah Dramatizes the Conquest of Egypt and Cush

²⁰In the year that the commander-in-chief, who was sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and took it^*—²at that time the Lord had spoken to Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet,” and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot.^{* 3}Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,^{* 4}so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as captives and the Cushites as exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.^{* 5}And they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast.^{* 6}On that day the inhabitants of this coastland will say, ‘See, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’ ”^*

Oracles concerning Babylon, Edom, and Arabia

²¹The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,

it comes from the desert,

from a terrible land.^*

²A stern vision is told to me;

the betrayer betrays,

and the destroyer destroys.

Go up, O Elam;

lay siege, O Media;

all the sighing she has caused

I bring to an end.^*

³Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;

pangs have seized me

like the pangs of a woman in labor;

I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;

I am dismayed so that I cannot see.^*

⁴My mind reels; horror has appalled me;

the twilight I longed for

has been turned for me into trembling.^*

⁵They prepare the table;

they spread the rugs;

they eat; they drink.

Rise up, commanders;

oil the shield!^*

⁶For thus the Lord said to me:

“Go, post a lookout;

let him announce what he sees.

⁷When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,

riders on donkeys, riders on camels,

let him watch closely,

very closely.”^*

⁸Then the watcher^t called out:

“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,

continually by day,

and at my post I am stationed

throughout the night.^*

⁹Look, there they come, riders,

horsemen in pairs!”

Then he responded,

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon,

and all the images of her gods

lie shattered on the ground.”^*

¹⁰O my threshed and winnowed one,

what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,

the God of Israel, I announce to you.^*

¹¹The oracle concerning Dumah.

One is calling to me from Seir,

“Sentinel, what of the night?

Sentinel, what of the night?”^*

¹²The sentinel says:

“Morning comes and also the night.

If you will inquire, inquire;

come back again.”

¹³The oracle concerning the desert plain.

In the scrub of the desert plain you will lodge,

O caravans of Dedanites.^*

¹⁴Bring water to the thirsty,

O inhabitants of the land of Tema;

meet the fugitive with bread.^*

¹⁵For they have fled from the swords,

from the drawn sword,

from the bent bow,

and from the…