Isaiah 31–33

Alliance with Egypt Is Futile

³¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help

and who rely on horses,

who trust in chariots because they are many

and in horsemen because they are very strong,

but do not look to the Holy One of Israel

or consult the Lord!^*

²Yet he is wise and can bring disaster;

he does not depart from his words

but will rise against the house of the evildoers

and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.^*

³The Egyptians are human and not God;

their horses are flesh and not spirit.

When the Lord stretches out his hand,

the helper will stumble, and the one helped will fall,

and they will all perish together.^*

⁴For thus the Lord said to me,

“As a lion or a young lion growls over its prey

and, when a band of shepherds is called out against it,

is not terrified by their shouting

or daunted at their noise,

so the Lord of hosts will come down

to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.^*

⁵Like birds hovering overhead, so the Lord of hosts

will protect Jerusalem;

he will protect and deliver it;

he will spare and rescue it.”^*

⁶Turn back to him whom you^f have deeply betrayed, O people of Israel.^{* 7}For on that day all of you shall throw away your idols of silver and idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.^*

⁸“Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword not of mortals,

and a sword not of humans shall devour him;

he shall flee from the sword,

and his young men shall be put to forced labor.^*

⁹His rock shall pass away in terror,

and his officers desert the standard in panic,”

says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion

and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.^*

Government with Justice Predicted

³²See, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes^g will rule with justice.^*

²Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,

a covert from the tempest,

like streams of water in a dry place,

like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.^*

³Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed,

and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.^*

⁴The minds of the rash will have good judgment,

and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.^*

⁵A fool will no longer be called noble

nor a villain said to be honorable.^*

⁶For fools speak folly,

and their minds plot iniquity:

to practice ungodliness,

to utter error concerning the Lord,

to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,

and to deprive the thirsty of drink.^*

⁷The villainies of villains are evil;

they devise wicked devices

to ruin the poor with lying words,

even when the plea of the needy is right.^*

⁸But those who are noble plan noble things,

and by noble things they stand.^*

Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;

you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.^*

¹⁰In little more than a year

you will shudder, you complacent ones,

for the vintage will fail;

the fruit harvest will not come.^*

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease;

shudder, you complacent ones;

strip and make yourselves bare,

and put sackcloth on your loins.^*

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,^h

for the fruitful vine,^*

¹³for the soil of my people

growing up in thorns and briers,

yes, for all the joyous houses

in the jubilant city.^*

¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken,

the populous city deserted;

the hill and the watchtower

will become dens forever,

the joy of wild asses,

a pasture for flocks;^*

¹⁵until a spirit from on high is poured out on us,

and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.^*

The Peace of God’s Reign

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness

and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.^*

¹⁷The effect of righteousness will be peace,

and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.^*

¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,

in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

¹⁹The forest will disappear completely,ⁱ

and the city will be utterly laid low.^*

²⁰Happy will you be who sow beside every stream,

who let the ox and the donkey range freely.^*

A Prophecy of Deliverance from Foes

³³Woe to the destroyer,

who yourself have not been destroyed;

you treacherous one,

with whom no one has dealt treacherously!

When you have ceased to destroy,

you will be destroyed;

and when you have stopped dealing treacherously,

you will be dealt with treacherously.^*

²O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.

Be our arm every morning,

our salvation in the time of trouble.^*

³At the sound of tumult, peoples fled;

before your majesty, nations scattered.^*

⁴Spoil was gathered as the caterpillar gathers;

as locusts leap, they leaped^j upon it.

⁵The Lord is exalted; he dwells on high;

he filled Zion with justice and righteousness;^*

⁶he will be the stability of your times,

abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.^k*

⁷Listen! The people of Ariel^l cry out in the streets;

the envoys of peace weep bitterly.^*

⁸The highways are deserted;

travelers have quit the road.

The treaty is broken;

its oaths^m are despised,

the people are disregarded.

⁹The land mourns and languishes;

Lebanon is confounded and withers away;

Sharon is like a desert,

and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

¹⁰“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,

“now I will lift myself up;

now I will be exalted.

¹¹You conceive chaff; you bring forth stubble;

wind like a fireⁿ will consume you.

¹²And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,

like thorns cut down that are burned in the fire.”

¹³Hear, you who are far away, what I have done,

and you who are near, acknowledge my might.

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid;

trembling has seized the godless:

“Who among us can live with the devouring fire?

Who among us can live with everlasting flames?”

¹⁵Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly,

who despise the gain of oppression,

who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,

who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed

and shut their eyes from looking on evil,

¹⁶they will live on the heights;

their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;

their food will be supplied, their water assured.

The Land of the Majestic King

¹⁷Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;

they will behold a land that stretches far away.

¹⁸Your mind will muse on the terror:

“Where is the one who counted?

Where is the one who weighed the tribute?

Where is the one who counted the towers?”^*

¹⁹No longer will you see the insolent people,

the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,

stammering in a language that you cannot understand.^*

²⁰Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!

Your eyes will see Jerusalem,

a quiet habitation, an immovable tent

whose stakes will never be pulled up

and none of whose ropes will be broken.^*

²¹But there the Lord in majesty will be for us

a place of broad rivers and streams

where no galley with oars can go

nor stately ship can pass.^*

²²For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our ruler;

the Lord is our king; he will save us.^*

²³Your rigging hangs loose;

it cannot hold the mast firm in its place

or keep the sail spread out.

Then the blind will divide abundant spoil,^o

and the lame will take plunder.^*

²⁴And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;

the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity.^*