Isaiah 21–23

Chapter 21

¹The 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 plunderer plunders,

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 travail;

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.

Arise, O princes,

oil the shield!

⁶For thus the Lord said to me:

“Go, set a watchman,

let him announce what he sees.

⁷When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,

riders on asses, riders on camels,

let him listen diligently, very diligently.”

⁸Then he who saw cried:

“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,

continually by day,

and at my post I am stationed whole nights.

⁹And, behold, here come riders,

horsemen in pairs!”

And he answered,

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;

and all the images of her gods

he has shattered to 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,

“Watchman, what of the night?

Watchman, what of the night?”

¹²The watchman says:

“Morning comes, and also the night.

If you will inquire, inquire;

come back again.”

¹³The oracle concerning Arabia.

In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,

O caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴To the thirsty bring water,

meet the fugitive with bread,

O inhabitants of the land of Tema.

¹⁵For they have fled from the swords,

from the drawn sword,

from the bent bow,

and from the press of battle.

¹⁶For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end; ¹⁷and the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.”

Chapter 22

¹The oracle concerning the valley of vision.

What do you mean that you have gone up,

all of you, to the housetops,

²you who are full of shoutings,

tumultuous city, exultant town?

Your slain are not slain with the sword

or dead in battle.

³All your rulers have fled together,

without the bow they were captured.

All of you who were found were captured,

though they had fled far away.

⁴Therefore I said:

“Look away from me,

let me weep bitter tears;

do not labor to comfort me

for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵For the Lord God of hosts has a day

of tumult and trampling and confusion

in the valley of vision,

a battering down of walls

and a shouting to the mountains.

⁶And Elam bore the quiver

with chariots and horsemen,

and Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,

and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.

⁸He has taken away the covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, ⁹and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many, and you collected the waters of the lower pool, ¹⁰and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago.

¹²In that day the Lord God of hosts

called to weeping and mourning,

to baldness and girding with sackcloth;

¹³and behold, joy and gladness,

slaying oxen and killing sheep,

eating flesh and drinking wine.

“Let us eat and drink,

for tomorrow we die.”

¹⁴The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:

“Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you

till you die,”

says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: ¹⁶What have you to do here and whom have you here, that you have hewn here a tomb for yourself, you who hew a tomb on the height, and carve a habitation for yourself in the rock? ¹⁷Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you, ¹⁸and whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there shall be your splendid chariots, you shame of your master’s house. ¹⁹I will thrust you from your office, and you will be cast down from your station. ²⁰In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, ²¹and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²²And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. ²³And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. ²⁴And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. ²⁵In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a sure place will give way; and it will be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”

Chapter 23

¹The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for Tyre is laid waste, without house or haven!

From the land of Cyprus

it is revealed to them.

²Be still, O inhabitants of the coast,

O merchants of Sidon;

your messengers passed over the sea

³and were on many waters;

your revenue was the grain of Shihor,

the harvest of the Nile;

you were the merchant of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,

the stronghold of the sea, saying:

“I have neither travailed nor given birth,

I have neither reared young men

nor brought up virgins.”

⁵When the report comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.

⁶Pass over to Tarshish,

wail, O inhabitants of the coast!

⁷Is this your exultant city

whose origin is from days of old,

whose feet carried her

to settle afar?

⁸Who has purposed this

against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,

whose merchants were princes,

whose traders were the honored of the earth?

⁹The Lord of hosts has purposed it,

to defile the pride of all glory,

to dishonor all the honored of the earth.

¹⁰Overflow your land like the Nile,

O daughter of Tarshish;

there is no restraint any more.

¹¹He has stretched out his hand over the sea,

he has shaken the kingdoms;

the Lord has given command concerning Canaan

to destroy its strongholds.

¹²And he said:

“You will no more exult,

O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon;

arise, pass over to Cyprus,

even there you will have no rest.”

¹³Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined Tyre for wild beasts. They erected their siegetowers, they razed her palaces, they made her a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for your stronghold is laid waste.

¹⁵In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like 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,

O forgotten harlot!

Make sweet melody,

sing many songs,

that you may be remembered.”

¹⁷At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her hire, and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. ¹⁸Her merchandise and her hire will be dedicated to the Lord; it will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.