Isaiah 31–33

Chapter 31

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help

and 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!

²And yet he is wise and brings disaster,

he does not call back his words,

but will arise against the house of the evildoers,

and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.

³The Egyptians are men, and not God;

and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.

When the Lord stretches out his hand,

the helper will stumble, and he who is 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 his prey,

and when a band of shepherds is called forth against him

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, so the Lord of hosts

will protect Jerusalem;

he will protect and deliver it,

he will spare and rescue it.

⁶Turn to him from whom you^v have deeply revolted, O people of Israel. ⁷For in that day every one shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

⁸“And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;

and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;

and 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.

Chapter 32

¹Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule in 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 see will not be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will hearken.

⁴The mind of the rash will have good judgment,

and the tongue of the stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.

⁵The fool will no more be called noble,

nor the knave said to be honorable.

⁶For the fool speaks folly,

and his mind plots 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 knaveries of the knave are evil;

he devises wicked devices

to ruin the poor with lying words,

even when the plea of the needy is right.

⁸But he who is noble devises noble things,

and by noble things he stands.

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

you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.

¹⁰In little more than a year

you will shudder, you complacent women;

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 gird sackcloth upon your loins.

¹²Beat upon your breasts for the pleasant fields,

for the fruitful vine,

¹³for the soil of my people

growing up in thorns and briers;

yea, for all the joyous houses

in the joyful city.

¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken,

the populous city deserted;

the hill and the watchtower

will become dens for ever,

a joy of wild asses,

a pasture of flocks;

¹⁵until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,

and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,

and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.

¹⁷And the effect of righteousness

will be peace,

and the result of righteousness,

quietness and trust for ever.

¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in

quiet resting places.

¹⁹And the forest will utterly go down,^w

and the city will be utterly laid low.

²⁰Happy are you who sow beside all waters,

who let the feet of the ox and the ass range free.

Chapter 33

¹Woe to you, destroyer,

who yourself have not been destroyed;

you treacherous one,

with whom none has dealt treacherously!

When you have ceased to destroy,

you will be destroyed;

and when you have made an end of dealing treacherously,

you will be dealt with treacherously.

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

Be our arm every morning,

our salvation in the time of trouble.

³At the thunderous noise peoples flee,

at the lifting up of thyself nations are scattered;

⁴and spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;

as locusts leap, men leap upon it.

⁵The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;

he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness;

⁶and he will be the stability of your times,

abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is his treasure.

⁷Behold, the valiant ones^y cry without;

the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

⁸The highways lie waste,

the wayfaring man ceases.

Covenants are broken,

witnesses^z are despised,

there is no regard for man.

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;

your breath is a fire that 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 off, 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 dwell with the devouring fire?

Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”

¹⁵He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,

who despises the gain of oppressions,

who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,

who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed

and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil,

¹⁶he will dwell on the heights;

his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;

his bread will be given him, his water will be sure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;

they will behold a land that stretches afar.

¹⁸Your mind will muse on the terror:

“Where is he who counted,

where is he who weighed the tribute?

Where is he who counted the towers?”

¹⁹You will see no more the insolent people,

the people of an obscure speech which you cannot comprehend,

stammering in a tongue which you cannot understand.

²⁰Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!

Your eyes will see Jerusalem,

a quiet habitation, an immovable tent,

whose stakes will never be plucked up,

nor will any of its cords 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 tackle hangs loose;

it cannot hold the mast firm in its place,

or keep the sail spread out.

Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;

even the lame will take the prey.

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

the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.