Isaiah: oracles about the nations · Isaiah: the LORD's victory

Isaiah 22–25 WEB

^22:1The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops? ²You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. ³All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away. ⁴Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁵For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, GOD of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.” ⁶Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. ⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. ⁸He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. ⁹You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. ¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who planned it long ago. ¹²In that day, the Lord, GOD of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; ¹³and behold, there is joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.” ¹⁴The LORD of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies. ¹⁵The Lord, GOD of Armies says, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, ¹⁶‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!” ¹⁷Behold, the LORD will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly. ¹⁸He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you disgrace of your lord’s house. ¹⁹I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station. ²⁰It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, ²¹and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. ²²I will lay the key of David’s house on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open. ²³I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father’s house. ²⁴They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers. ²⁵“In that day,” says the LORD of Armies, “the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken it.”

^23:1The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them. ²Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon that pass over the sea have replenished. ³On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations. ⁴Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have not travailed, nor given birth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins.” ⁵When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre. ⁶Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast! ⁷Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel? ⁸Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? ⁹The LORD of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. ¹⁰Pass through your land like the Nile, 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 ordered the destruction of Canaan’s strongholds. ¹²He said, “You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest.” ¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people didn’t exist. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin. ¹⁴Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste! ¹⁵It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute. ¹⁶Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered. ¹⁷It will happen after the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. She will return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth. ¹⁸Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to the LORD. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

^24:1Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. ²It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest. ³The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for the LORD has spoken this word. ⁴The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. ⁵The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. ⁷The new wine mourns. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh. ⁸The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases. ⁹They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it. ¹⁰The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. ¹¹There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. ¹²The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction. ¹³For it will be so within the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done. ¹⁴These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of the LORD. They cry aloud from the sea. ¹⁵Therefore glorify the LORD in the east, even the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea! ¹⁶From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously. ¹⁷Fear, the pit, and the snare are on you who inhabit the earth. ¹⁸It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. ¹⁹The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently. ²⁰The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again. ²¹It will happen in that day that the LORD will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth. ²²They will be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison; and after many days they will be visited. ²³Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of Armies will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem; and glory will be before his elders.

^25:1The LORD, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth. ²For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built. ³Therefore a strong people will glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you. ⁴For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall. ⁵As the heat in a dry place you will bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the dreaded ones will be brought low. ⁶In this mountain, the LORD of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast of choice wines, of choice meat full of marrow, of well refined choice wines. ⁷He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations. ⁸He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for the LORD has spoken it. ⁹It shall be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is the LORD! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!” ¹⁰For the LORD’s hand will rest in this mountain. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill. ¹¹He will spread out his hands in the middle of it, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands. ¹²He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.