Isaiah 15

A Prophecy Against Moab

1 A prophecy against Moab:

Ar in Moab is ruined,

destroyed in a night!

Kir in Moab is ruined,

destroyed in a night!

2 Dibon goes up to its temple,

to its high places to weep;

Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.

Every head is shaved

and every beard cut off.

3 In the streets they wear sackcloth;

on the roofs and in the public squares

they all wail,

prostrate with weeping.

4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,

their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.

Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,

and their hearts are faint.

5 My heart cries out over Moab;

her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,

as far as Eglath Shelishiyah.

They go up the hill to Luhith,

weeping as they go;

on the road to Horonaim

they lament their destruction.

6 The waters of Nimrim are dried up

and the grass is withered;

the vegetation is gone

and nothing green is left.

7 So the wealth they have acquired and stored up

they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.

8 Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;

their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,

their lamentation as far as Beer Elim.

9 The waters of Dimonare full of blood,

# but I will bring still more upon Dimon—

a lion upon the fugitives of Moab

and upon those who remain in the land.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/15-bedaf394e869b12b95598cd18a25c505.mp3?version_id=111—

Isaiah 16

1 Send lambs as tribute

to the ruler of the land,

from Sela, across the desert,

to the mount of Daughter Zion.

2 Like fluttering birds

pushed from the nest,

so are the women of Moab

at the fords of the Arnon.

3 “Make up your mind,” Moab says.

“Render a decision.

Make your shadow like night—

at high noon.

Hide the fugitives,

do not betray the refugees.

4 Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;

be their shelter from the destroyer.”

The oppressor will come to an end,

and destruction will cease;

the aggressor will vanish from the land.

5 In love a throne will be established;

in faithfulness a man will sit on it—

# one from the houseof David—

one who in judging seeks justice

and speeds the cause of righteousness.

6 We have heard of Moab’s pride—

how great is her arrogance!—

of her conceit, her pride and her insolence;

but her boasts are empty.

7 Therefore the Moabites wail,

they wail together for Moab.

Lament and grieve

for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.

8 The fields of Heshbon wither,

the vines of Sibmah also.

The rulers of the nations

have trampled down the choicest vines,

which once reached Jazer

and spread toward the desert.

Their shoots spread out

# and went as far as the sea.

9 So I weep, as Jazer weeps,

for the vines of Sibmah.

Heshbon and Elealeh,

I drench you with tears!

The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit

and over your harvests have been stilled.

10 Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;

no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;

no one treads out wine at the presses,

for I have put an end to the shouting.

11 My heart laments for Moab like a harp,

my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.

12 When Moab appears at her high place,

she only wears herself out;

when she goes to her shrine to pray,

it is to no avail.

13 This is the word theLordhas already spoken concerning Moab.

14 But now theLordsays: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/16-fe8b12075dc830f82cc90370db9a9254.mp3?version_id=111—

Isaiah 17

A Prophecy Against Damascus

1 A prophecy against Damascus:

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city

but will become a heap of ruins.

2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted

and left to flocks, which will lie down,

with no one to make them afraid.

3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,

and royal power from Damascus;

the remnant of Aram will be

like the glory of the Israelites,”

declares theLordAlmighty.

4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;

the fat of his body will waste away.

5 It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,

gathering the grain in their arms—

as when someone gleans heads of grain

in the Valley of Rephaim.

6 Yet some gleanings will remain,

as when an olive tree is beaten,

leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,

four or five on the fruitful boughs,”

declares theLord, the God of Israel.

7 In that day people will look to their Maker

and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

8 They will not look to the altars,

the work of their hands,

# and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles

and the incense altars their fingers have made.

9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

10 You have forgotten God your Savior;

you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.

Therefore, though you set out the finest plants

and plant imported vines,

11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,

and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,

yet the harvest will be as nothing

in the day of disease and incurable pain.

12 Woe to the many nations that rage—

they rage like the raging sea!

Woe to the peoples who roar—

they roar like the roaring of great waters!

13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,

when he rebukes them they flee far away,

driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,

like tumbleweed before a gale.

14 In the evening, sudden terror!

Before the morning, they are gone!

This is the portion of those who loot us,

the lot of those who plunder us.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/17-441d1906f0f7b0e90c220c6772ff7519.mp3?version_id=111—

Isaiah 18

A Prophecy Against Cush

1 Woe to the land of whirring wings

# along the rivers of Cush,

2 which sends envoys by sea

in papyrus boats over the water.

Go, swift messengers,

to a people tall and smooth-skinned,

to a people feared far and wide,

an aggressive nation of strange speech,

whose land is divided by rivers.

3 All you people of the world,

you who live on the earth,

when a banner is raised on the mountains,

you will see it,

and when a trumpet sounds,

you will hear it.

4 This is what theLordsays to me:

“I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place,

like shimmering heat in the sunshine,

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

5 For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone

and the flower becomes a ripening grape,

he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,

and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

6 They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey

and to the wild animals;

the birds will feed on them all summer,

the wild animals all winter.

7 At that time gifts will be brought to theLordAlmighty

from a people tall and smooth-skinned,

from a people feared far and wide,

an aggressive nation of strange speech,

whose land is divided by rivers—

the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of theLordAlmighty.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/18-dc0be00fc55d01b31aa587b4ebf8b5cc.mp3?version_id=111—

Isaiah 19

A Prophecy Against Egypt

1 A prophecy against Egypt:

See, theLordrides on a swift cloud

and is coming to Egypt.

The idols of Egypt tremble before him,

and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.

2 “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian—

brother will fight against brother,

neighbor against neighbor,

city against city,

kingdom against kingdom.

3 The Egyptians will lose heart,

and I will bring their plans to nothing;

they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,

the mediums and the spiritists.

4 I will hand the Egyptians over

to the power of a cruel master,

and a fierce king will rule over them,”

declares the Lord, theLordAlmighty.

5 The waters of the river will dry up,

and the riverbed will be parched and dry.

6 The canals will stink;

the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up.

The reeds and rushes will wither,

7 also the plants along the Nile,

at the mouth of the river.

Every sown field along the Nile

will become parched, will blow away and be no more.

8 The fishermen will groan and lament,

all who cast hooks into the Nile;

those who throw nets on the water

will pine away.

9 Those who work with combed flax will despair,

the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.

10 The workers in cloth will be dejected,

and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.

11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools;

the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

“I am one of the wise men,

a disciple of the ancient kings”?

12 Where are your wise men now?

Let them show you and make known

what theLordAlmighty

has planned against Egypt.

13 The officials of Zoan have become fools,

the leaders of Memphis are deceived;

the cornerstones of her peoples

have led Egypt astray.

14 TheLordhas poured into them

a spirit of dizziness;

they make Egypt stagger in all that she does,

as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.

15 There is nothing Egypt can do—

head or tail, palm branch or reed.

16 In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that theLordAlmighty raises against them.

17 And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what theLordAlmighty is planning against them.

18 In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to theLordAlmighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.

19 In that day there will be an altar to theLordin the heart of Egypt, and a monument to theLordat its border.

20 It will be a sign and witness to theLordAlmighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to theLordbecause of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them.

21 So theLordwill make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge theLord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to theLordand keep them.

22 TheLordwill strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to theLord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.

24 In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessingon the earth.

25 TheLordAlmighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/19-fa2f3746023664be71bd37c042dd27fa.mp3?version_id=111—

Isaiah 20

A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush

1 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it—

2 at that time theLordspoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

3 Then theLordsaid, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush,

4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame.

5 Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame.

6 In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’ ”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/20-af4561196d8a1884dc2547b0d95eb33a.mp3?version_id=111—

Isaiah 21

A Prophecy Against Babylon

1 A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea:

Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,

an invader comes from the desert,

from a land of terror.

2 A dire vision has been shown to me:

The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.

Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!

I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

3 At this my body is racked with pain,

pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;

I am staggered by what I hear,

I am bewildered by what I see.

4 My heart falters,

fear makes me tremble;

the twilight I longed for

has become a horror to me.

5 They set the tables,

they spread the rugs,

they eat, they drink!

Get up, you officers,

oil the shields!

6 This is what the Lord says to me:

“Go, post a lookout

and have him report what he sees.

7 When he sees chariots

with teams of horses,

riders on donkeys

or riders on camels,

let him be alert,

fully alert.”

8 And the lookoutshouted,

“Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;

every night I stay at my post.

9 Look, here comes a man in a chariot

with a team of horses.

And he gives back the answer:

‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen!

All the images of its gods

lie shattered on the ground!’ ”

10 My people who are crushed on the threshing floor,

I tell you what I have heard

from theLordAlmighty,

from the God of Israel.

A Prophecy Against Edom

11 A prophecy against Dumah:

Someone calls to me from Seir,

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?”

12 The watchman replies,

“Morning is coming, but also the night.

If you would ask, then ask;

and come back yet again.”

A Prophecy Against Arabia

13 A prophecy against Arabia:

You caravans of Dedanites,

who camp in the thickets of Arabia,

14 bring water for the thirsty;

you who live in Tema,

bring food for the fugitives.

15 They flee from the sword,

from the drawn sword,

from the bent bow

and from the heat of battle.

16 This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end.

17 The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” TheLord, the God of Israel, has spoken.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/21-1a923264b60cfd73a1229f65ac6a6712.mp3?version_id=111—

Isaiah 22

A Prophecy About Jerusalem

1 A prophecy against the Valley of Vision:

What troubles you now,

that you have all gone up on the roofs,

2 you town so full of commotion,

you city of tumult and revelry?

Your slain were not killed by the sword,

nor did they die in battle.

3 All your leaders have fled together;

they have been captured without using the bow.

All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,

having fled while the enemy was still far away.

4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me;

let me weep bitterly.

Do not try to console me

over the destruction of my people.”

5 The Lord, theLordAlmighty, has a day

of tumult and trampling and terror

in the Valley of Vision,

a day of battering down walls

and of crying out to the mountains.

6 Elam takes up the quiver,

with her charioteers and horses;

Kir uncovers the shield.

7 Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,

and horsemen are posted at the city gates.

8 The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah,

and you looked in that day

to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.

9 You saw that the walls of the City of David

were broken through in many places;

you stored up water

in the Lower Pool.

10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem

and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.

11 You built a reservoir between the two walls

for the water of the Old Pool,

but you did not look to the One who made it,

or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.

12 The Lord, theLordAlmighty,

called you on that day

to weep and to wail,

to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.

13 But see, there is joy and revelry,

slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,

eating of meat and drinking of wine!

“Let us eat and drink,” you say,

“for tomorrow we die!”

14 TheLordAlmighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, theLordAlmighty.

15 This is what the Lord, theLordAlmighty, says:

“Go, say to this steward,

to Shebna the palace administrator:

16 What are you doing here and who gave you permission

to cut out a grave for yourself here,

hewing your grave on the height

and chiseling your resting place in the rock?

17 “Beware, theLordis about to take firm hold of you

and hurl you away, you mighty man.

18 He will roll you up tightly like a ball

and throw you into a large country.

There you will die

and there the chariots you were so proud of

will become a disgrace to your master’s house.

19 I will depose you from your office,

and you will be ousted from your position.

20 “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

21 I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah.

22 I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seatof honor for the house of his father.

24 All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.

25 “In that day,” declares theLordAlmighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” TheLordhas spoken.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/22-7017cd537c3038cc66c6f4c59e55ef3e.mp3?version_id=111—

Isaiah 23

A Prophecy Against Tyre

1 A prophecy against Tyre:

Wail, you ships of Tarshish!

For Tyre is destroyed

and left without house or harbor.

From the land of Cyprus

word has come to them.

2 Be silent, you people of the island

and you merchants of Sidon,

whom the seafarers have enriched.

3 On the great waters

came the grain of the Shihor;

# the harvest of the Nilewas the revenue of Tyre,

and she became the marketplace of the nations.

4 Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea,

for the sea has spoken:

“I have neither been in labor nor given birth;

I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

5 When word comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

6 Cross over to Tarshish;

wail, you people of the island.

7 Is this your city of revelry,

the old, old city,

whose feet have taken her

to settle in far-off lands?

8 Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns,

whose merchants are princes,

whose traders are renowned in the earth?

9 TheLordAlmighty planned it,

to bring down her pride in all her splendor

and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

10 Tillyour land as they do along the Nile,

Daughter Tarshish,

for you no longer have a harbor.

11 TheLordhas stretched out his hand over the sea

and made its kingdoms tremble.

He has given an order concerning Phoenicia

that her fortresses be destroyed.

12 He said, “No more of your reveling,

Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed!

“Up, cross over to Cyprus;

even there you will find no rest.”

13 Look at the land of the Babylonians,

this people that is now of no account!

The Assyrians have made it

a place for desert creatures;

they raised up their siege towers,

they stripped its fortresses bare

and turned it into a ruin.

14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish;

your fortress is destroyed!

15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

16 “Take up a harp, walk through the city,

you forgotten prostitute;

play the harp well, sing many a song,

so that you will be remembered.”

17 At the end of seventy years, theLordwill deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

18 Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for theLord; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before theLord, for abundant food and fine clothes.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/23-0b3f6d9dff214fd0e977b41528b7f2da.mp3?version_id=111—

Isaiah 24

The Lord’s Devastation of the Earth

1 See, theLordis going to lay waste the earth

and devastate it;

he will ruin its face

and scatter its inhabitants—

2 it will be the same

for priest as for people,

for the master as for his servant,

for the mistress as for her servant,

for seller as for buyer,

for borrower as for lender,

for debtor as for creditor.

3 The earth will be completely laid waste

and totally plundered.

TheLordhas spoken this word.

4 The earth dries up and withers,

the world languishes and withers,

the heavens languish with the earth.

5 The earth is defiled by its people;

they have disobeyed the laws,

violated the statutes

and broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth;

its people must bear their guilt.

Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,

and very few are left.

7 The new wine dries up and the vine withers;

all the merrymakers groan.

8 The joyful timbrels are stilled,

the noise of the revelers has stopped,

the joyful harp is silent.

9 No longer do they drink wine with a song;

the beer is bitter to its drinkers.

10 The ruined city lies desolate;

the entrance to every house is barred.

11 In the streets they cry out for wine;

all joy turns to gloom,

all joyful sounds are banished from the earth.

12 The city is left in ruins,

its gate is battered to pieces.

13 So will it be on the earth

and among the nations,

as when an olive tree is beaten,

or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.

14 They raise their voices, they shout for joy;

from the west they acclaim theLord’s majesty.

15 Therefore in the east give glory to theLord;

exalt the name of theLord, the God of Israel,

in the islands of the sea.

16 From the ends of the earth we hear singing:

“Glory to the Righteous One.”

But I said, “I waste away, I waste away!

Woe to me!

The treacherous betray!

With treachery the treacherous betray!”

17 Terror and pit and snare await you,

people of the earth.

18 Whoever flees at the sound of terror

will fall into a pit;

whoever climbs out of the pit

will be caught in a snare.

The floodgates of the heavens are opened,

the foundations of the earth shake.

19 The earth is broken up,

the earth is split asunder,

the earth is violently shaken.

20 The earth reels like a drunkard,

it sways like a hut in the wind;

so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion

that it falls—never to rise again.

21 In that day theLordwill punish

the powers in the heavens above

and the kings on the earth below.

22 They will be herded together

like prisoners bound in a dungeon;

they will be shut up in prison

# and be punishedafter many days.

23 The moon will be dismayed,

the sun ashamed;

for theLordAlmighty will reign

on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

and before its elders—with great glory.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/ISA/24-0a0294ae6d23db459f759db7a11f84d0.mp3?version_id=111—