Isaiah 17; Isaiah 18; Isaiah 19; Ephesians 5:17-33

1 The Lord said, "Damascus will not be a city any longer; it will be only a pile of ruins.

2 The cities of Syria will be deserted forever. They will be a pasture for sheep and cattle, and no one will drive them away.

3 Israel will be defenseless, and Damascus will lose its independence. Those Syrians who survive will be in disgrace like the people of Israel. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken."

4 The Lord said, "A day is coming when Israel's greatness will come to an end, and its wealth will be replaced by poverty.

5 Israel will be like a field where the grain has been cut and harvested, as desolate as a field in Rephaim Valley when it has been picked bare.

6 Only a few people will survive, and Israel will be like an olive tree from which all the olives have been picked except two or three at the very top, or a few that are left on the lower branches. I, the Lord God of Israel, have spoken."

7 When that day comes, people will turn for help to their Creator, the holy God of Israel.

8 They will no longer rely on the altars they made with their own hands, or trust in their own handiwork - symbols of the goddess Asherah and altars for burning incense.

9 When that day comes, well-defended cities will be deserted and left in ruins like the cities that the Hivites and the Amorites abandoned as they fled from the people of Israel.

10 Israel, you have forgotten the God who rescues you and protects you like a mighty rock. Instead, you plant sacred gardens in order to worship a foreign god.

11 But even if they sprouted and blossomed the very morning you planted them, there would still be no harvest. There would be only trouble and incurable pain.

12 Powerful nations are in commotion with a sound like the roar of the sea, like the crashing of huge waves.

13 The nations advance like rushing waves, but God reprimands them and they retreat, driven away like dust on a mountainside, like straw in a whirlwind.

14 At evening they cause terror, but by morning they are gone. That is the fate of everyone who plunders our land.

1 Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia there is a land where the sound of wings is heard.

2 From that land ambassadors come down the Nile in boats made of reeds. Go back home, swift messengers! Take a message back to your land divided by rivers, to your strong and powerful nation, to your tall and smooth-skinned people, who are feared all over the world.

3 Listen, everyone who lives on earth! Look for a signal flag to be raised on the mountaintops! Listen for the blowing of the bugle!

4 The Lord said to me, "I will look down from heaven as quietly as the dew forms in the warm nights of harvest time, as serenely as the sun shines in the heat of the day.

5 Before the grapes are gathered, when the blossoms have all fallen and the grapes are ripening, the enemy will destroy the Ethiopians as easily as a knife cuts branches from a vine.

6 The corpses of their soldiers will be left exposed to the birds and the wild animals. In summer the birds will feed on them, and in winter, the animals."

7 A time is coming when the Lord Almighty will receive offerings from this land divided by rivers, this strong and powerful nation, this tall and smooth-skinned people, who are feared all over the world. They will come to Mount Zion, where the Lord Almighty is worshiped.

1 This is a message about Egypt. The Lord is coming to Egypt, riding swiftly on a cloud. The Egyptian idols tremble before him, and the people of Egypt lose their courage.

2 The Lord says, "I will stir up civil war in Egypt and turn brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor. Rival cities will fight each other, and rival kings will struggle for power.

3 I am going to frustrate the plans of the Egyptians and destroy their morale. They will ask their idols to help them, and they will go and consult mediums and ask the spirits of the dead for advice.

4 I will hand the Egyptians over to a tyrant, to a cruel king who will rule them. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken."

5 The water will be low in the Nile, and the river will gradually dry up.

6 The channels of the river will stink as they slowly go dry. Reeds and rushes will wither,

7 and all the crops planted along the banks of the Nile will dry up and be blown away.

8 Everyone who earns a living by fishing in the Nile will groan and cry; their hooks and their nets will be useless.

9 Those who make linen cloth will be in despair;

10 weavers and skilled workers will be broken and depressed.

11 The leaders of the city of Zoan are fools! Egypt's wisest people give stupid advice! How do they dare to tell the king that they are successors to the ancient scholars and kings?

12 King of Egypt, where are those clever advisers of yours? Perhaps they can tell you what plans the Lord Almighty has for Egypt.

13 The leaders of Zoan and Memphis are fools. They were supposed to lead the nation, but they have misled it.

14 The Lord has made them give confusing advice. As a result, Egypt does everything wrong and staggers like a drunk slipping on his own vomit.

15 No one in Egypt, rich or poor, important or unknown, can offer help.

16 A time is coming when the people of Egypt will be as timid as women. They will tremble in terror when they see that the Lord Almighty has stretched out his hand to punish them.

17 The people of Egypt will be terrified of Judah every time they are reminded of the fate that the Lord Almighty has prepared for them.

18 When that time comes, the Hebrew language will be spoken in five Egyptian cities. The people there will take their oaths in the name of the Lord Almighty. One of the cities will be called, "City of the Sun."

19 When that time comes, there will be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt and a stone pillar dedicated to him at the Egyptian border.

20 They will be symbols of the Lord Almighty's presence in Egypt. When the people there are oppressed and call out to the Lord for help, he will send someone to rescue them.

21 The Lord will reveal himself to the Egyptian people, and then they will acknowledge and worship him, and bring him sacrifices and offerings. They will make solemn promises to him and do what they promise.

22 The Lord will punish the Egyptians, but then he will heal them. They will turn to him, and he will hear their prayers and heal them.

23 When that time comes, there will be a highway between Egypt and Assyria. The people of these two countries will travel back and forth between them, and the two nations will worship together.

24 When that time comes, Israel will rank with Egypt and Assyria, and these three nations will be a blessing to all the world.

25 The Lord Almighty will bless them and say, "I will bless you, Egypt, my people; you, Assyria, whom I created; and you, Israel, my chosen people."

17 Don't be fools, then, but try to find out what the Lord wants you to do.

18 Do not get drunk with wine, which will only ruin you; instead, be filled with the Spirit.

19 Speak to one another with the words of psalms, hymns, and sacred songs; sing hymns and psalms to the Lord with praise in your hearts.

20 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, always give thanks for everything to God the Father.

21 Submit yourselves to one another because of your reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as to the Lord.

23 For a husband has authority over his wife just as Christ has authority over the church; and Christ is himself the Savior of the church, his body.

24 And so wives must submit themselves completely to their husbands just as the church submits itself to Christ.

25 Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.

26 He did this to dedicate the church to God by his word, after making it clean by washing it in water,

27 in order to present the church to himself in all its beauty - pure and faultless, without spot or wrinkle or any other imperfection.

28 Men ought to love their wives just as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself

29 (None of us ever hate our own bodies. Instead, we feed them, and take care of them, just as Christ does the church;

30 for we are members of his body.)

31 As the scripture says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one."

32 There is a deep secret truth revealed in this scripture, which I understand as applying to Christ and the church.

33 But it also applies to you: every husband must love his wife as himself, and every wife must respect her husband.