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

1 This is a message about Damascus: "The city of Damascus will be destroyed; only ruins will remain.

2 People will leave the cities of Aroer. Flocks will wander freely in those empty towns, and there will be no one to bother them.

3 The strong, walled cities of Israel will be destroyed. The government in Damascus will end. like the glory of Israel," says the Lord All-Powerful.

4 "At that time Israel's wealth will all be gone. Israel will be like someone who has lost much weight from sickness.

5 That time will be like the grain harvest in the Valley of Rephaim. The workers cut the wheat. Then they cut the heads of grain from the plants and collect the grain.

6 That time will also be like the olive harvest, when a few olives are left. Two or three olives are left in the top branches. Four or five olives are left on full branches," says the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 At that time people will look to God, their Maker; their eyes will see the Holy One of Israel.

8 They will not trust the altars they have made, nor will they trust what their hands have made, not even the Asherah idols and altars.

9 In that day all their strong cities will be empty. They will be like the cities the Hivites and the Amorites left when the Israelites came to take the land. Everything will be ruined.

10 You have forgotten the God who saves you; you have not remembered that God is your place of safety. You plant the finest grapevines and grapevines from faraway places.

11 You plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow, and the next day you make them blossom. But at harvest time everything will be dead; a sickness will kill all the plants.

12 Listen to the many people! Their crying is like the noise from the sea. Listen to the nations! Their crying is like the crashing of great waves.

13 The people roar like the waves, but when God speaks harshly to them, they will run away. They will be like chaff on the hills being blown by the wind, or like tumbleweeds blown away by a storm.

14 At night the people will be very frightened. Before morning, no one will be left. So our enemies will come to our land, but they will become nothing.

1 How terrible it will be for the land beyond the rivers of Cush. It is filled with the sound of wings.

2 That land sends messengers across the sea; they go on the water in boats made of reeds. Go, quick messengers, to a people who are tall and smooth-skinned, who are feared everywhere. They are a powerful nation that defeats other nations. Their land is divided by rivers.

3 All you people of the world, look! Everyone who lives in the world, look! You will see a banner raised on a mountain. You will hear a trumpet sound.

4 The Lord said to me, "I will quietly watch from where I live, like heat in the sunshine, like the dew in the heat of harvest time."

5 The time will come, after the flowers have bloomed and before the harvest, when new grapes will be budding and growing. The enemy will cut the plants with knives; he will cut down the vines and take them away.

6 They will be left for the birds of the mountains and for the wild animals. Birds will feed on them all summer, and wild animals will eat them that winter."

7 At that time a gift will be brought to the Lord All-Powerful from the people who are tall and smooth-skinned, who are feared everywhere. They are a powerful nation that defeats other nations. Their land is divided by rivers. These gifts will be brought to the place of the Lord All-Powerful, to Mount Zion.

1 This is a message about Egypt: Look, the Lord is coming on a fast cloud to enter Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble before him, and Egypt's courage will melt away.

2 The Lord says, "I will cause the Egyptians to fight against themselves. People will fight with their relatives; neighbors will fight neighbors; cities will fight cities; kingdoms will fight kingdoms.

3 The Egyptians will be afraid, and I will ruin their plans. They will ask advice from their idols and spirits of the dead, from their mediums and fortune-tellers."

4 The Lord God All-Powerful says, "I will hand Egypt over to a hard master, and a powerful king will rule over them."

5 The sea will become dry, and the water will disappear from the Nile River.

6 The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will decrease and dry up. All the water plants will rot;

7 all the plants along the banks of the Nile will die. will dry up, blow away, and disappear.

8 The fishermen, all those who catch fish from the Nile, will groan and cry; those who fish in the Nile will be sad.

9 All the people who make cloth from flax will be sad, and those who weave linen will lose hope.

10 Those who weave cloth will be broken. All those who work for money will be sad.

11 The officers of the city of Zoan are fools; the wise men who advise the king of Egypt give wrong advice. How can you say to him, 'I am wise'? How can you say, 'I am from the old family of the kings'?

12 Egypt, where are your wise men? Let them show you what the Lord All-Powerful has planned for Egypt.

13 The officers of Zoan have been fooled; the leaders of Memphis have believed false things. lead that nation the wrong way.

14 The Lord has made the leaders confused. They have led Egypt to wander in the wrong ways, like drunk people stumbling in their own vomit.

15 There is nothing Egypt can do; no one there can help.

16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will be afraid of the Lord All-Powerful, because he will raise his hand to strike them down.

17 The land of Judah will bring fear to Egypt. Anyone there who hears the name Judah will be afraid, because the Lord All-Powerful has planned terrible things for them.

18 At that time five cities in Egypt will speak Hebrew, the language of Canaan, and they will promise to be loyal to the Lord All-Powerful. One of these cities will be named the City of Destruction.

19 At that time there will be an altar for the Lord in the middle of Egypt and a monument to the Lord at the border of Egypt.

20 This will be a sign and a witness to the Lord All-Powerful in the land of Egypt. When the people cry to the Lord for help, he will send someone to save and defend them. He will rescue them from those who hurt them.

21 So the Lord will show himself to the Egyptians, and then they will know he is the Lord. They will worship God and offer many sacrifices. They will make promises to the Lord and will keep them.

22 The Lord will punish the Egyptians, but then he will heal them. They will come back to the Lord, and he will listen to their prayers and heal them.

23 At that time there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians will go to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship God together.

24 At that time Israel, Assyria, and Egypt will join together, which will be a blessing for the earth.

25 The Lord All-Powerful will bless them, saying, "Egypt, you are my people. Assyria, I made you. Israel, I own you. You are all blessed!"

17 So do not be foolish but learn what the Lord wants you to do.

18 Do not be drunk with wine, which will ruin you, but be filled with the Spirit.

19 Speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord.

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

21 Yield to obey each other because you respect Christ.

22 Wives, yield to your husbands, as you do to the Lord,

23 because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. And he is the Savior of the body, which is the church.

24 As the church yields to Christ, so you wives should yield to your husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it

26 to make it belong to God. Christ used the word to make the church clean by washing it with water.

27 He died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be pure and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other wrong thing in it.

28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself.

29 No one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church,

30 because we are parts of his body.

31 The Scripture says, "So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one body."

32 That secret is very important -- I am talking about Christ and the church.

33 But each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and a wife must respect her husband.