Isaiah 13; Isaiah 14; Isaiah 15; Isaiah 16; Isaiah 17

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Isaiah 13

1 This is the divine revelation which Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw about Babylon.
2 Raise a banner on the bare mountaintop. Call loudly to them. Signal them with your hand to enter the nobles' gates.
3 I've commanded my holy ones. I've called my mighty men to carry out my anger. They find joy in my triumphs.
4 Listen to the noise on the mountains. It is like the sound of a large army. It is the sound of kingdoms and nations gathering together. The LORD of Armies is assembling his army for battle.
5 His army is coming from a distant land, from the ends of heaven. The LORD is coming with the weapons of his fury to destroy the whole world.
6 Cry loudly, for the day of the LORD is near. It will come like destruction from the Almighty.
7 That is why every hand will hang limp, and everyone's courage will fail.
8 They'll be terrified. Pain and anguish will seize them. They'll writhe like a woman giving birth to a child. They'll look at one another in astonishment. Their faces will be burning red.
9 The day of the LORD is going to come. It will be a cruel day with fury and fierce anger. He will make the earth desolate. He will destroy its sinners.
10 The stars in the sky and their constellations won't show their light anymore. The sun will be dark when it rises. The moon won't shine.
11 I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their wrongdoing. I will put an end to arrogant people and humble the pride of tyrants.
12 I will make people harder to find than pure gold and human beings more rare than gold from Ophir.
13 I will make heaven tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place when the LORD of Armies is angry. At that time he will be very angry.
14 They'll be like hunted gazelle and like sheep with no one to gather them. Everyone will return to his own people and flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be stabbed to death. Whoever is captured will be executed.
16 Their little children will be smashed to death right before their eyes. Their houses will be looted and their wives raped.
17 I'm going to stir up the Medes against them. They don't care for silver and aren't happy with gold.
18 But their bows will smash the youth. They'll have no compassion for babies, nor will they look with pity on children.
19 Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the proud beauty of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed them.
20 It will never be inhabited again, and no one will live in it for generations. Arabs won't pitch their tents there. Shepherds won't let their flocks rest there.
21 Desert animals will lie down there. Their homes will be full of owls. Ostriches will live there, and wild goats will skip about.
22 Hyenas will howl in Babylon's strongholds, and jackals will howl in its luxurious palaces. Its time has almost come. Its days will not be extended.
GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Isaiah 14

1 The LORD will have compassion for Jacob and again choose Israel. He will resettle them in their own country. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob.
2 People will take them and bring them to their own place. The nation of Israel will possess nations as male and female slaves in the LORD's land. They will take their captors captive and rule their oppressors.
3 When that day comes, the LORD will give you relief from your pain and suffering, from the hard slavery you were forced to do.
4 Then you will mock the king of Babylon with this saying, "How the tyrant has come to an end! How his attacks have come to an end!"
5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers.
6 They struck the people with fury, with blows that didn't stop. They ruled nations in anger, persecuting them without restraint.
7 The whole earth rests and is peaceful. It breaks out into shouts of joy.
8 Even the cypresses rejoice over you. The cedars of Lebanon say, "Since you have fallen, no lumberjack has come to attack us."
9 Sheol below wakes up to meet you when you come. It wakes up the ghosts of the dead, all who were leaders on earth. It raises all who were kings of the nations from their thrones.
10 All of them will greet you, "You also have become weak like us! You have become like one of us!"
11 Your pride has been brought down to Sheol along with the music of your harps. Maggots are spread out [like a bed] under you, and worms cover you.
12 How you have fallen from heaven, you morning star, son of the dawn! How you have been cut down to the ground, you conqueror of nations!
13 You thought, "I'll go up to heaven and set up my throne above God's stars. I'll sit on the mountain far away in the north where the gods assemble.
14 I'll go above the top of the clouds. I'll be like the Most High."
15 But you've been brought down to Sheol, to the deepest part of the pit.
16 Those who see you stare at you; they look at you closely and say, "Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook the kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a desert and tore down its cities, who didn't let his prisoners go home?"
18 All the kings of the nations, all of them, have been buried with honor, each in his own tomb.
19 But you are thrown out of your tomb like a rejected branch. You are covered with those who were killed in battle. You go down to the stones of the pit like a trampled corpse.
20 You won't be joined by the kings in the tomb, because you have destroyed your land and killed your people. The descendants of the wicked will never be mentioned again.
21 Prepare a place to slaughter their sons because of their ancestors' guilt. They won't be able to rise, possess the earth, and rebuild cities all over it.
22 "I'll rise up against them," declares the LORD of Armies. "I'll cut off the name of the survivors from Babylon, its offspring and descendants," declares the LORD.
23 "It will become the possession of herons. It will become pools of water. I'll sweep it with the broom of destruction," declares the LORD of Armies.
24 The LORD of Armies has taken an oath: "It will happen exactly as I've intended. It will turn out exactly as I've planned.
25 I'll crush Assyria on my land. I'll trample it underfoot on my mountains. Then its yoke will be removed from my people, and its burden will be removed from their shoulders."
26 This is the plan determined for the whole earth. This is how he will use his power against all the nations.
27 The LORD of Armies has planned it. Who can stop it? He is ready to use his power. Who can turn it back?
28 This was the divine revelation in the year King Ahaz died.
29 All you Philistines, don't rejoice that the rod of the one who struck you is broken, because a viper will come from that snake's root, and his descendant will be a flying, fiery serpent.
30 The poorest of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety. But I will put your root to death with famine and kill off your survivors.
31 Cry loudly in the gate! Cry out in the city! Be frightened, all you Philistines! Smoke comes from the north, and there are no stragglers in its ranks.
32 How should we answer the messengers from the nations? [Tell them that] the LORD has laid Zion's foundation, and his humble people will find refuge in it.
GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Isaiah 15

1 This is the divine revelation about Moab. In a single night Ar in Moab is laid waste and destroyed! In a single night Kir in Moab is laid waste and destroyed!
2 The people of Dibon go to the temple, to the worship sites, to cry. Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved bald, and every beard is cut off.
3 In their streets they wear sackcloth. On their roofs and in their city squares everyone wails and cries.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out. Their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz. Moab's armed men cry out. Their courage is gone.
5 My heart cries out for Moab. Its people flee as far as Zoar at Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the mountain road to Luhith. They cry loudly over the destruction on the way to Horonaim.
6 The Nimrim Brook has run dry! The grass dries up, the vegetation withers, and nothing green is left.
7 That is why they carry the wealth that they have earned and stored up over Willow Ravine.
8 Cries for help echo throughout the land of Moab. Their wailing echoes as far as Eglaim. Their wailing echoes as far as Beer Elim.
9 The water in Dimon is red with blood, yet I will bring even more on Dimon. A lion will attack the fugitives from Moab and the survivors from Adamah.
GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Isaiah 16

1 Send lambs to the ruler of the land. Send lambs from Sela through the desert to my people at Mount Zion.
2 Moab's daughters are like fluttering birds, like scattered nestlings, at the shallow crossings of the Arnon River.
3 Give us advice. Make a decision. At high noon make your shadow as dark as night. Hide the fugitives. Don't betray the refugees.
4 Let the fugitives from Moab stay with you a while. Be their refuge from the destroyer. Ruthless people will come to an end. The destruction will end. The one who tramples others will be gone.
5 Then the LORD will set up a trusted king. He will rule faithfully. He is from the tent of David. He judges and searches for justice. He is quick to do what is right.
6 We've heard of the arrogance of Moab's people. They are very arrogant. We've heard of their boasting, arrogance, and conceit, but their boasts aren't true.
7 That is why Moab will wail. Everyone will wail for Moab. Mourn and grieve over the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.
8 The fields of Heshbon and the vineyards of Sibmah wither. Rulers of the nations have cut off their grapes. The grapevines [once] reached as far as Jazer and strayed out into the desert. Their shoots had spread out over the sea.
9 I will cry for the grapevines of Sibmah as Jazer cries for them. I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh. The shouts of joy for your ripened fruits and your harvest will be silenced.
10 Joy and delight have vanished from the orchards. No songs are sung. No shouts are raised. No one stomps on grapes in the winepresses, because I have put an end to the shouts of joy.
11 That is why my heart mourns for Moab like a harp. My soul mourns for Kir Hareseth.
12 When the people of Moab appear at the worship site, they will only wear themselves out. They will come into the holy place to pray, but they won't be able to.
13 This is the message that the LORD spoke about Moab in the past.
14 But now the LORD says, "Moab's honor will be despised within three years. I will count them like workers count the years left of their contracts. In spite of their great number, the survivors will be very few and powerless."
GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Isaiah 17

1 This is the divine revelation about Damascus. "Damascus will no longer be a city. It will become a pile of rubble.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted. These cities will be used for sheep, which will lie down in them. There will be no one to disturb those sheep.
3 Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom will disappear from Damascus. The remaining few from Aram will share Israel's honor," declares the LORD of Armies.
4 "When that day comes, the honor of Jacob's people will fade away, and they will become skin and bones.
5 That time will be like harvesting bundles of grain by the armful. It will be like gathering grain in the Rephaim Valley.
6 Only a few people will survive. They will be like an olive tree that has been beaten. Only two or three olives are left at the top of the highest branch, four or five olives on the rest of the branches," declares the LORD God of Israel.
7 When that day comes, they will look to their maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They won't look to the altars made by their hands or to the Asherah poles or incense altars which their fingers molded.
9 When that day comes, the fortified cities which other people abandoned because of the Israelites will be like abandoned woods and undergrowth. So it will become a wasteland.
10 You have forgotten the God of your salvation. You haven't remembered the rock, your stronghold. Instead, you have planted the best plants and have set out the imported grapevines.
11 On the day you plant, you will make it grow. On the morning you set out the seedling, you will make it sprout. But the harvest will become a [rotting] pile on a day of grief and incurable pain.
12 How horrible it will be for many people! They will roar like the roaring sea. The noise that the people make will be like the noise from rushing water.
13 The people will make noise like raging water. But the LORD will yell at them, and they will run far away. They will be chased away like husks on the mountains being blown by the wind, like whirling dust being blown by a storm.
14 In the evening there will be sudden terror. Before morning they will be gone. This will be the fate of those who looted us, the destiny of those who robbed us.
GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Used by permission.