Isaiah 22; Isaiah 27; Isaiah 32; Isaiah 33

Isaiah 22

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

15 This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, 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, the LORD is 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 seat of 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 the LORD Almighty, “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.” The LORD has spoken.

Isaiah 27

1 In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword— his fierce, great and powerful sword— Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.

2 In that day— “Sing about a fruitful vineyard:

3 I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.

4 I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire.

5 Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.”

6 In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

7 Has the LORD struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?

8 By warfare and exile you contend with her— with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows.

9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like limestone crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.

10 The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.

11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.

12 In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one.

13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 32

1 See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.

2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

4 The fearful heart will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.

5 No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

6 For fools speak folly, their hearts are bent on evil: They practice ungodliness and spread error concerning the LORD; the hungry they leave empty and from the thirsty they withhold water.

7 Scoundrels use wicked methods, they make up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.

8 But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.

9 You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say!

10 In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come.

11 Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure! Strip off your fine clothes and wrap yourselves in rags.

12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines

13 and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers— yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.

14 The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,

15 till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.

16 The LORD’s justice will dwell in the desert, his righteousness live in the fertile field.

17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.

19 Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely,

20 how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

Isaiah 33

1 Woe to you, destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, betrayer, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.

2 LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.

3 At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee; when you rise up, the nations scatter.

4 Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts; like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it.

5 The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.

6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.

7 Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are deserted, no travelers are on the roads. The treaty is broken, its witnesses are despised, no one is respected.

9 The land dries up and wastes away, Lebanon is ashamed and withers; Sharon is like the Arabah, and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

10 “Now will I arise,” says the LORD. “Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up.

11 You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw; your breath is a fire that consumes you.

12 The peoples will be burned to ashes; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.”

13 You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power!

14 The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”

15 Those who walk righteously and speak what is right, who reject gain from extortion and keep their hands from accepting bribes, who stop their ears against plots of murder and shut their eyes against contemplating evil—

16 they are the ones who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. Their bread will be supplied, and water will not fail them.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar.

18 In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror: “Where is that chief officer? Where is the one who took the revenue? Where is the officer in charge of the towers?”

19 You will see those arrogant people no more, people whose speech is obscure, whose language is strange and incomprehensible.

20 Look on Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.

21 There the LORD will be our Mighty One. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams. No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship will sail them.

22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us.

23 Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder.

24 No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.