Isaiah 11; Isaiah 12; Isaiah 13

1 Then a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from its roots will bear fruit.

2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of advice and power, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.

3 He will gladly bear the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear.

4 He will judge the poor justly. He will make fair decisions for the humble people on earth. He will strike the earth with a rod from his mouth. He will kill the wicked with the breath from his lips.

5 Justice will be the belt around his waist. Faithfulness will be the belt around his hips.

6 Wolves will live with lambs. Leopards will lie down with goats. Calves, young lions, and year-old lambs will be together, and little children will lead them.

7 Cows and bears will eat together. Their young will lie down together. Lions will eat straw like oxen.

8 Infants will play near cobras' holes. Toddlers will put their hands into vipers' nests.

9 They will not hurt or destroy anyone anywhere on my holy mountain. The world will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD like water covering the sea.

10 At that time the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the people [to gather around]. The nations will come to him. His resting place will be glorious.

11 At that time the Lord will use his power again to recover what remains of his people in Assyria, Upper and Lower Egypt, Sudan, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath, and the islands of the sea.

12 He will raise a banner for the nations [to gather around]. He will gather the outcasts of Israel and bring together the scattered people of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

13 Ephraim's jealousy will vanish, and Judah's opponents will come to an end. Ephraim won't be jealous of Judah, and Judah won't oppose Ephraim.

14 They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia in the west. Together they will loot the people of the east. They will conquer Edom and Moab. The people of Ammon will be subject to them.

15 The LORD will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian Sea. He will wave his hand over the Euphrates River with his scorching wind and divide it into seven streams so that people can walk over it in their sandals.

16 There will be a highway for the remaining few of his people left in Assyria like there was for Israel when it came out of Egypt.

1 At that time you will say, "I will praise you, O LORD. Although you had been angry with me, you turned your anger away from me, and you comforted me.

2 Look! God is my Savior. I am confident and unafraid, because the LORD is my strength and my song. He is my Savior."

3 With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation.

4 At that time you will say, "Praise the LORD. Call on his name. Make his deeds known among the nations. Make them remember that his name is highly honored.

5 Make music to praise the LORD. He has done wonderful things. Let this be known throughout the earth.

6 Shout loudly, and sing with joy, people of Zion! The Holy One of Israel is great. He is among you."

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.