Isaiah 31; Isaiah 32; Isaiah 33; Isaiah 34

1 Doom to those going down to Egypt for help! They rely on horses, trust in chariots because they are many, and on riders because they are very strong. But they don't look to the holy one of Israel; they don't seek the LORD.

2 But God also knows how to bring disaster; he has not taken back his words. God will rise up against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who do wrong.

3 Egypt is human and not divine; their horses are flesh and not spirit. The LORD will extend his hand; the helper will stumble, those helped will fall, and they will all die together.

4 The LORD has said to me: When the lion growls, the young lion, over its prey, though a band of shepherds is summoned against it, isn't scared off by their noise or frightened by their roar. So the LORD of heavenly forces will go down to fight on Mount Zion and on her hill.

5 Like birds flying aloft, so the LORD of heavenly forces will shield Jerusalem: shielding and saving, sparing and rescuing.

6 People of Israel, return to the one whom you have deeply betrayed!

7 On that day, you will each reject the idols of silver and the idols of gold, which you have sinfully made for yourselves.

8 Assyria will fall, but not by a human sword— a sword not made by humans will devour them. They will flee before the sword; their young men will become forced laborers.

9 In horror they will flee from their stronghold; their officers will be terrified at the signal, says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose oven is in Jerusalem.

1 See here: A king rules to promote righteousness; rulers govern to promote justice,

2 each like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from a storm, like streams of water in a wasteland, like the shade of a massive cliff in a worn-out land.

3 Then the eyes of those who can see will no longer be blind, the ears of those who can hear will listen,

4 the minds of the rash will know and comprehend, and the tongues of those who stammer will speak fluently and plainly.

5 Then a fool will no longer be called honorable, nor a villain considered respectable.

6 Fools speak folly; their minds devise wickedness, acting irreverently, speaking falsely of the LORD, leaving the hungry empty, and depriving the thirsty of drink.

7 As for the villain, his villainies are evil. He plans schemes to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speak justly.

8 But an honorable person plans honorable things and stands up for what is honorable.

9 Women of leisure, stand up! Hear my voice! Carefree daughters, listen to my word!

10 In a little over a year, the carefree will shudder, because the grape harvest will fail; the vintage won't arrive.

11 Tremble, all of you who are at ease; shudder, all of you who are secure! Strip yourselves, bare your skin, and tie mourning clothes around your waist,

12 beating your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

13 for my people's soil growing barbs and thorns, for all the joyous houses in the jubilant town.

14 The palace will be deserted, the crowded city abandoned. Stronghold and watchtower will become empty fields forever, suited for the pleasure of wild donkeys, and a pasture for flocks—

15 until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the desert turns into farmland, and the farmland is considered a forest.

16 Then justice will reside in wild lands, and righteousness will abide in farmlands.

17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace, and the outcome of righteousness, calm and security forever.

18 Then my people will live in a peaceful dwelling, in secure homes, in carefree resting places.

19 Even if the forest falls and the humbled city is laid low,

20 those who sow beside any stream will be happy, sending out ox and donkey to graze.

1 Doom to the destroyer left undestroyed, you traitor whom none have betrayed: when you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have stopped betraying, they will betray you.

2 LORD, show us favor; we hope in you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in times of distress.

3 At the noise, peoples fled; on account of your roar, nations scattered.

4 They gathered spoil like insects; they rushed upon it like a swarm of locusts.

5 The LORD is exalted; he lives on high, filling Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 He will provide security during a lifetime: a source of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge— fear of the LORD will be Zion's treasure.

7 But then those in Ariel cried out in the streets; messengers of peace wept bitterly.

8 The highways were deserted; travelers left the road. The covenant was broken; solemn pledges were rejected; no one cared for humanity.

9 The land mourned; it wasted away; Lebanon was ashamed; it withered. Sharon became like the desert, and Bashan and Carmel were dropping their leaves.

10 Now I will arise, says the LORD. Now I will exalt myself; now I will stand tall.

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

12 Peoples will be burned to lime, thorns cut up and set ablaze.

13 You who are far away, hear what I have done; and you who are near, know my strength!

14 Sinners became terrified in Zion; trembling seized the godless: "Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with the everlasting blaze?"

15 The one who walks righteously and speaks truthfully, who rejects profit from extortion, who waves away a bribe instead of grabbing it, who won't listen to bloody plots, and who won't contemplate doing something evil.

16 He will live on the heights; fortresses in the cliffs will be his refuge. His food will be provided, his water guaranteed.

17 When you gaze upon a king in his glamour and look at the surrounding land,

18 in dismay you will think: Where is the one who counts? Where is the one who weighs? Where is the one who counts towers?

19 You will no longer see the defiant people, the people of speech too obscure to understand, who stammer in an incomprehensible language.

20 Gaze upon Zion, our festival town. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a carefree dwelling, a tent that is not packed up, whose stakes are never pulled up, whose ropes won't snap.

21 The LORD's majesty will be there for us: as a place of rivers, broad streams where no boat will go, no majestic ship will cross.

22 The LORD is our judge; the LORD is our leader; the LORD is our king— he will deliver us.

23 Your ropes are loosened; they can't hold the mast firmly; they can't spread the sail. Then abundant spoil will be divided; even the lame will seize spoil.

24 And no inhabitant will say, "I'm sick." The people living there will be forgiven their sin.

1 Draw near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you peoples. Hear, earth and all who fill it, world and all its offspring.

2 The LORD rages against all the nations, and is angry with all their armies. God is about to wipe them out and has prepared them for slaughter.

3 Their dead will be cast out, the stench of their corpses will rise, and the mountains will melt from their blood.

4 All the stars of heaven will dissolve, the skies will roll up like a scroll, and all the stars will fall, like a leaf withering from a vine, like fruit from a fig tree.

5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, it will descend upon Edom for judgment, upon a people I have doomed for destruction.

6 The LORD has a sword covered with blood; it is soaked with fat from the blood of lambs and goats, from the kidney fat of rams, for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 Wild oxen will fall with them, steers with mighty bulls, and their land will be drenched with blood; its soil soaked with fat.

8 The LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of payback for Zion's cause.

9 Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch.

10 Night and day won't be extinguished; its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will lie waste; no one will ever pass through it again.

11 Screech owls and crows will possess it; owls and ravens will live there. God will stretch over it the measuring line of chaos and the plummet stone of emptiness over its officials.

12 No Kingdom There, they will call it, and all its princes will disappear.

13 Thorns will grow up in its palaces, weeds and brambles in its fortresses. It will be a dwelling for jackals, a home for ostriches.

14 Wildcats will meet hyenas, the goat demon will call to his friends, and there Lilith will lurk and find her resting place.

15 There the snake will nest and lay eggs and brood and hatch in its shadow. There too vultures will gather, each with its mate.

16 Consult the LORD's scroll and read: Not one of these will be missing; none will lack its mate. God's own mouth has commanded; God's own spirit has gathered them.

17 God has cast the lot for them; God's hand allotted it to them with the measuring line. They will possess it forever; they will live in it from generation to generation.