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Isaiah

Chapters 14-27

Isaiah, Chapter 14

¹ The LORD will have compassion on Jacob;
once again he will choose Israel
and will settle them in their own land.
Aliens will join them
and unite with the house of Jacob.

² Nations will take them
and bring them to their own place.
And the house of Israel will possess the nations
as menservants and maidservants in the LORD's land.
They will make captives of their captors
and rule over their oppressors.

³ On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage,

⁴ you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

⁵ The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,

⁶ which in anger struck down peoples
with unceasing blows,
and in fury subdued nations
with relentless aggression.

⁷ All the lands are at rest and at peace;
they break into singing.

⁸ Even the pine trees and the cedars of Lebanon
exult over you and say,
"Now that you have been laid low,
no woodsman comes to cut us down."

⁹ The grave¹ below is all astir
to meet you at your coming;

¹⁰ They will all respond,
they will say to you,
"You also have become weak, as we are;
you have become like us."

¹¹ All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,
along with the noise of your harps;
maggots are spread out beneath you
and worms cover you.

¹² How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!

¹³ You said in your heart,
"I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.²

¹⁴ I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High."

¹⁵ But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit.

¹⁶ Those who see you stare at you,
they ponder your fate:
"Is this the man who shook the earth
and made kingdoms tremble,

¹⁷ the man who made the world a desert,
who overthrew its cities
and would not let his captives go home?"

¹⁸ All the kings of the nations lie in state,
each in his own tomb.

¹⁹ But you are cast out of your tomb
like a rejected branch;
you are covered with the slain,
with those pierced by the sword,
those who descend to the stones of the pit.
Like a corpse trampled underfoot,

²⁰ you will not join them in burial,
for you have destroyed your land
and killed your people.

²¹ Prepare a place to slaughter his sons
for the sins of their forefathers;
they are not to rise to inherit the land
and cover the earth with their cities.

²² "I will rise up against them,"
declares the LORD Almighty.
"I will cut off from Babylon her name and survivors,
her offspring and descendants,"
declares the LORD .

²³ "I will turn her into a place for owls
and into swampland;
I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,"
declares the LORD Almighty.

²⁴ The LORD Almighty has sworn,

²⁵ I will crush the Assyrian in my land;
on my mountains I will trample him down.
His yoke will be taken from my people,
and his burden removed from their shoulders."

²⁶ This is the plan determined for the whole world;
this is the hand stretched out over all nations.

²⁷ For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?
His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

²⁸ This oracle came in the year King Ahaz died:

²⁹ Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
that the rod that struck you is broken;
from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,
its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.

³⁰ The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
But your root I will destroy by famine;
it will slay your survivors.

³¹ Wail, O gate! Howl, O city!
Melt away, all you Philistines!
A cloud of smoke comes from the north,
and there is not a straggler in its ranks.

³² What answer shall be given
to the envoys of that nation?
"The LORD has established Zion,
and in her his afflicted people will find refuge."

Isaiah, Chapter 15

¹ An oracle concerning Moab:

² Dibon goes up to its temple,
to its high places to weep;
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.
Every head is shaved
and every beard cut off.

³ In the streets they wear sackcloth;
on the roofs and in the public squares
they all wail,
prostrate with weeping.

⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,
and their hearts are faint.

⁵ My heart cries out over Moab;
her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,
as far as Eglath Shelishiyah.
They go up the way to Luhith,
weeping as they go;
on the road to Horonaim
they lament their destruction.

⁶ The waters of Nimrim are dried up
and the grass is withered;
the vegetation is gone
and nothing green is left.

⁷ So the wealth they have acquired and stored up
they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.

⁸ Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;
their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,
their lamentation as far as Beer Elim.

⁹ Dimon's¹ waters are full of blood,
but I will bring still more upon Dimon² -
a lion upon the fugitives of Moab
and upon those who remain in the land.

Isaiah, Chapter 16

¹ Send lambs as tribute
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, across the desert,
to the mount of the Daughter of Zion.

² Like fluttering birds
pushed from the nest,
so are the women of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.

³ "Give us counsel,
render a decision.
Make your shadow like night-
at high noon.
Hide the fugitives,
do not betray the refugees.

⁴ Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;
be their shelter from the destroyer."

⁵ In love a throne will be established;
in faithfulness a man will sit on it-
one from the house¹ of David-
one who in judging seeks justice
and speeds the cause of righteousness.

⁶ We have heard of Moab's pride-
her overweening pride and conceit,
her pride and her insolence-
but her boasts are empty.

⁷ Therefore the Moabites wail,
they wail together for Moab.
Lament and grieve
for the men² of Kir Hareseth.

⁸ The fields of Heshbon wither,
the vines of Sibmah also.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled down the choicest vines,
which once reached Jazer
and spread toward the desert.
Their shoots spread out
and went as far as the sea.

⁹ So I weep, as Jazer weeps,
for the vines of Sibmah.
O Heshbon, O Elealeh,
I drench you with tears!
The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit
and over your harvests have been stilled.

¹⁰ Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;
no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;
no one treads out wine at the presses,
for I have put an end to the shouting.

¹¹ My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.

¹² When Moab appears at her high place,
she only wears herself out;
when she goes to her shrine to pray,
it is to no avail.

¹³ This is the word the LORD has already spoken concerning Moab.

¹⁴ But now the LORD says: "Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab's splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble."

Isaiah, Chapter 17

¹ An oracle concerning Damascus:

² The cities of Aroer will be deserted
and left to flocks, which will lie down,
with no one to make them afraid.

³ The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of the Israelites,"
declares the LORD Almighty.

⁴ "In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;
the fat of his body will waste away.

⁵ It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain
and harvests the grain with his arm-
as when a man gleans heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.

⁶ Yet some gleanings will remain,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
four or five on the fruitful boughs,"
declares the LORD , the God of Israel.

⁷ In that day men will look to their Maker
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸ They will not look to the altars,
the work of their hands,
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles¹
and the incense altars their fingers have made.

⁹ In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

¹⁰ You have forgotten God your Savior;
you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
and plant imported vines,

¹¹ though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
in the day of disease and incurable pain.

¹² Oh, the raging of many nations-
they rage like the raging sea!
Oh, the uproar of the peoples-
they roar like the roaring of great waters!

¹³ Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.

¹⁴ In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.

Isaiah, Chapter 18

¹ Woe to the land of whirring wings¹
along the rivers of Cush,²

² which sends envoys by sea
in papyrus boats over the water.

³ All you people of the world,
you who live on the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains,
you will see it,
and when a trumpet sounds,
you will hear it.

⁴ This is what the LORD says to me:
"I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

⁵ For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

⁶ They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey
and to the wild animals;
the birds will feed on them all summer,
the wild animals all winter.

⁷ At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD Almighty

Isaiah, Chapter 19

¹ An oracle concerning Egypt:

² "I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian-
brother will fight against brother,
neighbor against neighbor,
city against city,
kingdom against kingdom.

³ The Egyptians will lose heart,
and I will bring their plans to nothing;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
the mediums and the spiritists.

⁴ I will hand the Egyptians over
to the power of a cruel master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,"
declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

⁵ The waters of the river will dry up,
and the riverbed will be parched and dry.

⁶ The canals will stink;
the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up.
The reeds and rushes will wither,

⁷ also the plants along the Nile,
at the mouth of the river.
Every sown field along the Nile
will become parched, will blow away and be no more.

⁸ The fishermen will groan and lament,
all who cast hooks into the Nile;
those who throw nets on the water
will pine away.

⁹ Those who work with combed flax will despair,
the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.

¹⁰ The workers in cloth will be dejected,
and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.

¹¹ The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools;
the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
"I am one of the wise men,
a disciple of the ancient kings"?

¹² Where are your wise men now?
Let them show you and make known
what the LORD Almighty
has planned against Egypt.

¹³ The officials of Zoan have become fools,
the leaders of Memphis¹ are deceived;
the cornerstones of her peoples
have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴ The LORD has poured into them
a spirit of dizziness;
they make Egypt stagger in all that she does,
as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.

¹⁵ There is nothing Egypt can do-
head or tail, palm branch or reed.

¹⁶ In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them.

¹⁷ And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the LORD Almighty is planning against them.

¹⁸ In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. One of them will be called the City of Destruction.²

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border.

²⁰ It will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them.

²¹ So the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the LORD . They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and keep them.

²² The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD , and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.

²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.

²⁵ The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance."

Isaiah, Chapter 20

¹ In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it-

² at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, "Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet." And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

³ Then the LORD said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush,¹

⁴ so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared-to Egypt's shame.

⁵ Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame.

⁶ In that day the people who live on this coast will say, 'See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?' "

Isaiah, Chapter 21

¹ An oracle concerning the Desert by the Sea:

² A dire vision has been shown to me:
The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

³ At this my body is racked with pain,
pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
I am bewildered by what I see.

⁴ My heart falters,
fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
has become a horror to me.

⁵ They set the tables,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink!
Get up, you officers,
oil the shields!

⁶ This is what the Lord says to me:

⁷ When he sees chariots
with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys
or riders on camels,
let him be alert,
fully alert."

⁸ And the lookout¹ shouted,

⁹ Look, here comes a man in a chariot
with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
'Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods
lie shattered on the ground!' "

¹⁰ O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,
I tell you what I have heard
from the LORD Almighty,
from the God of Israel.

¹¹ An oracle concerning Dumah² :

¹² The watchman replies,
"Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
and come back yet again."

¹³ An oracle concerning Arabia:

¹⁴ bring water for the thirsty;
you who live in Tema,
bring food for the fugitives.

¹⁵ They flee from the sword,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
and from the heat of battle.

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says to me: "Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar will come to an end.

¹⁷ The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few." The LORD , the God of Israel, has spoken.

Isaiah, Chapter 22

¹ An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision:

² O town full of commotion,
O 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 defenses of Judah are stripped away.

⁹ you saw that the City of David
had many breaches in its defenses;
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:

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, O you mighty man.

¹⁸ He will roll you up tightly like a ball
and throw you into a large country.

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 house 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 be a seat¹ 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, Chapter 23

¹ An oracle concerning Tyre:

² Be silent, you people of the island
and you merchants of Sidon,
whom the seafarers have enriched.

³ On the great waters
came the grain of the Shihor;
the harvest of the Nile¹ was the revenue of Tyre,
and she became the marketplace of the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea,
for the sea has spoken:
"I have neither been in labor nor given birth;
I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters."

⁵ When word comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, you people of the island.

⁷ Is this your city of revelry,
the old, old city,
whose feet have taken her
to settle in far-off lands?

⁸ Who planned this against Tyre,
the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants are princes,
whose traders are renowned in the earth?

⁹ The LORD Almighty planned it,
to bring low the pride of all glory
and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

¹⁰ Till² your land as along the Nile,
O Daughter of Tarshish,
for you no longer have a harbor.

¹¹ The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea
and made its kingdoms tremble.
He has given an order concerning Phoenicia³
that her fortresses be destroyed.

¹² He said, "No more of your reveling,
O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed!

¹³ Look at the land of the Babylonians,⁴
this people that is now of no account!
The Assyrians have made it
a place for desert creatures;
they raised up their siege towers,
they stripped its fortresses bare
and turned it into a ruin.

¹⁴ Wail, you ships of Tarshish;
your fortress is destroyed!

¹⁵ At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king's life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶ "Take up a harp, walk through the city,
O prostitute forgotten;
play the harp well, sing many a song,
so that you will be remembered."

¹⁷ At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

¹⁸ Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD ; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD , for abundant food and fine clothes.

Isaiah, Chapter 24

¹
See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth
and devastate it;
he will ruin its face
and scatter its inhabitants-

² it will be the same
for priest as for people,
for master as for servant,
for mistress as for maid,
for seller as for buyer,
for borrower as for lender,
for debtor as for creditor.

³ The earth will be completely laid waste
and totally plundered.
The LORD has spoken this word.

⁴ The earth dries up and withers,
the world languishes and withers,
the exalted of the earth languish.

⁵ The earth is defiled by its people;
they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶ Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left.

⁷ The new wine dries up and the vine withers;
all the merrymakers groan.

⁸ The gaiety of the tambourines is stilled,
the noise of the revelers has stopped,
the joyful harp is silent.

⁹ No longer do they drink wine with a song;
the beer is bitter to its drinkers.

¹⁰ The ruined city lies desolate;
the entrance to every house is barred.

¹¹ In the streets they cry out for wine;
all joy turns to gloom,
all gaiety is banished from the earth.

¹² The city is left in ruins,
its gate is battered to pieces.

¹³ So will it be on the earth
and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.

¹⁴ They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
from the west they acclaim the LORD's majesty.

¹⁵ Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD ;
exalt the name of the LORD , the God of Israel,
in the islands of the sea.

¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear singing:
"Glory to the Righteous One."

¹⁷ Terror and pit and snare await you,
O people of the earth.

¹⁸ Whoever flees at the sound of terror
will fall into a pit;
whoever climbs out of the pit
will be caught in a snare.

¹⁹ The earth is broken up,
the earth is split asunder,
the earth is thoroughly shaken.

²⁰ The earth reels like a drunkard,
it sways like a hut in the wind;
so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion
that it falls-never to rise again.

²¹ In that day the LORD will punish
the powers in the heavens above
and the kings on the earth below.

²² They will be herded together
like prisoners bound in a dungeon;
they will be shut up in prison
and be punished¹ after many days.

²³ The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed;
for the LORD Almighty will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and before its elders, gloriously.

Isaiah, Chapter 25

¹ O LORD , you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done marvelous things,
things planned long ago.

² You have made the city a heap of rubble,
the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners' stronghold a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.

³ Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
cities of ruthless nations will revere you.

⁴ You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm
and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
is like a storm driving against a wall

⁵ and like the heat of the desert.
You silence the uproar of foreigners;
as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

⁶ On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine-
the best of meats and the finest of wines.

⁷ On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;

⁸ he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove the disgrace of his people
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.

⁹ In that day they will say,

¹⁰ The hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain;
but Moab will be trampled under him
as straw is trampled down in the manure.

¹¹ They will spread out their hands in it,
as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim.
God will bring down their pride
despite the cleverness¹ of their hands.

¹² He will bring down your high fortified walls
and lay them low;
he will bring them down to the ground,
to the very dust.

Isaiah, Chapter 26

¹ In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

² Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.

³ You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.

⁴ Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD , the LORD , is the Rock eternal.

⁵ He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.

⁶ Feet trample it down-
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.

⁷ The path of the righteous is level;
O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.

⁸ Yes, LORD , walking in the way of your laws,¹
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.

⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰ Though grace is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and regard not the majesty of the LORD .

¹¹ O LORD , your hand is lifted high,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

¹² LORD , you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

¹³ O LORD , our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone do we honor.

¹⁴ They are now dead, they live no more;
those departed spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
you wiped out all memory of them.

¹⁵ You have enlarged the nation, O LORD ;
you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶ LORD , they came to you in their distress;
when you disciplined them,
they could barely whisper a prayer.²

¹⁷ As a woman with child and about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, O LORD .

¹⁸ We were with child, we writhed in pain,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth;
we have not given birth to people of the world.

¹⁹ But your dead will live;
their bodies will rise.
You who dwell in the dust,
wake up and shout for joy.
Your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.

²⁰ Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until his wrath has passed by.

²¹ See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling
to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her;
she will conceal her slain no longer.

Isaiah, Chapter 27

¹ In that day,

² In that day-

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 warfare¹ 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 fruitage of the removal of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles² or incense altars
will be left standing.

¹⁰ The fortified city stands desolate,
an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert;
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 Euphrates³ to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, 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.


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