Isaiah 31–34

1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD.

2Yet He too is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers.

3But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish together.

4For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey— and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor— so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.

5Like birds hovering overhead, so the LORD of Hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will shield it and deliver it; He will pass over it and preserve it.”

6Return to the One against whom you have so blatantly rebelled, O children of Israel.

7For on that day, every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made.

8“Then Assyria will fall, but not by the sword of man; a sword will devour them, but not one made by mortals. They will flee before the sword, and their young men will be put to forced labor.

9Their rock will pass away for fear, and their princes will panic at the sight of the battle standard,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

1Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.

2Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shadow of a great rock in an arid land.

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

4The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will speak clearly and fluently.

5No longer will a fool be called noble, nor a scoundrel be respected.

6For a fool speaks foolishness; his mind plots iniquity. He practices ungodliness and speaks falsely about the LORD; he leaves the hungry empty and deprives the thirsty of drink.

7The weapons of the scoundrel are destructive; he hatches plots to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.

8But a noble man makes honorable plans; he stands up for worthy causes.

9Stand up, you complacent women; listen to me. Give ear to my word, you overconfident daughters.

10In a little more than a year you will tremble, O secure ones. For the grape harvest will fail and the fruit harvest will not arrive.

11Shudder, you ladies of leisure; tremble, you daughters of complacency. Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists.

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

13and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers— even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.

14For the palace will be forsaken, the busy city abandoned. The hill and the watchtower will become caves forever— the delight of wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks—

15until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high. Then the desert will be an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest.

16Then justice will inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field.

17The work of righteousness will be peace; the service of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.

18Then my people will dwell in a peaceful place, in safe and secure places of rest.

19But hail will level the forest, and the city will sink to the depths.

20Blessed are those who sow beside abundant waters, who let the ox and donkey range freely.

1Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.

2O LORD, be gracious to us! We wait for You. Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble.

3The peoples flee the thunder of Your voice; the nations scatter when You rise.

4Your spoil, O nations, is gathered as by locusts; like a swarm of locusts men sweep over it.

5The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

6He will be the sure foundation for your times, a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.

7Behold, their valiant ones cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. The treaty has been broken, the witnesses are despised, and human life is disregarded.

9The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

10“Now I will arise,” says the LORD. “Now I will lift Myself up. Now I will be exalted.

11You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will consume you.

12The peoples will be burned to ashes, like thorns cut down and set ablaze.

13You who are far off, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

14The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling grips the ungodly: “Who of us can dwell with a consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting flames?”

15He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—

16he will dwell on the heights; the mountain fortress will be his refuge; his food will be provided and his water assured.

17Your eyes will see the King in His beauty and behold a land that stretches afar.

18Your mind will ponder the former terror: “Where is he who tallies? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”

19You will no longer see the insolent, a people whose speech is unintelligible, who stammer in a language you cannot understand.

20Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful pasture, a tent that does not wander; its tent pegs will not be pulled up, nor will any of its cords be broken.

21But there the Majestic One, our LORD, will be for us a place of rivers and wide canals, where no galley with oars will row, and no majestic vessel will pass.

22For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our King. It is He who will save us.

23Your ropes are slack; they cannot secure the mast or spread the sail. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided, and even the lame will carry off plunder.

24And no resident of Zion will say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell there will be forgiven of iniquity.

1Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it.

2The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will devote them to destruction; He will give them over to slaughter.

3Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.

4All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.

5When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

6The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat— with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7And the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong ones. Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat.

8For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

9Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.

10It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it.

11The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.

12No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing.

13Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.

14The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose.

15There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate.

16Search and read the scroll of the LORD: Not one of these will go missing, not one will lack her mate, because He has ordered it by His mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit.

17He has allotted their portion; His hand has distributed it by measure. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it from generation to generation.