Isaiah 21-24

1This is the burden against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.

2A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”

3Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.

4My heart falters; fear makes me tremble. The twilight I desired has turned to horror.

5They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet, they eat, they drink! Rise up, O princes, oil the shields!

6For this is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.

7When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, fully alert.”

8Then the lookout shouted: “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; night after night I stay at my post.

9Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

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

11This is the burden against Dumah: One calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?”

12The watchman replies, “Morning has come, but also the night. If you would inquire, then inquire. Come back yet again.”

13This is the burden against Arabia: In the thickets of Arabia you must lodge, O caravans of Dedanites.

14Bring water for the thirsty, O dwellers of Tema; meet the refugees with food.

15For they flee from the sword— the sword that is drawn— from the bow that is bent, and from the stress of battle.

16For this is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will be gone.

17The remaining archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” For the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

1This is the burden against the Valley of Vision: What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops,

2O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.

3All your rulers have fled together, captured without a bow. All your fugitives were captured together, having fled to a distant place.

4Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

5For the Lord GOD of Hosts has set a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision— of breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains.

6Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovers the shield.

7Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the gates.

8He has uncovered the defenses of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest.

9You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool.

10You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall.

11You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or consider Him who planned it long ago.

12On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

13But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

14The LORD of Hosts has revealed in my hearing: “Until your dying day, this sin of yours will never be atoned for,” says the Lord GOD of Hosts.

15This is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace:

16What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?

17Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you,

18roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master.

19I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.

20On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

21I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

22I 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.

23I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.

24So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the lesser vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar.

25In that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and fall, and the load upon it will be cut down.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.

1This is the burden against Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus.

2Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whose traders have crossed the sea.

3On the great waters came the grain of Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre; she was the merchant of the nations.

4Be ashamed, O Sidon, the stronghold of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have not been in labor or given birth. I have not raised young men or brought up young women.”

5When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.

6Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!

7Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away?

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

9The LORD of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

10Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.

11The LORD has stretched out His hand over the sea; He has made kingdoms tremble. He has given a command that the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed.

12He said, “You shall rejoice no more, O oppressed Virgin Daughter of Sidon. Get up and cross over to Cyprus— even there you will find no rest.”

13Look at the land of the Chaldeans — a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They brought it to ruin.

14Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your harbor has been destroyed!

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

16“Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot. Make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered.”

17And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

18Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.

1Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—

2people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

3The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered. For the LORD has spoken this word.

4The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.

5The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.

6Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.

7The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.

8The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.

9They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.

10The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry.

11In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.

12The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble.

13So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

14They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they proclaim the majesty of the LORD.

15Therefore glorify the LORD in the east. Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the islands of the sea.

16From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me.” The treacherous betray; the treacherous deal in treachery.

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

18Whoever flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.

19The earth is utterly broken apart, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken violently.

20The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.

21In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below.

22They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days.

23The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders with great glory.