August 1

Isaiah Chapter 16

Prophecy of Moab's Devastation

¹ Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,
From Sela by way of the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
² Then, like fleeing birds or scattered nestlings,
The daughters of Moab will be at the fords of the Arnon.
³ "Give us advice, make a decision;
Cast your shadow like night at high noon;
Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.
⁴ "Let the outcasts of Moab stay with you;
Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer."
For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,
Oppressors have completely disappeared from the land.
⁵ A throne will even be established in lovingkindness,
And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David;
Moreover, he will seek justice
And be prompt in righteousness.

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;
Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;
His idle boasts are false.
⁷ Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.
You will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth
As those who are utterly stricken.
⁸ For the fields of Heshbon have withered, the vines of Sibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;
Its tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.
⁹ Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;
I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh;
For the shouting over your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.
¹⁰ Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;
In the vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,
No treader treads out wine in the presses,
For I have made the shouting to cease.
¹¹ Therefore my heart intones like a harp for Moab
And my inward feelings for Kir-hareseth.
¹² So it will come about when Moab presents himself,
When he wearies himself upon his high place
And comes to his sanctuary to pray,
That he will not prevail.

¹³ This is the word which the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab. ¹⁴ But now the LORD speaks, saying, "Within three years, as a hired man would count them, the glory of Moab will be degraded along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and impotent."

Isaiah Chapter 17

Prophecy about Damascus

¹ The oracle concerning Damascus.

"Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
² "The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks to lie down in,
And there will be no one to frighten them.
³ "The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,"
Declares the LORD of hosts.

⁴ Now in that day the glory of Jacob will fade,
And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
⁵ It will be even like the reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the valley of Rephaim.
⁶ Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost bough,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.
⁷ In that day man will have regard for his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Even the ¹Asherim and incense stands.
⁹ In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.
¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
And have not remembered the rock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine slips of a strange god.
¹¹ In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will be a heap
In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.

¹² Alas, the uproar of many peoples
Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!
¹³ The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like chaff in the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.
¹⁴ At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning they are no more.
Such will be the portion of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.

1. I.e. wooden symbols of a female deity

Isaiah Chapter 18

Message to Ethiopia

¹ Alas, oh land of whirring wings
Which lies beyond the rivers of ¹Cush,
² Which sends envoys by the sea,
Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth,
To a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.
³ All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,
As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, you will see it,
And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

"I will look from My dwelling place quietly
Like dazzling heat in the sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."
⁵ For before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives
And remove and cut away the spreading branches.
⁶ They will be left together for mountain birds of prey,
And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
⁷ At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the LORD of hosts
From a people tall and smooth,
Even from a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide--
To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, even Mount Zion.

1. Or Ethiopia

Isaiah Chapter 19

Message to Egypt

¹ The oracle concerning Egypt.

Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;
The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,
And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
² "So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;
And they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor,
City against city and kingdom against kingdom.
³ "Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;
And I will confound their strategy,
So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead
And to mediums and spiritists.
⁴ "Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master,
And a mighty king will rule over them," declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

⁵ The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.
⁶ The canals will emit a stench,
The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;
The reeds and rushes will rot away.
⁷ The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile
And all the sown fields by the Nile
Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.
⁸ And the fishermen will lament,
And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.
⁹ Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax
And the weavers of white cloth will be utterly dejected.
¹⁰ And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed;
All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

¹¹ The princes of Zoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh's wisest advisers has become stupid.
How can you men say to Pharaoh,
"I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?
¹² Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them understand what the LORD of hosts
Has purposed against Egypt.
¹³ The princes of Zoan have acted foolishly,
The princes of Memphis are deluded;
Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes
Have led Egypt astray.
¹⁴ The LORD has mixed within her a spirit of distortion;
They have led Egypt astray in all that it does,
As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵ There will be no work for Egypt
Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

¹⁶ In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. ¹⁷ The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the purpose of the LORD of hosts which He is purposing against them.

¹⁸ In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of ¹Destruction.

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD near its border. ²⁰ It will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them. ²¹ Thus the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it. ²² The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them.

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵ whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance."

1. Some ancient mss and versions read the Sun

Isaiah Chapter 20

Prophecy about Egypt and Ethiopia

¹ In the year that the commander came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it, ² at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your shoes off your feet." And he did so, going naked and barefoot. ³ And the LORD said, "Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and token against Egypt and Cush, ⁴ so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. ⁵ "Then they will be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their boast. ⁶ "So the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, `Behold, such is our hope, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and we, how shall we escape?'"

Isaiah Chapter 21

God Commands That Babylon Be Taken

¹ The oracle concerning the ¹wilderness of the sea.

As windstorms in the Negev sweep on,
It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land.
² A harsh vision has been shown to me;
The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.
Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;
I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused.
³ For this reason my loins are full of anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.
I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.
⁴ My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.
⁵ They set the table, they ²spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;
"Rise up, captains, oil the shields,"

"Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees.
⁷ "When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
A train of donkeys, a train of camels,
Let him pay close attention, very close attention."

"O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,
And I am stationed every night at my guard post.
⁹ "Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs."
And one said, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground."
¹⁰ O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor!
What I have heard from the LORD of hosts,
The God of Israel, I make known to you.

Oracles about Edom and Arabia

¹¹ The oracle concerning Edom.

One keeps calling to me from Seir,
"Watchman, ³how far gone is the night?
Watchman, how far gone is the night?"
¹² The watchman says,
"Morning comes but also night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
Come back again."

¹³ The oracle about Arabia.

In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,
O caravans of Dedanites.
¹⁴ Bring water for the thirsty,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Meet the fugitive with bread.
¹⁵ For they have fled from the swords,
From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow
And from the press of battle.

¹⁶ For thus the Lord said to me, "In a year, as a hired man would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will terminate; ¹⁷ and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken."

1. Or sandy wastes, sea country

2. Or spread out the rugs or possibly they arranged the seating

3. Lit what is the time of the night?