August 2

Isaiah Chapter 22

The Valley of Vision

¹ The oracle concerning the valley of vision.

What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?
² You who were full of noise,
You boisterous town, you exultant city;
Your slain were not slain with the sword,
Nor did they die in battle.
³ All your rulers have fled together,
And have been captured without the bow;
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
Though they had fled far away.
⁴ Therefore I say, "Turn your eyes away from me,
Let me weep bitterly,
Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people."
⁵ For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion
In the valley of vision,
A breaking down of walls
And a crying to the mountain.
⁶ Elam took up the quiver
With the chariots, infantry and horsemen;
And Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate.
⁸ And He removed the defense of Judah.
In that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest,
⁹ And you saw that the breaches
In the wall of the city of David were many;
And you collected the waters of the lower pool.
¹⁰ Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem
And tore down houses to fortify the wall.
¹¹ And you made a reservoir between the two walls
For the waters of the old pool.
But you did not depend on Him who made it,
Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago.

¹² Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing,
To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth.
¹³ Instead, there is gaiety and gladness,
Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating of meat and drinking of wine:
"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die."
¹⁴ But the LORD of hosts revealed Himself to me,
"Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you
Until you die," says the Lord GOD of hosts.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts,

"Come, go to this steward,
To Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household,
¹⁶ `What right do you have here,
And whom do you have here,
That you have hewn a tomb for yourself here,
You who hew a tomb on the height,
You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?
<sup>17</sup> `Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you headlong, O man.
And He is about to grasp you firmly
¹⁸ And roll you tightly like a ball,
To be cast into a vast country;
There you will die
And there your splendid chariots will be,
You shame of your master's house.'
¹⁹ "I will depose you from your office,
And I will pull you down from your station.
²⁰ "Then it will come about in that day,
That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
²¹ And I will clothe him with your tunic
And tie your sash securely about him.
I will entrust him with your authority,
And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
²² "Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder,
When he opens no one will shut,
When he shuts no one will open.
²³ "I will drive him like a peg in a firm place,
And he will become a throne of glory to his father's house.

Isaiah Chapter 23

The Fall of Tyre

¹ The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor;
It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus.
² Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon;
Your messengers crossed the sea
³ And were on many waters.
The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue;
And she was the market of nations.
⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,
"I have neither travailed nor given birth,
I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins."
⁵ When the report reaches Egypt,
They will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.
⁶ Pass over to Tarshish;
Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.
⁷ Is this your jubilant city,
Whose origin is from antiquity,
Whose feet used to carry her to colonize distant places?

⁸ Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
⁹ The LORD of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty,
To despise all the honored of the earth.
¹⁰ Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish,
There is no more restraint.
¹¹ He has stretched His hand out over the sea,
He has made the kingdoms tremble;
The LORD has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strongholds.

¹² He has said, "You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest."

¹³ Behold, the land of the Chaldeans--this is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creatures--they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.

¹⁴ Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For your stronghold is destroyed.

¹⁶ Take your harp, walk about the city,
O forgotten harlot;
Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.

Isaiah Chapter 24

Judgment on the Earth

¹ Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. ² And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. ³ The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the LORD has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. ⁵ The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.

⁷ The new wine mourns,
The vine decays,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
⁸ The gaiety of tambourines ceases,
The noise of revelers stops,
The gaiety of the harp ceases.
⁹ They do not drink wine with song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰ The city of chaos is broken down;
Every house is shut up so that none may enter.
¹¹ There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;
All joy turns to gloom.
The gaiety of the earth is banished.
¹² Desolation is left in the city
And the gate is battered to ruins.
¹³ For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,
As the shaking of an olive tree,
As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.
¹⁴ They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of the LORD.
¹⁵ Therefore glorify the LORD in the east,
The name of the LORD, the God of Israel,
In the coastlands of the sea.
¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear songs, "Glory to the Righteous One,"
But I say, "Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
And the treacherous deal very treacherously."
¹⁷ Terror and pit and snare
Confront you, O inhabitant of the earth.
¹⁸ Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit,
And he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare;
For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.
¹⁹ The earth is broken asunder,
The earth is split through,
The earth is shaken violently.
²⁰ The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard
And it totters like a shack,
For its transgression is heavy upon it,
And it will fall, never to rise again.
²¹ So it will happen in that day,
That the LORD will punish the host of heaven on high,
And the kings of the earth on earth.
²² They will be gathered together
Like prisoners in the dungeon,
And will be confined in prison;
And after many days they will be punished.
²³ Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed,
For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
And His glory will be before His elders.

Isaiah Chapter 25

Song of Praise for God's Favor

¹ O LORD, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
² For You have made a city into a heap,
A fortified city into a ruin;
A palace of strangers is a city no more,
It will never be rebuilt.
³ Therefore a strong people will glorify You;
Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.
⁴ For You have been a defense for the helpless,
A defense for the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;
For the breath of the ruthless
Is like a rain storm against a wall.
⁵ Like heat in drought, You subdue the uproar of aliens;
Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced.

⁶ The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,
And refined, aged wine.
⁷ And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
⁸ He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
⁹ And it will be said in that day,
"Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation."
¹⁰ For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain,
And Moab will be trodden down in his place
As straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.
¹¹ And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it
As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
But the Lord will lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.
¹² The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,
Lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust.