Isaiah 7:17-38:6

New King James Version

¹⁸ And it shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord ^(C)will whistle for the fly
That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt,
And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
¹⁹ They will come, and all of them will rest
In the desolate valleys and in ^(D)the clefts of the rocks,
And on all thorns and in all pastures.

²⁰ In the same day the Lord will shave with a ^(E)hired ^(F)razor,
With those from beyond ^[a]the River, with the king of Assyria,
The head and the hair of the legs,
And will also remove the beard.

²¹ It shall be in that day
That a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep;
²² So it shall be, from the abundance of milk they give,
That he will eat curds;
For curds and honey everyone will eat who is left in the land.

²³ It shall happen in that day,
That wherever there could be a thousand vines
Worth a thousand shekels of silver,
^(G)It will be for briers and thorns.
²⁴ With arrows and bows men will come there,
Because all the land will become briers and thorns.

²⁵ And to any hill which could be dug with the hoe,
You will not go there for fear of briers and thorns;
But it will become a range for oxen
And a place for sheep to roam.

⁶ “Inasmuch as these people refused
The waters of ^(L)Shiloah that flow softly,
And rejoice ^(M)in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son;
⁷ Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them
The waters of ^[e]the River, strong and mighty—
The king of Assyria and all his glory;
He will ^[f]go up over all his channels
And go over all his banks.
⁸ He will pass through Judah,
He will overflow and pass over,
^(N)He will reach up to the neck;
And the stretching out of his wings
Will ^[g]fill the breadth of Your land, O ^(O)Immanuel.^[h]

⁹ “Be^(P) shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces!
Give ear, all you from far countries.
Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces;
Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.
^10 (Q)Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;
Speak the word, ^(R)but it will not stand,
^(S)For ^[i]God is with us.”

¹² “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’
Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,
Nor be afraid of their ^[k]threats, nor be ^[l]troubled.
¹³ The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow;
Let Him be your fear,
And let Him be your dread.
^14 (T)He will be as a ^[m]sanctuary,
But ^(U)a stone of stumbling and a rock of ^[n]offense
To both the houses of Israel,
As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁵ And many among them shall ^(V)stumble;
They shall fall and be broken,
Be snared and ^[o]taken.”

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony,
Seal the law among my disciples.
¹⁷ And I will wait on the Lord,
Who ^(W)hides His face from the house of Jacob;
And I ^(X)will hope in Him.
^18 (Y)Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me!
We ^(Z)are for signs and wonders in Israel
From the Lord of hosts,
Who dwells in Mount Zion.

³ You have multiplied the nation
And ^[r]increased its joy;
They rejoice before You
According to the joy of harvest,
As men rejoice ^(AL)when they divide the spoil.
⁴ For You have broken the yoke of his burden
And the staff of his shoulder,
The rod of his oppressor,
As in the day of ^(AM)Midian.
⁵ For every warrior’s ^[s]sandal from the noisy battle,
And garments rolled in blood,
^(AN)Will be used for burning and fuel ^[t]of fire.

^6 (AO)For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a ^(AP)Son is given;
And ^(AQ)the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
^(AR)Wonderful, Counselor, ^(AS)Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, ^(AT)Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace
^(AU)There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The ^(AV)zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is ^[u]stretched out still.

¹³ For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them,
Nor do they seek the Lord of hosts.
¹⁴ Therefore the Lord will cut off head and tail from Israel,
Palm branch and bulrush ^(AX)in one day.
¹⁵ The elder and honorable, he is the head;
The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.
¹⁶ For ^(AY)the leaders of this people cause them to err,
And those who are led by them are destroyed.
¹⁷ Therefore the Lord ^(AZ)will have no joy in their young men,
Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows;
For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer,
And every mouth speaks ^[v]folly.

^(BA)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸ For wickedness ^(BB)burns as the fire;
It shall devour the briers and thorns,
And kindle in the thickets of the forest;
They shall mount up like rising smoke.
¹⁹ Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts
^(BC)The land is burned up,
And the people shall be as fuel for the fire;
^(BD)No man shall spare his brother.
²⁰ And he shall ^[w]snatch on the right hand
And be hungry;
He shall devour on the left hand
^(BE)And not be satisfied;
^(BF)Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.
²¹ Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh;
Together they shall be ^(BG)against Judah.

^(BH)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

^(BN)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
And by my wisdom, for I am prudent;
Also I have removed the boundaries of the people,
And have robbed their treasuries;
So I have put down the inhabitants like a ^[z]valiant man.
^14 (BZ)My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people,
And as one gathers eggs that are left,
I have gathered all the earth;
And there was no one who moved his wing,
Nor opened his mouth with even a peep.”

¹⁵ Shall ^(CA)the ax boast itself against him who chops with it?
Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it?
As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up,
Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!
¹⁶ Therefore the Lord, the ^[aa]Lord of hosts,
Will send leanness among his fat ones;
And under his glory
He will kindle a burning
Like the burning of a fire.
¹⁷ So the Light of Israel will be for a fire,
And his Holy One for a flame;
^(CB)It will burn and devour
His thorns and his briers in one day.
¹⁸ And it will consume the glory of his forest and of ^(CC)his fruitful field,
Both soul and body;
And they will be as when a sick man wastes away.
¹⁹ Then the rest of the trees of his forest
Will be so few in number
That a child may write them.

²⁷ It shall come to pass in that day
That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder,
And his yoke from your neck,
And the yoke will be destroyed because of ^(CO)the anointing oil.

²⁸ He has come to Aiath,
He has passed Migron;
At Michmash he has attended to his equipment.
²⁹ They have gone ^[ad]along ^(CP)the ridge,
They have taken up lodging at Geba.
Ramah is afraid,
^(CQ)Gibeah of Saul has fled.
^30 [ae]Lift up your voice,
O daughter ^(CR)of Gallim!
Cause it to be heard as far as ^(CS)Laish—
^[af]O poor Anathoth!
^31 (CT)Madmenah has fled,
The inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge.
³² As yet he will remain ^(CU)at Nob that day;
He will ^(CV)shake his fist at the mount of ^(CW)the daughter of Zion,
The hill of Jerusalem.

³³ Behold, the Lord,
The Lord of hosts,
Will lop off the bough with terror;
^(CX)Those of high stature will be hewn down,
And the haughty will be humbled.
³⁴ He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,
And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

³ His delight is in the fear of the Lord,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
⁴ But ^(DD)with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall ^(DE)strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

⁶ “The^(DF) wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
^9 (DG)They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For ^(DH)the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰ “And^(DI) in that day ^(DJ)there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a ^(DK)banner to the people;
For the ^(DL)Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”

¹¹ It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
^(DM)From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the ^[aj]islands of the sea.

¹² He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will ^[ak]assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together ^(DN)the dispersed of Judah
From the four ^[al]corners of the earth.
¹³ Also ^(DO)the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
¹⁴ But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;
Together they shall plunder the ^[am]people of the East;
^(DP)They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;
And the people of Ammon shall obey them.
¹⁵ The Lord ^(DQ)will utterly ^[an]destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over ^[ao]the River,
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over ^[ap]dry-shod.
^16 (DR)There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
^(DS)As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.

“O Lord, I will praise You;
Though You were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.
² Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
^(DU)‘For ^(DV)Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song;
He also has become my salvation.’ ”

³ Therefore with joy you will draw ^(DW)water
From the wells of salvation.

^(DX)“Praise the Lord, call upon His name;
^(DY)Declare His deeds among the peoples,
Make mention that His ^(DZ)name is exalted.
^5 (EA)Sing to the Lord,
For He has done excellent things;
This is known in all the earth.
^6 (EB)Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great is ^(EC)the Holy One of Israel in your midst!”

² “Lift^(EE) up a banner ^(EF)on the high mountain,
Raise your voice to them;
^(EG)Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
³ I have commanded My ^[ar]sanctified ones;
I have also called ^(EH)My mighty ones for My anger—
Those who ^(EI)rejoice in My exaltation.”

⁴ The ^(EJ)noise of a multitude in the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!
The Lord of hosts musters
The army for battle.
⁵ They come from a far country,
From the end of heaven—
The ^(EK)Lord and His ^[as]weapons of indignation,
To destroy the whole ^(EL)land.

⁶ Wail, ^(EM)for the day of the Lord is at hand!
^(EN)It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
⁷ Therefore all hands will be limp,
Every man’s heart will melt,
⁸ And they will be afraid.
^(EO)Pangs^[at] and sorrows will take hold of them;
They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;
They will be amazed at one another;
Their faces will be like flames.

⁹ Behold, ^(EP)the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy ^(EQ)its sinners from it.
¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be ^(ER)darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

¹¹ “I will ^(ES)punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
^(ET)I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the ^[au]terrible.
¹² I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.
^13 (EU)Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place,
In the wrath of the Lord of hosts
And in ^(EV)the day of His fierce anger.
¹⁴ It shall be as the hunted gazelle,
And as a sheep that no man ^[av]takes up;
^(EW)Every man will turn to his own people,
And everyone will flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Everyone who is found will be thrust through,
And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their children also will be ^(EX)dashed to pieces before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ^(EY)ravished.

¹⁷ “Behold,^(EZ) I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not ^[aw]regard silver;
And as for gold, they will not delight in it.
¹⁸ Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.
^19 (FA)And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew ^(FB)Sodom and Gomorrah.
^20 (FC)It will never be inhabited,
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.
^21 (FD)But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,
And their houses will be full of ^[ax]owls;
Ostriches will dwell there,
And wild goats will caper there.
²² The hyenas will howl in their citadels,
And jackals in their pleasant palaces.
^(FE)Her time is near to come,
And her days will not be prolonged.”

“How the oppressor has ceased,
The ^(FL)golden^[ay] city ceased!
⁵ The Lord has broken ^(FM)the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of the rulers;
⁶ He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
He who ruled the nations in anger,
Is persecuted and no one hinders.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
They break forth into singing.
^8 (FN)Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,
And the cedars of Lebanon,
Saying, ‘Since you ^[az]were cut down,
No woodsman has come up against us.’

⁹ “Hell^(FO)[ba] from beneath is excited about you,
To meet you at your coming;
It stirs up the dead for you,
All the chief ones of the earth;
It has raised up from their thrones
All the kings of the nations.
¹⁰ They all shall ^(FP)speak and say to you:
‘Have you also become as weak as we?
Have you become like us?
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
And the sound of your stringed instruments;
The maggot is spread under you,
And worms cover you.’

¹⁶ “Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
¹⁷ Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who ^[bd]did not open the house of his prisoners?’

¹⁸ “All the kings of the nations,
All of them, sleep in glory,
Everyone in his own house;
¹⁹ But you are cast out of your grave
Like an ^[be]abominable branch,
Like the garment of those who are slain,
^[bf]Thrust through with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit,
Like a corpse trodden underfoot.
²⁰ You will not be joined with them in burial,
Because you have destroyed your land
And slain your people.
^(FX)The brood of evildoers shall never be named.
²¹ Prepare slaughter for his children
^(FY)Because of the iniquity of their fathers,
Lest they rise up and possess the land,
And fill the face of the world with cities.”

²⁹ “Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
^(GJ)Because the rod that struck you is broken;
For out of the serpent’s roots will come forth a viper,
^(GK)And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.
³⁰ The firstborn of the poor will feed,
And the needy will lie down in safety;
I will kill your roots with famine,
And it will slay your remnant.
³¹ Wail, O gate! Cry, O city!
All you of Philistia are dissolved;
For smoke will come from the north,
And no one will be alone in his ^[bh]appointed times.”

³² What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
That ^(GL)the Lord has founded Zion,
And ^(GM)the poor of His people shall take refuge in it.

Because in the night ^(GO)Ar of ^(GP)Moab is laid waste
And destroyed,
Because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste
And destroyed,
² He has gone up to the ^[bj]temple and Dibon,
To the high places to weep.
Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba;
^(GQ)On all their heads will be baldness,
And every beard cut off.
³ In their streets they will clothe themselves with sackcloth;
On the tops of their houses
And in their streets
Everyone will wail, ^(GR)weeping bitterly.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out,
Their voice shall be heard as far as ^(GS)Jahaz;
Therefore the ^[bk]armed soldiers of Moab will cry out;
His life will be burdensome to him.

⁵ “My^(GT) heart will cry out for Moab;
His fugitives shall flee to Zoar,
Like ^[bl]a three-year-old heifer.
For ^(GU)by the Ascent of Luhith
They will go up with weeping;
For in the way of Horonaim
They will raise up a cry of destruction,
⁶ For the waters ^(GV)of Nimrim will be desolate,
For the green grass has withered away;
The grass fails, there is nothing green.
⁷ Therefore the abundance they have gained,
And what they have laid up,
They will carry away to the Brook of the Willows.
⁸ For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab,
Its wailing to Eglaim
And its wailing to Beer Elim.
⁹ For the waters of ^[bm]Dimon will be full of blood;
Because I will bring more upon Dimon,
^(GW)Lions upon him who escapes from Moab,
And on the remnant of the land.”

³ “Take counsel, execute judgment;
Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day;
Hide the outcasts,
Do not betray him who escapes.
⁴ Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Moab;
Be a shelter to them from the face of the ^[bo]spoiler.
For the extortioner is at an end,
Devastation ceases,
The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
⁵ In mercy ^(HB)the throne will be established;
And One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David,
^(HC)Judging and seeking justice and hastening ^(HD)righteousness.”

⁶ We have heard of the ^(HE)pride of Moab—
He is very proud—
Of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath;
^(HF)But his ^[bp]lies shall not be so.
⁷ Therefore Moab shall ^(HG)wail for Moab;
Everyone shall wail.
For the foundations ^(HH)of Kir Hareseth you shall mourn;
Surely they are stricken.

⁸ For ^(HI)the fields of Heshbon languish,
And ^(HJ)the vine of Sibmah;
The lords of the nations have broken down its choice plants,
Which have reached to Jazer
And wandered through the wilderness.
Her branches are stretched out,
They are gone over the ^(HK)sea.
⁹ Therefore I will bewail the vine of Sibmah,
With the weeping of Jazer;
I will drench you with my tears,
^(HL)O Heshbon and Elealeh;
For ^[bq]battle cries have fallen
Over your summer fruits and your harvest.

^10 (HM)Gladness is taken away,
And joy from the plentiful field;
In the vineyards there will be no singing,
Nor will there be shouting;
No treaders will tread out wine in the presses;
I have made their shouting cease.
¹¹ Therefore ^(HN)my ^[br]heart shall resound like a harp for Moab,
And my inner being for ^[bs]Kir Heres.

¹² And it shall come to pass,
When it is seen that Moab is weary on ^(HO)the high place,
That he will come to his sanctuary to pray;
But he will not prevail.

“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.
^2 [bu]The cities of ^(HR)Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and ^(HS)no one will make them afraid.
^3 (HT)The fortress also will cease from Ephraim,
The kingdom from Damascus,
And the remnant of Syria;
They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

⁴ “In that day it shall come to pass
That the glory of Jacob will ^[bv]wane,
And ^(HU)the fatness of his flesh grow lean.
^5 (HV)It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain,
And reaps the heads with his arm;
It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain
In the Valley of Rephaim.
^6 (HW)Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it,
Like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough,
Four or five in its most fruitful branches,”
Says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷ In that day a man will ^(HX)look to his Maker,
And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ He will not look to the altars,
The work of his hands;
He will not respect what his ^(HY)fingers have made,
Nor the ^[bw]wooden images nor the incense altars.

⁹ In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken ^[bx]bough
And ^[by]an uppermost branch,
Which they left because of the children of Israel;
And there will be desolation.

¹⁰ Because you have forgotten ^(HZ)the God of your salvation,
And have not been mindful of the Rock of your ^[bz]stronghold,
Therefore you will plant pleasant plants
And set out foreign seedlings;
¹¹ In the day you will make your plant to grow,
And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will be a heap of ruins
In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.

¹² Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise ^(IA)like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
¹³ The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will ^(IB)rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And ^(IC)be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
¹⁴ Then behold, at eventide, trouble!
And before the morning, he is no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who rob us.

³ All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:
^(IE)When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;
And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.
⁴ For so the Lord said to me,
“I will take My rest,
And I will ^[cb]look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
And take away and cut down the branches.
⁶ They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey
And for the beasts of the earth;
The birds of prey will summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

⁷ In that time ^(IF)a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts
^[cc]From a people tall and smooth of skin,
And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the Lord of hosts,
To Mount Zion.

Behold, the Lord ^(IH)rides on a swift cloud,
And will come into Egypt;
^(II)The idols of Egypt will ^[ce]totter at His presence,
And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.

² “I will ^(IJ)set Egyptians against Egyptians;
Everyone will fight against his brother,
And everyone against his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
³ The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst;
I will destroy their counsel,
And they will ^(IK)consult the idols and the charmers,
The mediums and the sorcerers.
⁴ And the Egyptians I will give
^(IL)Into the hand of a cruel master,
And a fierce king will rule over them,”
Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

^5 (IM)The waters will fail from the sea,
And the river will be wasted and dried up.
⁶ The rivers will turn foul;
The brooks ^(IN)of defense will be emptied and dried up;
The reeds and rushes will wither.
⁷ The papyrus reeds by ^[cf]the River, by the mouth of the River,
And everything sown by the River,
Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.
⁸ The fishermen also will mourn;
All those will lament who cast hooks into the River,
And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.
⁹ Moreover those who work in ^(IO)fine flax
And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;
¹⁰ And its foundations will be broken.
All who make wages will be troubled of soul.

¹¹ Surely the princes of ^(IP)Zoan are fools;
Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel.
^(IQ)How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise,
The son of ancient kings?”
^12 (IR)Where are they?
Where are your wise men?
Let them tell you now,
And let them know what the Lord of hosts has ^(IS)purposed against Egypt.
¹³ The princes of Zoan have become fools;
^(IT)The princes of ^[cg]Noph are deceived;
They have also ^[ch]deluded Egypt,
Those who are the ^[ci]mainstay of its tribes.
¹⁴ The Lord has mingled ^(IU)a perverse spirit in her midst;
And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work,
As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵ Neither will there be any work for Egypt,
Which ^(IV)the head or tail,
Palm branch or bulrush, may do.

As ^(JT)whirlwinds in the South pass through,
So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
² A distressing vision is declared to me;
^(JU)The treacherous dealer deals treacherously,
And the plunderer plunders.
^(JV)Go up, O Elam!
Besiege, O Media!
All its sighing I have made to cease.

³ Therefore ^(JW)my loins are filled with pain;
^(JX)Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.
I was ^[cn]distressed when I heard it;
I was dismayed when I saw it.
⁴ My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;
^(JY)The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.
^5 (JZ)Prepare the table,
Set a watchman in the tower,
Eat and drink.
Arise, you princes,
Anoint the shield!

⁶ For thus has the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman,
Let him declare what he sees.”
⁷ And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,
A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,
And he listened earnestly with great care.
^8 [co]Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!
I stand continually on the ^(KA)watchtower in the daytime;
I have sat at my post every night.
⁹ And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!”
Then he answered and said,
^(KB)“Babylon is fallen, is fallen!
And ^(KC)all the carved images of her gods
He has broken to the ground.”

^10 (KD)Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!
That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel,
I have declared to you.

He calls to me out of ^(KF)Seir,
“Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”
¹² The watchman said,
“The morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
Return! Come back!”

In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,
O you traveling companies ^(KH)of Dedanites.
¹⁴ O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Bring water to him who is thirsty;
With their bread they met him who fled.
¹⁵ For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.

What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
² You who are full of noise,
A ^[cs]tumultuous city, ^(KK)a joyous city?
Your slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.
³ All your rulers have fled together;
They are captured by the archers.
All who are found in you are bound together;
They have fled from afar.
⁴ Therefore I said, “Look away from me,
^(KL)I will weep bitterly;
Do not labor to comfort me
Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”

^5 (KM)For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity
^(KN)By the Lord God of hosts
In the Valley of Vision—
Breaking down the walls
And of crying to the mountain.
^6 (KO)Elam bore the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And ^(KP)Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys
Shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

^8 (KQ)He removed the ^[ct]protection of Judah.
You looked in that day to the armor ^(KR)of the House of the Forest;
^9 (KS)You also saw the ^[cu]damage to the city of David,
That it was great;
And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
¹⁰ You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses you broke down
To fortify the wall.
^11 (KT)You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the water of the old ^(KU)pool.
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.

¹² And in that day the Lord God of hosts
^(KV)Called for weeping and for mourning,
^(KW)For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
¹³ But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and ^(KX)drinking wine:
^(KY)“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

^14 (KZ)Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts,
“Surely for this iniquity there ^(LA)will be no atonement for you,
Even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts.

“Go, proceed to this steward,
To ^(LB)Shebna, who is over the house, and say:
¹⁶ ‘What have you here, and whom have you here,
That you have hewn a sepulcher here,
As he ^(LC)who hews himself a sepulcher on high,
Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock?
¹⁷ Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently,
O mighty man,
^(LD)And will surely seize you.
¹⁸ He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball
Into a large country;
There you shall die, and there ^(LE)your glorious chariots
Shall be the shame of your master’s house.
¹⁹ So I will drive you out of your office,
And from your position ^[cv]he will pull you down.

²⁰ ‘Then it shall be in that day,
That I will call My servant ^(LF)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah;
²¹ I will clothe him with your robe
And strengthen him with your belt;
I will commit your responsibility into his hand.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And to the house of Judah.
²² The key of the house of David
I will lay on his ^(LG)shoulder;
So he shall ^(LH)open, and no one shall shut;
And he shall shut, and no one shall open.
²³ I will fasten him as ^(LI)a peg in a secure place,
And he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.

Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For it is laid waste,
So that there is no house, no harbor;
From the land of ^[cx]Cyprus it is revealed to them.

² Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon,
^[cy]Whom those who cross the sea have filled.
³ And on great waters the grain of Shihor,
The harvest of ^[cz]the River, is her revenue;
And ^(LK)she is a marketplace for the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea has spoken,
The strength of the sea, saying,
“I do not labor, nor bring forth children;
Neither do I rear young men,
Nor bring up virgins.”
^5 (LL)When the report reaches Egypt,
They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.

⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
⁷ Is this your ^(LM)joyous city,
Whose antiquity is from ancient days,
Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?
⁸ Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, ^(LN)the crowning city,
Whose merchants are princes,
Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has ^(LO)purposed it,
To ^[da]bring to dishonor the ^(LP)pride of all glory,
To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

¹⁰ Overflow through your land like ^[db]the River,
O daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more ^[dc]strength.
¹¹ He stretched out His hand over the sea,
He shook the kingdoms;
The Lord has given a commandment ^(LQ)against Canaan
To destroy its strongholds.
¹² And He said, “You will rejoice no more,
O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, ^(LR)cross over to Cyprus;
There also you will have no rest.”

¹³ Behold, the land of the ^(LS)Chaldeans,
This people which was not;
Assyria founded it for ^(LT)wild beasts of the desert.
They set up its towers,
They raised up its palaces,
And brought it to ruin.

^14 (LU)Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For your strength is laid waste.

¹⁶ “Take a harp, go about the city,
You forgotten harlot;
Make sweet melody, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.”

⁴ The earth mourns and fades away,
The world languishes and fades away;
The ^(LZ)haughty^[de] people of the earth languish.
^5 (MA)The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants,
Because they have ^(MB)transgressed the laws,
Changed the ordinance,
Broken the ^(MC)everlasting covenant.
⁶ Therefore ^(MD)the curse has devoured the earth,
And those who dwell in it are ^[df]desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are ^(ME)burned,
And few men are left.

^7 (MF)The new wine fails, the vine languishes,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
⁸ The mirth ^(MG)of the tambourine ceases,
The noise of the jubilant ends,
The joy of the harp ceases.
⁹ They shall not drink wine with a song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰ The city of confusion is broken down;
Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.
¹¹ There is a cry for wine in the streets,
All joy is darkened,
The mirth of the land is gone.
¹² In the city desolation is left,
And the gate is stricken with destruction.
¹³ When it shall be thus in the midst of the land among the people,
^(MH)It shall be like the shaking of an olive tree,
Like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.

¹⁴ They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing;
For the majesty of the Lord
They shall cry aloud from the sea.
¹⁵ Therefore ^(MI)glorify the Lord in the dawning light,
^(MJ)The name of the Lord God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we have heard songs:
“Glory to the righteous!”
But I said, ^[dg]“I am ruined, ruined!
Woe to me!
^(MK)The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously,
Indeed, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.”

^17 (ML)Fear and the pit and the snare
Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
¹⁸ And it shall be
That he who flees from the noise of the fear
Shall fall into the pit,
And he who comes up from the midst of the pit
Shall be ^[dh]caught in the snare;
For ^(MM)the windows from on high are open,
And ^(MN)the foundations of the earth are shaken.

^19 (MO)The earth is violently broken,
The earth is split open,
The earth is shaken exceedingly.
²⁰ The earth shall ^(MP)reel^[di] to and fro like a drunkard,
And shall totter like a hut;
Its transgression shall be heavy upon it,
And it will fall, and not rise again.

²¹ It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones,
And on the earth ^(MQ)the kings of the earth.
²² They will be gathered together,
As prisoners are gathered in the ^[dj]pit,
And will be shut up in the prison;
After many days they will be punished.
²³ Then the ^(MR)moon will be disgraced
And the sun ashamed;
For the Lord of hosts will ^(MS)reign
On ^(MT)Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
And before His elders, gloriously.

⁶ And in ^(NA)this mountain
^(NB)The Lord of hosts will make for ^(NC)all people
A feast of ^[dm]choice pieces,
A feast of ^[dn]wines on the lees,
Of fat things full of marrow,
Of well-refined wines on the lees.
⁷ And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And ^(ND)the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸ He will ^(NE)swallow up death forever,
And the Lord God will ^(NF)wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.

⁹ And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
^(NG)We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him;
^(NH)We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

¹⁰ For on this mountain the hand of the Lord will rest,
And ^(NI)Moab shall be trampled down under Him,
As straw is trampled down for the refuse heap.
¹¹ And He will spread out His hands in their midst
As a swimmer reaches out to swim,
And He will bring down their ^(NJ)pride
Together with the trickery of their hands.
¹² The ^(NK)fortress of the high fort of your walls
He will bring down, lay low,
And bring to the ground, down to the dust.

“We have a strong city;
^(NM)God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
^2 (NN)Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which ^[do]keeps the truth may enter in.
³ You will keep him in perfect ^(NO)peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
^(NP)For in Yah, the Lord, is ^[dp]everlasting strength.
⁵ For He brings ^[dq]down those who dwell on high,
^(NQ)The lofty city;
He lays it low,
He lays it low to the ground,
He brings it down to the dust.
⁶ The foot shall ^[dr]tread it down—
The feet of the poor
And the steps of the needy.”

⁷ The way of the just is uprightness;
^(NR)O Most Upright,
You ^[ds]weigh the path of the just.
⁸ Yes, ^(NS)in the way of Your judgments,
O Lord, we have ^(NT)waited for You;
The desire of our soul is for Your name
And for the remembrance of You.
^9 (NU)With my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

^10 (NV)Let grace be shown to the wicked,
Yet he will not learn righteousness;
In ^(NW)the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹ Lord, when Your hand is lifted up, ^(NX)they will not see.
But they will see and be ashamed
For ^[dt]their envy of people;
Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.

¹² Lord, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works ^[du]in us.
¹³ O Lord our God, ^(NY)masters besides You
Have had dominion over us;
But by You only we make mention of Your name.
¹⁴ They are dead, they will not live;
They are deceased, they will not rise.
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And made all their memory to ^(NZ)perish.
¹⁵ You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have ^(OA)increased the nation;
You are glorified;
You have expanded all the ^[dv]borders of the land.

¹⁶ Lord, ^(OB)in trouble they have visited You,
They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them.
¹⁷ As ^(OC)a woman with child
Is in pain and cries out in her ^[dw]pangs,
When she draws near the time of her delivery,
So have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
¹⁸ We have been with child, we have been in pain;
We have, as it were, ^[dx]brought forth wind;
We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
Nor have ^(OD)the inhabitants of the world fallen.

^19 (OE)Your dead shall live;
Together with ^[dy]my dead body they shall arise.
^(OF)Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust;
For your dew is like the dew of herbs,
And the earth shall cast out the dead.

⁶ Those who come He shall cause ^(OR)to take root in Jacob;
Israel shall blossom and bud,
And fill the face of the world with fruit.

^7 (OS)Has He struck ^[eb]Israel as He struck those who struck him?
Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?
^8 (OT)In measure, by sending it away,
You contended with it.
^(OU)He removes it by His rough wind
In the day of the east wind.
⁹ Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;
And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:
When he makes all the stones of the altar
Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,
^[ec]Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.

¹⁰ Yet the fortified city will be ^(OV)desolate,
The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;
There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down
And consume its branches.
¹¹ When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;
The women come and set them on fire.
For ^(OW)it is a people of no understanding;
Therefore He who made them will ^(OX)not have mercy on them,
And ^(OY)He who formed them will show them no favor.

¹² And it shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will thresh,
From the channel of ^[ed]the River to the Brook of Egypt;
And you will be ^(OZ)gathered one by one,
O you children of Israel.

^13 (PA)So it shall be in that day:
^(PB)The great trumpet will be blown;
They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,
And they who are outcasts in the land of ^(PC)Egypt,
And shall ^(PD)worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

⁵ In that day the Lord of hosts will be
For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty
To the remnant of His people,
⁶ For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷ But they also ^(PF)have erred through wine,
And through intoxicating drink are out of the way;
^(PG)The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink,
They are swallowed up by wine,
They are out of the way through intoxicating drink;
They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
⁸ For all tables are full of vomit and filth;
No place is clean.

⁹ “Whom^(PH) will he teach knowledge?
And whom will he make to understand the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just drawn from the breasts?
^10 (PI)For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little.”

¹¹ For with ^(PJ)stammering lips and another tongue
He will speak to this people,
¹² To whom He said, “This is the ^(PK)rest with which
You may cause the weary to rest,”
And, “This is the refreshing”;
Yet they would not hear.
¹³ But the word of the Lord was to them,
“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little,”
That they might go and fall backward, and be broken
And snared and caught.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
¹⁵ Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we are in agreement.
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
It will not come to us,
^(PL)For we have made lies our refuge,
And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”

“Behold, I lay in Zion ^(PM)a stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
¹⁷ Also I will make justice the measuring line,
And righteousness the plummet;
The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the hiding place.
¹⁸ Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
Then you will be trampled down by it.
¹⁹ As often as it goes out it will take you;
For morning by morning it will pass over,
And by day and by night;
It will be a terror just to understand the report.”

²⁰ For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
And the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.
²¹ For the Lord will rise up as at Mount ^(PN)Perazim,
He will be angry as in the Valley of ^(PO)Gibeon—
That He may do His work, ^(PP)His awesome work,
And bring to pass His act, His ^[eg]unusual act.
²² Now therefore, do not be mockers,
Lest your bonds be made strong;
For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts,
^(PQ)A ^[eh]destruction determined even upon the whole earth.

²⁷ For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin;
But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick,
And the cummin with a rod.
²⁸ Bread flour must be ground;
Therefore he does not thresh it forever,
Break it with his cartwheel,
Or crush it with his horsemen.
²⁹ This also comes from the Lord of hosts,
^(PR)Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in ^[ej]guidance.

⁵ “Moreover the multitude of your ^(PV)foes
Shall be like fine dust,
And the multitude of the terrible ones
Like ^(PW)chaff that passes away;
Yes, it shall be ^(PX)in an instant, suddenly.
^6 (PY)You will be punished by the Lord of hosts
With thunder and ^(PZ)earthquake and great noise,
With storm and tempest
And the flame of devouring fire.
^7 (QA)The multitude of all the nations who fight against ^[el]Ariel,
Even all who fight against her and her fortress,
And distress her,
Shall be ^(QB)as a dream of a night vision.
^8 (QC)It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,
And look—he eats;
But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;
Or as when a thirsty man dreams,
And look—he drinks;
But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,
And his soul still craves:
So the multitude of all the nations shall be,
Who fight against Mount Zion.”

^(QK)“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me ^(QL)with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
^14 (QM)Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
^(QN)For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”

^15 (QO)Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,
And their works are in the dark;
^(QP)They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”
¹⁶ Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the ^(QQ)thing made say of him who made it,
“He did not make me”?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

“Jacob shall not now be ^(RA)ashamed,
Nor shall his face now grow pale;
²³ But when he sees his children,
^(RB)The work of My hands, in his midst,
They will hallow My name,
And hallow the Holy One of Jacob,
And fear the God of Israel.
²⁴ These also ^(RC)who erred in spirit will come to understanding,
And those who complained will learn doctrine.”

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
From which came the lioness and lion,
^(RL)The viper and fiery flying serpent,
They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys,
And their treasures on the humps of camels,
To a people who shall not profit;
^7 (RM)For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.
Therefore I have called her
^[er]Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.

“Because you ^(RR)despise this word,
And trust in oppression and perversity,
And rely on them,
¹³ Therefore this iniquity shall be to you
^(RS)Like a breach ready to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose breaking ^(RT)comes suddenly, in an instant.
¹⁴ And ^(RU)He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,
Which is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare.
So there shall not be found among its fragments
^[es]A shard to take fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the cistern.”

^(RV)“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
^(RW)But you would not,
¹⁶ And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!

^17 (RX)One thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
At the threat of five you shall flee,
Till you are left as a ^[et]pole on top of a mountain
And as a banner on a hill.

¹⁹ For the people ^(SB)shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem;
You shall ^(SC)weep no more.
He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
When He hears it, He will ^(SD)answer you.
²⁰ And though the Lord gives you
^(SE)The bread of adversity and the water of ^[eu]affliction,
Yet ^(SF)your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.
²¹ Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you ^(SG)turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
^22 (SH)You will also defile the covering of your images of silver,
And the ornament of your molded images of gold.
You will throw them away as an unclean thing;
^(SI)You will say to them, “Get away!”

^23 (SJ)Then He will give the rain for your seed
With which you sow the ground,
And bread of the increase of the earth;
It will be ^[ev]fat and plentiful.
In that day your cattle will feed
In large pastures.
²⁴ Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground
Will eat cured fodder,
Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.
²⁵ There will be ^(SK)on every high mountain
And on every high hill
Rivers and streams of waters,
In the day of the ^(SL)great slaughter,
When the towers fall.
²⁶ Moreover ^(SM)the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound.

²⁹ You shall have a song
As in the night when a holy festival is kept,
And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute,
To come into ^(SQ)the mountain of the Lord,
To ^[ew]the Mighty One of Israel.
^30 (SR)The Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard,
And show the descent of His arm,
With the indignation of His anger
And the flame of a devouring fire,
With scattering, tempest, ^(SS)and hailstones.
³¹ For ^(ST)through the voice of the Lord
Assyria will be ^[ex]beaten down,
As He strikes with the ^(SU)rod.
³² And in every place where the staff of punishment passes,
Which the Lord lays on him,
It will be with tambourines and harps;
And in battles of ^(SV)brandishing He will fight with it.
^33 (SW)For Tophet was established of old,
Yes, for the king it is prepared.
He has made it deep and large;
Its pyre is fire with much wood;
The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,
Kindles it.

^(TC)“As a lion roars,
And a young lion over his prey
(When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him,
He will not be afraid of their voice
Nor be disturbed by their noise),
So the Lord of hosts will come down
To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
^5 (TD)Like birds flying about,
So will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.
Defending, He will also deliver it;
Passing over, He will preserve it.”

⁸ “Then Assyria shall ^(TH)fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of mankind shall ^(TI)devour him.
But he shall flee from the sword,
And his young men shall become forced labor.
^9 (TJ)He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear,
And his princes shall be afraid of the banner,”
Says the Lord,
Whose fire is in Zion
And whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

⁵ The foolish person will no longer be called ^[fb]generous,
Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
⁶ For the foolish person will speak foolishness,
And his heart will work ^(TO)iniquity:
To practice ungodliness,
To utter error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry unsatisfied,
And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
⁷ Also the schemes of the schemer are evil;
He devises wicked plans
To destroy the poor with ^(TP)lying words,
Even when the needy speaks justice.
⁸ But a ^[fc]generous man devises generous things,
And by generosity he shall stand.

¹² People shall mourn upon their breasts
For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
^13 (TR)On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers,
Yes, on all the happy homes in ^(TS)the joyous city;
^14 (TT)Because the palaces will be forsaken,
The bustling city will be deserted.
The forts and towers will become lairs forever,
A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
¹⁵ Until ^(TU)the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
And ^(TV)the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

²⁰ Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
Who send out freely the feet of ^(UA)the ox and the donkey.

² O Lord, be gracious to us;
^(UE)We have waited for You.
Be ^[fd]their arm every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of trouble.
³ At the noise of the tumult the people ^(UF)shall flee;
When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered;
⁴ And Your plunder shall be gathered
Like the gathering of the caterpillar;
As the running to and fro of locusts,
He shall run upon them.

^5 (UG)The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶ Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times,
And the strength of salvation;
The fear of the Lord is His treasure.

⁷ Surely their valiant ones shall cry outside,
^(UH)The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
^8 (UI)The highways lie waste,
The traveling man ceases.
^(UJ)He has broken the covenant,
^[fe]He has despised the ^[ff]cities,
He regards no man.
^9 (UK)The earth mourns and languishes,
Lebanon is shamed and shriveled;
Sharon is like a wilderness,
And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid;
Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites:
“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring ^(UP)fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
¹⁵ He who ^(UQ)walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
He who despises the gain of oppressions,
Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
And ^(UR)shuts his eyes from seeing evil:
¹⁶ He will dwell on ^[fg]high;
His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks;
Bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.

^20 (UW)Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see ^(UX)Jerusalem, a quiet home,
A tabernacle that will not be taken down;
^(UY)Not one of ^(UZ)its stakes will ever be removed,
Nor will any of its cords be broken.
²¹ But there the majestic Lord will be for us
A place of broad rivers and streams,
In which no ^[fi]galley with oars will sail,
Nor majestic ships pass by
²² (For the Lord is our ^(VA)Judge,
The Lord is our ^(VB)Lawgiver,
^(VC)The Lord is our King;
He will save us);
²³ Your tackle is loosed,
They could not strengthen their mast,
They could not spread the sail.

Then the prey of great plunder is divided;
The lame take the prey.
²⁴ And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”;
^(VD)The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.

⁵ “For ^(VL)My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it ^(VM)shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
⁶ The ^(VN)sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is made ^[fj]overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For ^(VO)the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷ The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust ^[fk]saturated with fatness.”

⁸ For it is the day of the Lord’s ^(VP)vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
^9 (VQ)Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
¹⁰ It shall not be quenched night or day;
^(VR)Its smoke shall ascend forever.
^(VS)From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
^11 (VT)But the ^[fl]pelican and the ^[fm]porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And ^(VU)He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
¹² They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³ And ^(VV)thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
^(VW)It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
¹⁴ The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the ^[fn]jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also ^[fo]the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
¹⁵ There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.

¹⁶ “Search from ^(VX)the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail;
Not one shall lack her mate.
For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷ He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”

^3 (WC)Strengthen the ^[fr]weak hands,
And make firm the ^[fs]feeble knees.
⁴ Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with ^(WD)vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and ^(WE)save you.”

⁵ Then the ^(WF)eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And ^(WG)the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
⁶ Then the ^(WH)lame shall leap like a deer,
And the ^(WI)tongue of the dumb sing.
For ^(WJ)waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
⁷ The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In ^(WK)the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸ A ^(WL)highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
^(WM)The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
^9 (WN)No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,
¹⁰ And the ^(WO)ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And ^(WP)sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

“The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
Has shaken her head behind your back!

²³ “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
²⁴ By your servants you have reproached the Lord,
And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter its farthest height,
To its fruitful forest.
²⁵ I have dug and drunk water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of ^[fy]defense.’

²⁶ “Did you not hear ^(XP)long ago
How I made it,
From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
²⁷ Therefore their inhabitants had little power;
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.

²⁸ “But I know your dwelling place,
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.
²⁹ Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to My ears,
Therefore ^(XQ)I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will ^(XR)turn you back
By the way which you came.” ’

You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
And the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
³¹ And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.
³² For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
The ^(XS)zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

‘He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.
³⁴ By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the Lord.
³⁵ ‘For I will ^(XT)defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant ^(XU)David’s sake.’ ”