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Isaiah 17-21

An Oracle concerning Damascus

17An oracle concerning Damascus.


See, Damascus will cease to be a city,
   and will become a heap of ruins.
2 Her towns will be deserted for ever;*
   they will be places for flocks,
   which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid.
3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim,
   and the kingdom from Damascus;
and the remnant of Aram will be
   like the glory of the children of Israel,

says the Lord of hosts.


4 On that day
   the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
   and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
5 And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain
   and their arms harvest the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
   in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Gleanings will be left in it,
   as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
   in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
   on the branches of a fruit tree,

says the Lord God of Israel.

On that day people will regard their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel; 8they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles* or the altars of incense.

On that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites,* which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.


10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
   and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
   and set out slips of an alien god,
11 though you make them grow on the day that you plant them,
   and make them blossom in the morning that you sow;
yet the harvest will flee away
   on a day of grief and incurable pain.


12 Ah, the thunder of many peoples,
   they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
Ah, the roar of nations,
   they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
13 The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
   but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
   and whirling dust before the storm.
14 At evening time, lo, terror!
   Before morning, they are no more.
This is the fate of those who despoil us,
   and the lot of those who plunder us.

An Oracle concerning Ethiopia

18Ah, land of whirring wings
   beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,*
2 sending ambassadors by the Nile
   in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
   to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
   a nation mighty and conquering,
   whose land the rivers divide.


3 All you inhabitants of the world,
   you who live on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
   When a trumpet is blown, listen!
4 For thus the Lord said to me:
I will quietly look from my dwelling
   like clear heat in sunshine,
   like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over
   and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning-hooks,
   and the spreading branches he will hew away.
6 They shall all be left
   to the birds of prey of the mountains
   and to the animals of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
   and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.

At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of hosts from* a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.

An Oracle concerning Egypt

19An oracle concerning Egypt.


See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
   and comes to Egypt;
the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
   and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
2 I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
   and they will fight, one against the other,
   neighbour against neighbour,
   city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
3 the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
   and I will confound their plans;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead
   and the ghosts and the familiar spirits;
4 I will deliver the Egyptians
   into the hand of a hard master;
a fierce king will rule over them,
   says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts.


5 The waters of the Nile will be dried up,
   and the river will be parched and dry;
6 its canals will become foul,
   and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up;
   reeds and rushes will rot away.
7 There will be bare places by the Nile,
   on the brink of the Nile;
and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
   be driven away, and be no more.
8 Those who fish will mourn;
   all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament,
   and those who spread nets on the water will languish.
9 The workers in flax will be in despair,
   and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale.
10 Its weavers will be dismayed,
   and all who work for wages will be grieved.


11 The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;
   the wise counsellors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
   ‘I am one of the sages,
   a descendant of ancient kings’?
12 Where now are your sages?
   Let them tell you and make known
   what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,
   and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of its tribes
   have led Egypt astray.
14 The Lord has poured into them*
   a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings
   as a drunkard staggers around in vomit.
15 Neither head nor tail, palm branch nor reed,
   will be able to do anything for Egypt.

16 On that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts raises against them. 17And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the plan that the Lord of hosts is planning against them.

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed

18 On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.

19 On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the centre of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. 20It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a saviour, and will defend and deliver them. 21The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day, and will worship with sacrifice and burnt-offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. 22The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing; they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their supplications and heal them.

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

24 On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.’

Isaiah Dramatizes the Conquest of Egypt and Ethiopia

20In the year that the commander-in-chief, who was sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and took it— 2at that time the Lord had spoken to Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, ‘Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet’, and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot. 3Then the Lord said, ‘Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Ethiopia,* 4so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians* as exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5And they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Ethiopia* their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6On that day the inhabitants of this coastland will say, “See, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?”

Oracles concerning Babylon, Edom, and Arabia

21The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.


As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
   it comes from the desert,
   from a terrible land.
2 A stern vision is told to me;
   the betrayer betrays,
   and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam,
   lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
   I bring to an end.
3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
   pangs have seized me,
   like the pangs of a woman in labour;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear,
   I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
4 My mind reels, horror has appalled me;
   the twilight I longed for
   has been turned for me into trembling.
5 They prepare the table,
   they spread the rugs,
   they eat, they drink.
Rise up, commanders,
   oil the shield!
6 For thus the Lord said to me:
‘Go, post a lookout,
   let him announce what he sees.
7 When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
   riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him listen diligently,
   very diligently.’
8 Then the watcher* called out:
‘Upon a watch-tower I stand, O Lord,
   continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
   throughout the night.
9 Look, there they come, riders,
   horsemen in pairs!’
Then he responded,
   ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
and all the images of her gods
   lie shattered on the ground.’
10 O my threshed and winnowed one,
   what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
   the God of Israel, I announce to you.


11 The oracle concerning Dumah.


One is calling to me from Seir,
   ‘Sentinel, what of the night?
   Sentinel, what of the night?’
12 The sentinel says:
‘Morning comes, and also the night.
   If you will inquire, inquire;
   come back again.’


13 The oracle concerning the desert plain.


In the scrub of the desert plain you will lodge,
   O caravans of Dedanites.
14 Bring water to the thirsty,
   meet the fugitive with bread,
   O inhabitants of the land of Tema.
15 For they have fled from the swords,
   from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow,
   and from the stress of battle.

16 For thus the Lord said to me: Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end; 17and the remaining bows of Kedar’s warriors will be few; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.

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From the oremus Bible Browser https://bible.oremus.org v2.9.2 30 June 2021.