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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,^{* 4}so 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.

A Warning of the Destruction of Jerusalem

22The oracle concerning the valley of vision.

What do you mean that you have gone up,
   all of you, to the housetops,
² you that are full of shoutings,
   tumultuous city, exultant town?
Your slain are not slain by the sword,
   nor are they dead in battle.
³ Your rulers have all fled together;
   they were captured without the use of a bow.^*
All of you who were found were captured,
   though they had fled far away.^*
4 Therefore I said:
Look away from me,
   let me weep bitter tears;
do not try to comfort me
   for the destruction of my beloved people.

⁵ For the Lord God of hosts has a day
   of tumult and trampling and confusion
   in the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
   and a cry for help to the mountains.
⁶ Elam bore the quiver
   with chariots and cavalry,^*
   and Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
   and the cavalry took their stand at the gates.
⁸ He has taken away the covering of Judah.

On that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, ⁹and you saw that there were many breaches in the city of David, and you collected the waters of the lower pool. ¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago.

¹² On that day the Lord God of hosts
   called to weeping and mourning,
   to baldness and putting on sackcloth;
¹³ but instead there was joy and festivity,
   killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
   eating meat and drinking wine.
‘Let us eat and drink,
   for tomorrow we die.’
¹⁴ The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,
   says the Lord God of hosts.

Denunciation of Self-Seeking Officials

15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts: Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him: ¹⁶What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb on the height, and carving a habitation for yourself in the rock? ¹⁷The Lord is about to hurl you away violently, my man. He will seize firm hold of you, ¹⁸whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there your splendid chariots shall lie, O you disgrace to your master’s house! ¹⁹I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.

20 On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, ²¹and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²²I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. ²³I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honour to his ancestral house. ²⁴And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. ²⁵On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the Lord has spoken.

An Oracle concerning Tyre

23The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
   for your fortress is destroyed.^*
When they came in from Cyprus
   they learned of it.
² Be still, O inhabitants of the coast,
   O merchants of Sidon;
your messengers crossed over the sea^*
3   and were on the mighty waters;
your revenue was the grain of Shihor,
   the harvest of the Nile;
   you were the merchant of the nations.
⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
   the fortress of the sea, saying:
‘I have neither laboured nor given birth,
   I have neither reared young men
   nor brought up young women.’
⁵ When the report comes to Egypt,
   they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
⁶ Cross over to Tarshish—
   wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
⁷ Is this your exultant city
   whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
   to settle far away?
⁸ Who has planned this
   against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
   whose traders were the honoured ones of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has planned it—
   to defile the pride of all glory,
   to shame all the honoured ones of the earth.
¹⁰ Cross over to your own land,
   O ships of^* Tarshish;
   this is a harbour^* no more.
¹¹ He has stretched out his hand over the sea,
   he has shaken the kingdoms;
the Lord has given command concerning Canaan
   to destroy its fortresses.
¹² He said:
You will exult no longer,
   O oppressed virgin daughter Sidon;
rise, cross over to Cyprus—
   even there you will have no rest.

13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined Tyre for wild animals. They erected their siege-towers, they tore down her palaces, they made her a ruin.^*
14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
   for your fortress is destroyed.
¹⁵From that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song about the prostitute:
¹⁶ Take a harp,
   go about the city,
   you forgotten prostitute!
Make sweet melody,
   sing many songs,
   that you may be remembered.
¹⁷At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her trade, and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. ¹⁸Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated to the Lord; her profits^* will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in the presence of the Lord.

Impending Judgement on the Earth

24Now the Lord is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate,
   and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
² And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
   as with the slave, so with his master;
   as with the maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
   as with the lender, so with the borrower;
   as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
³ The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled;
   for the Lord has spoken this word.

⁴ The earth dries up and withers,
   the world languishes and withers;
   the heavens languish together with the earth.
⁵ The earth lies polluted
   under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed laws,
   violated the statutes,
   broken the everlasting covenant.
⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth,
   and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled,
   and few people are left.
⁷ The wine dries up,
   the vine languishes,
   all the merry-hearted sigh.
⁸ The mirth of the timbrels is stilled,
   the noise of the jubilant has ceased,
   the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
⁹ No longer do they drink wine with singing;
   strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰ The city of chaos is broken down,
   every house is shut up so that no one can enter.
¹¹ There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
   all joy has reached its eventide;
   the gladness of the earth is banished.
¹² Desolation is left in the city,
   the gates are battered into ruins.
¹³ For thus it shall be on the earth
   and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
   as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is ended.

¹⁴ They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;
   they shout from the west over the majesty of the Lord.
¹⁵ Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord;
   in the coastlands of the sea glorify the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
   of glory to the Righteous One.
But I say, I pine away,
   I pine away. Woe is me!
For the treacherous deal treacherously,
   the treacherous deal very treacherously.

¹⁷ Terror, and the pit, and the snare
   are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
¹⁸ Whoever flees at the sound of the terror
   shall fall into the pit,
and whoever climbs out of the pit
   shall be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven are opened,
   and the foundations of the earth tremble.
¹⁹ The earth is utterly broken,
   the earth is torn asunder,
   the earth is violently shaken.
²⁰ The earth staggers like a drunkard,
   it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
   and it falls, and will not rise again.

²¹ On that day the Lord will punish
   the host of heaven in heaven,
   and on earth the kings of the earth.
²² They will be gathered together
   like prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a 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 before his elders he will manifest his glory.