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  1. Sat: Job 24-28
  2. Sun: Genesis 34-37
  3. Mon: Matthew 20-21
Tuesday · Week 8
The Early Prophets

Isaiah 20-22

Week 8 · about 9 min
  1. Wed: Judges 9-11
  2. Thu: 1 Corinthians 5-7
  3. Fri: Ezekiel 17-18

Isaiah acts out a warning about Egypt, announces Babylon’s fall, and rebukes Jerusalem for how it handles a crisis.

A Party When They Should Have Prayed

And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.

Isaiah 22:13 (KJV)

Isaiah walks around barefoot and stripped for three years to warn Judah not to trust Egypt. In chapter 21 someone calls out, “Watchman, what of the night?” Then in chapter 22 Jerusalem faces an attack. The people count houses, tear some down to patch the walls, and build a reservoir, “but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof.” God calls them to weep, and they throw a party instead. A royal official named Shebna is busy carving a fancy tomb for himself, and God replaces him with Eliakim, who receives “the key of the house of David.” Revelation 3 picks up that image of the key.

Reflect: When trouble comes, do you check the walls before you call on God?

Isaiah 20

1In the year when the Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by Sargon, king of Assyria, and made war against it and took it;

2At that time the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and take off your robe, and your shoes from your feet; and he did so, walking unclothed and without shoes on his feet.

3And the Lord said, As my servant Isaiah has gone unclothed and without shoes for three years as a sign and a wonder to Egypt and Ethiopia,

4So will the king of Assyria take away the prisoners of Egypt and those forced out of Ethiopia, young and old, unclothed and without shoes, and with backs uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

5And they will be full of fear, and will no longer have faith in Ethiopia which was their hope, or in Egypt which was their glory.

6And those living by the sea will say in that day, See the fate of our hope to whom we went for help and salvation from the king of Assyria: what hope have we then of salvation?

Isaiah 21

1The word about the waste land. As storm-winds in the South go rushing through, it comes from the waste land, from the land greatly to be feared.

2A vision of fear comes before my eyes; the worker of deceit goes on in his false way, and the waster goes on making waste. Up! Elam; to the attack! Media; I have put an end to her sorrow.

3For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like the pains of a woman in childbirth have come on me: I am bent down with sorrow at what comes to my ears; I am shocked by what I see.

4My mind is wandering, fear has overcome me: the evening of my desire has been turned into shaking for me.

5They make ready the table, they put down the covers, they take food and drink. Up! you captains; put oil on your breastplates.

6For so has the Lord said to me, Go, let a watchman be placed; let him give word of what he sees:

7And when he sees war-carriages, horsemen by twos, war-carriages with asses, war-carriages with camels, let him give special attention.

8And the watchman gave a loud cry, O my lord, I am on the watchtower all day, and am placed in my watch every night:

9See, here come war-carriages with men, horsemen by twos: and in answer he said, Babylon is made low, is made low, and all her images are broken on the earth.

10O my crushed ones, the grain of my floor! I have given you the word which came to me from the Lord of armies, the God of Israel.

11The word about Edom. A voice comes to me from Seir, Watchman, how far gone is the night? how far gone is the night?

12The watchman says, The morning has come, but night is still to come: if you have questions to put, put them, and come back again.

13The word about Arabia. In the thick woods of Arabia will be your night's resting-place, O travelling bands of Dedanites!

14Give water to him who is in need of water; give bread, O men of the land of Tema, to those in flight.

15For they are in flight from the sharp sword, and the bent bow, and from the trouble of war.

16For so has the Lord said to me, In a year, by the years of a servant working for payment, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end:

17And the rest of the bowmen, the men of war of the children of Kedar, will be small in number: for the Lord, the God of Israel, has said it.

Isaiah 22

1The word about the valley of vision. Why have all your people gone up to the house-tops?

2You, who are full of loud voices, a town of outcries, given up to joy; your dead men have not been put to the sword, or come to their death in war.

3All your rulers ... have gone in flight; all your strong ones have gone far away.

4For this cause I have said, Let your eyes be turned away from me in my bitter weeping; I will not be comforted for the wasting of the daughter of my people.

5For it is a day of trouble and of crushing down and of destruction from the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the valley of vision; ...

6And Elam was armed with arrows, and Aram came on horseback; and the breastplate of Kir was uncovered.

7And your most fertile valleys were full of war-carriages, and the horsemen took up their positions in front of the town.

8He took away the cover of Judah; and in that day you were looking with care at the store of arms in the house of the woods.

9And you saw all the broken places in the wall of the town of David: and you got together the waters of the lower pool.

10And you had the houses of Jerusalem numbered, pulling down the houses to make the wall stronger.

11And you made a place between the two walls for storing the waters of the old pool: but you gave no thought to him who had done this, and were not looking to him by whom it had been purposed long before.

12And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was looking for weeping, and cries of sorrow, cutting off of the hair, and putting on the clothing of grief:

13But in place of these there was joy and delight, oxen and sheep were being made ready for food, there was feasting and drinking: men said, Now is the time for food and wine, for tomorrow death comes.

14And the Lord of armies said to me secretly, Truly, this sin will not be taken from you till your death, says the Lord, the Lord of armies.

15The Lord, the Lord of armies, says, Go to this person in authority, this Shebna, who is over the house; who has made himself a resting-place on high, cutting out a place for himself in the rock, and say,

16Who are you, and by what right have you made for yourself a resting-place here?

17See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently away, gripping you with force,

18Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send you out into a wide country: there you will come to your end, and there will be the carriages of your pride, O shame of your lord's house!

19And I will have you forced out of your place of authority, and pulled down from your position.

20And in that day I will send for my servant, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah:

21And I will put your robe on him, and put your band about him, and I will give your authority into his hand: and he will be a father to the men of Jerusalem, and to the family of Judah.

22And I will give the key of the family of David into his care; and what he keeps open will be shut by no one, and what he keeps shut no one will make open.

23And I will put him like a nail in a safe place; and he will be for a seat of glory to his father's family.

24And all the glory of his father's family will be hanging on him, all their offspring, every small vessel, even the cups and the basins.

25In that day, says the Lord of armies, will the nail fixed in a safe place give way; and it will be cut down, and in its fall the weight hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has said it.

Bible in Basic English (BBE). Bible in Basic English (BBE), public domain in the United States.