Isaiah 18-22

Isaiah 18

¹Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

²that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide!

³All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the trumpet is blown, hear ye.

⁴For thus hath the LORD said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling place; like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

⁵For afore the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he shall cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches shall he take away and cut down.

⁶They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

⁷In that time shall a present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people tall and smooth, and from a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.

Isaiah 19

¹The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and cometh unto Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

²And I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

³And the spirit of Egypt shall be made void in the midst of it; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek unto the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.

⁴And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

⁵And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and become dry.

⁶And the rivers shall stink; the streams of Egypt shall be minished and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither away.

⁷The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile, shall become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸The fishers also shall lament, and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

⁹Moreover they that work in combed flax, and they that weave white cloth, shall be ashamed.

¹⁰And her pillars shall be broken in pieces, all they that work for hire shall be grieved in soul.

¹¹The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?

¹²Where then are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now; and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed concerning Egypt.

¹³The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have caused Egypt to go astray, that are the corner stone of her tribes.

¹⁴The LORD hath mingled a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her: and they have caused Egypt to go astray in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

¹⁵Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.

¹⁶It In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it.

¹⁷And the land of Judah shall become a terror unto Egypt, every one to whom mention is made thereof shall be afraid, because of the purpose of the LORD of hosts, which he purposeth against it.

¹⁸In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called The city of destruction.

¹⁹In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.

²⁰And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a defender, and he shall deliver them.

²¹And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day; yea, they shall worship with sacrifice and oblation, and shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and shall perform it.

²²And the LORD shall smite Egypt, smiting and healing; and they shall return unto the LORD, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them.

²³In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth:

²⁵for that the LORD of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

Isaiah 20

¹In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;

²at that time the LORD spake by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and loose sackcloth from off thy loins, and put thy shoe from off thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

³And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;

⁴so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

⁵And they shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

⁶And the inhabitant of this coastland shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and we, how shall we escape?

Isaiah 21

¹The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it cometh from the wilderness, from a terrible land.

²A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.

³Therefore are my loins filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am pained so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see.

⁴My heart panteth, horror hath affrighted me: the twilight that I desired hath been turned into trembling unto me.

⁵They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield.

⁶For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman; let him declare what he seeth:

⁷and when he seeth a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels, he shall hearken diligently with much heed.

⁸And he cried as a lion: O Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the day-time, and am set in my ward whole nights:

⁹and, behold, here cometh a troop of men, horsemen in pairs. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground.

¹⁰O thou my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

¹¹The burden of Dumah. One calleth unto me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

¹²The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: turn ye, come.

¹³The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanites.

¹⁴Unto him that was thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitives with their bread.

¹⁵For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.

¹⁶For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:

¹⁷and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be few: for the LORD, the God of Israel, hath spoken it.

Isaiah 22

¹The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?

²O thou that art full of shoutings, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; thy slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.

³All thy rulers fled away together, they were bound by the archers: all that were found of thee were bound together, they fled afar off.

⁴Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labour not to comfort me, for the spoiling of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, the LORD of hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.

⁶And Elam bare the quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷And it came to pass, that thy choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.

⁸And he took away the covering of Judah; and thou didst look in that day to the armour in the house of the forest.

⁹And ye saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many: and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰and ye numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and ye brake down the houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹ye made also a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye looked not unto him that had done this, neither had ye respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.

¹²And in that day did the Lord, the LORD of hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

¹³and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.

¹⁴And the LORD of hosts revealed himself in mine ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

¹⁵Thus saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,

¹⁶What doest thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out here a sepulchre? hewing him out a sepulchre on high, graving an habitation for himself in the rock!

¹⁷Behold, the LORD will hurl thee away violently as a strong man; yea, he will wrap thee up closely.

¹⁸He will surely turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country; there shalt thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of thy lord’s house.

¹⁹And I will thrust thee from thine office, and from thy station shall he pull thee down.

²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:

²¹and I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

²²And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

²³And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father’s house.

²⁴And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons.

²⁵In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it shall be hewn down, and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for the LORD hath spoken it.