ISAIAH 11-16

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Righteous Reign of the Branch11:1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,

And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him,

The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and strength,

The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

3 And He will delight in the fear of the LORD,

And He will not judge by what His eyes see,

Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

4 But with righteousness He will judge the poor,

And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;

And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,

And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

5 Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,

And faithfulness the belt about His waist.

6 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,

And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;

And a little boy will lead them.

7 Also the cow and the bear will graze,

Their young will lie down together,

And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,

And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

As the waters cover the sea.

10 Then in that day

The nations will resort to the root of Jesse,

Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;

And His resting place will be glorious.

The Restored Remnant11 Then it will happen on that day that the Lord

Will again recover the second time with His hand

The remnant of His people, who will remain,

From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,

And from the islands of the sea.

12 And He will lift up a standard for the nations

And assemble the banished ones of Israel,

And will gather the dispersed of Judah

From the four corners of the earth.

13 Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart,

And those who harass Judah will be cut off;

Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,

And Judah will not harass Ephraim.

14 They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west;

Together they will plunder the sons of the east;

They will possess Edom and Moab,

And the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.

15 And the LORD will utterly destroy

The tongue of the Sea of Egypt;

And He will wave His hand over the River

With His scorching wind;

And He will strike it into seven streams

And make men walk over dry-shod.

16 And there will be a highway from Assyria

For the remnant of His people who will be left,

Just as there was for Israel

In the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

Thanksgiving Expressed12:1 Then you will say on that day,

“I will give thanks to You, O LORD;

For although 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;

For the LORD GOD is my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation.”

3 Therefore you will joyously draw water

From the springs of salvation.

4 And in that day you will say,

“Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name.

Make known His deeds among the peoples;

Make them remember that His name is exalted.”

5 Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things;

Let this be known throughout the earth.

6 Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,

For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Prophecies about Babylon  13:1 The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

2 Lift up a standard on the bare hill,

Raise your voice to them,

Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.

3 I have commanded My consecrated ones,

I have even called My mighty warriors,

My proudly exulting ones,

To execute My anger.

4 A sound of tumult on the mountains,

Like that of many people!

A sound of the uproar of kingdoms,

Of nations gathered together!

The LORD of hosts is mustering the army for battle.

5 They are coming from a far country,

From the farthest horizons,

The LORD and His instruments of indignation,

To destroy the whole land.

Judgment on the Day of the LORD

6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near!

It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

7 Therefore all hands will fall limp,

And every man’s heart will melt.

8 They will be terrified,

Pains and anguish will take hold of them;

They will writhe like a woman in labor,

They will look at one another in astonishment,

Their faces aflame.

9 Behold, the day of the LORD is coming,

Cruel, with fury and burning anger,

To make the land a desolation;

And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations

Will not flash forth their light;

The sun will be dark when it rises

And the moon will not shed its light.

11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil

And the wicked for their iniquity;

I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud

And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.

12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold

And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

And the earth will be shaken from its place

At the fury of the LORD of hosts

In the day of His burning anger.

14 And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,

Or like sheep with none to gather them,

They will each turn to his own people,

And each one flee to his own land.

15 Anyone who is found will be thrust through,

And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

16 Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces

Before their eyes;

Their houses will be plundered

And their wives ravished.

Babylon Will Fall to the Medes17 Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them,

Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold.

18 And their bows will mow down the young men,

They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,

Nor will their eye pity children.

19 And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,

Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;

Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,

Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.

21 But desert creatures will lie down there,

And their houses will be full of owls;

Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there.

22 Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers

And jackals in their luxurious palaces.

Her fateful time also will soon come

And her days will not be prolonged.

Israel’s Taunt  14:1 When the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.
    3 And it will be in the day when the LORD gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved, 4 that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

“How the oppressor has ceased,

And how fury has ceased!

5 “The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,

The scepter of rulers

6 Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,

Which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

7 “The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;

They break forth into shouts of joy.

8 “Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’

9 “Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come;

It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth;

It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

10 “They will all respond and say to you,

‘Even you have been made weak as we,

You have become like us.

11 ‘Your pomp and the music of your harps

Have been brought down to Sheol;

Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you

And worms are your covering.’

12 “How you have fallen from heaven,

O star of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who have weakened the nations!

13 “But you said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

I will raise my throne above the stars of God,

And I will sit on the mount of assembly

In the recesses of the north.

14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.’

15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,

To the recesses of the pit.

16 “Those who see you will gaze at you,

They will ponder over you, saying,

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who shook kingdoms,

17 Who made the world like a wilderness

And overthrew its cities,

Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?’

18 “All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

Each in his own tomb.

19 “But you have been cast out of your tomb

Like a rejected branch,

Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword,

Who go down to the stones of the pit

Like a trampled corpse.

20 “You will not be united with them in burial,

Because you have ruined your country,

You have slain your people.

May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever.

21 “Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter

Because of the iniquity of their fathers.

They must not arise and take possession of the earth

And fill the face of the world with cities.”

22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity,” declares the LORD. 23 “I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.
Judgment on Assyria24 The LORD of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand, 25 to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. 26 This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. 27 For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”
    28 In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:
Judgment on Philistia

29 “Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you,

Because the rod that struck you is broken;

For from the serpent’s root a viper will come out,

And its fruit will be a flying serpent.

30 “Those who are most helpless will eat,

And the needy will lie down in security;

I will destroy your root with famine,

And it will kill off your survivors.

31 “Wail, O gate; cry, O city;

Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;

For smoke comes from the north,

And there is no straggler in his ranks.

32 “How then will one answer the messengers of the nation?

That the LORD has founded Zion,

And the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.”

Judgment on Moab  15:1 The oracle concerning Moab.

Surely in a night Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;

Surely in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.

2 They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, even to the high places to weep.

Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;

Everyone’s head is bald and every beard is cut off.

3 In their streets they have girded themselves with sackcloth;

On their housetops and in their squares

Everyone is wailing, dissolved in tears.

4 Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out,

Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;

Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;

His soul trembles within him.

5 My heart cries out for Moab;

His fugitives are as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,

For they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping;

Surely on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress over their ruin.

6 For the waters of Nimrim are desolate.

Surely the grass is withered, the tender grass died out,

There is no green thing.

7 Therefore the abundance which they have acquired and stored up

They carry off over the brook of Arabim.

8 For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,

Its wail goes as far as Eglaim and its wailing even to Beer-elim.

9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood;

Surely I will bring added woes upon Dimon,

A lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.

Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation16:1 Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,

From Sela by way of the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

2 Then, like fleeing birds or scattered nestlings,

The daughters of Moab will be at the fords of the Arnon.

3 “Give us advice, make a decision;

Cast your shadow like night at high noon;

Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.

4 “Let the outcasts of Moab stay with you;

Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”

For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,

Oppressors have completely disappeared from the land.

5 A throne will even be established in lovingkindness,

And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David;

Moreover, he will seek justice

And be prompt in righteousness.

6 We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;

Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;

His idle boasts are false.

7 Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.

You will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth

As those who are utterly stricken.

8 For the fields of Heshbon have withered, the vines of Sibmah as well;

The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters

Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;

Its tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.

9 Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;

I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh;

For the shouting over your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.

10 Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;

In the vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,

No treader treads out wine in the presses,

For I have made the shouting to cease.

11 Therefore my heart intones like a harp for Moab

And my inward feelings for Kir-hareseth.

12 So it will come about when Moab presents himself,

When he wearies himself upon his high place

And comes to his sanctuary to pray,

That he will not prevail.

    13 This is the word which the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab. 14 But now the LORD speaks, saying, “Within three years, as a hired man would count them, the glory of Moab will be degraded along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and impotent.”

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