ISAIAH 31-35

« Isaiah 30 | Isaiah 31-35 | Isaiah 36 »

Help Not in Egypt but in God31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help

And rely on horses,

And trust in chariots because they are many

And in horsemen because they are very strong,

But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!

2 Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster

And does not retract His words,

But will arise against the house of evildoers

And against the help of the workers of iniquity.

3 Now the Egyptians are men and not God,

And their horses are flesh and not spirit;

So the LORD will stretch out His hand,

And he who helps will stumble

And he who is helped will fall,

And all of them will come to an end together.

    4 For thus says the LORD to me,

“As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey,

Against which a band of shepherds is called out,

And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise,

So will the LORD of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

5 Like flying birds so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem.

He will protect and deliver it;

He will pass over and rescue it.

    6 Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel. 7 For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your sinful hands have made for you as a sin.

8 And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man,

And a sword not of man will devour him.

So he will not escape the sword,

And his young men will become forced laborers.

9 “His rock will pass away because of panic,

And his princes will be terrified at the standard,”

Declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

The Glorious Future32:1 Behold, a king will reign righteously

And princes will rule justly.

2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind

And a shelter from the storm,

Like streams of water in a dry country,

Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.

3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded,

And the ears of those who hear will listen.

4 The mind of the hasty will discern the truth,

And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.

5 No longer will the fool be called noble,

Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.

6 For a fool speaks nonsense,

And his heart inclines toward wickedness:

To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD,

To keep the hungry person unsatisfied

And to withhold drink from the thirsty.

7 As for a rogue, his weapons are evil;

He devises wicked schemes

To destroy the afflicted with slander,

Even though the needy one speaks what is right.

8 But the noble man devises noble plans;

And by noble plans he stands.

9 Rise up, you women who are at ease,

And hear my voice;

Give ear to my word,

You complacent daughters.

10 Within a year and a few days

You will be troubled, O complacent daughters;

For the vintage is ended,

And the fruit gathering will not come.

11 Tremble, you women who are at ease;

Be troubled, you complacent daughters;

Strip, undress and put sackcloth on your waist,

12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

13 For the land of my people in which thorns and briars shall come up;

Yea, for all the joyful houses and for the jubilant city.

14 Because the palace has been abandoned, the populated city forsaken.

Hill and watch-tower have become caves forever,

A delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks;

15 Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high,

And the wilderness becomes a fertile field,

And the fertile field is considered as a forest.

16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness

And righteousness will abide in the fertile field.

17 And the work of righteousness will be peace,

And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

18 Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation,

And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places;

19 And it will hail when the forest comes down,

And the city will be utterly laid low.

20 How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters,

Who let out freely the ox and the donkey.

The Judgment of God33:1 Woe to you, O destroyer,

While you were not destroyed;

And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.

As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed;

As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you.

2 O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You.

Be their strength every morning,

Our salvation also in the time of distress.

3 At the sound of the tumult peoples flee;

At the lifting up of Yourself nations disperse.

4 Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;

As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.

5 The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high;

He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 And He will be the stability of your times,

A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge;

The fear of the LORD is his treasure.

7 Behold, their brave men cry in the streets,

The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased,

He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities,

He has no regard for man.

9 The land mourns and pines away,

Lebanon is shamed and withers;

Sharon is like a desert plain,

And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage.

10 “Now I will arise,” says the LORD,

“Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.

11 “You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble;

My breath will consume you like a fire.

12 “The peoples will be burned to lime,

Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.

13 “You who are far away, hear what I have done;

And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

14 Sinners in Zion are terrified;

Trembling has seized the godless.

“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?

Who among us can live with continual burning?”

15 He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity,

He who rejects unjust gain

And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;

He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed

And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;

16 He will dwell on the heights,

His refuge will be the impregnable rock;

His bread will be given him,

His water will be sure.

17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;

They will behold a far-distant land.

18 Your heart will meditate on terror:

“Where is he who counts?

Where is he who weighs?

Where is he who counts the towers?”

19 You will no longer see a fierce people,

A people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends,

Of a stammering tongue which no one understands.

20 Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;

Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation,

A tent which will not be folded;

Its stakes will never be pulled up,

Nor any of its cords be torn apart.

21 But there the majestic One, the LORD, will be for us

A place of rivers and wide canals

On which no boat with oars will go,

And on which no mighty ship will pass--

22 For the LORD is our judge,

The LORD is our lawgiver,

The LORD is our king;

He will save us--

23 Your tackle hangs slack;

It cannot hold the base of its mast firmly,

Nor spread out the sail.

Then the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided;

The lame will take the plunder.

24 And no resident will say, “I am sick”;

The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.

God’s Wrath against Nations34:1 Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!

Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.

2 For the LORD’S indignation is against all the nations,

And His wrath against all their armies;

He has utterly destroyed them,

He has given them over to slaughter.

3 So their slain will be thrown out,

And their corpses will give off their stench,

And the mountains will be drenched with their blood.

4 And all the host of heaven will wear away,

And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;

All their hosts will also wither away

As a leaf withers from the vine,

Or as one withers from the fig tree.

5 For My sword is satiated in heaven,

Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom

And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.

6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood,

It is sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,

With the fat of the kidneys of rams.

For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah

And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 Wild oxen will also fall with them

And young bulls with strong ones;

Thus their land will be soaked with blood,

And their dust become greasy with fat.

8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance,

A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

9 Its streams will be turned into pitch,

And its loose earth into brimstone,

And its land will become burning pitch.

10 It will not be quenched night or day;

Its smoke will go up forever.

From generation to generation it will be desolate;

None will pass through it forever and ever.

11 But pelican and hedgehog will possess it,

And owl and raven will dwell in it;

And He will stretch over it the line of desolation

And the plumb line of emptiness.

12 Its nobles--there is no one there

Whom they may proclaim king--

And all its princes will be nothing.

13 Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,

Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;

It will also be a haunt of jackals

And an abode of ostriches.

14 The desert creatures will meet with the wolves,

The hairy goat also will cry to its kind;

Yes, the night monster will settle there

And will find herself a resting place.

15 The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,

And it will hatch and gather them under its protection.

Yes, the hawks will be gathered there,

Every one with its kind.

    16 Seek from the book of the LORD, and read:

Not one of these will be missing;

None will lack its mate.

For His mouth has commanded,

And His Spirit has gathered them.

17 He has cast the lot for them,

And His hand has divided it to them by line.

They shall possess it forever;

From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

Zion’s Happy Future35:1 The wilderness and the desert will be glad,

And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom;

Like the crocus

2 It will blossom profusely

And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the glory of the LORD,

The majesty of our God.

3 Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.

4 Say to those with anxious heart,

“Take courage, fear not.

Behold, your God will come with vengeance;

The recompense of God will come,

But He will save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened

And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,

And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.

For waters will break forth in the wilderness

And streams in the Arabah.

7 The scorched land will become a pool

And the thirsty ground springs of water;

In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,

Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

8 A highway will be there, a roadway,

And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.

The unclean will not travel on it,

But it will be for him who walks that way,

And fools will not wander on it.

9 No lion will be there,

Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;

These will not be found there.

But the redeemed will walk there,

10 And the ransomed of the LORD will return

And come with joyful shouting to Zion,

With everlasting joy upon their heads.

They will find gladness and joy,

And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

« Isaiah 30 | Isaiah 31-35 | Isaiah 36 »