Along The Way (July 28th - August 3rd)
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Isaiah 10
Woe to those who make iniquitous decrees,
who write oppressive statutes,
to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
to make widows their spoil
and to plunder orphans!
What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth,
so as not to crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain?
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
Arrogant Assyria Also Judged
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger —
the club in their hands is my fury!
Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
But this is not what he intends,
nor does he have this in mind,
but it is in his heart to destroy
and to cut off nations not a few.
For he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?
Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols
whose images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
what I have done to Samaria and her images?”
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride. For he says:
“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I have removed the boundaries of peoples
and have plundered their treasures;
like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.
My hand has found, like a nest,
the wealth of the peoples,
and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,
so I have gathered all the earth,
and there was none that moved a wing
or opened its mouth or chirped.”
Shall the ax vaunt itself over the one who wields it
or the saw magnify itself against the one who handles it?
As if a rod should raise the one who lifts it up,
or as if a staff should lift the one who is not wood!
Therefore the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,
will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,
and under his glory a burning will be kindled
like the burning of fire.
The light of Israel will become a fire
and his Holy One a flame,
and it will burn and devour
his thorns and briers in one day.
The glory of his forest and his fruitful land
the Lord will destroy, both soul and body,
and it will be as when an invalid wastes away.
The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few
that a child can write them down.
The Repentant Remnant of Israel
On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on the one who struck them but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, an overwhelming verdict. For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in all the earth.
Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they beat you with a rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.” The Lord of hosts will wield a whip against them, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. On that day his burden will be removed from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck.
He has gone up from Samaria;
he has come to Aiath;
he has passed through Migron;
at Michmash he stores his baggage;
they have crossed over the pass;
at Geba they lodge for the night;
Ramah trembles;
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
Cry aloud, O daughter Gallim!
Listen, O Laishah!
Answer her, O Anathoth!
Madmenah is in flight;
the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
This very day he will halt at Nob;
he will shake his fist
at the mount of daughter Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.
Look, the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,
will lop the boughs with terrifying power;
the tallest trees will be cut down,
and the lofty will be brought low.
He will hack down the thickets of the forest with an ax,
and Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.
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Isaiah 11 - 12
The Peaceful Kingdom
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see
or decide by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor
and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
The wolf shall live with the lamb;
the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feed together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
Return of the Remnant of Israel and Judah
On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
On that day the Lord will again raise his hand to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
He will raise a signal for the nations
and will assemble the outcasts of Israel
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart;
the hostility of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not be hostile toward Ephraim.
But they shall swoop down on the backs of the Philistines in the west;
together they shall plunder the people of the east.
They shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites shall obey them.
And the Lord will dry up
the tongue of the sea of Egypt
and will wave his hand over the River
with his scorching wind
and will split it into seven channels
and make a way to cross on foot;
so there shall be a highway from Assyria
for the remnant that is left of his people,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from the land of Egypt.
Thanksgiving and Praise
You will say on that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
and you comforted me.
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and will not be afraid,
for the Lord is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say on that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord;
call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be known in all the earth.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
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Isaiah 13
Proclamation against Babylon
The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.
On a bare hill raise a signal;
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.
I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,
to execute my anger.
Listen, a tumult on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
an army for battle.
They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole earth.
Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty!
Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart will melt,
and they will be terrified.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
See, the day of the Lord is coming,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
and lay low the insolence of tyrants.
I will make mortals more rare than fine gold
and humans than the gold of Ophir.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
Like a gazelle on the run
or like sheep with no one to gather them,
all will turn back to their own people,
and all will flee to their own lands.
Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
Their infants will be dashed to pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives raped.
See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.
Their bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
Arabs will not pitch their tents there;
shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.
But wild animals will lie down there,
and its houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will live,
and there goat-demons will dance.
Hyenas will cry in its towers
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand;
and its days will not be prolonged.
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Isaiah 14 - 15
Restoration of Judah
But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel and will settle them in their own land, and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess the nations as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors and rule over those who oppressed them.
Downfall of the King of Babylon
When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has ceased!
How his insolence has ceased!
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
that struck down the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.
The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
The cypresses exult over you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you were laid low,
no one comes to cut us down.”
Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
All of them will speak
and say to you:
“You, too, have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!”
Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
and the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
and worms are your covering.
How you are fallen from heaven,
O Morning Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
You said to yourself,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
on the heights of Zaphon;
I will ascend to the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit.
Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who would not let his prisoners go home?”
All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb,
but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like loathsome carrion,
clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the Pit
like a corpse trampled underfoot.
You will not be joined with them in burial
because you have destroyed your land;
you have killed your people.
May the descendants of evildoers
nevermore be named!
Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons
because of the guilt of their father.
Let them never rise to possess the earth
or cover the face of the world with cities.
I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says the Lord. And I will make it a possession of the screech owl and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts.
An Oracle concerning Assyria
The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have designed,
so shall it be,
and as I have planned,
so shall it come to pass:
I will break the Assyrian in my land
and on my mountains trample him under foot;
his yoke shall be removed from them
and his burden from their shoulders.
This is the plan that is planned
concerning the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.
For the Lord of hosts has planned,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?
An Oracle concerning Philistia
In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:
Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
that the rod that struck you is broken,
for from the root of the snake will come forth an adder,
and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
In my pastures the poor will graze
and the needy lie down in safety,
but I will make your root die of famine,
and your remnant I will kill.
Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes out of the north,
and there is no straggler in its ranks.
What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
“The Lord has founded Zion,
and the needy among his people
will find refuge in her.”
An Oracle concerning Moab
An oracle concerning Moab.
Because Ar is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone;
because Kir is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone.
Daughter Dibon has gone up
to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab wails.
Every head is shaved;
every beard is shorn;
in the streets they bind on sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
everyone wails and melts in tears.
Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voices are heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the loins of Moab quiver;
his soul trembles.
My heart cries out for Moab;
his fugitives flee to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
they raise a cry of destruction;
the waters of Nimrim
are a desolation;
the grass is withered; the new growth fails;
vegetation is no more.
Therefore the abundance they have gained
and what they have laid up
they carry away
over the Wadi of the Willows.
For a cry has gone
around the land of Moab;
the wailing reaches to Eglaim;
the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
For the waters of Dibon are full of blood,
yet I will bring upon Dibon even more —
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
for the remnant of the land.
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Isaiah 16 - 17
Send lambs
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, by way of the desert,
to the mount of daughter Zion.
Like fluttering birds,
like scattered nestlings,
so are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.
“Give counsel;
grant justice;
make your shade like night
at the height of noon;
hide the outcasts;
do not betray the fugitive;
let the outcasts of Moab
settle among you;
be a refuge to them
from the destroyer.”
When the oppressor is no more,
and destruction has ceased,
and marauders have vanished from the land,
then a throne shall be established in steadfast love
in the tent of David,
and on it shall sit in faithfulness
a ruler who seeks justice
and is swift to do what is right.
We have heard of the pride of Moab
— how proud he is! —
of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;
his boasts are false.
Therefore let Moab wail;
let everyone wail for Moab.
Mourn, utterly stricken,
for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.
For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and the vines of Sibmah,
whose clusters once made drunk
the lords of the nations,
reached to Jazer
and strayed to the desert;
their shoots once spread abroad
and crossed over the sea.
Therefore I weep as Jazer weeps
for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh,
for the shout over your fruit harvest
and your grain harvest has ceased.
Joy and gladness are taken away
from the fruitful field,
and in the vineyards no exultation is heard;
no shouts are raised;
no treader treads out wine in the presses;
the vintage shout is hushed.
Therefore my heart moans like a harp for Moab
and my very soul for Kir-heres.
When Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.
This was the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past. But now the Lord says, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all its great multitude, and those who survive will be very few and feeble.”
An Oracle concerning Damascus
An oracle concerning Damascus.
See, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins.
Her towns will be deserted forever;
they will be places for flocks,
which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid.
The fortress will disappear from Ephraim
and the kingdom from Damascus,
and the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of the people of Israel,
says the Lord of hosts.
On that day
the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain
and their arms harvest the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
Gleanings will be left in it,
as when an olive tree is beaten —
two or three berries
in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
on the branches of a fruit tree,
says the Lord God of Israel.
On that day people will look to their Maker, with their eyes on the Holy One of Israel; they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles or the altars of incense.
On that day their fortified cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted because of the people of Israel, and there will be desolation.
For you have forgotten God your Savior
and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant gardens
and set out branches of a foreign god,
though you make them grow on the day that you plant them
and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away
in a day of sickness and incurable pain.
Woe, the thunder of many peoples,
they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
The roar of nations,
they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
[[When the nations roar like the roaring of many waters,]]
he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
and like whirling dust before the storm.
At evening time, sudden terror!
Before morning, they are no more.
This is the fate of those who despoil us
and the lot of those who plunder us.
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Isaiah 18 - 19
An Oracle concerning Cush
Woe, land of buzzing wings
beyond the rivers of Cush,
sending ambassadors by the Nile
in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide.
All you inhabitants of the world,
you who live on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet is blown, listen!
For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
like clear heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
For before the harvest, when the blossom is over
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks,
and the spreading branches he will hew away.
They shall all be left
to the birds of prey of the mountains
and to the animals of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.
At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.
An Oracle concerning Egypt
An oracle concerning Egypt.
See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
and comes to Egypt;
the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
and they will fight, one against the other,
neighbor against neighbor,
city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
and I will confound their plans;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead
and the ghosts and the familiar spirits;
I will deliver the Egyptians
into the hand of a hard master;
a fierce king will rule over them,
says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts.
The waters of the Nile will be dried up,
and the river will be parched and dry;
its canals will become foul,
and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up.
Reeds and rushes will rot away,
the reeds beside the Nile;
all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
be driven away, and be no more.
Those who fish will mourn;
all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament,
and those who spread nets on the water will languish.
The workers in flax will be in despair,
and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale.
Its weavers will be dismayed,
and all who work for wages will be grieved.
Clearly the princes of Zoan are foolish;
the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the sages,
a descendant of ancient kings”?
Where now are your sages?
Let them tell you and make known
what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.
The princes of Zoan have become fools,
and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of its tribes
have led Egypt astray.
The Lord has poured into them
a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings
as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.
Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed,
will be able to do anything for Egypt.
On that day the Egyptians will be like women and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts raises against them. And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the plan that the Lord of hosts is planning against them.
Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed
On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.
On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and will defend and deliver them. The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day and will serve with sacrifice and offerings, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing, so that they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their supplications and heal them.
On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.
On that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel my heritage.”
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Isaiah 20 - 21
Isaiah Dramatizes the Conquest of Egypt and Cush
In 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 — at 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. Then 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 Cush, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as captives and the Cushites as exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. On 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
The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.
As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
it comes from the desert,
from a terrible land.
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.
Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me
like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
My mind reels; horror has appalled me;
the twilight I longed for
has been turned for me into trembling.
They prepare the table;
they spread the rugs;
they eat; they drink.
Rise up, commanders;
oil the shield!
For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, post a lookout;
let him announce what he sees.
When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him watch closely,
very closely.”
Then the watcher called out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
throughout the night.
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.”
O my threshed and winnowed one,
what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, I announce to you.
The oracle concerning Dumah.
One is calling to me from Seir,
“Sentinel, what of the night?
Sentinel, what of the night?”
The sentinel says:
“Morning comes and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
come back again.”
The oracle concerning the desert plain.
In the scrub of the desert plain you will lodge,
O caravans of Dedanites.
Bring water to the thirsty,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema;
meet the fugitive with bread.
For they have fled from the swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow,
and from the stress of battle.
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, and the remaining bows of Kedar’s warriors will be few, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.”