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Isaiah 12 - 17

Yahweh Is My Strength and My Song

Then you will say in that day,
“I will give thanks to You, O Yahweh;
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 dread;
For Yah—Yahweh Himself—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 Yahweh, call on His name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples;
Make them remember that His name is exalted.”
5
Praise Yahweh in song, for He has done majestic 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.

An Oracle Concerning Babylon

The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz beheld.
2
Lift up a standard on the bare hill,
Heighten your voice at them,
Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.
3
I have commanded My set apart 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 rumbling of kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
Yahweh of hosts is mustering the host for battle.
5
They are coming from a far country,
From the end of the sky,
Yahweh and His instruments of indignation,
To wreak destruction on the whole land.
6
Wail, for the day of Yahweh 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 labor pangs 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 Yahweh 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 pride of the arrogant
And bring low the lofty pride of the ruthless.
12
I will make mortal man scarcer than fine 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 Yahweh 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 pierced through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16
Their infants also will be dashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.

17
Behold, I am going to awaken the Medes against them,
Who will not think about silver or take pleasure in gold.
18
And their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,
Nor will their eye pity children.
19
And it will be that Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the honor of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20
It will never be inhabited or dwelt 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 dwell there, and shaggy goats will leap there.
22
And 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 Restoration and Dominion

When Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and put them in their own land, then sojourners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
2 And 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 Yahweh for their male and female slaves; and they will take their captors captive and will have dominion over their taskmasters. 3 And it will be in the day when Yahweh gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh slavery in which you have been enslaved, 4 that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,
“How the taskmaster has ceased,
And how fury has ceased!
5
Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of rulers
6
Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,
Which had dominion over 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 are glad over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’
9
Sheol from beneath trembles excitedly over you to meet you when you come;
It wakens 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 answer and say to you,
‘Even you have been made weak as we,
You have become like us.
11
Your pride 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 brought down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.
16
Those who see you will gaze at you,
They will carefully consider you, saying,
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who caused kingdoms to quake,
17
Who made the world like a wilderness
And pulled down 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 place.
19
But you have been cast out of your grave
Like an abhorred branch,
Clothed with those killed 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 killed your people.
May the seed of evildoers not be called upon 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 Yahweh of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity,” declares Yahweh. 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 Yahweh of hosts.

Yahweh’s Plan to Break Assyrian Rule

24 Yahweh of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have counseled so it will stand,
25 to break Assyria in My land, and I will trod him down on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. 26 This is the counsel that is counseled against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. 27 For Yahweh of hosts has counseled, and who can thwart it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

An Oracle Concerning Philistia

28 In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:
29
“Do not be glad, 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 fiery serpent.
30
And the foremost of the poor will eat,
And the needy will lie down in security;
I will put to death your root with famine,
And it will kill off your remnant.
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 Yahweh has founded Zion,
And the afflicted of His people will take refuge in it.”

An Oracle Concerning Moab

The oracle concerning Moab.
Surely in a night Ar of Moab is destroyed and ruined;
Surely in a night Kir of Moab is destroyed 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 rooftops and in their squares
Everyone is wailing, dissolved in weeping.
4
Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out,
Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;
Therefore the armed men of Moab make a loud shout;
His soul trembles within him.
5
My heart cries out for Moab;
Those who flee from her are as far as Zoar and Eglath‑shelishiyah,
For they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping;
Surely on the road to Horonaim they keep awake with crying in distress over their destruction.
6
For the waters of Nimrim are desolate.
Surely the grass is dried up, the tender grass has completely ceased,
There is no green thing.
7
Therefore the abundance they have made and stored up
They carry off over the brook of Arabim.
8
For the cry has gone around the territory of Moab,
Its wailing 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 put added woes upon Dimon,
A lion upon those of Moab who have escaped and upon the remnant of the land.

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
“Bring us counsel, make a decision;
Cast your shadow like night at high noon;
Hide those banished, do not reveal the one who flees.
4
Let the banished of Moab sojourn 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
And a throne will be established in lovingkindness,
And a judge will sit on it in truth 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 lofty pride, 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 languished, 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 orchard;
In the vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or shouts of jubilation,
No treader treads out wine in the presses,
For I have made the shouting to cease.
11
Therefore my inner being moans like a harp for Moab
And my inward feelings for Kir‑hareseth.
12
So it will be when Moab appears,
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 Yahweh spoke earlier concerning Moab. 14 But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “Within three years, as a hired man would count them, the glory of Moab will be dishonored along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and not mighty.”

An Oracle Concerning Damascus

The oracle concerning Damascus.
“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
2
The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks, and they will lie down in them;
And there will be no one to cause them to tremble.
3
And the fortified city will cease from Ephraim,
And sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares Yahweh of hosts.

4
Now it will be in that day, that the glory of Jacob will wane,
And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5
And it will be even like the reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears of grain,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the valley of Rephaim.
6
Yet gleanings will remain in it like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the twigs of a fruitful tree,
Declares Yahweh, the God of Israel.
7
In that day man will have regard for his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
8
He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Even the Asherim and incense stands.
9
In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest,
Or like branches which they forsook before the sons of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.
10
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
And have not remembered the rock of your strong defense.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine branches of a strange god.
11
In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the morning you cause your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will be a heap
In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.

12
Alas, the uproar of many peoples
Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rumble on like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13
The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
And be pursued like chaff in the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a whirlwind.
14
At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning they are no more.
Such will be the portion of those who pillage us
And the lot of those who plunder us.