Isaiah 18 - 22 — Legacy Standard Bible

A Message to Ethiopia

18Alas, O land of whirring wingsWhich lies beyond the rivers of ¹^,^aEthiopia,²Which sends envoys by the sea,Even in ^apapyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.Go, swift messengers, to a nation ¹^,^btall and smooth,To a people ^cfeared ²far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nationWhose land the rivers divide.³^aAll you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, ^byou will see it,And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

⁴For thus Yahweh has told me, “I will look ¹from My ^adwelling place quietlyLike dazzling heat in the ²^,^bsunshine,Like a cloud of ^cdew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For ^abefore the harvest, as soon as the bud ¹blossomsAnd the flower becomes a ripening grape,Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knivesAnd remove and cut away the spreading branches.⁶They will be left together for mountain birds ^aof prey,And for the beasts of the earth;And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.⁷At that time a gift of homage will be brought to Yahweh of hosts¹From a ^apeople ²tall and smooth,Even from a people feared ³far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nation,Whose land the rivers divide—To the ^bplace of the name of Yahweh of hosts, even Mount Zion.

An Oracle Concerning Egypt

19The ¹^,^aoracle concerning ^bEgypt. Behold, Yahweh is ^criding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;The ^didols of Egypt will shake at His presence,And the ^eheart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;And they will ^aeach fight against his brother and each against his neighbor,City against city and kingdom against kingdom.³“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied to destruction within them;And I will confuse their counsel,So that ^athey will seek idols and ghosts of the deadAnd to ¹mediums and spiritists.⁴“Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a ^acruel master,And a ¹strong king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.⁵^aThe waters from the sea will dry up,And the river will be parched and dry.⁶The ^arivers will emit a stench,The ¹^,^bstreams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;^cThe reeds and rushes will rot away.⁷The bulrushes by the ^aNile, by the ¹edge of the NileAnd all the sown fields by the NileWill become dry, be driven away, and be no more.⁸And the ^afishermen will lament,And all those who cast a ¹line into the Nile will mourn,And those who spread nets on the waters will ²languish.⁹Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flaxAnd the weavers of white ^acloth will be ashamed.¹⁰And ¹the ^apillars of Egypt will be crushed;All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.¹¹The princes of ¹^,^aZoan are merely ignorant fools;The counsel of Pharaoh’s wisest counselors has become ²senseless.How can you men say to Pharaoh,“I am a son of the ^bwise, a son of the kings of old”?¹²Well then, where are your wise men?Please let them tell you,And let them ¹understand what Yahweh of hostsHas ^acounseled against Egypt.¹³The princes of ¹Zoan have acted as ignorant fools,The princes of ^aMemphis are deluded;Those who are the ^bcornerstone of her tribes²Have led Egypt astray.¹⁴Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of ^adistortion;^bThey have led Egypt astray in all ¹that it does,As a ^cdrunken man ²strays into his vomit.¹⁵There will be no work for Egypt^aWhich its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

Yahweh Will Bless Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in ^adread because of the ^bwaving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. ¹⁷And the land of Judah will become a ¹terror to Egypt; everyone ²to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the ^acounsel of Yahweh of hosts which He is counseling against them.

¹⁸In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and ^aswearing allegiance to Yahweh of hosts; one will be called the City of ¹Destruction.

¹⁹In that day there will be an ^aaltar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a ^bpillar to Yahweh near its border. ²⁰And it will become a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and He will send them a ^aSavior and a ¹^,^bChampion, and He will deliver them. ²¹Thus Yahweh will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. They will even worship with ^asacrifice and offering, and they will make a vow to Yahweh and pay it. ²²And Yahweh will smite Egypt, smiting but ^ahealing; so they will ^breturn to Yahweh, and He will be moved by their entreaty and will heal them.

²³In that day there will be a ^ahighway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will ^bworship with the Assyrians.

²⁴In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵whom Yahweh of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is ^aEgypt My people, and Assyria ^bthe work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

A Prophecy About Egypt and Ethiopia

20In the year that the ¹^,^acommander came to ^bAshdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it, ²at that time Yahweh spoke by the hand of ^aIsaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the ^bsackcloth from your hips and take your ^cshoes off your feet.” And he did so, going ^dnaked and barefoot. ³And Yahweh said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a ^asign and wonder against Egypt and ¹^,^bEthiopia, ⁴so the ^aking of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, ^byoung and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the ¹shame of Egypt. ⁵“Then they will be ^adismayed and ashamed because of Ethiopia their hope and Egypt their ^bboast. ⁶“So the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled ^afor help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and we, ^bhow shall we escape?’”

Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon

21The ¹^,^aoracle concerning the ²^,^bwilderness of the sea. As ^cwhirlwinds in the ³Negev sweep on,It comes from the wilderness, from a fearsome land.

²A ^aharsh vision has been declared to me;The ^btreacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.Go up, ^cElam, lay siege, Media;I have made an end of all ¹the groaning she has caused.³For this reason my ^aloins are full of anguish;Pains have seized me like the pains of a ^bwoman in labor.I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.⁴My heart ¹reels; ²horror terrorizes me;The twilight I longed for has been ^aturned for me into trembling.⁵They ^aset the table, they ¹spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;“Rise up, commanders, oil the shields,”

⁶For thus the Lord says to me, “Go, station the lookout, let him ^adeclare what he sees.

⁷“Indeed, he shall see ^ariders, horsemen in pairs,Riders of donkeys, riders of camels,So let him pay close attention, very close attention.”

⁸Then ¹the lookout called, “^aO Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,And I am stationed every night at my guard post.

⁹“Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”And one answered and said, “^aFallen, fallen is Babylon;And all the ^bgraven images of her gods ¹are shattered on the ground.”¹⁰O my ^atrampled people and my ¹afflicted of the threshing floor!What I have heard from Yahweh of hosts,The God of Israel, I have declared to you.

Oracles Concerning Dumah and Arabia

¹¹The ¹oracle concerning ²^,^aDumah. One keeps calling to me from ^bSeir,“Watchman, ³how far gone is the night?Watchman, ⁴how far gone is the night?”

¹²The watchman says,“Morning comes but also night.If you would inquire, inquire;Come back again.”

¹³The ¹oracle about ²^,^aArabia. In the thickets of ³Arabia you ⁴must spend the night,O caravans of ^bDedanites.

¹⁴Bring water to meet the thirsty,O inhabitants of the land of ^aTema,Meet with bread the one who has fled.¹⁵For they have ^afled from the swords,From the drawn sword, and from the bent bowAnd from the heaviness of battle.

¹⁶For thus the Lord said to me, “In a ^ayear, as ¹a hired man would count it, all the glory of ^bKedar will end; ¹⁷and the ^aremainder of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^bhas spoken.”

An Oracle Concerning the Valley of Vision

22The ¹oracle concerning the ^avalley of vision. What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the ^bhousetops?

²You who were full of noise,You roaring city, you ^aexultant town;Your slain were ^bnot slain with the sword,Nor ¹did they die in battle.³^aAll your rulers have fled together,And have been captured ¹without the bow;All of you who were found were captured together,²Though they had fled far away.⁴Therefore I say, “Turn your gaze away from me,Let me ^aweep bitterly,Do not insist on comforting me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”⁵^aFor Lord Yahweh of hosts has a ^bday of confusion, ^coppression, and panic^dIn the valley of vision,A breaking down of wallsAnd a crying ¹to the mountain.⁶^aNow Elam took up the quiverWith the chariots, ¹infantry, and horsemen;And ^bKir uncovered the shield.⁷Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots,And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate.⁸And He revealed the ¹defense of Judah.In that day you looked to the weapons of the ^ahouse of the forest,⁹And you saw that the breachesIn the wall of the city of David were many;And you ^acollected the waters of the lower pool.¹⁰Then you counted the houses of JerusalemAnd tore down houses to fortify the wall.¹¹And you made a reservoir ^abetween the two wallsFor the waters of the ^bold pool.But you did not look to Him who made it,Nor did you see Him who formed it long ago.¹²Therefore in that day Lord Yahweh of hosts called you to ^aweeping, to wailing,To ^bshaving the head, and to wearing sackcloth.¹³Instead, behold, there is ^ajoy and gladness,Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,Eating of meat and drinking of wine:“^bLet us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”¹⁴But Yahweh of hosts revealed Himself in my ears,“Surely this ^ainiquity ^bshall not be atoned for you^cUntil you die,” says Lord Yahweh of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says Lord Yahweh of hosts, “Come, go to this steward,To ^aShebna, who is in charge of the royal household,

¹⁶‘What right do you have here,And whom do you have here,That you have ^ahewn a tomb for yourself here,You who hew a tomb on the height,You who carve a dwelling place for ¹yourself in the cliff?¹⁷‘Behold, Yahweh is about to hurl you headlong, O man.And He is about to grasp you firmly¹⁸And He will surely roll you tightly like a ball,To be ^acast into a vast country;There you will die,And there your glorious chariots will be,You disgrace of your master’s house.’¹⁹“I will ^apush you out of your office,And ¹I will pull you down from your station.²⁰“Then it will be in that day,That I will summon My servant ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah,²¹And I will clothe him with your tunicAnd tie your sash securely about him.I will give your ¹authority into his hand,And he will become a ^afather to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.²²“Then I will set ^athe key of the ^bhouse of David on his shoulder,When he opens no one will shut,When he shuts no one will ^copen.²³“I will drive him like a ^apeg in a firm place,And he will become a ^bthrone of glory to his father’s house.

²⁴“So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, offspring and ¹issue, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars. ²⁵“In that day,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “the ^apeg driven in a firm place will give way; it will even ^bbreak off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off, for ^cYahweh has spoken.”