Isaiah 20 - 21 - Legacy Standard Bible

Isaiah 20 - 21

A Prophecy About Egypt and Ethiopia

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

Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon

The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negev sweep on,

It comes from the wilderness, from a fearsome land.

A harsh vision has been declared to me;

The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.

Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;

I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused.

For this reason my loins are full of anguish;

Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.

I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.

My heart reels; horror terrorizes me;

The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;

“Rise up, commanders, oil the shields,”

6 For thus the Lord says to me,

“Go, station the lookout, let him declare what he sees.

Indeed, he shall see riders, horsemen in pairs,

Riders of donkeys, riders of camels,

So let him pay close attention, very close attention.”

8 Then the lookout called,

“O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,

And I am stationed every night at my guard post.

Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”

And one answered and said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;

And all the graven images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”

O my trampled people and my afflicted 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

11 The oracle concerning Dumah.

One keeps calling to me from Seir,

“Watchman, how far gone is the night?

Watchman, how far gone is the night?”

The watchman says,

“Morning comes but also night.

If you would inquire, inquire;

Come back again.”

13 The oracle about Arabia.

In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,

O caravans of Dedanites.

Bring water to meet the thirsty,

O inhabitants of the land of Tema,

Meet with bread the one who has fled.

For they have fled from the swords,

From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow

And from the heaviness of battle.

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