Isaiah 13 - 17 — Legacy Standard Bible

An Oracle Concerning Babylon

13The ¹^,^aoracle concerning ^bBabylon which ^cIsaiah the son of Amoz beheld.

²^aLift up a standard on the ¹^,^bbare hill,Heighten your voice at them,^cWave the hand that they may ^denter the doors of the nobles.³I have commanded My set apart ones,I have even called My ^amighty warriors,My ¹proudly exulting ones,To execute My anger.⁴A ^asound 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.⁵They are coming from a far country,From the ^aend of the sky,Yahweh and His instruments of ^bindignation,To ^cwreak destruction on the whole land.⁶Wail, for the ^aday of Yahweh is near!It will come as ^bdestruction from ¹the Almighty.⁷Therefore ^aall hands will fall limp,And every man’s ^bheart will melt.⁸They will be ^aterrified,Pains and labor pangs will take hold of them;They will ^bwrithe like a woman in labor,They will look at one another in astonishment,Their faces aflame.⁹Behold, ^athe 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.¹⁰For the ^astars of heaven and their constellationsWill not flash forth their light;The ^bsun will be dark when it risesAnd the moon will not shed its light.¹¹Thus I will ^apunish the world for its evilAnd the ^bwicked for their iniquity;I will also put an end to the ^cpride of the arrogantAnd bring low the ^dlofty pride of the ¹^,^eruthless.¹²I will make mortal man ¹^,^ascarcer than fine goldAnd mankind than the ^bgold of Ophir.¹³Therefore I will make the ^aheavens tremble,And ^bthe earth will be shaken from its placeAt the fury of Yahweh of hostsIn ^cthe day of His burning anger.¹⁴And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,Or like ^asheep with none to gather them,They will each turn to his own people,And each one flee to his own land.¹⁵Anyone who is found will be ^apierced through,And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.¹⁶Their ^ainfants also will be dashed to piecesBefore their eyes;Their houses will be plunderedAnd their wives ravished.¹⁷Behold, I am going to ^aawaken the Medes against them,Who will not think about silver or ^btake pleasure in gold.¹⁸And their bows will dash the ^ayoung men to pieces,They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,Nor will their ^beye pity ¹children.¹⁹And it will be that ^aBabylon, the ^bbeauty of kingdoms, the ¹honor of the Chaldeans’ pride,Will be as when God ^coverthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.²⁰It will ^anever be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation;Nor will the ¹^,^bArab pitch his tent there,Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.²¹But ^adesert creatures will lie down there,And their houses will be full of ¹owls;Ostriches also will dwell there, and ²shaggy goats will leap there.²²¹And hyenas will howl in their fortified towersAnd jackals in their luxurious ^apalaces.Her fateful time also ²will soon comeAnd her days will not be prolonged.

Israel’s Restoration and Dominion

14When Yahweh will ^ahave compassion on Jacob and again ^bchoose Israel, and ¹put them in their own land, then ^csojourners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. ²And the peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the ^ahouse of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of Yahweh ^bfor their male and female slaves; and ¹they will take their captors captive and will have dominion over their taskmasters.

³And it will be in the day when Yahweh gives you ^arest from your pain and turmoil and harsh slavery in which you have been enslaved, ⁴that you will ^atake up this ¹taunt against the king of Babylon, and say, “How ^bthe taskmaster has ceased,And how ²fury has ceased!

⁵“Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked,The scepter of rulers⁶^aWhich 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 ^abreak forth into shouts of joy.⁸“Even the ^acypress trees are glad over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’⁹“^aSheol from beneath trembles excitedly over you to meet you when you come;It wakens for you the ¹spirits of the dead, all the ²leaders of the earth;It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.¹⁰“^aThey will all answer and say to you,‘Even you have been made weak as we,You have become like us.¹¹‘Your ^apride and the music of your harpsHave been brought down to Sheol;Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath youAnd worms are your covering.’¹²“How you have ^afallen from heaven,O ¹^,^bstar 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 ^aascend to heaven;I will ^braise my throne above the stars of God,And I will sit on the mount of assemblyIn the recesses of the north.¹⁴‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;^aI will make myself like the Most High.’¹⁵“Nevertheless you ^awill be brought down to Sheol,To the recesses of the pit.¹⁶“Those who see you will gaze at you,They will ¹carefully consider you, saying,‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,Who caused kingdoms to quake,¹⁷Who made the world like a ^awildernessAnd pulled down its cities,Who ^bdid not ¹allow his prisoners to go home?’¹⁸“All the kings of the nations lie in glory,Each in his own ¹place.¹⁹“But you have been ^acast out of your graveLike an abhorred branch,¹Clothed with those killed who are pierced with a sword,Who go down to the stones of the ^bpitLike a ^ctrampled corpse.²⁰“You will not be united with them in burial,Because you have ruined your country,You have killed your people.May the ^aseed of evildoers not be called upon forever.²¹“Prepare for his sons a place of slaughterBecause of the ^ainiquity of their fathers.They must not arise and take possession of the earthAnd 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 ^aname and remnant, ^boffspring and posterity,” declares Yahweh. ²³“I will also make it a possession for the ^ahedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of ¹^,^bdestruction,” declares Yahweh of hosts.

Yahweh’s Plan to Break Assyrian Rule

²⁴Yahweh of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, ^ajust as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have counseled so it will stand, ²⁵to ^abreak Assyria in My land, and I will trod him down on My mountains. Then his ^byoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. ²⁶“This is the ^acounsel that is counseled against the whole earth; and this is the ^bhand that is stretched out against all the nations. ²⁷“For ^aYahweh 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

²⁸In the ^ayear that King Ahaz died this ¹^,^boracle came:

²⁹“Do not be glad, O ^aPhilistia, all of you,Because the rod that ^bstruck you is broken;For from the serpent’s root a ^cviper will come out,And its fruit will be a ^dflying fiery serpent.³⁰“¹And the foremost ^aof the poor will eat,And the needy will lie down in security;I will put to death your root with ^bfamine,And it will kill off your remnant.³¹“Wail, O ^agate; cry, O city;¹Melt away, O ^bPhilistia, all of you;For smoke comes from the ^cnorth,And ^dthere is no straggler in his ranks.³²“How then will one answer the ^amessengers of the nation?That ^bYahweh has founded Zion,And ^cthe afflicted of His people will take refuge in it.”

An Oracle Concerning Moab

15The ¹oracle concerning ^aMoab. Surely in a night ^bAr of Moab is destroyed and ruined;Surely in a night Kir of Moab is destroyed and ruined.

²They have gone up to the ¹temple and to ^aDibon, even to the high places to weep.Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;Everyone’s head is ^bbald and every beard is cut off.³In their streets they have girded themselves with ^asackcloth;^bOn their rooftops and in their squaresEveryone is wailing, ¹^,^cdissolved in weeping.⁴^aHeshbon and Elealeh also cry out,Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;Therefore ¹the armed men of Moab make a loud shout;His soul trembles within him.⁵My heart cries out for Moab;Those who flee from her are as far as ^aZoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,For they go up the ^bascent of Luhith weeping;Surely on the road to Horonaim they keep awake with crying in distress ^cover their destruction.⁶For the ^awaters of Nimrim are ¹desolate.Surely the grass is dried up, the tender grass has ²completely ceased,There is ^bno green thing.⁷Therefore the ^aabundance they have made and stored upThey carry off over the brook of ¹Arabim.⁸For the cry has gone around the territory of Moab,Its wailing goes as far as Eglaim and its wailing even to Beer-elim.⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of ¹blood;Surely I will put added woes upon Dimon,A ^alion upon those of Moab who have escaped and upon the remnant of the land.16^aSend the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,From ¹^,^bSela by way of the wilderness to the ^cmountain of the daughter of Zion.²Then, like ¹^,^afleeing birds or scattered ²nestlings,The daughters of ^bMoab will be at the fords of the ^cArnon.³“Bring us counsel, make a decision;¹Cast your ^ashadow like night ²at high noon;^bHide those banished, do not reveal the one who flees.⁴“Let the ¹banished 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,^aOppressors have completely disappeared from the land.⁵And a ^athrone will be established in lovingkindness,And a judge will sit on it in truth in the tent of ^bDavid;Moreover, he will seek justiceAnd be prompt in righteousness.⁶^aWe have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;Even of his lofty pride, pride, and fury;^bHis idle boasts are ¹false.⁷Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.You will moan for the ^araisin cakes of ^bKir-haresethAs those who are utterly stricken.⁸For the fields of ^aHeshbon have languished, the vines of ^bSibmah as well;The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clustersWhich reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;^cIts tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.⁹Therefore I will ^aweep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;I will drench you with my tears, O ^bHeshbon and Elealeh;For the shouting over your ^csummer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.¹⁰^aGladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful orchard;In the ^bvineyards also there will be no cries of joy or shouts of jubilation,No ^ctreader treads out wine in the presses,For I have made the shouting to cease.¹¹Therefore my ¹^,^ainner being moans like a harp for MoabAnd my ²inward feelings for Kir-hareseth.¹²So it will be when Moab ^aappears,When he ^bwearies himself upon his ^chigh placeAnd comes to his sanctuary to pray,That he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word which Yahweh spoke earlier concerning Moab. ¹⁴But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “Within three years, as ¹^,^aa hired man would count them, the glory of ^bMoab will be dishonored along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and not mighty.”

An Oracle Concerning Damascus

17The ¹^,^aoracle concerning ^bDamascus. “Behold, Damascus is about to be ^cremoved from being a cityAnd will become a ^dfallen ruin.

²“The cities ¹of ^aAroer are forsaken;They will be for ^bflocks, and they will lie down in them;And there will be ^cno one to cause them to tremble.³“And the ¹^,^afortified city will cease from Ephraim,And ²sovereignty from DamascusAnd the remnant of Aram;They will be like the ^bglory of the sons of Israel,”Declares Yahweh of hosts.⁴Now it will be in that day, that the ^aglory of Jacob will ¹wane,And ^bthe fatness of his flesh will become lean.⁵And it will be ^aeven like the ¹reaper gathering the standing grain,As his arm harvests the ears of grain,Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grainIn the ^bvalley of Rephaim.⁶Yet ^agleanings will remain in it like the ¹shaking 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.⁷In that day man will ^ahave regard for his MakerAnd his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.⁸He will not have regard for the ^aaltars, the work of his hands,Nor will he look to that which his ^bfingers have made,Even the ¹^,^cAsherim and ²incense stands.⁹In that day ¹their strong cities will be like ²forsaken places in the forest,Or like ³branches which they forsook before the sons of Israel;And ⁴the land will be a desolation.¹⁰For ^ayou have forgotten the ^bGod of your salvationAnd have not remembered the ^crock of your strong defense.Therefore you plant delightful plantsAnd set them with vine branches of a strange god.¹¹In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,And in the ^amorning you cause your seed to flourish;But the harvest will ^bbe a heapIn a day of sickliness and incurable pain.¹²Alas, the uproar of many peoples^aWho roar like the roaring of the seas,And the rumbling of nationsWho rumble on like the ^brumbling of mighty waters!¹³The ^anations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,But He will ^brebuke them, and they will flee far away,And be pursued ^clike chaff in the mountains before the wind,Or like whirling dust before a whirlwind.¹⁴At evening time, behold, there is terror!Before morning ^athey are no more.¹Such will be the portion of those who pillage usAnd the lot of those who plunder us.