Isaiah 15-19

New King James Version

Because in the night ^(B)Ar of ^(C)Moab is laid waste
And destroyed,
Because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste
And destroyed,
² He has gone up to the ^[b]temple and Dibon,
To the high places to weep.
Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba;
^(D)On all their heads will be baldness,
And every beard cut off.
³ In their streets they will clothe themselves with sackcloth;
On the tops of their houses
And in their streets
Everyone will wail, ^(E)weeping bitterly.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out,
Their voice shall be heard as far as ^(F)Jahaz;
Therefore the ^[c]armed soldiers of Moab will cry out;
His life will be burdensome to him.

⁵ “My^(G) heart will cry out for Moab;
His fugitives shall flee to Zoar,
Like ^[d]a three-year-old heifer.
For ^(H)by the Ascent of Luhith
They will go up with weeping;
For in the way of Horonaim
They will raise up a cry of destruction,
⁶ For the waters ^(I)of Nimrim will be desolate,
For the green grass has withered away;
The grass fails, there is nothing green.
⁷ Therefore the abundance they have gained,
And what they have laid up,
They will carry away to the Brook of the Willows.
⁸ For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab,
Its wailing to Eglaim
And its wailing to Beer Elim.
⁹ For the waters of ^[e]Dimon will be full of blood;
Because I will bring more upon Dimon,
^(J)Lions upon him who escapes from Moab,
And on the remnant of the land.”

³ “Take counsel, execute judgment;
Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day;
Hide the outcasts,
Do not betray him who escapes.
⁴ Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Moab;
Be a shelter to them from the face of the ^[g]spoiler.
For the extortioner is at an end,
Devastation ceases,
The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
⁵ In mercy ^(O)the throne will be established;
And One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David,
^(P)Judging and seeking justice and hastening ^(Q)righteousness.”

⁶ We have heard of the ^(R)pride of Moab—
He is very proud—
Of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath;
^(S)But his ^[h]lies shall not be so.
⁷ Therefore Moab shall ^(T)wail for Moab;
Everyone shall wail.
For the foundations ^(U)of Kir Hareseth you shall mourn;
Surely they are stricken.

⁸ For ^(V)the fields of Heshbon languish,
And ^(W)the vine of Sibmah;
The lords of the nations have broken down its choice plants,
Which have reached to Jazer
And wandered through the wilderness.
Her branches are stretched out,
They are gone over the ^(X)sea.
⁹ Therefore I will bewail the vine of Sibmah,
With the weeping of Jazer;
I will drench you with my tears,
^(Y)O Heshbon and Elealeh;
For ^[i]battle cries have fallen
Over your summer fruits and your harvest.

^10 (Z)Gladness is taken away,
And joy from the plentiful field;
In the vineyards there will be no singing,
Nor will there be shouting;
No treaders will tread out wine in the presses;
I have made their shouting cease.
¹¹ Therefore ^(AA)my ^[j]heart shall resound like a harp for Moab,
And my inner being for ^[k]Kir Heres.

¹² And it shall come to pass,
When it is seen that Moab is weary on ^(AB)the high place,
That he will come to his sanctuary to pray;
But he will not prevail.

“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.
^2 [m]The cities of ^(AE)Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and ^(AF)no one will make them afraid.
^3 (AG)The fortress also will cease from Ephraim,
The kingdom from Damascus,
And the remnant of Syria;
They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

⁴ “In that day it shall come to pass
That the glory of Jacob will ^[n]wane,
And ^(AH)the fatness of his flesh grow lean.
^5 (AI)It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain,
And reaps the heads with his arm;
It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain
In the Valley of Rephaim.
^6 (AJ)Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it,
Like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough,
Four or five in its most fruitful branches,”
Says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷ In that day a man will ^(AK)look to his Maker,
And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ He will not look to the altars,
The work of his hands;
He will not respect what his ^(AL)fingers have made,
Nor the ^[o]wooden images nor the incense altars.

⁹ In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken ^[p]bough
And ^[q]an uppermost branch,
Which they left because of the children of Israel;
And there will be desolation.

¹⁰ Because you have forgotten ^(AM)the God of your salvation,
And have not been mindful of the Rock of your ^[r]stronghold,
Therefore you will plant pleasant plants
And set out foreign seedlings;
¹¹ In the day you will make your plant to grow,
And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will be a heap of ruins
In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.

¹² Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise ^(AN)like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
¹³ The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will ^(AO)rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And ^(AP)be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
¹⁴ Then behold, at eventide, trouble!
And before the morning, he is no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who rob us.

³ All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:
^(AR)When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;
And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.
⁴ For so the Lord said to me,
“I will take My rest,
And I will ^[t]look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
And take away and cut down the branches.
⁶ They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey
And for the beasts of the earth;
The birds of prey will summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

⁷ In that time ^(AS)a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts
^[u]From a people tall and smooth of skin,
And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the Lord of hosts,
To Mount Zion.

Behold, the Lord ^(AU)rides on a swift cloud,
And will come into Egypt;
^(AV)The idols of Egypt will ^[w]totter at His presence,
And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.

² “I will ^(AW)set Egyptians against Egyptians;
Everyone will fight against his brother,
And everyone against his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
³ The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst;
I will destroy their counsel,
And they will ^(AX)consult the idols and the charmers,
The mediums and the sorcerers.
⁴ And the Egyptians I will give
^(AY)Into the hand of a cruel master,
And a fierce king will rule over them,”
Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

^5 (AZ)The waters will fail from the sea,
And the river will be wasted and dried up.
⁶ The rivers will turn foul;
The brooks ^(BA)of defense will be emptied and dried up;
The reeds and rushes will wither.
⁷ The papyrus reeds by ^[x]the River, by the mouth of the River,
And everything sown by the River,
Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.
⁸ The fishermen also will mourn;
All those will lament who cast hooks into the River,
And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.
⁹ Moreover those who work in ^(BB)fine flax
And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;
¹⁰ And its foundations will be broken.
All who make wages will be troubled of soul.

¹¹ Surely the princes of ^(BC)Zoan are fools;
Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel.
^(BD)How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise,
The son of ancient kings?”
^12 (BE)Where are they?
Where are your wise men?
Let them tell you now,
And let them know what the Lord of hosts has ^(BF)purposed against Egypt.
¹³ The princes of Zoan have become fools;
^(BG)The princes of ^[y]Noph are deceived;
They have also ^[z]deluded Egypt,
Those who are the ^[aa]mainstay of its tribes.
¹⁴ The Lord has mingled ^(BH)a perverse spirit in her midst;
And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work,
As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵ Neither will there be any work for Egypt,
Which ^(BI)the head or tail,
Palm branch or bulrush, may do.