Isaiah 30:18-33

English Standard Version

The Lord Will Be Gracious

¹⁸Therefore the Lord ^(A)waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he ^(B)exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
^(C)blessed are all those who wait for him.

¹⁹For a people shall dwell ^(D)in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. ²⁰And though the Lord give you the ^(E)bread of adversity and the ^(F)water of affliction, ^(G)yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. ²¹^(H)And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is ^(I)the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. ²²Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. ^(J)You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

²³^(K)And he will give ^(L)rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. ^(M)In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, ²⁴and ^(N)the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. ²⁵And ^(O)on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, ^(P)when the towers fall. ²⁶^(Q)Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when ^(R)the Lord binds up ^(S)the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

²⁷Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
    burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;^[a]
his lips are full of fury,
    and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
²⁸^(T)his breath is ^(U)like an overflowing stream
    that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
    and to place on the jaws of the peoples ^(V)a bridle that leads astray.

²⁹You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, ^(W)as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to ^(X)the mountain of the Lord, to ^(Y)the Rock of Israel. ³⁰And the Lord ^(Z)will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger ^(AA)and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst ^(AB)and storm and hailstones. ³¹The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, ^(AC)when he strikes with his rod. ³²And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them ^(AD)will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. ^(AE)Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. ³³For ^(AF)a burning place^[b] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, ^(AG)its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; ^(AH)the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.