Isaiah 8:11-22

New King James Version

¹² “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’
Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,
Nor be afraid of their ^[b]threats, nor be ^[c]troubled.
¹³ The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow;
Let Him be your fear,
And let Him be your dread.
^14 (A)He will be as a ^[d]sanctuary,
But ^(B)a stone of stumbling and a rock of ^[e]offense
To both the houses of Israel,
As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁵ And many among them shall ^(C)stumble;
They shall fall and be broken,
Be snared and ^[f]taken.”

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony,
Seal the law among my disciples.
¹⁷ And I will wait on the Lord,
Who ^(D)hides His face from the house of Jacob;
And I ^(E)will hope in Him.
^18 (F)Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me!
We ^(G)are for signs and wonders in Israel
From the Lord of hosts,
Who dwells in Mount Zion.

³ You have multiplied the nation
And ^[i]increased its joy;
They rejoice before You
According to the joy of harvest,
As men rejoice ^(S)when they divide the spoil.
⁴ For You have broken the yoke of his burden
And the staff of his shoulder,
The rod of his oppressor,
As in the day of ^(T)Midian.
⁵ For every warrior’s ^[j]sandal from the noisy battle,
And garments rolled in blood,
^(U)Will be used for burning and fuel ^[k]of fire.

^6 (V)For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a ^(W)Son is given;
And ^(X)the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
^(Y)Wonderful, Counselor, ^(Z)Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, ^(AA)Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace
^(AB)There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The ^(AC)zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is ^[l]stretched out still.

¹³ For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them,
Nor do they seek the Lord of hosts.
¹⁴ Therefore the Lord will cut off head and tail from Israel,
Palm branch and bulrush ^(AE)in one day.
¹⁵ The elder and honorable, he is the head;
The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.
¹⁶ For ^(AF)the leaders of this people cause them to err,
And those who are led by them are destroyed.
¹⁷ Therefore the Lord ^(AG)will have no joy in their young men,
Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows;
For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer,
And every mouth speaks ^[m]folly.

^(AH)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸ For wickedness ^(AI)burns as the fire;
It shall devour the briers and thorns,
And kindle in the thickets of the forest;
They shall mount up like rising smoke.
¹⁹ Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts
^(AJ)The land is burned up,
And the people shall be as fuel for the fire;
^(AK)No man shall spare his brother.
²⁰ And he shall ^[n]snatch on the right hand
And be hungry;
He shall devour on the left hand
^(AL)And not be satisfied;
^(AM)Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.
²¹ Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh;
Together they shall be ^(AN)against Judah.

^(AO)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

^(AU)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
And by my wisdom, for I am prudent;
Also I have removed the boundaries of the people,
And have robbed their treasuries;
So I have put down the inhabitants like a ^[q]valiant man.
^14 (BG)My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people,
And as one gathers eggs that are left,
I have gathered all the earth;
And there was no one who moved his wing,
Nor opened his mouth with even a peep.”

¹⁵ Shall ^(BH)the ax boast itself against him who chops with it?
Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it?
As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up,
Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!
¹⁶ Therefore the Lord, the ^[r]Lord of hosts,
Will send leanness among his fat ones;
And under his glory
He will kindle a burning
Like the burning of a fire.
¹⁷ So the Light of Israel will be for a fire,
And his Holy One for a flame;
^(BI)It will burn and devour
His thorns and his briers in one day.
¹⁸ And it will consume the glory of his forest and of ^(BJ)his fruitful field,
Both soul and body;
And they will be as when a sick man wastes away.
¹⁹ Then the rest of the trees of his forest
Will be so few in number
That a child may write them.

²⁷ It shall come to pass in that day
That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder,
And his yoke from your neck,
And the yoke will be destroyed because of ^(BV)the anointing oil.

²⁸ He has come to Aiath,
He has passed Migron;
At Michmash he has attended to his equipment.
²⁹ They have gone ^[u]along ^(BW)the ridge,
They have taken up lodging at Geba.
Ramah is afraid,
^(BX)Gibeah of Saul has fled.
^30 [v]Lift up your voice,
O daughter ^(BY)of Gallim!
Cause it to be heard as far as ^(BZ)Laish—
^[w]O poor Anathoth!
^31 (CA)Madmenah has fled,
The inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge.
³² As yet he will remain ^(CB)at Nob that day;
He will ^(CC)shake his fist at the mount of ^(CD)the daughter of Zion,
The hill of Jerusalem.

³³ Behold, the Lord,
The Lord of hosts,
Will lop off the bough with terror;
^(CE)Those of high stature will be hewn down,
And the haughty will be humbled.
³⁴ He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,
And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

³ His delight is in the fear of the Lord,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
⁴ But ^(CK)with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall ^(CL)strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

⁶ “The^(CM) wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
^9 (CN)They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For ^(CO)the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰ “And^(CP) in that day ^(CQ)there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a ^(CR)banner to the people;
For the ^(CS)Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”

¹¹ It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
^(CT)From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the ^[aa]islands of the sea.

¹² He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will ^[ab]assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together ^(CU)the dispersed of Judah
From the four ^[ac]corners of the earth.
¹³ Also ^(CV)the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
¹⁴ But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;
Together they shall plunder the ^[ad]people of the East;
^(CW)They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;
And the people of Ammon shall obey them.
¹⁵ The Lord ^(CX)will utterly ^[ae]destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over ^[af]the River,
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over ^[ag]dry-shod.
^16 (CY)There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
^(CZ)As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.

“O Lord, I will praise You;
Though You were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.
² Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
^(DB)‘For ^(DC)Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song;
He also has become my salvation.’ ”

³ Therefore with joy you will draw ^(DD)water
From the wells of salvation.

^(DE)“Praise the Lord, call upon His name;
^(DF)Declare His deeds among the peoples,
Make mention that His ^(DG)name is exalted.
^5 (DH)Sing to the Lord,
For He has done excellent things;
This is known in all the earth.
^6 (DI)Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great is ^(DJ)the Holy One of Israel in your midst!”

² “Lift^(DL) up a banner ^(DM)on the high mountain,
Raise your voice to them;
^(DN)Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
³ I have commanded My ^[ai]sanctified ones;
I have also called ^(DO)My mighty ones for My anger—
Those who ^(DP)rejoice in My exaltation.”

⁴ The ^(DQ)noise of a multitude in the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!
The Lord of hosts musters
The army for battle.
⁵ They come from a far country,
From the end of heaven—
The ^(DR)Lord and His ^[aj]weapons of indignation,
To destroy the whole ^(DS)land.

⁶ Wail, ^(DT)for the day of the Lord is at hand!
^(DU)It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
⁷ Therefore all hands will be limp,
Every man’s heart will melt,
⁸ And they will be afraid.
^(DV)Pangs^[ak] and sorrows will take hold of them;
They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;
They will be amazed at one another;
Their faces will be like flames.

⁹ Behold, ^(DW)the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy ^(DX)its sinners from it.
¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be ^(DY)darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

¹¹ “I will ^(DZ)punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
^(EA)I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the ^[al]terrible.
¹² I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.
^13 (EB)Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place,
In the wrath of the Lord of hosts
And in ^(EC)the day of His fierce anger.
¹⁴ It shall be as the hunted gazelle,
And as a sheep that no man ^[am]takes up;
^(ED)Every man will turn to his own people,
And everyone will flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Everyone who is found will be thrust through,
And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their children also will be ^(EE)dashed to pieces before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ^(EF)ravished.

¹⁷ “Behold,^(EG) I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not ^[an]regard silver;
And as for gold, they will not delight in it.
¹⁸ Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.
^19 (EH)And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew ^(EI)Sodom and Gomorrah.
^20 (EJ)It will never be inhabited,
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.
^21 (EK)But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,
And their houses will be full of ^[ao]owls;
Ostriches will dwell there,
And wild goats will caper there.
²² The hyenas will howl in their citadels,
And jackals in their pleasant palaces.
^(EL)Her time is near to come,
And her days will not be prolonged.”

“How the oppressor has ceased,
The ^(ES)golden^[ap] city ceased!
⁵ The Lord has broken ^(ET)the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of the rulers;
⁶ He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
He who ruled the nations in anger,
Is persecuted and no one hinders.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
They break forth into singing.
^8 (EU)Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,
And the cedars of Lebanon,
Saying, ‘Since you ^[aq]were cut down,
No woodsman has come up against us.’

⁹ “Hell^(EV)[ar] from beneath is excited about you,
To meet you at your coming;
It stirs up the dead for you,
All the chief ones of the earth;
It has raised up from their thrones
All the kings of the nations.
¹⁰ They all shall ^(EW)speak and say to you:
‘Have you also become as weak as we?
Have you become like us?
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
And the sound of your stringed instruments;
The maggot is spread under you,
And worms cover you.’

¹⁶ “Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
¹⁷ Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who ^[au]did not open the house of his prisoners?’

¹⁸ “All the kings of the nations,
All of them, sleep in glory,
Everyone in his own house;
¹⁹ But you are cast out of your grave
Like an ^[av]abominable branch,
Like the garment of those who are slain,
^[aw]Thrust through with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit,
Like a corpse trodden underfoot.
²⁰ You will not be joined with them in burial,
Because you have destroyed your land
And slain your people.
^(FE)The brood of evildoers shall never be named.
²¹ Prepare slaughter for his children
^(FF)Because of the iniquity of their fathers,
Lest they rise up and possess the land,
And fill the face of the world with cities.”

²⁹ “Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
^(FQ)Because the rod that struck you is broken;
For out of the serpent’s roots will come forth a viper,
^(FR)And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.
³⁰ The firstborn of the poor will feed,
And the needy will lie down in safety;
I will kill your roots with famine,
And it will slay your remnant.
³¹ Wail, O gate! Cry, O city!
All you of Philistia are dissolved;
For smoke will come from the north,
And no one will be alone in his ^[ay]appointed times.”

³² What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
That ^(FS)the Lord has founded Zion,
And ^(FT)the poor of His people shall take refuge in it.

Because in the night ^(FV)Ar of ^(FW)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 ^[ba]temple and Dibon,
To the high places to weep.
Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba;
^(FX)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, ^(FY)weeping bitterly.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out,
Their voice shall be heard as far as ^(FZ)Jahaz;
Therefore the ^[bb]armed soldiers of Moab will cry out;
His life will be burdensome to him.

⁵ “My^(GA) heart will cry out for Moab;
His fugitives shall flee to Zoar,
Like ^[bc]a three-year-old heifer.
For ^(GB)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 ^(GC)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 ^[bd]Dimon will be full of blood;
Because I will bring more upon Dimon,
^(GD)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 ^[bf]spoiler.
For the extortioner is at an end,
Devastation ceases,
The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
⁵ In mercy ^(GI)the throne will be established;
And One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David,
^(GJ)Judging and seeking justice and hastening ^(GK)righteousness.”

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

⁸ For ^(GP)the fields of Heshbon languish,
And ^(GQ)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 ^(GR)sea.
⁹ Therefore I will bewail the vine of Sibmah,
With the weeping of Jazer;
I will drench you with my tears,
^(GS)O Heshbon and Elealeh;
For ^[bh]battle cries have fallen
Over your summer fruits and your harvest.

^10 (GT)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 ^(GU)my ^[bi]heart shall resound like a harp for Moab,
And my inner being for ^[bj]Kir Heres.

¹² And it shall come to pass,
When it is seen that Moab is weary on ^(GV)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 [bl]The cities of ^(GY)Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and ^(GZ)no one will make them afraid.
^3 (HA)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 ^[bm]wane,
And ^(HB)the fatness of his flesh grow lean.
^5 (HC)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 (HD)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 ^(HE)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 ^(HF)fingers have made,
Nor the ^[bn]wooden images nor the incense altars.

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

¹⁰ Because you have forgotten ^(HG)the God of your salvation,
And have not been mindful of the Rock of your ^[bq]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 ^(HH)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 ^(HI)rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And ^(HJ)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:
^(HL)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 ^[bs]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 ^(HM)a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts
^[bt]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 ^(HO)rides on a swift cloud,
And will come into Egypt;
^(HP)The idols of Egypt will ^[bv]totter at His presence,
And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.

² “I will ^(HQ)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 ^(HR)consult the idols and the charmers,
The mediums and the sorcerers.
⁴ And the Egyptians I will give
^(HS)Into the hand of a cruel master,
And a fierce king will rule over them,”
Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

^5 (HT)The waters will fail from the sea,
And the river will be wasted and dried up.
⁶ The rivers will turn foul;
The brooks ^(HU)of defense will be emptied and dried up;
The reeds and rushes will wither.
⁷ The papyrus reeds by ^[bw]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 ^(HV)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 ^(HW)Zoan are fools;
Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel.
^(HX)How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise,
The son of ancient kings?”
^12 (HY)Where are they?
Where are your wise men?
Let them tell you now,
And let them know what the Lord of hosts has ^(HZ)purposed against Egypt.
¹³ The princes of Zoan have become fools;
^(IA)The princes of ^[bx]Noph are deceived;
They have also ^[by]deluded Egypt,
Those who are the ^[bz]mainstay of its tribes.
¹⁴ The Lord has mingled ^(IB)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 ^(IC)the head or tail,
Palm branch or bulrush, may do.

As ^(JA)whirlwinds in the South pass through,
So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
² A distressing vision is declared to me;
^(JB)The treacherous dealer deals treacherously,
And the plunderer plunders.
^(JC)Go up, O Elam!
Besiege, O Media!
All its sighing I have made to cease.

³ Therefore ^(JD)my loins are filled with pain;
^(JE)Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.
I was ^[ce]distressed when I heard it;
I was dismayed when I saw it.
⁴ My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;
^(JF)The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.
^5 (JG)Prepare the table,
Set a watchman in the tower,
Eat and drink.
Arise, you princes,
Anoint the shield!

⁶ For thus has the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman,
Let him declare what he sees.”
⁷ And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,
A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,
And he listened earnestly with great care.
^8 [cf]Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!
I stand continually on the ^(JH)watchtower in the daytime;
I have sat at my post every night.
⁹ And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!”
Then he answered and said,
^(JI)“Babylon is fallen, is fallen!
And ^(JJ)all the carved images of her gods
He has broken to the ground.”

^10 (JK)Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!
That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel,
I have declared to you.

He calls to me out of ^(JM)Seir,
“Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”
¹² The watchman said,
“The morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
Return! Come back!”

In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,
O you traveling companies ^(JO)of Dedanites.
¹⁴ O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Bring water to him who is thirsty;
With their bread they met him who fled.
¹⁵ For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.

What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
² You who are full of noise,
A ^[cj]tumultuous city, ^(JR)a joyous city?
Your slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.
³ All your rulers have fled together;
They are captured by the archers.
All who are found in you are bound together;
They have fled from afar.
⁴ Therefore I said, “Look away from me,
^(JS)I will weep bitterly;
Do not labor to comfort me
Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”

^5 (JT)For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity
^(JU)By the Lord God of hosts
In the Valley of Vision—
Breaking down the walls
And of crying to the mountain.
^6 (JV)Elam bore the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And ^(JW)Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys
Shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

^8 (JX)He removed the ^[ck]protection of Judah.
You looked in that day to the armor ^(JY)of the House of the Forest;
^9 (JZ)You also saw the ^[cl]damage to the city of David,
That it was great;
And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
¹⁰ You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses you broke down
To fortify the wall.
^11 (KA)You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the water of the old ^(KB)pool.
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.