Isaiah 13:1-14:27
New King James Version
Proclamation Against Babylon
13 The (A)burden[a] against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 “Lift(B) up a banner (C)on the high mountain,
Raise your voice to them;
(D)Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My [b]sanctified ones;
I have also called (E)My mighty ones for My anger—
Those who (F)rejoice in My exaltation.”
4 The (G)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 (H)Lord and His [c]weapons of indignation,
To destroy the whole (I)land.
6 Wail, (J)for the day of the Lord is at hand!
(K)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.
(L)Pangs[d] 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, (M)the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy (N)its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be (O)darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11 “I will (P)punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
(Q)I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the [e]terrible.
12 I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 (R)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 (S)the day of His fierce anger.
14 It shall be as the hunted gazelle,
And as a sheep that no man [f]takes up;
(T)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 (U)dashed to pieces before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives (V)ravished.
17 “Behold,(W) I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not [g]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 (X)And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew (Y)Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 (Z)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 (AA)But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,
And their houses will be full of [h]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.
(AB)Her time is near to come,
And her days will not be prolonged.”
Mercy on Jacob
14 For the Lord (AC)will have mercy on Jacob, and (AD)will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. (AE)The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. 2 Then people will take them (AF)and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, (AG)and rule over their oppressors.
Fall of the King of Babylon
3 It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, 4 that you (AH)will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:
“How the oppressor has ceased,
The (AI)golden[i] city ceased!
5 The Lord has broken (AJ)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 (AK)Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,
And the cedars of Lebanon,
Saying, ‘Since you [j]were cut down,
No woodsman has come up against us.’
9 “Hell(AL)[k] 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 (AM)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.’
The Fall of Lucifer
12 “How(AN) you are fallen from heaven,
O [l]Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart:
(AO)‘I will ascend into heaven,
(AP)I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the (AQ)mount of the congregation
(AR)On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
(AS)I will be like the Most High.’
15 Yet you (AT)shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the [m]lowest depths of the Pit.
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 [n]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 [o]abominable branch,
Like the garment of those who are slain,
[p]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.
(AU)The brood of evildoers shall never be named.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children
(AV)Because of the iniquity of their fathers,
Lest they rise up and possess the land,
And fill the face of the world with cities.”
Babylon Destroyed
22 “For I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts,
“And cut off from Babylon (AW)the name and (AX)remnant,
(AY)And offspring and posterity,” says the Lord.
23 “I will also make it a possession for the (AZ)porcupine,
And marshes of muddy water;
I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the Lord of hosts.
Assyria Destroyed
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying,
“Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass,
And as I have purposed, so it shall (BA)stand:
25 That I will break the (BB)Assyrian in My land,
And on My mountains tread him underfoot.
Then (BC)his yoke shall be removed from them,
And his burden removed from their shoulders.
26 This is the (BD)purpose that is purposed against the whole earth,
And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27 For the Lord of hosts has (BE)purposed,
And who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
And who will turn it back?”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 13:1 oracle, prophecy
- Isaiah 13:3 consecrated or set apart
- Isaiah 13:5 Or instruments
- Isaiah 13:8 Sharp pains
- Isaiah 13:11 Or tyrants
- Isaiah 13:14 gathers
- Isaiah 13:17 esteem
- Isaiah 13:21 Or howling creatures
- Isaiah 14:4 Or insolent
- Isaiah 14:8 have lain down
- Isaiah 14:9 Or Sheol
- Isaiah 14:12 Lit. Day Star
- Isaiah 14:15 Lit. recesses
- Isaiah 14:17 Would not release
- Isaiah 14:19 despised
- Isaiah 14:19 Pierced
Micah 3-7
New King James Version
Wicked Rulers and Prophets
3 And I said:
“Hear now, O heads of Jacob,
And you (A)rulers of the house of Israel:
(B)Is it not for you to know justice?
2 You who hate good and love evil;
Who strip the skin from [a]My people,
And the flesh from their bones;
3 Who also (C)eat the flesh of My people,
Flay their skin from them,
Break their bones,
And chop them in pieces
Like meat for the pot,
(D)Like flesh in the caldron.”
4 Then (E)they will cry to the Lord,
But He will not hear them;
He will even hide His face from them at that time,
Because they have been evil in their deeds.
5 Thus says the Lord (F)concerning the prophets
Who make my people stray;
Who chant [b]“Peace”
[c]While they (G)chew with their teeth,
But who prepare war against him
(H)Who puts nothing into their mouths:
6 “Therefore(I) you shall have night without [d]vision,
And you shall have darkness without divination;
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
And the day shall be dark for (J)them.
7 So the seers shall be ashamed,
And the diviners abashed;
Indeed they shall all cover their lips;
(K)For there is no answer from God.”
8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,
And of justice and might,
(L)To declare to Jacob his transgression
And to Israel his sin.
9 Now hear this,
You heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who abhor justice
And [e]pervert all equity,
10 (M)Who build up Zion with (N)bloodshed
And Jerusalem with iniquity:
11 (O)Her heads judge for a bribe,
(P)Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for [f]money.
(Q)Yet they lean on the Lord, and say,
“Is not the Lord among us?
No harm can come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
Zion shall be (R)plowed like a field,
(S)Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And (T)the mountain of the [g]temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.
The Lord’s Reign in Zion(U)
4 Now (V)it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And peoples shall flow to it.
2 Many nations shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion the law shall go forth,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples,
And rebuke strong nations afar off;
They shall beat their swords into (W)plowshares,
And their spears into [h]pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
(X)Neither shall they learn war anymore.
4 (Y)But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree,
And no one shall make them afraid;
For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
5 For all people walk each in the name of his god,
But (Z)we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
Forever and ever.
Zion’s Future Triumph
6 “In that day,” says the Lord,
(AA)“I will assemble the lame,
(AB)I will gather the outcast
And those whom I have afflicted;
7 I will make the lame (AC)a remnant,
And the outcast a strong nation;
So the Lord (AD)will reign over them in Mount Zion
From now on, even forever.
8 And you, O tower of the flock,
The stronghold of the daughter of Zion,
To you shall it come,
Even the former dominion shall come,
The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”
9 Now why do you cry aloud?
(AE)Is there no king in your midst?
Has your counselor perished?
For (AF)pangs have seized you like a woman in [i]labor.
10 Be in pain, and labor to bring forth,
O daughter of Zion,
Like a woman in birth pangs.
For now you shall go forth from the city,
You shall dwell in the field,
And to (AG)Babylon you shall go.
There you shall be delivered;
There the (AH)Lord will (AI)redeem you
From the hand of your enemies.
11 (AJ)Now also many nations have gathered against you,
Who say, “Let her be defiled,
And let our eye (AK)look upon Zion.”
12 But they do not know (AL)the thoughts of the Lord,
Nor do they understand His counsel;
For He will gather them (AM)like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 “Arise(AN) and (AO)thresh, O daughter of Zion;
For I will make your horn iron,
And I will make your hooves bronze;
You shall (AP)beat in pieces many peoples;
(AQ)I will consecrate their gain to the Lord,
And their substance to (AR)the Lord of the whole earth.”
The Messiah Will Be Born at Bethlehem
5 Now gather yourself in troops,
O daughter of troops;
He has laid siege against us;
They will (AS)strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.
The Coming Messiah
2 “But you, (AT)Bethlehem (AU)Ephrathah,
Though you are little (AV)among the (AW)thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be (AX)Ruler in Israel,
(AY)Whose goings forth are from of old,
From [j]everlasting.”
3 Therefore He shall give them up,
Until the time that (AZ)she who is in labor has given birth;
Then (BA)the remnant of His brethren
Shall return to the children of Israel.
4 And He shall stand and (BB)feed[k] His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God;
And they shall abide,
For now He (BC)shall be great
To the ends of the earth;
5 And this One (BD)shall be peace.
Judgment on Israel’s Enemies
When the Assyrian comes into our land,
And when he treads in our palaces,
Then we will raise against him
Seven shepherds and eight princely men.
6 They shall [l]waste with the sword the land of Assyria,
And the land of (BE)Nimrod at its entrances;
Thus He shall (BF)deliver us from the Assyrian,
When he comes into our land
And when he treads within our borders.
7 Then (BG)the remnant of Jacob
Shall be in the midst of many peoples,
(BH)Like dew from the Lord,
Like showers on the grass,
That [m]tarry for no man
Nor [n]wait for the sons of men.
8 And the remnant of Jacob
Shall be among the Gentiles,
In the midst of many peoples,
Like a (BI)lion among the beasts of the forest,
Like a young lion among flocks of sheep,
Who, if he passes through,
Both treads down and tears in pieces,
And none can deliver.
9 Your hand shall be lifted against your adversaries,
And all your enemies shall be [o]cut off.
10 “And it shall be in that day,” says the Lord,
“That I will (BJ)cut[p] off your (BK)horses from your midst
And destroy your (BL)chariots.
11 I will cut off the cities of your land
And throw down all your strongholds.
12 I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
And you shall have no (BM)soothsayers.
13 (BN)Your carved images I will also cut off,
And your sacred pillars from your midst;
You shall (BO)no more worship the work of your hands;
14 I will pluck your [q]wooden images from your midst;
Thus I will destroy your cities.
15 And I will (BP)execute vengeance in anger and fury
On the nations that have not [r]heard.”
God Pleads with Israel
6 Hear now what the Lord says:
“Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
And let the hills hear your voice.
2 (BQ)Hear, O you mountains, (BR)the Lord’s complaint,
And you strong foundations of the earth;
For (BS)the Lord has a complaint against His people,
And He will [s]contend with Israel.
3 “O My people, what (BT)have I done to you?
And how have I (BU)wearied you?
Testify against Me.
4 (BV)For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
I redeemed you from the house of bondage;
And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O My people, remember now
What (BW)Balak king of Moab counseled,
And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
From [t]Acacia Grove to Gilgal,
That you may know (BX)the righteousness of the Lord.”
6 With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
7 (BY)Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand (BZ)rivers of oil?
(CA)Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
[u]The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has (CB)shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But (CC)to do justly,
To love [v]mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Punishment of Israel’s Injustice
9 The Lord’s voice cries to the city—
Wisdom shall see Your name:
“Hear the rod!
Who has appointed it?
10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness
In the house of the wicked,
And the short measure that is an abomination?
11 Shall I count pure those with (CD)the wicked scales,
And with the bag of deceitful weights?
12 For her rich men are full of (CE)violence,
Her inhabitants have spoken lies,
And (CF)their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 “Therefore I will also (CG)make you sick by striking you,
By making you desolate because of your sins.
14 (CH)You shall eat, but not be satisfied;
[w]Hunger shall be in your midst.
You may carry some away,[x] but shall not save them;
And what you do rescue I will give over to the sword.
15 “You shall (CI)sow, but not reap;
You shall tread the olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
And make sweet wine, but not drink wine.
16 For the statutes of (CJ)Omri are (CK)kept;
All the works of Ahab’s house are done;
And you walk in their counsels,
That I may make you a [y]desolation,
And your inhabitants a hissing.
Therefore you shall bear the (CL)reproach of [z]My people.”
Sorrow for Israel’s Sins
7 Woe is me!
For I am like those who gather summer fruits,
Like those who (CM)glean vintage grapes;
There is no cluster to eat
Of the first-ripe fruit which (CN)my soul desires.
2 The (CO)faithful[aa] man has perished from the earth,
And there is no one upright among men.
They all lie in wait for blood;
(CP)Every man hunts his brother with a net.
3 That they may successfully do evil with both hands—
The prince asks for gifts,
The judge seeks a (CQ)bribe,
And the great man utters his evil desire;
So they scheme together.
4 The best of them is (CR)like a brier;
The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge;
The day of your watchman and your punishment comes;
Now shall be their perplexity.
5 (CS)Do not trust in a friend;
Do not put your confidence in a companion;
Guard the doors of your mouth
From her who lies in your (CT)bosom.
6 For (CU)son dishonors father,
Daughter rises against her mother,
Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
7 Therefore I will look to the Lord;
I will (CV)wait for the God of my salvation;
My God will hear me.
Israel’s Confession and Comfort
8 (CW)Do not rejoice over me, my enemy;
(CX)When I fall, I will arise;
When I sit in darkness,
The Lord will be a light to me.
9 (CY)I will bear the indignation of the Lord,
Because I have sinned against Him,
Until He pleads my (CZ)case
And executes justice for me.
He will bring me forth to the light;
I will see His righteousness.
10 Then she who is my enemy will see,
And (DA)shame will cover her who said to me,
(DB)“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will see her;
Now she will be trampled down
Like mud in the streets.
11 In the day when your (DC)walls are to be built,
In that day [ab]the decree shall go far and wide.
12 In that day (DD)they[ac] shall come to you
From Assyria and the [ad]fortified cities,
From the [ae]fortress to [af]the River,
From sea to sea,
And mountain to mountain.
13 Yet the land shall be desolate
Because of those who dwell in it,
And (DE)for the fruit of their deeds.
God Will Forgive Israel
14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff,
The flock of Your heritage,
Who dwell [ag]solitarily in a (DF)woodland,
In the midst of Carmel;
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead,
As in days of old.
16 The nations (DI)shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
(DJ)They shall put their hand over their mouth;
Their ears shall be deaf.
17 They shall lick the (DK)dust like a serpent;
(DL)They shall crawl from their holes like [ai]snakes of the earth.
(DM)They shall be afraid of the Lord our God,
And shall fear because of You.
18 (DN)Who is a God like You,
(DO)Pardoning iniquity
And passing over the transgression of (DP)the remnant of His heritage?
(DQ)He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in (DR)mercy.[aj]
19 He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all [ak]our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
20 (DS)You will give truth to Jacob
And [al]mercy to Abraham,
(DT)Which You have sworn to our fathers
From days of old.
Footnotes
- Micah 3:2 Lit. them
- Micah 3:5 All is well
- Micah 3:5 For those who feed them
- Micah 3:6 Prophetic revelation
- Micah 3:9 Lit. twist
- Micah 3:11 Lit. silver
- Micah 3:12 Lit. house
- Micah 4:3 pruning knives
- Micah 4:9 childbirth
- Micah 5:2 Lit. the days of eternity
- Micah 5:4 shepherd
- Micah 5:6 devastate
- Micah 5:7 wait
- Micah 5:7 delay
- Micah 5:9 destroyed
- Micah 5:10 destroy
- Micah 5:14 Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities
- Micah 5:15 obeyed
- Micah 6:2 bring charges against
- Micah 6:5 Heb. Shittim, Num. 25:1; Josh. 2:1; 3:1
- Micah 6:7 My own child
- Micah 6:8 Or lovingkindness
- Micah 6:14 Or Emptiness or Humiliation
- Micah 6:14 Tg., Vg. You shall take hold
- Micah 6:16 Or object of horror
- Micah 6:16 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX nations
- Micah 7:2 Or loyal
- Micah 7:11 Or the boundary shall be extended
- Micah 7:12 Lit. he, collective of the captives
- Micah 7:12 Heb. arey mazor, possibly cities of Egypt
- Micah 7:12 Heb. mazor, possibly Egypt
- Micah 7:12 The Euphrates
- Micah 7:14 Alone
- Micah 7:15 Lit. him, collective for the captives
- Micah 7:17 Lit. crawlers
- Micah 7:18 Or lovingkindness
- Micah 7:19 Lit. their
- Micah 7:20 Or lovingkindness
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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