Isaiah 20-21

New King James Version

The Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia

20 In the year that ^(A)Tartan^[a] came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, ²at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove ^(B)the sackcloth from your ^[b]body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, ^(C)walking naked and barefoot.

³Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years ^(D)for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, ⁴so shall the ^(E)king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, ^(F)with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. ⁵^(G)Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. ⁶And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for ^(H)help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?’ ”

The Fall of Babylon Proclaimed

21 The ^[c]burden against the Wilderness of the Sea.

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

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

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

¹⁰^(S)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.

Proclamation Against Edom

¹¹^(T)The ^[f]burden against Dumah.

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

Proclamation Against Arabia

¹³^(V)The ^[g]burden against Arabia.

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

¹⁶For thus the Lord has said to me: “Within a year, ^(X)according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of ^(Y)Kedar will fail; ¹⁷and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.”