Isaiah 30:21-33:24

English Standard Version

²¹^(A)And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is ^(B)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. ^(C)You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

²³^(D)And he will give ^(E)rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. ^(F)In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, ²⁴and ^(G)the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. ²⁵And ^(H)on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, ^(I)when the towers fall. ²⁶^(J)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 ^(K)the Lord binds up ^(L)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^(M)his breath is ^(N)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 ^(O)a bridle that leads astray.

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

Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt

31 Woe^[c] to ^(AB)those who go down to Egypt for help
    and rely on horses,
who ^(AC)trust in chariots because they are many
    and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but ^(AD)do not look to the Holy One of Israel
    or consult the Lord!
²And ^(AE)yet he is wise and brings disaster;
    ^(AF)he does not call back his words,
but ^(AG)will arise against the house of the evildoers
    and against the helpers of ^(AH)those who work iniquity.
³The Egyptians are man, and not God,
    and their horses ^(AI)are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
    the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
    and they will all perish together.

⁴For thus the Lord said to me,
^(AJ)“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,
    and when a band of shepherds is called out against him
he is not terrified by their shouting
    or daunted at their noise,
^(AK)so the Lord of hosts will come down
    to fight^[d] on Mount Zion and on its hill.
⁵^(AL)Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts
    will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
    he will spare and rescue it.”

⁶^(AM)Turn to him from whom people^[e] have ^(AN)deeply revolted, O children of Israel. ⁷For in that day ^(AO)everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

⁸^(AP)“And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;
    and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;
and he shall flee from the sword,
    and his young men shall be ^(AQ)put to forced labor.
⁹^(AR)His rock shall pass away in terror,
    and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
declares the Lord, whose ^(AS)fire is in Zion,
    and whose ^(AT)furnace is in Jerusalem.

A King Will Reign in Righteousness

32 Behold, ^(AU)a king will reign in righteousness,
    and princes will rule in justice.
²^(AV)Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,
    a shelter from the storm,
^(AW)like streams of water in a dry place,
    like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
³^(AX)Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,
    and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
⁴The heart of the hasty will understand and know,
    ^(AY)and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
⁵^(AZ)The fool will no more be called noble,
    nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.
⁶For ^(BA)the fool speaks folly,
    and his heart is busy with iniquity,
to practice ungodliness,
    to utter error concerning the Lord,
^(BB)to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
    and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
⁷As for the scoundrel—^(BC)his devices are evil;
    he plans wicked schemes
to ruin the poor with lying words,
    even when the plea of the needy is right.
⁸But he who is noble plans noble things,
    and on noble things he stands.

Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

⁹^(BD)Rise up, you women ^(BE)who are at ease, hear my voice;
    you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
¹⁰In little more than a year
    you will shudder, you complacent women;
for the grape harvest fails,
    the fruit harvest will not come.
¹¹Tremble, you women ^(BF)who are at ease,
    shudder, you complacent ones;
^(BG)strip, and make yourselves bare,
    ^(BH)and tie sackcloth around your waist.
¹²^(BI)Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
    for the fruitful vine,
¹³^(BJ)for the soil of my people
    growing up in thorns and briers,
^(BK)yes, for all the joyous houses
    in the exultant city.
¹⁴For the palace is forsaken,
    the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower
    will become dens forever,
^(BL)a joy of wild donkeys,
    a pasture of flocks;
¹⁵until ^(BM)the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
    and ^(BN)the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
    and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
    and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
¹⁷^(BO)And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
    and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust^[f] forever.
¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
    in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
¹⁹^(BP)And it will hail when the forest falls down,
    ^(BQ)and the city will be utterly laid low.
²⁰^(BR)Happy are you who sow beside all waters,
    who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.

O Lord, Be Gracious to Us

33 ^(BS)Ah, you destroyer,
    who yourself have not been destroyed,
you traitor,
    whom none has betrayed!
When you have ceased to destroy,
    you will be destroyed;
and when you have finished betraying,
    they will betray you.

²O Lord, be gracious to us; ^(BT)we wait for you.
    Be our arm every morning,
    our salvation in the time of trouble.
³^(BU)At the tumultuous noise peoples flee;
    when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,
⁴and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
    ^(BV)as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.

⁵^(BW)The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
    he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
⁶^(BX)and he will be the stability of your times,
    abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
    the fear of the Lord is Zion's^[g] treasure.

⁷Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;
    ^(BY)the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
⁸^(BZ)The highways lie waste;
    the traveler ceases.
^(CA)Covenants are broken;
    cities^[h] are despised;
    there is no regard for man.
⁹^(CB)The land mourns and languishes;
    Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert,
    and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

¹⁰^(CC)“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
    “now I will lift myself up;
    now I will be exalted.
¹¹^(CD)You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;
    your breath is ^(CE)a fire that will consume you.
¹²And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
    ^(CF)like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

¹³Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
    and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid;
    trembling has seized the godless:
^(CG)“Who among us can dwell ^(CH)with the consuming fire?
    Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
¹⁵^(CI)He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
    who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
    who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
    ^(CJ)and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
¹⁶he will dwell on the heights;
    his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
    ^(CK)his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.

¹⁷^(CL)Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;
    ^(CM)they will see a land that stretches afar.
¹⁸^(CN)Your heart will muse on the terror:
    “Where is he who counted, where is ^(CO)he who weighed the tribute?
    Where is ^(CP)he who counted the towers?”
¹⁹^(CQ)You will see no more the insolent people,
    the people ^(CR)of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
    stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.
²⁰Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!
    ^(CS)Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
    an untroubled habitation, an ^(CT)immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be plucked up,
    nor will any of its cords be broken.
²¹But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
    a place of ^(CU)broad rivers and streams,
^(CV)where no galley with oars can go,
    nor majestic ship can pass.
²²For the Lord is our ^(CW)judge; the Lord is our ^(CX)lawgiver;
    the Lord is our ^(CY)king; he will save us.

²³Your cords hang loose;
    they cannot hold the mast firm in its place
    or keep the sail spread out.
^(CZ)Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
    even ^(DA)the lame will take the prey.
²⁴And no inhabitant will say, ^(DB)“I am sick”;
    ^(DC)the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.