Isaiah 17-19

Contemporary English Version

Damascus Will Be Punished

17 ^(A) This is a message about Damascus:

Damascus is doomed!
    It will end up in ruins.
²The villages around Aroer^[a]
    will be deserted,
with only sheep living there
    and no one to bother them.
³Israel^[b] will lose its fortresses.
The kingdom of Damascus
    will be destroyed;
its survivors will suffer
    the same fate as Israel.
The Lord All-Powerful
    has promised this.

Sin and Suffering

⁴When that time comes,
the glorious nation of Israel
    will be brought down;
its prosperous people
    will be skin and bones.
⁵Israel will be like wheat fields
in Rephaim Valley
    picked clean of grain.
⁶It will be like an olive tree
    beaten with a stick,
leaving two or three olives
    or maybe four or five
on the highest
    or most fruitful branches.
The Lord God of Israel
    has promised this.

⁷At that time the people will turn and trust their Creator, the holy God of Israel. ⁸They have built altars and places for burning incense to their goddess Asherah, and they have set up sacred poles^[c] for her. But they will stop worshiping at these places.

⁹Israel captured powerful cities and chased out the people who lived there. But these cities will lie in ruins, covered over with weeds and underbrush.^[d]

¹⁰Israel, you have forgotten
    the God who saves you,
the one who is the mighty rock^[e]
    where you find protection.
You plant the finest flowers
    to honor a foreign god.
¹¹The plants may sprout
and blossom
    that very same morning,
but it will do you no good,
because you will suffer
    endless agony.

God Defends His People

¹²The nations are a noisy,
    thunderous sea.
¹³But even if they roar
    like a fearsome flood,
God will give the command
    to turn them back.
They will be like dust,
    or like a tumbleweed
blowing across the hills
    in a windstorm.
¹⁴In the evening
    their attack is fierce,
but by morning
    they are destroyed.
This is what happens to those
    who raid and rob us.

Ethiopia Will Be Punished

18 ^(B) Downstream from Ethiopia^[f]
lies the country of Egypt,
    swarming with insects.^[g]
²Egypt sends messengers
up the Nile River
    on ships made of reeds.^[h]
Send them fast to Ethiopia,
whose people are tall
    and have smooth skin.
Their land is divided by rivers;
they are strong and brutal,
    feared all over the world.^[i]

³Everyone on this earth,
    listen with care!
A signal will be given
on the mountains,
    and you will hear a trumpet.
⁴The Lord said to me,
“I will calmly look down
    from my home above—
as calmly as the sun at noon
or clouds in the heat
    of harvest season.”

⁵Before the blossoms
    can turn into grapes,
God will cut off the sprouts
    and hack off the branches.
⁶Ethiopians will be food
for mountain vultures
    during the summer
and for wild animals
    during the winter.

⁷Those Ethiopians are tall and their skin is smooth. They are feared all over the world, because they are strong and brutal. But at that time they will come from their land divided by rivers, and they will bring gifts to the Lord All-Powerful, who is worshiped on Mount Zion.

Egypt Will Be Punished

19 ^(C) This is a message about Egypt:

The Lord comes to Egypt,
    riding swiftly on a cloud.
The people are weak from fear.
Their idols tremble
    as he approaches and says,
²“I will punish Egypt
    with civil war—
neighbors, cities, and kingdoms
    will fight each other.

³“Egypt will be discouraged
    when I confuse their plans.
They will try to get advice
    from their idols,
from the spirits of the dead,
    and from fortunetellers.
⁴I will put the Egyptians
under the power of a cruel,
    heartless king.
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
    have promised this.”

Trouble along the Nile

⁵The Nile River will dry up
    and become parched land.
⁶Its streams will stink,
    Egypt will have no water,
and the reeds and tall grass
    will dry up.
⁷Fields along the Nile
will be completely barren;
    every plant will disappear.

⁸Those who fish in the Nile
will be discouraged
and mourn.
⁹None of the cloth makers^[j]
will know what to do,
and they will turn pale.^[k]
¹⁰Weavers will be confused;
paid workers will cry and mourn.

Egypt's Helpless Leaders

¹¹The king's officials in Zoan^[l]
are foolish themselves
    and give stupid advice.
How can they say to him,
    “We are very wise,
and our families go back
    to kings of long ago?”
¹²Where are those wise men now?
    If they can, let them say
what the Lord All-Powerful
    intends for Egypt.

¹³The royal officials in Zoan
and in Memphis
    are foolish and deceived.
The leaders in every state
have given bad advice
    to the nation.
¹⁴The Lord has confused Egypt;
its leaders have made it stagger
    and vomit like a drunkard.
¹⁵No one in Egypt can do a thing,
    no matter who they are.

¹⁶When the Lord All-Powerful punishes Egypt with his mighty arm, the Egyptians will become terribly weak and will tremble with fear. ¹⁷They will be so terrified of Judah that they will be frightened by the very mention of its name. This will happen because of what the Lord All-Powerful is planning against Egypt.

The Lord Will Bless Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

¹⁸The time is coming when Hebrew will be spoken in five Egyptian cities, and their people will become followers of the Lord. One of these cities will be called City of the Sun.^[m]

¹⁹In the heart of Egypt an altar will be set up for the Lord; at its border a shrine will be built to honor him. ²⁰These will remind the Egyptians that the Lord All-Powerful is with them. And when they are in trouble and ask for help, he will send someone to rescue them from their enemies. ²¹The Lord will show the Egyptians who he is, and they will know and worship the Lord. They will bring him sacrifices and offerings, and they will keep their promises to him. ²²After the Lord has punished Egypt, the people will turn to him. Then he will answer their prayers, and the Egyptians will be healed.

²³At that time a good road will run from Egypt to Assyria. The Egyptians and the Assyrians will travel back and forth from Egypt to Assyria, and they will worship together. ²⁴Israel will join with these two countries. They will be a blessing to everyone on earth, ²⁵then the Lord All-Powerful will bless them by saying,

“The Egyptians are my people.
I created the Assyrians
and chose the Israelites.”

Footnotes

17.2 Aroer: Either a city near Damascus with the same name as the Moabite city or the Moabite city itself, here used as an example of what will happen to Damascus.
17.3 Israel: The Hebrew text has “Ephraim,” another name for the northern kingdom.
17.8 sacred poles: Or “trees,” used as symbols of Asherah, the goddess of fertility.
17.9 covered … underbrush: Hebrew; one ancient translation “like the cities of the Hivites and the Amorites.”
17.10 mighty rock: The Hebrew text has “rock,” which is sometimes used in poetry to compare the Lord to a mountain where his people can run for protection from their enemies.
18.1 Ethiopia: See the note at 11.11.
18.1 insects: Or “sailing ships.”
18.2 reeds: Ancient Egypt was famous for the papyrus reeds that grew in the Nile Delta.
18.2 world: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 2.
19.9 cloth makers: Cloth was made from several kinds of plants that grew in the fields along the Nile.
19.9 turn pale: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
19.11 Zoan: The city of Tanis in the Nile delta.
19.18 City of the Sun: Some manuscripts of the Standard Hebrew Text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and one ancient translation; most manuscripts of the Standard Hebrew Text have “City of Destruction.” This probably refers to Heliopolis which means “City of the Sun” (see Jeremiah 43.13).

Ephesians 5:17-33

Contemporary English Version

¹⁷Don't be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸Don't destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life. ¹⁹^(A) When you meet together, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as you praise the Lord with all your heart. ²⁰Always use the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to thank God the Father for everything.

Wives and Husbands

²¹Honor Christ and put others first. ²²^(B) A wife should put her husband first, as she does the Lord. ²³A husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the head and the Savior of the church, which is his own body. ²⁴Wives should always put their husbands first, as the church puts Christ first.

²⁵^(C) A husband should love his wife as much as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. ²⁶He made the church holy by the power of his word, and he made it pure by washing it with water. ²⁷Christ did this, so he would have a glorious and holy church, without faults or spots or wrinkles or any other flaws.

²⁸In the same way, a husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself. A husband who loves his wife shows he loves himself. ²⁹None of us hate our own bodies. We provide for them and take good care of them, just as Christ does for the church, ³⁰because we are each part of his body. ³¹^(D) As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother to get married, and he becomes like one person with his wife.” ³²This is a great mystery, but I understand it to mean Christ and his church. ³³So each husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself, and each wife should respect her husband.