Beginning
18 Oh, the land, shadowed with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
2 sending ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of reeds upon the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation that is scattered abroad and plundered, to a revered people from their beginning onward, a subjugator nation whose land the rivers have spoiled!”
3 All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers in the Earth shall see when He sets up a sign in the mountains. And when He blows the trumpet, you shall hear.
4 For so the LORD said to me, “I will rest and behold in My Tabernacle, as the heat drying up the rain, as a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the sprout is finished and the grape is ripening in the bud, then he shall cut down the branches with hooks, and shall take away and cut off the branches.
6 They shall be left together for the birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the Earth. For the bird shall summer upon it and every beast of the Earth shall winter upon it.
7 At that time, a present shall be brought to the LORD of Hosts (a people who is scattered abroad and plundered, and from a revered people, from their beginning onward, a subjugator nation whose land the rivers have spoiled) to the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts: Mount Zion.
19 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt. And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence. And the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 “And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians. So everyone shall fight against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3 “And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of it. And I will destroy their counsel. And they shall seek the idols, and the sorcerers, and those who have spirits of divination, and the soothsayers.
4 “And I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of the cruel lords. And a mighty king shall rule over them,” says the LORD God of Hosts.
5 Then the waters of the sea shall fail. And the river shall be dried up and wasted.
6 And the rivers shall go far away. The rivers of defense shall be emptied and dried up. The reeds and flags shall be cut down.
7 The grass in the river, at the head of the rivers and all that grows by the river, shall wither, be driven away and be no more.
8 Also, the fishers shall mourn. And all those who cast hooks into the river shall lament. And those who spread their net upon the waters shall be weakened.
9 Moreover, those who work in flax of diverse sorts shall be confounded, and those who weave nets.
10 For their nets shall be broken. And all those who make ponds shall be heavy in heart.
11 Surely, the princes of Zoan are fools. The counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh has become foolish. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise?”, “I am the son of the ancient kings?”
12 Where are the wise men now, that they may tell you or may know what the LORD of Hosts has determined against Egypt?
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Noph are deceived. They have deceived Egypt, the cornerstones of its tribes.
14 The LORD has mingled among them the spirits of error. And they have caused Egypt to err in every work, as a drunken man errs in his vomit.
15 Nor shall there be any work in Egypt which the head may do, or the tail, the branch, or the rush.
16 On that day, Egypt shall be like women. For it shall be afraid and fear because of the moving of the Hand of the LORD of Hosts, which He shakes over it.
17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror to Egypt. Everyone who mentions it shall be afraid of it, because of the counsel of the LORD of Hosts which He has determined upon it.
18 On that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and shall swear by the LORD of Hosts. One shall be called the City of Destruction.
19 On that day shall the Altar of the LORD be in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a Pillar to the LORD by its border.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of Hosts in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry to the LORD, because of the oppressors. And He shall send them a Savior, a Mighty One, and shall deliver them.
21 And the LORD shall be known to the Egyptians. And the Egyptians shall know the LORD on that day, and serve sacrifice and oblation, and shall vow vows to the LORD, and perform them.
22 So the LORD shall strike Egypt. He shall strike and heal it. For it shall return to the LORD. And He shall be entreated by them and shall heal them.
23 On that day there shall be a path from Egypt to Assyria. And Assyria shall come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria. So the Egyptians shall worship with Assyria.
24 On that day shall Israel be the third, with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land.
25 For the LORD of Hosts shall bless it, saying, “Blessed be My people, Egypt and Assyria, the work of My hands, and Israel, My inheritance.”
20 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, (when Sargon, king of Assyria, sent him) and had fought against Ashdod and taken it,
2 at the same time, the LORD spoke by the hand of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins. And take off your shoe from your foot.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
3 And the LORD said, “Just as my servant, Isaiah, has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and wonder upon Egypt and Ethiopia,
4 “so shall the king of Assyria take away the captivity of Egypt, and the captivity of Ethiopia, young men and old men, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 “And they shall fear and be ashamed of Ethiopia (their expectation) and of Egypt (their glory).
6 “Then shall the inhabitants of this isle say on that day, ‘Behold, such is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And how shall we be delivered?’”
21 The burden of the Desert Sea. As the whirlwinds in the South used to pass from the wilderness, so shall it come from the horrible land.
2 A grievous vision was shown to me: “The treacherous deal treacherously and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam. Besiege Media. I have caused all its mourning to cease.”
3 Therefore, my loins are filled with sorrow. Sorrows have taken me, as the sorrows of a woman in childbirth. I was bowed down when I heard it. I was amazed when I saw it.
4 My heart failed. Fearfulness troubled me. He has turned the night of my pleasures into fear for me.
5 Prepare the table. Watch in the watchtower. Eat. Drink. Arise, you princes. Anoint the shield.
6 For thus has the LORD said to me, “Go. Set a watchman to tell what he sees.”
7 And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, a chariot of a donkey and a chariot of a camel. And he listened and took great care.
8 And he cried like a lion, “My lord! I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime. And I am set in my watch every night!
9 “And behold, this man’s chariot comes with two horsemen.” And he answered and said, “Babel has fallen! It has fallen! And He has broken all the images of its gods to the ground!”
10 O, my threshing, and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, I have shown to you.
11 The burden of Dumah. It calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what was in the night? Watchman, what was in the night?”
12 The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will, (as he) inquire. Return and come!”
13 The burden against Arabia. In the forest of Arabia you shall stay the night, you caravans of Dedanites.
14 O inhabitants of the land of Tema, bring forth water to meet the thirsty. Meet him who flees with bread.
15 For they flee from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
16 For thus has the LORD said to me, “Within a year (according to the years of a hireling), all the glory of Kedar shall fail.
17 “And the residue of the number of the strong archers of the sons of Kedar shall be few. For the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.”
22 The burden of the Valley of Vision. What ails you now, that you have wholly gone up to the housetops?
2 You who are full of noise, a city full of brutes, a joyous city. Your slain men shall not be slain with sword, nor die in battle.
3 All your princes shall flee together from the bow. They shall be bound. All who shall be found in you, who have fled from far, shall be bound together.
4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me. I will weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
5 “For it is a day of trouble, and of ruin, and of perplexity—by the LORD God of Hosts, in the Valley of Vision, breaking down the city—and of crying to the mountains.”
6 And Elam bore the quiver in a man’s chariot with horsemen. And Kir uncovered the shield.
7 And your chief valleys were full of chariots. And the horsemen set themselves in array against the gate.
8 And he uncovered the covering of Judah. And on that day, you looked to the armor of the house of the forest.
9 And you have seen the breaches of the City of David. For they were many. And you gathered the waters of the lower pool.
10 And you numbered the houses of Jerusalem. And you have broken down the houses to fortify the wall,
11 and have also made a ditch between the two walls for the waters of the old pool, and have not looked to its Maker, nor had respect to Him Who formed it of old.
12 And on that day, the LORD God of Hosts called for weeping and mourning and for baldness and girding with sackcloth.
13 and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine, eating and drinking. For tomorrow, we shall die.
14 And it was declared in the Ears of the LORD of Hosts. “Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you, till you die,” says the LORD God of Hosts.
15 Thus says the LORD God of Hosts: “Go! Get to that steward, to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,
16 “What do you have here and whom do you have here that you should carve yourself out a sepulcher here, as he who carves out his sepulcher in a high place, or that chisels a habitation for himself in a rock?
17 “Behold, the LORD will carry you away. The mighty man will surely cover you.
18 “He will surely roll and turn you, like a ball in a large country. There you shall die. And there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your lord’s house.
19 “So I will drive you from your station. And out of your dwelling will he destroy you.
20 “And on that day, I will call My servant, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah.
21 “And with your garments I will clothe him. And with your belt I will strengthen him. Your power I will also commit into his hand. And he shall be a father of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the House of Judah.
22 “And I will lay the key of the House of David upon his shoulder. So he shall open, and no man shall shut. And he shall shut, and no man shall open.
23 “And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place. And he shall be the throne of glory for his father’s House.
24 “And they shall hang all the glory of his father’s House upon him, of the nephews and posterity, and all small vessels, from the vessels of the cups to all the instruments of music.
25 “On that day,” says the LORD of Hosts, “shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place depart and shall be broken and fall. And the burden that was upon it shall be cut off. For the LORD has spoken it.”
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