Beginning
An Oracle Concerning Tyre
23 The oracle of Tyre.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for Tyre is laid waste
so that there is no house or harbor;
from the land of Cyprus
it is reported to them.
2 Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
you merchants of Sidon;
your messengers passed over the sea,
3 and were on many waters;
the grain of the Nile,
the harvest of the River[a] was her revenue;
and she was the market of nations.
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea has spoken,
even the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have not travailed nor brought forth children;
neither have I brought up young men nor raised virgins.”
5 When the report reaches Egypt,
they shall be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
6 Pass over to Tarshish;
wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.
7 Is this your joyous city,
whose origin is from ancient days,
whose feet used to carry her
to sojourn in distant locations?
8 Who has planned this against Tyre,
the crowning city,
whose merchants are princes,
whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?
9 The Lord of Hosts has purposed it,
to stain the pride of all glory
and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
10 Pass through your land as the Nile,
O daughter of Tarshish;
there is no more restraint.
11 He stretched out His hand over the sea,
He shook the kingdoms;
the Lord has given a command against the merchant city,
to destroy its strongholds.
12 He said: You shall rejoice no more,
O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, pass over to Cyprus;
there also you shall have no rest.
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans;
this was a people who was not;
Assyria founded it
for those who dwell in the wilderness.
They set up their siege towers,
they stripped its palaces,
and brought it to ruin.
14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your stronghold is laid waste.
15 In that day Tyre shall be forgotten for seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years Tyre shall sing as a harlot:
16 Take your harp, go about the city,
O forgotten harlot;
make sweet melody, sing many songs,
that you may be remembered.
17 At the end of seventy years, the Lord will punish Tyre. Then she shall turn to her harlot’s wages and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 Her merchandise and her harlot’s wages shall be set apart to the Lord. It shall not be treasured nor stored up, for her merchandise shall be for those who dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for choice clothing.
Judgment on the Earth
24 Now the Lord makes the earth empty,
and makes it waste,
and turns it upside down,
and scatters its inhabitants abroad.
2 It shall be:
as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the servant, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3 The land shall be utterly emptied,
and utterly despoiled,
for the Lord has spoken this word.
4 The earth mourns and fades away,
the world languishes and fades away,
the haughty people of the earth languish.
5 The earth also is defiled by its inhabitants
because they have transgressed the laws,
violated the ordinances,
broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore, the curse devours the earth,
and those who dwell in it are held guilty.
Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
and few men are left.
7 The new wine fails, the vine languishes,
all the merry-hearted sigh.
8 The joy of tambourines ceases,
the noise of those who rejoice ends,
the joy of the harp ceases.
9 They shall not drink wine with song;
strong drink shall be bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down;
every house is shut up so that no one may come in.
11 There is an outcry for wine in the streets,
all joy is turned to gloom,
the joyfulness of the earth is gone.
12 Desolation is left in the city,
and the gate is battered to destruction.
13 For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
among the peoples,
as the shaking of an olive tree,
and as the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.
14 They lift up their voices; they sing for the majesty of the Lord;
they cry aloud from the west.
15 Therefore glorify the Lord in the east,
even the name of the Lord God of Israel
in the coastlands of the sea.
16 From the uttermost part of the earth we hear songs,
that is, “Glory to the Righteous One.”
But I say, Woe to me! Woe to me!
Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously;
indeed, the treacherous deal very treacherously.
17 Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you,
O inhabitant of the earth.
18 He who flees from the report of disaster
shall fall into the pit,
and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit
shall be taken in the snare.
For the windows from on high are open,
and the foundations of the earth shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down,
the earth is split through,
the earth is shaken violently.
20 The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard,
and it totters like a shack,
and its transgression is heavy upon it,
and it shall fall, never to rise again.
21 In that day the Lord shall punish
the host of heaven on high
and the kings of the earth on the earth.
22 They shall be gathered together,
as prisoners are gathered in the dungeon,
and shall be shut up in the prison,
and after many days they shall be punished.
23 Then the moon shall be humiliated and the sun ashamed,
when the Lord of Hosts reigns
in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and His glory shall be before His elders.
Praise to the Lord
25 O Lord, You are my God.
I will exalt You, I will praise Your name,
for You have done wonderful things;
Your plans formed of old
are faithfulness and truth.
2 For You have made a city into a heap,
a fortified city into a ruin;
a palace of strangers is a city no longer;
it shall never be built.
3 Therefore a strong people shall glorify You;
cities of ruthless nations shall fear You.
4 For You have been a defense to the poor,
a defense to the needy in his distress,
a refuge from the storm,
a shadow from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless ones
is as a storm against the wall.
5 You bring down the noise of strangers,
as heat in drought;
as the heat by the shadow of a cloud,
the song of the ruthless ones shall be brought low.
6 In this mountain the Lord of Hosts shall prepare
for all people a lavish feast,
a feast of aged wines,
choice pieces full of marrow, and refined, aged wines.
7 He will destroy in this mountain
the covering which is over all peoples,
even the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death for all time,
and the Lord God will wipe away tears
from all faces;
and the reproach of His people He shall take away
from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken it.
9 It shall be said in that day:
Look, this is our God
for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.
10 For in this mountain the hand of the Lord shall rest,
and Moab shall be trodden down in his place
as straw is trodden down in the water for the manure pile.
11 He shall spread out his hands in the midst of it,
as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
yet the Lord shall bring down his pride
together with the trickery of his hands.
12 The unassailable fortresses of your walls
He shall bring down, lay low,
and bring to the ground,
even to the dust.
A Song of Victory
26 In that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
He appoints walls
and bulwarks for security.
2 Open the gates,
that the righteous nation may enter,
the one who remains faithful.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for in God the Lord we have an everlasting rock.
5 For He brings down those who dwell on high,
the lofty city; He lays it low; He lays it low,
even to the ground;
He brings it even to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down,
even the feet of the poor
and the steps of the needy.
7 The way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.
8 In the way of Your judgments, O Lord,
we have waited for You eagerly;
the desire of our souls is Your name,
even Your memory.
9 With my soul I have desired You in the night;
my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
for when Your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 Though favor is shown to the wicked,
yet he will not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals unjustly
and does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, Your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.
12 Lord, You will ordain peace for us,
for You also have done all our works for us.
13 O Lord our God, other lords besides You have had dominion over us,
but through You alone we confess Your name.
14 The dead shall not live;
the departed spirits shall not rise.
Therefore, You have punished and destroyed them
and made all remembrance of them to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have increased the nation;
You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.
16 Lord, in trouble they have sought You;
they poured out a prayer
when Your chastening was on them.
17 Like a woman with child, who is in pain and cries out in her pangs
when she draws near the time of her delivery,
so have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
18 We have been with child, we have been in pain,
we have, as it were, brought forth wind;
we have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
nor were the inhabitants of the world born.
19 Your dead shall live,
their corpses shall arise.
Awake and sing,
you who dwell in dust,
for your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
and the earth shall give birth to the departed spirits.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide for a little while
until the indignation is over.
21 For the Lord comes out of His place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth also shall disclose her bloodshed
and shall cover her slain no more.
The Deliverance of Israel
27 In that day
the Lord with His fierce and great
and strong sword shall punish
Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day:
Sing of it! A vineyard of red wine.
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
I water it every moment;
lest anyone damage it,
I protect it night and day.
4 I have no fury.
Should someone give Me briers and thorns in battle,
then I would step on them,
I would burn them fully.
5 Or let him rely on My strength;
let him make peace with Me;
let him make peace with Me.
6 In the days to come Jacob shall take root;
Israel shall blossom and bud
and shall fill the whole world with fruit.
7 Has He struck them,
as He struck those who struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain,
have they been slain?
8 You fought with them by banishing them, by driving them away.
He has expelled them
on the day of the east wind with His fierce wind.
9 Through this, therefore, the iniquity of Jacob shall be forgiven,
and this will be the full price of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altar
as chalkstones that are pulverized,
when the groves and incense altars
shall not stand.
10 For the fortified city shall be desolate,
a homestead forlorn and forsaken like a wilderness;
there the calf shall graze,
and there it shall lie down
and eat its branches.
11 When its boughs are withered, they are broken off;
the women come and make a fire with them,
for they are not a people of understanding;
therefore, their Maker will not have mercy on them,
and their Creator will show them no grace.
12 In that day the Lord shall thresh from the channel of the River[b] to the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O sons of Israel. 13 And in that day the great trumpet shall be blown, and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.