Bible in 90 Days
The Restoration of Israel
14 But Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob,
and he will again choose Israel
and set them on their land,
and the immigrant will join himself to them,
and they will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
2 And the nations will take them
and bring them to their place,
and the house of Israel will take possession of them[a] in the land of Yahweh
as slaves and female slaves.
And this will happen:
they will take their captors captive
and rule over their oppressors.
The Downfall of the King of Babylon
3 And it shall happen on the day Yahweh gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and hard labor which you had to perform,[b]
4 that you will take this taunt against the king of Babylon,
and you will say:
“How the oppressor has ceased!
his insolence[c] has ceased.
5 Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
6 that struck the peoples in wrath, a blow without ceasing,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrestrained persecution.[d]
7 All of the earth rests and is quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 Even the cypresses rejoice over you,
the cedars of Lebanon:
‘Since you were laid down,
no wood cutter comes up against us.’
9 Sheol below is getting excited over you,
to meet you when you come;[e]
it arouses the dead spirits for you,
all of the leaders of the earth.
It raises all of the kings of the nations from their thrones.
10 All of them will respond and say to you,
‘You yourself also were made weak like us!
You have become the same as us!’
11 Your pride is brought down to Sheol,
and the sound of your harps;
maggots[f] are spread out beneath you like a bed,
and your covering is worms.[g]
12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of dawn!
You are cut down to the ground, conqueror of nations!
13 And you yourself said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise up my throne above the stars of God;
and I will sit on the mountain of assembly
on the summit of Zaphon;[h]
14 I will ascend to the high places of the clouds,[i]
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you,
they will look closely at you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who caused kingdoms to shake,
17 who made the world like the desert
and destroyed its cities,
who would not let his prisoners go home?’
18 All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory,
each one in his house.
19 But as for you, you are thrown away from your grave,
like an abhorrent shoot,
clothed with the slain,
those pierced by the sword,
those who go down to the stones of the pit,
like a corpse that is trodden down.
20 You will not be united with them in burial
because you have destroyed your land,
you have killed your people.
The descendants[j] of evildoers will not be mentioned for eternity!
21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons
because of the sin of their ancestors.[k]
Let them not rise and take possession of the earth
or fill up the face of the world with cities.”
22 “And I will rise up against them,”
declares[l] Yahweh of hosts,
“and I will cut off name and a remnant from Babylon,
and offspring and posterity,”
declares[m] Yahweh.
23 “And I will make her a possession of the hedgehog,
and pools of water,
and I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,”
declares[n] Yahweh of hosts.
Oracle of Judgment on Assyria
24 Yahweh of hosts has sworn, saying,
“Surely[o] just as I have intended, so it shall be.
And just as I have planned, it shall stand:
25 to break Assyria in my land,
and I will trample him down on my mountains;
and he shall remove his yoke from them,
and he shall remove his burden from his[p] shoulders.”[q]
26 This is the plan that is planned concerning all of the earth;
and this is the hand that is stretched out over all of the nations.
27 For Yahweh of hosts has planned, and who will frustrate it?
And his hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
Oracle of Judgment on Philistia
28 In the year of the death of king Ahaz there was this oracle:
29 You must not rejoice, all you Philistines,
that the rod that struck you is broken,
for a viper will come forth from the root of the snake,
and its fruit will be a flying serpent.
30 And the firstborn of the poor will graze,
and the needy will lie down in security;
but I will cause your root to die in famine,
and it will kill your remnant.
31 Wail, gate! Cry, city!
Melt,[r] Philistia, all of you!
For smoke is coming from the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 And what will one answer the messengers of the nation?
That Yahweh has founded Zion,
and the needy of his people will take refuge in it.
Oracle of Judgment on Moab
15 An oracle of Moab:
Because Ar is devastated in a night, Moab is destroyed;
because Kir of Moab is devastated in a night, it is destroyed.
2 It has gone up to the house,[s]
and Dibon to the high places
for weeping over Nebo,
and Moab wails over Medeba.
Every head is bald,[t]
every beard is shaved.
3 They gird themselves with sackcloth in its streets;
on its roofs and public squares everyone wails,
going down in weeping.
4 And Heshbon and Elealeh cry[u] out,
their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the armed ones of Moab cry out;
its soul quivers[v] for him.
5 My heart cries out for Moab;
its fugitives flee up to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith it goes up it with weeping;
for on the road of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.
6 For the waters of Nimrim are wastelands;
for the grass has withered,
the vegetation has vanished,
there is no greenness.
7 Therefore they carry the abundance it has made
and their store of goods over the river of the poplars.
8 For a cry for help has encircled the territory of Moab,
her wailing is heard as far as Eglaim,
and her wailing as far as Beer Elim.
9 For the waters of Dimon[w] are full of blood;
but I will place added things upon Dimon:
a lion for the survivors[x] of Moab
and for the remnant of the land.
16 Send a ram[y] to the ruler of the land,
from Sela across the desert to the mountain of daughter Zion.[z]
2 And this shall be:
like a bird fleeing from a thrust away nest
shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of Arnon.
3 “Bring counsel,
make a decision;
make your shade like the night
in the middle of noonday.
Hide the outcasts;
you must not betray the fugitive.
4 Let my outcasts of Moab dwell as aliens among you;
be a hiding place for them from the presence of the destroyer.”
When the oppressor is no more, destruction has stopped,
the one who tramples has[aa] disappeared from the land,
5 then a throne shall be established in steadfast love,
and one shall sit on it in faithfulness, in the tent of David,
judging and seeking justice
and zealous for righteousness.
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab—exceedingly proud—
of his arrogance, pride, and insolence; his boasting is not true.[ab]
7 Therefore Moab wails;
all of it wails for Moab,
for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you moan, utterly devastated.[ac]
8 For Heshbon withers the fields, the vine of Sibmah;
rulers of nations have broken down her tendrils,
they reached up to Jazer,
they wandered to the desert;
her shoots spread abroad,
they crossed over the sea.
9 Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah.
I drench you with my tears,[ad] Heshbon and Elealeh,
for a jubilant shout has fallen over your summer fruit and harvest.
10 And joy and gladness are[ae] taken away from the fruitful land,
and in the vineyards no one exults,
no one shouts for joy;
no treader treads wine in the presses;
I have put to an end to the jubilant shout.
11 Therefore my heart moans[af] like a harp for Moab
and my inner parts for Kir-heres.
12 And this shall happen:
when Moab appears, when it is weary upon the high place
and it comes to its sanctuary to pray, it will not prevail.
13 This was the word that Yahweh spoke to Moab in the past.[ag] 14 But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become contemptible, with all of the great multitude, and the remnant will be a few, small, not strong.
Oracle of Judgment on Damascus
17 An oracle of Damascus:
“Look! Damascus will cease being a city
and will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted;[ah]
they will be for the flocks,
and they will lie down and no one will frighten[ai] them.
3 And the fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus;
and the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel,”
declares[aj] Yahweh of hosts.
4 “And this shall happen:
On that day, the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and the fat of his flesh will become lean.
5 And it shall be as when a reaper gathers[ak] standing grain
and he reaps grain with his arm,
and it shall be like one who gathers ears of grain
in the valley of Rephaim.
6 And gleanings will be left over in it, as when an olive tree is beaten,[al]
two or three ripe olive berries in the top of a branch,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
declares[am] Yahweh, the God of Israel.
7 On that day, mankind will look to its maker,
and its eyes will look to the holy one of Israel;
8 it will not look to the altars,
the work of its hands,
and it will not see what its fingers made
and the poles of Asherah worship and the incense altars.
9 On that day, its fortified cities[an] will be like the abandonment of the wooded place and the summit,[ao] which they deserted because of the children of Israel; and there will be desolation.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
and you have not remembered the rock of your refuge;
therefore you plant plants of pleasantness,
and you plant[ap] a vine of a foreigner.
11 On your planting day you make them grow,
and in the morning of your sowing you bring them into bloom,
yet the harvest will flee[aq] in a day of sickness and incurable pain.
The Roar of the Peoples
12 Ah! The noise of many peoples, they make a noise like the noise of the seas!
And the roar of nations, they roar like the roar of mighty waters!
13 The nations roar like the roar of many waters,
but he will rebuke him, and he will flee far away.
And they are chased like chaff of the mountains before the wind
and like tumbleweed before the storm.
14 At the time of evening, and look, terror!
Before morning he is no more.
This is the fate of those who plunder us
and the lot of those who plunder us.
Oracle of Judgment on Cush
18 Ah! land of the whirring of wings,
which is beyond the rivers of Cush,
2 that sends messengers by the sea
and in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters!
Go, swift messengers, to a tall[ar] and smooth[as] nation,
to a people feared near and far,[at]
a mighty, mighty[au] and trampling[av] nation,
whose land rivers divide.
3 All you inhabitants of the world
and dwellers of the earth,
when a signal is raised on the[aw] mountains, you must look,
and when a trumpet is blown,[ax] you must listen!
4 For Yahweh said this to me:
“I will be quiet,
and I will look from my dwelling place
like clear heat because of light,[ay]
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is complete[az]
and a blossom becomes ripening fruit,
and one cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,
and one removes, tears away the tendrils.
6 They shall all be left[ba] for birds[bb] of prey of the mountains
and for the animals[bc] of the earth.
And the birds[bd] of prey will pass the summer on it,
and every animal of the earth will winter on it.
7 At that time, a gift[be] will be brought to Yahweh of hosts
from a tall[bf] and smooth[bg] people,
and from a people feared near and far,
a mighty, mighty and trampling nation,
whose land the rivers divide,
to the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts,
the mountain of Zion.
Oracle of Judgment on Egypt
19 An oracle of Egypt:
Look! Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud
and is coming to Egypt.
And the idols of Egypt will tremble in front of him,
and the heart of Egypt melts in his inner parts.
2 “And I will stir up Egyptians[bh] against Egyptians,[bi]
and each one will fight against his brother
and each one against his neighbor,
city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of the Egyptians[bj] will be disturbed in his midst,
and I will confuse[bk] his plans,[bl]
and they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
and the ghosts and the spiritists.
4 And I will hand over the Egyptians[bm] into the hand of a hard master,
and a powerful king will rule over them,”
declares[bn] the Lord Yahweh of hosts.
5 And the waters will be dried up from the sea,
and the river will be parched and dry.
6 And the rivers will become foul-smelling;
the branches of the Nile of Egypt will become little and dry up;
reed and rush will wither.
7 Bare places by the Nile will be dried up,
by the edge of the Nile and all the sown land of the Nile;
it will be driven about, and it will be no more.[bo]
8 And the fishers will mourn,
and all of those who cast fishhooks[bp] in the Nile will lament,
and those who spread out fishing nets[bq] on the surface[br] of the water will languish.
9 And the workers of combed flax will be ashamed,
and those who weave white linen.
10 And her weavers will be crushed;
all the hired workers[bs] will be grieved of heart.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are foolish;
the wise of the counselors of Pharaoh give senseless counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I myself am a son of sages,
a descendant[bt] of ancient kings”?
12 Where are your sages then?
Now, let them tell you,
and let them know what Yahweh of hosts has planned against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become foolish;
the princes of Memphis are deceived;
the leaders of her tribes have led Egypt astray.
14 Yahweh has mixed a spirit of confusion into her midst,
and they have caused Egypt to stagger in all of its doings,
as when a drunkard staggers[bu] in his vomit.
15 And there will be nothing for Egypt to do,[bv]
head or tail, palm branch or reed.
The Future Blessing of Egypt, Assyria, and Egypt
16 On that day, Egypt will be like women, and will tremble and be afraid before the waving hand of Yahweh of hosts that he is waving against it. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt, everyone to whom one mentions it will be afraid in himself because of the plan of Yahweh of hosts that he is planning against him.
18 On that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language[bw] of Canaan and swear an oath to Yahweh of hosts. One will be called “City of the Sun.”
19 On that day, there will be an altar for Yahweh in in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a stone pillar for Yahweh at her border. 20 And it will be a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry out to Yahweh because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and a defender,[bx] and he will deliver them. 21 And Yahweh will make himself known to Egypt, and Egypt will know Yahweh on that day, and they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows[by] to Yahweh, and they will fulfill them. 22 And Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing; and they will return to Yahweh, and he will respond to their prayer, and he will heal them.
23 On that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and Egypt will worship together with Assyria.
24 On that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom Yahweh of hosts blessed, saying, “May Egypt my people be blessed, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and my inheritance, Israel.”
A Sign regarding Egypt and Cush
20 In the year the commander-in-chief came[bz] to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and he took it, 2 at that time, Yahweh had spoken by the hand of Isaiah son of Amoz, saying,
“Go and loosen the sackcloth from your loins,
and take off your sandals[ca] from your feet,”
and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot.
3 Then[cb] Yahweh said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead the captives[cc] of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks,[cd] the shame of Egypt.
5 And they shall be dismayed,
and they shall be ashamed
because of Cush, their hope,
and because of Egypt, their pride.
6 And the inhabitant[ce] of the coastland will say this on that day:
‘Look! This is our hope to whom we fled for help, to be delivered from[cf] the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape?’”
The Fall of Babylon
21 The oracle of the wilderness of the sea:
As storm winds passing over in the Negev,
it comes[cg] from the desert,
from a frightful land.
2 A hard revelation is told to me;
the treacherous deals treacherously,
and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, Elam;
lay siege, Media!
I put an end to all of her sighing.
3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman giving birth.
I am too bent to hear,[ch]
I am too dismayed to see.[ci]
4 My mind[cj] staggers; fear terrifies me;
the twilight I desired[ck] brought[cl] me fear.
5 Set out the table in order!
Spread out the rugs![cm]
Eat! drink!
Rise up, commanders;
smear[cn] the shield!
6 For the Lord said this to me:
“Go, set a watchman in position.
He must announce what he sees.
7 When[co] he sees riders,[cp]
a pair of horsemen,
riders[cq] of donkeys,[cr]
riders[cs] of camels,[ct]
then[cu] he must listen attentively,
paying attention, paying special[cv] attention.”
8 Then[cw] the watchman[cx] called,
“Lord, I am standing on the watchtower continually by day,
and I am standing at my post throughout[cy] the night.
9 And look at this! A man’s a chariot is coming,
a pair of horsemen!”
Then[cz] he responded and said,
“It has fallen! Babylon has fallen!
And all the images of her gods are[da] smashed on the ground!”
10 My downtrodden people
and the son of my threshing floor,
I will announce to you what I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel.
Oracle regarding Dumah
11 The oracle of Dumah:
One is calling to me from Seir,
12 The watchman says,
“Morning comes,
and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
come back again.”[dd]
Oracle against Arabia
13 An oracle concerning[de] Arabia:
You will spend the night in the thicket in a desert-plateau,[df]
caravans of Dedanites.
14 When you happen to meet[dg] the thirsty, bring water.
Inhabitants of the land of Tema came to meet the fugitive with his bread.
15 For they have fled from the swords,
from the drawn sword and the bent bow,
and from the heaviness of the battle.
16 For the Lord said this to me:
“In one more year,[dh] like the years of a hired worker,
all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.
17 And the remainder of the number of the bows[di] of the warriors of the sons of Kedar will be few.”
For Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.
Oracle against Jerusalem
22 The oracle of the valley of vision:
What business do you have going[dj] up, all of you, to the roofs,
2 noisy,[dk] tumultuous city,
exultant town?
Your slain are not slain by the sword,
nor are they dead from battle.
3 All of your rulers have fled together without a bow;
all of you who were found[dl] were captured.
They were captured together;
they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said,
“Look away from me,
let me weep bitterly;[dm]
you must not insist on comforting me
for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 For the Lord Yahweh of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion[dn] in the valley of vision,
a tearing down of walls[do] and a cry for help to the mountains.[dp]
6 And Elam lifted up the quiver,
with chariots[dq] of men[dr] and cavalry.
And Kir uncovered the shield.
7 And this happened:
the choicest of your valleys were full of chariots,[ds]
and the cavalry confidently stood at the gate.
8 And he uncovered the covering of Judah.
And you looked, on that day, to the weapons[dt] of the House of the Forest,
9 and you saw that the breaches in the walls of the city of David were many,
and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.
10 And you counted the houses of Jerusalem,
and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
11 And you made a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the old pool,
but you did not look to its maker,
and you did not see the one who created it long ago.[du]
12 And the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, called on that day
for weeping and mourning,
and for baldness and girding with[dv] sackcloth.
13 But look! Joy and gladness,
the killing of oxen[dw] and the slaughtering of sheep,
the eating of meat and the drinking of wine!
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
14 And it was revealed in my ears by Yahweh of hosts:
“Surely this sin will not be atoned for you until you die!”
says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
Oracle regarding Shebna
15 The Lord, Yahweh of hosts, says this:
“Go! Go to this steward, to Shebna,
who is over the house:
16 ‘What business do you have[dx] here,
and who do you have[dy] here,
that you have cut a grave cutting here for yourself,
carving his grave on the height,
a dwelling place for him in the rock?
17 Look! Yahweh is about to really hurl[dz] you, man!
And he is about to grasp you firmly;
18 he will wind a winding tightly around you like a ball, to a wide land.[ea]
There you shall die,
and there the chariots of your splendor will be,
disgrace to your master’s house!
19 And I will push you from your office,
and he will throw you down from your position.
20 And this shall happen:
On that day I will call to my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah,
21 and I will clothe him with your tunic,
and I will bind your sash firmly about him,
and I will put your authority into his hand,
and he shall be like a father to the inhabitants[eb] of Jerusalem
and to the house of Judah.
22 And I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder,
and he shall open and no one will be able to shut;
and he shall shut and no one will be able to open.
23 And I will drive him in like a peg into a secure place,
and he will become like a throne of glory to the house of his father.
24 And they will hang all of the heaviness of his father’s house on him,
the offspring and the offshoot,
all of the small vessels,
from the bowls to the jars.[ec]
25 On that day, declares[ed] Yahweh of hosts, the peg that was driven will move away into a secure place, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on her will be cut off. For Yahweh has spoken.’”
Oracle against Tyre
23 The oracle of Tyre:
Wail, ships of Tarshish, for the house is destroyed so that no one can enter;[ee]
it is announced to them from the land of Cyprus.
2 Be still, inhabitants of the coast,
merchant of Sidon, who travels over the sea, they filled you.
3 And on the great waters is the seed of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile is its produce,
and she was the merchandise of the nations.
4 Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea,
the fortress of the sea said, saying,
“I was not in labor,
and I have not given birth,
and I have not reared young men,
brought[ef] up young women.”
5 When the report comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish at the report about[eg] Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish!
Wail, inhabitants of the coast!
7 Is this your exultant one,[eh] her origin from the days of long ago?
Her feet brought her to dwell afar as an alien.
8 Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,[ei]
whose merchants were princes,
her traders the honored ones of the earth?
9 Yahweh of hosts has planned it:
to defile the pride of all glory,
to humble all the honored ones of the earth.
10 Cross over your own land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish;
there is no longer a harbor.[ej]
11 He has stretched his hand out over the sea;
he has made kingdoms shake.
Yahweh has commanded concerning Canaan
to destroy her fortresses.
12 And he said,
“You will not continue[ek] to exult, crushed one, virgin[el] daughter of Sidon.
Arise, cross over to Cyprus! There will be no rest for you even there.”
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans!
This people no longer exists.
Assyria destined[em] it for wild animals.
They erected its siege towers;
they demolished its citadel fortresses.
It made her like a ruin.
14 Wail, ships of Tarshish!
For your fortress is destroyed.
15 And this will happen on that day: And Tyre will be forgotten seventy years,[en]
like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years,[eo] it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute:
16 “Take a harp,
go around the city, forgotten prostitute!
Do it well, playing a stringed instrument!
Make numerous songs,[ep] that you may be remembered.”
17 And this shall happen:
at the end of seventy years,[eq] Yahweh will visit Tyre,
and she will return to her harlot’s wages,
and she will commit fornication
with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.
18 And this shall happen:
her merchandise and her harlot’s wages will be set apart for Yahweh;
it will not be stored up,
and it will not be hoarded,
but her merchandise will be for those who live before the presence[er] of Yahweh,
for eating to satiation and for fine clothing.
The Judgment on the Earth
24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste
and is about to devastate it,
and he will twist her surface,
and he will scatter her inhabitants.
2 And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the slave, so with his master;
as with the female slave, 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 one to whom he lends.
3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste,
and it shall be utterly plundered,
for Yahweh has spoken this word.
4 The earth dries up, it withers;
the world languishes, it withers.
The elevated of the people of the earth languish,
5 and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants.
For they have transgressed laws;
they have passed by statutes;[es]
they have broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn,
and few men are left.[et]
7 The new wine dries up;
the vine languishes.
All the merry of heart sigh;
8 the joy of the tambourine has stopped.
The noise of the jubilant has ceased;
the joy of the lyre has stopped.
9 They do not drink wine with song;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of emptiness is broken;
every house is shut so that no one can enter;[eu]
11 there is an outcry over the wine in the streets.
All joy turns into darkness;[ev]
the joy of the earth disappears.
12 Desolation is left in the city;
the gate is crushed into a state of ruin.
13 For it shall be like this in the midst of the earth,
among the nations,
like the beating of an olive tree,
like gleanings when a grape harvest is at an end.
14 They lift up their voices;[ew] they sing for joy;
they shout out from the west over the majesty of Yahweh.
15 Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east,
the name of Yahweh the God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
16 We hear songs from the edge[ex] of the earth:
“Glory to the righteous one!”
But I say, “Ruin to me!
Ruin to me! Woe to me!
The treacherous ones deal treacherously,
and the treacherous ones deal treacherously with treachery!”
17 Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, inhabitants[ey] of the earth!
18 And this shall happen:
The one who flees from the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit,
and the one who goes up from inside the pit[ez] shall be caught in the snare,
for the windows from heaven are opened,
and the foundations of the earth tremble.
19 The earth is utterly broken;
the earth is torn asunder;
the earth is shaken violently.
20 The earth staggers to and fro like the drunkard,
and it sways like a hut,
and its transgression is heavy upon it,
and it falls and does not rise again.
21 And this shall happen on that day:
Yahweh will punish the host of heaven in heaven,
and the kings of the earth on the earth.
22 And they will be gathered in a gathering, like a prisoner in[fa] a pit.
And they will be shut in[fb] a prison and be punished after[fc] many days.
23 And the full moon will be ashamed
and the sun will be ashamed,
for Yahweh of hosts will rule on Mount Zion[fd] and in Jerusalem,
and before his elders in glory.
Praise for Salvation
25 Yahweh, you are my God; I will exalt you.
I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,[fe]
plans[ff] of old,[fg] in faithfulness, trustworthiness.
2 For you have made[fh] the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin,
the palace of foreigners is no longer[fi] a city;
it will never[fj] be rebuilt.
3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
a city of ruthless nations, they will fear you.
4 For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm,
a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless was like a rainstorm against a wall,[fk]
5 the noise of foreigners like heat in a dry land.
You subdued the heat with the shade of a cloud;
the song of the ruthless was silenced.
6 And on this mountain Yahweh of hosts will make for all peoples a rich feast,[fl]
a feast of aged wines, fat filled with marrow, filtered aged wine.
7 And on this mountain he will destroy[fm] the face of the shroud,
the shroud over all peoples,
and the woven covering over all nations.
8 He will destroy[fn] death forever,
and the Lord Yahweh will wipe off the tears from all faces,
and he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth,
for Yahweh has spoken.
9 And one will say, on that day,
“Look! This is our God! We have waited for him and he saved us!
This is Yahweh; we waited for him!
Let us be glad,
and let us rejoice in his salvation.”
10 For the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain,
and Moab shall be trampled down under him
as a heap of straw is trampled down[fo] in waters of[fp] a dung heap.
11 And it[fq] will spread out its hands in the midst of it,
just as the swimmer spreads out to swim,
and its pride will be brought low with the movement[fr] of its hands.
12 And he will throw down the fortification of the high point of your walls;
he will bring it low;
he will send it[fs] to the ground,
to the dust.
Judah’s Song of Praise
26 On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
2 Open the gates so that[fv] the righteous nation who keeps faithfulness may enter!
3 You will protect a firm inclination in peace,
in peace because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in Yahweh forever,
for in Yah, Yahweh you have an everlasting rock.
5 For he has thrown down the inhabitants of the height,
he lays low the lofty city.
He lays it low to the ground;
he throws her to the dust.
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”
Yahweh’s People Vindicated
7 The way of the righteous is a straight path;
you clear the level path of the righteous.[fw]
8 Surely we wait for you in the path of your judgments, Yahweh,
for your name and renown are the desire of the soul.
9 I desire you with all my soul in the night;
also I seek you with my spirit within me,
for when your judgments are upon[fx] the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 Though the wicked person is shown compassion, he does not learn righteousness;
he acts unjustly in the land of uprightness,
and he does not see the majesty of Yahweh.
11 Yahweh, though your hand reaches high, they do not see it.
Let them see, and let them be ashamed of the zeal of people.
Indeed, let the fire of your enemies consume them.
12 Yahweh, you will establish peace for us,
for you have done even all of our works for us.
13 Yahweh, our God, lords besides you ruled over us,
but we praise your name alone.[fy]
14 The dead do not live;
dead spirits do not rise
because you have punished and destroyed them,
and you have destroyed all memory of them.
15 You have added to the nation, Yahweh.
You have added to the nation; you are honored.
You have extended all the ends of the land.
16 Yahweh, in distress they have visited you;
they poured out an incantation;[fz]
your discipline was on them.
17 Like a pregnant woman on the point of giving birth, she writhes;
she cries in her labor pains.
So we were because of your presence, Yahweh.
18 We became pregnant, we writhed;
we gave birth to wind.
We cannot bring about deliverance on the earth,
and no inhabitants of the world are born.
19 Your dead shall live; their corpses[ga] shall rise.
Wake up and sing for joy, dwellers of the dust,
for your dew is celestial dew,[gb]
and the earth will give birth to dead spirits.[gc]
20 Go, my people, enter into your chambers
and shut your doors[gd] behind you;
hide for a very little[ge] while,
until the wrath has passed over.
21 For look! Yahweh is about to come out from his place
to punish the iniquity of the inhabitants[gf] of the earth against him,
and the earth will disclose her blood
and will no longer cover her slain.
Israel Rescued
27 On that day, Yahweh will punish with his cruel, great and strong sword Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will kill the sea monster that is in the sea.
2 On that day:
“A vineyard of beauty! Sing in praise of it!
3 I, Yahweh, am her keeper;
I water it again and again.[gg]
Lest one afflict harm on it,
I guard it night and day;
4 I have no wrath.[gh]
Whatever gives me thorns and briers,
I will step forth against in battle.
I will set it on fire altogether.
5 Or let it grasp at my protection;
let it make peace with me;
peace let it make with me.”
6 Days are coming,[gi] let Jacob take root;
Israel will blossom and send out shoots,
and they will fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Does he strike him as he struck down those who struck him?[gj]
Or is he killed as those who killed him were killed?[gk]
8 By expelling[gl] her, by her sending away, you argue with her.
He removed them with his strong wind,
in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this he will make atonement for the guilt of Jacob,
and this will be all of the fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes[gm] all the stones of the altar like crushed stones of chalk,
no poles of Asherah worship or incense altars will stand.
10 For the fortified city is solitary,
a settlement deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
the calf grazes there,
lies down there and destroys its branches.
11 When its branches are dry,[gn] they are broken;
women are coming and setting light to it.
For it is not a people of understanding;
therefore his maker will not have compassion on him,
and his creator will not show him favor.
12 And this shall happen:
on that day, Yahweh will thresh from the floodwaters of the Euphrates to the wadi[go] of Egypt, and as for you, you will be gathered one by one, sons of Israel.
13 And this shall happen:
on that day, a great trumpet will be blown,
and those who were lost in the land of Assyria will come,
and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt,
and they will bow down to Yahweh on the holy mountain[gp] at Jerusalem.
Judgment against the Leaders of Ephraim
28 Ah! The garland of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim
and the withering flower of the glory of his beauty,
which is at the head of the rich valley,[gq]
ones overcome[gr] with wine!
2 Look! The Lord has a mighty and strong one,
like a rainstorm of hail, a wind storm of destruction,
like a rainstorm of mighty overflowing waters,
he will put them to the earth with his hand.
3 The garland of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim
will be trampled[gs] by feet,
4 and the withering flower of the glory of its beauty
which is at the head of the rich valley[gt]
will be like its early fig before summer,
which the one who sees it swallows[gu] while it is still in his hand.
5 In that day, Yahweh of hosts will become a garland of glory
and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people,
6 and a spirit of justice to the one who sits over judgment,
and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 And these also stagger because of wine
and stagger because of strong drink;
priest and prophet stagger because of strong drink;
they are confused[gv] because of wine.
They stagger because of strong drink;
they err in vision.
They stagger in the rendering of a decision,
8 for all the tables are full of disgusting vomit, with no place left.[gw]
9 To whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from milk,
those taken from the breast?
10 For it is blah-blah upon blah-blah,
blah-blah upon blah-blah,
gah-gah upon gah-gah,
gah-gah upon gah-gah,[gx]
a little here, a little there.
11 For he will speak with stammering[gy] and another tongue to this people, 12 to whom he has said,
“This is rest; give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”; yet[gz] they were not willing to hear.
13 And to them the word of Yahweh will be
blah-blah upon blah-blah
blah-blah upon blah-blah
gah-gah upon gah-gah
gah-gah upon gah-gah,[ha]
a little here, a little there,
so that they may go and stumble backward
and be broken and ensnared and captured.
The Cornerstone of Zion
14 Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, men of mockery,
rulers of these people in Jerusalem:
15 Because you have said,
“We have made[hb] a covenant with death,
and we have made an agreement with Sheol.
The overwhelming flood, when it passes through, will not come to us,
for we have made lies[hc] our refuge,
and we have hidden ourselves in falsehood.”
16 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says this:
“Look! I am laying a stone in Zion,
a tested[hd] stone,
a precious cornerstone,
a founded foundation:
‘The one who trusts will not panic.’[he]
17 And I will make justice the measuring line,
and righteousness the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,[hf]
and waters will flood over the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
you will become a trampling place for the overwhelming flood when it passes through.
19 As often as it passes through,[hg] it will take you,
for morning by morning[hh] it will pass through,
in the day and in the night,
and understanding the message will be only terror.”
20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on,[hi]
and the covering is too narrow when wrapping oneself.
21 For Yahweh will rise up as at Mount Perazim;
he will rave as in the valley at Gibeon
to do his deed—his deed is strange—
and to work his work—his work is alien!
22 And now you must not scoff,
or your bonds will be strong,
for I have heard from the Lord, Yahweh of hosts:
complete destruction
decreed upon all the land.
A Parable of Yahweh’s Work
23 Listen, and hear my voice!
Listen attentively, and hear my word!
24 Is it all day that the plowman plows,
opens to sow seed, harrows his ground?
25 When he has leveled its surface,[hj] does he not scatter dill,
and sow cumin seed,
and plant[hk] wheat in planted rows,[hl]
and barley in an appointed place,
and spelt grain as its border?
26 And his God instructs him about the prescription;[hm]
he teaches him.
27 For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a wheel of a utility cart rolled[hn] over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Grain is crushed fine,
but certainly one does not thresh it forever;
and one drives the wheel of his cart,
but his horses do not crush it.
29 This also comes forth from Yahweh of hosts.
He is wonderful in advice;
he makes great wisdom.
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