Bible in 90 Days
Compassion for Jacob
14 The Lord will have compassion on Jacob, will again choose Israel, and will give them rest in their own land. Immigrants will join them, and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 The peoples will take them and will bring them to their own place. The house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land, making captives of their captors and ruling their oppressors.
Mockery of a tyrant
3 When the Lord has given you rest from pain and trouble and from the hard labor that you perform, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor[a] has ceased!
How the flood[b] has receded!
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the rod of tyrants 6 that struck peoples in rage with ceaseless blows,
that ruled nations with anger,
with relentless aggression.
7 All the earth rests quietly,
then it breaks into song.
8 Even the cypresses rejoice over you,
the cedars of Lebanon:
“Since you were laid low,
no logger comes up against us!”
9 The underworld[c] beneath becomes restless to greet your arrival.
It awakens the ghosts,
all the leaders of earth;
it makes the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.
10 All of them speak and say to you:
“Even you’ve become weak like we are!
You are the same as us!”
11 Your majesty has been brought down to the underworld,[d]
along with the sound of your harps.
Under you is a bed of maggots,
and worms are your blanket.
12 How you’ve fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of dawn!
You are cut down to earth,
helpless on your back!
13 You said to yourself, I will climb up to heaven;
above God’s stars, I will raise my throne.
I’ll sit on the mount of assembly,
on the heights of Zaphon.
14 I’ll go up to the cloud tops;
I’ll be like the Most High!
15 But down to the underworld[e] you are brought,
to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you;
they will examine you closely:
“Is this the man who rattled the earth,
who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world a wasteland
and tore down its cities,
and wouldn’t let his prisoners go home?”
18 All the kings of the nations lie down honored,
all of them, each in his own tomb.
19 But you are cast away from your own grave
like a rejected branch,
covered by the dead
and those pierced by the sword—
who go down to the stony pit—
like a trampled corpse.
20 You won’t join them in burial,
for you destroyed your own land;
you killed your own people.
Such evil offspring will never be mentioned again!
21 Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their father. Don’t let them arise to take over the earth or fill the world with cities.
22 I will arise against them, says the Lord of heavenly forces. I will cut off Babylon’s renown and remnant, offshoot and offspring. 23 I will make it the home of herons, a swampland. I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of heavenly forces.
Promise for oppressed Judah
24 The Lord of heavenly forces has promised:
As I intended, so it will be;
and as I have planned, so it will happen:
25 I will break Assyria in my land;
on my mountains I will trample it
and remove its yoke from my people;[f]
his burden will be taken from their shoulders.
26 This is the plan that has been made for all the earth;
this is the hand extended over all the nations.
27 The Lord of heavenly forces has created a plan;
who can stop it?
God’s hand is extended;
who will stop it?
An oracle concerning the Philistines
28 This oracle came in the year of King Ahaz’s death:
29 Don’t rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken,
because from the snake’s root a viper will grow,
and it will produce a winged creature.
30 The oldest offspring of the poor will graze;
their needy will lie down secure.
But he will starve your offspring to death,
and murder all who remain.
31 Wail, gate! Cry out, city!
Melt in terror, all you Philistines!
Smoke is coming from the north;
there is no straggler in its ranks.[g]
32 What will one say to that nation’s messengers?
The Lord has founded Zion;
the oppressed among God’s people will find refuge there.
Concerning Moab
15 An oracle about Moab.
Ar was devastated in a night; Moab is ruined!
Kir was devastated in a night; Moab is ruined!
2 Dibon has gone up to the temple, to the shrines to weep.[h]
Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba.
Every head is shaved,
every beard cut off.
3 In its streets they wear mourning clothes;
on its rooftops and in its plazas, everyone wails and falls down weeping.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
as far as Jahaz their voice is heard.
The armed men of Moab shout,
spirits trembling.
5 My heart cries out for Moab.
Its fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah.[i]
At the ascent of Luhith,
each will go up with weeping.
On the road to Horonaim,
they will raise a piercing cry.
6 The waters of Nimrim are used up.
Grass has withered;
vegetation is dead;
greenery is gone.
7 Therefore, they carry what they had stored up,
all their provisions to the Valley of the Willows.
8 An outcry sounds within the borders of Moab,
as far as Eglaim, a cry of distress,
as far as Beer-elim, a cry of distress.
9 The waters of Dibon are full of blood.
But I will bring still more upon Dibon:
a lion for Moab’s survivors, for the remaining few in the land.
16 Send lambs to the ruler of the land,[j]
from Sela through the desert
to the mountain of Daughter Zion.
2 The daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon are like orphaned birds pushed from the nest.
3 Consider carefully, act justly;
at high noon provide your shade like night.
Hide the outcasts;
keep the fugitives hidden.
4 Let the outcasts of Moab live among you.
Be a hiding place for them from the destroyer.
When the oppressor is no more,
when destruction has ceased,
when the trampler has vanished from the land,
5 a throne will be established based on goodness,
and someone will sit faithfully on it in David’s dwelling[k]—
a judge who seeks justice and timely righteousness.
6 We have heard of Moab’s pride,
his great pride,
his outrageous pride and arrogance,
his empty boasting.
7 Therefore, let Moab wail;
let everyone wail for Moab.
Let them moan, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.
8 The fields of Heshbon languish.
The vines of Sibmah,
whose honored grapes overpowered masters of nations,
had reached as far as Jazer and strayed to the desert.
Their tendrils spread out and crossed the sea.
9 Therefore, I will weep with Jazer’s weeping for the vines of Sibmah.
I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh.
Cheers have fallen silent concerning your summer fruit and your grain harvest.
10 Joy and happiness have been harvested from the farmland,
and in the vineyards no one sings, no one shouts.
No treader crushes grapes in the wine vats;
I have brought the cheers to an end.
11 Therefore, my heart plays sadly like a harp for Moab,
my inner being for Kir-heres.
12 Even if Moab presents himself,
and Moab wears himself out going to the shrine,
and comes to his sanctuary to pray,
he won’t prevail.
13 This is the word that the Lord had spoken concerning Moab long ago. 14 But now the Lord has said: In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab, with all its great multitude, will dwindle. The small remnant will be few and feeble.
Concerning Damascus and Ephraim
17 An oracle about Damascus.
Look! Damascus is finished as a city;
it will become a fallen ruin.
2 The villages of Aroer are abandoned forever.[l]
They will be pastures for flocks,[m]
which will lie down undisturbed.
3 Ephraim’s security will cease,
as will Damascus’ rule.
What’s left of Aram will resemble the glory of the Israelites,
says the Lord of heavenly forces.
4 On that day, Jacob’s glory will dwindle;
his sleek body will waste away.
5 It will be as when harvesters gather grain.
God will harvest armfuls at a time,
like one who gathers grain
in the Rephaim Valley.
6 Only remaining bits are left,
like an olive tree that has been shaken:
two or three olives on the highest branch;
four or five on a fruitful twig,
says the Lord God of Israel.
7 On that day, people will have regard for their maker,
and their eyes will look to the holy one of Israel.
8 They will have no regard for altars,
the work of their hands,
or look to what their fingers made:
sacred poles[n] and incense stands.
9 On that day, their strong cities will be like those abandoned by the Hivites and the Amorites;[o] abandoned because of the Israelites. They will be a wasteland,
10 because you forgot the God who saves you,
and didn’t remember the rock who shelters you.
Therefore, plant your pleasant plants,
and set out exotic sprouts;
11 make them grow the day you plant them,
and make them bloom the morning you start them.
But the harvest will disappear on a day of sickness and incurable pain.
12 Doom to the raging of many peoples;
like the thundering seas they thunder.
Doom to the roar of nations,
like the roaring of mighty waters.
13 Nations roar like the roaring of rushing waters.
But God will rebuke them,
and they will flee far away,
pursued like chaff by wind in the mountains,
like tumbleweeds before a storm.
14 In the evening, there is terror;
but before morning it is gone.
This is the fate of those who loot us,
the destiny of those who rob us.
Concerning Cush
18 Doom to the land of winged ships,
beyond the rivers of Cush
2 that sends messengers by sea,
reed vessels on the water.
Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and clean-shaven,
to a people feared near and far,
a nation barbaric and oppressive,
whose land the rivers divide.
3 All you who inhabit the world,
who live on earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, you will see!
When the trumpet blasts, you will hear!
4 The Lord said to me:
I will quietly watch from my own place,
like the shimmering heat of sunshine,
like a cloud’s shade in the harvest heat.
5 Before the harvest, when the bloom is finished, when the blossom is becoming
a ripening fruit,
God will cut the shoots with a pruning knife,
and lop off the spreading branches.
6 They will all be left to the mountain birds
and to the beasts of the land.
The birds will eat them in summer,
all the beasts of the land in winter.
7 At that time, gifts will be brought to the Lord of heavenly forces
from a tall and clean-shaven people
and from a people feared near and far,
a nation barbaric and oppressive,
whose land the rivers divide,
to the place of the name of the Lord of heavenly forces,
to Mount Zion.
Concerning Egypt
19 An oracle about Egypt.
Look! The Lord is riding upon a swift cloud,
and is coming to Egypt.
Egypt’s idols will tremble before God;
the Egyptians’ hearts will melt within them.
2 I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian,
and they will fight,
one against another,
neighbor against neighbor,
city against city,
kingdom against kingdom.
3 Egypt’s spirit will fail from within;
I will frustrate their plans.
They will consult the idols and spirits
and ghosts and fortune-tellers.
4 I will hand Egypt over to a harsh master;
a strong king will rule them, says the Lord God of heavenly forces.
5 The waters of the sea will dry up;
the river will be parched and bare.
6 The rivers will stink;
the streams will shrink and dry;
reeds and rushes will decay.
7 Grass around the Nile, the grass at the mouth of the Nile,
and all the sown land of the Nile
will dry up, blow away, and be no more.
8 Those who fish will lament;
all who cast fishhooks in the Nile will mourn,
and those who spread nets on the water will pine away.
9 Workers with flax will be dismayed;
carders and weavers will grow pale.[p]
10 Makers of cloth will be crushed;
all who earn money will become distressed.
11 The officials of Tanis are fools;
the wisest of Pharaoh’s counselors give stupid advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I’m a wise person,
one of the ancient kings”?
12 Where now are your wise ones?
Let them tell you,
let them inform you what the Lord of heavenly forces has planned concerning Egypt.
13 The officials of Tanis have become fools;
the princes of Memphis are deluded;
the tribal chiefs have led Egypt astray.
14 The Lord has poured into them a spirit of confusion.
They will make Egypt stumble in everything it does,
just as a drunk stumbles in his vomit.
15 Neither head nor tail, palm branch nor reed
will be able to do anything for Egypt.
Bless God’s people
16 On that day, the Egyptians will be like women and will tremble with terror before the hand that the Lord of heavenly forces will raise against them. 17 Judah’s land will become what the Egyptians dread; whenever anyone mentions it, they will be terrified because of the plans that the Lord of heavenly forces is making against them.
18 On that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear loyalty to the Lord of heavenly forces. One of them will be called “the city of the sun.”[q]
19 On that day, there will be an altar to the Lord within the land of Egypt, and a standing stone for the Lord at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of heavenly forces in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of oppressors, God will send them a savior and defender to rescue them. 21 The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians; the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day. They will worship with sacrifices and offerings, making solemn promises to the Lord and fulfilling them. 22 The Lord will strike Egypt; striking and then healing. They will return to the Lord, who will hear their pleas and heal them.
23 On that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will come to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24 On that day, Israel will be the third along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing at the center of the world. 25 The Lord of heavenly forces will pronounce this blessing: Bless Egypt my people, and Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.
Isaiah naked and barefoot
20 In the year that Assyria’s King Sargon sent his general to Ashdod, he fought against Ashdod and captured it. 2 At that time the Lord had spoken through Isaiah, Amoz’s son, “Go, take off the mourning clothes from your waist, and remove the shoes from your feet.” And Isaiah did this, walking naked and barefoot.
3 The Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years, as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush, 4 so will the king of Assyria lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, both young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks bared, humiliating Egypt. 5 They will be shattered and shamed because of Cush their hope, and because of Egypt their glory.
6 “On that day, those who live on this coast will say, ‘Look at those in whom we had hoped, to whom we fled for help and rescue from the king of Assyria. How then will we escape?’”
Fallen, fallen is Babylon
21 An oracle about the wilderness near the sea.
Like whirlwinds sweeping through the arid southern plain,
it comes from the desert, from a fearsome land.
2 A harsh vision was proclaimed to me:
The betrayer betrays, and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media!
Put an end to all her groaning.
3 Therefore, I’m shaken to my core in anguish.
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.
I’m too bent over to hear,
too dismayed to see.
4 My heart pounds; convulsions overpower me.
He has turned my evening of pleasure into dread—
5 setting the table, spreading the cloth, eating, drinking.
“Arise, captains!
Polish the shields.”
6 The Lord said this to me:
“Go, post a lookout to report what he sees.
7 When he sees chariots, pairs of horsemen,
donkey riders, camel riders,
he should listen carefully,
carefully, very carefully.”
8 Then the seer[r] called out:
“Upon a watchtower, Lord,
I’m standing all day;
and upon my observation post
I’m stationed throughout the night.
9 Here they come:
charioteers, pairs of horsemen!”
One spoke up and said,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon,
and all the images of her gods
are shattered on the ground!”
10 Oh, my downtrodden people, threshed on my threshing floor,
what I heard from the Lord of heavenly forces,
the God of Israel, I reported to you.
A mysterious dialogue
11 An oracle about Dumah.[s]
Someone is calling to me from Seir:
“Guard, how long is the night?
Guard, how long is the night?”
12 The guard said,
“Morning has come, but it is still night.
If you must inquire, inquire;
come back again.”
13 An oracle about the desert.
In the woods, in the desert where you camp,
caravans of the Dedanites 14 meet the thirsty with water;
inhabitants of the land of Tema greet the refugees with bread.
15 They have fled from swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
and from the intensity of battle.
16 So the Lord said to me: Within a year, according to the number of years for which a laborer is hired, all the glory of Kedar will end; 17 there will be few Kedarite archers remaining. The Lord God of Israel has spoken.
Jerusalemites rebuked
22 An oracle about the Valley of Vision.
What is wrong with you,
that you have all gone up to the rooftops,
2 you who are filled with noise,
you roaring city, you party town?
Your dead weren’t slaughtered by the sword;
they didn’t die in battle.
3 All your leaders escaped together
but were captured without a single bow shot.
All your escapees were bound together, even though they fled far away.[t]
4 Therefore, I said, “Don’t look at me;
let me weep bitterly.
Don’t try to comfort me
about the destruction of my dearly loved people.”
5 The Lord God of heavenly forces has a day of tumult and trampling and turmoil in the Valley of Vision,
a breaking down of walls,
a cry for help to the mountains.
6 Elam carried the quiver with chariots and horsemen,
and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 Your finest valleys were filled with chariots,
and horsemen doggedly guarded the gate.
8 Judah’s covering has been stripped away.
On that day, you trusted the weapons in the Forest House.
9 You observed the many broken defenses in David’s City,
and you collected the waters of the lower pool.
10 You counted Jerusalem’s houses,
and you tore down houses to fortify the wall.
11 You made a reservoir between the walls for the water of the earlier pool.
But you didn’t trust its maker;
you didn’t consider the one who planned it long ago.
12 The Lord God of heavenly forces called on that day
for weeping and mourning, and shaven heads, and wearing of mourning clothes.
13 But instead there was
fun and frivolity,
killing of cattle
and slaughtering of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking of wine:
“Eat and drink! Tomorrow we will die!”
14 But the Lord of heavenly forces has revealed in my hearing:
This iniquity won’t be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord God of heavenly forces.
An administrator rebuked
15 The Lord God of heavenly forces says, Go now to this official, to Shebna, who is in charge of the house, and say to him:
16 What do you have here—and whom do you have here—
that you have hewed out a tomb for yourself,
you who cuts his grave on high and carves himself a home in the cliff?
17 The Lord is about to hurl you down, mighty man!
He is surely going to cover you with darkness;
18 he will indeed unroll your head wrapping,
rolling it like a ball into the open country.
There you will die, with your glorious chariots,
you disgrace to the house of your master!
19 I will thrust you from your monument;
you will be pulled down from your platform.
20 On that day, I will call my servant
Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son.
21 I will give him your robe and wrap him in your sash,
and I will hand over to him your authority.
He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and to the house of Judah.
22 I will place the key to David’s house on his shoulder;
what he opens no one will close,
and what he closes no one will open.
23 I will fasten him securely like a tent peg,
and he will be a throne of honor for his ancestors’ house.
24 All the honor of his household will hang on him, the offspring and the offshoots, every little dish, every bowl, every jar.
25 On that day, says the Lord of heavenly forces, the peg that is fastened securely will give way; it will be cut down, and it will fall, and all the load hanging on it will be lost. The Lord has spoken.
Concerning Tyre
23 An oracle about Tyre.
Wail, ships of Tarshish,
because your port is destroyed![u]
When returning from Cyprus, they heard about it.
2 Be still, inhabitants of the coast, traders of Sidon,
whose messengers crossed over the sea,[v]
3 over the mighty waters.
The grain of Shihor, the Nile’s harvest, was her income;
she was the marketplace of nations.
4 Be ashamed, Sidon, because the sea has spoken;
the fortress of the sea has said,
“I haven’t been in labor; I didn’t give birth;
I never raised young men or brought up young women.”
5 When the Egyptians hear,
they will be in anguish at the news about Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, inhabitants of the coast.
7 Is this your triumphant town,
whose origin is from ancient times,
whose feet carried her to settle far away?
8 Who planned this concerning Tyre,
the one who gives crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?
9 The Lord of heavenly forces planned it,
to defile the pride of all beauty,
to shame all the honored of the earth.
10 Go through your own land, Daughter Tarshish,
for the harbor[w] is gone.
11 God’s hand is extended over the sea, shaking nations.
The Lord gave the command to destroy Phoenicia’s fortresses,
12 saying, You will no longer celebrate,
violated virgin Daughter Sidon.
Get up and head to Cyprus;
even there you will find no rest.
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans,
the people who are no more.
Assyria destined it for wild animals:
they raised up their siege towers,
stripped its palaces,
and made it a ruin.
14 Wail, ships of Tarshish,
for your fortress is destroyed!
15 On that day, Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, Tyre will become like the prostitute in the song:
16 Take a harp, go around the city, forgotten prostitute.
Play well, sing many songs, so they’ll remember you.
17 At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre. She will return to her trade and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms on the earth. 18 Her profits and wages will be sacred to the Lord. They won’t be stored or saved. Her profits will go to those living before the Lord, for plentiful food and elegant clothes.
City of chaos falls
24 Look! The Lord will devastate the earth and destroy it,
will twist its face and scatter its inhabitants.
2 It will be the same for the people and for the priest;
for the slave and for his master;
for the female servant and for her mistress;
for the buyer and for the seller;
for the lender and for the borrower;
for the creditor and for the debtor.
3 The earth will be devastated, totally devastated;
it will be destroyed, completely destroyed
because the Lord has said it would be so.
4 The earth dries up and wilts;
the world withers and wilts;
the heavens wither away with the earth.
5 The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants,
for they have disobeyed instruction,
swept aside law,
and broken the ancient covenant.
6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth; its inhabitants suffer for their guilt.
Therefore, the earth’s inhabitants dwindle; very few are left.
7 The wine dries up;
the vine withers;
all the merry-hearted groan.
8 The joyous tambourines have ceased;
the roar of partiers has stopped;
the joyous harp has ceased.
9 No one drinks wine or sings;
beer is bitter to its drinkers.
10 The town is in chaos, broken;
every house is shut, without entrance.
11 There is a cry for wine in the streets.
All joy has reached its dusk;
happiness is exiled from the earth.
12 Ruin remains in the city,
and the gate is battered to wreckage.
13 It will be like this in the central part of the land and among the peoples,
like an olive tree that has been shaken,
like remains from the grape harvest.
14 They raise their voice;
they sing with joy;
from the west they will shout about the Lord’s majesty.
15 Therefore, in the east honor the Lord;
in the islands of the sea,
the name of the Lord God of Israel!
16 From the ends of the earth we have heard songs:
“Glory to the righteous one!”
But I say, “I waste away; I waste away;
I’m doomed!
Betrayers betray; treacherously betrayers betray.”
17 Terror, trench, and trap are upon you,
ruler of the earth!
18 Whoever flees from the sound of terror will fall into the trench;
whoever climbs from the trench will be caught in the trap.
Heaven’s windows will open, and the earth’s foundations will quake.
19 The earth is shattering, shattering;
the earth is shaking, shaking;
the earth is teetering, tottering.
20 The earth trembles like a drunk
and shudders like a hut;
its rebellion weighs heavy upon it;
it will fall, no more to rise.
21 On that day, the Lord will punish the forces of heaven in heaven, and the kings of the earth on earth. 22 They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit, shut into a prison, and punished after many days. 23 The moon will be diminished, and the sun will fade, since the Lord of heavenly forces will rule on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, glorious before his elders.
Rejoicing in God’s salvation
25 Lord, you are my God.
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
planned long ago, faithful and sure.
2 You have turned the city into rubble,
the fortified town into a ruin,
the fortress of foreigners into a city no more,
never to be rebuilt.
3 Therefore, strong people will glorify you;
the towns of tyrant nations will fear you.
4 You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in distress,
a hiding place from the storm,
a shade from the heat.
When the breath of tyrants is like a winter[x] storm
5 or like heat in the desert,
you subdue the roar of foreigners.
Like heat shaded by a cloud,
the tyrants’ song falls silent.
6 On this mountain,
the Lord of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples
a rich feast, a feast of choice wines,
of select foods rich in flavor,
of choice wines well refined.
7 He will swallow up on this mountain the veil that is veiling all peoples,
the shroud enshrouding all nations.
8 He will swallow up death[y] forever.
The Lord God will wipe tears from every face;
he will remove his people’s disgrace from off the whole earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
9 They will say on that day,
“Look! This is our God,
for whom we have waited—
and he has saved us!
This is the Lord, for whom we have waited;
let’s be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”
10 The Lord’s hand will indeed rest on this mountain.
Moab will be trampled down
as straw is trampled into manure.
11 When in it they spread out their hands
as swimmers spread out their hands to swim,
God will lay low their pride, even by the efforts of their hands.
12 The fortified towers of their[z] walls
will be thrown down, will be leveled,
will be brought down to the earth, to the dust.
Trusting in God forever
26 On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
Ours is a strong city!
God makes salvation its walls and ramparts.
2 Open the gates and let a righteous nation enter,
a nation that keeps faith.
3 Those with sound thoughts you will keep in peace,
in peace because they trust in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord is a rock for all ages.
5 He has thrown down those living on high,
and he will level the lofty town,
leveling it down to the earth;
he will bring it down to dust.
6 The feet trample it,
the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.
7 The way of the righteous is level;
you clear a path for the righteous.
8 In the path of your justice, Lord, we wait for you;
with all our being, we long for your name and your acclaim.
9 At night I long for you with my whole being;
my spirit within me watches for you.
When your judgments are at work in the earth,
those living in the world learn righteousness.
10 When the wicked are favored, they don’t learn righteousness;
even among those who do right they do wrong,
and they fail to see the Lord’s majesty.
11 Lord, your hand is lifted up,
but they don’t see.
Let them see and shrink back because of your zeal for your people;
your burning anger that consumes your enemies.
12 Lord, grant us peace,
because all that we have done has been your doing.
13 Lord our God, other masters besides you have ruled us,
but we will profess your name alone.
14 The dead don’t live; ghosts don’t rise.
Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them,
and abolished all memory of them.
15 You’ve enlarged the nation, Lord.
You’ve enlarged the nation; you are glorified.
You’ve expanded all the land’s boundaries.
16 Lord, in distress they sought you out;
they poured out prayers to you when you disciplined them.
17 As a pregnant woman close to childbirth is in labor pains,
crying out in her pangs,
so were we because of you, Lord.
18 We were pregnant, we writhed,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have achieved no victories on earth;
the inhabitants of the earth never fall.
19 Your dead will live, their[aa] corpses will rise,
and those who dwell in the dust will shout for joy.
Your shadow is a shadow of light,
but you will bring down the ghosts into the underworld.
20 Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you.
Take cover, for in a little while the fury will be over.
21 Look! The Lord is going out from his place
to bring the iniquity of the ruler of the earth down upon him.
The earth will uncover its blood
and will conceal its slain no longer.
Scattered people return
27 On that day, the Lord will take a great sword, harsh and mighty, and will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the writhing serpent, and will kill the dragon that is in the sea. 2 On that day:
Sing about a delightful vineyard!
3 I, the Lord, am its guardian.
Every moment I water it;
night and day I guard it from attack.
4 I’m not angry,
but if it yields thorns and thistles for me,
I will march to battle against it;
I will torch it completely.
5 Or let them[ab] cling to me for refuge;
let them make peace with me;
let them make peace with me.
6 In coming days,[ac]
Jacob will take root;
Israel will blossom and sprout
and fill the whole world with produce.
7 Did God strike Israel as he struck those who struck him?
Was Israel killed as his killers were killed?[ad]
8 By frightening Jerusalem, by sending her away,[ae]
you contended with her,
expelling with a fierce blast
on the day of the east wind.
9 By this Jacob’s guilt is reconciled,
and this was how his sins were finally removed:
he made all the altar stones like shattered chalk,
sacred poles[af] and incense altars that couldn’t stand.
10 The fortified city lies alone,
a hut forsaken,
abandoned like the desert.
Calves graze there;
they lie down there and feed on its boughs.
11 When its branches are dry, they are broken.
Women come and set fire to it.
These people have no understanding;
therefore, their maker won’t have compassion;
the one who formed them won’t be gracious.
12 On that day, the Lord will beat grain from the channel of the Euphrates up to the Valley of Egypt. You will be collected, Israelites, one by one. 13 On that day, a great trumpet will be played. Those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come. They will bow to the Lord at his holy mountain in Jerusalem.
Judgment on Ephraim and Judah
28 Oh, the majestic garland of Ephraim’s drunks
and the fading flower of its splendid beauty
on the head that flows with perfume[ag]
of those hammered with wine.
2 Look! The Lord has someone who is powerful and strong;
like a hailstorm, a disastrous tempest,
like a downpour of mighty, overflowing waters,
he can level them to the ground with his hand.
3 The majestic garland of Ephraim’s drunks
will be trampled underfoot.
4 The withered flower, which is a thing of beauty[ah]
as it sits on the head of those bloated with fat,[ai]
will be like an early fig before the summer harvest:
whoever sees it swallows it as soon as it is in hand.
5 On that day, the Lord of heavenly forces will be a splendid garland and a beautiful wreath for the people who survive, 6 and a spirit of justice for the one who sits in judgment, and a strength for those who repel the assault at the gate.
7 These also stagger from wine and stumble from beer:
priest and prophet stagger from beer;
they are confused by wine;
they stray on account of beer;
they err when receiving visions;
they stumble when making judgments.
8 All the tables are covered with vomit;
filth overruns the place.
9 To whom will God teach knowledge?
To whom will he explain the message?
To those just weaned from milk?
To those who have hardly outgrown the breast?
10 It is “tsav letsav, tsav letsav; qav leqav, qav leqav,”[aj]
a little of this, a little of that.
11 With derisive speech and a foreign tongue,
he will speak to this people.
12 He has said to them,
“This is the place of rest;
give rest to the weary;
this is the place of repose”;
but they refused to listen.
13 So the Lord’s word will be for them:
“tsav letsav, tsav letsav; qav leqav, qav leqav,”
a little of this, a little of that.
So that they will go and stagger backward,
they will be broken, snared, and captured.
The covenant with death overturned
14 Therefore, hear the Lord’s word,
you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15 You said, “We’ve cut a deal with death;[ak]
with the underworld[al] we made a pact.
When the overflowing flood passes through, it won’t reach us;
for we have made lies our hiding place,
and in falsehood we take shelter.”
16 Therefore, the Lord God says:
Look! I’m laying in Zion a stone,
a tested stone, a valuable cornerstone,
a sure foundation:
the one who trusts won’t tremble.
17 I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line.
But hail will sweep away the hiding place of lies,
and water will overflow the shelter.
18 Your deal with death[am] will be dissolved,
and your pact with the grave[an] won’t stand.
The rushing flood: when it passes through,
you will be annihilated by it.
19 Every time it passes through it will take you,
for morning by morning it will pass,
by day and by night.
It will be nothing but terror to understand the message.
20 The bed is too short to stretch out,
and the shroud is too narrow to cover oneself.
21 Just as on Mount Perazim, the Lord will rise up;
as in the Gibeon Valley he will rage to do his deed—strange is his deed!—
And to work his work—foreign is his work!
22 So now stop your scoffing,
or your chains will be tightened,
because destruction has been ordered—I have heard it!—
by the Lord God of heavenly forces against the whole land.
Plowing and threshing
23 Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention and hear my word:
24 Does the plowman plow without stopping for planting,
opening and harrowing their ground?
25 When he has smoothed its surface,
doesn’t he scatter fennel,[ao] and sow cumin,
and plant wheat and barley in their places,
and spelt as a border?
26 They are properly ordered;
their God directs them.[ap]
27 Fennel[aq] isn’t threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but fennel[ar] is beaten with a staff,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Bread grain is crushed,
but the thresher[as] doesn’t thresh it forever.
He drives the cart wheel over it;
he spreads it out but doesn’t crush it.
29 This also comes from the Lord of heavenly forces,
who gives wondrous counsel and increases wisdom.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible