Chronological
18 ¶ Woe to the land which makes shade with her wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 He who sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to the people scattered and peeled, to the people full of fears from their beginning, and until now, a people tired of waiting and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!
3 All ye inhabitants of the world and neighbours of the land, when he lifts up a banner as an example on the mountains, ye shall see it; and when he blows the shofar, ye shall hear it.
4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will look forth from my dwelling place like a clear sun after the rain and like a cloud filled with dew in the heat of the harvest.
5 For before the harvest, when the fruit is perfect, and after the flower is past and the fruit is mature, then he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches.
6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth; and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
7 In that time the present shall be brought unto the LORD of the hosts, the people scattered and peeled, the people full of fears from their beginning and until now, a people tired of waiting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of the hosts, to the 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, and they shall fight each one against his brother, and each one against his neighbour; city against city and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof, and I will destroy the counsel thereof; and they shall seek to the idols and to the charmers and to the spiritists and to the wizards.
4 And I will give the Egyptians over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a violent king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of the hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away, and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up; the reeds and flags shall wither.
7 The vegetables by the river, by the mouth of the river, and every thing sown beside the river shall dry up, wither away, and be no more.
8 The fishermen also shall mourn, and all those that cast fishhooks into the river shall lament, and those that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.
9 Moreover those that work in fine flax and those that weave networks shall be confounded.
10 Because all their nets shall be broken; all that make ponds to raise fish shall be discontented.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools; the counsel of the prudent counsellors of Pharaoh is become carnal; how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of the ancient kings?
12 Where are they? Where are thy wise men? Let them tell thee now, or let them cause thee to know what the LORD of the hosts has purposed upon Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even those that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
14 The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in its midst, and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 Neither shall it be of any value unto Egypt, any work which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.
16 In that day Egypt shall be like unto women, and it shall be afraid and fear in the presence of the tall hand of the LORD of the hosts, which he shall raise up over them.
17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt; every one that makes mention of it shall be afraid in himself because of the counsel of the LORD of the hosts which he has determined against it.
18 ¶ In that day five cities in the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan and swear to the LORD of the hosts; one shall be called The city of destruction.
19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pyramid titled “To the LORD” at the border thereof.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of the hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a Saviour, and a Prince, and he shall deliver them.
21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day and shall do sacrifice and oblation; they shall vow vows unto the LORD and perform them.
22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt; he shall smite and heal it because they shall become converted unto the LORD, and he shall grant them clemency and shall heal them.
23 In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve the LORD with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel shall be the third part with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the earth.
25 For the LORD of the hosts shall bless them, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.
20 ¶ In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him) and fought against Ashdod and took it;
2 at the same time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
3 And the LORD said, Like as my slave Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia,
4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their hope and of Egypt their glory.
6 And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such was our hope which we clung to for help that we might be free from the presence of the king of Assyria. How shall we escape?
21 ¶ The burden of the desert of the sea. As the whirlwinds which pass through the wilderness in the land of the south, so they come from the terrible land.
2 A grievous vision is shown unto me. For one who is treacherous, another who deals treacherously, and for one destroyer, another destroyer. Rise up, Elam; besiege Media; all the sighing thereof I have made to cease.
3 Therefore my loins are filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travails; I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
4 My heart panted; the horror frightened me; the night of my pleasure he has turned into fear unto me.
5 Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink; arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
6 For thus has the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman who shall declare what he sees.
7 And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; then he looked with more diligence;
8 and he cried, A lion upon the watchman. My lord, I stand continually all the day and all night long upon my watchtower.
9 And, behold, this chariot of men comes with a couple of horsemen. Afterwards he spoke and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he has broken unto the ground.
10 O my harvest, and the people of my threshing floor, that which I have heard of the LORD of the hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared unto you.
11 ¶ The burden of Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of this night? Watchman, what of this night?
12 The watchman said, The morning comes and then the night; if ye will enquire, enquire ye; return, and come.
13 ¶ The burden upon Arabia. In the forest ye shall pass the night in Arabia, O ye walkers of Dedanim.
14 Go ye out to meet them bringing water for the thirsty, O inhabitants of the land of Tema; succour those who are fleeing with your bread.
15 For they flee from the presence of the sword, from the presence of the drawn sword, from the presence of the bent bow, from the presence of the grievousness of the battle.
16 For thus has the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall be undone:
17 And the residue of the number of valiant archers, sons of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.
22 ¶ The burden of the valley of the vision. What ails thee now that thou art completely gone up to the housetops?
2 Thou that art full of tumults, a tumultuous city, a joyous city, thy dead are not slain with the sword nor slain in battle.
3 All thy princes together fled from the bow; they were bound; all that were found in thee were bound together; the others fled far away.
4 Therefore I said, Leave me; I will weep bitterly; do not labour to comfort me of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
5 For a day of trouble and of treading down and of wearing down by the Lord GOD of the hosts is sent in the valley of the vision to break down the wall and give a cry unto the mountain.
6 Also Elam bore the quiver in a chariot of men and of horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 And it came to pass, that thy choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the soldiers set themselves in array at the gate.
8 ¶ And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the house of weapons of the forest.
9 Ye have also seen the breaches of the city of David that they are multiplied, and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and ye have broken down houses to fortify the wall.
11 Ye also made a moat between the two walls with the water of the old pool, but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, nor had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.
12 Therefore the Lord GOD of the hosts did call in this day unto weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth:
13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine while they say, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die.
14 This was revealed in my ears by the LORD of the hosts, That surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until ye die, saith the Lord GOD of the hosts.
15 ¶ Thus saith the Lord GOD of the hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,
16 What hast thou here? or whom hast thou here that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here as he that hews himself out a sepulchre on a high place or that graves a habitation for himself in a rock?
17 Behold, the LORD will carry thee away in a hard captivity and will surely cover thy face.
18 He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country, there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall come to an end, the shame of the house of thy Lord.
19 And I will drive thee from thy place, and he shall pull thee down from thy state.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my slave Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:
21 And I will clothe him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22 And the key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open.
23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the sons and the grandsons, all the vessels of small quantity, from the cups to drink from even unto all the instruments of music.
25 In that day, saith the LORD of the hosts, the nail that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed and be cut down and fall and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD has spoken it.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International