- Lift up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones, for my anger is not upon them that rejoice in my highness. The noise of the multitude in the mountains, as of a great people, a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of Hosts musters the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven — yea, the Lord and the weapons of his indignation — to destroy the whole land.
- Howl, for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, every man’s heart shall melt, and they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman that travails; they shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore, I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts and in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man takes up; they shall every man turn to his own people and flee everyone into his own land. Everyone that is proud shall be thrust through, and everyone that is joined to the wicked shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives violated. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver and gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
- And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellence, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelled in from generation to generation, neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of howling creatures, and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. And her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged, for I will destroy her speedily; yea, for I will be merciful unto my people, but the wicked shall perish.
- For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land, and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them and bring them to their place, yea, from far unto the ends of the earth, and they shall return to their lands of promise. And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids; and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors.
- And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage wherein you were made to serve. And it shall come to pass in that day, that you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased. The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepters of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hinders. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at you, and also the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you are laid down, no feller has come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto you, Have you also become weak as us? Have you become like unto us? Your pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your viols; the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you.
- How are you fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations? For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into Heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see you shall narrowly look upon you, and shall consider you, and shall say, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, and made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, and opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, yea, all of them lie in glory, every one of them in his own house. But you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch, and the remnant of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit, as a carcass trodden under feet. You shall not be joined with them in burial because you have destroyed your land and slain your people; the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
- Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquities of their fathers, that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, says the Lord of Hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and grandson, says the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of Hosts. The Lord of Hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him underfoot. Then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul? And his hand stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
- Rejoice not, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. And the first born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety. And I will kill your root with famine, and he shall slay your remnant. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; you, whole Palestina, are dissolved, for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. What shall then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.
- Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence, because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence, he is gone up to Bajith and to Dibon, the high places, to weep. Moab shall howl over Nebo and over Medeba; on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off. In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth; on the tops of their houses and in their streets everyone shall howl, weeping abundantly. And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh; their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz. Therefore, the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out, his life shall be grievous unto him. My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, a heifer of three years old. For by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go up in it; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction. For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate, for the hay is withered away, the grass fails, there is no green thing. Therefore, the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows. For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab, the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim. For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood, for I will bring more upon Dimon — lions upon him that escapes of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.
- Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. For it shall be that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon. Take counsel, execute judgment. Make your shadow as the night in the middle of the noonday. Hide the outcasts, betray not him that wanders. Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab; be a cover to them from the face of the spoiler. For the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. And in mercy shall the throne be established; and he shall sit upon it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness. We have heard of the pride of Moab — of his haughtiness and his pride, for he is very proud — and his wrath, his lies, and all his evil works. Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, everyone shall howl. For the foundations of Kirhareseth shall you mourn — surely they are stricken. For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof. They have come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness; her branches are stretched out, they have gone over the sea. Therefore, I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, for the shouting for your summer fruits and for your harvest is fallen. And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field. And in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting. The treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease. Wherefore my heart shall sound like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kirhareseth. And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray, but he shall not prevail.
- This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning Moab since that time. But now the Lord has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hired hand, and the glory of Moab shall be despised, with all that great multitude, and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.
- Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap; the cities of Aroer are forsaken, they shall be for flocks which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The fortress shall also cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria, they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of Hosts. And in that day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. And it shall be as when the harvestman gathers the grain, and reaps the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathers ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost fruitful branches thereof, says the Lord God of Israel. At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves or the images. In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel; and there shall be desolation. Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, therefore shall you plant pleasant plants and shall set it with strange slips. In the day shall you make your plant to grow, and in the morning shall you make your seed to flourish; but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
- Woe to the multitude of many people, who make a noise like the noise of the seas, and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters, but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. And behold, at evening — trouble; and before the morning, he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.
- Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying, Go, you swift messengers, to a nation now lost yet defiant, to a people terrible from their beginning until now, a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled. All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see, when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains; and when he blows a trumpet, hear. For so the Lord said unto me: I will take my rest and I will consider in my dwelling place, like a clear heat upon herbs and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches. 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. In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of Hosts, of a people who were lost yet defiant, and from a people terrible from their beginning until now, a nation meted out and trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts: the mount Zion.
- 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. And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians and they shall fight, every one against his brother and every one against his neighbor, city against city and kingdom against kingdom. 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 them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts. And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. And they shall turn the rivers far away, and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up; the reeds and rushes shall wither. The papyrus by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and everything sowed by the brooks shall wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast fishhooks into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. Moreover, they that work in fine flax and they that weave networks shall be confounded. And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.
- Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh has become brutish. How do you say unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where are they? Where are your wise men? And let them tell you now, and let them know what the Lord of Hosts has purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the cornerstone of the tribes thereof. The Lord has mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof, and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunk man staggers in his vomit. Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush may do. In that day shall Egypt be like unto women, and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of Hosts which he shakes over it. And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt; everyone that makes mention thereof shall be afraid in himself because of the counsel of the Lord of Hosts which he has determined against it.
- In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of Hosts; one shall be called the city of destruction. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the center of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt, for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors; and he shall send them a savior, and a great one, and he shall deliver them. And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day and shall do sacrifice and offering; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord and perform it. And the Lord shall smite Egypt, he shall smite and heal it, and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them and shall heal them. In that day shall there 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 with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.
- In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him), and fought against Ashdod and took it, at the same time spoke the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and remove the sackcloth from off your loins and put off your shoes from your feet. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
- And the Lord said, Like my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, 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. And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation, and of Egypt, their glory; and the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, where we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And how shall we escape?
- As whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. A grievous vision is declared unto me: the treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the spoiler spoils. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease. Therefore are my loins 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. My heart panted, fearfulness frightened me, the night of my pleasure has he turned into fear unto me. Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink; arise, you princes, and anoint the shield. For thus has the Lord said unto me: Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels, and he listened diligently with much heed. And he cried, A lion! My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my watch whole nights; and behold, here comes a chariot of men with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the engraved images of her gods he has broken unto the ground. O my threshing and the grain of my floor, that which I have heard of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
- He calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; return, come.
- In the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, O traveling companies of Dedanim. The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they met with their bread him that fled. For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. For thus has the Lord said unto me: Within a year, according to the years of a hired hand, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail. And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished, for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.
- What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops, you that are full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city? Your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. All your rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers; all that are found in you are bound together, who have fled from far. Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly. Labor not to comfort me because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. And Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. And it shall come to pass that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. And he uncovered the covering of Judah, and you did look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest. You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many, and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall. You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool, but you have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago. And in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of Hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until you die, says the Lord God of Hosts.
- Thus says the Lord God of Hosts: Go, get yourself unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, who is over the house, and say, What do you have here? And whom do you have here, that you have hewn yourself out a sepulcher here as he that hews himself out a sepulcher on high, and that carves a habitation for himself in a rock? Behold, the Lord will carry you away with a mighty captivity and will surely cover you. He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country. There shall you die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your lord’s house. And I will drive you from your station, and from your state shall he pull you down. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my servant, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your sash, and I will commit your government into his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. 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. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house: the offspring and the offshoots, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons. In that day, says the Lord of Hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place 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.
- Howl, ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in; from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them. Be still, you inhabitants of the isle, you whom the merchants of Sidon that pass over the sea have replenished. And by great waters, the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the river is her revenue, and she is a mart of nations. Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins. As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be greatly pained at the report of Tyre. Pass over to Tarshish; howl, you inhabitants of the isle. Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn. Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth? 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. Pass through your land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish, there is no more strength in you. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms. The Lord has given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strongholds thereof.
- And he said, You shall no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin, daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim; there also shall you have no rest. Behold the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not until the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness. They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof. And he brought it to ruin.
- Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste. And it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king; and after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as a harlot: Take a harp, go about the city, you harlot that has been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. It shall not be treasured nor laid up, for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing.
Chapter 6
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
The burden of Moab.
The burden of Damascus.
The burden of Egypt.
The burden of the Desert of the Sea.
The burden of Dumah.
The burden upon Arabia.
The burden of the Valley of Vision.
The burden of Tyre.