Isaiah 12-17

Isaiah 12

¹And in that day thou shalt say, I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD; for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me.

²Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and song; and he is become my salvation.

³Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

⁴And in that day shall ye say, Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the peoples, make mention that his name is exalted.

⁵Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: let this be known in all the earth.

⁶Cry aloud and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

Isaiah 13

¹The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

²Set ye up an ensign upon the bare mountain, lift up the voice unto them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

³I have commanded my consecrated ones, yea, I have called my mighty men for mine anger, even my proudly exulting ones.

⁴The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people! the noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! the LORD of hosts mustereth the host for the battle.

⁵They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

⁶Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

⁷Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt:

⁸and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame.

⁹Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

¹⁰For 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.

¹¹And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

¹²I will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir.

¹³Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

¹⁴And it shall come to pass, that as the chased roe, and as sheep that no man gathereth, they shall turn every man to his own people, and shall flee every man to his own land.

¹⁵Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is taken shall fall by the sword.

¹⁶Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

¹⁷Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

¹⁸And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

¹⁹And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁰It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.

²¹But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.

²²And wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Isaiah 14

¹For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the stranger shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

²And the peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and for handmaids: and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

³And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve,

⁴that thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

⁵The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers;

⁶that smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.

⁷The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

⁸Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

⁹Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

¹⁰All they shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

¹¹Thy pomp is brought down to hell, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and worms cover thee.

¹²How art thou fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst lay low the nations!

¹³And thou saidst in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north:

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.

¹⁵Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the uttermost parts of the pit.

¹⁶They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, they shall consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

¹⁷that made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew the cities thereof; that let not loose his prisoners to their home?

¹⁸All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house.

¹⁹But thou art cast forth away from thy sepulchre like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, that are thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under foot.

²⁰Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever.

²¹Prepare ye slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they rise not up, and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.

²²And I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son, saith the LORD.

²³I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

²⁴The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

²⁵that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulder.

²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

²⁷For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

²⁸In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.

²⁹Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of thee, because the rod that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a basilisk, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

³⁰And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and thy remnant shall be slain.

³¹Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou art melted away, O Philistia, all of thee; for there cometh a smoke out of the north, and none standeth aloof at his appointed times.

³²What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of his people take refuge.

Isaiah 15

¹The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nought; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nought.

²He is gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab howleth over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.

³In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth: on their housetops, and in their broad places, every one howleth, weeping abundantly.

⁴And Heshbon crieth out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembleth within him.

⁵My heart crieth out for Moab; her nobles flee unto Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.

⁶For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the grass is withered away, the tender grass faileth, there is no green thing.

⁷Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.

⁸For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of blood: for I will bring yet more upon Dimon, a lion upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.

Isaiah 16

¹Send ye the lambs for the ruler of the land from Sela which is toward the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.

²For it shall be that, as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of Arnon.

³Give counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday: hide the outcasts; bewray not the wanderer.

⁴Let mine outcasts dwell with thee; as for Moab, be thou a covert to him from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is brought to nought, spoiling ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.

⁵And a throne shall be established in mercy, and one shall sit thereon in truth, in the tent of David; judging, and seeking judgment, and swift to do righteousness.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogancy, and his pride, and his wrath; his boastings are nought.

⁷Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn, utterly stricken.

⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down the choice plants thereof; they reached even unto Jazer, they wandered into the wilderness; her branches were spread abroad, they passed over the sea.

⁹Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest the battle shout is fallen.

¹⁰And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful noise: no treader shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the vintage shout to cease.

¹¹Wherefore my bowels sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-heres.

¹²And it shall come to pass, when Moab presenteth himself, when he wearieth himself upon the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail.

¹³This is the word that the LORD spake concerning Moab in time past.

¹⁴But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and of no account.

Isaiah 17

¹The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

²The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

³The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria; they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.

⁴And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.

⁵And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the standing corn, and his arm reapeth the ears; yea, it shall be as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim.

⁶Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, saith the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁷In that day shall a man look unto his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall he have respect to that which his fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images.

⁹In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel: and it shall be a desolation.

¹⁰For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips:

¹¹In the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom: but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

¹²Ah, the uproar of many peoples, which roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!

¹³The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.

¹⁴At eventide behold terror; and before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.