ISAIAH 31-35

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Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt31:1

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help

and rely on horses,

who trust in chariots because they are many

and in horsemen because they are very strong,

but do not look to the Holy One of Israel

or consult the Lord! 2

And yet he is wise and brings disaster;

he does not call back his words,

but will arise against the house of the evildoers

and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. 3

The Egyptians are man, and not God,

and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.

When the Lord stretches out his hand,

the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,

and they will all perish together.
4

For thus the Lord said to me,

“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,

and when a band of shepherds is called out against him

he is not terrified by their shouting

or daunted at their noise,

so the Lord of hosts will come down

to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. 5

Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts

will protect Jerusalem;

he will protect and deliver it;

he will spare and rescue it.”
    6 Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
8

“And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;

and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;

and he shall flee from the sword,

and his young men shall be put to forced labor. 9

His rock shall pass away in terror,

and his officers desert the standard in panic,”

declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,

and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. A King Will Reign in Righteousness32:1

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule in justice. 2

Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,

a shelter from the storm,

like streams of water in a dry place,

like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. 3

Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will give attention. 4

The heart of the hasty will understand and know,

and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly. 5

The fool will no more be called noble,

nor the scoundrel said to be honorable. 6

For the fool speaks folly,

and his heart is busy with iniquity,

to practice ungodliness,

to utter error concerning the Lord,

to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,

and to deprive the thirsty of drink. 7

As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil;

he plans wicked schemes

to ruin the poor with lying words,

even when the plea of the needy is right. 8

But he who is noble plans noble things,

and on noble things he stands. Complacent Women Warned of Disaster9

Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;

you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. 10

In little more than a year

you will shudder, you complacent women;

for the grape harvest fails,

the fruit harvest will not come. 11

Tremble, you women who are at ease,

shudder, you complacent ones;

strip, and make yourselves bare,

and tie sackcloth around your waist. 12

Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,

for the fruitful vine, 13

for the soil of my people

growing up in thorns and briers,

yes, for all the joyous houses

in the exultant city. 14

For the palace is forsaken,

the populous city deserted;

the hill and the watchtower

will become dens forever,

a joy of wild donkeys,

a pasture of flocks; 15

until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,

and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. 16

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,

and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. 17

And the effect of righteousness will be peace,

and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. 18

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,

in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. 19

And it will hail when the forest falls down,

and the city will be utterly laid low. 20

Happy are you who sow beside all waters,

who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free. O Lord, Be Gracious to Us33:1

Ah, you destroyer,

who yourself have not been destroyed,

you traitor,

whom none has betrayed!

When you have ceased to destroy,

you will be destroyed;

and when you have finished betraying,

they will betray you.
2

O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.

Be our arm every morning,

our salvation in the time of trouble. 3

At the tumultuous noise peoples flee;

when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered, 4

and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;

as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.
5

The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;

he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, 6

and he will be the stability of your times,

abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.
7

Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;

the envoys of peace weep bitterly. 8

The highways lie waste;

the traveler ceases.

Covenants are broken;

cities are despised;

there is no regard for man. 9

The land mourns and languishes;

Lebanon is confounded and withers away;

Sharon is like a desert,

and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10

“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,

“now I will lift myself up;

now I will be exalted. 11

You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;

your breath is a fire that will consume you. 12

And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,

like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”
13

Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;

and you who are near, acknowledge my might. 14

The sinners in Zion are afraid;

trembling has seized the godless:

“Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?

Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” 15

He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,

who despises the gain of oppressions,

who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,

who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed

and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, 16

he will dwell on the heights;

his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;

his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.
17

Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;

they will see a land that stretches afar. 18

Your heart will muse on the terror:

“Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute?

Where is he who counted the towers?” 19

You will see no more the insolent people,

the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,

stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand. 20

Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!

Your eyes will see Jerusalem,

an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent,

whose stakes will never be plucked up,

nor will any of its cords be broken. 21

But there the Lord in majesty will be for us

a place of broad rivers and streams,

where no galley with oars can go,

nor majestic ship can pass. 22

For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver;

the Lord is our king; he will save us.
23

Your cords hang loose;

they cannot hold the mast firm in its place

or keep the sail spread out.

Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;

even the lame will take the prey. 24

And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;

the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity. Judgment on the Nations34:1

Draw near, O nations, to hear,

and give attention, O peoples!

Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;

the world, and all that comes from it. 2

For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,

and furious against all their host;

he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter. 3

Their slain shall be cast out,

and the stench of their corpses shall rise;

the mountains shall flow with their blood. 4

All the host of heaven shall rot away,

and the skies roll up like a scroll.

All their host shall fall,

as leaves fall from the vine,

like leaves falling from the fig tree.
5

For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,

upon the people I have devoted to destruction. 6

The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;

it is gorged with fat,

with the blood of lambs and goats,

with the fat of the kidneys of rams.

For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,

a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7

Wild oxen shall fall with them,

and young steers with the mighty bulls.

Their land shall drink its fill of blood,

and their soil shall be gorged with fat.
8

For the Lord has a day of vengeance,

a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 9

And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch,

and her soil into sulfur;

her land shall become burning pitch. 10

Night and day it shall not be quenched;

its smoke shall go up forever.

From generation to generation it shall lie waste;

none shall pass through it forever and ever. 11

But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it,

the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.

He shall stretch the line of confusion over it,

and the plumb line of emptiness. 12

Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,

and all its princes shall be nothing.
13

Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,

nettles and thistles in its fortresses.

It shall be the haunt of jackals,

an abode for ostriches. 14

And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;

the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;

indeed, there the night bird settles

and finds for herself a resting place.
15

There the owl nests and lays

and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;

indeed, there the hawks are gathered,

each one with her mate. 16

Seek and read from the book of the Lord:

Not one of these shall be missing;

none shall be without her mate.

For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,

and his Spirit has gathered them. 17

He has cast the lot for them;

his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;

they shall possess it forever;

from generation to generation they shall dwell in it. The Ransomed Shall Return35:1

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;

the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; 2

it shall blossom abundantly

and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the Lord,

the majesty of our God.
3

Strengthen the weak hands,

and make firm the feeble knees. 4

Say to those who have an anxious heart,

“Be strong; fear not!

Behold, your God

will come with vengeance,

with the recompense of God.

He will come and save you.”
5

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6

then shall the lame man leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

For waters break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert; 7

the burning sand shall become a pool,

and the thirsty ground springs of water;

in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,

the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
8

And a highway shall be there,

and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;

the unclean shall not pass over it.

It shall belong to those who walk on the way;

even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. 9

No lion shall be there,

nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;

they shall not be found there,

but the redeemed shall walk there. 10

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return

and come to Zion with singing;

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain gladness and joy,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

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