Bible in 90 Days
Chapter 29
The Siege of Jerusalem
1 [a]Woe to Ariel, Ariel,[b]
the city where David encamped.
Year after year will pass,
and the festivals will be celebrated annually.
2 Yet I will inflict distress upon Ariel,
and there will be endless mourning and lamentation
as she becomes like an altar of fire.
3 I will encamp against you like David,
completely surround you with my forces
and erect siege-works against you.
4 Then, as you lie prostrate, you will speak,
and from the dust of the earth
your words will come forth.
Your voice will rise from the ground
like that of a ghost,
and your words will whisper out of the dust.
5 But the vast throng of your enemies
will be like fine dust,
and the horde of your ruthless foes
will be like flying chaff.
Then suddenly, in an instant,
6 you will be visited by the Lord of hosts,
accompanied by thunder and earthquake and intense din,
by whirlwind and tempest
and the flame of devouring fire.
7 Then the horde of all the nations
that fight against Ariel,
all who fight against her,
besieging her and causing her great anguish,
will fade away like a dream,
like a vision in the night.
8 Just as when a hungry man dreams of eating
and then awakens with an empty stomach,
or as when a thirsty man dreams of drinking
and then awakens to find his throat still parched,
so will it be with the horde of all the nations
that make war against Mount Zion.
Hypocrisy and Deception
9 If you stupefy yourselves,
you will remain in a stupor.
If you blind yourselves,
you will remain blind.
Be drunk, but not on wine;
stagger, but not from strong drink.
10 For the Lord has poured out on you
a spirit of deep sleep;
he has closed your eyes, you prophets,
and covered your heads, you seers.
11 The prophetic vision of all this has become like the words of a sealed scroll. If you hand it to someone who is able to read and you say to him, “Please read this,” he will answer, “I cannot, because it is sealed.” 12 And if you hand it to someone who cannot read and say to him, “Please read this,” he will reply, “I cannot read.”
13 [c]Then the Lord said:
Because this people draws near to me
only with their words
and honors me only with their lips
while their hearts are far from me,
and their reverence for me has become
nothing but a human commandment
that has been memorized,
14 therefore, I will continue to deal with this people
in shocking and amazing ways.
The wisdom of their wise men will perish,
and the understanding of their discerning men will cease.
15 Woe to those who go to extreme measures
to conceal their plans from the Lord,
who perpetrate their evil deeds in the dark,
saying, “Who sees us? Who knows where we are?”
16 Such people are truly perverse.
Is the potter no better than the clay?
Can what is made say of its maker,
“He did not make me”?
Can a pot say of the potter,
“He really has no particular skill”?
Deliverance
17 It will be but a very short time
before Lebanon will become a fertile field
and its orchards will be regarded as forests.
18 On that day the deaf will hear
the words of a book being read,
and the eyes of the blind will see,
delivered from gloom and darkness.
19 The lowly will once again rejoice in the Lord,
and those who are poor will exult
in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the tyrants will be no more
and the arrogant will cease to exist;
all those who revel in evil deeds will be destroyed:
21 those whose lies cause a man to be judged guilty,
those who set traps to capture just arbiters
and thereby deprive the innocent
from being granted justice.
22 Therefore, thus says the Lord,
the deliverer of Abraham,
in regard to the house of Jacob:
No longer will the house of Jacob be ashamed,
nor will their faces grow pale.
23 For when they see in their midst
their children, the work of my hands,
they will acknowledge my name as holy.
They will reverence the Holy One of Jacob
and stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who err in spirit will gain understanding,
and those who are obstinate will receive instruction.
Chapter 30
Doomed Alliance with Egypt
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord,
who devise plans that were not in accord with my will,
who make alliances that were not inspired by me,
thereby adding sin upon sin.
2 They depart for Egypt
without seeking my counsel,
to take refuge in Pharaoh’s protection
and to take shelter in Egypt’s shadow.
3 Therefore, Pharaoh’s protection will be your shame,
and the shelter of Egypt’s shadow
will be your humiliation.
4 For though his princes are at Zoan
and his envoys have reached Hanes,[d]
5 everyone has been put to shame
by a people who cannot be of any use,
who afford them neither help nor profit
but only shame and disgrace.
6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb:
Through a land of hardship and distress,
of the lioness and the roaring lion,
of the viper and the flying serpent,
they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels
to a nation that cannot be of help to them.
7 For Egypt’s help is vain and futile;
therefore I have called her
“Rahab[e] the Worthless.”
8 [f]And so go forth and in their presence
write it on a scroll,
inscribe it on a tablet,
so that it may serve hereafter
as an eternal witness.
9 They are a rebellious people,
deceitful children,
children who refuse to listen
to the instruction of the Lord.
10 To the seers they say,
“Cease to have visions!”
To the prophets they demand,
“Do not prophesy to us what is right;
reveal to us pleasant things; prophesy illusions.
11 Cease with your warnings;
turn aside from the straight path.
We wish to hear nothing further
about the Holy One of Israel.”
12 Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you have rejected this warning,
placing your trust in fraud and deceit
and relying on them,
13 this guilt of yours will become for you
like a crack appearing in a high wall
that bulges out and continues to widen
until suddenly, in an instant,
that wall will come hurtling to the ground.
14 It will crash and break like an earthenware pot,
shattered so completely
that among its fragments not a single shard can be found
to remove an ember from the hearth
or to scoop out water from a cistern.
15 For thus says the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel:
Your salvation depends upon repentance and tranquility
and your strength upon quiet trust.
But you would have none of it.
16 “No,” you said. “We will flee upon horses.”
Therefore, you will flee.
“We will ride on swift horses,” you added.
But your pursuers will be even more swift.
17 A thousand will tremble at the threat of one;
if five threaten you, you will flee,
until you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain
or like a banner on a hill.
18 But even so the Lord is waiting to be gracious to you,
and he will rise up to grant you his compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
19 O people of Zion who dwell in Jerusalem,
you will weep no more.
The Lord will be gracious to you
when you cry out to him for help;
when he hears your call,
he will answer you.
20 Although the Lord may give you the bread of adversity
and the water of affliction,
he who is your Teacher will no longer hide himself,
but with your own eyes you will see your Teacher.
21 And when you stray from your path,
whether to the right or to the left,
you will hear his voice behind you,
sounding in your ears and saying,
“This is the way; continue to follow it.”
22 Then you will realize how unclean
are your silver-plated idols
and your gold-plated images.
You will cast them away like polluted rags
and shout at them, “Away with you!”
God’s Promise of Prosperity
23 God will send rain
for the seed you sow in the ground,
and the crops that the soil brings forth
will be rich and abundant.
When that day comes,
your cattle will graze in broad pastures.
24 The oxen and the donkeys that plow the land
will be fed with fodder
that has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
25 On every lofty mountain and on every high hill
there will be streams of water
on the day of the great slaughter
when the strongholds fall.
26 The light of the moon will match that of the sun,
and the light of the sun itself
will be seven times brighter than before,
like the light of seven days compressed into one,
when the Lord binds up the wounds of his people
and heals the injuries inflicted by his blows.
Divine Punishment of Assyria
27 See, the name of the Lord approaches from afar,
with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke.
His lips are brimming over with anger,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
28 His breath is like a rushing flood
that reaches up to the neck;
it will winnow the nations with the sieve of destruction
and place on the jaws of the people
a bridle that will lead them astray.
29 But as for you, your songs will be
like those on the night of a holy festival,
and you will experience joy in your hearts
such as occurs when, to the sound of a flute,
people make a pilgrimage to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Rock of Israel.
30 Then the Lord will make his majestic voice heard
and allow his arm to be seen
as it descends in furious anger
and a flame of devouring fire
amid cloudbursts and thunderstorms and hail.
31 Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the Lord
as he strikes with his rod.
32 Every stroke that the Lord inflicts upon Assyria
with his punishing rod
will be accompanied by the sound
of timbrels and lyres
as he engages in battle
with his uplifted hand.
33 The pyre has been ready for a long time,
prepared for the king.
His pyre is deep and broad,
with fire and wood in abundance.
And the breath of the Lord, like a steam of sulfur,
will set it ablaze.[g]
Chapter 31
Forbidden Alliance with Egypt
1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and who rely on horses,
who place their trust in a large number of chariots
and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or seek the Lord’s guidance.
2 Yet he, too, is wise and can bring disaster,
and he does not take back his threats.
He will rise up against the house of the wicked
and against those who come to the support of evildoers.
3 The Egyptians are mortal, not divine;
their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
the helper will stumble and the one helped will fall;
all of them will perish together.
4 This is what the Lord said to me:
As a lion or a lion cub
growls over its prey,
and when a band of shepherds
gather together to drive it off,
it is not frightened by their shouting
or daunted by their clamor,
so the Lord of hosts will come down
to do battle on the heights of Mount Zion.
5 Like a hovering bird
the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it,
he will spare and rescue it.
6 Come back to the one
whom you have completely deserted,
O children of Israel.
7 For on that day
all of you will cast away
your idols of silver and your false gods of gold
which your own sinful hands have made.
Destruction of Assyria
8 Then Assyria will fall by a sword not brandished by a man
and be devoured by a sword that no human yields;
he will flee before the sword,
and his young warriors will endure forced labor.
9 His stronghold will be abandoned in terror,
and his commanders will panic and desert him.
Thus says the Lord whose fire is in Zion
and whose furnace burns in Jerusalem.
Chapter 32
A Righteous King
1 Behold, a king will reign with righteousness
and princes will rule with justice.
2 Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in arid land,
like the shade of a great rock in a desolate area.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will listen attentively.
4 The minds of the rash will show good judgment,
and those who stutter will speak promptly and clearly.
5 No longer will a fool be called noble,
nor will a villain be considered to be honorable.
6 For the fool speaks foolishly
while his heart is planning evil.
He practices ungodliness
and spreads malicious untruths about the Lord.
He starves the hungry by withholding their food
and deprives the thirsty of anything to drink.
7 The methods of the scoundrel are wicked,
and he devises infamous schemes
to destroy the poor with his lies
even when the pleas of the needy are just.
8 But the man who is noble plans noble deeds,
and in that respect he stands firm.
The Restoration of Jerusalem
9 Listen carefully to what I have to say,
you women who are so complacent.
Pay attention to my words,
you who feel so secure.
10 In little more than a year from now
you complacent ones will be shaken.
For the vintage will fail
and there will be no harvest.
11 Tremble, you complacent women;
shudder, you who feel secure.
Strip yourselves bare,
with only a loincloth to cover you.
12 Beat your breasts in mourning
for the pleasant fields and the fruitful vines,
13 for the soil of my people
overgrown with thorns and briars,
and for all the joyful houses
in this city of revelry.
14 The citadel[h] will be abandoned
and the crowded streets will be deserted;
the hill and the watchtower will become wasteland forever,
in which wild asses may frolic and flocks may pasture,
15 until a spirit from on high
is poured out upon us,
and the wilderness becomes an orchard
and the fruitful field becomes a forest.
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness will abide in the orchard.
17 The effect of righteousness will be peace,
and its result will be quiet and security forever.
18 My people will abide in a peaceful land,
in secure dwellings and peaceful resting places.
19 Even if the forest were to be totally destroyed
and the city were to be completely leveled,
20 how blessed you will be
to sow your seed beside every stream
and to have your cattle and your donkeys roam freely.
Chapter 33
Overthrow of Assyria
1 Woe to you, O destroyer,
who yourself have not been destroyed!
Woe to you, O traitor,
who yourself have not been betrayed!
When you have finished destroying,
you yourself will be destroyed;
when you have ceased betraying,
you yourself will be betrayed.
2 O Lord, be merciful to us,
for we have placed our hope in you.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in times of trouble.
3 At the sound of tumult, peoples flee;
nations scatter when they behold your majesty.
4 Your spoil is gathered as if by caterpillars;
like a swarm of locusts men descend upon it.
5 The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 Her strength will derive from the Lord’s unchanging stability;
her deliverance will result from wisdom and knowledge;
her treasure is the fear of the Lord.
7 Listen to the valiant cry aloud in the streets for help;
the ambassadors who seek peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways are deserted;
no longer are there any travelers on the road.
Treaties are broken and their terms are ignored;
no one is deemed worthy of respect.
9 The land languishes in mourning;
Lebanon withers in its shame.
Sharon has become a desert;
Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.[i]
10 Now I will rise up, says the Lord.
Now I will be exalted,
now I will be lifted up.
11 You conceive chaff and give birth to stubble;
like fire my Spirit will devour you.
12 The peoples will be burned as though by lime,
like thorns that have been cut
and consumed in the fire.
13 You who are far away,
listen to what I have done,
and you who are near,
acknowledge my strength.
14 The sinners in Zion are filled with terror;
trembling has seized the godless.
“Can any of us survive the devouring fire?
Can any of us survive the everlasting flames?”
15 Those who walk righteously and speak honestly,
who refuse to enrich themselves by extortion,
who reject any bribes offered to them
and stop their ears from listening to plans for murder
and shut their eyes from looking on evil—
16 these people will dwell on the heights;
their refuge will be rocky cliffs,
where they will have an abundance of food and water.
Peace and Prosperity in Zion
17 Your eyes will behold the king in his splendor
and gaze upon a land that stretches far and wide.
18 Your mind will then meditate on the terror.
“Where is the man who did the counting?
Where is the man who weighed the tribute?
Where is the man who counted the towers?”
19 No longer will you encounter the insolent people,
those who employ an obscure speech
that you cannot understand
and who stammer in a language
that you are unable to comprehend.
20 Gaze upon Zion,
the city of our sacred feasts.
Your eyes will behold Jerusalem as a quiet abode,
as a tent that will not be moved,
whose stakes will never be pulled up
and none of whose ropes will be broken.
21 There we will behold the Lord in all his majesty,
in a place of rivers and broad streams,
upon which no enemy galleys with oars can go
or a majestic ship can sail.
22 For the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver.
The Lord is our king;
he is the one who will save us.
23 If the rigging of an enemy ship is loose,
unable to hold the mast in place
or to keep the sails spread out,
then abundant spoils will be divided;
even the lame will carry off the plunder.
24 No inhabitant will say, “I am sick,”
for the people who live there
will be forgiven for their sins.
The Lord, Zion’s Defender[j]
Chapter 34
The End of Edom
1 Draw near, you nations, and listen;
pay attention, you peoples.
Let the earth and everything in it listen,
the world and all that issues forth from it.
2 For the Lord is angry with all the nations
and enraged against all their armies;
he has decreed their doom
and given them over to slaughter.
3 Their slain will be cast out,
and their corpses will emit a stench;
the mountains will flow with their blood.
4 All the host of heaven will crumble into nothing,
and the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll.
All their host will wither away
as the leaves wither on a vine
or as the fruit withers on a fig tree.
5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
lo, it will descend upon Edom,
upon a people I have doomed to destruction.
6 The Lord has a sword sated with blood;
it is greasy 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
and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will also be struck down alongside them
as will the bullocks with the bulls.
Their land will be drenched with blood
and their soil will be greasy with fat.
8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of reprisal by Zion’s defenders.
9 The streams of Edom will be turned into pitch
and her soil into sulfur;
her land will become burning pitch.[k]
10 Night or day it will never be quenched;
its smoke will rise forever.
From generation to generation it will lie waste;
never again will anyone pass through it.
11 But the hawk and the hedgehog will possess it;
the owl and the raven will dwell in it.
The Lord will stretch out over it
the measuring line of chaos
and the plumb line of desolation.
12 There will be no more nobles there
to proclaim the king;
all of its princes will have vanished.
13 Its citadels will be overgrown with thorns,
and nettles and briars will cover its fortresses.
It will become an abode for jackals
and a haunt for ostriches.
14 Desert creatures will frolic with hyenas,
and wild goats will call out to each other;
there, too, the nightjar will return to rest
and find a place for repose.
15 There will the owl nest and lay eggs,
and hatch and gather its young under her wings;
there, too, the buzzards will gather,
each one with its mate.
16 Consult the book[l] of the Lord and read it.
Not one of these will be missing,
not one will be without its mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded this,
and his Spirit has gathered them together.
17 He has allotted the portion for each;
his hand has measured out their shares.
They will possess it forever
and dwell there from generation to generation.
Chapter 35
God’s Judgment and Promise[m]
1 The desert and the parched land will be glad.
The wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
2 Like the crocus it will bloom with abundant flowers
and rejoice with songs of joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.
They will behold the glory of the Lord,
the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the hands that are weak,
and make firm the knees that give way.
4 Say to those who are faint-hearted,
“Be strong! Do not be afraid!
Here is your God;
he will come with vengeance.
With divine retribution
he is coming to save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
and the ears of the deaf will no longer be sealed.
6 Then the lame will leap like a stag
and the tongue of the dumb will shout joyfully.
For waters will spring up in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
7 The burning sand will evolve into a pool,
and the thirsty ground will become springs of water.
The haunts where jackals used to live
will bring forth grass and reeds and papyrus.
8 A highway will be there
that will be called the Way of Holiness.
No one who is unclean may pass over it;
it will serve as a path for pilgrims
and no fool will be able to use it.
9 No lion will be there;
no ravenous beast will be encountered along it.
Such animals will not be seen there;
only the redeemed will be allowed to use it.
10 Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return
and come to Zion with songs of happiness,
their heads crowned with everlasting joy.
Gladness and joy will accompany them,
while sorrow and mourning will flee away.
Historical Appendix[n]
Chapter 36
Sennacherib’s Challenge.[o] 1 In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them. 2 From Lachish the king of Assyria sent his chief officer to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a great army. When the chief officer took up his position near the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field 3 there came out to meet him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was master of the palace, as well as Shebna the secretary, and the recorder Joah, son of Asaph.
4 The chief officer said to them, “Tell King Hezekiah: This is the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. On what do you base this great confidence of yours? 5 Do you think that mere words can overcome strategy and military strength? On whom are you relying for help that you dare to rebel against me? 6 This Egypt, the staff on whom you rely, is a broken reed that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely upon him. 7 And if you say to me that you are relying on the Lord, your God, is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, commanding Judah and Jerusalem to worship at this altar?
8 “Now I challenge you to make a wager with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find riders for them. 9 But how could you repulse even a single one of my master’s soldiers, even though you are depending upon Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 Moreover, do you believe that I have come to attack this land and destroy it without the consent of the Lord? The Lord himself said to me, ‘Go forth against this land and destroy it.’ ”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief officer, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,[p] for we understand it. Do not speak to us in Judean within earshot of the people on the ramparts.” 12 The chief officer replied, “Has my master sent me here to speak these words only to your master and to you, and not also to the people sitting on the wall who along with you will be doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
13 Then the chief officer stood up and shouted loudly in the Judean language, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not fall into the power of the king of Assyria.’ 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make peace with me and surrender. Then each of you will be free to eat the fruit of his own vine and drink the water of his own cistern 17 until I come to take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Do not let Hezekiah mislead you by saying that the Lord will save you. Have any of the gods of the nations saved their lands from the power of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my clutches?[q] 20 Which of all the gods of these countries has saved his country from my hand? Will the Lord then save Jerusalem from my power?’ ”
21 However, the people remained silent and did not respond with even a single word, for the king had ordered them not to reply to him. 22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the master of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the recorder Joah son of Asaph, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported the words of the chief officer.
Chapter 37
1 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, wrapped himself in sackcloth, and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz 3 and gave him this message:
“Thus says Hezekiah, ‘Today is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace. Children come to the moment of birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord, your God heard the words of the chief officer, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God, and that he will be rebuked for the words which the Lord, your God has heard. Offer your prayer for the remnant that still survive.’ ”
5 When the ministers of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 he said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Do not be alarmed because of the words that you have heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 I will put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain rumor he will go back to his own country, and there I will cause him to fall by the sword.’ ”
8 Meanwhile, the chief officer returned and discovered that the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish and was fighting against Libnah,[r] 9 since he had heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was on his way to attack him. On learning this, he sent envoys to Hezekiah with this message:
10 “Thus shall you say to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Do not let your God upon whom you rely deceive you with the promise that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11 You yourself must have learned by now what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, subjecting them to complete destruction. Will you then be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations whom my ancestors destroyed deliver them: Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were living in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’ ”
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. 15 Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and, spreading it out before him, he prayed to the Lord: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world. You have created the heavens and the earth. 17 Incline your ear, O Lord, and listen; open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Hear all the words of Sennacherib whose purpose is to taunt the living God. 18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands. 19 They have cast their gods into the fire because they were not truly gods but the work of human hands, fashioned from wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. 20 Therefore, O Lord, our God, save us from his hands so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”
21 Sennacherib’s Punishment. Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent the following message to Hezekiah: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: In answer to your prayer to me requesting help against King Sennacherib of Assyria, 22 this is the pronouncement that the Lord has made in regard to him:
“The virgin daughter of Zion
despises you and scorns you.
While you retreat the daughter of Jerusalem
tosses her head at you.
23 Whom have you insulted and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
and haughtily lifted up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 Through your servants you have insulted the Lord
and boasted: ‘With my many chariots
I have ascended the mountain heights,
the farthest peaks of Lebanon.
I have felled its tallest cedars,
its finest cypresses.
I have reached its highest peak
and its most luxuriant forest.
25 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there,
and with the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt.’
26 “Have you not heard
that I devised this plan long ago?
I planned it from days of old,
and now I have brought this to fruition:
you have reduced your fortified cities
into heaps of rubble,
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and frustrated;
they have become like plants of the field,
like tender green herbs,
like grass on housetops and fields
scorched by the east wind.
28 “I know when you stand or sit,
I know when you come in or go out,
and I am aware how you rage against me.
29 Because you have raged against me
and your arrogance has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth
and force you to return
by the way you came.
30 This will be the sign for you:
This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and in the second year what springs forth from that.
However, in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah
will again take root below
and bear fruit above.
32 For out of Jerusalem will come forth a remnant,
and from Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
33 “Therefore, this is the word of the Lord
in regard to the king of Assyria:
He will not come into this city
or shoot an arrow at it;
he will not advance against it with a shield
or build a siege-ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came,
by that same way he will return;
he will not enter this city, says the Lord.
35 I will protect this city and save it
for my own sake
and for the sake of my servant David.”
36 Then the angel of the Lord went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When morning dawned, the ground was covered with corpses.[s] 37 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned home to Nineveh.
38 One day, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer slew him with the sword and then fled to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him.
Chapter 38
Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery. 1 During that period, Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him and said, “Thus says the Lord: Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “I beg you, O Lord, to remember how I have conducted myself faithfully in your presence and have always done what was pleasing to you.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David. I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Therefore, I have decided to heal you. In three days you will go up to the temple of the Lord, and I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and defend this city.”
[21 Isaiah thereupon ordered a poultice of figs to be prepared and applied to the boil so that Hezekiah might recover. 22 Then Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign to confirm that I will go up to the temple of the Lord?”]
7 Isaiah replied, “This will be the sign to you from the Lord that he will do as he has promised. 8 I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the stairway of Ahaz to turn back ten steps.” And the sun then retreated the ten steps it had previously advanced.
Hezekiah’s Hymn of Thanksgiving.[t] 9 A canticle written by King Hezekiah of Judah after his recovery from his illness:
10 Once I said,
“In the noontime of my life
I must depart.
I will be consigned to the gates of Sheol
for the rest of my years.”
11 I said, “I will no longer see the Lord
in the land of the living.
I will no longer see any of my fellow men
as I did when I dwelled in the world.
12 “My dwelling has been torn down and thrown away
like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life
and the last thread has been severed.
Day and night I am subject to torment;
13 I cry out for help until the dawn.
All my bones are crushed, as if by a lion;
day and night I suffer in torment.
14 “Like a swallow I twitter;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes have grown dim looking up to heaven;
O Lord, come to my aid in my suffering.
15 Yet how can I complain? What should I say?
He himself has done this.
I will wander aimlessly for the rest of my years
because of the bitterness of my soul.
16 “However, you, O Lord, are always present to protect me,
and you grant life to my spirit;
you will restore me to health
and enable me to live.
17 Clearly it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish,
but you have preserved my life
from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
behind your back.
18 For Sheol cannot give you thanks,
nor can death praise you.
Those who go down into the pit
cannot hope for your kindness.
19 It is the living, only the living, who can thank you
as I am doing today,
just as fathers make known to their sons
your faithfulness, O God.
20 “The Lord is my savior,
and we will sing to stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the house of the Lord.”
Chapter 39
Hezekiah’s Foolishness.[u] 1 At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, sent envoys with letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been ill but had recovered. 2 Hezekiah was delighted at this, and therefore he showed the envoys his entire treasury: the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his entire armory, and all that was in his storerooms. There was nothing in his palace or in his entire realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
3 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say to you? Where did they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon.” 4 Isaiah then asked him, “What did they see in your palace?” Hezekiah said, “They have seen everything in my palace. There is nothing in my storerooms that I did not show them.”
5 Thereupon Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. 6 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when everything in your palace, and everything that your ancestors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left. 7 Some of your own sons who were fathered by you will be taken away and forced to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8 Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is comforting.” For he thought to himself, “There will be peace and security during my lifetime.”
The Book of Consolation[v]
The Lord’s Majesty in Israel’s Liberation[w]
Chapter 40
Salvation of the Lord[x]
1 Comfort my people and console them,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem
and proclaim to her
that her time of servitude is over
and that her guilt has been expiated.
Indeed she has received from the Lord’s hand
double punishment for all her sins.
3 A voice cries out:
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make a straight path in the desert for our God.
4 Let every valley be filled in
and every mountain and hill be made low.
Uneven ground will be made smooth
and the rugged places will become a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all mankind will see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
I reply, “What shall I cry out?”
“All mortals are grass;
they last no longer than the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord falls upon them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass may wither and the flower may fade,
but the word of our God will endure forever.”
9 Climb to the top of a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings.
Cry out as loudly as you can,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news.
Lift up your voice without fear
and proclaim to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See the Lord God approaching with power,
he who rules with his powerful arm.
His reward is with him
and his recompense[y] is before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
and in his arms he will gather the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom
and gently leading the pregnant ewes to water.
The Creator’s Power To Save His People
12 Who has measured the waters of the sea
in the hollow of his hand,
or marked off the heavens
with the breadth of his hand?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?
What counselor dared to instruct him?
14 Whom did he consult to gain enlightenment?
Who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge
or showed him the way of understanding?
15 In his eyes the nations are
like a drop in a bucket,
like dust on the scales.
To him coasts and islands[z]
weigh no more than fine dust,
16 Lebanon would not supply enough wood for fuel,
nor are its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as naught in his sight;
he reckons them as nothing and void.
18 To whom then will you compare God?
To what image can you liken him?
19 Perhaps an idol that a craftsman casts
and a goldsmith overlays with gold
and for which he fashions silver chains?
20 Or should mulberry wood be chosen,
a wood that will not rot,
and then a skilled artisan be designated
to fashion an idol that will not fall over?
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Were you not told from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?
22 God sits enthroned above the vault of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy
and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23 He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of the earth to nothing.
24 Scarcely have crops been planted or sown,
scarcely have their stems taken root in the ground,
before he breathes on them and they wither,
and storm winds carry them off like chaff.
25 To whom then can you compare me,
or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes to the heavens.
Who created these things?
He leads forth their host and numbers them,
summoning them all by name.[aa]
Because of his mighty power and great strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God,
the Creator of the earth’s farthest boundaries.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding cannot be scrutinized.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and new vigor to those who are powerless.
30 Even though young men faint and grow weary
and youths stumble and fall,
31 those who place their hope in the Lord
will regain their strength.
They will soar as with eagles’ wings,
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not become faint.
Chapter 41
The Lord Redeems Israel
1 Be silent and listen to me, O coastlands;
let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them draw near and speak;
let us meet together at the place of judgment.
2 Who has raised up a victor from the east
and summoned him to his service?
He delivers up nations to him
and overthrows their kings.
With his sword he scatters them like dust,
and with his bow he reduces them to stubble.
3 He pursues them and advances unscathed,
scarcely touching the path with his feet.
4 Who has performed these deeds and accomplished this?
Who has summoned the nations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, am the first,
and I will be there with the last.
5 The coastlands have seen and become frightened;
the ends of the earth tremble.
These things are fast approaching;
they will come to pass.
6 Each worker helps another;
they encourage each other to take heart.
7 The craftsman encourages the goldsmith,
and the polisher the one who strikes the anvil;
he declares the soldering to be good,
and he fastens the image with nails
so that it will be secure.
8 But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the descendants of my friend Abraham,
9 you whom I have taken to myself
from the ends of the earth
and summoned from its farthest corners,
to whom I have said, “You are my servant;
I have chosen you and will not cast you off.
10 Do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and give you help,
I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”
11 All those who rage against you
will be put to shame and disgraced;
those who oppose you
will be reduced to nothing and perish.
12 You will search for those who oppose you
but you will not find them.
Those who take up arms against you
will be reduced to nothing.
13 For I, the Lord, am your God
and I grasp your right hand.
It is I who say to you,
Do not fear; I will help you.
14 Do not fear, you worm, Jacob,
you maggot, Israel.
I will help you, says the Lord;
your redeemer[ab] is the Holy One of Israel.
15 Now I will make of you a threshing sledge,
sharp, new, with numerous teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you will reduce the hills to chaff.
16 You will winnow them,
the wind will carry them away,
and the gale will scatter them.
Then you will rejoice in the Lord
and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 When the poor and needy search for water
and there is none,
and their tongues are parched with thirst,
I the Lord will come to their aid;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open up rivers on the barren heights
and fountains in the midst of valleys.
I will turn the wilderness into a lake
and the dry land into springs of water.
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