Isaiah 17

³This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they threshed Gilead with sledges of iron.

⁴So I will send fire upon the house of Hazael to consume the citadels of Ben-hadad.

²Indeed, You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The fortress of strangers is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.

¹This is the burden of the word of the Lord against the land of Hadrach and Damascus its resting place—for the eyes of men and of all the tribes of Israel are upon the Lord—

²Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sound the battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a heap of ruins, and its villages will be burned. Then Israel will drive out their dispossessors, says the Lord.

²³Concerning Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, for they have heard a bad report; they are agitated like the sea; their anxiety cannot be calmed.

²⁴Damascus has become feeble; she has turned to flee. Panic has gripped her; anguish and pain have seized her like a woman in labor.

¹⁵During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.

⁵I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’

³⁶From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead, not one city had walls too high for us. The Lord our God gave us all of them.

⁶So the seacoast will become a land of pastures, with wells for shepherds and folds for sheep.

³³The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.

³⁴And the Gadites built up Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,

⁴And each man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with no one to frighten him. For the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.

¹⁶For before the boy knows enough to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

⁴For before the boy knows how to cry ‘Father’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

¹¹Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.

⁸For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered as a people.

⁴The mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.

⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?

¹⁶Ephraim is struck down; their root is withered; they cannot bear fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay the darlings of their wombs.

¹⁷My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

¹⁶Therefore the Lord God of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame.

¹⁵But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord God says to them: ‘Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

⁸The Lord has sent a message against Jacob, and it has fallen upon Israel.

¹³So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

⁴Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

³³For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”

¹³Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great.

¹⁸Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁵Then another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the One seated on the cloud, “Swing Your sickle and reap, because the time has come to harvest, for the crop of the earth is ripe.”

¹⁶So the One seated on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

²²Once again the Philistines came up and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹³So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

²⁷Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.

⁵“If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, how you will be ruined—would they not steal only what they wanted? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings?

⁴And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

⁵In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

²⁷Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.

²But Gideon answered them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer?

⁷But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

¹Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.

⁵Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.

¹Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

²Bring your confessions and return to the Lord. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.

²⁴Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction.”

¹⁸A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah interceded for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, provide atonement for everyone

¹⁹who sets his heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of his fathers—even if he is not cleansed according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”

²²So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

⁹Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.

⁸Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

¹³I will also cut off the carved images and sacred pillars from among you, so that you will no longer bow down to the work of your own hands.

¹⁴I will root out the Asherah poles from your midst and demolish your cities.

¹Israel was a luxuriant vine, yielding fruit for himself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better he made the sacred pillars.

²Their hearts are devious; now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and demolish their sacred pillars.

⁶Josiah did the same in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them.

⁷He tore down the altars and Asherah poles, crushed the idols to powder, and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

¹⁰For the fortified city lies deserted—a homestead abandoned, a wilderness forsaken. There the calves graze, and there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.

¹¹Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “An enemy will surround the land; he will pull down your strongholds and plunder your citadels.”

¹²This is what the Lord says: “As the shepherd snatches from the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so the Israelites dwelling in Samaria will be rescued having just the corner of a bed or the cushion of a couch.

¹⁴the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished as Shalman devastated Beth-arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children.

⁴“In that day the splendor of Jacob will fade, and the fat of his body will waste away,

⁵as the reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the ears with his arm, as one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁵Although he flourishes among his brothers, an east wind will come—a wind from the Lord rising up from the desert. His fountain will fail, and his spring will run dry. The wind will plunder his treasury of every precious article.

¹⁶Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

⁹The high places of Isaac will be deserted, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with My sword.”

³²Does a maiden forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash? Yet My people have forgotten Me for days without number.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever, because God the Lord is the Rock eternal.

²¹They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

¹⁸You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth.

⁴He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

⁶When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.

⁷So like a lion I will pounce on them; like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

⁷For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.

⁸As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.

¹³Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

¹⁴My servants will shout for joy with a glad heart, but you will cry out with a heavy heart and wail with a broken spirit.

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

⁷Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

⁸The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.

¹³You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your mighty men,

²⁵There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.

²³They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Zion.”

⁴The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.

¹⁵Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.

²and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of many waters, and the earth shone with His glory.

¹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.

⁵You have rebuked the nations; You have destroyed the wicked; You have erased their name forever and ever.

⁴Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.

¹⁵Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

¹⁶You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away; a gale will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the Lord; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁸Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?

⁵But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,

⁵God is within her; she will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.

⁶Nations rage, kingdoms crumble; the earth melts when He lifts His voice.

³⁵And that very night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

²³for the Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them.

¹⁰They will not gather wood from the countryside or cut it from the forests, for they will use the weapons for fuel. They will loot those who looted them and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God.

²⁸Assyria has entered Aiath and passed through Migron, storing their supplies at Michmash.

²⁹They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.

³to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.

³Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of His harvest. All who devoured her were found guilty; disaster came upon them,’” declares the Lord.