Isaiah 20

¹⁷Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.

¹⁷As a guilt offering to the Lord, the Philistines had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.

²⁰all the mixed tribes; all the kings of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

²⁹For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of Hosts.’

³⁰So you are to prophesy all these words against them and say to them: ‘The Lord will roar from on high; He will raise His voice from His holy habitation. He will roar loudly over His pasture; like those who tread the grapes, He will call out with a shout against all the inhabitants of the earth.

⁸I will cut off the ruler of Ashdod and the one who wields the scepter in Ashkelon. I will turn My hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,” says the Lord God.

¹After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod,

⁸Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich.

⁴John wore a garment of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

²⁴Then Saul stripped off his robes and also prophesied before Samuel. And he collapsed and lay naked all that day and night. That is why it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

²³Your turbans will remain on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but you will waste away because of your sins, and you will groan among yourselves.

¹⁷Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Put on your turban and strap your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.”

⁴And on that day every prophet who prophesies will be ashamed of his vision, and he will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive.

¹⁸Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹Woe to the land of whirring wings, along the rivers of Cush,

²which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.

³⁴In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.

⁵For I have assigned to you 390 days, according to the number of years of their iniquity. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year.

³For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.

⁹Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: “He has set out to fight against you.” On hearing this, Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

⁴I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of a harsh master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord God of Hosts.

²⁶So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen.

²²And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.

⁴So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away.

¹⁸The day will be darkened in Tahpanhes when I break the yoke of Egypt and her proud strength comes to an end. A cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity.

¹⁷the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will make their foreheads bare.”

³But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame, and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.

⁵everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them. They bring neither help nor benefit, but only shame and disgrace.”

²³This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches.

²⁴But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

²¹Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,

⁶Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the Lord. For you were only a staff of reeds to the house of Israel.

⁷When Israel took hold of you with their hands, you splintered, tearing all their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke, and their backs were wrenched.

⁵This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.

³how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? This salvation was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,

³³You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?

³While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

¹⁵Why do you cry out over your wound? Your pain has no cure! Because of your great iniquity and your numerous sins I have done these things to you.

¹⁶Nevertheless, all who devour you will be devoured, and all your adversaries—every one of them—will go off into exile. Those who plundered you will be plundered, and all who raided you will be raided.

⁴For the day has come to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every remaining ally. Indeed, the Lord is about to destroy the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.

²⁰They are confounded because they had hoped; their arrival brings disappointment.