Isaiah 21

²³“I will make her a place for owls and for swamplands; I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of Hosts.

¹This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:

⁴²The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered in turbulent waves.

¹⁴Then the Lord will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will sound the ram’s horn and advance in the whirlwinds of the south.

¹This is the burden against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is no longer a city; it has become a heap of ruins.

²⁰She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.

²¹But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.

³⁴This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.

¹Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.

¹⁶From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me.” The treacherous betray; the treacherous deal in treachery.

³You have shown Your people hardship; we are staggered from the wine You made us drink.

¹⁰“If anyone is destined for captivity, into captivity he will go; if anyone is to die by the sword, by the sword he must be killed.” Here is a call for the perseverance and faith of the saints.

²⁸PERES means that your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

⁸Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.

¹⁷As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O Lord.

⁶Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor.

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.

⁴¹Kirioth has been taken, and the strongholds seized. In that day the heart of Moab’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

¹¹Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres.

³⁴But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.

³⁵For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth.

¹²“What is more,” Haman added, “Queen Esther invited no one but me to join the king at the banquet she prepared, and I am invited back tomorrow along with the king.

²⁸Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”

²⁹So Absalom’s young men did to Amnon just as Absalom had ordered. Then all the other sons of the king got up, and each one fled on his mule.

⁶Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man—Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.

⁷In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him.

⁶⁷In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see.

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.

¹²At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the Lord and fail to see the work of His hands.

¹¹Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The Lord has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the Lord—vengeance for His temple.

³⁹While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they may revel; then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up, declares the Lord.

⁵⁷I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts.

¹Later, King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he drank wine with them.

²Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.

¹This is what the Lord says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:

²“I will go before you and level the mountains; I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

²Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

¹I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the ramparts. I will watch to see what He will say to me, and how I should answer when corrected.

²Then the Lord answered me: “Write down this vision and clearly inscribe it on tablets, so that a herald may run with it.

²“Son of man, speak to your people and tell them: ‘Suppose I bring the sword against a land, and the people of that land choose a man from among them, appointing him as their watchman,

³and he sees the sword coming against that land and blows the ram’s horn to warn the people.

¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me.

¹⁷Now the watchman standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troops approaching, and he called out, “I see a company of troops!” “Choose a rider,” Joram commanded. “Send him out to meet them and ask, ‘Have you come in peace?’”

¹⁸So a horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Have you come in peace?’” “What do you know about peace?” Jehu replied. “Fall in behind me.” And the watchman reported, “The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.”

¹²Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon; post the guard; station the watchmen; prepare the ambush. For the Lord has both devised and accomplished what He spoke against the people of Babylon.

¹³You who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come; the thread of your life is cut.

⁶On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord shall take no rest for yourselves,

⁹Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

¹We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

²⁴Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest heights, the densest of its forests.

¹I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the ramparts. I will watch to see what He will say to me, and how I should answer when corrected.

²Then the Lord answered me: “Write down this vision and clearly inscribe it on tablets, so that a herald may run with it.

¹A song of ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain; unless the Lord protects the city, its watchmen stand guard in vain.

¹⁰Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber.

⁸Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

⁴⁴Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”

³⁸He has left His den like a lion, for their land has been made a desolation by the sword of the oppressor, and because of the fierce anger of the Lord.

²And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.

⁸Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.

⁸Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall.

¹⁹And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.

¹Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.

²The gods cower; they crouch together, unable to relieve the burden; but they themselves go into captivity.

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.”

¹³Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion, for I will give you horns of iron and hooves of bronze to break to pieces many peoples. Then you will devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me.

¹⁸If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood.

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.

¹²His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

⁷Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.

¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

¹This is the vision of Obadiah: This is what the Lord God says about Edom—We have heard a message from the Lord; an envoy has been sent among the nations to say, “Rise up, and let us go to battle against her!”—

²“Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you will be deeply despised.

⁶This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Gaza, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they exiled a whole population, delivering them up to Edom.

¹⁹Egypt will become desolate, and Edom a desert wasteland, because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.

³⁰Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema,

³Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

³⁰Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.

³¹For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”

³⁷When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

¹Then some of the elders of Israel came and sat down before me.

²And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵This is what the Lord God says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming!

⁶The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. Behold, it has come!

¹⁹So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, where they asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

²⁰For you are bringing some strange notions to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”

³⁰Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

³¹Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?

²³Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair;

²⁴all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert;

³²The sons born to Keturah, Abraham’s concubine: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.

³Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites, and the Leummites.

¹⁵The men of Dedan were your clients; many coastlands were your market; they paid you with ivory tusks and ebony.

²⁸Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated, this is what the Lord says: “Rise up, advance against Kedar, and destroy the people of the east!

²⁹They will take their tents and flocks, their tent curtains and all their goods. They will take their camels for themselves. They will shout to them: ‘Terror is on every side!’

²⁵Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema look for water; the travelers of Sheba hope to find it.

¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

²⁰On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

⁴Then Gideon and his three hundred men came to the Jordan and crossed it, exhausted yet still in pursuit.

⁵So Gideon said to the men of Succoth, “Please give my troops some bread, for they are exhausted, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

³“Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees.

⁴Let my fugitives stay with you; be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.” When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased, and the oppressors have vanished from the land,

¹⁹The caravans of Tema look for water; the travelers of Sheba hope to find it.

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

¹⁴Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.

¹⁴And now the Lord says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts the years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, with all her many people. And those who are left will be few and feeble.”

⁵Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar!

⁷All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth will serve you and go up on My altar with acceptance; I will adorn My glorious house.

⁵I am dark, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

²⁸Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated, this is what the Lord says: “Rise up, advance against Kedar, and destroy the people of the east!

²¹Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your customers, trading in lambs, rams, and goats.

¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

⁶But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the Lord of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”

²⁰But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

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.

²⁹This will be a sign to you that I will punish you in this place, declares the Lord, so that you may know that My threats of harm against you will surely stand.