Isaiah 31

⁷Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

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.

¹⁶But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the Lord has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’

¹³“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

⁹For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

¹⁶No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.

¹⁷A horse is a vain hope for salvation; even its great strength cannot save.

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?

⁷I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the Lord, do all these things.

²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

²²Jews demand signs and Greeks search for wisdom,

⁶If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?

⁸Therefore wait for Me,” declares the Lord, “until the day I rise to testify. For My decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them My indignation—all My burning anger. For all the earth will be consumed by the fire of My jealousy.

²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

³³As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath I will rule over you.

³⁴With a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered.

⁹Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you.

⁶You have forsaken Me, declares the Lord. You have turned your back. So I will stretch out My hand against you and I will destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion.

¹⁷A horse is a vain hope for salvation; even its great strength cannot save.

²⁰Lay terror upon them, O Lord; let the nations know they are but men. Selah

¹⁰They will walk after the Lord; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west.

⁸The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken—who will not prophesy?

⁵For I will be a wall of fire around it, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory within it.’”

¹³The Lord goes forth like a mighty one; He stirs up His zeal like a warrior. He shouts; yes, He roars in triumph over His enemies:

⁸On that day the Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them.

³Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.

⁴He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart.

⁴⁰The Lord helps and delivers them; He rescues and saves them from the wicked, because they take refuge in Him.

⁶And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

³⁵‘I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”

⁴‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

¹¹As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.

²²“Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the Lord our God.

¹⁴“Return, O faithless children,” declares the Lord, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.

¹⁰Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord.

⁷Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.

⁴Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who act corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.

⁵Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.

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!”

²⁰In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.

²⁵I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.

²⁵You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the Lord your God.

⁸O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.

¹¹Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.

²⁵I will break Assyria in My land; I will trample him on My mountain. His yoke will be taken off My people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

¹⁵He saw that his resting place was good and that his land was pleasant, so he bent his shoulder to the burden and submitted to labor as a servant.

⁷Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

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.

¹⁷And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

³⁴I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”

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!

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

¹“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

⁶you will be visited by the Lord of Hosts with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire.

⁵For I will be a wall of fire around it, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory within it.’”

³⁷He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,

¹⁷And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

¹³The fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it must not be extinguished.