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Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt

1  Woe ^{1 31:1 Or Ah,} to those who go down to Egypt for help
    and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
    and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
    or consult the LORD!
2  And yet he is wise and brings disaster;
    he does not call back his words,
but will arise against the house of the evildoers
    and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
3  The Egyptians are man, and not God,
    and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out his hand,
    the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
    and they will all perish together.

4  For thus the LORD said to me,
“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,
    and when a band of shepherds is called out against him
he is not terrified by their shouting
    or daunted at their noise,
so the LORD of hosts will come down
    to fight ^{2 31:4 The Hebrew words for hosts and to fight sound alike} on Mount Zion and on its hill.
5  Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts
    will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
    he will spare and rescue it.”

6 Turn to him from whom people ^{3 31:6 Hebrew they} have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

8  “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;
    and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;
and he shall flee from the sword,
    and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
9  His rock shall pass away in terror,
    and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion,
    and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

A King Will Reign in Righteousness

1  Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
    and princes will rule in justice.
2  Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,
    a shelter from the storm,
like streams of water in a dry place,
    like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3  Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,
    and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
4  The heart of the hasty will understand and know,
    and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
5  The fool will no more be called noble,
    nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.
6  For the fool speaks folly,
    and his heart is busy with iniquity,
to practice ungodliness,
    to utter error concerning the LORD,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
    and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
7  As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil;
    he plans wicked schemes
to ruin the poor with lying words,
    even when the plea of the needy is right.
8  But he who is noble plans noble things,
    and on noble things he stands.

Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

9  Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
    you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
10  In little more than a year
    you will shudder, you complacent women;
for the grape harvest fails,
    the fruit harvest will not come.
11  Tremble, you women who are at ease,
    shudder, you complacent ones;
strip, and make yourselves bare,
    and tie sackcloth around your waist.
12  Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
    for the fruitful vine,
13  for the soil of my people
    growing up in thorns and briers,
yes, for all the joyous houses
    in the exultant city.
14  For the palace is forsaken,
    the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower
    will become dens forever,
a joy of wild donkeys,
    a pasture of flocks;
15  until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
    and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
    and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
16  Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
    and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
17  And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
    and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust ^{4 32:17 Or security} forever.
18  My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
    in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
19  And it will hail when the forest falls down,
    and the city will be utterly laid low.
20  Happy are you who sow beside all waters,
    who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.

O LORD, Be Gracious to Us

1  Ah, you destroyer,
    who yourself have not been destroyed,
you traitor,
    whom none has betrayed!
When you have ceased to destroy,
    you will be destroyed;
and when you have finished betraying,
    they will betray you.

2  O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
    Be our arm every morning,
    our salvation in the time of trouble.
3  At the tumultuous noise peoples flee;
    when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,
4  and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
    as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.

5  The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;
    he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
6  and he will be the stability of your times,
    abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
    the fear of the LORD is Zion's ^{5 33:6 Hebrew his} treasure.

7  Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;
    the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
8  The highways lie waste;
    the traveler ceases.
Covenants are broken;
    cities ^{6 33:8 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll witnesses} are despised;
    there is no regard for man.
9  The land mourns and languishes;
    Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert,
    and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

10  “Now I will arise,” says the LORD,
    “now I will lift myself up;
    now I will be exalted.
11  You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;
    your breath is a fire that will consume you.
12  And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
    like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

13  Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
    and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14  The sinners in Zion are afraid;
    trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?
    Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
15  He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
    who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
    who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
    and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
16  he will dwell on the heights;
    his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
    his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.

17  Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;
    they will see a land that stretches afar.
18  Your heart will muse on the terror:
    “Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute?
    Where is he who counted the towers?”
19  You will see no more the insolent people,
    the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
    stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.
20  Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!
    Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
    an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be plucked up,
    nor will any of its cords be broken.
21  But there the LORD in majesty will be for us
    a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
    nor majestic ship can pass.
22  For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver;
    the LORD is our king; he will save us.

23  Your cords hang loose;
    they cannot hold the mast firm in its place
    or keep the sail spread out.
Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
    even the lame will take the prey.
24  And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;
    the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.

Judgment on the Nations

1  Draw near, O nations, to hear,
    and give attention, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
    the world, and all that comes from it.
2  For the LORD is enraged against all the nations,
    and furious against all their host;
    he has devoted them to destruction, ^{7 34:2 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verse 5} has given them over for slaughter.
3  Their slain shall be cast out,
    and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
    the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4  All the host of heaven shall rot away,
    and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall fall,
    as leaves fall from the vine,
    like leaves falling from the fig tree.

5  For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
    behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,
    upon the people I have devoted to destruction.
6  The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood;
    it is gorged 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,
    a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7  Wild oxen shall fall with them,
    and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall drink its fill of blood,
    and their soil shall be gorged with fat.

8  For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
    a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9  And the streams of Edom ^{8 34:9 Hebrew her streams} shall be turned into pitch,
    and her soil into sulfur;
    her land shall become burning pitch.
10  Night and day it shall not be quenched;
    its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
    none shall pass through it forever and ever.
11  But the hawk and the porcupine ^{9 34:11 The identity of the animals rendered hawk and porcupine is uncertain} shall possess it,
    the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion ^{10 34:11 Hebrew formlessness} over it,
    and the plumb line of emptiness.
12  Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
    and all its princes shall be nothing.

13  Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
    nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
    an abode for ostriches. ^{11 34:13 Or owls}
14  And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;
    the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;
indeed, there the night bird ^{12 34:14 Identity uncertain} settles
    and finds for herself a resting place.

15  There the owl nests and lays
    and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;
indeed, there the hawks are gathered,
    each one with her mate.
16  Seek and read from the book of the LORD:
    Not one of these shall be missing;
    none shall be without her mate.
For the mouth of the LORD has commanded,
    and his Spirit has gathered them.
17  He has cast the lot for them;
    his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever;
    from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.

The Ransomed Shall Return

1  The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
    the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
2  it shall blossom abundantly
    and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
    the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the LORD,
    the majesty of our God.

3  Strengthen the weak hands,
    and make firm the feeble knees.
4  Say to those who have an anxious heart,
    “Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
    will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
    He will come and save you.”

5  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6  then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
    and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
    and streams in the desert;
7  the burning sand shall become a pool,
    and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
    the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8  And a highway shall be there,
    and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
    It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
    even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. ^{13 35:8 Or if they are fools, they shall not wander in it}
9  No lion shall be there,
    nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
    but the redeemed shall walk there.
10  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
    and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
    they shall obtain gladness and joy,
    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Sennacherib Invades Judah

1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh ^{14 36:2 Rabshakeh is the title of a high-ranking Assyrian military officer} from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. 3 And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

4 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? 5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me, “We trust in the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? 8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “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 make you trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me ^{15 36:16 Hebrew Make a blessing with me} and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.