Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart,
And those who harass Judah will be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
And Judah will not harass Ephraim.

And there will be a highway from Assyria
For the remnant of His people who will be left,
Just as there was for Israel
In the day when they came up out of the land of Egypt.

Therefore with joy you will draw water
From the springs of salvation.

They are coming from a distant country,
From the end of heaven [the farthest horizon]—
The Lord and the weapons of His indignation—
To destroy the whole land.

Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty (All Sufficient One—Invincible God)!

They [of Babylon] will be shocked and terrified,
Pains and anguish will grip them;
They will be in pain like a woman in childbirth.
They will stare aghast and horrified at one another,
Their faces aflame [from the effects of the unprecedented warfare].

Babylon will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will the shepherds let their sheep lie down there.

And it will be in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and from the harsh service in which you have been enslaved,

“Sheol below is excited about you to meet you when you come [you tyrant of Babylon];
It stirs up the spirits of the dead [to greet you], all the leaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones [in astonishment at your fall].

“How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning [light-bringer], son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the ground,
You who have weakened the nations [king of Babylon]!

“But you [king of Babylon] have been cast out of your tomb (denied burial)
Like a rejected branch,
Clothed with the slain who are pierced by the sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit [into which carcasses are thrown],
Like a dead body trampled [underfoot].

“I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, and son and grandson,” declares the Lord.

to break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains I will trample him underfoot. Then the Assyrian’s yoke will be removed from them (the people of Judah) and his burden removed from their shoulder.

Send lambs to the ruler of the land [you Moabites],
From Sela [that is, Petra in Edom] through the wilderness to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem).

“Let our outcasts of Moab live among you;
Be a [sheltered] hiding place to them from the destroyer.”
For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,
Oppressors [who trample men] have completely disappeared from the land,

“The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram (Syria);
They will be like the [departed] glory of [her ally] the children of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of hosts.

Which sends ambassadors by the sea,
Even in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation [of people] tall and smooth (clean shaven),
To a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.

For this is what the Lord has said to me,

“I will be quiet and I will look on from My dwelling place,
Like shimmering heat above the sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of hosts
From a people tall and smooth (clean shaven),
From a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place [of worship] of the name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem].

“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will become exhausted within them and emptied out;
And I will confuse their strategy,
So that they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
And mediums and soothsayers.

The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.

at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, untie the sackcloth from your hips and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking around stripped [to his loincloth] and barefoot.

So the inhabitants of this coastland [the Israelites and their neighbors] will say in that day, ‘Look what has happened to those in whom we hoped and trusted and to whom we fled for help to be spared from the king of Assyria! But we, how will we escape [captivity and exile]?’”

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the Desert of the Sea (the seasonally flooded plains just south of Babylon):

As windstorms in the Negev (the South) sweep through,
So it (God’s judgment) comes from the desert, from [the hostile armies of] a terrifying land.

My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been turned into fear and trembling for me.

O my threshed people [Judah, who must be judged and trampled down by Babylon], my afflicted of the threshing floor.
What I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel, I have [joyfully] announced to you [that Babylon is to fall].

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Dumah (Edom):

Someone keeps calling to me from Seir (Edom),
“Watchman, what is left of the night [of Assyrian oppression]?
Watchman, what is left of the night? [How long until morning?]”

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Arabia:

In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,
Caravans of Dedanites.

For they have fled from the swords,
From the drawn sword, from the bent bow
And from the press of battle and grief of war.

Therefore I say, “Look away from me;
Let me weep bitterly.
Do not try to comfort me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

For the Lord God of hosts has a day of panic and of tumult, of trampling, of confusion
In the Valley of Vision,
A [day of] breaking down walls
And a crying [for help] to the mountain.

But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in my ears,
“This sin absolutely will not be forgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.

“I will depose you from your office,
And you will be pulled down from your position [of importance].

“So they will hang on him all the honor and glory [the complete responsibility] of his father’s house, offspring and issue [of the family, high and low], all the least of the articles, from the bowls to all the jars.

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Tyre:

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house, without harbor;
It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus (Kittim).

They [who have escaped and remain] raise their voices, they shout for joy;
They rejoice from the [Mediterranean] Sea in the majesty of the Lord.

From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory and honor to the Righteous One,”
But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe to me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
Indeed, the treacherous deal very treacherously.”

The earth reels back and forth like a drunkard
And sways like a shack;
Its transgression lies heavily upon it,
And it will fall and not rise again.

For You have been a stronghold for the helpless,
A stronghold for the poor in his distress,
A shelter from the storm, a shade from the heat;
For the breath of tyrants
Is like a rainstorm against a wall.

He will swallow up death [and abolish it] for all time.
And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
And He will take away the disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.

In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent
With His fierce and great and mighty sword [rescuing Israel from her enemy],
Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

In that day the Lord will thresh [out His grain] from the flowing stream of the River [Euphrates] to the Brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel.

But even these reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:
The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink;
They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink;
They reel while seeing visions,
They stagger when pronouncing judgment.

They say “To whom would He teach knowledge?
And to whom would He explain the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?

Now do not carry on as scoffers,
Or the bands which bind you will be made stronger;
For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts [a decree]
Of decisive destruction on all the earth.

This also comes from the Lord of hosts,
Who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great.

Then you [Jerusalem] will be brought low,
You will speak from the earth,
And from the dust where you lie face down
Your muffled words will come.
Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the earth [like one produced by a medium],
And your speech will whisper and squeak from the dust.

Stop and take some time and wonder [at this prophecy],
Blind yourselves and be blinded [at its fulfillment by your spiritual incompetence].
They are drunk, but not from wine;
They stagger, but not from strong drink.

Then the Lord said,

“Because this nation approaches [Me only] with their words
And honors Me [only] with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me is a tradition that is learned by rote [without any regard for its meaning],

Woe (judgment is coming) to those who [try to] deeply hide their plans from the Lord,
Whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And who say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

“Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar,
Crushed so savagely
that there cannot be found among its pieces a potsherd [large enough]
To take [coals of] fire from a fireplace,
Or to scoop water from a cistern.”

And you said, “No! We will flee on horses!”
Therefore you will flee [from your enemies]!
And [you said], “We will ride on swift horses!”
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

Then He will give you rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread [grain] from the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and plentiful. In that day your livestock will graze in large and roomy pastures.

Now look, the name of the Lord comes from far away,
Burning with His anger, and heavy with smoke;
His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue is like a consuming fire.

Then the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of man will devour him.
And he will flee from the sword [of God],
And his young men will become forced labor.

Each [one of them] will be like a hiding place from the wind
And a shelter from the storm,
Like streams of water in a dry land,
Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched and weary land [to those who turn to them].

Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high,
And the wilderness becomes a fertile field,
And the fertile field is valued as a forest.

Your spoil [of Israel’s foe] is gathered [by the people of Jerusalem] as the caterpillar gathers;
As locusts swarming so people swarm on it.

He who walks righteously and speaks with integrity,
Who rejects gain from fraud and from oppression,
Who shakes his hand free from the taking of bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed
And shuts his eyes to avoid looking upon evil;

Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!
Let the earth and all that is in it hear, and the world and all that comes forth from it.

All the host of heaven will be dissolved,
And the skies will be rolled up like a scroll;
All their hosts [the stars and the planets] will also wither away
As a leaf withers from the vine,
And as a fig withers from the fig tree.

The burning will not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will lie in ruins;
No one will ever again pass through it.

The Lord has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided and apportioned Edom to the wild beasts by measuring-line.
They will possess it forever;
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh [his military commander] from Lachish [the Judean fortress commanding the road from Egypt] to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a large army. And he stood by the canal of the Upper Pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field.

Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Make peace with me and come out to me, and each one of you will eat from his own vine and each from his own fig tree and each [one of you] drink from the water of his own cistern,

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad [in Aram]? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

So the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah [a fortified city of Judah], for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.

Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

Now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know and fully realize that You alone, Lord, are God.”

“This shall be the sign [of these things] to you [Hezekiah]: you are to eat this year what grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from the same, and in the third year you are to sow and harvest, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

“This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken:

This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:

“My dwelling (body) is pulled up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent;
I have rolled up my life as a weaver [rolls up the finished web].
He cuts me free from the warp [of the loom];
From day to night You bring me to an end.

“I lay down until morning.
Like a lion, so He breaks all my bones;
From day until night You bring me to an end.

“Indeed, it was for my own well-being that I had such bitterness;
But You have loved back my life from the pit of nothingness (destruction),
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did these men say? From where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
And call out to her, that her time of compulsory service in warfare is finished,
That her wickedness has been taken away [since her punishment is sufficient],
That she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double [punishment] for all her sins.”

A voice says, “Call out [prophesy].”
Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
[The voice answered:] All humanity is [as frail as] grass, and all that makes it attractive [its charm, its loveliness] is [momentary] like the flower of the field.

In fact, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
Now look, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

Do you [who worship idols] not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth [the omnipotence of God and the stupidity of bowing to idols]?

Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?

“Listen to Me in silence, you islands and coastlands,
And let the nations gain their strength;
Let them come near, then let them speak;
Let us come together for judgment [and decide the issue between us concerning the enemy from the east].

“Who has stirred up and put into action one from the east [the king of Persia, Cyrus the Great]
Whom He calls in righteousness to His service and whom victory meets at every step?
The Lord turns nations over to him
And subdues kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
Like wind-driven chaff with his bow.

“Who has performed and done this,
Calling forth [and guiding the destinies of] the generations [of the nations] from the beginning?
‘I, the Lord—the first, and with the last [existing before history began, the ever-present, unchanging God]—I am He.’”

You whom I [the Lord] have taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its remotest parts
And said to you, ‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and have not rejected you [even though you are exiled].

“I have stirred up and put into action one from the north [the king of Persia, Cyrus the Great], and he has come;
From the rising of the sun he will call on My Name [in prayer].
And he will trample on [the Babylonian] officials as on mortar,
Even as a potter treads clay.”

Who [among the idols] has declared this from the beginning, so that we could know?
Or from earlier times, so that we could say, “He is [unquestionably] right!”?
In fact, there was no one who declared it,
Indeed, there was no one who proclaimed it;
There was no one at all who heard you speak [for you pagan gods are speechless].

To open the eyes of the blind,
To bring out prisoners from the dungeon
And those who sit in darkness from the prison.

Sing to the Lord a new song,
Sing His praise from the end of the earth!
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
You islands and coastlands, and those who inhabit them [sing His praise]!

Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices,
The villages where Kedar lives.
Let the inhabitants of Sela shout for joy,
Let them shout joyfully from the tops of the mountains.

“Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east [where they are scattered],
And gather you from the west.

“I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring My sons from far way
And My daughters from the ends of the earth,

“Even from eternity I am He,
And there is no one who can rescue from My hand;
I act, and who can revoke or reverse it?”

This is what the Lord who made you
And formed you from the womb, who will help you says,
‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant;
And Jeshurun (Israel, the upright one) whom I have chosen.

‘Who is like Me? Let him proclaim it and declare it;
Yes, let him confront Me,
Since I established the people of antiquity.
And let them [those supposed gods] tell those people [who foolishly follow them] the things to come
And the events that are going to take place.

‘Do not tremble nor be afraid [of the violent upheavals to come];
Have I not long ago proclaimed it to you and declared it?
And you are My witnesses.
Is there a God besides Me?
There is no other Rock;
I know of none.’”

But from what is left of the wood he makes a god, his carved idol. He falls down before it, he worships it and prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”

For the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb says this,

“I am the Lord, Maker of all things,
Who alone stretches out the heavens,
Who spreads out the earth by Myself,

That people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun [the world over]
That there is no one except Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other,

“Rain down, O heavens, from above,
Let the clouds pour down righteousness [all the blessings of God];
Let the earth open up, let salvation bear fruit,
And righteousness spring up with it;
I, the Lord, have created it.