Isaiah 20-23

New King James Version

As ^(I)whirlwinds in the South pass through,
So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
² A distressing vision is declared to me;
^(J)The treacherous dealer deals treacherously,
And the plunderer plunders.
^(K)Go up, O Elam!
Besiege, O Media!
All its sighing I have made to cease.

³ Therefore ^(L)my loins are filled with pain;
^(M)Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.
I was ^[d]distressed when I heard it;
I was dismayed when I saw it.
⁴ My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;
^(N)The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.
^5 (O)Prepare the table,
Set a watchman in the tower,
Eat and drink.
Arise, you princes,
Anoint the shield!

⁶ For thus has the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman,
Let him declare what he sees.”
⁷ And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,
A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,
And he listened earnestly with great care.
^8 [e]Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!
I stand continually on the ^(P)watchtower in the daytime;
I have sat at my post every night.
⁹ And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!”
Then he answered and said,
^(Q)“Babylon is fallen, is fallen!
And ^(R)all the carved images of her gods
He has broken to the ground.”

^10 (S)Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!
That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel,
I have declared to you.

He calls to me out of ^(U)Seir,
“Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”
¹² The watchman said,
“The morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
Return! Come back!”

In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,
O you traveling companies ^(W)of Dedanites.
¹⁴ O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Bring water to him who is thirsty;
With their bread they met him who fled.
¹⁵ For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.

What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
² You who are full of noise,
A ^[i]tumultuous city, ^(Z)a joyous city?
Your slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.
³ All your rulers have fled together;
They are captured by the archers.
All who are found in you are bound together;
They have fled from afar.
⁴ Therefore I said, “Look away from me,
^(AA)I will weep bitterly;
Do not labor to comfort me
Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”

^5 (AB)For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity
^(AC)By the Lord God of hosts
In the Valley of Vision—
Breaking down the walls
And of crying to the mountain.
^6 (AD)Elam bore the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And ^(AE)Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys
Shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

^8 (AF)He removed the ^[j]protection of Judah.
You looked in that day to the armor ^(AG)of the House of the Forest;
^9 (AH)You also saw the ^[k]damage to the city of David,
That it was great;
And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
¹⁰ You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses you broke down
To fortify the wall.
^11 (AI)You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the water of the old ^(AJ)pool.
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.

¹² And in that day the Lord God of hosts
^(AK)Called for weeping and for mourning,
^(AL)For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
¹³ But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and ^(AM)drinking wine:
^(AN)“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

^14 (AO)Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts,
“Surely for this iniquity there ^(AP)will be no atonement for you,
Even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts.

“Go, proceed to this steward,
To ^(AQ)Shebna, who is over the house, and say:
¹⁶ ‘What have you here, and whom have you here,
That you have hewn a sepulcher here,
As he ^(AR)who hews himself a sepulcher on high,
Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock?
¹⁷ Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently,
O mighty man,
^(AS)And will surely seize you.
¹⁸ He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball
Into a large country;
There you shall die, and there ^(AT)your glorious chariots
Shall be the shame of your master’s house.
¹⁹ So I will drive you out of your office,
And from your position ^[l]he will pull you down.

²⁰ ‘Then it shall be in that day,
That I will call My servant ^(AU)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah;
²¹ I will clothe him with your robe
And strengthen him with your belt;
I will commit your responsibility into his hand.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And to the house of Judah.
²² The key of the house of David
I will lay on his ^(AV)shoulder;
So he shall ^(AW)open, and no one shall shut;
And he shall shut, and no one shall open.
²³ I will fasten him as ^(AX)a peg in a secure place,
And he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.

Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For it is laid waste,
So that there is no house, no harbor;
From the land of ^[n]Cyprus it is revealed to them.

² Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon,
^[o]Whom those who cross the sea have filled.
³ And on great waters the grain of Shihor,
The harvest of ^[p]the River, is her revenue;
And ^(AZ)she is a marketplace for the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea has spoken,
The strength of the sea, saying,
“I do not labor, nor bring forth children;
Neither do I rear young men,
Nor bring up virgins.”
^5 (BA)When the report reaches Egypt,
They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.

⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
⁷ Is this your ^(BB)joyous city,
Whose antiquity is from ancient days,
Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?
⁸ Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, ^(BC)the crowning city,
Whose merchants are princes,
Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has ^(BD)purposed it,
To ^[q]bring to dishonor the ^(BE)pride of all glory,
To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

¹⁰ Overflow through your land like ^[r]the River,
O daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more ^[s]strength.
¹¹ He stretched out His hand over the sea,
He shook the kingdoms;
The Lord has given a commandment ^(BF)against Canaan
To destroy its strongholds.
¹² And He said, “You will rejoice no more,
O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, ^(BG)cross over to Cyprus;
There also you will have no rest.”

¹³ Behold, the land of the ^(BH)Chaldeans,
This people which was not;
Assyria founded it for ^(BI)wild beasts of the desert.
They set up its towers,
They raised up its palaces,
And brought it to ruin.

^14 (BJ)Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For your strength is laid waste.

¹⁶ “Take a harp, go about the city,
You forgotten harlot;
Make sweet melody, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.”