Isaiah 31-33

The Message

31 ^1-3 Doom to those who go off to Egypt
    thinking that horses can help them,
Impressed by military mathematics,
    awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders—
And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance,
    not so much as a prayer to God.
Still, he must be reckoned with,
    a most wise God who knows what he’s doing.
He can call down catastrophe.
    He’s a God who does what he says.
He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong,
    stands up against interfering evildoers.
Egyptians are mortal, not God,
    and their horses are flesh, not Spirit.
When God gives the signal, helpers and helped alike
    will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.

“Like a lion, king of the beasts,
    that gnaws and chews and worries its prey,
Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds
    who arrive to chase it off,
So God-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down
    to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights.
And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky,
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem.
I’ll protect and rescue it.
    Yes, I’ll hover and deliver.”

^8-9 “Assyrians will fall dead,
    killed by a sword-thrust but not by a soldier,
    laid low by a sword not swung by a mortal.
Assyrians will run from that sword, run for their lives,
    and their prize young men made slaves.
Terrorized, that rock-solid people will fall to pieces,
    their leaders scatter hysterically.”
God’s Decree on Assyria.
    His fire blazes in Zion,
    his furnace burns hot in Jerusalem.

32 ^1-8 But look! A king will rule in the right way,
    and his leaders will carry out justice.
Each one will stand as a shelter from high winds,
    provide safe cover in stormy weather.
Each will be cool running water in parched land,
    a huge granite outcrop giving shade in the desert.
Anyone who looks will see,
    anyone who listens will hear.
The impulsive will make sound decisions,
    the tongue-tied will speak with eloquence.
No more will fools become celebrities,
    nor crooks be rewarded with fame.
For fools are fools and that’s that,
    thinking up new ways to do mischief.
They leave a wake of wrecked lives
    and lies about God,
Turning their backs on the homeless hungry,
    ignoring those dying of thirst in the streets.
And the crooks? Underhanded sneaks they are,
    inventive in sin and scandal,
Exploiting the poor with scams and lies,
    unmoved by the victimized poor.
But those who are noble make noble plans,
    and stand for what is noble.

^9-14 Take your stand, idle women!
    Listen to me!
Indulgent, idle women,
    listen closely to what I have to say.
In just a little over a year from now,
    you’ll be shaken out of your lazy lives.
The grape harvest will fail,
    and there’ll be no fruit on the trees.
Oh tremble, you idle women.
    Get serious, you pampered dolls!
Strip down and discard your silk fineries.
    Put on funeral clothes.
Shed honest tears for the lost harvest,
    the failed vintage.
Weep for my people’s gardens and farms
    that grow nothing but thistles and thornbushes.
Cry tears, real tears, for the happy homes no longer happy,
    the merry city no longer merry.
The royal palace is deserted,
    the bustling city quiet as a morgue,
The emptied parks and playgrounds
    taken over by wild animals,
    delighted with their new home.

33 Doom to you, Destroyer,
    not yet destroyed;
And doom to you, Betrayer,
    not yet betrayed.
When you finish destroying,
    your turn will come—destroyed!
When you quit betraying,
    your turn will come—betrayed!

^17-19 Oh, you’ll see the king—a beautiful sight!
    And you’ll take in the wide vistas of land.
In your mind you’ll go over the old terrors:
    “What happened to that Assyrian inspector who condemned and confiscated?
And the one who gouged us of taxes?
    And that cheating moneychanger?”
Gone! Out of sight forever! Their insolence
    nothing now but a fading stain on the carpet!
No more putting up with a language you can’t understand,
    no more sounds of gibberish in your ears.