Isaiah 18-23

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

³ All you inhabitants of the world,
    you who live on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
    When a trumpet is blown, listen!^(C)
4 For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
    like clear heat in sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”^(D)
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks,
    and the spreading branches he will hew away.^(E)
6 They shall all be left
    to the birds of prey of the mountains
    and to the animals of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
    and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.^(F)

See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
    and comes to Egypt;
the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.^(H)
2 I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
    and they will fight, one against the other,
    neighbor against neighbor,
    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;^(I)
3 the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
    and I will confound their plans;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead
    and the ghosts and the familiar spirits;^(J)
4 I will deliver the Egyptians
    into the hand of a hard master;
a fierce king will rule over them,
    says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts.^(K)

⁵ The waters of the Nile will be dried up,
    and the river will be parched and dry;^(L)
6 its canals will become foul,
    and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up.
Reeds and rushes will rot away,^(M)
7     the reeds beside the Nile;^[d]
all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
    be driven away, and be no more.
⁸ Those who fish will mourn;
    all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament,
    and those who spread nets on the water will languish.
⁹ The workers in flax will be in despair,
    and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale.
¹⁰ Its weavers will be dismayed,
    and all who work for wages will be grieved.^(N)

¹¹ Clearly the princes of Zoan are foolish;
    the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
    “I am one of the sages,
    a descendant of ancient kings”?^(O)
12 Where now are your sages?
    Let them tell you and make known
    what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.^(P)
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,
    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of its tribes
    have led Egypt astray.^(Q)
14 The Lord has poured into them^[e]
    a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings
    as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.^(R)
15 Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed,
    will be able to do anything for Egypt.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
    it comes from the desert,
    from a terrible land.^(AH)
2 A stern vision is told to me;
    the betrayer betrays,
    and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam;
    lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
    I bring to an end.^(AI)
3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
    pangs have seized me
    like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.^(AJ)
4 My mind reels; horror has appalled me;
    the twilight I longed for
    has been turned for me into trembling.^(AK)
5 They prepare the table;
    they spread the rugs;
    they eat; they drink.
Rise up, commanders;
    oil the shield!^(AL)
6 For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, post a lookout;
    let him announce what he sees.
⁷ When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him watch closely,
    very closely.”^(AM)
8 Then the watcher^[h] called out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
    continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
    throughout the night.^(AN)
9 Look, there they come, riders,
    horsemen in pairs!”
Then he responded,
    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon,
and all the images of her gods
    lie shattered on the ground.”^(AO)
10 O my threshed and winnowed one,
    what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
    the God of Israel, I announce to you.^(AP)

One is calling to me from Seir,
    “Sentinel, what of the night?
    Sentinel, what of the night?”^(AQ)
12 The sentinel says:
“Morning comes and also the night.
    If you will inquire, inquire;
    come back again.”

In the scrub of the desert plain you will lodge,
    O caravans of Dedanites.^(AR)
14 Bring water to the thirsty,
    O inhabitants of the land of Tema;
    meet the fugitive with bread.^(AS)
15 For they have fled from the swords,
    from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow,
    and from the stress of battle.^(AT)

What has happened that you have gone up,
    all of you, to the housetops,^(AW)
2 city full of shouting,
    tumultuous city, panic-stricken town?
Your slain are not slain by the sword,
    nor are they dead in battle.^(AX)
3 Your rulers have all fled together;
    they were captured without the use of a bow.^[i]
All of your people who were found were captured,
    though they had fled far away.^[j](AY)
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
    let me weep bitter tears;
do not try to comfort me
    for the destruction of my beloved people.”^(AZ)

⁵ For the Lord God of hosts has a day
    of tumult and trampling and confusion
    in the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
    and a cry for help to the mountains.^(BA)
6 Elam bore the quiver
    with chariots and cavalry,^[k]
    and Kir uncovered the shield.^(BB)
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
    and the cavalry took their stand at the gates.^(BC)
8 He has taken away the covering of Judah.

¹² On that day the Lord God of hosts
    called for weeping and mourning,
    for baldness and putting on sackcloth,^(BG)
13 but instead there was joy and festivity,
    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
    eating meat and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we die.”^(BH)
14 The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,”
    says the Lord God of hosts.^(BI)

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
    for your fortress is destroyed.^[n]
When they came in from Cyprus
    they learned of it.^(BQ)
2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast,
    O merchants of Sidon;
your messengers crossed over the sea^[o](BR)
3     and were on the mighty waters;
your revenue^[p] was the grain of Shihor,
    the harvest of the Nile;
    you were the merchant of the nations.^(BS)
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
    the fortress of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth;
    I have neither reared young men
    nor brought up young women.”^(BT)
5 When the report comes to Egypt,
    they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
⁶ Cross over to Tarshish—
    wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
⁷ Is this your exultant city
    whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
    to settle far away?^(BU)
8 Who has planned this
    against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
    whose traders were the honored of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has planned it—
    to defile the pride of all glory,
    to shame all the honored of the earth.^(BV)
10 Cross over to your own land,
    O ships of^[q] Tarshish;
    this is a harbor^[r] no more.
¹¹ He has stretched out his hand over the sea;
    he has shaken the kingdoms;
the Lord has given command concerning Canaan,
    to destroy its fortresses.^(BW)
12 He said:
“You will exult no longer,
    O oppressed virgin daughter Sidon;
rise, cross over to Cyprus—
    even there you will have no rest.”^(BX)

¹⁴ Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
    for your fortress is destroyed.^(BZ)

¹⁶ Take a harp;
    go about the city,
    you forgotten prostitute!
Make sweet melody;
    sing many songs,
    that you may be remembered.