NAS - Isaiah Chapter 33 to 36

33 The Judgment of God

¹Woe to you, O destroyer, While you were not destroyed; And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him. As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed; As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you. ²O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You. Be their strength every morning, Our salvation also in the time of distress. ³At the sound of the tumult peoples flee; At the lifting up of Yourself nations disperse. ⁴ Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; As locusts rushing about men rush about on it. ⁵ The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. ⁶ And He will be the stability of your times, A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; The fear of the LORD is his treasure. ⁷ Behold, their brave men cry in the streets, The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. ⁸ The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased, He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, He has no regard for man. ⁹ The land mourns and pines away, Lebanon is shamed and withers; Sharon is like a desert plain, And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage. ¹⁰"Now I will arise," says the LORD, "Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up. ¹¹ "You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble; My breath will consume you like a fire. ¹² "The peoples will be burned to lime, Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.

¹³"You who are far away, hear what I have done; And you who are near, acknowledge My might." ¹⁴ Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. "Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?" ¹⁵He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, He who rejects unjust gain And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; ¹⁶ He will dwell on the heights, His refuge will be the impregnable rock; His bread will be given him, His water will be sure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will behold a far-distant land. ¹⁸ Your heart will meditate on terror: "Where is he who counts? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?" ¹⁹ You will no longer see a fierce people, A people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends, Of a stammering tongue which no one understands. ²⁰ Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation, A tent which will not be folded; Its stakes will never be pulled up, Nor any of its cords be torn apart. ²¹But there the majestic One, the LORD, will be for us A place of rivers and wide canals On which no boat with oars will go, And on which no mighty ship will pass-- ²²For the LORD is our judge, The LORD is our lawgiver, The LORD is our king; He will save us-- ²³Your tackle hangs slack; It cannot hold the base of its mast firmly, Nor spread out the sail. Then the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided; The lame will take the plunder. ²⁴And no resident will say, "I am sick"; The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.

34 God's Wrath against Nations

¹Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples! Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it. ²For the LORD'S indignation is against all the nations, And His wrath against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to slaughter. ³So their slain will be thrown out, And their corpses will give off their stench, And the mountains will be drenched with their blood. ⁴ And all the host of heaven will wear away, And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; All their hosts will also wither away As a leaf withers from the vine, Or as one withers from the fig tree. ⁵For My sword is satiated in heaven, Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction. ⁶ The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It is sated 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 And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. ⁷ Wild oxen will also fall with them And young bulls with strong ones; Thus their land will be soaked with blood, And their dust become greasy with fat. ⁸For the LORD has a day of vengeance, A year of recompense for the cause of Zion. ⁹Its streams will be turned into pitch, And its loose earth into brimstone, And its land will become burning pitch. ¹⁰It will not be quenched night or day; Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will be desolate; None will pass through it forever and ever. ¹¹But pelican and hedgehog will possess it, And owl and raven will dwell in it; And He will stretch over it the line of desolation And the plumb line of emptiness. ¹²Its nobles--there is no one there Whom they may proclaim king-- And all its princes will be nothing. ¹³Thorns will come up in its fortified towers, Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities; It will also be a haunt of jackals And an abode of ostriches. ¹⁴The desert creatures will meet with the wolves, The hairy goat also will cry to its kind; Yes, the night monster will settle there And will find herself a resting place. ¹⁵The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there, And it will hatch and gather them under its protection. Yes, the hawks will be gathered there, Every one with its kind.

¹⁶Seek from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these will be missing; None will lack its mate. For His mouth has commanded, And His Spirit has gathered them. ¹⁷ He has cast the lot for them, And His hand has divided it to them by line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

35 Zion's Happy Future

¹The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus ² It will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, The majesty of our God. ³Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. ⁴ Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you." ⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. ⁶ Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah. ⁷The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes. ⁸A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it. ⁹No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, ¹⁰And the ransomed of the LORD will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

36 Sennacherib Invades Judah

¹Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. ²And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller's field. ³Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

⁴Then Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah, `Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "What is this confidence that you have? ⁵"I say, `Your counsel and strength for the war are only empty words.' Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶"Behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. ⁷"But if you say to me, `We trust in the LORD our God,' is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, `You shall worship before this altar'? ⁸"Now therefore, come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and 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 one official of the least of my master's servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ¹⁰"Have I now come up without the LORD'S approval against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, `Go up against this land and destroy it.'"'"

¹¹Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall." ¹²But Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean and said, "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; ¹⁵nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, 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 and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸`Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹`Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰`Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?'"

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