Isaiah 20

A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush

¹ In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it- ²at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

³ Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, ^{[a] 4} so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks baredóto Egypt’s shame. ⁵ Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame. ⁶In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’ ”

Isaiah 21

A Prophecy Against Babylon

¹ An oracle concerning the Desert by the Sea:
Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,
an invader comes from the desert,
from a land of terror.

² A dire vision has been shown to me:
The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

³ At this my body is racked with pain,
pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
I am bewildered by what I see.

⁴ My heart falters,
fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
has become a horror to me.

⁵ They set the tables,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink!
Get up, you officers,
oil the shields!

⁶ This is what the Lord says to me:
“Go, post a lookout
and have him report what he sees.

⁷ When he sees chariots
with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys
or riders on camels,
let him be alert,
fully alert.”

⁸ And the lookout ^[b] shouted,
“Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;
every night I stay at my post.

⁹ Look, here comes a man in a chariot
with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods
lie shattered on the ground!’ ”

¹⁰ O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,
I tell you what I have heard
from the LORD Almighty,
from the God of Israel.

A Prophecy Against Edom

¹¹ An oracle concerning Dumah ^[c] :
Someone calls to me from Seir,
“Watchman, what is left of the night?
Watchman, what is left of the night?”

¹² The watchman replies,
“Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
and come back yet again.”

A Prophecy Against Arabia

¹³ An oracle concerning Arabia:
You caravans of Dedanites,
who camp in the thickets of Arabia,

¹⁴ bring water for the thirsty;
you who live in Tema,
bring food for the fugitives.

¹⁵ They flee from the sword,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
and from the heat of battle.

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar will come to an end. ¹⁷The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

Isaiah 22

A Prophecy About Jerusalem

¹ An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision:
What troubles you now,
that you have all gone up on the roofs,

² O town full of commotion,
O city of tumult and revelry?
Your slain were not killed by the sword,
nor did they die in battle.

³ All your leaders have fled together;
they have been captured without using the bow.
All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,
having fled while the enemy was still far away.

⁴ Therefore I said, “Turn away from me;
let me weep bitterly.
Do not try to console me
over the destruction of my people.”

⁵ The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day
of tumult and trampling and terror
in the Valley of Vision,
a day of battering down walls
and of crying out to the mountains.

⁶ Elam takes up the quiver,
with her charioteers and horses;
Kir uncovers the shield.

⁷ Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,
and horsemen are posted at the city gates;

⁸ the defenses of Judah are stripped away.
And you looked in that day
to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest;

⁹ you saw that the City of David
had many breaches in its defenses;
you stored up water
in the Lower Pool.

¹⁰ You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.

¹¹ You built a reservoir between the two walls
for the water of the Old Pool,
but you did not look to the One who made it,
or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.

¹² The Lord, the LORD Almighty,
called you on that day
to weep and to wail,
to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.

¹³ But see, there is joy and revelry,
slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking of wine!
“Let us eat and drink,” you say,
“for tomorrow we die!”

¹⁴ The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the LORD Almighty.