16 July - Isaiah 13-17

Jude Sat Dec 29, 2018 5:04 pm

My soul doth magnify my YAH, and my spirit hath rejoiced in EL my Saviour; For HE that is mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is HIS Name. Now unto HIM who is ever present in my helpless estate; who is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise EL our Saviour be honour and glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever Halleluyah!

ISAIAH 13

1The message concerning Baḇel which Yeshayahu son of Amots saw.

2“Lift up a banner on the high mountain, raise your voice to them; wave your hand, let them enter the gates of the nobles.

3“I have commanded My set-apart ones; I have also called My mighty men for My displeasure, My proudly exulting ones.”

4The noise of an uproar in the mountains, like that of many people! A noise of uproar of the reigns of gentiles gathered together! יהוה of hosts is gathering an army for battle.

5They are coming from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, even יהוה and His weapons of displeasure, to destroy all the earth.

6Howl, for the day of יהוה is near! It comes as a destruction from the Almighty.

7Therefore all hands go limp, every man’s heart melts,

8and they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows take hold of them, they are in pain as a woman in labour; they are amazed at one another, their faces aflame!

9See, the day of יהוה is coming, fierce, with wrath and heat of displeasure, to lay the earth waste, and destroy its sinners from it.

10For the stars of the heavens and their constellations do not give off their light. The sun shall be dark at its rising, and the moon not send out its light.

11“And I shall punish the world for its evil, and the wrong for their crookedness, and shall put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and lay low the pride of the ruthless.

12“I shall make mortal man scarcer than fine gold, and mankind scarcer than the gold of Ophir.

13“So I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth shall shake from her place, in the wrath of יהוה of hosts and in the day of the heat of His displeasure.

14“And it shall be as the hunted gazelle, and as a sheep that no man takes up – every man turns to his own people, and everyone flees to his own land.

15“Whoever is found is thrust through, and everyone taken falls by the sword.

16“And their children are dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses plundered and their wives ravished.

17“See, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who do not regard silver, and as for gold, they do not delight in it.

18“And bows dash the young to pieces, and they have no compassion on the fruit of the womb, their eye spare no children.

19“And Baḇel, the splendour of reigns, the comeliness of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall be as when Elohim overthrew Seḏom and Amorah.

20“She shall never be inhabited, nor be settled from generation to generation; nor shall the Araḇian pitch tents there, nor shepherds rest their flocks there.

21“But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be filled with owls. And ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats frolic there.

22“And hyenas shall cry in their citadels, and jackals in their pleasant palaces. And her time is near to come, and her days are not drawn out.”

ISAIAH 14

1Because יהוה has compassion on Ya‛aqoḇ, and shall again choose Yisra’ĕla, and give them rest in their own land. And the strangers shall join them, and they shall cling to the house of Ya‛aqoḇb.

2And peoples shall take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Yisra’ĕl shall possess them for servants and female servants in the land of יהוה. And they shall make captives of their captors, and rule over their oppressors.

3And it shall be, in the day יהוה gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble and the hard service in which you were made to serve,

4that you shall take up this proverb against the sovereign of Baḇel, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased, the gold-gatherer ceased!

5“יהוה has broken the staff of the wrong, the sceptre of the rulers,

6he who smote the people in wrath with ceaseless blows, he who ruled the gentiles in displeasure, is persecuted and no one restrains.

7“All the earth is at rest and at peace, they shall break forth into singing.

8“Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Leḇanon, saying, ‘Since you were cut down, no woodcutter has come up against us.’

9“The grave from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the sovereigns of the gentiles.

10“All of them respond and say to you, ‘Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us?

11‘Your arrogance has been brought down to the grave, and the sound of your stringed instruments; the maggot is spread under you, and worms cover you.’

12“How you have fallen from the heavens, O Hĕlĕl, son of the morning! You have been cut down to the ground, you who laid low the gentiles!

13“For you have said in your heart, ‘Let me go up to the heavens, let me raise my throne above the stars of Ěl, and let me sit in the mount of meeting on the sides of the north;

14let me go up above the heights of the clouds, let me be like the Most High.’

15“But you are brought down to the grave, to the sides of the Pit.

16“Those who see you stare at you, and ponder over you, saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook reigns,

17who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who would not open the house of his prisoners?’

18“All the sovereigns of the gentiles, all of them, were laid in esteem, everyone in his own house;

19but you have been thrown from your grave like an abominable branch, like the garment of those who are slain, thrust through with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a trampled corpse.

20“You are not joined with them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and slain your people. Let the seed of evil-doers never be mentioned.

21“Prepare his children for slaughter, because of the crookedness of their fathers, lest they rise up and possess the land, and fill the face of the world with cities.”

22“And I shall rise up against them,” declares יהוה of hosts, “and shall cut off from Baḇel the name and remnant, and offspring and descendant,” declares יהוה.

23“And I shall make it a possession for the porcupine, and marshes of muddy water; and shall sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares יהוה of hosts.

24יהוה of hosts has sworn, saying, “Truly, as I have planned, so shall it be; and as I have purposed, so it stands:

25“To break Ashshur in My land, and tread him down on My mountains. And his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden removed from their shoulders.

26“This is the counsel that is counselled for all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

27“For יהוה of hosts has counselled, and who annuls it? And His hand that is stretched out, who turns it back?”

28This is the message which came in the year that Sovereign Aḥaz died:

29“Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, that the rod that smote you is broken; for out of the serpent’s roots comes forth an adder, and its offspring is a fiery flying serpent.

30“And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy lie down in safety. And I shall kill your roots with scarcity of food, and it shall slay your remnant.

31“Howl, O gate! Cry, O city! Melt away, all you of Philistia! For smoke shall come from the north, and there is no stranger in his ranks.”

32And what does one answer the messengers of a nation? “That יהוה has founded Tsiyon, and the poor of His people take refuge in it.”

ISAIAH 15

1The message concerning Mo’aḇ. Because in the night Ar of Mo’aḇ was laid waste, was silenced! Because in the night Qir of Mo’aḇ was laid waste, was silenced!

2He has gone up to the house and Diḇon, to the high places to weep. Mo’aḇ is wailing over Neḇo and over Mĕyḏeḇa; on all their heads is baldness, and every beard is cut off.

3In their streets they shall put on sackcloth; on the tops of their houses and in their streets everyone wails, weeping bitterly.

4And Ḥeshbon and El‛alĕh cry out, their voice shall be heard as far as Yahats. Therefore the armed ones of Mo’aḇ shout; his being shall tremble within him.

5My own heart is toward Mo’aḇ; her fugitives cry unto Tso‛ar, like a three-year-old heifer. For by the ascent of Luḥith they go up with weeping; for in the way of Ḥoronayim they raise a cry of destruction.

6For the waters of Nimrim are wastes, for the green grass has withered away; the grass fails, there is no greenness.

7Therefore the wealth, acquired and stored up, they take away to the wadi of the Willows.

8For the cry has gone all around the borders of Mo’aḇ, its wailing to Eg̅layim and its wailing to Be’ĕr Ělim.

9“For the waters of Dimon shall be filled with blood; for I shall bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him who escapes from Mo’aḇ, and on the remnant of the land.”

ISAIAH 16

1Send a lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Tsiyon.

2And it shall be, like a wandering bird, a nest thrown out, so are the daughters of Mo’aḇ at the fords of Arnon.

3“Bring counsel, execute judgment; make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day; hide the outcasts, do not betray him who escapes.

4“Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Mo’aḇ; be a shelter to them from the face of the ravager. For the oppressor has met his end, destruction has ceased, those trampling down have perished from the land.

5“And in kindness the throne shall be established. And One shall sit on it in truth, in the Tent of Dawiḏ, judging and seeking right-ruling, and speeding righteousness.”

6We have heard of the pride of Mo’aḇ – very proud – of his pride, his arrogance and his rage. His boastings are not true.

7So Mo’aḇ wails for Mo’aḇ, everyone wails. For the raisin-cakes of Qir Ḥareseth they moan. They are utterly smitten.

8For the fields of Ḥeshbon languish – the vine of Siḇmah. The masters of the gentiles have broken down its choice plants, which have reached to Ya‛zĕr and wandered through the wilderness. Her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea.

9Therefore I bewail the vine of Siḇmah, with the weeping of Ya‛zĕr. I water you with my tears, O Ḥeshbon and El‛alĕh, for acclamation have fallen over your summer fruit and your harvest.

10Gladness is taken away, and joy from the orchard; in the vineyards there is no singing, nor shouting; No treaders tread out wine in their presses; I have made their acclamation cease.

11Therefore my inward parts sound like a lyre for Mo’aḇ, and my inner being for Qir Ḥeres.

12And it shall be, when it is seen that Mo’aḇ has wearied herself on the high place, that she shall come to her set-apart place to pray, but not be able.

13This is the word which יהוה has spoken concerning Mo’aḇ since that time.

14But now יהוה has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hired man, the esteem of Mo’aḇ is to be despised with all its great throng, and the remnant be few, small and weak.”

ISAIAH 17

1The message concerning Damascus. “See, Damascus ceases to be a city, and shall become a heap of ruins.

2“The cities of Aro‛ĕr are forsaken, they are for flocks which shall lie down, with no one to frighten.

3“And the stronghold shall cease from Ephrayim, and the reign from Damascus, and the remnant of Aram be as the esteem of the sons of Yisra’ĕl,” declares יהוה of hosts.

4“And in that day it shall be that the esteem of Ya‛aqoḇ wanes, and the fatness of his flesh grows lean.

5“And it shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain, and reaps the heads with his arm. And it shall be as he who gathers heads of grain in the Valley of Repha’im.

6“And gleaning grapes shall be left in it, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives at the top of the uppermost branch, four or five in its most fruit-bearing branches,” declares יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl.

7In that day man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes turn to the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

8And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands; and he shall not see that which his own fingers made, nor the Ashĕrim nor the sun-pillars.

9In that day his strong cities become like a forsaken forest and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Yisra’ĕl. And it shall become a ruin.

10Because you have forgotten the Elohim of your deliverance, and have not remembered the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings,

11by day make your plant to grow, and in the morning make your seed to flourish – but the harvest is a heap in the day of grief and incurable pain.

12Woe to the uproar of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters –

13nations rushing like the rushing of many waters. But He shall rebuke them and they shall flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like whirling dust before the whirlwind.

14At eventide, look! Alarm! Before morning, it is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.