Passage: Isaiah 22, 23, 24 (RSV)


Isaiah 22


1The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,
2you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle.
3All your rulers have fled together, without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.
4Therefore I said: "Look away from me, let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people."
5For 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 shouting to the mountains.
6And Elam bore the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
7Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
8He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,
9and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many, and you collected the waters of the lower pool,
10and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
11You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago.
12In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called to weeping and mourning, to baldness and girding with sackcloth;
13and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
14The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: "Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you till you die," says the Lord GOD of hosts.
15Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, "Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him:
16What have you to do here and whom have you here, that you have hewn here a tomb for yourself, you who hew a tomb on the height, and carve a habitation for yourself in the rock?
17Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you,
18and whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there shall be your splendid chariots, you shame of your master's house.
19I will thrust you from your office, and you will be cast down from your station.
20In that day I will call my servant Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah,
21and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
23And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house.
24And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.
25In that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a sure place will give way; and it will be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken."

Isaiah 23


1The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or haven! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them.
2Be still, O inhabitants of the coast, O merchants of Sidon; your messengers passed over the sea
3and were on many waters; your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations.
4Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: "I have neither travailed nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up virgins."
5When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
6Pass over to Tarshish, wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
7Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle afar?
8Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
9The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
10Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any more.
11He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms; the LORD has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds.
12And he said: "You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon; arise, pass over to Cyprus, even there you will have no rest."
13Behold the land of the Chalde'ans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined Tyre for wild beasts. They erected their siegetowers, they razed her palaces, they made her a ruin.
14Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.
15In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:
16"Take a harp, go about the city, O forgotten harlot! Make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered."
17At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her hire, and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
18Her merchandise and her hire will be dedicated to the LORD; it will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the LORD.

Isaiah 24


1Behold, the LORD will lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
2And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled; for the LORD has spoken this word.
4The earth mourns and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth.
5The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.
6Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.
7The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh.
8The mirth of the timbrels is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
9No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10The city of chaos is broken down, every house is shut up so that none can enter.
11There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has reached its eventide; the gladness of the earth is banished.
12Desolation is left in the city, the gates are battered into ruins.
13For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the vintage is done.
14They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the LORD they shout from the west.
15Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; in the coastlands of the sea, to the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
16From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, "I pine away, I pine away. Woe is me! For the treacherous deal treacherously, the treacherous deal very treacherously."
17Terror, and the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
18He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit; and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.
19The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is violently shaken.
20The earth staggers like a drunken man, it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.
21On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.
23Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his elders he will manifest his glory.



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