Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹On that day seven women will seize one man, saying, “We will eat our own bread and provide our own clothing. Just let us bear your name. Take away our disgrace.”

²On that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

³Whoever remains in Zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy  — all in Jerusalem written in the book of life  —

⁴when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodguilt from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.

⁵Then the LORD will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy over all the glory,

⁶and there will be a shelter for shade from heat by day, and a refuge and shelter from storm and rain.

¹I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

²He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes.

³So now, residents of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴What more could I have done for my vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes?

⁵Now I will tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.

⁶I will make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briers will grow up. I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it.

⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant he delighted in. He expected justice but saw injustice; he expected righteousness, but heard cries of despair.

⁸Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is no more room and you alone are left in the land.

⁹I heard the LORD of Armies say: Indeed, many houses will become desolate, grand and lovely ones without inhabitants.

¹⁰For a ten-acre vineyard will yield only six gallons of wine, and ten bushels of seed will yield only one bushel of grain.

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of beer, who linger into the evening, inflamed by wine.

¹²At their feasts they have lyre, harp, tambourine, flute, and wine. They do not perceive the LORD’s actions, and they do not see the work of his hands.

¹³Therefore my people will go into exile because they lack knowledge; her dignitaries are starving, and her masses are parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s dignitaries, her masses, her crowds, and those who celebrate in her!

¹⁵Humanity is brought low, each person is humbled, and haughty eyes are humbled.

¹⁶But the LORD of Armies is exalted by his justice, and the holy God shows that he is holy through his righteousness.

¹⁷Lambs will graze as if in their own pastures, and resident aliens will eat among the ruins of the rich.

¹⁸Woe to those who drag iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,

¹⁹to those who say: “Let him hurry up and do his work quickly so that we can see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel take place so that we can know it!”

²⁰Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

²¹Woe to those who consider themselves wise and judge themselves clever.

²²Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, who are champions at pouring beer,

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.

²⁴Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will become like something rotten and their blossoms will blow away like dust, for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Armies, and they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against his people. He raised his hand against them and struck them; the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like garbage in the streets. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

²⁶He raises a signal flag for the distant nations and whistles for them from the ends of the earth. Look — how quickly and swiftly they come!

²⁷None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose and no sandal strap broken.

²⁸Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows strung. Their horses’ hooves are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

²⁹Their roaring is like a lion’s; they roar like young lions; they growl and seize their prey and carry it off, and no one can rescue it.

³⁰On that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. When one looks at the land, there will be darkness and distress; light will be obscured by clouds.

¹In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.

²Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

³And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth.

⁴The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies.

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

⁷He touched my mouth with it and said: Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.

⁸Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking: Who should I send? Who will go for us? I said: Here I am. Send me.

⁹And he replied: Go! Say to these people: Keep listening, but do not understand; keep looking, but do not perceive.

¹⁰Make the minds of these people dull; deafen their ears and blind their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed.

¹¹Then I said, “Until when, Lord?” And he replied: Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate,

¹²and the LORD drives the people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land.

¹³Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again. Like the terebinth or the oak that leaves a stump when felled, the holy seed is the stump.

¹This took place during the reign of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah king of Judah: Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah son of Remaliah went to fight against Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it.

²When it became known to the house of David that Aram had occupied Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the hearts of his people trembled like trees of a forest shaking in the wind.

³The LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.

⁴Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly because of these two smoldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.

⁵For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted harm against you. They say,

⁶‘Let us go up against Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it for ourselves. Then we can install Tabeel’s son as king in it.’”

⁷This is what the Lord GOD says: It will not happen; it will not occur.

⁸The chief city of Aram is Damascus, the chief of Damascus is Rezin (within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people),

⁹the chief city of Ephraim is Samaria, and the chief of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz:

¹¹“Ask for a sign from the LORD your God — it can be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.”

¹²But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not test the LORD.”

¹³Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God?

¹⁴Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

¹⁵By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good, he will be eating curds and honey.

¹⁶For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned.

¹⁷The LORD will bring on you, your people, and your father’s house such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah: He will bring the king of Assyria.”

¹⁸On that day the LORD will whistle to flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to bees in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹All of them will come and settle in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.

²⁰On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River — the king of Assyria  — to shave the hair on your heads, the hair on your legs, and even your beards.

²¹On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,

²²and from the abundant milk they give he will eat curds, for every survivor in the land will eat curds and honey.

²³And on that day every place where there were a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, will become thorns and briers.

²⁴A man will go there with bow and arrows because the whole land will be thorns and briers.

²⁵You will not go to all the hills that were once tilled with a hoe, for fear of the thorns and briers. Those hills will be places for oxen to graze and for sheep to trample.

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

²I have appointed trustworthy witnesses — the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”

³I was then intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,

⁴for before the boy knows how to call ‘Father,’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria.”

⁵The LORD spoke to me again:

⁶Because these people rejected the slowly flowing water of Shiloah and rejoiced with Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

⁷the Lord will certainly bring against them the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates River — the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will overflow its channels and spill over all its banks.

⁸It will pour into Judah, flood over it, and sweep through, reaching up to the neck; and its flooded banks will fill your entire land, Immanuel!

⁹Band together, peoples, and be broken; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for war, and be broken; prepare for war, and be broken.

¹⁰Devise a plan; it will fail. Make a prediction; it will not happen. For God is with us.

¹¹For this is what the LORD said to me with great power, to keep me from going the way of this people:

¹²Do not call everything a conspiracy these people say is a conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not be terrified.

¹³You are to regard only the LORD of Armies as holy. Only he should be feared; only he should be held in awe.

¹⁴He will be a sanctuary; but for the two houses of Israel, he will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured.

¹⁶Bind up the testimony. Seal up the instruction among my disciples.

¹⁷I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will wait for him.

¹⁸Here I am with the children the LORD has given me to be signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of Armies who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

²⁰Go to God’s instruction and testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

²¹They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.

²²They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

¹Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

²The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.

³You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.

⁴For you have shattered their oppressive yoke and the rod on their shoulders, the staff of their oppressor, just as you did on the day of Midian.

⁵For every trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of war will be burned as fuel for the fire.

⁶For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the LORD of Armies will accomplish this.

⁸The Lord sent a message against Jacob; it came against Israel.

⁹All the people — Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria  — will know it. They will say with pride and arrogance:

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with cut stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹The LORD has raised up Rezin’s adversaries against him and stirred up his enemies.

¹²Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have consumed Israel with open mouths. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

¹³The people did not turn to him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Armies.

¹⁴So the LORD cut off Israel’s head and tail, palm branch and reed in a single day.

¹⁵The head is the elder, the honored one; the tail is the prophet, the one teaching lies.

¹⁶The leaders of the people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over Israel’s young men and has no compassion on its fatherless and widows, for everyone is a godless evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets so that they go up in a column of smoke.

¹⁹The land is scorched by the wrath of the LORD of Armies, and the people are like fuel for the fire. No one has compassion on his brother.

²⁰They carve meat on the right, but they are still hungry; they have eaten on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one eats the flesh of his own arm.

²¹Manasseh is with Ephraim, and Ephraim with Manasseh; together, both are against Judah. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

¹Woe to those enacting crooked statutes and writing oppressive laws

²to keep the poor from getting a fair trial and to deprive the needy among my people of justice, so that widows can be their spoil and they can plunder the fatherless.

³What will you do on the day of punishment when devastation comes from far away? Who will you run to for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

⁴There will be nothing to do except crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

⁵Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger — the staff in their hands is my wrath.

⁶I will send him against a godless nation; I will command him to go against a people destined for my rage, to take spoils, to plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

⁷But this is not what he intends; this is not what he plans. It is his intent to destroy and to cut off many nations.

⁸For he says, “Aren’t all my commanders kings?

⁹Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms, whose idols exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

¹¹and as I did to Samaria and its worthless images will I not also do to Jerusalem and its idols?”

¹²But when the Lord finishes all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for his arrogant acts and the proud look in his eyes.”

¹³For he said: I have done this by my own strength and wisdom, for I am clever. I abolished the borders of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty warrior, I subjugated the inhabitants.

¹⁴My hand has reached out, as if into a nest, to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered the whole earth. No wing fluttered; no beak opened or chirped.

¹⁵Does an ax exalt itself above the one who chops with it? Does a saw magnify itself above the one who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it! It would be like a staff lifting the one who isn’t wood!

¹⁶Therefore the Lord GOD of Armies will inflict an emaciating disease on the well-fed of Assyria, and he will kindle a burning fire under its glory.

¹⁷Israel’s Light will become a fire, and its Holy One, a flame. In one day it will burn and consume Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

¹⁸He will completely destroy the glory of its forests and orchards as a sickness consumes a person.

¹⁹The remaining trees of its forest will be so few in number that a child could count them.

²⁰On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on the one who struck them, but they will faithfully depend on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

²¹The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.

²²Israel, even if your people were as numerous as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction has been decreed; justice overflows.

²³For throughout the land the Lord GOD of Armies is carrying out a destruction that was decreed.

²⁴Therefore, the Lord GOD of Armies says this: “My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, though they strike you with a rod and raise their staff over you as the Egyptians did.

²⁵In just a little while my wrath will be spent and my anger will turn to their destruction.”

²⁶And the LORD of Armies will brandish a whip against him as he did when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the sea as he did in Egypt.

²⁷On that day his burden will fall from your shoulders, and his yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.

²⁸Assyria has come to Aiath and has gone through Migron, storing their equipment at Michmash.

²⁹They crossed over at the ford, saying, “We will spend the night at Geba.” The people of Ramah are trembling; those at Gibeah of Saul have fled.

³⁰Cry aloud, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Anathoth is miserable.

³¹Madmenah has fled. The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.

³²Today the Assyrians will stand at Nob, shaking their fists at the mountain of Daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Look, the Lord GOD of Armies will chop off the branches with terrifying power, and the tall trees will be cut down, the high trees felled.

³⁴He is clearing the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon with its majesty will fall.

¹Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

²The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him  — a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

³His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears,

⁴but he will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. He will strike the land with a scepter from his mouth, and he will kill the wicked with a command from his lips.

⁵Righteousness will be a belt around his hips; faithfulness will be a belt around his waist.

⁶The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf will be together, and a child will lead them.

⁷The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle.

⁸An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.

⁹They will not harm or destroy each other on my entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is filled with water.

¹⁰On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will look to him for guidance, and his resting place will be glorious.

¹¹On that day the Lord will extend his hand a second time to recover the remnant of his people who survive — from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coasts and islands of the west.

¹²He will lift up a banner for the nations and gather the dispersed of Israel; he will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

¹³Ephraim’s envy will cease; Judah’s harassing will end. Ephraim will no longer be envious of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim.

¹⁴But they will swoop down on the Philistine flank to the west. Together they will plunder the people of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

¹⁵The LORD will divide the Gulf of Suez. He will wave his hand over the Euphrates with his mighty wind and will split it into seven streams, letting people walk through on foot.

¹⁶There will be a highway for the remnant of his people who will survive from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

¹On that day you will say: “I will give thanks to you, LORD, although you were angry with me. Your anger has turned away, and you have comforted me.

²Indeed, God is my salvation; I will trust him and not be afraid, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation.”

³You will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation,

⁴and on that day you will say: “Give thanks to the LORD; proclaim his name! Make his works known among the peoples. Declare that his name is exalted.

⁵Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things. Let this be known throughout the earth.

⁶Cry out and sing, citizen of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is among you in his greatness.”

¹A pronouncement concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

²Lift up a banner on a barren mountain. Call out to them. Signal with your hand, and they will go through the gates of the nobles.

³I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my warriors, who celebrate my triumph, to execute my wrath.

⁴Listen, a commotion on the mountains, like that of a mighty people! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations being gathered together! The LORD of Armies is mobilizing an army for war.

⁵They are coming from a distant land, from the farthest horizon — the LORD and the weapons of his wrath — to destroy the whole country.

⁶Wail! For the day of the LORD is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

⁷Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak, and every man will lose heart.

⁸They will be horrified; pain and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look at each other, their faces flushed with fear.

⁹Look, the day of the LORD is coming — cruel, with rage and burning anger — to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners.

¹⁰Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.

¹¹I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their iniquities. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.

¹²I will make a human more scarce than fine gold, and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.

¹³Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its foundations at the wrath of the LORD of Armies, on the day of his burning anger.

¹⁴Like wandering gazelles and like sheep without a shepherd, each one will turn to his own people, each one will flee to his own land.

¹⁵Whoever is found will be stabbed, and whoever is caught will die by the sword.

¹⁶Their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted, and their wives raped.

¹⁷Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them, who cannot be bought off with silver and who have no desire for gold.

¹⁸Their bows will cut young men to pieces. They will have no compassion on offspring; they will not look with pity on children.

¹⁹And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

²⁰It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; a nomad will not pitch his tent there, and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.

²¹But desert creatures will lie down there, and owls will fill the houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.

²²Hyenas will howl in the fortresses, and jackals, in the luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is almost up; her days are almost over.

¹For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will choose Israel again. He will settle them on their own land. The resident alien will join them and be united with the house of Jacob.

²The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and will rule over their oppressors.

³When the LORD gives you rest from your pain, torment, and the hard labor you were forced to do,

⁴you will sing this song of contempt about the king of Babylon and say: How the oppressor has quieted down, and how the raging has become quiet!

⁵The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers.

⁶It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows. It subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution.

⁷The whole earth is calm and at rest; people shout with a ringing cry.

⁸Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon rejoice over you: “Since you have been laid low, no lumberjack has come against us.”

⁹Sheol below is eager to greet your coming, stirring up the spirits of the departed for you — all the rulers of the earth — making all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.

¹⁰They all respond to you, saying, “You too have become as weak as we are; you have become like us!

¹¹Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.”

¹²Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground.

¹³You said to yourself, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly, in the remotest parts of the North.

¹⁴I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

¹⁵But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the Pit.

¹⁶Those who see you will stare at you; they will look closely at you: “Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble, who shook the kingdoms,

¹⁷who turned the world into a wilderness, who destroyed its cities and would not release the prisoners to return home?”

¹⁸All the kings of the nations lie in splendor, each in his own tomb.

¹⁹But you are thrown out without a grave, like a worthless branch, covered by those slain with the sword and dumped into a rocky pit like a trampled corpse.

²⁰You will not join them in burial, because you destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of evildoers will never be mentioned again.

²¹Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons, because of the iniquity of their fathers. They will never rise up to possess a land or fill the surface of the earth with cities.

²²“I will rise up against them” — this is the declaration of the LORD of Armies — “and I will cut off from Babylon her reputation, remnant, offspring, and posterity” — this is the LORD’s declaration.

²³“I will make her a swampland and a region for herons, and I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction.” This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.

²⁴The LORD of Armies has sworn: As I have purposed, so it will be; as I have planned it, so it will happen.

²⁵I will break Assyria in my land; I will tread him down on my mountain. Then his yoke will be taken from them, and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.

²⁶This is the plan prepared for the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched out against all the nations.

²⁷The LORD of Armies himself has planned it; therefore, who can stand in its way? It is his hand that is outstretched, so who can turn it back?

²⁸In the year that King Ahaz died, this pronouncement came:

²⁹Don’t rejoice, all of you in Philistia, because the rod of the one who struck you is broken. For a viper will come from the root of a snake, and from its egg comes a flying serpent.

³⁰Then the firstborn of the poor will be well fed, and the impoverished will lie down in safety, but I will kill your root with hunger, and your remnant will be slain.

³¹Wail, you gates! Cry out, city! Tremble with fear, all Philistia! For a cloud of dust is coming from the north, and there is no one missing from the invader’s ranks.

³²What answer will be given to the messengers from that nation? The LORD has founded Zion, and his oppressed people find refuge in her.

¹A pronouncement concerning Moab: Ar in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night. Kir in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night.

²Dibon went up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails on Nebo and at Medeba. Every head is shaved; every beard is chopped short.

³In its streets they wear sackcloth; on its rooftops and in its public squares everyone wails, falling down and weeping.

⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz. Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out, and they tremble.

⁵My heart cries out over Moab, whose fugitives flee as far as Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah; they go up the Ascent of Luhith weeping; they raise a cry of destruction on the road to Horonaim.

⁶The Waters of Nimrim are desolate; the grass is withered, the foliage is gone, and the vegetation has vanished.

⁷So they carry their wealth and belongings over the Wadi of the Willows.

⁸For their cry echoes throughout the territory of Moab. Their wailing reaches Eglaim; their wailing reaches Beer-elim.

⁹The Waters of Dibon are full of blood, but I will bring on Dibon even more than this — a lion for those who escape from Moab, and for the survivors in the land.

¹Send lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela in the desert to the mountain of Daughter Zion.

²Like a bird fleeing, forced from the nest, the daughters of Moab will be at the fords of the Arnon.

³Give us counsel and make a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade that is as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees.

⁴Let my refugees stay with you; be a refuge for Moab from the aggressor. When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ended, and marauders have vanished from the land,

⁵a throne will be established in love, and one will sit on it faithfully in the tent of David, judging and pursuing what is right, quick to execute justice.

⁶We have heard of Moab’s pride  — how very proud he is — his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance, and his empty boasting.

⁷Therefore let Moab wail; let every one of them wail for Moab. You who are completely devastated, mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

⁸For Heshbon’s terraced vineyards and the grapevines of Sibmah have withered. The rulers of the nations have trampled its choice vines that reached as far as Jazer and spread to the desert. Their shoots spread out and reached the sea.

⁹So I join with Jazer to weep for the vines of Sibmah; I drench Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears. Triumphant shouts have fallen silent over your summer fruit and your harvest.

¹⁰Joy and rejoicing have been removed from the orchard; no one is singing or shouting for joy in the vineyards. No one tramples grapes in the winepresses. I have put an end to the shouting.

¹¹Therefore I moan like the sound of a lyre for Moab, as does my innermost being for Kir-heres.

¹²When Moab appears and tires himself out on the high place and comes to his sanctuary to pray, it will do him no good.

¹³This is the message that the LORD previously announced about Moab.

¹⁴And now the LORD says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, in spite of a very large population. And those who are left will be few and weak.”