71 Days of Isaiah Plan

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.