Category: DAB Readings

¹⁴ This is what the Lord says,
the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
For your sake I am taking action against Babylon,
and I will bring down all the Chaldeans as refugees,
in the ships over which they rejoiced.
¹⁵ I am the Lord, your Holy One,
Israel’s Creator, your King.
¹⁶ This is what the Lord says,
who makes a road through the sea
and a path through mighty waters,
¹⁷ who brings out the chariot and the horses,
the army and the strong warrior.
They will all lie down together.
They will not get up.
They are extinguished.
Like a wick they go out.

¹⁸ Do not remember the former^[a] things.
Do not keep thinking about ancient things.
¹⁹ Watch, I am about to do a new thing.
Now it will spring up. Don’t you know about it?
Indeed I will make a road in the wilderness.
In the wasteland I will make rivers.
²⁰ The wild animals, the jackals and ostriches, will honor me,
because I am providing water in the wilderness,
rivers in a parched wasteland,
water for my chosen people to drink.
²¹ This people that I formed for myself will declare my praise.

²² But you have not called on me, O Jacob.
Instead, you have become weary of me, O Israel.
²³ You have not brought me sheep as your whole burnt offerings.
You did not glorify me with your sacrifices.
I did not make you serve me with a grain offering.
I did not make you weary with demands for incense.
²⁴ You did not purchase fragrant cane for me with silver
or satisfy me with the fat from your sacrifices.
Instead you have made me serve because of your sins.
You have made me weary because of your guilt.
²⁵ I, yes I, am he.
I blot out your rebellious deeds for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.
²⁶ Refresh my memory.
Let us review your case together.
Present your defense so that you may be acquitted.
²⁷ Your first father sinned,
and your mediators rebelled against me.
²⁸ Therefore I am repudiating the officials of the sanctuary,
and I am giving Jacob over to complete destruction
and Israel to insults.^[b]

But now listen, O Jacob my servant,
O Israel, whom I have chosen.
² This is what the Lord, your Maker, says,
the Lord who formed you from the womb, who will help you.
Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob,

Jeshurun,^[c] whom I have chosen,
³ because I will pour out water upon a thirsty land,
and streams of water upon dry ground.
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
⁴ They will spring up like a tree in a grassy meadow,^[d]
like willows beside flowing streams.

⁵ One person will say, “I belong to the Lord.”
Another will be called by the name of Jacob.
Another will write on his hand, “Belonging to the Lord,”
and he will take the name of Israel.

⁸ Do not tremble, and do not be frightened.
Did I not announce this to you,
and declare it already long ago?
You are my witnesses.
Is there any god except me?
There is no other Rock. I am not aware of any other.
⁹ All those who form an idol are good for nothing.
All the things which delight them provide no benefit.
As for their witnesses—they do not see.
They know nothing, so they will be ashamed.

²³ Shout for joy, you heavens, because of what the Lord is doing.
Make a joyful shout, you depths of the earth.
Burst forth with shouts of joy, you mountains,
you forest and every tree in it,
because the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
and in Israel he will display his beauty.

²⁴ This is what the Lord, your Redeemer,
the Lord who formed you from the womb, says.
I am the Lord, the one who does all things,
who stretched out the heavens by myself,
who hammered out the earth.
(Who was with me then?)
²⁵ I frustrate the signs of the deceivers
and make fools of the fortune tellers.^[h]
I overturn the wisdom of the wise
and turn their knowledge into foolishness.

²⁶ He is the one who fulfills the word of his servants,
who completes the plan announced by his messengers,
who says about Jerusalem, “It will be inhabited,”
and about the cities of Judah, “They will be rebuilt,
and I will raise up their ruins.”
²⁷ He is the one who says to the deep ocean, “Dry up,”
the one who says, “I will dry up your rivers.”
²⁸ He is the one who says about Cyrus, “He is my shepherd,
and he will complete everything I desire.”
He is the one who says about Jerusalem, “It will be rebuilt,”
and who says to the temple, “Your foundations will be laid.”

This is what the Lord says to his anointed one,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
by stripping kings of their weapons,
to open doors before him
so that the gates cannot be shut.

² I myself will go before you,
and I will level high mountains.^[i]
I will break bronze doors into pieces,
and I will cut through iron bars.
³ I will give you treasures hidden in darkness
and riches concealed in secret places,
so that you will acknowledge that I am the Lord,
the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel.
⁴ For the sake of my servant Jacob,
for the sake of Israel my chosen one,
I will call you by your name.
I will give you an honored name, though you do not know me.
⁵ I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Except for me, there is no god.
I will equip you even though you do not know me,
⁶ so that people will know from the rising of the sun
to the place where it sets
that there is no one except me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷ I am the one who forms light and creates darkness,
the one who makes peace and creates disaster.
I am the Lord, the one who does all these things.

⁵ In his holy dwelling, God is a father for the fatherless
and a judge who defends widows.
⁶ God causes the lonely to dwell together as a household.
He leads out the prisoners with music,
but the rebellious dwell in a scorched land.

24 Do not envy evil people,
and do not wish to be with them,
² because their hearts plan violence,
and their lips speak trouble.

²⁶ Who declared this from the beginning so that we could know it,
and ahead of time so that we could say, “He is right”?
In fact, not one of them declares this.
In fact, not one of them makes this known.
In fact, no one hears you say anything.
²⁷ I was first to announce to Zion, “Look, here they are,”
and I sent a herald of good news to Jerusalem.
²⁸ When I looked, there was no one.
None of them could give advice,
even when I kept asking them to respond.
²⁹ Look, all of them are useless.
Their works are nothing.
Their images are empty wind.

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight.
I am placing my Spirit on him.
He will announce a just verdict^[b] for the nations.

² He will not cry out.
He will not raise his voice.
He will not make his voice heard in the street.
³ A bent reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out.
He will faithfully bring forth a just verdict.
⁴ He will not burn out, and he will not be broken
until he establishes justice on the earth.
The coastlands will wait for his law.^[c]
5 This is what the true God says,
the Lord who creates the heavens and stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth
and everything that it produces,
who gives breath to the people on it
and life to those who walk on it.
⁶ I am the Lord.
I have called you in righteousness.
I will hold on to your hand,
and I will guard you.
I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people,
to be a light for the nations,
⁷ to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring the prisoners out from the dungeon,
and to bring those who sit in darkness out of prison.

⁸ I am the Lord; that is my name.
I will not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to idols.
⁹ Look, the former things have taken place,
and I am declaring new things.
I am making them known to you before they spring forth.

¹⁷ They will be turned back and completely disgraced—
those who trust in an idol,
those who say to molten images, “You are our gods.”

But now this is what the Lord says,
the Lord who created you, O Jacob,
the Lord who formed you, O Israel.
Do not be afraid, because I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name. You are mine.
² When you cross through the waters, I will be with you.
When you cross the rivers, they will not sweep you away.
When you walk through fire, you will not be burned,
and the flame will not set you on fire.

³ Because I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior,
I gave Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
⁴ Because you are precious and honored in my eyes,
and I myself love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
and peoples in exchange for your life.
⁵ Do not be afraid, because I am with you.
From the east I will bring your offspring,
and from the west I will gather you.
⁶ I will say to the north, “Give them back!”
and to the south, “Do not hold them.”
Bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth—
⁷ everyone who is called by my name,
everyone I created for my glory,
everyone I formed,
yes, everyone I have made.

⁸ Bring out the people who are blind, though they have eyes,
and the people who are deaf, though they have ears.
⁹ Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let peoples be assembled.
Who among them has declared this?
Who has made known to us the former things?
Let them produce their witnesses to show that they were right,
so that people can hear and say, “This is truth.”

¹⁰ You are my witnesses, declares the Lord.
You are my servant, whom I have chosen,
so that you may know me and believe in me,
so that you will understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
and after me there will not be another.
¹¹ I, yes I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.
¹² I myself declared it.
I brought salvation, and I announced it.
It was not some strange god among you.
You are my witnesses, declares the Lord,
and I am God.
¹³ Indeed, from the first day, I am he.
There is no one who can deliver anyone from my hand.
I act, and who can reverse it?

²⁹ Who has trouble? Who has misery?
Who has quarrels? Who has complaints?
Who has wounds for no reason? Who has glazed eyes?
³⁰ Those who linger over wine,
those who go to search for mixed wine.
³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup,
when it goes down smoothly.
³² Later it bites like a snake,
and it strikes like a venomous viper.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things,
and your mind will say senseless things.
³⁴ You will be like someone who tries to sleep in the middle of the sea,
like someone who tries to sleep at the top of a ship’s mast.
³⁵ “They struck me, but I felt no pain.
They beat me, but I was not aware of it.
When will I wake up, so that I can try it again?”

⁹ Get up on a high mountain,
O Zion, you herald of good news.
Lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, you herald of good news.
Lift it up! Do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
¹⁰ Look, God the Lord will come with strength,
and his arm is ruling for him.
Look, his reward is with him.
The result of his work is in front of him.
¹¹ Like a shepherd he will care for his flock.
With his arm he will gather the lambs.
He will lift them up on his lap.
He will gently lead the nursing mothers.

¹³ Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?
Who can teach him anything or serve as his advisor?
¹⁴ Who was his advisor to give him insight?
Who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge?
Who showed him the way to complete understanding?

¹⁵ Indeed, nations are like a drop in a bucket,
and they are treated like powder on a scale.
Look, he lifts up islands like dust!
¹⁶ Not even the forests of Lebanon could provide enough wood to burn,
and its animals are not enough for a whole burnt offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are nothing to him.
By him they are regarded as worthless,
as less than nothing.

¹⁸ So to whom will you compare God?
What image can you compare to him?
¹⁹ A craftsman casts the idol,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold.
He forges silver chains for it.
²⁰ He chooses mulberry wood as an offering,^[f]
wood that will not rot.
He looks for a skillful craftsman
to erect an idol that will not fall over.

²¹ Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood it from the founding of the earth?
²² He is the one who sits above the circle of the earth.
To him its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and he spreads them out like a tent to live in.
²³ He is the one who reduces dignitaries to nothing.
He makes the judges of the world useless.
²⁴ They have hardly been planted.
They have hardly been sown.
Their stem has hardly taken root in the earth.
Then he blows on them, and they dry up.
A driving storm carries them away like chaff.

²⁵ To whom can you compare me as if we were equals?
says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and see who created these things.
See who brings out their army in great number
and calls them all by name.
Because of his great strength and mighty power,
not one of them is missing.

²⁷ Why do you speak, O Jacob?
O Israel, why do you say,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and justice for me is ignored by my God”?
²⁸ Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God.
He is the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired, and he will not become weary.
No one can find a limit to his understanding.
²⁹ He is the one who gives strength to the weak,
and he increases the strength of those who lack power.
³⁰ Young men grow tired and become weary.
Even strong men stumble and fall.
³¹ But those who wait for the Lord will receive new strength.
They will lift up their wings and soar like eagles.
They will run and not become weary.
They will walk and not become tired.

Prepare to present your case to me,^[g] you coastlands,
and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near. Yes, let them say,
“We will gather together for the verdict.”

²⁶ My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes be pleased with my ways,
²⁷ because a prostitute is a deep pit,
and an immoral woman is a narrow well.
²⁸ She is also like a robber waiting to ambush someone,
and she multiplies unfaithful men among the people.

The virgin daughter of Zion^[c] despises you and jeers at you.
The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you in scorn.
²³ Who is it whom you have mocked and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted up your proud eyes?
It is against the Holy One of Israel.
²⁴ You have used your servants to mock the Lord.
You have boasted, “I have driven my many chariots
up the high mountains, to the most remote parts of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars and its best fir trees.
I have reached its highest peak, its most lush forest.
²⁵ I dug wells and drank their water,
and I dried up all the rivers of Egypt with the soles of my feet.”

²⁶ Have you not heard?
I did all this long ago.
I formed all this in ancient times.
Now I caused it all to take place.
I enabled you to destroy fortified cities,
reducing them to heaps of ruins.
²⁷ Their inhabitants were powerless.
Overwhelmed and ashamed,
they were like plants in the field,
like fresh green grass, like grass on a housetop,
and like a field before it has grown.^[d]
28 But I know when you stand and when you sit,^[e]
when you go out and when you come in,
and how you rage wildly against me.
²⁹ Because you rage against me,
and because your arrogance has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you go back by the same way that you came.

This year you will eat what grows by itself.
Next year you will eat what springs up from that.
But in the third year, you will sow crops and harvest them.
You will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
³¹ The surviving remnant of the house of Judah
will again put down roots below and bear fruit above.
³² For from Jerusalem a remnant will go out,
and survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

He will not enter this city.
He will not shoot an arrow there.
He will not advance against it with a shield,
and he will not build a siege ramp against it.
³⁴ He will go back by the same route that he came,
and he will not enter this city, declares the Lord.
³⁵ For I will defend this city to save it,
for my own sake,
and for the sake of my servant David.

¹⁰ I thought that, only halfway through my life,
I was entering into the gates of death,^[h]
deprived of the remaining years of my life.
¹¹ I thought, I will not see the Lord—
the Lord^[i] in the land of the living.
I will no longer see anyone among the inhabitants of the world.^[j]
12 My dwelling place is being pulled down.
It is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver.
He is cutting me off from the loom.
From day until night, you make an end of me.^[k]
13 I pondered this until the morning.
He will break all my bones like a lion!
From day until night, you make an end of me.
¹⁴ I chirp weakly like a swift or a swallow.
I mourn like a dove.
My eyes are tired from looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed.
Be my security.

¹⁵ What can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he is the one to act.
I will march slowly throughout all my years,
because my heart is bitter.^[l]
16 Lord, people live because you give them life.
My spirit lives through this.^[m]
Restore me, and let me live.^[n]
17 The bitter things I experienced were for my benefit.
Your love has preserved my life from the pit of destruction,
for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.
¹⁸ The grave^[o] cannot thank you.
Death cannot praise you.
Those who go down into the pit cannot trust your faithfulness.
¹⁹ The living one, the living one, he praises you, as I do today.
A father tells his children about your faithfulness.
²⁰ The Lord will save me,
so we will sing songs with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives in the House of the Lord.

⁸ Those living at the ends of the earth fear your signs.
From sunrise to sunset you let them shout for joy.

¹⁰ Now I will arise, says the Lord.
Now I will lift myself up.
Now I will be exalted.
¹¹ You will conceive chaff
and give birth to stubble.
Like fire, your own breath will consume you.
¹² People will be burned to lime,^[a]
like thorns that are cut and burned in the fire.
¹³ You who are far away, recognize what I have done.
You who are close by, acknowledge my mighty acts.

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the ungodly.
Who of us can live with a consuming fire?
Who of us can live in a place that burns without end?
¹⁵ Those who walk righteously and speak blamelessly,
those who despise dishonest gain,
whose hands refuse a bribe,
whose ears will not listen to violent plans,
whose eyes reject evil—
¹⁶ they will dwell on high.
Their defense will be a fortress on the cliffs.
Their bread will be provided.
Their water supply will be reliable.

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the King^[b] in his splendor.
They will see a land that stretches far and wide.
¹⁸ Your heart will think about the past terrors.
You will think, “Where is the one who took the inventory?^[c]
Where is the one who weighed the silver?
Where is the one who counted the towers?”
¹⁹ You will no longer see a barbaric people,
a people with unintelligible speech, which you cannot understand,
a people who babble in a language that makes no sense.
²⁰ Look at Zion, the city where we hold our festivals.
You will see Jerusalem as a peaceful place,
as a tent that cannot be removed.
Its stakes will never be pulled up.
Its ropes will never be broken.
²¹ There the Lord will be with us in majesty,
as in a place with wide rivers and streams,
where no enemy warship can row,
where no sailing ship can slip past.
²² Because the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver,
and the Lord is our king,
he is the one who will save us.

²³ Your rigging hangs loose.
The mast is not steady.
The sail is not set.^[d]

When they divide all the plunder,
there will be so much that even the crippled will take part.
²⁴ No one who lives there will say, “I am sick.”
The guilt of the people who live there will be forgiven.

Come near, you nations, and hear!
Listen, you peoples.
Let the earth and everything in it hear,
the world and everything that it produces.

² The Lord is angry with all the nations,
and he is furious with all their armies.
He has condemned them to destruction.
He has handed them over for slaughter.
³ Their fallen bodies will lie unburied,
and the stench of their corpses will linger.
The mountains will flow with their blood.
⁴ The whole army of the heavens will fall apart.
The sky will be rolled up like a scroll,
and its whole army will waste away and fall,
like leaves withering on a vine,
like fruit that falls from a fig tree.

⁵ Yes, my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.
Now it will fall on Edom,
on the people I have sentenced to judgment.
⁶ The sword of the Lord is covered with blood.
It is coated with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat from the kidneys of rams,
for the Lord has made a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a massive slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷ Wild oxen will fall along with them,
bull calves and powerful bulls.
Their land will be soaked with blood,
and their dust will be saturated with fat.
⁸ It will be a day of vengeance for the Lord,
a year of retribution for Zion’s sake.^[e]
9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into sulfur,
and its land will become burning pitch,
¹⁰ which will not be extinguished night or day.
Its smoke will go up forever.
Generation after generation, it will lie in ruins.
No one will ever pass through it. Never again!
¹¹ But the desert owl and the porcupine will live there.^[f]
The screech owl and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch a measuring line for chaos over Edom,
and a plumb line for uninhabited ruins.^[g]
12 There will be nothing left for its nobles to call a kingdom.
All its officials will be gone.
¹³ Thorns will cover its citadels.
Thistles and briers will overgrow its fortresses.
It will be a den of jackals,
a haunt for ostriches.
¹⁴ Desert animals and hyenas will gather,
and wild goats^[h] will bleat to each other.
Creatures of the night^[i] will settle there
and find a resting place.
¹⁵ An owl^[j] will nest there.
She will lay eggs, hatch them,
and gather her young under her shade.
Falcons will gather there too,
each with its mate.

¹⁶ Search through the book of the Lord, and read.
Not one of them will be missing.
Not one will lack her mate.
For his mouth has commanded this,
and his Spirit has gathered them together.
¹⁷ He has allotted this land for these creatures.
His hand has divided it up for them with a surveying line.
They will possess it forever.
They will live there generation after generation.

The wilderness and the desert will be glad.
The wasteland of the Arabah will rejoice and blossom like a crocus.
² It will bloom lavishly,
and there will be great joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it.
It will be excellent like Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.

³ Strengthen the weak hands,
and make the shaky knees steady.
⁴ Tell those who have a fearful heart:
Be strong.
Do not be afraid.
Look! Your God will come with vengeance.
With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you.

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.
⁶ The crippled will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.
Waters will flow in the wilderness,
and streams in the wasteland.
⁷ The burning sand will become a pool,
and in the thirsty ground there will be springs of water.
There will be grass, reeds, and rushes where the haunts
of jackals once lay.
⁸ A highway will be there,
a road that will be called the holy way.
The impure will not walk there.
It will be reserved for those who walk in that holy way.
Wicked fools will not wander onto it.
⁹ No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious animal go up on it.
They will not be found there,
but only the redeemed will walk there.
¹⁰ Then those ransomed by the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with a joyful shout,
and everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Happiness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who put their faith in horses,
who trust in chariots because there are many of them,
who trust in charioteers^[e] because they are very powerful.
They do not trust in the Holy One of Israel.
They do not seek the Lord.
² The Lord is wise, and he will bring disaster.
He will not go back on his word,
but he will deal with those who do evil,
and with those who help the wicked.
³ The Egyptians are merely men, not gods.
Their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand to punish,
both the helper and the one seeking help will fall.
Together they will perish.

⁴ This is what the Lord said to me:
When a lion or a young lion snarls over its prey,
and a band of shepherds is called out to drive it away,
it is not afraid of their shouts,
and it is not bothered by the noise they make.
In the same way, the Lord of Armies will fearlessly come down
to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.
⁵ Like a hovering^[f] bird,
the Lord of Armies will protect Jerusalem.
He will protect it and deliver it.
He will pass over it and preserve it.
⁶ O people of Israel, return to the one you have so completely betrayed. ⁷ In that day every one of you will throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—things you made, which caused you to sin.

⁸ Assyria will fall, but not by a human sword.
A sword will devour him, but not one wielded by men.
He will flee from the sword,
but his young men will be forced into slavery.
⁹ His rocky stronghold will pass away because of fear,
and his officials will abandon their banner in panic,
declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,
whose blast furnace is in Jerusalem.

See, a king will reign in righteousness,
and officials will govern with justice.
² Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water for a dry place,
like the shade of a massive cliff in a parched land.
³ The eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
⁴ Hasty hearts^[g] will gain understanding,
and stammering tongues will speak clearly.

⁵ The fool will no longer be called noble,
nor will rogues be treated like respectable people.^[h]
6 The fool speaks folly,
and his heart plots evil:
to do what is ungodly,
to tell lies about the Lord,
to deny food to the hungry,
and to refuse even one drink for the thirsty.
⁷ The rogue’s ways are evil.
He plots evil to ruin the humble with lies,
even when the poor speak with justice.

⁸ But the noble man plans noble deeds,
and by noble deeds he stands.

Woe to you who destroy, even though you have not been destroyed,
you who betray, though you have not been betrayed!
When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed,
and when you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.

² O Lord, be gracious to us. We wait hopefully for you.
Be our strength every morning.
Be our salvation in times of trouble.
³ At the thunder of your voice, people flee.
When you stir up your great power, nations scatter.
⁴ Your plunder will be taken away
the way a caterpillar^[j] eats things up.
People will swarm on it like a locust swarm.
⁵ The Lord is exalted, because he dwells on high.
He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶ There will be stability in your time,
a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.
Your treasure will be the fear of the Lord.
⁷ Listen! Their elite troops^[k] are crying in the streets.
The peace envoys weep bitterly.
⁸ The highways are deserted.
All travel has stopped.
The treaty has been broken.
Witnesses^[l] are despised,
and no one is respected.
⁹ The land mourns and becomes weak.
Lebanon is ashamed and withers away.
The Plain of Sharon is like the Arabah,
and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

²² Listen to your father, who gave you life,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³ Give ear, and hear my voice;
give attention, and hear my speech.
²⁴ Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground?
^25 (P)When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and emmer^[b] as the border?
^26 (Q)For he is rightly instructed;
his God teaches him.

²⁷ Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
²⁸ Does one crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it forever;^[c]
when he drives his cart wheel over it
with his horses, he does not crush it.
²⁹ This also comes from the Lord of hosts;
he is ^(R)wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.

⁵ But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like ^(X)small dust,
and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
^(Y)And in an instant, suddenly,
^6 (Z)you will be visited by the Lord of hosts
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
⁷ And ^(AA)the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,
shall be ^(AB)like a dream, a vision of the night.
^8 (AC)As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,
and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,
or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking,
and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹ Astonish yourselves^[e] and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk,^[f] but not with wine;
^(AD)stagger,^[g] but not with strong drink!
^10 (AE)For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
and covered your heads (the seers).

¹³ And the Lord said:
“Because ^(AG)this people ^(AH)draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
¹⁴ therefore, behold, ^(AI)I will again
do wonderful things with this people,
with wonder upon wonder;
and ^(AJ)the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

¹⁵ Ah, ^(AK)you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,
whose deeds are ^(AL)in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
^16 (AM)You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

¹⁷ Is it not yet a very little while
^(AN)until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
¹⁸ In that day ^(AO)the deaf shall hear
^(AP)the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
^(AQ)the eyes of the blind shall see.
^19 (AR)The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰ For the ruthless shall come to nothing
and ^(AS)the scoffer cease,
and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
²¹ who by a word make a man out to be an offender,
and ^(AT)lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
and with an empty plea ^(AU)turn aside him who is in the right.

“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,
no more shall his face grow pale.
²³ For when he sees his children,
^(AW)the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will sanctify my name;
^(AX)they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
²⁴ And those ^(AY)who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
from where come the lioness and the lion,
the adder and the ^(BL)flying fiery serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
⁷ Egypt's ^(BM)help is worthless and empty;
therefore I have called her
^(BN)“Rahab who sits still.”

^(AV)“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”

³ How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like ^(G)a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
⁴ They only plan to thrust him down from his ^(H)high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
^(I)They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. Selah

⁵ For God alone, O ^(J)my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
^6 (K)He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
⁷ On God rests my ^(L)salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, ^(M)my refuge is God.

^8 (N)Trust in him at all times, O people;
^(O)pour out your heart before him;
God is ^(P)a refuge for us. Selah

^9 (Q)Those of low estate are but a breath;
those of high estate ^(R)are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
^(S)they are together lighter than a breath.
¹⁰ Put no trust in extortion;
^(T)set no vain hopes on robbery;
^(U)if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

^11 (V)Once God has spoken;
^(W)twice have I heard this:
that ^(X)power belongs to God,
¹² and that to you, O Lord, ^(Y)belongs steadfast love.
For you will ^(Z)render to a man
according to his work.

¹⁹ Hear, my son, and ^(A)be wise,
and ^(B)direct your heart in the way.
²⁰ Be not among ^(C)drunkards^[a]
or among ^(D)gluttonous eaters of meat,
²¹ for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
and ^(E)slumber will clothe them with rags.

^6 (J)On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
^(K)of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
⁷ And he will swallow up ^(L)on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
^(M)the veil that is spread over all nations.
^8 (N)He will swallow up death forever;
and ^(O)the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and ^(P)the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
^(Q)for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; ^(R)we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
^(S)let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
¹⁰ For the hand of the Lord will rest ^(T)on this mountain,
and ^(U)Moab shall be trampled down in his place,
as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.^[a]
11 (V)And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it
as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim,
but the Lord ^(W)will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill^[b] of his hands.
¹² And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down,
lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

“We have a strong city;
he sets up ^(Y)salvation
as walls and bulwarks.
^2 (Z)Open the gates,
that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
^3 (AA)You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
^5 (AB)For he has humbled
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
⁶ The foot tramples it,
the feet of ^(AC)the poor,
the steps of ^(AD)the needy.”

⁷ The path of the righteous is level;
^(AE)you make level the way of the righteous.
⁸ In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
^(AF)your name and ^(AG)remembrance
are the desire of our soul.
⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
^(AH)For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
^10 (AI)If favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹ O Lord, ^(AJ)your hand is lifted up,
but ^(AK)they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let ^(AL)the fire for your adversaries consume them.
¹² O Lord, you will ordain ^(AM)peace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
¹³ O Lord our God,
^(AN)other lords besides you have ruled over us,
^(AO)but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
¹⁴ They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
^15 (AP)But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
^(AQ)you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶ O Lord, ^(AR)in distress they sought you;
they poured out a whispered prayer
when your discipline was upon them.
^17 (AS)Like a pregnant woman
who writhes and cries out in her pangs
when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
^18 (AT)we were pregnant, we writhed,
but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
^19 (AU)Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For ^(AV)your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.

²⁰ Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves ^(AW)for a little while
until the fury has passed by.
^21 (AX)For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of ^(AY)the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
and will no more cover its slain.

² In that day,
^(BD)“A pleasant vineyard,^{[c] (BE)}sing of it!
³ I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
⁴ I have no wrath.
^(BF)Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would march against them,
I would burn them up together.
⁵ Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”

^6 (BG)In days to come^[d] Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
and fill the whole world with fruit.

^7 (BH)Has he struck them ^(BI)as he struck those who struck them?
Or have they been slain ^(BJ)as their slayers were slain?
^8 (BK)Measure by measure,^[e] by exile you contended with them;
^(BL)he removed them with his fierce breath^[f] in the day of the east wind.
⁹ Therefore by this ^(BM)the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:^[g]
(BN)when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no ^(BO)Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
^10 (BP)For the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes;
there it lies down and strips its branches.
¹¹ When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
^(BQ)For this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
he who formed them will show them no favor.

^5 (CB)In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory,^[j]
and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,
⁶ and ^(CC)a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
and ^(CD)strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

^7 (CE)These also reel with wine
and ^(CF)stagger with strong drink;
the priest and ^(CG)the prophet reel with strong drink,
they are swallowed by^[k] wine,
they stagger with strong drink,
they reel in vision,
they stumble in giving judgment.
⁸ For all tables are full of filthy vomit,
with no space left.

^9 (CH)“To whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
those taken from the breast?
¹⁰ For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.”

^11 (CI)For by people of strange lips
and with a foreign tongue
the Lord will speak to this people,
¹² to whom he has said,
^(CJ)“This is rest;
give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”;
yet they would not hear.
¹³ And the word of the Lord will be to them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little,
^(CK)that they may go, and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken.