The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV
Page 322
4“so shall the eking of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, fwith their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5g“Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory.
6“And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for hhelp to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?’ ”
Isaiah 21
The Fall of Babylon Proclaimed
1The 1burden against the Wilderness of the Sea.
As awhirlwinds in the South pass through,
So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
2A distressing vision is declared to me;
b The treacherous dealer deals treacherously,
And the plunderer plunders.
c Go up, O Elam!
Besiege, O Media!
All its sighing I have made to cease.
3Therefore dmy loins are filled with pain;
e Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.
I was 2distressed when I heard it;
I was dismayed when I saw it.
4My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;
f The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.
5g Prepare the table,
Set a watchman in the tower,
Eat and drink.
Arise, you princes,
Anoint the shield!
6For thus has the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman,
Let him declare what he sees.”
7And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,
A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,
And he listened earnestly with great care.
83 Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!
I stand continually on the hwatchtower in the daytime;
I have sat at my post every night.
9And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!”
Then he answered and said,
i“Babylon is fallen, is fallen!
And jall the carved images of her gods
He has broken to the ground.”
10k Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!
That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts,
The God of Israel,
I have declared to you.
Proclamation Against Edom
11lThe 4burden against Dumah.
He calls to me out of mSeir,
“Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”
12The watchman said,
“The morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
Return! Come back!”
Proclamation Against Arabia
13nThe 5burden against Arabia.
In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,
O you traveling companies oof Dedanites.
14O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Bring water to him who is thirsty;
With their bread they met him who fled.
15For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.
16For thus the LORD has said to me: “Within a year, paccording to the year of a hired man, all the glory of qKedar will fail;
17“and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.”
Isaiah 22
Proclamation Against Jerusalem
1The 1burden against the Valley of Vision.
What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
2You who are full of noise,
A 2tumultuous city, aa joyous city?
Your slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.
3All your rulers have fled together;
They are captured by the archers.
All who are found in you are bound together;
They have fled from afar.
4Therefore I said, “Look away from me,
b I will weep bitterly;
Do not labor to comfort me
Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”
5c For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity
d By the Lord GOD of hosts
In the Valley of Vision—
Breaking down the walls
And of crying to the mountain.
6e Elam bore the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And fKir uncovered the shield.
7It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys
Shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
8g He removed the 3protection of Judah.
You looked in that day to the armor hof the House of the Forest;
9i You also saw the 4damage to the city of David,
That it was great;
And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses you broke down
To fortify the wall.
11j You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the water of the old kpool.
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.
12And in that day the Lord GOD of hosts
l Called for weeping and for mourning,
m For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
13But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and ndrinking wine:
o“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
14p Then it was revealed in my hearing by the LORD of hosts,
“Surely for this iniquity there qwill be no atonement for you,
Even to your death,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.
The Judgment on Shebna
15Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts:
“Go, proceed to this steward,
To rShebna, who is over the house, and say:
16‘What have you here, and whom have you here,
That you have hewn a sepulcher here,
As he swho hews himself a sepulcher on high,
Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock?
17Indeed, the LORD will throw you away violently,
O mighty man,
t And will surely seize you.
18He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball
Into a large country;
There you shall die, and there uyour glorious chariots
Shall be the shame of your master’s house.
19So I will drive you out of your office,
And from your position 5he will pull you down.
20‘Then it shall be in that day,
That I will call My servant vEliakim the son of Hilkiah;
21I will clothe him with your robe
And strengthen him with your belt;
I will commit your responsibility into his hand.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And to the house of Judah.
22The key of the house of David
I will lay on his wshoulder;
So he shall xopen, and no one shall shut;
And he shall shut, and no one shall open.
23I will fasten him as ya peg in a secure place,
And he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24‘They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the posterity, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pitchers.
25‘In that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘the peg that is fastened in the secure place will be removed and be cut down and
fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off; for the LORD has spoken.’ ”
Isaiah 23
Proclamation Against Tyre
1The aburden1 against Tyre.
Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For it is laid waste,
So that there is no house, no harbor;
From the land of 2Cyprus it is revealed to them.
2Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon,
3 Whom those who cross the sea have filled.
3And on great waters the grain of Shihor,
The harvest of 4the River, is her revenue;
And bshe is a marketplace for the nations.
4Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea has spoken,
The strength of the sea, saying,
“I do not labor, nor bring forth children;
Neither do I rear young men,
Nor bring up virgins.”
5c When the report reaches Egypt,
They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.
6Cross over to Tarshish;
Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
7Is this your djoyous city,
Whose antiquity is from ancient days,
Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?
8Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, ethe crowning city,
Whose merchants are princes,
Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?
9The LORD of hosts has fpurposed it,
To 5bring to dishonor the gpride of all glory,
To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
10Overflow through your land like 6the River,
O daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more 7strength.
11He stretched out His hand over the sea,
He shook the kingdoms;
The LORD has given a commandment hagainst Canaan
To destroy its strongholds.
12And He said, “You will rejoice no more,
O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, icross over to Cyprus;
There also you will have no rest.”
13Behold, the land of the jChaldeans,
This people which was not;
Assyria founded it for kwild beasts of the desert.
They set up its towers,
They raised up its palaces,
And brought it to ruin.
14l Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For your strength is laid waste.
15Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to 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,
You forgotten harlot;
Make sweet melody, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.”
17And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire, and mcommit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.
18Her gain and her pay nwill be set apart for the LORD; it will not be treasured nor laid up, for her gain will be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for 8fine clothing.
Impending Judgment on the Earth
Isaiah 24
The Coming Judgment of the Earth
1Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste,
Distorts its surface
And scatters abroad its inhabitants.
2And it shall be:
As with the people, so with the apriest;
As with the servant, so with his master;
As with the maid, so with her mistress;
b 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 land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered,
For the LORD has spoken this word.
4The earth mourns and fades away,
The world languishes and fades away;
The chaughty1 people of the earth languish.
5d The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants,
Because they have etransgressed the laws,
Changed the ordinance,
Broken the feverlasting covenant.
6Therefore gthe curse has devoured the earth,
And those who dwell in it are 2desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are hburned,
And few men are left.
7i The new wine fails, the vine languishes,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
8The mirth jof the tambourine ceases,
The noise of the jubilant ends,
The joy of the harp ceases.
9They shall not drink wine with a song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10The city of confusion is broken down;
Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.
11There is a cry for wine in the streets,
All joy is darkened,
The mirth of the land is gone.
12In the city desolation is left,
And the gate is stricken with destruction.
13When it shall be thus in the midst of the land among the people,
k It shall be like the shaking of an olive tree,
Like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.
14They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing;
For the majesty of the LORD
They shall cry aloud from the sea.
15Therefore lglorify the LORD in the dawning light,
m The name of the LORD God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
16From the ends of the earth we have heard songs:
“Glory to the righteous!”
But I said, 3“I am ruined, ruined!
Woe to me!
n The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously,
Indeed, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.”
17o Fear and the pit and the snare
Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18And it shall be
That he who flees from the noise of the fear
Shall fall into the pit,
And he who comes up from the midst of the pit
Shall be 4caught in the snare;
For pthe windows from on high are open,
And qthe foundations of the earth are shaken.
19r The earth is violently broken,
The earth is split open,
The earth is shaken exceedingly.
20The earth shall sreel5 to and fro like a drunkard,
And shall totter like a hut;
Its transgression shall be heavy upon it,
And it will fall, and not rise again.
21It shall come to pass in that day
That the LORD will punish on high the host of exalted ones,
And on the earth tthe kings of the earth.
22They will be gathered together,
As prisoners are gathered in the 6pit,
And will be shut up in the prison;
After many days they will be punished.
23Then the umoon will be disgraced
And the sun ashamed;
For the LORD of hosts will vreign
On wMount Zion and in Jerusalem
And before His elders, gloriously.
Praise to God
Isaiah 25
The Song of Praise by the Redeemed
1O LORD, You are my God.
a I will exalt You,
I will praise Your name,
b For You have done wonderful things;
c Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2For You have made da city a ruin,
A fortified city a ruin,
A palace of foreigners to be a city no more;
It will never
be rebuilt.
3Therefore the strong people will eglorify You;
The city of the 1terrible nations will fear You.
4For You have been a strength to the poor,
A strength to the needy in his distress,
f A refuge from the storm,
A shade from the heat;
For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5You will reduce the noise of aliens,
As heat in a dry place;
As heat in the shadow of a cloud,
The song of the terrible ones will be 2diminished.
6And in gthis mountain
h The LORD of hosts will make for iall people
A feast of 3choice pieces,
A feast of 4wines on the lees,
Of fat things full of marrow,
Of well-refined wines on the lees.
7And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And jthe veil that is spread over all nations.
8He will kswallow up death forever,
And the Lord GOD will lwipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
9And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
m We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the LORD;
We have waited for Him;
n We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”
10For on this mountain the hand of the LORD will rest,
And oMoab shall be trampled down under Him,
As straw is trampled down for the refuse heap.
11And He will spread out His hands in their midst
As a swimmer reaches out to swim,
And He will bring down their ppride
Together with the trickery of their hands.
12The qfortress of the high fort of your walls
He will bring down, lay low,
And bring to the ground, down to the dust.
Isaiah 26
A Song of Salvation
1In athat day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
b God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2c Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which 1keeps the truth may enter in.
3You will keep him in perfect dpeace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
4Trust in the LORD forever,
e For in YAH, the LORD, is 2everlasting strength.
5For He brings 3down those who dwell on high,