Isaiah 17-20
To understand your undoing, one need only to look at your beginning.
NARRATOR:
A pronouncement against Damascus
“Look! Damascus will cease to be a city,
And it will become a heap of ruins.
The cities of Aroer will be abandoned;
They will become places for flocks to lie down
With no one to make them afraid.
Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus;
And those remaining of Syria
Will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares Jehovah of armies.
“In that day the glory of Jacob will diminish,
And his healthy body will grow thin.
It will be as when the harvester is gathering the standing grain
And his arm harvests the ears of grain,
Like when one gleans grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
Only gleanings will be left,
As when an olive tree is beaten:
Only two or three ripe olives remain on the highest branch,
Only four or five on its fruit-bearing branches,” declares Jehovah the God of Israel.
In that day man will look up to his Maker,
And his eyes will gaze at the Holy One of Israel.
He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands;
And he will not gaze at what his fingers have made,
Either the sacred poles or the incense stands.
In that day his fortress cities will become like an abandoned site in the woodland,
Like a branch that was abandoned before the Israelites;
It will become a wasteland.
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation;
You have failed to remember the Rock of your fortress.
That is why you plant beautiful plantations
And set it with the shoot of a stranger.
In the day you carefully fence in your plantation,
In the morning you make your seed sprout,
But the harvest will vanish in the day of disease and incurable pain.
Listen! There is a commotion of many peoples,
Who are as boisterous as the seas!
There is an uproar of nations,
Whose sound is like the roar of mighty waters!
The nations will make a sound like the roar of many waters.
He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
Chased like the chaff of the mountains before a wind,
Like a whirling thistle before a storm wind.
In the evening there is terror.
Before morning they are no more.
This is the share of those pillaging us
And the lot of those plundering us.
NARRATOR:
Woe to the land of whirring insect wings
In the region of the rivers of Ethiopia
It sends envoys by sea,
Across the waters in papyrus vessels, saying:
MESSENGERS:
“Go, you swift messengers,
To a tall and smooth-skinned nation,
To a people feared everywhere,
To a strong, conquering nation,
Whose land is washed away by rivers.”
NARRATOR:
All you inhabitants of the land and you residents of the earth,
What you see will be like a signal raised on the mountains,
And you will hear a sound like the blowing of a horn.
JEHOVAH:
“I will remain undisturbed and look on my established place,
Like the shimmering heat along with the sunlight,
Like the cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
For before the harvest,
When the blossom is finished and the bloom becomes a ripening grape,
The shoots will be cut off with pruning shears
And the tendrils will be lopped off and removed.
They will all be left for the birds of prey of the mountains
And for the beasts of the earth.
The birds of prey will spend the summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend the harvesttime on them.”
NARRATOR:
At that time a gift will be brought to Jehovah of armies,
From a tall and smooth-skinned nation,
From a people feared everywhere,
From a strong, conquering nation,
Whose land is washed away by rivers,
To the place that bears the name of Jehovah of armies, Mount Zion.
NARRATOR:
A pronouncement against Egypt
Look! Jehovah is riding on a swift cloud and is coming into Egypt.
The worthless gods of Egypt will tremble before him,
And the heart of Egypt will melt within it.
JEHOVAH:
“I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians,
And they will fight one another,
Each against his brother and his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
And the spirit of Egypt will become bewildered within it,
And I will confuse its plans.
They will resort to the worthless gods,
To the charmers and to the spirit mediums and to the fortune-tellers.
I will hand Egypt over to a hard master,
And a harsh king will rule over them,” declares the true Lord, Jehovah of armies.
NARRATOR:
The water of the sea will be dried up,
And the river will become parched and run dry.
And the rivers will stink;
The Nile canals of Egypt will become low and parched.
The reeds and the rushes will decay.
The plants along the Nile River, at the mouth of the Nile,
And all the land sown with seed along the Nile will dry up.
It will be blown away, and it will be no more.
And the fishermen will mourn,
Those casting fishhooks into the Nile will lament,
And those who spread their nets on the water will dwindle.
Those who work in combed flax
And those making white fabric on the loom will be put to shame.
Her weavers will be crushed;
All the hired workers will grieve.
The princes of Zoan are foolish.
The wisest advisers of Pharaoh give unreasonable advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh:
“I am a descendant of wise ones,
A descendant of ancient kings”?
Where, then, are your wise men
Let them tell you if they know what Jehovah of armies has decided concerning Egypt.
The princes of Zoan have acted foolishly;
The princes of Noph have been deceived;
The chiefs of her tribes have led Egypt astray.
Jehovah has poured out on her a spirit of confusion;
And they have led Egypt astray in whatever she does,
Like a drunk staggering in his vomit.
And Egypt will not have any work to do,
Whether for the head or the tail, the shoot or the rush.
In that day Egypt will become like women, trembling and terrified
Because of the threatening hand that Jehovah of armies raises against it.
And the land of Judah will become a cause for terror to Egypt.
They will feel dread at the mention of it
Because of the decision that Jehovah of armies has made against them.
In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt
Speaking the language of Canaan
And swearing loyalty to Jehovah of armies.
One city will be called The City of Tearing Down.
In that day there will be an altar to Jehovah
In the middle of the land of Egypt
And a pillar to Jehovah at its boundary.
It will be for a sign and for a witness to Jehovah of armies in the land of Egypt;
For they will cry out to Jehovah because of the oppressors,
And he will send them a savior, a grand one, who will save them.
And Jehovah will become known to the Egyptians,
And the Egyptians will know Jehovah in that day,
And they will offer sacrifices and gifts
And make a vow to Jehovah and pay it.
Jehovah will strike Egypt, striking and healing it;
And they will return to Jehovah,
And he will respond to their entreaties and heal them.
In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria.
Then Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria,
And Egypt will serve God together with Assyria.
In that day Israel will be the third
Along with Egypt and with Assyria,
A blessing in the midst of the earth,
For Jehovah of armies will have blessed it, saying:
“Blessed be my people, Egypt,
And the work of my hands, Assyria,
And my inheritance, Israel.”
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