The fire that purifies and the fire that consumes are the same flame. The ax awaits where arrogance flourishes.

NARRATOR

However, the gloom will not be as when the land had distress, as in former times when the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali were treated with contempt.
But at a later time He will cause it to be honored—
the way by the sea, in the region of the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

The people who were walking in the darkness
Have seen a great light.
As for those dwelling in the land of deep shadow,
Light has shone on them.

You have made the nation populous;
You have made its rejoicing great.
They rejoice before you
As people rejoice in the harvesttime,
As those who joyfully divide up the spoil.

For you have shattered to pieces the yoke of their load,
The rod on their shoulders, the staff of the taskmaster,
As in the day of Midian.

Every boot that shakes the earth as it marches
And every garment soaked in blood
Will become fuel for the fire.

For a child has been born to us,
A son has been given to us;
And the rulership will rest on his shoulder.
His name will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

To the increase of his rulership
And to peace, there will be no end,
On the throne of David and on his kingdom,
In order to establish it firmly and to sustain it
Through justice and righteousness,
From now on and forever.
The zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.

Jehovah sent a word against Jacob,
And it has come against Israel.

PEOPLE OF ISRAEL — PROUD DECLARATION

And all the people will know it—Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
Who say in their haughtiness and in their insolence of heart:
“Bricks have fallen,
But we will build with hewn stone.
Sycamore trees have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”

NARRATOR

Jehovah will raise up Rezin’s adversaries against him
And will stir his enemies to action,
Syria from the east and the Philistines from the west,
They will devour Israel with open mouths.
In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,
But his hand is still stretched out to strike.

For the people have not returned to the One who strikes them;
They have not sought Jehovah of armies.

Jehovah will cut off from Israel
Head and tail, shoot and rush, in one day.

The elder and highly respected one is the head,
And the prophet giving false instruction is the tail.

Those leading this people are causing them to wander,
And those who are being led are confused.

That is why Jehovah will not rejoice over their young men,
And he will have no mercy on their fatherless children and their widows,
Because all of them are apostates and evildoers
And every mouth is speaking senselessness.
In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,
But his hand is still stretched out to strike.

For wickedness burns like a fire,
Consuming thornbushes and weeds.
It will set fire to the thickets of the forest,
And they will go up in clouds of smoke.

In the fury of Jehovah of armies
The land has been set on fire,
And the people will become fuel for the fire.
No one will spare even his brother.

One will cut down on the right
But still be hungry;
And one will eat on the left
But will not be satisfied.
Each will devour the flesh of his own arm.

Manasseh will devour Ephraim,
And Ephraim Manasseh.
Together they will be against Judah.
In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,
But his hand is still stretched out to strike.

---

ISAIAH 10

NARRATOR

Woe to those who enact harmful regulations,
Who constantly draft oppressive decrees,
To deny the legal claim of the poor,
To deprive the lowly among my people of justice,
Making widows their spoil
And fatherless children their plunder!

What will you do on the day of reckoning,
When destruction comes from afar?
To whom will you flee for assistance,
And where will you leave your wealth?

Nothing remains except to crouch among the prisoners
Or to fall among the slain.
In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,
But his hand is still stretched out to strike.

JEHOVAH (ABOUT ASSYRIA)

“Aha! the Assyrian,
The rod to express my anger
And the staff in their hand for my denunciation!

I will send him against an apostate nation,
Against the people who infuriated me;
I will command him to take much spoil and much plunder
And to trample them like mud in the streets.

But he will not be inclined this way
And his heart will not scheme this way;
For it is in his heart to annihilate,
To cut off many nations, not a few.

For he says,
‘Are not my princes all kings?
Is not Calno just like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?

My hand has seized the kingdoms of the worthless gods,
Whose graven images were more than those of Jerusalem and Samaria!
Will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols
Just as I have done to Samaria and to her worthless gods?’ ”

NARRATOR

When Jehovah finishes all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
He will punish the king of Assyria for his insolent heart
And his proud, arrogant gaze.

ASSYRIAN KING — BOASTING

“For he says,
‘I will do this by the strength of my hand
And with my wisdom, for I am wise.
I will remove the boundaries of peoples
And pillage their treasures,
And I will subdue the inhabitants like a mighty one.

Like a man reaching into a nest,
My hand will seize the resources of the peoples;
And like one gathering abandoned eggs,
I will gather the whole earth!
No one will flutter his wings or open his mouth or chirp.’ ”

NARRATOR

Will the ax exalt itself over the one who chops with it?
Will the saw exalt itself over the one who saws with it?
Could a staff wave the one who lifts it?
Or could a rod lift up the one who is not made of wood?

Therefore the true Lord, Jehovah of armies,
Will inflict emaciation on his fat ones,
And beneath his glory he will kindle a blazing fire.

Israel’s Light will become a fire,
And his Holy One a flame;
It will blaze up and consume his weeds and his thornbushes in one day.

He will utterly do away with the glory of his forest and his orchard;
It will be as when a sick man wastes away.

The rest of the trees of his forest
Will be so few that a boy could list them.

In that day those remaining of Israel
And the survivors of the house of Jacob
Will no longer support themselves on the one who struck them;
But they will support themselves on Jehovah,
The Holy One of Israel, with faithfulness.

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

For though your people, O Israel,
Are as the grains of sand of the sea,
Only a remnant of them will return.
An extermination has been decided on,
And justice will engulf them.

Yes, the extermination decided on by the Sovereign Lord,
Jehovah of armies,
Will be carried out in the entire land.

Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, says:
“Do not be afraid, my people who are dwelling in Zion,
Because of the Assyrian, who used to strike you with the rod
And to lift up his staff against you as Egypt did.

For in a very little while the denunciation will come to an end;
My anger will be directed to their destruction.

Jehovah of armies will brandish a whip against him,
As when he defeated Midian by the rock Oreb.
And his staff will be over the sea,
And he will raise it as he did with Egypt.

In that day his load will depart from on your shoulder,
And his yoke from on your neck,
And the yoke will be broken because of the oil.”

He has come to Aiath;
He has passed through Migron;
At Michmash he deposits his baggage.

They have passed over the ford;
They spend the night at Geba;
Ramah trembles,
Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Cry out and scream, O daughter of Gallim!
Pay attention, O Laishah!
O poor Anathoth!

Madmenah has run away.
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought shelter.

This very day he will halt in Nob.
He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion,
The hill of Jerusalem.

Look! The true Lord, Jehovah of armies,
Is chopping off branches with a terrible crash;
The tallest trees are being cut down,
And the lofty are brought low.

He strikes down the thickets of the forest with an iron tool,
And Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.

---

#bible #reading #audiobook #isaiah #spokenword #wisdom #god

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