Day 211 of 364

^17:1The burden of Damascus. “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap. ^17:2The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and no one shall make them afraid. ^17:3The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” says the LORD of Armies. ^17:4“It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean. ^17:5It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim. ^17:6Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says the LORD, the God of Israel. ^17:7In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. ^17:8They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherah poles or the incense altars. ^17:9In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation. ^17:10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings. ^17:11In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. ^17:12Ah, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! ^17:13The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. ^17:14At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us. ^18:1Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; ^18:2that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!” ^18:3All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen! ^18:4For the LORD said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” ^18:5For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches. ^18:6They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will eat them in the summer, and all the animals of the earth will eat them in the winter. ^18:7In that time, a present will be brought to the LORD of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of Armies, Mount Zion. ^19:1The burden of Egypt. “Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt will melt within it. ^19:2I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. ^19:3The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards. ^19:4I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies. ^19:5The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. ^19:6The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. ^19:7The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more. ^19:8The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish. ^19:9Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded. ^19:10The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul. ^19:11The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings”? ^19:12Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what the LORD of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt. ^19:13The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, those who are the cornerstone of her tribes. ^19:14The LORD has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit. ^19:15Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do. ^19:16In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the LORD of Armies’s hand, which he shakes over them. ^19:17The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of the LORD of Armies, which he determines against it. ^19:18In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of Armies. One will be called “The city of destruction.” ^19:19In that day, there will be an altar to the LORD in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. ^19:20It will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of Armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them. ^19:21The LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. Yes, they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and will vow a vow to the LORD, and will perform it. ^19:22The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to the LORD, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them. ^19:23In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. ^19:24In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing within the earth; ^19:25because the LORD of Armies has blessed them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” ^20:1In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it; ^20:2at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot. ^20:3The LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, ^20:4so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. ^20:5They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. ^20:6The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?’” ^21:1The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land. ^21:2A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing. ^21:3Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed that I can’t see. ^21:4My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. ^21:5They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield! ^21:6For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees. ^21:7When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.” ^21:8He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post. ^21:9Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground. ^21:10You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. ^21:11The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” ^21:12The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.” ^21:13The burden on Arabia. You will lodge in the thickets in Arabia, you caravans of Dedanites. ^21:14They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread. ^21:15For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle. ^21:16For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail, ^21:17and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken it.” ^22:1The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops? ^22:2You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. ^22:3All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away. ^22:4Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people. ^22:5For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, GOD of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.” ^22:6Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. ^22:7Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. ^22:8He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. ^22:9You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. ^22:10You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ^22:11You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who planned it long ago. ^22:12In that day, the Lord, GOD of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; ^22:13and behold, there is joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.” ^22:14The LORD of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies. ^22:15The Lord, GOD of Armies says, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, ^22:16‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!” ^22:17Behold, the LORD will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly. ^22:18He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you disgrace of your lord’s house. ^22:19I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station. ^22:20It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, ^22:21and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. ^22:22I will lay the key of David’s house on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open. ^22:23I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father’s house. ^22:24They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers. ^22:25“In that day,” says the LORD of Armies, “the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken it.”