Isaiah 13-15

From today's Bible reading:

Isaiah 13:

The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

On a bare hill raise a signal;
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.

I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,
my proudly exulting ones.

The sound of a tumult is on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!

The LORD of hosts is mustering a host for battle.

They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the LORD and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole land.

Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it will come!

Behold, the day of the LORD comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.

For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.

I will make people more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the gold of Ophir.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the LORD of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.

Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.

It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there;
no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

(The future of Iraq.)

But wild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will dwell,
and there wild goats will dance.
Hyenas will cry in its towers,
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand
and its days will not be prolonged.

Isaiah 14:

For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the LORD's land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has ceased,
the insolent fury ceased!

The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
that struck the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.

The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.

The cypresses rejoice at you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
Since you were laid low,
no woodcutter comes up against us.

(Trees talk.)

How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!

You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.

(The declaration of pride from Satan, the devil.)

But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:

Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who did not let his prisoners go home?

All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb;
but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like a loathed branch,
clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit,
like a dead body trampled underfoot.

You will not be joined with them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land,
you have slain your people.

(Who are his people?)

May the offspring of evildoers
nevermore be named!
Prepare slaughter for his sons
because of the guilt of their fathers,
lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with cities.

I will rise up against them, declares the LORD of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity, declares the LORD. And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, declares the LORD of hosts.

The LORD of hosts has sworn:

As I have planned, so shall it be,
and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,

that I will break the Assyrian in my land,
and on my mountains trample him underfoot;
and his yoke shall depart from them,
and his burden from their shoulder.

This is the purpose that is purposed
concerning the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.

For the LORD of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?

Isaiah 15:

An oracle concerning Moab.