Aug 8 - Isaiah 33-36
Isaiah
1Woe to you who plunder! Will you yourselves not also be plundered? And woe to you who despise! Will you yourselves not also be despised? When you will have completed your plundering, you will be plundered. When, out of fatigue, you will have ceased acting with contempt, you will be treated with contempt2O Lord, take pity on us. For we have waited for you. Be our arm in the morning and our salvation in the time of tribulation3From the voice of the Angel, the people fled. And from your exultation, the nations were scattered4And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them5The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice6And there will be faith in your times: the riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. For the fear of the Lord is his treasure7Behold, outside, those who see will cry out. The Angels of peace will weep bitterly8The roads have become desolate. Travelers have ceased along the paths. The covenant has been nullified. He has tossed aside cities. He has disregarded men9The earth has mourned and languished. Lebanon has been confounded and desecrated. And Sharon has become like a desert. And Bashan and Carmel have been struck together10"Now, I will rise up!" says the Lord. "Now I will be exalted! Now I will lift myself up!11You will conceive heat. You will give birth to stubble. Your own spirit will devour you like fire12And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns13"You who are far away, listen to what I have done! And you who are near, acknowledge my strength!14The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has taken hold of the hypocrites. Who among you is able to live with a devouring fire? Who among you will live with an everlasting flame15The one who walks in justice and speaks the truth, who casts out avarice with oppression and shakes all bribes from his hands, who blocks his ears so that he may not listen to blood, and closes his eyes so that he may not see evil16Such a one will live on high; the fortification of rocks will be his lofty place. Bread has been given to him; his waters are reliable17His eyes will see the king in his elegance; they will discern the land from far away18Your heart will meditate on fear. Where are the learned? Where are those who ponder the words of the law? Where are the teachers of little ones19You will not look upon a shameless people, a people of exalted words. For you are not able to understand the dissertation of a tongue in which there is no wisdom20Look with favor upon Zion, the city of our solemnity. Your eyes will behold Jerusalem: an opulent habitation, a tabernacle that can never be taken away. Its stakes will not be taken away forever, nor will any of its cords be broken21For only in that place has our Lord been magnified. It is a place of rivers, very broad and open. No ship with oars will cross through it, nor will the great Greek ship pass through it22For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He himself will save us23Your ropes have become loose, and they will not prevail. Your mast will be such that you will not be able to unfurl a flag. Then the spoils of much plunder will be divided. The lame will seize the spoils24He who is nearby will not say: "I am too weak." The people who live in it will have their iniquity taken away from them
1O nations and peoples: draw near, and listen, and pay attention! Let the earth and its fullness hear, the entire world and all its offspring2For the indignation of the Lord is over all the nations, and his fury is over all their armies. He has put them to death, and he has given them over to slaughter3Their slain will be cast out, and from their carcasses a foul odor will rise up. The mountains will languish because of their blood4And the entire army of the heavens will languish, and the heavens will be folded like a book. And their entire army will fall away, as a leaf falls from the vine or from the fig tree5"For my sword in heaven has been inebriated. Behold, it will descend upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter, unto judgment.6The sword of the Lord has been filled with blood. It has been thickened by the blood of lambs and he-goats, by the innermost blood of rams. For the victim of the Lord is in Bozrah, and a great slaughter is in the land of Edom7And the single-horned beasts will descend with them, and the bulls along with the mighty. Their land will be inebriated by blood, and their ground by the fat of their lazy ones8For this is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of retribution for the judgment of Zion9And its torrents will be turned into tar, and its soil into sulfur. And its land will become burning tar10Night and day, it will not be extinguished; its smoke will rise up without ceasing. From generation to generation it will remain desolate. No one will pass through it, forever and ever11The pelican and the hedgehog will possess it. And the ibis and the raven will live in it. And a measuring line will be extended over it, so that it may be reduced to nothing, and a plumb line, unto desolation12Its nobles will not be in that place. Instead, they will call upon the king, and all its leaders will be as nothing13And thorns and nettles will rise up in its houses, and the thistle in its fortified places. And it will be the lair of serpents and the pasture of ostriches14And demons and monsters will meet, and the hairy ones will cry out to one another. There, the ogress has lain down and found rest for herself15In that place, the hedgehog has kept its den, and has raised its young, and has dug around them, and has kept them warm in its shadow. In that place, the birds of prey have joined together, one to another16Search and read diligently in the book of the Lord. Not one of them was lacking; not one has sought for the other. For what has proceeded from my mouth, he has commanded, and his very Spirit has gathered them17And he has cast lots over them. And his hand has distributed this to them by measure. They will possess it, even unto eternity. From generation to generation, they will dwell in it
1The desolate and impassable land will rejoice, and the place of solitude will exult, and it will flourish like the lily2It will spring up and blossom, and it will exult with rejoicing and praising. The glory of Lebanon has been given to it, with the beauty of Carmel and Sharon. These will see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God3Strengthen the lax hands, and confirm the weak knees4Say to the fainthearted: "Take courage and fear not! Behold, your God will bring the vindication of retribution. God himself will arrive to save you.5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be cleared6Then the disabled will leap like a buck, and the tongue of the mute will be untied. For the waters have burst forth in the desert, and torrents in solitary places7And the land that was dry will have a pond, and the thirsty land will have fountains of water. In the hollows where the serpents lived before, there will rise up the greenery of reed and bulrush8And there shall be a path and a road in that place. And it will be called the Holy Way. The defiled will not pass through it. For this will be an upright path for you, so much so that the foolish will not wander along it9There will be no lions in that place, and harmful wild animals will neither climb up to it, nor be found there. Only those who have been freed will walk in that place10And the redeemed of the Lord will be converted, and they will return to Zion with praising. And everlasting joy will be upon their heads. They will obtain gladness and rejoicing. For pain and sorrow will flee away
1And it happened that, in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, went up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he seized them2And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish into Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah, with a great force, and he stood near the aqueduct of the upper pool, at the road to the fuller’s field3And those who went to him were Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the historian4And Rabshakeh said to them: "Tell Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this faith in which you believe5And by what counsel or strength would you prepare to rebel? In whom do you have faith, so much so that you would withdraw from me6Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, in that broken staff of a reed. But if a man were to lean against it, it would enter his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all who trust in him7But if you answer me by saying: ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’ Is it not his high places and altars that Hezekiah has taken away? And he has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar.8And now, hand yourselves over to my lord, the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, and you will not be able to find riders for them on your own9So how will you withstand the face of the ruler of even one place, of even the least of my lord’s subordinates? But if you trust in Egypt, in four-horse chariots and in horsemen10do I intend to go up against this land to destroy it without the Lord? But the Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ 11And Eliakim, and Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh: "Speak to your servants in the Syrian language. For we understand it. Do not speak to us in the Jewish language, in the hearing of the people, who are upon the wall.12And Rabshakeh said to them: "Has my lord sent me to your lord and to you in order to speak all these words, and not even more so to the men who are sitting on the wall, so that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?13Then Rabshakeh stood up, and he cried out with a loud voice in the Jewish language, and he said: "Listen to the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians14Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. For he will not be able to rescue you15And do not let Hezekiah cause you to trust in the Lord, saying: ‘The Lord will rescue and free us. This city will not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.16Do not listen to Hezekiah. For the king of the Assyrians says this: Act with me to your own benefit, and come out to me. And let each one eat from his own vine, and each one from his own fig tree. And let each one drink water from his own well17until I arrive and take you away to a land which is like your own: a land of grain and of wine, a land of bread and of vineyards18But you should not let Hezekiah disturb you, saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have any of the gods of each of the nations delivered their land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians19Where is the god of Hamath and of Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they freed Samaria from my hand20Who is there, among all the gods of these lands, who has rescued his land from my hand, so that the Lord would rescue Jerusalem from my hand?21And they remained silent and did not answer a word to him. For the king had commanded them, saying, "You shall not respond to him.22And Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the historian, entered to Hezekiah with their garments rent, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh