Isaiah 21-22: Russell Stendal Verse by Verse

21 ¶ The burden of the desert of the sea. As the whirlwinds which pass through the wilderness in the land of the south, so they come from the terrible land.

² A grievous vision is shown unto me. For one who is treacherous, another who deals treacherously, and for one destroyer, another destroyer. Rise up, Elam; besiege Media; all the sighing thereof I have made to cease.

³ Therefore my loins are filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travails; I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

⁴ My heart panted; the horror frightened me; the night of my pleasure he has turned into fear unto me.

⁵ Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink; arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.

⁶ For thus has the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman who shall declare what he sees.

⁷ And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; then he looked with more diligence;

⁸ and he cried, A lion upon the watchman. My lord, I stand continually all the day and all night long upon my watchtower.

⁹ And, behold, this chariot of men comes with a couple of horsemen. Afterwards he spoke and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he has broken unto the ground.

¹⁰ O my harvest, and the people of my threshing floor, that which I have heard of the LORD of the hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared unto you.

¹¹ ¶ The burden of Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of this night? Watchman, what of this night?

¹² The watchman said, The morning comes and then the night; if ye will enquire, enquire ye; return, and come.

¹³ ¶ The burden upon Arabia. In the forest ye shall pass the night in Arabia, O ye walkers of Dedanim.

¹⁴ Go ye out to meet them bringing water for the thirsty, O inhabitants of the land of Tema; succour those who are fleeing with your bread.

¹⁵ For they flee from the presence of the sword, from the presence of the drawn sword, from the presence of the bent bow, from the presence of the grievousness of the battle.

¹⁶ For thus has the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall be undone:

¹⁷ And the residue of the number of valiant archers, sons of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.

22 ¶ The burden of the valley of the vision. What ails thee now that thou art completely gone up to the housetops?

² Thou that art full of tumults, a tumultuous city, a joyous city, thy dead are not slain with the sword nor slain in battle.

³ All thy princes together fled from the bow; they were bound; all that were found in thee were bound together; the others fled far away.

⁴ Therefore I said, Leave me; I will weep bitterly; do not labour to comfort me of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵ For a day of trouble and of treading down and of wearing down by the Lord GOD of the hosts is sent in the valley of the vision to break down the wall and give a cry unto the mountain.

⁶ Also Elam bore the quiver in a chariot of men and of horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷ And it came to pass, that thy choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the soldiers set themselves in array at the gate.

⁸ ¶ And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the house of weapons of the forest.

⁹ Ye have also seen the breaches of the city of David that they are multiplied, and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰ And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and ye have broken down houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹ Ye also made a moat between the two walls with the water of the old pool, but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, nor had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.

¹² Therefore the Lord GOD of the hosts did call in this day unto weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth:

¹³ And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine while they say, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die.

¹⁴ This was revealed in my ears by the LORD of the hosts, That surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until ye die, saith the Lord GOD of the hosts.

¹⁵ ¶ Thus saith the Lord GOD of the hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,

¹⁶ What hast thou here? or whom hast thou here that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here as he that hews himself out a sepulchre on a high place or that graves a habitation for himself in a rock?

¹⁷ Behold, the LORD will carry thee away in a hard captivity and will surely cover thy face.

¹⁸ He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country, there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall come to an end, the shame of the house of thy Lord.

¹⁹ And I will drive thee from thy place, and he shall pull thee down from thy state.

²⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my slave Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:

²¹ And I will clothe him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

²² And the key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open.

²³ And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.

²⁴ And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the sons and the grandsons, all the vessels of small quantity, from the cups to drink from even unto all the instruments of music.

²⁵ In that day, saith the LORD of the hosts, the nail that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed and be cut down and fall and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD has spoken it.