The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV
Page 321
And the sound of your stringed instruments;
The maggot is spread under you,
And worms cover you.’
The Fall of Lucifer
12“Howl you are fallen from heaven,
O 4Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13For you have said in your heart:
m‘I will ascend into heaven,
n I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the omount of the congregation
p On the farthest sides of the north;
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
q I will be like the Most High.’
15Yet you rshall be brought down to Sheol,
To the 5lowest depths of the Pit.
16“Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
‘ Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
17Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who 6did not open the house of his prisoners?’
18“All the kings of the nations,
All of them, sleep in glory,
Everyone in his own house;
19But you are cast out of your grave
Like an 7abominable branch,
Like the garment of those who are slain,
8 Thrust through with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit,
Like a corpse trodden underfoot.
20You will not be joined with them in burial,
Because you have destroyed your land
And slain your people.
s The brood of evildoers shall never be named.
21Prepare slaughter for his children
t Because of the iniquity of their fathers,
Lest they rise up and possess the land,
And fill the face of the world with cities.”
Babylon Destroyed
22“For I will rise up against them,” says the LORD of hosts,
“And cut off from Babylon uthe name and vremnant,
w And offspring and posterity,” says the LORD.
23“I will also make it a possession for the xporcupine,
And marshes of muddy water;
I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the LORD of hosts.
Assyria Destroyed
24The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying,
“Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass,
And as I have purposed, so it shall ystand:
25That I will break the zAssyrian in My land,
And on My mountains tread him underfoot.
Then ahis yoke shall be removed from them,
And his burden removed from their shoulders.
26This is the bpurpose that is purposed against the whole earth,
And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27For the LORD of hosts has cpurposed,
And who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
And who will turn it back?”
Philistia Destroyed
28This is the 9burden which came in the year that dKing Ahaz died.
29“Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
e Because the rod that struck you is broken;
For out of the serpent’s roots will come forth a viper,
f And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.
30The firstborn of the poor will feed,
And the needy will lie down in safety;
I will kill your roots with famine,
And it will slay your remnant.
31Wail, O gate! Cry, O city!
All you of Philistia are dissolved;
For smoke will come from the north,
And no one will be alone in his 10appointed times.”
32What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
That gthe LORD has founded Zion,
And hthe poor of His people shall take refuge in it.
Isaiah 15
Proclamation Against Moab
1The aburden1 against Moab.
Because in the night bAr of cMoab is laid waste
And destroyed,
Because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste
And destroyed,
2He has gone up to the 2temple and Dibon,
To the high places to weep.
Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba;
d On all their heads will be baldness,
And every beard cut off.
3In their streets they will clothe themselves with sackcloth;
On the tops of their houses
And in their streets
Everyone will wail, eweeping bitterly.
4Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out,
Their voice shall be heard as far as fJahaz;
Therefore the 3armed soldiers of Moab will cry out;
His life will be burdensome to him.
5“Myg heart will cry out for Moab;
His fugitives shall flee to Zoar,
Like 4a three-year-old heifer.
For hby the Ascent of Luhith
They will go up with weeping;
For in the way of Horonaim
They will raise up a cry of destruction,
6For the waters iof Nimrim will be desolate,
For the green grass has withered away;
The grass fails, there is nothing green.
7Therefore the abundance they have gained,
And what they have laid up,
They will carry away to the Brook of the Willows.
8For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab,
Its wailing to Eglaim
And its wailing to Beer Elim.
9For the waters of 5Dimon will be full of blood;
Because I will bring more upon Dimon,
j Lions upon him who escapes from Moab,
And on the remnant of the land.”
Moab Destroyed
Isaiah 16
Moab Will Be Destroyed
1Send athe lamb to the ruler of the land,
b From 1Sela to the wilderness,
To the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2For it shall be as a cwandering bird thrown out of the nest;
So shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of the dArnon.
3“Take counsel, execute judgment;
Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day;
Hide the outcasts,
Do not betray him who escapes.
4Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Moab;
Be a shelter to them from the face of the 2spoiler.
For the extortioner is at an end,
Devastation ceases,
The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
5In mercy ethe throne will be established;
And One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David,
f Judging and seeking justice and hastening grighteousness.”
6We have heard of the hpride of Moab—
He is very proud—
Of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath;
i But his 3lies shall not be so.
7Therefore Moab shall jwail for Moab;
Everyone shall wail.
For the foundations kof Kir Hareseth you shall mourn;
Surely they are stricken.
8For lthe fields of Heshbon languish,
And mthe vine of Sibmah;
The lords of the nations have broken down its choice plants,
Which have reached to Jazer
And wandered through the wilderness.
Her branches are stretched out,
They are gone over the nsea.
9Therefore I will bewail the vine of Sibmah,
With the weeping of Jazer;
I will drench you with my tears,
o O Heshbon and Elealeh;
Over your summer fruits and your harvest.
10p Gladness is taken away,
And joy from the plentiful field;
In the vineyards there will be no singing,
Nor will there be shouting;
No treaders will tread out wine in the presses;
I have made their shouting cease.
11Therefore qmy 5heart shall resound like a harp for Moab,
And my inner being for 6Kir Heres.
12And it shall come to pass,
When it is seen that Moab is weary on rthe high place,
That he will come to his sanctuary to pray;
But he will not prevail.
13This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning Moab since that time.
14But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, sas the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be despised with all that great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”
Isaiah 17
Proclamation Against Syria and Israel
1The aburden1 against Damascus.
“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.
22 The cities of bAroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and cno one will make them afraid.
3d The fortress also will cease from Ephraim,
The kingdom from Damascus,
And the remnant of Syria;
They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,”
Says the LORD of hosts.
4“In that day it shall come to pass
That the glory of Jacob will 3wane,
And ethe fatness of his flesh grow lean.
5f It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain,
And reaps the heads with his arm;
It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain
In the Valley of Rephaim.
6g Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it,
Like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough,
Four or five in its most fruitful branches,”
Says the LORD God of Israel.
7In that day a man will hlook to his Maker,
And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
8He will not look to the altars,
The work of his hands;
He will not respect what his ifingers have made,
Nor the 4wooden images nor the incense altars.
9In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken 5bough
And 6an uppermost branch,
Which they left because of the children of Israel;
And there will be desolation.
10Because you have forgotten jthe God of your salvation,
And have not been mindful of the Rock of your 7stronghold,
Therefore you will plant pleasant plants
And set out foreign seedlings;
11In the day you will make your plant to grow,
And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will be a heap of ruins
In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.
12Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise klike the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will lrebuke them and they will flee far away,
And mbe chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14Then behold, at eventide, trouble!
And before the morning, he is no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who rob us.
Proclamation Against Ethiopia
Isaiah 18
Prophecy Against Ethiopia
1Woe ato the land shadowed with buzzing wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of 1Ethiopia,
2Which sends ambassadors by sea,
Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying,
“Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin,
To a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide.”
3All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:
b When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;
And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.
4For so the LORD said to me,
“I will take My rest,
And I will 2look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
And take away and cut down the branches.
6They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey
And for the beasts of the earth;
The birds of prey will summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.
7In that time ca present will be brought to the LORD of hosts
3 From a people tall and smooth of skin,
And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts,
To Mount Zion.
Isaiah 19
Proclamation Against Egypt
1The aburden1 against Egypt.
Behold, the LORD brides on a swift cloud,
And will come into Egypt;
c The idols of Egypt will 2totter at His presence,
And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.
2“I will dset Egyptians against Egyptians;
Everyone will fight against his brother,
And everyone against his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst;
I will destroy their counsel,
And they will econsult the idols and the charmers,
The mediums and the sorcerers.
4And the Egyptians I will give
f Into the hand of a cruel master,
And a fierce king will rule over them,”
Says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5g The waters will fail from the sea,
And the river will be wasted and dried up.
6The rivers will turn foul;
The brooks hof defense will be emptied and dried up;
The reeds and rushes will wither.
7The papyrus reeds by 3the River, by the mouth of the River,
And everything sown by the River,
Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8The fishermen also will mourn;
All those will lament who cast hooks into the River,
And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.
9Moreover those who work in ifine flax
And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;
10And its foundations will be broken.
All who make wages will be troubled of soul.
11Surely the princes of jZoan are fools;
Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel.
k How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise,
The son of ancient kings?”
12l Where are they?
Where are your wise men?
Let them tell you now,
And let them know what the LORD of hosts has mpurposed against Egypt.
13The princes of Zoan have become fools;
n The princes of 4Noph are deceived;
They have also 5deluded Egypt,
Those who are the 6mainstay of its tribes.
14The LORD has mingled oa perverse spirit in her midst;
And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work,
As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15Neither will there be any work for Egypt,
Which pthe head or tail,
Palm branch or bulrush, may do.
16In that day Egypt will qbe like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, rwhich He waves over it.
17And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts which He has sdetermined against it.
Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed
18In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will tspeak the language of Canaan and uswear by the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of 7Destruction.
19In that day vthere will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the wLORD at its border.
20And xit will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of the oppressors, and He will send them a ySavior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them.
21Then the LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will zknow the LORD in that day, and awill make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the LORD and perform it.
22And the LORD will strike Egypt, He will strike and bheal it; they will return to the LORD, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.
23In that day cthere will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will dserve with the Assyrians.
24In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land,
25whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria ethe work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
Isaiah 20
The Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia
1In the year that aTartan1 came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it,
2at the same time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove bthe sackcloth from your 2body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, cwalking naked and barefoot.
3Then the LORD said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years dfor a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia,