Isaiah 34–35; Micah 2–5

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Isaiah 34–35

Judgment on the Nations

Draw near, vO nations, to hear,

and give attention, O peoples!

Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;

the world, and all that comes from it.

For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,

and furious against all their host;

he has wdevoted them to destruction,1 has given them over for slaughter.

Their slain shall be cast out,

and xthe stench of their corpses shall rise;

ythe mountains shall flow with their blood.

zAll the host of heaven shall rot away,

and the skies roll up like a scroll.

All their host shall fall,

as leaves fall from the vine,

like leaves falling from the fig tree.

For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

behold, it descends for judgment upon aEdom,

upon the people bI have devoted to destruction.

The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;

it is gorged with fat,

with the blood of lambs and goats,

with the fat of the kidneys of rams.

cFor the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,

a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

dWild oxen shall efall with them,

and fyoung steers with fthe mighty bulls.

Their land shall drink its fill of blood,

and their soil shall be gorged with fat.

gFor the Lord has a day of vengeance,

a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

hAnd the streams of Edom2 shall be turned into pitch,

and her soil into sulfur;

her land shall become burning pitch.

10  Night and day iit shall not be quenched;

jits smoke shall go up forever.

kFrom generation to generation it shall lie waste;

none shall pass through it forever and ever.

11  lBut the hawk and the porcupine3 shall possess it,

the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.

mHe shall stretch the line of nconfusion4 over it,

and the plumb line of emptiness.

12  Its noblesthere is no one there to call it a kingdom,

and all its princes shall be nothing.

13  oThorns shall grow over its strongholds,

nettles and thistles in its fortresses.

It shall be the haunt of pjackals,

an abode for ostriches.5

14  qAnd wild animals shall meet with hyenas;

the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;

indeed, there the night bird6 settles

and finds for herself a resting place.

15  There the owl nests and lays

and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;

indeed, there rthe hawks are gathered,

each one with her mate.

16  Seek and read from the book of the Lord:

Not one of these shall be missing;

none shall be without her mate.

For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,

and his Spirit has gathered them.

17  sHe has cast the lot for them;

his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;

they shall possess it forever;

from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.

The Ransomed Shall Return

tThe wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;

uthe desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;

it shall blossom abundantly

and rejoice with joy and singing.

vThe glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

the majesty of wCarmel and xSharon.

yThey shall see the glory of the Lord,

the majesty of our God.

zStrengthen the weak hands,

and make firm the feeble knees.

Say to those who have an anxious heart,

Be strong; fear not!

aBehold, your God

will come with vengeance,

with the recompense of God.

He will come and save you.

bThen the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

bthen shall the lame man leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

cFor waters break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;

dthe burning sand shall become a pool,

and the thirsty ground springs of water;

in the haunt of ejackals, where they lie down,

the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

fAnd a highway shall be there,

and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;

gthe unclean shall not pass over it.

It shall belong to those who walk on the way;

even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.7

No lion shall be there,

nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;

they shall not be found there,

but the redeemed shall walk there.

10  hAnd the ransomed of the Lord shall return

and come to Zion with singing;

ieverlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain gladness and joy,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.


Micah 2–5

Woe to the Oppressors

lWoe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil mon their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

They covet fields and nseize them,

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

Therefore thus says the Lord:

behold, against othis family I am devising disaster,1

from which you cannot remove your necks,

and you pshall not walk haughtily,

qfor it will be a time of disaster.

In that day rthey shall take up a taunt song against you

and moan bitterly,

and say, We are utterly ruined;

she changes the portion of my people;

show he removes it from me!

tTo an apostate he allots our fields.

Therefore you will have none uto cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the Lord.

vDo not preachthus they preach

wone should not preach of such things;

xdisgrace will not overtake us.

Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

vHas the Lord grown impatient?2

Are these his deeds?

Do not my words do good

to him who walks uprightly?

But lately ymy people have risen up as an enemy;

you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.3

The women of my people you drive out

from their delightful houses;

from their young children you take away

my splendor forever.

10  zArise and go,

for this is no aplace to rest,

because of buncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

11  If a man should go about and cutter wind and lies,

saying, I will preach to you dof wine and strong drink,

he would be the preacher for this people!

12  I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;

eI will gather fthe remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

hlike a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

13  iHe who opens the breach goes up before them;

they break through and pass the gate,

jgoing out by it.

Their king passes on before them,

kthe Lord at their head.

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

And I said:

lHear, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

mIs it not for you to know justice?

you nwho hate the good and love the evil,

owho tear the skin from off my people4

and their flesh from off their bones,

pwho eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces

and chop them up like meat in a pot,

like flesh in a cauldron.

qThen they will cry to the Lord,

but he will not answer them;

rhe will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have made their deeds evil.

Thus says the Lord concerning sthe prophets

who lead my people astray,

twho cry Peace

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

Therefore uit shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without divination.

vThe sun shall go down on the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;

wthe seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

xthey shall all cover their lips,

for ythere is no answer from God.

But as for me, zI am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob ahis transgression

and to Israel his sin.

bHear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

cwho detest justice

and make crooked all that is straight,

10  dwho build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11  eIts heads give judgment for a bribe;

fits priests teach for a price;

gits prophets practice divination for money;

hyet they lean on the Lord and isay,

Is not the Lord in the midst of us?

jNo disaster shall come upon us.

12  Therefore because of you

kZion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem lshall become a heap of ruins,

and mthe mountain of the house na wooded height.

The Mountain of the Lord

It shall come to pass oin the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and it shall be lifted up above the hills;

and peoples shall flow to it,

and many nations shall come, and say:

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,5

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between many peoples,

and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;

and they shall pbeat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war anymore;

qbut they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,

rand no one shall make them afraid,

sfor the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

For tall the peoples walk

each in the name of its god,

but uwe will walk in the name of the Lord our God

forever and ever.

The Lord Shall Rescue Zion

vIn that day, declares the Lord,

wI will assemble the xlame

and gather those who have been driven away

and those whom I have afflicted;

and the lame I will make ythe remnant,

and those who were cast off, a strong nation;

and zthe Lord will reign over them ain Mount Zion

from this time forth and forevermore.

And you, O tower of the flock,

hill of the daughter of Zion,

to you shall it come,

the former dominion shall come,

kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

Now why do you cry aloud?

bIs there no king in you?

cHas your counselor perished,

that dpain seized you like a woman in labor?

10  eWrithe and groan,6 O daughter of Zion,

like a woman in labor,

for fnow you shall go out from the city

and dwell in the open country;

you gshall go to Babylon.

There you shall be rescued;

hthere the Lord will redeem you

from the hand of your enemies.

11  Now imany nations

are assembled against you,

saying, Let her be defiled,

and jlet our eyes gaze upon Zion.

12  But kthey do not know

the thoughts of the Lord;

they do not understand his plan,

that lhe has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.

13  Arise and thresh,

O daughter of Zion,

for I will make your horn iron,

and I will make your hoofs bronze;

you shall beat in pieces many peoples;

and mshall devote7 ntheir gain to the Lord,

their wealth to othe Lord of the whole earth.

The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem

8 Now muster your troops, O daughter9 of troops;

siege is laid against us;

with a rod pthey strike the judge of Israel

on the cheek.

10 qBut you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

who are too little to be among the clans of rJudah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to be sruler in Israel,

twhose coming forth is ufrom of old,

from ancient days.

Therefore he shall give them up vuntil the time

when she who is in labor has given birth;

then wthe rest of his brothers shall return

to the people of Israel.

And he shall stand xand shepherd his flock yin the strength of the Lord,

in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall dwell secure, for now zhe shall be great

to the ends of the earth.

And he shall be atheir peace.

bWhen the Assyrian comes into our land

and treads in our palaces,

then we will raise against him seven cshepherds

and eight princes of men;

they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,

and the land of dNimrod at its entrances;

and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian

bwhen he comes into our land

and treads within our border.

A Remnant Shall Be Delivered

Then wthe remnant of Jacob shall be

in the midst of many peoples

like dew from the Lord,

like showers on the grass,

which delay not for a man

nor wait for the children of man.

And wthe remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,

in the midst of many peoples,

like a lion among the beasts of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

ewhich, when it goes through, treads down

and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

Your hand shall fbe lifted up over your adversaries,

and all your enemies shall be cut off.

10  And gin that day, declares the Lord,

hI will cut off your horses from among you

and will destroy your chariots;

11  iand I will cut off the cities of your land

and throw down all your strongholds;

12  and I will cut off jsorceries from your hand,

and kyou shall have no more tellers of fortunes;

13  and lI will cut off your carved images

and myour pillars from among you,

nand you shall bow down no more

to the work of your hands;

14  and I will root out your oAsherah images from among you

iand destroy your cities.

15  And in anger and wrath pI will execute vengeance

on the nations that did not obey.