Bible Reading Plan

Chapter 14

Israel's Taunt against Babylon

¹ When the LORD ^(C1)has compassion on Jacob and again ^(C2)chooses Israel, and settles them on their own land, then ^(C3)strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.² The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the ^(C1)house of Israel will make them their own possession in the land of the LORD ^(C2)as male and female servants; and ^(F1)they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

³ And it will be on the day when the LORD gives you ^(C1)rest from your hardship, your turmoil, and from the harsh service in which you have been enslaved,⁴ that you will ^(C1)take up this ^(F1)taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

"How ^(C2)the oppressor has ceased,
And how the ^(F2)onslaught has ceased!

⁵ "The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of rulers,

^6 (C1)Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,
Which ^(F1)subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

⁷ "The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
They ^(C1)break forth into shouts of joy.

⁸ "Even the ^(C1)juniper trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
'Since you have been laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.'

⁹ "^(C1)Sheol below is excited about you, to meet you when you come;
It stirs the ^(F1)spirits of the dead for you, all the ^(F2)leaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

¹⁰ "^(C1)They will all respond and say to you,
'Even you have become weak as we,
You have become like us.

¹¹ 'Your ^(C1)pride and the music of your harps
Have been brought down to Sheol;
Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you
And worms are your covering.'

¹² "How you have ^(C1)fallen from heaven,
You ^(F1)(C2)star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who defeated the nations!

¹³ "But you said in your heart,
'I will ^(C1)ascend to heaven;
I will ^(C2)raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.

¹⁴ 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
^(C1)I will make myself like the Most High.'

¹⁵ "Nevertheless you ^(C1)will be brought down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.

¹⁶ "Those who see you will stare at you,
They will ^(F1)closely examine you, saying,
'Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,

¹⁷ Who made the world like a ^(C1)wilderness
And overthrew its cities,
Who ^(C2)did not ^(F1)allow his prisoners to go home?'

¹⁸ "All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
Each in his own ^(F1)tomb.

¹⁹ "But you have been ^(C1)hurled out of your tomb
Like ^(F1)a rejected branch,
^(F2)Clothed with those killed who have been pierced with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the ^(C2)pit
Like a ^(C3)trampled corpse.

²⁰ "You will not be united with them in burial,
Because you have ruined your country,
You have killed your people.
May the ^(C1)descendants of evildoers never be mentioned.

²¹ "Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons
Because of the ^(C1)wrongdoing of their fathers.
They must not arise and take possession of the earth,
And fill the surface of the world with cities."

Judgment on Assyria

Judgment on Philistia

²⁸ In the ^(C1)year that King Ahaz died, this ^(C2)pronouncement came:

²⁹ "Do not rejoice, ^(C1)Philistia, all of you,
Because the rod that ^(C2)struck you is broken;
For from the serpent's root a ^(C3)viper will come out,
And its fruit will be a ^(C4)winged serpent.

³⁰ "^(F1)Those who are most ^(C1)helpless will eat,
And the poor will lie down in security;
I will kill your root with ^(C2)famine,
And it will kill your survivors.

³¹ "Wail, you ^(C1)gate; cry, you city;
^(F1)Melt away, ^(C2)Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes from the ^(C3)north,
And ^(C4)there is no straggler in his ranks.

³² "What answer will one give the ^(C1)messengers of the nation?
That ^(C2)the LORD has founded Zion,
And ^(C3)the poor of His people will take refuge in it."

Chapter 15

Judgment on Moab

¹ The pronouncement concerning ^(C1)Moab:

Certainly in a night ^(C2)Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;
Certainly in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.

^2 (F1)The people have gone up to the ^(F2)temple and to ^(C1)Dibon, to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;
Everyone's head is ^(C2)bald and every beard is cut off.

³ In their streets they have put on ^(C1)sackcloth;
^(C2)On their housetops and in their public squares
Everyone is wailing, ^(F1)(C3)overcome with weeping.

^4 (C1)Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out,
Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;
Therefore the ^(F1)armed men of Moab cry aloud;
His soul trembles within him.

⁵ My heart cries out for Moab;
His fugitives are as far as ^(C1)Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,
For they go up the ^(C2)ascent of Luhith weeping;
Indeed, on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress ^(C3)over their collapse.

⁶ For the ^(C1)waters of Nimrim are ^(F1)desolate.
Indeed, the grass is withered, the new growth has died,
There is ^(C2)no greenery.

⁷ Therefore the ^(C1)abundance which they have acquired and stored up,
They carry it off over the brook of ^(F1)Arabim.

⁸ For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,
Its wailing goes as far as Eglaim and its howling to Beer-elim.

⁹ For the waters of Dimon are full of ^(F1)blood;
I will certainly bring added woes upon Dimon,
A ^(C1)lion upon the fugitives of Moab and the remnant of the land.

Chapter 16

Prophecy of Moab's Devastation

^1 (C1)Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,
From ^(F1)(C2)Sela by way of the wilderness to the ^(C3)mountain of the daughter of Zion.

² Then, like ^(C1)fluttering birds or scattered nestlings,
The daughters of ^(C2)Moab will be at the crossing places of the ^(C3)Arnon.

³ "^(F1)Give us advice, make a decision;
^(F2)Cast your ^(C1)shadow like night ^(F3)at high noon;
^(C2)Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.

⁴ "Let the ^(F1)outcasts of Moab stay with you;
Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer."
For the oppressor has come to an end, destruction has ceased,
^(C1)Oppressors have been removed from the land.

⁵ A ^(C1)throne will be established in faithfulness,
And a judge will sit on it in trustworthiness in the tent of ^(C2)David;
Moreover, he will seek justice,
And be prompt in righteousness.

^6 (C1)We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;
Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;
^(C2)His idle boasts are ^(F1)false.

⁷ Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.
You will moan for the ^(C1)raisin cakes of ^(C2)Kir-hareseth
As those who are utterly stricken.

⁸ For the fields of ^(C1)Heshbon have ^(F1)withered, the vines of ^(C2)Sibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;
^(C3)Its ^(F2)tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.

⁹ Therefore I will ^(C1)weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;
I will drench you with my tears, ^(C2)Heshbon and Elealeh;
For the shouting over your ^(C3)summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.

^10 (C1)Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;
In the ^(C2)vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,
No ^(C3)treader treads out wine in the presses,
For I have made the shouting to cease.

¹¹ Therefore my ^(F1)(C1)inner being sounds like a harp for Moab.
And my ^(F2)heart for Kir-hareseth.

¹² So it will come about when Moab ^(C1)presents himself,
When he ^(C2)tires himself upon his ^(C3)high place
And comes to his sanctuary to pray,
That he will not prevail.

¹³ This is the word which the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab.¹⁴ But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as ^(F1)(C1)a hired worker would count them, the glory of ^(C2)Moab will become contemptible along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and ^(F2)impotent."

Chapter 17

Prophecy about Damascus

¹ The ^(C1)pronouncement concerning ^(C2)Damascus:

"Behold, Damascus is about to be ^(C3)removed from being a city
And will become a ^(C4)fallen ruin.

² "The cities ^(F1)of ^(C1)Aroer are abandoned;
They will be for ^(C2)herds ^(F2)to lie down in,
And there will be ^(C3)no one to frighten them.

³ "The ^(F1)(C1)fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And ^(F2)sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the ^(C2)glory of the sons of Israel,"
Declares the LORD of armies.

⁴ Now on that day the ^(C1)glory of Jacob will ^(F1)fade,
And ^(C2)the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

⁵ It will be ^(C1)like the ^(F1)reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the ^(C2)Valley of Rephaim.

⁶ Yet ^(C1)gleanings will be left in it like the ^(F1)shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁷ On that day man will ^(C1)look to his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸ And he will not look to the ^(C1)altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his ^(C2)fingers have made,
Even the ^(F1)(C3)Asherim and incense altars.

⁹ On that day ^(F1)their strong cities will be like ^(F2)abandoned places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And ^(F3)the land will be a desolation.

¹⁰ For ^(C1)you have forgotten the ^(C2)God of your salvation
And have not remembered the ^(C3)rock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.

¹¹ On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the ^(C1)morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will ^(C2)flee
On a day of illness and incurable pain.

¹² Oh, the uproar of many peoples
^(C1)Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the ^(C2)rumbling of mighty waters!

¹³ The ^(C1)nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will ^(C2)rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
And be chased ^(C3)like chaff on the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.

¹⁴ At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning ^(C1)they are gone.
This will be the ^(F1)fate of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.

Chapter 18

Message to Ethiopia

¹ Woe, land of whirring wings
Which lies beyond the rivers of ^(F1)(C1)Cush,

² Which sends messengers by the sea,
Even in ^(C1)papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation ^(F1)(C2)tall and smooth,
To a people ^(C3)feared ^(F2)far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.

^3 (C1)All you who inhabit the world, and live on earth,
As soon as a flag is raised on the mountains, ^(C2)you will see it,
And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

Chapter 19

Message to Egypt

¹ The ^(C1)pronouncement concerning ^(C2)Egypt:

Behold, the LORD is ^(C3)riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;
The ^(C4)idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,
And the ^(C5)heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

² "So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;
And they will fight, ^(C1)each against his brother and each against his neighbor,
City against city and kingdom against kingdom.

³ "Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;
And I will confuse their strategy,
So that ^(C1)they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead,
And to ^(F1)mediums and spiritists.

⁴ "Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a ^(C1)cruel master,
And a ^(F1)mighty king will rule over them," declares the Lord ^(F2)GOD of armies.

^5 (C1)The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.

⁶ The ^(F1)(C1)canals will emit a stench,
The ^(F2)(C2)streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;
^(C3)The reeds and rushes will rot away.

⁷ The bulrushes by the ^(C1)Nile, by the ^(F1)edge of the Nile
And all the sown fields by the Nile
Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸ And the ^(C1)fishermen will grieve,
And all those who cast a ^(F1)line into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.

⁹ Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax
And the weavers of white ^(C1)cloth will be ^(F1)utterly dejected.

¹⁰ And ^(F1)the ^(C1)pillars of Egypt will be crushed;
All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.<