Isaiah
When you finish destroying, you will be destroyed.+
When you finish betraying, you will be betrayed.
Our hope is in you.
3 At the sound of turmoil peoples flee.
When you rise up, nations scatter.+
4 As the voracious locusts gather, so your spoil will be gathered;
People will rush on it like swarms of locusts.
5 Jehovah will be exalted,
For he resides in the heights above.
He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 He is the stability of your times;
An abundance of salvation,+ wisdom, knowledge, and the fear of Jehovah+
—This is his treasure.
7 Look! Their heroes cry out in the street;
The messengers of peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways are deserted;
There is no one traveling on the pathways.
9 The land mourns* and withers away.
Lebʹa·non is ashamed;+ it has decayed.
Sharʹon has become like the desert,
And Baʹshan and Carʹmel shake off their leaves.+
11 You conceive dried grass and give birth to stubble.
Your own spirit will consume you like a fire.+
12 And peoples will become as the burnings of lime.
As thorns cut down, they will be set ablaze with fire.+
13 You who are far away, listen to what I will do!
And you who are nearby, acknowledge my might!
‘Who of us can live where there is a consuming fire?+
Who of us can live with unquenchable flames?’
15 The one who walks in continual righteousness,+
Who speaks what is upright,+
Who rejects dishonest, fraudulent gain,
Whose hands refuse a bribe rather than grabbing it,+
Who closes his ear to talk of bloodshed,
And who shuts his eyes to avoid seeing what is bad
16 —He will reside in the heights;
His secure refuge* will be in rocky strongholds,
His bread will be provided,
And his water supply will never fail.”+
17 Your eyes will behold a king in his splendor;
They will see a land far away.
18 In your heart you will recall* the terror:
“Where is the secretary?
Where is the one who weighed out the tribute?+
Where is the one who counted the towers?”
19 You will no more see the insolent people,
A people whose language is too obscure* to comprehend,
Whose stammering tongue you cannot understand.+
20 Behold Zion, the city of our festivals!+
Your eyes will see Jerusalem as a tranquil dwelling place,
A tent that will not be moved.+
Never will its tent pins be pulled out,
And none of its ropes will be torn apart.
21 But there the Majestic One, Jehovah,
Will be for us a region of rivers, of wide canals,
Where no galley fleet will go
And no majestic ships will pass by.
23 Your ropes will hang loose;
They cannot hold up the mast nor spread the sail.
At that time an abundance of spoil will be divided up;
Even the lame will take much plunder.+
24 And no resident* will say: “I am sick.”+
The people dwelling in the land will be pardoned for their error.+