1 The pronouncement concerning Egypt:
Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;
The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,
And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
2 “So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;
And they will fight, 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 they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead,
And to mediums and spiritists.
4 Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a cruel master,
And a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord God of armies.
5 The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.
6 The canals will emit a stench,
The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;
The reeds and rushes will rot away.
7 The bulrushes by the Nile, by the 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 fishermen will grieve,
And all those who cast a 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 cloth will be utterly dejected.
10 And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed;
All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.
11 The officials of Zoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become stupid.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?
12 Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them understand what the Lord of armies
Has planned against Egypt.
13 The officials of Zoan have turned out to be fools,
The officials of Memphis are deluded;
Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes
Have led Egypt astray.
14 The Lord has mixed within her a spirit of distortion;
They have led Egypt astray in all that it does,
As a drunken person staggers in his vomit.
15 There will be no work for Egypt
Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.
16 On that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in great fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of armies, which He is going to wave over them. 17 The land of Judah will become a cause of shame to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in great fear because of the plan of the Lord of armies which He is making against them.
18 On that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the Lord of armies; one will be called the City of Destruction.
19 On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a memorial stone to the Lord beside its border. 20 And it will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry out to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will save them. 21 So the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. 22 And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the Lord, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them.
23 On that day there will be a road from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24 On that day Israel will be the third party to Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the Lord of armies has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
1 In the year that the commander came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it, 2 at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, going naked and barefoot. 3 Then the Lord said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and symbol against Egypt and Cush, 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 Then they will be terrified and ashamed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their pride. 6 So the inhabitants of this coastland will say on that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled for help to be saved from the king of Assyria; and how are we ourselves to escape?’”
1 The pronouncement concerning the wilderness of the sea:
As windstorms in the Negev come in turns,
It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land.
2 A harsh vision has been shown to me;
The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.
Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;
I have put an end to all the groaning she has caused.
3 For this reason my loins are full of anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.
I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.
4 My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been turned into trembling for me.
5 They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;
“Rise up, captains, oil the shields!”
6 For this is what the Lord says to me:
“Go, station the lookout, have him report what he sees.
7 When he sees a column of chariots, horsemen in pairs,
A train of donkeys, a train of camels,
He is to pay close attention, very close attention.”
8 Then the lookout called,
“Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,
And I am stationed every night at my guard post.
9 Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”
And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”
10 My downtrodden people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor!
What I have heard from the Lord of armies,
The God of Israel, I make known to you.
11 The pronouncement concerning Edom:
One keeps calling to me from Seir,
“Watchman, how far gone is the night?
Watchman, how far gone is the night?”
12 The watchman says,
“Morning comes but also night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
Come back again.”
13 The pronouncement about Arabia:
In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,
You caravans of Dedanites.
14 Bring water for the thirsty,
You inhabitants of the land of Tema;
Meet the fugitive with bread.
15 For they have fled from the swords,
From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow,
And from the press of battle.
16 For this is what the Lord said to me: “In a year, as a hired worker would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end; 17 and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the warriors of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken.”
1 Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. 2 It was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that somehow I might be running, or had run, in vain. 3 But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 Yet it was a concern because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy on our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us. 5 But we did not yield in subjection to them, even for an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. 6 But from those who were of considerable repute (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism)—well, those who were of repute contributed nothing to me. 7 But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised 8 (for He who was at work for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised was at work for me also to the Gentiles), 9 and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 They only asked us to remember the poor—the very thing I also was eager to do.
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For prior to the coming of some men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and separate himself, fearing those from the circumcision. 13 The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
15 “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from the Gentiles; 16 nevertheless, knowing that a person is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law; since by works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
1 Rescue me from my enemies, my God;
Set me securely on high away from those who rise up against me.
2 Rescue me from those who practice injustice,
And save me from men of bloodshed.
3 For behold, they have set an ambush for my life;
Fierce men attack me,
Not for my wrongdoing nor for my sin, Lord,
4 For no guilt of mine, they run and take their stand against me.
Stir Yourself to help me, and see!
5 You, Lord God of armies, the God of Israel,
Awake to punish all the nations;
Do not be gracious to any who deal treacherously in wrongdoing. Selah
6 They return at evening, they howl like a dog,
And prowl around the city.
7 Behold, they gush forth with their mouths;
Swords are in their lips,
For, they say, “Who hears?”
8 But You, Lord, laugh at them;
You scoff at all the nations.
9 Because of his strength I will watch for You,
For God is my refuge.
10 My God in His faithfulness will meet me;
God will let me look triumphantly upon my enemies.
11 Do not kill them, or my people will forget;
Scatter them by Your power and bring them down,
Lord, our shield.
12 On account of the sin of their mouths and the words of their lips,
May they even be caught in their pride,
And on account of curses and lies which they tell.
13 Destroy them in wrath, destroy them so that they will no longer exist;
So that people may know that God rules in Jacob,
To the ends of the earth. Selah
14 They return at evening, they howl like a dog,
And prowl around the city.
15 They wander about for food
And murmur if they are not satisfied.
16 But as for me, I will sing of Your strength;
Yes, I will joyfully sing of Your faithfulness in the morning,
For You have been my refuge
And a place of refuge on the day of my distress.
17 My strength, I will sing praises to You;
For God is my refuge, the God who shows me favor.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;
Though you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
14 You shall strike him with the rod
And rescue his soul from Sheol.
