Category: BIBLE – OLD TESTAMENT

The Bible – Old Testament

Isaiah

Chapter 29

1

¹ Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year, let the feasts come round.

2

But I will bring distress upon Ariel, with mourning and grief. You shall be to me like Ariel,

3

I will encamp like David against you; I will encircle you with outposts and set up siege works against you.

4

² Prostrate you shall speak from the earth, and from the base dust your words shall come. Your voice shall be like a ghost’s from the earth, and your words like chirping from the dust.

5

The horde of your arrogant shall be like fine dust, the horde of the tyrants like flying chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,

6

you shall be visited by the LORD of hosts, With thunder, earthquake, and great noise, whirlwind, storm, and the flame of consuming fire.

7

³ Then like a dream, a vision in the night, Shall be the horde of all the nations who war against Ariel with all the earthworks of her besiegers.

8

As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakens with an empty stomach, Or when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakens faint and dry, So shall the horde of all the nations be, who make war against Zion.

9

⁴ Be irresolute, stupefied; blind yourselves and stay blind! Be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from strong drink!

10

For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes (the prophets) and covered your heads (the seers).

11

For you the revelation of all this has become like the words of a sealed scroll. When it is handed to one who can read, with the request, “Read this,” he replies, “I cannot; it is sealed.”

12

When it is handed to one who cannot read, with the request, “Read this,” he replies, “I cannot read.”

13

The Lord said: Since this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, though their hearts are far from me, And their reverence for me has become routine observance of the precepts of men,

14

Therefore I will again deal with this people in surprising and wondrous fashion: The wisdom of its wise men shall perish and the understanding of its prudent men be hid.

15

Woe to those who would hide their plans too deep for the LORD! Who work in the dark, saying, “Who sees us, or who knows us?”

16

Your perversity is as though the potter were taken to be the clay: As though what is made should say of its maker, “He made me not!” Or the vessel should say of the potter, “He does not understand.”

17

⁵ But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest!

18

On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see.

19

The lowly will ever find joy in the LORD, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

20

For the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone; All who are alert to do evil will be cut off,

21

those whose mere word condemns a man, Who ensnare his defender at the gate, and leave the just man with an empty claim.

22

⁶ Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham: Now Jacob shall have nothing to be ashamed of, nor shall his face grow pale.

23

When his children see the work of my hands in his midst, They shall keep my name holy; they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob, and be in awe of the God of Israel.

24

Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction.

1 [1-2] Ariel: variously interpreted to mean “lion of God” or “hearth (altar) of God,” a poetic name for Jerusalem; or perhaps to be read as Uru-el, “foundation of God,” an archaic name for the Jebusite city of Jerusalem; like that Ariel, against which David encamped, it will be besieged by God.

2 Chirping: see note on ⇒ Isaiah 8:19.

3 [7-8] Just when the Assyrians think their capture of Jerusalem to be certain, the Lord will snatch victory from their hands and save his city.

4 [9-12] Jerusalem in her blindness refuses to believe God’s revelation that she will be saved.

5 [17-24] The prophet presents God’s plan of redemption in terms of unheard-of natural phenomena as if such changes in nature took place, e.g., the change of the cedars of Lebanon into an orchard (⇒ Isaiah 29:17).

6 [22] Who redeemed Abraham: by freeing him from the idolatry of his native land.

Index

Int. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 

12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 

31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 

40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 

49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 

58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66.

The Bible – Old Testament

Isaiah

Index

Int. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 

23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 

34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44.

 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 

56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66.

Chapter 11

1

¹ But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.

2

² The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,

3

and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide,

4

But he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

5

Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

6

³ Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.

7

The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox.

8

The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

9

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea.

10

On that day, The root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, The Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.

11

⁴ On that day, The Lord shall again take it in hand to reclaim the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria and Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, and Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the isles of the sea.

12

He shall raise a signal to the nations and gather the outcasts of Israel; The dispersed of Judah he shall assemble from the four corners of the earth.

13

The envy of Ephraim shall pass away, and the rivalry of Judah be removed; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be hostile to Ephraim;

14

⁵ But they shall swoop down on the foothills of the Philistines to the west, together they shall plunder the Kedemites; Edom and Moab shall be their possessions, and the Ammonites their subjects.

15

⁶ The LORD shall dry up the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and wave his hand over the Euphrates in his fierce anger And shatter it into seven streamlets, so that it can be crossed in sandals.

16

There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, As there was for Israel when he came up from the land of Egypt.

1 [1] Jesse: David’s father. Shoot . . . stump: after the Babylonian Exile only a stump of the Davidic dynasty will remain; from it will arise the new shoot, the messianic King.

2 [2-3] The source of the traditional names of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Septuagint and the Vulgate read “piety” for fear of the LORD in its first occurence, thus listing seven gifts.

3 [6-9] This picture of the idyllic harmony of paradise is a dramatic symbol of the universal peace and justice of messianic times.

4 [11] Pathros . . . sea: where God’s people lived in exile. Pathros: upper Egypt. Elam: east of Babylonia. Shinar: Babylonia. Hamath: on the Orontes River in Syria. Isles: or coastlands, in the Mediterranean.

5 [14] Kedemites: tribes in the Arabian Desert.

6 [15] Tongue . . . Egypt: the body of water between Egypt and Palestine.

Index

Int. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 

12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 

31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 

40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 

49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 

58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66.