Isaiah 31-35; Psalms 116 - Prayer Tents

The Futility of Relying on Egypt

Israel’s Ultimate Deliverance

32Look, a righteous king is coming! And honest princes will rule under him.H4428H4427H6664H8269H8323H4941

2Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a parched land.H376H4224H7307H5643H2230H6388H4325H6724H6738H3515H5553H5889H776

3Then everyone who has eyes will be able to see the truth, and everyone who has ears will be able to hear it.H5869H7200H8159H241H8085H7181

4Even the hotheads will be full of sense and understanding. Those who stammer will speak out plainly.H3824H4116H995H1847H3956H5926H4116H1696H6703

5In that day ungodly fools will not be heroes. Scoundrels will not be respected.H5036H7121H5081H3596H559H7771

6For fools speak foolishness and make evil plans. They practice ungodliness and spread false teachings about the Lord. They deprive the hungry of food and give no water to the thirsty.H5036H1696H5039H3820H6213H205H6213H2612H1696H8442H3068H7324H5315H7457H4945H6771H2637

7The smooth tricks of scoundrels are evil. They plot crooked schemes. They lie to convict the poor, even when the cause of the poor is just.H3627H3596H7451H3289H2154H2254H6041H6035H8267H561H34H1696H4941

8But generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity.H5081H3289H5081H5081H6965

9Listen, you women who lie around in ease. Listen to me, you who are so smug.H6965H802H7600H8085H6963H982H1323H238H565

10In a short time—just a little more than a year—you careless ones will suddenly begin to care. For your fruit crops will fail, and the harvest will never take place.H3117H8141H7264H982H1210H3615H625H935

11Tremble, you women of ease; throw off your complacency. Strip off your pretty clothes, and put on burlap to show your grief.H2729H7600H7264H982H6584H6209H2290H2504

12Beat your breasts in sorrow for your bountiful farms and your fruitful grapevines.H5594H7699H2531H7704H6509H1612

13For your land will be overgrown with thorns and briers. Your joyful homes and happy towns will be gone.H127H5971H5927H6975H8068H1004H4885H5947H7151

14The palace and the city will be deserted, and busy towns will be empty. Wild donkeys will frolic and flocks will graze in the empty forts and watchtowersH759H5203H1995H5892H5800H6076H975H4631H5704H5769H4885H6501H4829H5739

15until at last the Spirit is poured out on us from heaven. Then the wilderness will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.H7307H6168H4791H4057H3759H3759H2803H3293

16Justice will rule in the wilderness and righteousness in the fertile field.H4941H7931H4057H6666H3427H3759

17And this righteousness will bring peace. Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever.H4639H6666H7965H5656H6666H8252H983H5704H5769

18My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest.H5971H3427H7965H5116H4009H4908H7600H4496

19Even if the forest should be destroyed and the city torn down,H1258H3381H3293H5892H8213H8218

20the Lord will greatly bless his people. Wherever they plant seed, bountiful crops will spring up. Their cattle and donkeys will graze freely.H835H2232H4325H7971H7272H7794H2543

A Message about Assyria

33What sorrow awaits you Assyrians, who have destroyed others but have never been destroyed yourselves. You betray others, but you have never been betrayed. When you are done destroying, you will be destroyed. When you are done betraying, you will be betrayed.H1945H7703H7703H898H898H8552H7703H7703H5239H898H898 2But Lord, be merciful to us, for we have waited for you. Be our strong arm each day and our salvation in times of trouble.H3068H2603H6960H2220H1242H3444H6256H6869 3The enemy runs at the sound of your voice. When you stand up, the nations flee!H6963H1995H5971H5074H7427H1471H5310 4Just as caterpillars and locusts strip the fields and vines, so the fallen army of Assyria will be stripped!H7998H622H625H2625H4944H1357H8264 5Though the Lord is very great and lives in heaven, he will make Jerusalem his home of justice and righteousness.H3068H7682H7931H4791H4390H6726H4941H6666 6In that day he will be your sure foundation, providing a rich store of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord will be your treasure.H2451H1847H530H6256H2633H3444H3374H3068H214 7But now your brave warriors weep in public. Your ambassadors of peace cry in bitter disappointment.H691H6817H2351H4397H7965H1058H4751 8Your roads are deserted; no one travels them anymore. The Assyrians have broken their peace treaty and care nothing for the promises they made before witnesses. They have no respect for anyone.H4546H8074H5674H734H7673H6565H1285H3988H5892H2803H582 9The land of Israel wilts in mourning. Lebanon withers with shame. The plain of Sharon is now a wilderness. Bashan and Carmel have been plundered.H776H56H535H3844H2659H7060H8289H6160H1316H3760H5287 10But the Lord says: “Now I will stand up. Now I will show my power and might.H6965H559H3068H7426H5375 11You Assyrians produce nothing but dry grass and stubble. Your own breath will turn to fire and consume you.H2029H2842H3205H7179H7307H784H398 12Your people will be burned up completely, like thornbushes cut down and tossed in a fire.H5971H4955H7875H6975H3683H3341H784 13Listen to what I have done, you nations far away! And you that are near, acknowledge my might!”H8085H7350H6213H7138H3045H1369 14The sinners in Jerusalem shake with fear. Terror seizes the godless. “Who can live with this devouring fire?” they cry. “Who can survive this all-consuming fire?”H2400H6726H6342H7461H270H2611H1481H398H784H1481H5769H4168 15Those who are honest and fair, who refuse to profit by fraud, who stay far away from bribes, who refuse to listen to those who plot murder, who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong—H1980H6666H1696H4339H3988H1215H4642H5287H3709H8551H7810H331H241H8085H1818H6105H5869H7200H7451 16these are the ones who will dwell on high. The rocks of the mountains will be their fortress. Food will be supplied to them, and they will have water in abundance.H7931H4791H4869H4679H5553H3899H5414H4325H539 17Your eyes will see the king in all his splendor, and you will see a land that stretches into the distance.H5869H2372H4428H3308H7200H776H4801 18You will think back to this time of terror, asking, “Where are the Assyrian officers who counted our towers? Where are the bookkeepers who recorded the plunder taken from our fallen city?”H3820H1897H367H5608H8254H5608H4026 19You will no longer see these fierce, violent people with their strange, unknown language.H7200H3267H5971H5971H6012H8193H8085H3932H3956H998 20Instead, you will see Zion as a place of holy festivals. You will see Jerusalem, a city quiet and secure. It will be like a tent whose ropes are taut and whose stakes are firmly fixed.H2372H6726H7151H4150H5869H7200H3389H7600H5116H168H6813H3489H5331H5265H2256H5423 21The Lord will be our Mighty One. He will be like a wide river of protection that no enemy can cross, that no enemy ship can sail upon.H117H3068H4725H7342H3027H5104H2975H3212H1077H590H7885H117H6716H5674 22For the Lord is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king. He will care for us and save us.H3068H8199H3068H2710H3068H4428H3467 23The enemies’ sails hang loose on broken masts with useless tackle. Their treasure will be divided by the people of God. Even the lame will take their share!H2256H5203H3653H2388H8650H6566H5251H5706H4766H7998H2505H6455H962H957 24The people of Israel will no longer say, “We are sick and helpless,” for the Lord will forgive their sins.H7934H559H2470H5971H3427H5375H5771

A Message for the Nations

34Come here and listen, O nations of the earth. Let the world and everything in it hear my words.H7126H1471H8085H7181H3816H776H8085H4393H8398H6631

2For the Lord is enraged against the nations. His fury is against all their armies. He will completely destroy them, dooming them to slaughter.H7110H3068H1471H2534H6635H2763H5414H2874

3Their dead will be left unburied, and the stench of rotting bodies will fill the land. The mountains will flow with their blood.H2491H7993H889H5927H6297H2022H4549H1818

4The heavens above will melt away and disappear like a rolled-up scroll. The stars will fall from the sky like withered leaves from a grapevine, or shriveled figs from a fig tree.H6635H8064H4743H8064H1556H5612H6635H5034H5929H5034H1612H5034H8384

5And when my sword has finished its work in the heavens, it will fall upon Edom, the nation I have marked for destruction.H2719H7301H8064H3381H123H5971H2764H4941

6The sword of the Lord is drenched with blood and covered with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of rams prepared for sacrifice. Yes, the Lord will offer a sacrifice in the city of Bozrah. He will make a mighty slaughter in Edom.H2719H3068H4390H1818H1878H2459H1818H3733H6260H2459H3629H352H3068H2077H1224H1419H2874H776H123

7Even men as strong as wild oxen will die—the young men alongside the veterans. The land will be soaked with blood and the soil enriched with fat.H7214H3381H6499H47H776H7301H1818H6083H1878H2459

8For it is the day of the Lord’s revenge, the year when Edom will be paid back for all it did to Israel.H3117H3068H5359H8141H7966H7379H6726

9The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch, and the ground will be covered with fire.H5158H2015H2203H6083H1614H776H1197H2203

10This judgment on Edom will never end; the smoke of its burning will rise forever. The land will lie deserted from generation to generation. No one will live there anymore.H3518H3915H3119H6227H5927H5769H1755H1755H2717H5674H5331H5331

11It will be haunted by the desert owl and the screech owl, the great owl and the raven. For God will measure that land carefully; he will measure it for chaos and destruction.H6893H7090H3423H3244H6158H7931H5186H6957H8414H68H922

12It will be called the Land of Nothing, and all its nobles will soon be gone.H7121H2715H4410H8269H657

13Thorns will overrun its palaces; nettles and thistles will grow in its forts. The ruins will become a haunt for jackals and a home for owls.H5518H5927H759H7057H2336H4013H5116H8577H2681H1323H3284

14Desert animals will mingle there with hyenas, their howls filling the night. Wild goats will bleat at one another among the ruins, and night creatures will come there to rest.H6728H6298H338H8163H7121H7453H3917H7280H4672H4494

15There the owl will make her nest and lay her eggs. She will hatch her young and cover them with her wings. And the buzzards will come, each one with its mate.H7091H7077H4422H1234H1716H6738H1772H6908H802H7468

16Search the book of the Lord, and see what he will do. Not one of these birds and animals will be missing, and none will lack a mate, for the Lord has promised this. His Spirit will make it all come true.H1875H5612H3068H7121H259H2007H5737H802H6485H7468H6310H6680H7307H6908

17He has surveyed and divided the land and deeded it over to those creatures. They will possess it forever, from generation to generation.H5307H1486H3027H2505H6957H3423H5704H5769H1755H1755H7931

Hope for Restoration

35Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those days. The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses.H4057H6723H7797H6160H1523H6524H2261 2Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy! The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon, as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon. There the Lord will display his glory, the splendor of our God.H6524H6524H1523H1525H7444H3519H3844H5414H1926H3760H8289H7200H3519H3068H1926H430 3With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands, and encourage those who have weak knees.H2388H7504H3027H553H3782H1290 4Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.”H559H4116H3820H2388H3372H430H935H5359H430H1576H935H3467 5And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf.H5869H5787H6491H241H2795H6605 6The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy! Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland.H6455H1801H354H3956H483H7442H4057H4325H1234H5158H6160 7The parched ground will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land. Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.H8273H98H6774H4002H4325H5116H8577H7258H2682H7070H1573 8And a great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness. Evil-minded people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways; fools will never walk there.H4547H1870H7121H1870H6944H2931H5674H1980H191H8582 9Lions will not lurk along its course, nor any other ferocious beasts. There will be no other dangers. Only the redeemed will walk on it.H738H6530H2416H5927H4672H1350H1980 10Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return. They will enter Jerusalem singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be filled with joy and gladness.H6299H3068H7725H935H6726H7440H5769H8057H7218H5381H8057H8342H3015H585H5127