Isaiah 32-35

Isaiah 32-35 New King James Version (NKJV)

32 

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
And princes will rule with justice.
² A man will be as a hiding place from the wind,
And a cover from the tempest,
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
³ The eyes of those who see will not be dim,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.
⁴ Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge,
And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵ The foolish person will no longer be called generous,
Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
⁶ For the foolish person will speak foolishness,
And his heart will work iniquity:
To practice ungodliness,
To utter error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry unsatisfied,
And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
⁷ Also the schemes of the schemer are evil;
He devises wicked plans
To destroy the poor with lying words,
Even when the needy speaks justice.
⁸ But a generous man devises generous things,
And by generosity he shall stand.

⁹ Rise up, you women who are at ease,
Hear my voice;
You complacent daughters,
Give ear to my speech.
¹⁰ In a year and some days
You will be troubled, you complacent women;
For the vintage will fail,
The gathering will not come.
¹¹ Tremble, you women who are at ease;
Be troubled, you complacent ones;
Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare,
And gird sackcloth on your waists.

¹² People shall mourn upon their breasts
For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
¹³ On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers,
Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city;
¹⁴ Because the palaces will be forsaken,
The bustling city will be deserted.
The forts and towers will become lairs forever,
A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
¹⁵ Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

¹⁶ Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
¹⁷ The work of righteousness will be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
¹⁸ My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation,
In secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places,
¹⁹ Though hail comes down on the forest,
And the city is brought low in humiliation.

²⁰ Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.

33 

Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered;
And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you!
When you cease plundering,
You will be plundered;
When you make an end of dealing treacherously,
They will deal treacherously with you.

² O Lord, be gracious to us;
We have waited for You.
Be their arm every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of trouble.
³ At the noise of the tumult the people shall flee;
When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered;
⁴ And Your plunder shall be gathered
Like the gathering of the caterpillar;
As the running to and fro of locusts,
He shall run upon them.

⁵ The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶ Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times,
And the strength of salvation;
The fear of the Lord is His treasure.

⁷ Surely their valiant ones shall cry outside,
The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
⁸ The highways lie waste,
The traveling man ceases.
He has broken the covenant,
He has despised the cities,
He regards no man.
⁹ The earth mourns and languishes,
Lebanon is shamed and shriveled;
Sharon is like a wilderness,
And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

¹⁰ “Now I will rise,” says the Lord;
“Now I will be exalted,
Now I will lift Myself up.
¹¹ You shall conceive chaff,
You shall bring forth stubble;
Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
¹² And the people shall be like the burnings of lime;
Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
¹³ Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid;
Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites:
“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
¹⁵ He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
He who despises the gain of oppressions,
Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
And shuts his eyes from seeing evil:
¹⁶ He will dwell on high;
His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks;
Bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;
They will see the land that is very far off.
¹⁸ Your heart will meditate on terror:
“Where is the scribe?
Where is he who weighs?
Where is he who counts the towers?”
¹⁹ You will not see a fierce people,
A people of obscure speech, beyond perception,
Of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand.

²⁰ Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home,
A tabernacle that will not be taken down;
Not one of its stakes will ever be removed,
Nor will any of its cords be broken.
²¹ But there the majestic Lord will be for us
A place of broad rivers and streams,
In which no galley with oars will sail,
Nor majestic ships pass by
²² (For the Lord is our Judge,
The Lord is our Lawgiver,
The Lord is our King;
He will save us);
²³ Your tackle is loosed,
They could not strengthen their mast,
They could not spread the sail.

Then the prey of great plunder is divided;
The lame take the prey.
²⁴ And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”;
The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.

34

Come near, you nations, to hear;
And heed, you people!
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
The world and all things that come forth from it.
² For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations,
And His fury against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to the slaughter.
³ Also their slain shall be thrown out;
Their stench shall rise from their corpses,
And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
⁴ All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as fruit falling from a fig tree.

⁵ “For My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
⁶ The sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is made overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷ The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust saturated with fatness.”

⁸ For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
⁹ Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
¹⁰ It shall not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke shall ascend forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
¹¹ But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
¹² They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³ And thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
¹⁴ The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
¹⁵ There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.

¹⁶ “Search from the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail;
Not one shall lack her mate.
For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷ He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”

35 

The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
² It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice,
Even with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
The excellency of our God.

³ Strengthen the weak hands,
And make firm the feeble knees.
⁴ Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.”

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
⁶ Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
⁷ The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸ A highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
⁹ No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,
¹⁰ And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.