HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1001
ISAIAH 34
page 631
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In 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.
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But now your brave warriors weep in public.
Your ambassadors of peace cry in bitter
disappointment.
Your 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.
The land of Israel wilts in mourning.
Lebanon withers with shame.
The plain of Sharon is now a wilderness.
Bashan and Carmel have been plundered.
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But the Lord says: “Now I will stand up.
Now I will show my power and might.
You Assyrians produce nothing but dry
grass and stubble.
Your own breath will turn to fire and
consume you.
Your people will be burned up completely,
like thornbushes cut down and tossed
in a fire.
Listen to what I have done, you nations
far away!
And you that are near, acknowledge
my might!”
The 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?”
Those 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—
these 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.
Your eyes will see the king in all his
splendor,
and you will see a land that stretches
into the distance.
33:8 As in Dead Sea Scrolls; Masoretic Text reads care nothing
for the cities. 34:2 The Hebrew term used here refers to the
complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either
by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; similarly
in 34:5.
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You 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?”
You will no longer see these fierce, violent
people
with their strange, unknown language.
Instead, 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.
The 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.
For the Lord is our judge,
our lawgiver, and our king.
He will care for us and save us.
The 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!
The people of Israel will no longer say,
“We are sick and helpless,”
for the Lord will forgive their sins.
A Message for the Nations
1 Come here and listen, O nations of
the earth.
Let the world and everything in it hear
my words.
2 For the Lord is enraged against the nations.
His fury is against all their armies.
He will completely destroy* them,
dooming them to slaughter.
3 Their dead will be left unburied,
and the stench of rotting bodies will fill
the land.
The mountains will flow with their blood.
4 The 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.
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And when my sword has finished its work
in the heavens,
it will fall upon Edom,
the nation I have marked for destruction.
The 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.