Study Desk

"My hand has found the wealth of the people like a nest, And as one gathers eggs that are abandoned, so I have gathered all the earth; And there was not one that flapped its wing, or that opened its beak and chirped."

And the remaining trees of Assyria's forest will be so few in number That a child could write them down.

So it will be in that day, that the burden of the Assyrian will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because of the fat.

Lift up a signal banner on the bare mountain, Summon them [the Medes and Persians] with a loud voice, Wave the [beckoning] hand so that they may enter the doorways of the [Babylonian] nobles.

The LORD of hosts has sworn [an oath], saying, "Just as I have intended, so it has certainly happened, and just as I have planned, so it will stand—

So it will come to pass when Moab presents himself, When he wearies himself [worshiping] on his high place [of idolatry] And comes to his sanctuary [of Chemosh, god of Moab] to pray, That he will not prevail.

"So I will provoke Egyptians against Egyptians; And they will fight, each one against his brother and each one against his neighbor, City against city, kingdom against kingdom.

"Then the spirit of the Egyptians will become exhausted within them and emptied out; And I will confuse their strategy, So that they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, And mediums and soothsayers.

And so the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know [heed, honor, and cherish] the LORD in that day. They will even worship with sacrifices [of animals] and offerings [of produce]; they will make a vow to the LORD and fulfill it.

The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing it; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and heal them.

at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, untie the sackcloth from your hips and take your sandals off your feet." And he did so, walking around stripped [to his loincloth] and barefoot.

"So the inhabitants of this coastland [the Israelites and their neighbors] will say in that day, 'Look what has happened to those in whom we hoped and trusted and to whom we fled for help to be spared from the king of Assyria! But we, how will we escape [captivity and exile]?'"

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the Desert of the Sea (the seasonally flooded plains just south of Babylon): As windstorms in the Negev (the South) sweep through, So it (God's judgment) comes from the desert, from [the hostile armies of] a terrifying land.

Therefore [continues Isaiah] my loins are filled with anguish; Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in childbirth; I am so bent and bewildered that I cannot hear, I am so terrified that I cannot see.

"So they will hang on him all the honor and glory [the complete responsibility] of his father's house, offspring and issue [of the family, high and low], all the least of the articles, from the bowls to all the jars.

The city of chaos is broken down; Every house is shut up so that no one may enter.

For so it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, As the shaking of an olive tree, As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over [and only a little of the fruit remains].

So it will happen in that day That the LORD will visit and punish the host (fallen angels) of heaven on high, And the kings of the earth on the earth.

As a woman with child approaches the time to give birth, She is in pain and struggles and cries out in her labor, So we were before You, O LORD.

"I, the LORD, am its Keeper; I water it every moment. So that no one will harm it, I guard it night and day.