Study Desk

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.

"Then I will set on his shoulder the key of the house of David; When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open.

"I will drive him like a peg in a firm place, And he will become a throne of honor and glory to his father's house.

"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.

He has stretched out His hand over the sea, He has shaken the kingdoms; The LORD has given a command concerning Canaan to destroy her strongholds and her fortresses [like Tyre and Sidon].

And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor [as God's impartial judgment of sin comes on all].

Therefore honor and glorify the LORD in the east [in the region of light], The name of the LORD, the God of Israel [honor His name], In the coastlands and islands of the [Mediterranean] Sea.

Then the full moon will be embarrassed and the sun ashamed, For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory and brilliance will shine before His elders.

For You have been a stronghold for the helpless, A stronghold for the poor in his distress, A shelter from the storm, a shade from the heat; For the breath of tyrants Is like a rainstorm against a wall.

On this mountain [Zion] the LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples [to welcome His reign on earth], A banquet of aged wines—choice pieces [flavored] with marrow, Of refined, aged wines.

He will swallow up death [and abolish it] for all time. And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, And He will take away the disgrace of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken.

It will be said in that day, "Indeed, this is our God for whom we have waited that He would save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us shout for joy and rejoice in His salvation."

For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain [Zion], And Moab will be trampled down in his place As straw is trampled down in the [filthy] water of a manure pile.

And Moab will spread out his hands in the middle of the filth As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim, But the Lord will humiliate his pride in spite of the [skillful] movements of his hands.

Listen carefully, the LORD is about to come out of His [heavenly] place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing]; The earth will reveal the [innocent] blood shed upon her And will no longer cover her slain.

In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent With His fierce and great and mighty sword [rescuing Israel from her enemy], Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

Like the striking by Him who has struck them, has He struck them? Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?

You contended with them by exile, by driving them away [from Canaan]; He has expelled them with His fierce wind on the day of the east wind.

Therefore through this the wickedness [the sin, the injustice, the wrongdoing] of Jacob (Israel) will be atoned for and forgiven; And this will be the full price [that God requires] for taking away his sin: When Israel makes all the stones of the [pagan] altars like crushed chalk stones; When the Asherim and the incense altars will not stand.

In that day the LORD will thresh [out His grain] from the flowing stream of the River [Euphrates] to the Brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel.