JULY1

Isaiah Prophesies Against Nations

Under Ahaz, Judah has become a vassal to Assyria, paying tribute and doing in effect whatever Assyria demands. Dependence upon Assyria . has become necessary because Judah is once again vulnerable to the Edomites and Philistines. Although Isaiah knows that invasions by foreign nations are part of God's plan for punishing Judah, he is also aware that these nations are acting from their own wicked motivations, and that God will ultimately bring about their destruction as well. Therefore Isaiah pronounces God's judgment against several nations at this and later times. Here are some of those pronouncements.

WRATH AGAINST NATIONS. Isa, 34:1-4

Come near, you nations, and listen;

pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,

the world, and all that comes out of it! The lord is angry with all nations;

his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them,

he will give them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out,

their dead bodies will send up a stench;

the mountains will be soaked with their All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved

and the sky rolled up tike a scroll; all the starry host will fall

like withered leaves from the vine,

like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

JUDGMENT AGAINST ASSYRIA. Isa14:24-27

The lord Almighty sworn,

"Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, " and as I have purposed, so it will stand.

I will crush the Assyrian in my land;

on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people,

and his burden removed from their shoulders."

This is the plan determined for the whole world;

this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?

His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

JUDGMENT AGAINST MOAB. Isa. 15:1-9

An oracle concerning Moab:

Ar in Moab is ruined,

destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is ruined,

destroyed in a night! Dibon goes up to its temple,

to its high places to weep;

Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved

and every beard cut off. In the streets they wear sackcloth;

on the roofs and in the public squares they all wail,

prostrate with weeping. Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,

their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,

and their hearts are faint.

My heart cries out over Moab;

her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,

as far as Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the way to Luhith,

weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim

they lament their destruction. The waters of Nimrim are dried up

and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone

and nothing green is left. So the wealth they have acquired and stored up

they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars. Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;

their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,

their lamentation as far as Beer Elim. Dimon's' waters are full of blood,

but I will bring still more upon Dimon'— a lion upon the fugitives of Moab

and upon those who remain in the land.

isa. 16:1-5

Send lambs as tribute

to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the desert,

to the mount of the Daughter of Zion. Like fluttering birds

pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab

at the fords of the Arnon.

"Give us counsel,

render a decision. Make your shadow like night—

at high noon. Hide the fugitives,

do not betray the refugees. Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;

be their shelter from the destroyer."

The oppressor will come to an end,

and destruction will cease;

the aggressor will vanish from the land. In love a throne will be established;

in faithfulness a man will sit on it—

one from the house"¹ of David— one who in judging seeks justice

and speeds the cause of righteousness.

isa. 16:6-14

We have heard of Moab's pride—

her overweening pride and conceit, her pride and her insolence—

but her boasts are empty. Therefore the Moabites wail,

they wail together for Moab. Lament and grieve

for the men" of Kir Hareseth. The fields of Heshbon wither,

the vines of Sibmah also. The rulers of the nations

have trampled down the choicest vines, which once reached Jazer

and spread toward the desert. Their shoots spread out

and went as far as the sea. So I weep, as Jazer weeps,

for the vines of Sibmah. O Heshbon, O Elealeh,

I drench you with tears! The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit

and over your harvests have been stilled. Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;

no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;

no one treads out wine at the presses,

for I have put an end to the shouting. My heart laments for Moab like a harp,

my inmost being for Kir Hareseth. When Moab appears at her high place,

she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray,

it is to no avail.

This is the word the lord has already spoken concerning Moab. But now the lord says: "Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab's splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble."

isa. I7:1-14

JUDGMENT AGAINST DAMASCUS. An oracle concerning Damascus:

"See, Damascus will no longer be a city

but will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer will be deserted

and left to flocks, which will lie down,

with no one to make them afraid. The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,

and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be

like the glory of the Israelites,"

declares the lord Almighty.

"In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;

the fat of his body will waste away. It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain

and harvests the grain with his arm— as when a man gleans heads of grain

in the Valley of Rephaim. Yet some gleanings will remain,

as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,

four or five on the fruitful boughs,"

declares the lord, the God of Israel.

In that day men will look to their Maker

and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands,

and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.

In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

You have forgotten God your Savior;

you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants

and plant imported vines,

"That is, symbols of the goddess Asherah

though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,

yet the harvest will be as nothing

in the day of disease and incurable pain.

Oh, the raging of many nations—

they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples—

they roar like the roaring of great waters! Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,

when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,

like tumbleweed before a gale. In the evening, sudden terror!

Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us,

the lot of those who plunder us.