4 All the stars in the sky will rot.
The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll.
The stars will fall like leaves from a grapevine, like green figs from a fig tree.
5 When my sword is covered with blood in the heavens, it will fall on Edom and on the people I've claimed for destruction.
6 Yahweh's sword is covered with blood.
It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of rams' kidneys.
Yahweh will receive a sacrifice in Bozrah, a huge slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will be killed with them, young bulls along with rams.
Their land will be drenched with blood.
Their dust will be covered with fat.
8 Yahweh will have a day of vengeance, a year of revenge in defense of Zion.
9 Edom's streams will be turned to tar.
Its soil will be turned to burning sulfur.
Its land will become blazing tar.
10 They will not be extinguished day or night, and smoke will always go up from them.
Edom will lie in ruins for generations.
No one will ever travel through it.
11 Pelicans and herons will take possession of the land.
Owls and crows will live there.
He will stretch the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of destruction over it.
12 There are no nobles to rule a kingdom.
All of its princes have disappeared.
13 Its palaces are covered with thorns.
Its fortresses have nettles and thistles.
It will become a home for jackals and a place for ostriches.
14 Hyenas will meet with jackals.
Male goats will call to their mates.
Screech owls will rest there and find a resting place for themselves.
15 Owls will make their nests there, lay eggs, and hatch them.
They will gather their young in the shadow of their wings.
Vultures also will gather there, each one with its mate.
16 Search Yahweh's book, and read it.
Not one of these animals will be missing.
Not one will lack a mate, because Yahweh has commanded it, and his Ruach will gather them together.
17 He is the one who throws dice for them, and his hand divides up the land for them with a measuring line.
They will possess it permanently and live there for generations.
The LORD'S People Will Have Joy 35 1 The desert and the dry land will be glad, and the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
2 Like a lily the land will blossom.
It will rejoice and sing with joy.
It will have the glory of Lebanon, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
Everyone will see the glory of Yahweh, the majesty of our Elohim.
3 Strengthen limp hands.
Steady weak knees.
4 Tell those who are terrified, "Be brave; don't be afraid.
Your Elohim will come with vengeance, with divine revenge.
He will come and rescue you."
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.
6 Then those who are lame will leap like deer, and those who cannot speak will shout for joy.
Water will gush out into the desert, and streams will gush out into the wilderness.
7 Then the hot sand will become a pool, and dry ground will have springs.
Grass will become cattails and rushes in the home of jackals.
8 A highway will be there, a roadway.
It will be called the Holy Road.
Sinners won't travel on it.
It will be for those who walk on it.
Godless fools won't wander onto it.
9 Lions won't be there.
Wild animals won't go on it.
They won't be found there.
But the people reclaimed by the LORD will walk on it.
10 The people ransomed by Yahweh will return.
They will come to Zion singing with joy.
Everlasting happiness will be on their heads as a crown.
They will be glad and joyful.
They will have no sorrow or grief.
The LORD Rescues Judah from the Assyrians-2 Kings 18:13-19:19 36 1 In Hezekiah's fourteenth year as king, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the channel for the Upper Pool on the road to Laundryman's Field.
3 Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went out to the field commander. 4 The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What makes you so confident? 5 You give useless advice about getting ready for war. Whom, then, do you trust for support in your rebellion against me? 6 Look! When you trust Egypt, you're trusting a broken stick for a staff. If you lean on it, it stabs your hand and goes through it. This is what Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) is like for everyone who trusts him. 7 Suppose you tell me, "We're trusting Yahweh our Elohim ." He's the god whose places of worship and altars Hezekiah got rid of. Hezekiah told Judah and Jerusalem, "Worship at this altar."'
8 "Now, make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I'll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them. 9 How can you defeat my master's lowest ranking officers when you trust Egypt for chariots and horses?
10 "Have I come to destroy this country without Yahweh on my side? Yahweh said to me, Attack this country, and destroy it.'"
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, "Speak to us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in the Judean language as long as there are people on the wall listening."
12 But the field commander asked, "Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn't he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?"
13 Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in the Judean language, "Listen to the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 This is what the king says: Don't let Hezekiah deceive you. He can't rescue you. 15 Don't let Hezekiah get you to trust Yahweh by saying, 'Yahweh will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.' 16 Don't listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out, and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern. 17 Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It's a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards. 18 Don't let Hezekiah mislead you by saying to you, 'Yahweh will rescue us.' Did any of the gods of the nations rescue their countries from the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my control? 20 Did the gods of these countries rescue them from my control? Could Yahweh then rescue Jerusalem from my control?"
21 They were silent and didn't say anything to him because the king commanded them not to answer him.
22 Then Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief. They told him the message from the field commander.
37 1 When King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes in grief, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh's temple. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the leaders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day filled with misery, punishment, and disgrace. We are like a woman who is about to give birth but doesn't have the strength to do it. 4 Yahweh your Elohim may have heard the words of the field commander. His master, the king of Assyria, sent him to defy Elohim Chay . Yahweh your Elohim may punish him because of the message that Yahweh your Elohim heard. Pray for the few people who are left."
5 So King Hezekiah's men went to Isaiah. 6 Isaiah answered them, "Say this to your master, 'This is what Yahweh says: Don't be afraid of the message that you heard when the Assyrian king's assistants slandered me. 7 I'm going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own country. I'll have him assassinated in his own country.'"
8 The field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. He had heard that the king left Lachish. 9 Now, Sennacherib heard that King Tirhakah of Sudan was coming to fight him.
When he heard this, he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 "Tell King Hezekiah of Judah, 'Don't let the god whom you trust deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria. "You heard what the kings of Assyria did to all countries, how they totally destroyed them. Will you be rescued? 12 Did the gods of the nations which my ancestors destroyed rescue Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?'"
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, and went to Yahweh's temple. He spread it out in front of Yahweh 15 and prayed to Yahweh, 16 "Yahweh Tsebaoth , Elohim of Israel, you are enthroned over the angels.a You alone are Elohim of the kingdoms of the world. You made heaven and earth. 17 Turn your ear toward me, Yahweh, and listen. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and see. Listen to the entire message that Sennacherib sent to defy Elohim Chay . 18 It is true, Yahweh, that the kings of Assyria have leveled every country.a 19 They have thrown the gods from these countries into fires because these gods aren't real gods. They're only wooden and stone statues made by human hands. So the Assyrians have destroyed them. 20 Now, Yahweh our Elohim , rescue us from Assyria's control so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you alone are Yahweh."
Isaiah's Prophecy against King Sennacherib of Assyria-2 Kings 19:20-37 21 Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent a message to Hezekiah, "This is what Yahweh Elohim of Israel says: You prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria. 22 This is the message that Yahweh speaks to him, 'My dear people in Zion despise you and laugh at you.
My people in Jerusalem shake their heads behind your back.
23 Whom are you defying and slandering?
Against whom are you shouting?
Who are you looking at so arrogantly?
It is Qedosh Yisrael !
24 Through your servants you defy Adonay and say, "With my many chariots I'll ride up the high mountains, up the slopes of Lebanon.
I'll cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypresses.
I'll come to its most distant heights and its most fertile forests.
25 I'll dig wells and drink water.
I'll dry up all the streams of Egypt with the trampling of my feet."
26 "'Haven't you heard? I did this long ago.
I planned it in the distant past.
Now I make it happen so that you will turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.
27 Those who live in these cities are weak, discouraged, and ashamed.
They will be like plants in the field, like fresh, green grass on the roofs, dried up by the east wind.
28 I know when you get up and sit down, when you go out and come in, and how you rage against me.
29 Since you rage against me and your boasting has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your mouth.
I will make you go back the way you came.
30 " 'And this will be a sign for you, Hezekiah: You will eat what grows by itself this year, and the next year you will eat what comes up by itself. But in the third year you will plant and harvest, plant vineyards, and eat what is produced. 31 Those few people from the nation of Judah who escape will again take root and produce crops. 32 Those few people will go out from Jerusalem, and those who escape will go out from Mount Zion. Yahweh Tsebaoth is determined to do this.'