Isaiah 17-19

English Standard Version

An Oracle Concerning Damascus

17 An ^(A)oracle concerning ^(B)Damascus.

Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city
    and will become a heap of ruins.
²The cities of ^(C)Aroer are deserted;
    they will be for flocks,
    which will lie down, and ^(D)none will make them afraid.
³The fortress will disappear from ^(E)Ephraim,
    and the kingdom from ^(F)Damascus;
and the remnant of Syria will be
    like ^(G)the glory of the children of Israel,
declares the Lord of hosts.

⁴And in that day ^(H)the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
    and ^(I)the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
⁵And it shall be ^(J)as when the reaper gathers standing grain
    and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
    in ^(K)the Valley of Rephaim.
⁶^(L)Gleanings will be left in it,
    as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
    in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
    on the branches of a fruit tree,
declares the Lord God of Israel.

⁷^(M)In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. ⁸^(N)He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the ^(O)Asherim or the altars of incense.

⁹^(P)In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

¹⁰For ^(Q)you have forgotten the God of your salvation
    and have not remembered the ^(R)Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
    and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
¹¹though you make them grow^[a] on the day that you plant them,
    and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away^[b]
    in a day of grief and incurable pain.

¹²Ah, ^(S)the thunder of many peoples;
    they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
Ah, the roar of nations;
    they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
¹³^(T)The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
    ^(U)but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased ^(V)like chaff on the mountains before the wind
    and ^(W)whirling dust before the storm.
¹⁴^(X)At evening time, behold, terror!
    Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
    and the lot of those who plunder us.

An Oracle Concerning Cush

18 Ah, land of ^(Y)whirring wings
    that is beyond the rivers of ^(Z)Cush,^[c]
²which ^(AA)sends ambassadors by the sea,
    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
    to a nation ^(AB)tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
    a nation ^(AC)mighty and conquering,
    whose land the rivers divide.

³All you inhabitants of the world,
    you who dwell on the earth,
when ^(AD)a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
    When a trumpet is blown, hear!
⁴For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look ^(AE)from my dwelling
    like clear heat in sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵^(AF)For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,
    and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.
⁶^(AG)They shall all of them be left
    to the birds of prey of the mountains
    and to the beasts of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
    and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

⁷^(AH)At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of hosts

from a people ^(AI)tall and smooth,
from a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide,

to ^(AJ)Mount Zion, the place of the ^(AK)name of the Lord of hosts.

An Oracle Concerning Egypt

19 An ^(AL)oracle concerning ^(AM)Egypt.

Behold, the Lord ^(AN)is riding on a swift cloud
    and comes to Egypt;
and ^(AO)the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
    and the heart of the Egyptians will ^(AP)melt within them.
²And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
    ^(AQ)and they will fight, each against another
    and each against his neighbor,
    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
³and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
    and I will confound^[d] their ^(AR)counsel;
and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,
    and ^(AS)the mediums and the necromancers;
⁴and I will give over the Egyptians
    into the hand of ^(AT)a hard master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,
    declares the Lord God of hosts.

⁵And the waters of the sea will be dried up,
    and the river will be dry and parched,
⁶and its canals will become foul,
    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,
    reeds and rushes will rot away.
⁷There will be bare places by the Nile,
    on the brink of the Nile,
and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,
    will be driven away, and will be no more.
⁸The ^(AU)fishermen will mourn and lament,
    all who cast a hook in the Nile;
and they will languish
    who spread nets on the water.
⁹The workers in ^(AV)combed flax will be in despair,
    and the weavers of white cotton.
¹⁰Those who are the ^(AW)pillars of the land will be crushed,
    and all who ^(AX)work for pay will be grieved.

¹¹The princes of ^(AY)Zoan are utterly foolish;
    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
    “I am a son of the wise,
    a son of ancient kings”?
¹²Where then are your ^(AZ)wise men?
    Let them tell you
    that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
¹³The princes of ^(BA)Zoan have become fools,
    and the princes of ^(BB)Memphis are deluded;
those who are the ^(BC)cornerstones of her tribes
    have made Egypt stagger.
¹⁴The Lord has mingled within her ^(BD)a spirit of confusion,
and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,
    ^(BE)as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵And there will be nothing for Egypt
    that ^(BF)head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.

Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will be ^(BG)like women, and ^(BH)tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts shakes over them. ¹⁷And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of hosts has purposed against them.

¹⁸^(BI)In that day there will be ^(BJ)five cities in the land of Egypt that ^(BK)speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.^[e]

¹⁹In that day there will be an ^(BL)altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a ^(BM)pillar to the Lord at its border. ²⁰^(BN)It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, ^(BO)he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. ²¹^(BP)And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day ^(BQ)and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. ²²^(BR)And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.

²³^(BS)In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, ^(BT)and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, ^(BU)a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt ^(BV)my people, and Assyria ^(BW)the work of my hands, and ^(BX)Israel my inheritance.”

Footnotes

Isaiah 17:11 Or though you carefully fence them
Isaiah 17:11 Or will be a heap
Isaiah 18:1 Probably Nubia
Isaiah 19:3 Or I will swallow up
Isaiah 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun

Ephesians 4

English Standard Version

Unity in the Body of Christ

4 I therefore, ^(A)a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to ^(B)walk in a manner worthy of ^(C)the calling to which you have been called, ²with all ^(D)humility and ^(E)gentleness, with ^(F)patience, ^(G)bearing with one another in love, ³eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in ^(H)the bond of peace. ⁴There is ^(I)one body and ^(J)one Spirit—just as you were called to the one ^(K)hope that belongs to your call— ⁵^(L)one Lord, ^(M)one faith, ^(N)one baptism, ⁶^(O)one God and Father of all, ^(P)who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷But ^(Q)grace was given ^(R)to each one of us ^(S)according to the measure of Christ's gift. ⁸Therefore it says,

^(T)“When he ascended on high ^(U)he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”^[a]

⁹(^(V)In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into ^(W)the lower regions, the earth?^[b] ¹⁰He who descended is the one who also ^(X)ascended ^(Y)far above all the heavens, that he might ^(Z)fill all things.) ¹¹And ^(AA)he gave the ^(AB)apostles, the prophets, the ^(AC)evangelists, the ^(AD)shepherds^[c] and teachers,^[d] ¹²^(AE)to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for ^(AF)building up ^(AG)the body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain to ^(AH)the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, ^(AI)to mature manhood,^[e] to the measure of the stature of ^(AJ)the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴so that we may no longer be children, ^(AK)tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in ^(AL)deceitful schemes. ¹⁵Rather, ^(AM)speaking the truth in love, we are to ^(AN)grow up in every way into him who is ^(AO)the head, into Christ, ¹⁶^(AP)from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, ^(AQ)when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The New Life

¹⁷Now this I say and ^(AR)testify in the Lord, ^(AS)that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, ^(AT)in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They ^(AU)are darkened in their understanding, ^(AV)alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to ^(AW)their hardness of heart. ¹⁹They ^(AX)have become callous and ^(AY)have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰But that is not the way you ^(AZ)learned Christ!— ²¹assuming that ^(BA)you have heard about him and ^(BB)were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²²to ^(BC)put off ^(BD)your old self,^[f] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through ^(BE)deceitful desires, ²³and ^(BF)to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to put on ^(BG)the new self, ^(BH)created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you ^(BI)speak the truth with his neighbor, for ^(BJ)we are members one of another. ²⁶^(BK)Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and ^(BL)give no opportunity to the devil. ²⁸Let the thief no longer steal, but rather ^(BM)let him labor, ^(BN)doing honest work with his own hands, so ^(BO)that he may have something to share with anyone in need. ²⁹^(BP)Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give ^(BQ)grace to those who hear. ³⁰And ^(BR)do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, ^(BS)by whom you were sealed for the day of ^(BT)redemption. ³¹^(BU)Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³²^(BV)Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, ^(BW)forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.