Reading for August  Isaiah 11:1 — Jeremiah 43:13

August 1

Isaiah 11:1 — 14:32

11 And there must go forth a twig out of the stump of Jesse; and out of his roots a sprout will be fruitful. 2 And upon him the spirit of Jehovah must settle down, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of mightiness, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah; 3 and there will be enjoyment by him in the fear of Jehovah.

And he will not judge by any mere appearance to his eyes, nor reprove simply according to the thing heard by his ears. 4 And with righteousness he must judge the lowly ones, and with uprightness he must give reproof in behalf of the meek ones of the earth. And he must strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the spirit of his lips he will put the wicked one to death. 5 And righteousness must prove to be the belt of his hips, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

6 And the wolf will actually reside for a while with the male lamb, and with the kid the leopard itself will lie down, and the calf and the maned young lion and the well-fed animal all together; and a mere little boy will be leader over them. 7 And the cow and the bear themselves will feed; together their young ones will lie down. And even the lion will eat straw just like the bull. 8 And the sucking child will certainly play upon the hole of the cobra; and upon the light aperture of a poisonous snake will a weaned child actually put his own hand. 9 They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea.

10 And it must occur in that day that there will be the root of Jesse that will be standing up as a signal for the peoples. To him even the nations will turn inquiringly, and his resting-place must become glorious.

11 And it must occur in that day that Jehovah will again offer his hand, a second time, to acquire the remnant of his people who will remain over from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. 12 And he will certainly raise up a signal for the nations and gather the dispersed ones of Israel; and the scattered ones of Judah he will collect together from the four extremities of the earth.

13 And the jealousy of Ephraim must depart, and even those showing hostility to Judah will be cut off. Ephraim itself will not be jealous of Judah, nor will Judah show hostility toward Ephraim. 14 And they must fly at the shoulder of the Philistines to the west; together they will plunder the sons of the East. Edom and Moab will be those upon whom they will thrust out their hand, and the sons of Ammon will be their subjects. 15 And Jehovah will certainly cut off the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and wave his hand at the River in the glow of his spirit. And he must strike it in [its] seven torrents, and he will actually cause people to walk in [their] sandals. 16 And there must come to be a highway out of Assyria for the remnant of his people who will remain over, just as there came to be [one] for Israel in the day of his coming up out of the land of Egypt.

12 And in that day you will be sure to say: “I shall thank you, O Jehovah, for [although] you got incensed at me, your anger gradually turned back, and you proceeded to comfort me. 2 Look! God is my salvation. I shall trust and be in no dread; for Jah Jehovah is my strength and [my] might, and he came to be the salvation of me.”

3 With exultation YOU people will be certain to draw water out of the springs of salvation. 4 And in that day YOU will certainly say: “Give thanks to Jehovah, YOU people! Call upon his name. Make known among the peoples his dealings. Make mention that his name is put on high. 5 Make melody to Jehovah, for he has done surpassingly. This is made known in all the earth.

6 “Cry out shrilly and shout for joy, O you inhabitress of Zion, for great in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.”

13 The pronouncement against Babylon that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw in vision: 2 “Upon a mountain of bare rocks raise up a signal, YOU men. Lift up the voice to them, wave the hand, that they may come into the entrances of the nobles. 3 I myself have issued the command to my sanctified ones. I have also called my mighty ones for [expressing] my anger, my eminently exultant ones. 4 Listen! A crowd in the mountains, something like a numerous people! Listen! The uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathered together! Jehovah of armies is mustering the army of war. 5 They are coming from the land far away, from the extremity of the heavens, Jehovah and the weapons of his denunciation, to wreck all the earth.

6 “Howl, YOU people, for the day of Jehovah is near! As a despoiling from the Almighty it will come. 7 That is why all hands themselves will drop down, and the whole heart itself of mortal man will melt. 8 And people have become disturbed. Convulsions and birth pains themselves grab hold; like a woman that is giving birth they have labor pains. They look at each other in amazement. Their faces are inflamed faces.

9 “Look! The day of Jehovah itself is coming, cruel both with fury and with burning anger, in order to make the land an object of astonishment, and that it may annihilate [the land’s] sinners out of it. 10 For the very stars of the heavens and their constellations of Kesil will not flash forth their light; the sun will actually grow dark at its going forth, and the moon itself will not cause its light to shine. 11 And I shall certainly bring home [its own] badness upon the productive land, and their own error upon the wicked themselves. And I shall actually cause the pride of the presumptuous ones to cease, and the haughtiness of the tyrants I shall abase. 12 I shall make mortal man rarer than refined gold, and earthling man [rarer] than the gold of Ophir. 13 That is why I shall cause heaven itself to become agitated, and the earth will rock out of its place at the fury of Jehovah of armies and at the day of his burning anger. 14 And it must occur that, like a gazelle chased away and like a flock without anyone to collect them together, they will turn, each one to his own people; and they will flee, each one to his own land. 15 Every one that is found will be pierced through, and every one that is caught in the sweep will fall by the sword; 16 and their very children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be pillaged, and their own wives will be raped.

17 “Here I am arousing against them the Medes, who account silver itself as nothing and who, as respects gold, take no delight in it. 18 And [their] bows will dash even young men to pieces. And the fruitage of the belly they will not pity; for sons their eye will not feel sorry. 19 And Babylon, the decoration of kingdoms, the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans, must become as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 She will never be inhabited, nor will she reside for generation after generation. And there the Arab will not pitch his tent, and no shepherds will let [their flocks] lie down there. 21 And there the haunters of waterless regions will certainly lie down, and their houses must be filled with eagle owls. And there the ostriches must reside, and goat-shaped demons themselves will go skipping about there. 22 And jackals must howl in her dwelling towers, and the big snake will be in the palaces of exquisite delight. And the season for her is near to come, and her days themselves will not be postponed.”

14 For Jehovah will show mercy to Jacob, and he is yet certain to choose Israel; and he will actually give them rest upon their soil, and the alien resident must be joined to them, and they must attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And peoples will actually take them and bring them to their own place, and the house of Israel must take them to themselves as a possession upon the soil of Jehovah as menservants and as maidservants; and they must become the captors of those holding them captive, and they must have in subjection those who were driving them to work.

3 And it must occur in the day when Jehovah gives you rest from your pain and from your agitation and from the hard slavery in which you were made a slave, 4 that you must raise up this proverbial saying against the king of Babylon and say:

“How has the one driving [others] to work come to a stop, the oppression come to a stop! 5 Jehovah has broken the rod of the wicked ones, the staff of the ruling ones, 6 the one striking peoples in fury with a stroke incessantly, the one subduing nations in sheer anger with a persecution without restraint. 7 The whole earth has come to rest, has become free of disturbance. People have become cheerful with joyful cries. 8 Even the juniper trees have also rejoiced at you, the cedars of Lebanon, [saying,] ‘Ever since you have lain down, no [wood]cutter comes up against us.’

9 “Even Sheol underneath has become agitated at you in order to meet you on coming in. At you it has awakened those impotent in death, all the goatlike leaders of the earth. It has made all the kings of the nations get up from their thrones. 10 All of them speak up and say to you, ‘Have you yourself also been made weak like us? Is it to us that you have been made comparable? 11 Down to Sheol your pride has been brought, the din of your stringed instruments. Beneath you, maggots are spread out as a couch; and worms are your covering.’

12 “O how you have fallen from heaven, you shining one, son of the dawn! How you have been cut down to the earth, you who were disabling the nations! 13 As for you, you have said in your heart, ‘To the heavens I shall go up. Above the stars of God I shall lift up my throne, and I shall sit down upon the mountain of meeting, in the remotest parts of the north. 14 I shall go up above the high places of the clouds; I shall make myself resemble the Most High.’

15 “However, down to Sheol you will be brought, to the remotest parts of the pit. 16 Those seeing you will gaze even at you; they will give close examination even to you, [saying,] ‘Is this the man that was agitating the earth, that was making kingdoms rock, 17 that made the productive land like the wilderness and that overthrew its very cities, that did not open the way homeward even for his prisoners?’ 18 All other kings of the nations, yes, all of them, have lain down in glory, each one in his own house. 19 But as for you, you have been thrown away without a burial place for you, like a detested sprout, clothed with killed men stabbed with the sword that are going down to the stones of a pit, like a carcass trodden down. 20 You will not become united with them in a grave, because you brought your own land to ruin, you killed your own people. To time indefinite the offspring of evildoers will not be named.

21 “Make ready, YOU men, a slaughtering block for his own sons because of the error of their forefathers, that they may not rise up and actually take possession of the earth and fill the face of the productive land with cities.”

22 “And I will rise up against them,” is the utterance of Jehovah of armies.

“And I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant and progeny and posterity,” is the utterance of Jehovah.

23 “And I will make her a possession of porcupines and reedy pools of water, and I will sweep her with the broom of annihilation,” is the utterance of Jehovah of armies.

24 Jehovah of armies has sworn, saying: “Surely just as I have figured, so it must occur; and just as I have counseled, that is what will come true, 25 in order to break the Assyrian in my land and that I may tread him down on my own mountains; and that his yoke may actually depart from upon them and that his very load may depart from upon their shoulder.”

26 This is the counsel that is counseled against all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. 27 For Jehovah of armies himself has counseled, and who can break [it] up? And his hand is the one stretched out, and who can turn it back?

28 In the year that King Ahaz died this pronouncement occurred: 29 “Do not rejoice, O Philistia, any one of you, just because the staff of the one striking you has been broken. For out of the root of the serpent there will come forth a poisonous snake, and its fruit will be a flying fiery snake. 30 And the firstborn ones of the lowly ones will certainly feed, and in security the poor ones themselves will lie down. And with famine I will put your root to death, and what remains over of you will be killed. 31 Howl, O gate! Cry out, O city! All of you must become disheartened, O Philistia! For out of the north a smoke is coming, and there is no one getting isolated from his ranks.”

32 And what will anyone say in answer to the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah himself has laid the foundation of Zion, and in her the afflicted ones of his people will take refuge.