Catholic Evangelization Training Center
Training in the NEW Evangelization
Isaiah Chapter 16-19
1 They have sent lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 Like fluttering birds, like scattered nestlings, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.
3 "Give counsel, grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; hide the outcasts, betray not the fugitive;
4 let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a refuge to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples under foot has vanished from the land,
5 then a throne will be established in steadfast love and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness."
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab, how proud he was; of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence -- his boasts are false.
7 Therefore let Moab wail, let every one wail for Moab. Mourn, utterly stricken, for the raisin-cakes of Kir-har'eseth.
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have struck down its branches, which reached to Jazer and strayed to the desert; its shoots spread abroad and passed over the sea.
9 Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Ele-a'leh; for upon your fruit and your harvest the battle shout has fallen.
10 And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field; and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no shouts are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; the vintage shout is hushed.
11 Therefore my soul moans like a lyre for Moab, and my heart for Kir-he'res.
12 And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.
13 This is the word which the LORD spoke concerning Moab in the past.
14 But now the LORD says, "In three years, like the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who survive will be very few and feeble."
1 An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of ruins.
2 Her cities will be deserted for ever; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.
3 The fortress will disappear from E'phraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of hosts.
4 And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
5 And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Reph'aim.
6 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, says the LORD God of Israel.
7 In that day men will regard their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel;
8 they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the Ashe'rim or the altars of incense.
9 In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god,
11 though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow; yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.
12 Ah, 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 The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.
14 At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who despoil us, and the lot of those who plunder us.
1 Ah, land of whirring wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
2 which sends ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide.
3 All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear!
4 For thus the LORD said to me: "I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks, and the spreading branches he will hew away.
6 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 upon them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them.
7 At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts.
1 An oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
2 And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, every man against his brother and every man against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
3 and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their plans; and they will consult the idols and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the wizards;
4 and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master; and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry;
6 and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away.
7 There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets upon the water.
9 The workers in combed flax will be in despair, and the weavers of white cotton.
10 Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed, and all who work for hire will be grieved.
11 The princes of Zo'an are utterly foolish; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?
12 Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you and make known what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zo'an have become fools, and the princes of Memphis are deluded; those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have led Egypt astray.
14 The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion; and they have made Egypt stagger in all her doings as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 And there will be nothing for Egypt which head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.
16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand which the LORD of hosts shakes over them.
17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians; every one to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose which the LORD of hosts has purposed against them.
18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.
19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.
20 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 he will send them a savior, and will defend and deliver them.
21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and burnt offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them.
22 And the LORD will smite Egypt, smiting and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will heed their supplications and heal them.
23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,
25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage."