Through My Bible Yr 1 – December 23

Through My Bible – December 23

Bible reading based on Isaiah 22:15-23:18 (NIV84)

See series: Through My Bible

 ¹⁵ This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says:
“Go, say to this steward,
to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace:

¹⁶ What are you doing here and who gave you permission
to cut out a grave for yourself here,
hewing your grave on the height
and chiseling your resting place in the rock?

¹⁷ “Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you
and hurl you away, O you mighty man.

¹⁸ He will roll you up tightly like a ball
and throw you into a large country.
There you will die
and there your splendid chariots will remain—
you disgrace to your master’s house!

¹⁹ I will depose you from your office,
and you will be ousted from your position.

²⁰ “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. ²¹ I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²² I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. ²³ I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat ^[a] of honor for the house of his father. ²⁴All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.

²⁵“In that day,” declares the LORD Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The LORD has spoken.

Isaiah 23

A Prophecy About Tyre

¹ An oracle concerning Tyre:
Wail, O ships of Tarshish!
For Tyre is destroyed
and left without house or harbor.
From the land of Cyprus ^[b]
word has come to them.

² Be silent, you people of the island
and you merchants of Sidon,
whom the seafarers have enriched.

³ On the great waters
came the grain of the Shihor;
the harvest of the Nile ^[c] was the revenue of Tyre,
and she became the marketplace of the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea,
for the sea has spoken:
“I have neither been in labor nor given birth;
I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

⁵ When word comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, you people of the island.

⁷ Is this your city of revelry,
the old, old city,
whose feet have taken her
to settle in far-off lands?

⁸ Who planned this against Tyre,
the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants are princes,
whose traders are renowned in the earth?

⁹ The LORD Almighty planned it,
to bring low the pride of all glory
and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

¹⁰ Till ^[d] your land as along the Nile,
O Daughter of Tarshish,
for you no longer have a harbor.

¹¹ The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea
and made its kingdoms tremble.
He has given an order concerning Phoenicia ^[e]
that her fortresses be destroyed.

¹² He said, “No more of your reveling,
O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed!
“Up, cross over to Cyprus ^[f] ;
even there you will find no rest.”

¹³ Look at the land of the Babylonians, ^[g]
this people that is now of no account!
The Assyrians have made it
a place for desert creatures;
they raised up their siege towers,
they stripped its fortresses bare
and turned it into a ruin.

¹⁴ Wail, you ships of Tarshish;
your fortress is destroyed!

¹⁵At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶ “Take up a harp, walk through the city,
O prostitute forgotten;
play the harp well, sing many a song,
so that you will be remembered.”

¹⁷ At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. ¹⁸ Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.