הִנֵּה

…as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. So will it be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.

Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense smoke. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a consuming fire.

When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

Say to those with anxious hearts: “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.”

Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared?

Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.

Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Raise your voice loudly, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and His arm establishes His rule. His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him.

Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

I was the first to tell Zion: ‘Look, here they are!’ And I gave to Jerusalem a herald of good news.

Behold, the former things have happened, and now I declare new things. Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals to warm them or fire to sit beside.

They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot claim, ‘I already knew them!’

See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

Behold, they will come from far away, from the north and from the west, and from the land of Aswan.”

This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.

Thus says your Lord, the LORD, even your God, who defends His people: “See, I have removed from your hand the cup of staggering. From that goblet, the cup of My fury, you will never drink again.

Behold, My Servant will prosper; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

“O afflicted city, lashed by storms, without solace, surely I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.

Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

For behold, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you, and His glory will appear over you.

Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the ends of the earth, “Say to Daughter Zion: See, your Savior comes! Look, His reward is with Him, and His recompense goes before Him.”

Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will pay it back into their laps,

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

My servants will shout for joy with a glad heart, but you will cry out with a heavy heart and wail with a broken spirit.

For behold, the LORD will come with fire—His chariots are like a whirlwind—to execute His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire.

“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!”

Then the LORD reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

Now behold, this day I have made you like a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land.

Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’ This you have spoken, but you keep doing all the evil you can.”

Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!

Warn the nations now! Proclaim to Jerusalem: “A besieging army comes from a distant land; they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.

I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.

I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.

I looked, and no man was left; all the birds of the air had fled.

I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert. All its cities were torn down before the LORD, before His fierce anger.

To whom can I give this warning? Who will listen to me? Look, their ears are closed, so they cannot hear. See, the word of the LORD has become offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.

Hear, O earth! I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their own schemes, because they have paid no attention to My word and have rejected My instruction.

This is what the LORD says: “Behold, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is stirred up from the ends of the earth.