Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from the book of
Isaiah, chapters 13, 21, 33 through 35. Chapter
13. The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the
son of Amos saw. Lift up a banner on the high
mountain. Raise your voice to them. Wave your
hand that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
I have commanded my sanctified ones. I have also
called my mighty ones for my anger, those who
rejoice in my exaltation. The noise of a multitude
in the mountains, like that of many people. A
tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered
together. The Lord of hosts musters the army
for battle. They come from a far country, from
the end of heaven. The Lord and his weapons of
indignation to destroy the whole land. Wait!
For the whole day of the Lord is at hand. It
will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore
all hands will be limp, every man's heart will
melt, and they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows
will take hold of them. They will be in pain
as a woman in childbirth. They will be amazed
at one another, their faces will be like flames.
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with
both wrath and fierce anger. to lay the land
desolate, and he will destroy its sinners from
it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations
will not give their light, the sun will be darkened
in its going forth, and the moon will not cause
its light to shine. I will punish the world for
its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity.
I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will
lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will
make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man
more than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore
I will shake the heavens, and the earth will
move out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord
of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
It shall be as the hunted gazelle, and as a sheep
that no man takes up. Every man will turn to
his own people, and everyone will flee to his
own land. Everyone who is found will be thrust
through, and everyone who is captured will fall
by the sword. Their children also will be dashed
to pieces before their eyes, their houses will
be plundered, and their wives ravaged. Behold,
I will stir up the Medes against them, who will
not regard silver, and as for gold, they will
not delight in it. Also their bows will dash
the young men to pieces, and they will have no
pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eye will
not spare children. In Babylon the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as
when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will
never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from
generation to generation, nor will the Arabian
pitch tents there. Nor will the shepherds make
their sheepfolds there. But wild beasts of the
desert will lie there, and their houses will
be full of owls. Ostriches will dwell there,
and wild goats will caper there. The hyenas will
howl in their citadels, and jackals in their
pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and
her days will not be prolonged. Chapter 21 The
Burden Against the Wilderness of the Sea As whirlwinds
in the south pass through, so it comes from the
desert, from a terrible land. A distressing vision
is declared to me. The treacherous dealer deals
treacherously, and the plunderer plunders. Go
up, O Elam, besiege O Media. All its sighing
I have made to cease. Therefore my loins are
filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold of me
like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed
when I heard it, I was dismayed when I saw it.
My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me.
The night for which I longed, he turned into
fear for me. Prepare the table, set a watchman
in the tower, eat and drink. Arise, you princes,
anoint the shield. For thus has the Lord said
to me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what
he sees. And he saw a chariot with a pair of
horsemen. a chariot of donkeys and a chariot
of camels. And he listened earnestly with great
care. Then he cried, A lion, my lord! I stand
continually on the watchtower in the daytime.
I have sat at my post every night. And look,
here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen.
Then he answered and said, Babylon is fallen,
is fallen. And all the carved images of her gods
he has broken to the ground. O my threshing and
the grain of my floor! That which I have heard
from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I
have declared to you. The burden against Duma.
He calls to me out of Seir. Watchman, what of
the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman
said, the morning comes and also the night. If
you will inquire, inquire. Return, come back.
The burden against Arabia. In the forest in Arabia
you will lodge. O you traveling companies of
Dedanites! O inhabitants of the land of Tema!
Bring water to him who is thirsty. With their
bread they met him who fled. For they fled from
the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent
bow, and from the distress of war. For thus the
Lord has said to me, Within a year, according
to the year of a hired man, all the glory of
Kedar will fail. and the remainder of the number
of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar,
will be diminished, for the Lord God of Israel
has spoken it. Chapter 33 Woe to you who plunder,
though you have not been plundered, and you who
deal treacherously, though they have not dealt
treacherously with you. When you cease plundering,
you will be plundered. When you make an end of
dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously
with you. O Lord, be gracious to us. We have
waited for you. Be their arm every morning, our
salvation also in the time of trouble. At the
noise of the tumult the people shall flee. When
you lift yourself up, the nations shall be scattered,
and your plunder shall be gathered, like the
gathering of the caterpillar. As the running
to and fro of locusts, he shall run upon them.
The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high. He
has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of
your times. And the strength of salvation, the
fear of the Lord, is his treasure. Surely their
valiant ones shall cry outside. The ambassadors
of peace shall weep bitterly. The highways lie
waste. The traveling man ceases. He has broken
the covenant. He has despised the cities. He
regards no man. The earth mourns and languishes.
Lebanon is shamed and shriveled. Sharon is like
a wilderness, and Bashan and Carmel shake off
their fruits. Now I will rise, says the Lord,
now I will be exalted, now I will lift myself
up. You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring
forth stubble. Your breath as fire shall devour
you, and the people shall be like the burnings
of lime. Like thorns cut up, they shall be burned
in the fire. Here, you who are far off, what
I have done, and you who are near, acknowledge
my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness
has seized the hypocrites. Who among us shall
dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall
dwell with everlasting burnings? He who walks
righteously and speaks uprightly, he who despises
the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his
hands, refusing bribes. who stops his ears from
hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from
seeing evil. He will dwell on high. His place
of defense will be the fortress of rocks. Bread
will be given him, his water will be sure. Your
eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will
see the land that is very far off. Your heart
will meditate on terror. Where is the scribe?
Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts
the towers? You will not see a fierce people.
a people of obscure speech beyond perception,
of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand.
Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, a
tabernacle that will not be taken down. Not one
of its stakes will ever be removed, nor will
any of its cords be broken. But there the majestic
Lord will be for us, a place of broad rivers
and streams, in which no galley with oars will
sail. nor majestic ships pass by. For the Lord
is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord
is our king, he will save us. Your tackle is
loosed, they could not strengthen their mast,
they could not spread the sail. Then the prey
of great plunder is divided. The lame take the
prey, and the inhabitant will not say, I am sick.
The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their
iniquity. Come near, you nations, to hear and
heed, you people. Let the earth hear and all
that is in it, the world and all things that
come forth from it. For the indignation of the
Lord is against all nations, and His fury against
all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them.
He has given them over to the slaughter. Also
their slain shall be thrown out. Their stench
shall rise from their corpses, and the mountains
shall be melted with their blood. All the hosts
of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens
shall be rolled up like a scroll. All their hosts
shall fall down, as the leaf falls from the vine,
and as fruit falling from a fig tree. For my
sword shall be bathed in heaven. Indeed, it shall
come down on Edom, and the people of my curse
for judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled
with blood. It is made overflowing with fatness,
with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat
of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice
in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land
of Edom. The wild oxen shall come down with them,
and the young bulls with the mighty bulls. Their
land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust
saturated with fatness. For it is the day of
the Lord's vengeance, the year of recompense
for the cause of Zion. Its streams shall be turned
into pitch, and its dust into brimstone. Its
land shall become burning pitch, it shall not
be quenched night or day. its smoke shall ascend
forever from generation to generation it shall
lie waste no one shall pass through it forever
and ever but the pelican and the porcupine shall
possess it also the owl and the raven shall dwell
in it and he shall stretch out over it the line
of confusion and the stones of emptiness they
shall call its nobles to the kingdom but none
shall be there and all its princes shall be nothing
And thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles
and brambles in its fortresses. It shall be a
habitation of jackals, a courtyard of ostriches.
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet
with the jackals, and the wild goat shall bleed
to its companion. Also the night creature shall
rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
There the arrow snake shall make her nest and
lay eggs, and hatch and gather them under her
shadow. There also shall the hawks be gathered,
everyone with her mate. Search from the book
of the Lord and read. Not one of these shall
fail, not one shall lack her mate. For my mouth
has commanded it, and his spirit has gathered
them. He has cast a lot for them, and his hand
has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever, from generation
to generation they shall dwell in it. The wilderness
and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and
the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even
with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall
be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and
Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the excellency of our God. Strengthen the weak
hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to
those who are fearful -hearted, Be strong, do
not fear. behold your god will come with vengeance
with the recompense of god he will come and save
you then the eyes of the blind shall be opened
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped then
the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue
of the dumb sing for waters shall burst forth
in the wilderness and streams in the desert the
parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty
land springs of water in the habitation of jackals
where each lay There shall be grass with reeds
and rushes. A highway shall be there and a road,
and it shall be called the highway of holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall
be for others. Whoever walks the road, although
a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be
there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on
it. It shall not be found there, but the redeemed
shall walk there. and the ransomed of the Lord
shall return and come to Zion with singing, with
everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain
joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall
flee away. I hope you enjoyed today's reading
as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing
you again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.