World English Bible · Under Assyria
Isaiah 29
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Woe to ! , the city where encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around; then I will distress , and there will be and . She shall be to me as an hearth. I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you. You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of . Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar , out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of . But of your will be like fine , and of the ruthless ones like that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly. She will be visited by of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring . of all the nations that fight against , even all who fight against her and her , and who distress her, will be like a , a of the night. It will be like when a hungry man , and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his isn't satisfied; or like when a thirsty man , and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. of all the nations that fight against Mount will be like that. Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with ; they stagger, but not with . For has poured out on you a of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, ; and he has covered your heads, the . All has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men to one who is educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't, for it is sealed;" and the book is to one who is not educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't read." said, "Because this people draws near with their and honors me with their , but they have removed their far from me, and their fear of me is a of men which has been taught; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the of their men will , and the of their prudent men will be hidden." Woe to those who deeply hide their from , and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us?" and "Who knows us?" You turn things upside down! Should the be thought to be like , that the thing made should say about him who made it, "He didn't make me;" or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no "? Isn't it yet a very little while, and will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest? In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of . The humble also will increase their joy in , and among men will rejoice in the One of Israel. For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are — who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for one who reproves in the , and who deprive the innocent of with false . Therefore , who , says concerning the house of : " shall no longer be , neither shall grow pale. But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the middle of him, they will my name. Yes, they will the One of , and will stand in awe of the of Israel. They also who err in will come to , and those who grumble will receive ."
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Assyria, 745 BC to 612 BC ›
Assyria at full stretch, deporting whole populations as policy. The northern kingdom is destroyed in 722 BC and Judah survives as a tribute-paying vassal.
- Assyria
- The first empire to run mass deportation as ordinary administration: move the leadership somewhere else, settle strangers in their place, and the province stops being a nation. It worked. Samaria fell in 722 BC and the northern tribes did not come back. Assyria also advertised its cruelty deliberately, carving flayings and impalements on palace walls where envoys would see them, because terror is cheaper than garrisons.
- Judah
- Survives by paying. Hezekiah rebels, Sennacherib takes forty-six Judean towns and besieges Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city holds. The Assyrian account boasts of shutting Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and pointedly does not claim to have taken the city, which is one of the more interesting silences in ancient records.
- Egypt
- The splintered reed of a staff that Assyria's field commander mocks Judah for leaning on. It promises help and cannot deliver, and Isaiah spends decades saying so. Assyria eventually invades and sacks Thebes.
- Further afield
- Greece is in its archaic period, founding colonies from Spain to the Black Sea. Rome is under kings. Assyria's own libraries are collecting the literature of Mesopotamia, which is how Gilgamesh survived to be read again in the nineteenth century.
All of Isaiah