Isaiah 10

• 1. Destruction is certain for the unjust judges, for those who issue unfair laws.
• 2. They deprive the poor, the widows, and the orphans of justice. Yes, they rob widows and fatherless children!
• 3. What will you do when I send desolation upon you from a distant land? To whom will you turn for help? Where will your treasures be safe?
• 4. I will not help you. You will stumble along as prisoners or lie among the dead. But even then the LORD's anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.
• 5. "Destruction is certain for Assyria, the whip of my anger. Its military power is a club in my hand.
• 6. Assyria will enslave my people, who are a godless nation. It will plunder them, trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.
• 7. But the king of Assyria will not know that it is I who sent him. He will merely think he is attacking my people as part of his plan to conquer the world.
• 8. He will say, `Each of my princes will soon be a king, ruling a conquered land.
• 9. We will destroy Calno just as we did Carchemish. Hamath will fall before us as Arpad did. And we will destroy Samaria just as we did Damascus.
• 10. Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom whose gods were far greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.
• 11. So when we have defeated Samaria and her gods, we will destroy Jerusalem with hers.'"
• 12. After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him--for he is proud and arrogant.
• 13. He boasts, "By my own power and wisdom I have won these wars. By my own strength I have captured many lands, destroyed their kings, and carried off their treasures.
• 14. By my greatness I have robbed their nests of riches and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs. No one can even flap a wing against me or utter a peep of protest."
• 15. Can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it? Is the saw greater than the person who saws? Can a whip strike unless a hand is moving it? Can a cane walk by itself?
• 16. Listen now, king of Assyria! Because of all your evil boasting, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will send a plague among your proud troops, and a flaming fire will ignite your glory.
• 17. The LORD, the Light of Israel and the Holy One, will be a flaming fire that will destroy them. In a single night he will burn those thorns and briers, the Assyrians.
• 18. Assyria's vast army is like a glorious forest, yet it will be destroyed. The LORD will completely destroy Assyria's warriors, and they will waste away like sick people in a plague.
• 19. Only a few from all that mighty army will survive--so few that a child could count them!
• 20. Then at last those left in Israel and Judah will trust the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. They will no longer depend on the Assyrians, who would destroy them.
• 21. A remnant of them will return to the Mighty God.
• 22. But though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a few of them will return at that time. The LORD has rightly decided to destroy his people.
• 23. Yes, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has already decided to consume them.
• 24. So this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: "My people in Jerusalem, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they oppress you just as the Egyptians did long ago.
• 25. It will not last very long. In a little while my anger against you will end, and then my anger will rise up to destroy them."
• 26. The LORD Almighty will beat them with his whip, as he did when Gideon triumphed over the Midianites at the rock of Oreb, or when the LORD's staff was raised to drown the Egyptian army in the sea.
• 27. In that day the LORD will end the bondage of his people. He will break the yoke of slavery and lift it from their shoulders.
• 28. Look, the mighty armies of Assyria are coming! They are now at Aiath, now at Migron. They are storing some of their equipment at Micmash.
• 29. They are crossing the pass and are staying overnight at Geba. Fear strikes the city of Ramah. All the people of Gibeah--the city of Saul--are running for their lives.
• 30. Well may you scream in terror, you people of Gallim! Shout out a warning to Laishah, for the mighty army comes. Poor Anathoth, what a fate is yours!
• 31. There go the people of Madmenah, all fleeing. And the citizens of Gebim are preparing to run.
• 32. But the enemy stops at Nob for the rest of that day. He shakes his fist at Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
• 33. But look! The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will chop down the mighty tree! He will destroy all that vast army of Assyria--officers and high officials alike.
• 34. The Mighty One will cut down the enemy as an ax cuts down the forest trees in Lebanon.

Isaiah 11

• 1. Out of the stump of David's family will grow a shoot--yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.
• 2. And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on him--the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
• 3. He will delight in obeying the LORD. He will never judge by appearance, false evidence, or hearsay.
• 4. He will defend the poor and the exploited. He will rule against the wicked and destroy them with the breath of his mouth.
• 5. He will be clothed with fairness and truth.
• 6. In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard and the goat will be at peace. Calves and yearlings will be safe among lions, and a little child will lead them all.
• 7. The cattle will graze among bears. Cubs and calves will lie down together. And lions will eat grass as the livestock do.
• 8. Babies will crawl safely among poisonous snakes. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes and pull it out unharmed.
• 9. Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. And as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the LORD.
• 10. In that day the heir to David's throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to him, for the land where he lives will be a glorious place.
• 11. In that day the Lord will bring back a remnant of his people for the second time, returning them to the land of Israel from Assyria, Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, Ethiopia, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath, and all the distant coastlands.
• 12. He will raise a flag among the nations for Israel to rally around. He will gather the scattered people of Judah from the ends of the earth.
• 13. Then at last the jealousy between Israel and Judah will end. They will not fight against each other anymore.
• 14. They will join forces to swoop down on Philistia to the west. Together they will attack and plunder the nations to the east. They will occupy all the lands of Edom, Moab, and Ammon.
• 15. The LORD will make a dry path through the Red Sea. He will wave his hand over the Euphrates River, sending a mighty wind to divide it into seven streams that can easily be crossed.
• 16. He will make a highway from Assyria for the remnant there, just as he did for Israel long ago when they returned from Egypt.

Isaiah 12

• 1. In that day you will sing: "Praise the LORD! He was angry with me, but now he comforts me.
• 2. See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The LORD GOD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."
• 3. With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!
• 4. In that wonderful day you will sing: "Thank the LORD! Praise his name! Tell the world what he has done. Oh, how mighty he is!
• 5. Sing to the LORD, for he has done wonderful things. Make known his praise around the world.
• 6. Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy! For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you."

New Living Translation: 240 of 324 days.