Reading for December 19th

Isaiah 31-33 (Listen)

Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help

and rely on horses,

who trust in chariots because they are many

and in horsemen because they are very strong,

but do not look to the Holy One of Israel

or consult the Lord!

And yet he is wise and brings disaster;

he does not call back his words,

but will arise against the house of the evildoers

and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.

The Egyptians are man, and not God,

and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.

When the Lord stretches out his hand,

the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,

and they will all perish together.

For thus the Lord said to me,

“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,

and when a band of shepherds is called out against him

he is not terrified by their shouting

or daunted at their noise,

so the Lord of hosts will come down

to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.

Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts

will protect Jerusalem;

he will protect and deliver it;

he will spare and rescue it.”

Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

“And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;

and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;

and he shall flee from the sword,

and his young men shall be put to forced labor.

His rock shall pass away in terror,

and his officers desert the standard in panic,”

declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,

and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

A King Will Reign in Righteousness

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule in justice.

Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,

a shelter from the storm,

like streams of water in a dry place,

like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will give attention.

The heart of the hasty will understand and know,

and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.

The fool will no more be called noble,

nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.

For the fool speaks folly,

and his heart is busy with iniquity,

to practice ungodliness,

to utter error concerning the Lord,

to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,

and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil;

he plans wicked schemes

to ruin the poor with lying words,

even when the plea of the needy is right.

But he who is noble plans noble things,

and on noble things he stands.

Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;

you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.

In little more than a year

you will shudder, you complacent women;

for the grape harvest fails,

the fruit harvest will not come.

Tremble, you women who are at ease,

shudder, you complacent ones;

strip, and make yourselves bare,

and tie sackcloth around your waist.

Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,

for the fruitful vine,

for the soil of my people

growing up in thorns and briers,

yes, for all the joyous houses

in the exultant city.

For the palace is forsaken,

the populous city deserted;

the hill and the watchtower

will become dens forever,

a joy of wild donkeys,

a pasture of flocks;

until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,

and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,

and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.

And the effect of righteousness will be peace,

and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,

in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

And it will hail when the forest falls down,

and the city will be utterly laid low.

Happy are you who sow beside all waters,

who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.

O Lord, Be Gracious to Us

Ah, you destroyer,

who yourself have not been destroyed,

you traitor,

whom none has betrayed!

When you have ceased to destroy,

you will be destroyed;

and when you have finished betraying,

they will betray you.

O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.

Be our arm every morning,

our salvation in the time of trouble.

At the tumultuous noise peoples flee;

when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,

and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;

as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.

The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;

he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,

and he will be the stability of your times,

abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure.

Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;

the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

The highways lie waste;

the traveler ceases.

Covenants are broken;

cities are despised;

there is no regard for man.

The land mourns and languishes;

Lebanon is confounded and withers away;

Sharon is like a desert,

and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,

“now I will lift myself up;

now I will be exalted.

You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;

your breath is a fire that will consume you.

And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,

like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;

and you who are near, acknowledge my might.

The sinners in Zion are afraid;

trembling has seized the godless:

“Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?

Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”

He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,

who despises the gain of oppressions,

who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,

who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed

and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,

he will dwell on the heights;

his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;

his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.

Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;

they will see a land that stretches afar.

Your heart will muse on the terror:

“Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute?

Where is he who counted the towers?”

You will see no more the insolent people,

the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,

stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.

Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!

Your eyes will see Jerusalem,

an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent,

whose stakes will never be plucked up,

nor will any of its cords be broken.

But there the Lord in majesty will be for us

a place of broad rivers and streams,

where no galley with oars can go,

nor majestic ship can pass.

For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver;

the Lord is our king; he will save us.

Your cords hang loose;

they cannot hold the mast firm in its place

or keep the sail spread out.

Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;

even the lame will take the prey.

And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;

the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.