Daily Reading

1 The burden concerning Damascus: See, Damascus — turned from being a city, / It will become a heap of ruin.

2 The cities of Aroer will be forsaken; / They will be for flocks / That lie down with no one to frighten them.

3 And fortified cities will cease to be in Ephraim, / As well as the kingdom in Damascus; / And the remnant of Syria / Will be like the glory of the children of Israel, / Declares Jehovah of hosts.

4 In that day the glory of Jacob will fade, / And the fat of his flesh will become lean.

5 And it will be as when the reaper gathers the standing grain, / And his arms reap the ears; / And it will be as when one gleans the ears / In the valley of Rephaim.

6 Yet gleanings will be left in it, / Like at the shaking of an olive tree — / Two or three fruit at the very top, / Four or five in the boughs of the fruiting tree — / Declares Jehovah the God of Israel.

7 In that day man will look to his Maker, / And his eyes will behold the Holy One of Israel.

8 And he will not look to the altars, the works of his hands; / And what his fingers have made he will not regard, / That is, the Asherahs and the images to the sun.

9 In that day his cities of protection will be / Like abandoned places of the forest and like the mountaintop / Which was abandoned before the children of Israel; / And there will be desolation.

10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, / And the Rock of your stronghold you have not remembered. / Therefore you plant plants of delight / And set them with plant cuttings to a strange god.

11 On the day that you plant them you fence them in carefully, / And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom; / But the harvest is a heap on a day of sickness / And incurable pain.

12 Woe! The roar of many peoples, / Who roar like the roaring of the seas; / The din of nations, / Who crash like the crashing of mighty waters!

13 The nations crash like the crashing of many waters. / But He will rebuke them; / And they will flee far away, / And will be chased like mountain chaff before the wind / And like a whirlwind of dust before storm wind.

14 At evening time, indeed, there is calamity; / Before the morning they are no more. / This is the portion of those who plunder us, / And the allotment of those who take us as spoil.

1 Woe to the land of the whirring of wings, / Which is beyond the rivers of Cush,

2 The land that sends envoys on the sea, / Even in papyrus vessels upon the surface of the water. / Go, swift messengers, / To a nation tall and smooth of skin, / To a people feared from there and beyond, / A nation of command upon command and of treading down others, / Whose land the rivers cut through.

3 All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, / When the standard is raised on the mountains, you will see it; / And when the horn is blown, you will hear it.

4 For thus has Jehovah spoken to me, / I will be quiet and observe in My lodging place, / Like glowing heat in the sunshine, / Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

5 For before the harvest, when the bud is full / And the flower becomes the ripening grape, / He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives, / And the tendrils He will remove and cut away.

6 They will be left together for the mountain birds / And for the beasts of the earth. / And the birds will spend summer on them, / And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.

7 At that time a gift will be brought to Jehovah of hosts from a people tall and smooth of skin, even from a people feared from there and beyond, a nation of command upon command and of treading down others, whose land the rivers cut through, unto the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion.

1 The burden concerning Egypt: / See, Jehovah is riding upon a swift cloud, / And He is coming to Egypt. / And the idols of Egypt will quiver at His presence, / And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

2 Thus I will spur on Egyptian against Egyptian; / And each will fight against his brother, and each against his neighbor, / City against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

3 The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them, / And their counsel I will swallow up; / Then they will seek after idols and mediums, / And after spirits of the dead and familiar spirits.

4 And I will shut the Egyptians up under the hand of hard masters, / And a mighty king will rule over them, / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts.

5 And the waters from the sea will be dried up, / And the river will be desolate and dry.

6 The river canals will stink; / The streams of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and be desolate. / The reeds and rushes will rot;

7 The plants at the Nile, at the mouth of the Nile, / And every place sown by the Nile / Will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.

8 The fishermen will mourn; / And all who cast the hook into the Nile will lament; / And those who spread nets upon the waters will languish.

9 Moreover, those who work with combed flax will be confounded, / As well as those who weave linen.

10 And the pillars of the land will be crushed, / And every wage worker will be sullen in soul.

11 Mere fools are the princes of Zoan; / The counsel of the wisest of Pharaoh’s counselors has become stupidity. / How can you say to Pharaoh, / I am a son of the wise men, a son of ancient kings?

12 Where are they? Where are your wise men? / Let them tell you and let them know / What Jehovah of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

13 The princes of Zoan have become fools; the princes of Memphis are beguiled; / They have misled Egypt, who are the cornerstone of her tribes.

14 Jehovah has mixed within her a spirit of distortings, / And they have misled Egypt in all that it does, / As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

15 And there will be no work for Egypt, / Which the head or the tail, the palm branch or the marsh reed, may do.

16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and they will tremble and be in dread before the waving of the hand of Jehovah of hosts, which He will be waving over them.

17 And the land of Judah will become a source of crazed terror to Egypt — everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the purpose of Jehovah of hosts, which He purposes against them.

18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing to Jehovah of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction.

19 In that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to Jehovah near its border;

20 And it will become a sign and a testimony to Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry unto Jehovah because of their oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and Mighty One; and He will deliver them.

21 And Jehovah will make Himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know Jehovah in that day; they will worship Him with sacrifice and offering and will vow a vow to Jehovah and accomplish it.

22 And Jehovah will strike Egypt, striking yet healing; and they will turn to Jehovah, and He will be entreated of by them and will heal them.

23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

24 In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land,

25 With which Jehovah of hosts will bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel My inheritance.

1 In the year that the Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it,

2 At that time Jehovah spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loosen the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet. And he did so, going about stripped and barefooted.

3 And Jehovah said, Just as My servant Isaiah has gone about stripped and barefoot for three years as a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Cush,

4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young men and old men, stripped and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to Egypt’s shame.

5 And they will be dismayed and ashamed of Cush, their expectation, and of Egypt, their boast.

6 And the inhabitant of this coastland will say in that day, Such is now our expectation, to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And how shall we escape?

22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord;

23 For a husband is head of the wife as also Christ is Head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the Body.

24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be subject to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her

26 That He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word,

27 That He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish.

28 In the same way the husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his own wife loves himself.

29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ also the church,

30 Because we are members of His Body.

31 For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.

32 This mystery is great, but I speak with regard to Christ and the church.

33 Nevertheless you also, each one of you, in the same way love your own wife as yourself; and the wife should fear her husband.

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

2 “ Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise,

3 “ That it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.”

4 And fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but nurture them in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.

5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ;

6 Not with eye-service as men-pleasers but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul;

7 With good will serving as slaves, as serving the Lord and not men;

8 Knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or a free man.

9 And masters, do the same things toward them, giving up your threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in the heavens, and there is no respect of persons with Him.

10 Finally, be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength.

11 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil,

12 For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness

15 And having shod your feet with the firm foundation of the gospel of peace;

16 Besides all these, having taken up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one.

17 And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God,

18 By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints,

19 And for me, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known in boldness the mystery of the gospel,

20 For which I am an ambassador in a chain, that in it I would speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

21 But that you also may know the things concerning me, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you.

22 Him I have sent to you for this very thing, that you may know the things concerning us and that he may comfort your hearts.

23 Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility.