In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

  Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’”

  The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

    As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
        it comes from the wilderness,
        from a terrible land.
    A stern vision is told to me;
        the traitor betrays,
        and the destroyer destroys.
    Go up, O Elam;
        lay siege, O Media;
    all the sighing she has caused
        I bring to an end.
    Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
        pangs have seized me,
        like the pangs of a woman in labor;
    I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
        I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
    My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;
        the twilight I longed for
        has been turned for me into trembling.
    They prepare the table,
        they spread the rugs,
        they eat, they drink.
    Arise, O princes;
        oil the shield!
    For thus the Lord said to me:
    “Go, set a watchman;
        let him announce what he sees.
    When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
        riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
    let him listen diligently,
        very diligently.”
    Then he who saw cried out:
    “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
        continually by day,
    and at my post I am stationed
        whole nights.
    And behold, here come riders,
        horsemen in pairs!”
    And he answered,
        “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
    and all the carved images of her gods
        he has shattered to the ground.”
    O my threshed and winnowed one,
        what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,
        the God of Israel, I announce to you.
    
    
      The oracle concerning Dumah.

    One is calling to me from Seir,
        “Watchman, what time of the night?
        Watchman, what time of the night?”
    The watchman says:
    “Morning comes, and also the night.
        If you will inquire, inquire;
        come back again.”
    
    
      The oracle concerning Arabia.

    In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,
        O caravans of Dedanites.
    To the thirsty bring water;
        meet the fugitive with bread,
        O inhabitants of the land of Tema.
    For they have fled from the swords,
        from the drawn sword,
    from the bent bow,
        and from the press of battle.
    
    
      For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.”

  The oracle concerning the valley of vision.

    What do you mean that you have gone up,
        all of you, to the housetops,
    you who are full of shoutings,
        tumultuous city, exultant town?
    Your slain are not slain with the sword
        or dead in battle.
    All your leaders have fled together;
        without the bow they were captured.
    All of you who were found were captured,
        though they had fled far away.
    Therefore I said:
    “Look away from me;
        let me weep bitter tears;
    do not labor to comfort me
        concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
    
    
    For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day
        of tumult and trampling and confusion
        in the valley of vision,
    a battering down of walls
        and a shouting to the mountains.
    And Elam bore the quiver
        with chariots and horsemen,
        and Kir uncovered the shield.
    Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
        and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
    He has taken away the covering of Judah.
    
    
      In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

    In that day the Lord GOD of hosts
        called for weeping and mourning,
        for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
    and behold, joy and gladness,
        killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
        eating flesh and drinking wine.
    “Let us eat and drink,
        for tomorrow we die.”
    The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
    “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”
        says the Lord GOD of hosts.
    
    
      Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house. I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” (ESV)

When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified God. And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law, and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs. What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law. But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.” Then Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them.

  When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done. Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another. And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”

  As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.” And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying: (ESV)