Isaiah 6

God Calls Isaiah to Be a Prophet

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on his throne, high and exalted, and his robe filled the whole Temple.

2 Around him flaming creatures were standing, each of which had six wings. Each creature covered its face with two wings, and its body with two, and used the other two for flying.

3 They were calling out to each other:

“Holy, holy, holy!

The Lord Almighty is holy!

His glory fills the world.”

4 The sound of their voices made the foundation of the Temple shake, and the Temple itself became filled with smoke.

5 I said, “There is no hope for me! I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, and I live among a people whose every word is sinful. And yet, with my own eyes I have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

6 Then one of the creatures flew down to me, carrying a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.

7 He touched my lips with the burning coal and said, “This has touched your lips, and now your guilt is gone, and your sins are forgiven.”

8 Then I heard the Lord say, “Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?”

I answered, “I will go! Send me!”

9 So he told me to go and give the people this message: “No matter how much you listen, you will not understand. No matter how much you look, you will not know what is happening.”

10 Then he said to me, “Make the minds of these people dull, their ears deaf, and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand. If they did, they might turn to me and be healed.”

11 I asked, “How long will it be like this, Lord?”

He answered, “Until the cities are ruined and empty—until the houses are uninhabited—until the land itself is a desolate wasteland.

12 I will send the people far away and make the whole land desolate.

13 Even if one person out of ten remains in the land, he too will be destroyed; he will be like the stump of an oak tree that has been cut down.”

(The stump represents a new beginning for God’s people.)

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Isaiah 7

A Message for King Ahaz

1 When King Ahaz, the son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, ruled Judah, war broke out. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, attacked Jerusalem, but were unable to capture it.

2 When word reached the king of Judah that the armies of Syria were already in the territory of Israel, he and all his people were so terrified that they trembled like trees shaking in the wind.

3 The Lord said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear Jashub,and go to meet King Ahaz. You will find him on the road where the cloth makers work, at the end of the ditch that brings water from the upper pool.

4 Tell him to keep alert, to stay calm, and not to be frightened or disturbed. The anger of King Rezin and his Syrians and of King Pekah is no more dangerous than the smoke from two smoldering sticks of wood.

5 Syria, together with Israel and its king, has made a plot.

6 They intend to invade Judah, terrify the people into joining their side, and then put Tabeel’s son on the throne.

7 “But I, the Lord, declare that this will never happen.

8 Why? Because Syria is no stronger than Damascus, its capital city, and Damascus is no stronger than King Rezin. As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be too shattered to survive as a nation.

9 Israel is no stronger than Samaria, its capital city, and Samaria is no stronger than King Pekah.

“If your faith is not enduring, you will not endure.”

The Sign of Immanuel

10 The Lord sent another message to Ahaz:

11 “Ask the Lord your God to give you a sign. It can be from deep in the world of the dead or from high up in heaven.”

12 Ahaz answered, “I will not ask for a sign. I refuse to put the Lord to the test.”

13 To that Isaiah replied, “Listen, now, descendants of King David. It’s bad enough for you to wear out the patience of people—do you have to wear out God’s patience too?

14 Well then, the Lord himself will give you a sign: a young womanwho is pregnant will have a son and will name him ‘Immanuel.’

15 By the time he is old enough to make his own decisions, people will be drinking milk and eating honey.

16 Even before that time comes, the lands of those two kings who terrify you will be deserted.

17 “The Lord is going to bring on you, on your people, and on the whole royal family, days of trouble worse than any that have come since the kingdom of Israel separated from Judah—he is going to bring the king of Assyria.

18 “When that time comes, the Lord will whistle as a signal for the Egyptians to come like flies from the farthest branches of the Nile, and for the Assyrians to come from their land like bees.

19 They will swarm in the rugged valleys and in the caves in the rocks, and they will cover every thorn bush and every pasture.

20 “When that time comes, the Lord will hire a barber from across the Euphrates—the emperor of Assyria!—and he will shave off your beards and the hair on your heads and your bodies.

21 “When that time comes, even if a farmer has been able to save only one young cow and two goats,

22 they will give so much milk that he will have all he needs. Yes, the few survivors left in the land will have milk and honey to eat.

23 “When that time comes, the fine vineyards, each with a thousand vines and each worth a thousand pieces of silver, will be overgrown with thorn bushes and briers.

24 People will go hunting there with bows and arrows. Yes, the whole country will be full of briers and thorn bushes.

25 All the hills where crops were once planted will be so overgrown with thorns that no one will go there. It will be a place where cattle and sheep graze.”

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Isaiah 8

Isaiah’s Son as a Sign to the People

1 The Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters:‘Quick Loot, Fast Plunder.’

2 Get two reliable men, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, to serve as witnesses.”

3 Some time later my wife became pregnant. When our son was born, the Lord said to me, “Name him ‘Quick-Loot-Fast-Plunder.’

4 Before the boy is old enough to say ‘Mamma’ and ‘Daddy,’ all the wealth of Damascus and all the loot of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

The Emperor of Assyria Is Coming

5 The Lord spoke to me again.

6 He said, “Because these people have rejected the quiet waters of Shiloah Brookand tremblebefore King Rezin and King Pekah,

7 I, the Lord, will bring the emperor of Assyria and all his forces to attack Judah. They will advance like the flood waters of the Euphrates River, overflowing all its banks.

8 They will sweep through Judah in a flood, rising shoulder high and covering everything.”

God is with us! His outspread wings protect the land.

9 Gather together in fear, you nations! Listen, you distant parts of the earth. Get ready to fight, but be afraid! Yes, get ready, but be afraid!

10 Make your plans! But they will never succeed. Talk all you want to! But it is all useless, because God is with us.

The Lord Warns the Prophet

11 With his great power the Lord warned me not to follow the road which the people were following. He said,

12 “Do not join in the schemes of the people and do not be afraid of the things that they fear.

13 Remember that I, the Lord Almighty, am holy; I am the one you must fear.

14 Because of my awesome holiness I am like a stone that people stumble over; I am like a trap that will catch the people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the people of Jerusalem.

15 Many will stumble; they will fall and be crushed. They will be caught in a trap.”

Warning against Consulting the Dead

16 You, my disciples, are to guard and preserve the messages that God has given me.

17 The Lord has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him.

18 Here I am with the children the Lord has given me. The Lord Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us as living messages to the people of Israel.

19 But people will tell you to ask for messages from fortunetellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, “After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living.”

20 You are to answer them, “Listen to what the Lord is teaching you! Don’t listen to mediums—what they tell you cannot keep trouble away.”

A Time of Trouble

21 The people will wander through the land, discouraged and hungry. In their hunger and their anger they will curse their king and their God. They may look up to the sky

22 or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven.

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Isaiah 9

1 There will be no way for them to escape from this time of trouble.

The Future King

The land of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali was once disgraced, but the future will bring honor to this region, from the Mediterranean eastward to the land on the other side of the Jordan, and even to Galilee itself, where the foreigners live.

2 The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light.

They lived in a land of shadows,

but now light is shining on them.

3 You have given them great joy,Lord;

you have made them happy.

They rejoice in what you have done,

as people rejoice when they harvest grain

or when they divide captured wealth.

4 For you have broken the yoke that burdened them

and the rod that beat their shoulders.

You have defeated the nation

that oppressed and exploited your people,

just as you defeated the army of Midian long ago.

5 The boots of the invading army

and all their bloodstained clothing

will be destroyed by fire.

6 A child is born to us!

A son is given to us!

And he will be our ruler.

He will be called, “WonderfulCounselor,”

“Mighty God,” “Eternal Father,”

“Prince of Peace.”

7 His royal power will continue to grow;

his kingdom will always be at peace.

He will rule as King David’s successor,

basing his power on right and justice,

from now until the end of time.

The Lord Almighty is determined to do all this.

The Lord Will Punish Israel

8 The Lord has pronounced judgment on the kingdom of Israel, on the descendants of Jacob.

9 All the people of Israel, everyone who lives in the city of Samaria, will know that he has done this. Now they are proud and arrogant. They say,

10 “The brick buildings have fallen down, but we will replace them with stone buildings. The beams of sycamore wood have been cut down, but we will replace them with the finest cedar.”

11 The Lord has stirred up their enemiesto attack them.

12 Syria on the east and Philistia on the west have opened their mouths to devour Israel. Yet even so the Lord’s anger is not ended; his hand is still stretched out to punish.

13 The people of Israel have not repented; even though the Lord Almighty has punished them, they have not returned to him.

14 In a single day the Lord will punish Israel’s leaders and its people; he will cut them off, head and tail.

15 The old and honorable men are the head—and the tail is the prophets whose teachings are lies!

16 Those who lead these people have misled them and totally confused them.

17 And so the Lord will not let any of the young men escape, and he will not show pity on any of the widows and orphans, because all the people are godless and wicked and everything they say is evil. Yet even so the Lord’s anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

18 The wickedness of the people burns like a fire that destroys thorn bushes and thistles. It burns like a forest fire that sends up columns of smoke.

19 Because the Lord Almighty is angry, his punishment burns like a fire throughout the land and destroys the people, and it is each of us for ourselves.

20 Everywhere in the country people snatch and eat any bit of food they can find, but their hunger is never satisfied. They even eat their own children!

21 The people of Manasseh and the people of Ephraim attack each other, and together they attack Judah. Yet even so the Lord’s anger is not ended; his hand is still stretched out to punish.

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Isaiah 10

1 You are doomed! You make unjust laws that oppress my people.

2 That is how you keep the poor from having their rights and from getting justice. That is how you take the property that belongs to widows and orphans.

3 What will you do when God punishes you? What will you do when he brings disaster on you from a distant country? Where will you run to find help? Where will you hide your wealth?

4 You will be killed in battle or dragged off as prisoners. Yet even so the Lord’s anger will not be ended; his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

The Emperor of Assyria as the Instrument of God

5 The Lord said, “Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry.

6 I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample the people like dirt in the streets.”

7 But the Assyrian emperor has his own violent plans in mind. He is determined to destroy many nations.

8 He boasts, “Every one of my commanders is a king!

9 I conquered the cities of Calno and Carchemish, the cities of Hamath and Arpad. I conquered Samaria and Damascus.

10 I reached out to punish those kingdoms that worship idols, idols more numerous than those of Jerusalem and Samaria.

11 I have destroyed Samaria and all its idols, and I will do the same to Jerusalem and the images that are worshiped there.”

12 But the Lord says, “When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride.”

13 The emperor of Assyria boasts, “I have done it all myself. I am strong and wise and clever. I wiped out the boundaries between nations and took the supplies they had stored. Like a bull I have trampled the people who live there.

14 The nations of the world were like a bird’s nest, and I gathered their wealth as easily as gathering eggs. Not a wing fluttered to scare me off; no beak opened to scream at me!”

15 But the Lord says, “Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn’t lift up a person; a person lifts up a club.”

16 The Lord Almighty is going to send disease to punish those who are now well-fed. In their bodies there will be a fire that burns and burns.

17 God, the light of Israel, will become a fire. Israel’s holy God will become a flame, which in a single day will burn up everything, even the thorns and thistles.

18 The rich forests and farmlands will be totally destroyed, in the same way that a fatal sickness destroys someone.

19 There will be so few trees left that even a child will be able to count them.

A Few Will Come Back

20 A time is coming when the people of Israel who have survived will not rely any more on the nation that almost destroyed them. They will truly put their trust in the Lord, Israel’s holy God.

21 A few of the people of Israel will come back to their mighty God.

22 Even though now there are as many people of Israel as there are grains of sand by the sea, only a few will come back. Destruction is in store for the people, and it is fully deserved.

23 Yes, throughout the whole country the Sovereign Lord Almighty will bring destruction, as he said he would.

The Lord Will Punish Assyria

24 The Sovereign Lord Almighty says to his people who live in Zion, “Do not be afraid of the Assyrians, even though they oppress you as the Egyptians used to do.

25 In only a little while I will finish punishing you, and then I will destroy them.

26 I, the Lord Almighty, will beat them with my whip as I did the people of Midian at Oreb Rock. I will punish Assyria as I punished Egypt.

27 When that time comes, I will free you from the power of Assyria, and their yoke will no longer be a burden on your shoulders.”

The Invader Attacks

28 The enemy army has captured the city of Ai!They have passed through Migron! They left their supplies at Michmash!

29 They have crossed the pass and are spending the night at Geba! The people in the town of Ramah are terrified, and the people in King Saul’s hometown of Gibeah have run away.

30 Shout, people of Gallim! Listen, people of Laishah! Answer, people of Anathoth!

31 The people of Madmenah and Gebim are running for their lives.

32 Today the enemy are in the town of Nob, and there they are shaking their fists at Mount Zion, at the city of Jerusalem.

33 The Lord Almighty will bring them crashing down like branches cut off a tree. The proudest and highest of them will be cut down and humiliated.

34 The Lord will cut them down as trees in the heart of the forest are cut down with an ax, as even the finest trees of Lebanon fall!

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Isaiah 11

The Peaceful Kingdom

1 The royal line of David is like a tree that has been cut down; but just as new branches sprout from a stump, so a new king will arise from among David’s descendants.

2 The spirit of the Lord will give him wisdom

and the knowledge and skill to rule his people.

He will know the Lord’s will and honor him,

3 and find pleasure in obeying him.

He will not judge by appearance or hearsay;

4 he will judge the poor fairly

and defend the rights of the helpless.

At his command the people will be punished,

and evil persons will die.

5 He will rule his people with justice and integrity.

6 Wolves and sheep will live together in peace,

and leopards will lie down with young goats.

Calves and lion cubs will feedtogether,

and little children will take care of them.

7 Cows and bears will eat together,

and their calves and cubs will lie down in peace.

Lions will eat straw as cattle do.

8 Even a baby will not be harmed

if it plays near a poisonous snake.

9 On Zion, God’s sacred hill,

there will be nothing harmful or evil.

The land will be as full of knowledge of the Lord

as the seas are full of water.

The Exiled People Will Return

10 A day is coming when the new king from the royal line of David will be a symbol to the nations. They will gather in his royal city and give him honor.

11 When that day comes, the Lord will once again use his power and bring back home those of his people who are left in Assyria and Egypt, in the lands of Pathros, Ethiopia,Elam, Babylonia, and Hamath, and in the coastlands and on the islands of the sea.

12 The Lord will raise a signal flag to show the nations that he is gathering together again the scattered people of Israel and Judah and bringing them back from the four corners of the earth.

13 The kingdom of Israel will not be jealous of Judah any more, and Judah will not be the enemy of Israel.

14 Together they will attack the Philistines on the west and plunder the people who live to the east. They will conquer the people of Edom and Moab, and the people of Ammon will obey them.

15 The Lord will dry up the Gulf of Suez, and he will bring a hot wind to dry up the Euphrates, leaving only seven tiny streams, so that anyone can walk across.

16 There will be a highway out of Assyria for those of his people Israel who have survived there, just as there was for their ancestors when they left Egypt.

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Isaiah 12

Hymn of Thanksgiving

1 A day is coming when people will sing,

“I praise you, Lord! You were angry with me,

but now you comfort me and are angry no longer.

2 God is my savior;

I will trust him and not be afraid.

The Lord gives me power and strength;

he is my savior.

3 As fresh water brings joy to the thirsty,

so God’s people rejoice when he saves them.”

4 A day is coming when people will sing,

“Give thanks to the Lord! Call for him to help you!

Tell all the nations what he has done!

Tell them how great he is!

5 Sing to the Lord because of the great things he has done.

Let the whole world hear the news.

6 Let everyone who lives in Zion shout and sing!

Israel’s holy God is great,

and he lives among his people.”

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Isaiah 13

God Will Punish Babylon

1 This is a message about Babylon, which Isaiah son of Amoz received from God.

2 On the top of a barren hill raise the battle flag! Shout to the soldiers and raise your arm as the signal for them to attack the gates of the proud city.

3 The Lord has called out his proud and confident soldiers to fight a holy war and punish those he is angry with.

4 Listen to the noise on the mountains—the sound of a great crowd of people, the sound of nations and kingdoms gathering. The Lord of Armies is preparing his troops for battle.

5 They are coming from far-off countries at the ends of the earth. In his anger the Lord is coming to devastate the whole country.

6 Howl in pain! The day of the Lord is near, the day when the Almighty brings destruction.

7 Everyone’s hands will hang limp, and everyone’s courage will fail.

8 They will all be terrified and overcome with pain, like the pain of a woman in labor. They will look at each other in fear, and their faces will burn with shame.

9 The day of the Lord is coming—that cruel day of his fierce anger and fury. The earth will be made a wilderness, and every sinner will be destroyed.

10 Every star and every constellation will stop shining, the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will give no light.

11 The Lord says, “I will bring disaster on the earth and punish all wicked people for their sins. I will humble everyone who is proud and punish everyone who is arrogant and cruel.

12 Those who survive will be scarcer than gold.

13 I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place on that day when I, the Lord Almighty, show my anger.

14 “The foreigners living in Babylon will run away to their homelands, scattering like deer escaping from hunters, like sheep without a shepherd.

15 Anyone who is caught will be stabbed to death.

16 While they look on helplessly, their babies will be battered to death, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be raped.”

17 The Lord says, “I am stirring up the Medesto attack Babylon. They care nothing for silver and are not tempted by gold.

18 With their bows and arrows they will kill the young men. They will show no mercy to babies and take no pity on children.

19 Babylonia is the most beautiful kingdom of all; it is the pride of its people. But I, the Lord, will overthrow Babylon as I did Sodom and Gomorrah!

20 No one will ever live there again. No wandering Arab will ever pitch a tent there, and no shepherd will ever pasture a flock there.

21 It will be a place where desert animals live and where owls build their nests. Ostriches will live there, and wild goats will prance through the ruins.

22 The towers and palaces will echo with the cries of hyenas and jackals. Babylon’s time has come! Her days are almost over.”

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Isaiah 14

The Return from Exile

1 The Lord will once again be merciful to his people Israel and choose them as his own. He will let them live in their own land again, and foreigners will come and live there with them.

2 Many nations will help the people of Israel return to the land which the Lord gave them, and there the nations will serve Israel as slaves. Those who once captured Israel will now be captured by Israel, and the people of Israel will rule over those who once oppressed them.

The King of Babylon in the World of the Dead

3 The Lord will give the people of Israel relief from their pain and suffering and from the hard work they were forced to do.

4 When he does this, they are to mock the king of Babylon and say:

“The cruel king has fallen! He will never oppress anyone again!

5 The Lord has ended the power of the evil rulers

6 who angrily oppressed the peoples and never stopped persecuting the nations they had conquered.

7 Now at last the whole world enjoys rest and peace, and everyone sings for joy.

8 The cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon rejoice over the fallen king, because there is no one to cut them down, now that he is gone!

9 “The world of the dead is getting ready to welcome the king of Babylon. The ghosts of those who were powerful on earth are stirring about. The ghosts of kings are rising from their thrones.

10 They all call out to him, ‘Now you are as weak as we are! You are one of us!

11 You used to be honored with the music of harps, but now here you are in the world of the dead. You lie on a bed of maggots and are covered with a blanket of worms.’”

12 King of Babylon, bright morning star, you have fallen from heaven! In the past you conquered nations, but now you have been thrown to the ground.

13 You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. You thought you would sit like a king on that mountain in the north where the gods assemble.

14 You said you would climb to the tops of the clouds and be like the Almighty.

15 But instead, you have been brought down to the deepest part of the world of the dead.

16 The dead will stare and gape at you. They will ask, “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble?

17 Is this the man who destroyed cities and turned the world into a desert? Is this the man who never freed his prisoners or let them go home?”

18 All the kings of the earth lie in their magnificent tombs,

19 but you have no tomb, and your corpse is thrown out to rot. It is covered by the bodies of soldiers killed in battle, thrown with them into a rocky pit, and trampled down.

20 Because you ruined your country and killed your own people, you will not be buried like other kings. None of your evil family will survive.

21 Let the slaughter begin! The sons of this king will die because of their ancestors’ sins. None of them will ever rule the earth or cover it with cities.

God Will Destroy Babylon

22 The Lord Almighty says, “I will attack Babylon and bring it to ruin. I will leave nothing—no children, no survivors at all. I, the Lord, have spoken.

23 I will turn Babylon into a marsh, and owls will live there. I will sweep Babylon with a broom that will sweep everything away. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.”

God Will Destroy the Assyrians

24 The Lord Almighty has sworn an oath: “What I have planned will happen. What I have determined to do will be done.

25 I will destroy the Assyrians in my land of Israel and trample them on my mountains. I will free my people from the Assyrian yoke and from the burdens they have had to bear.

26 This is my plan for the world, and my arm is stretched out to punish the nations.”

27 The Lord Almighty is determined to do this; he has stretched out his arm to punish, and no one can stop him.

God Will Destroy the Philistines

28 This is a message that was proclaimed in the year that King Ahaz died.

29 People of Philistia, the rod that beat you is broken, but you have no reason to be glad. When one snake dies, a worse one comes in its place. A snake’s egg hatches a flying dragon.

30 The Lord will be a shepherd to the poor of his people and will let them live in safety. But he will send a terrible famine on you Philistines, and it will not leave any of you alive.

31 Howl and cry for help, all you Philistine cities! Be terrified, all of you! A cloud of dust is coming from the north—it is an army with no cowards in its ranks.

32 How shall we answer the messengers that come to us from Philistia? We will tell them that the Lord has established Zion and that his suffering people will find safety there.

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Isaiah 15

God Will Destroy Moab

1 This is a message about Moab.

The cities of Ar and Kir are destroyed in a single night, and silence covers the land of Moab.

2 The people of Dibonclimb the hill to weep at the shrine. The people of Moab wail in grief over the cities of Nebo and Medeba; they have shaved their heads and their beards in grief.

3 The people in the streets are dressed in sackcloth; in the city squares and on the rooftops people mourn and cry.

4 The people of Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, and their cry can be heard as far away as Jahaz. Even the soldiers tremble; their courage is gone.

5 My heart cries out for Moab! The people have fled to the town of Zoar, and to Eglath Shelishiyah. Some climb the road to Luhith, weeping as they go; some escape to Horonaim, grieving loudly.

6 Nimrim Brook is dry, the grass beside it has withered, and nothing green is left.

7 The people go across the Valley of Willows, trying to escape with all their possessions.

8 Everywhere at Moab’s borders the sound of crying is heard. It is heard at the towns of Eglaim and Beerelim.

9 At the town of Dibon the river is red with blood, and God has something even worse in store for the people there. Yes, there will be a bloody slaughter of everyone left in Moab.

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