Lexicon :: Strong's H1530 - gal

‘Have you not heard [asks the God of Israel]?

Long ago I did it;

From ancient times I planned it.

Now I have brought it to pass,

That you [king of Assyria] should [be My instrument to] turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

“His [godless] roots are wrapped around a pile of rocks,

And he gazes at a house of stones.

And he has lived in desolate [God-forsaken] cities,

In houses which no one should inhabit,

Which were destined to become heaps [of ruins];

And said, ‘This far you shall come, but no farther;

And here your proud waves shall stop’?

Deep calls to deep at the [thundering] sound of Your waterfalls;

All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

Who stills the roaring of the seas,

The roaring of their waves,

And the tumult of the peoples,

You rule the swelling of the sea;

When its waves rise, You still them.

For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind,

Which lifted up the waves of the sea.

He hushed the storm to a gentle whisper,

So that the waves of the sea were still.

“A garden enclosed is my sister, my [promised] bride—

A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up.

For You have made a city into a heap [of trash],

A fortified city into a ruin;

A palace of [fn]foreigners is no longer a city,

It will never be rebuilt.

“Have you not heard [says the God of Israel]

That I did it long ago,

That I planned it in ancient times?

Now I have brought it to pass,

That you [king of Assyria] would [be My instrument to] turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

“Oh, that you had paid attention to My commandments!

Then your peace and prosperity would have been like a [flowing] river,

And your righteousness [the holiness and purity of the nation] like the [abundant] waves of the sea.

‘Do you not fear Me?’ says the LORD.

‘Do you not tremble [in awe] in My presence?

For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,

An eternal decree and a perpetual barrier beyond which it cannot pass.

Though the waves [of the sea] toss and break, yet they cannot prevail [against the sand ordained to hold them back];

Though the waves and the billows roar, yet they cannot cross over [the barrier].

[Is not such a God to be feared?]

“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,

A haunt and dwelling place of jackals;

And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

Thus says the LORD,

Who gives the sun for light by day

And the fixed order of the moon and of the stars for light by night,

Who stirs up the sea’s roaring billows or stills the waves when they roar;

The LORD of hosts is His name:

“Babylon will become a heap [of ruins], a haunt and dwelling place of jackals,

An object of horror (an astonishing desolation) and a hissing [of scorn and amazement], without inhabitants.

“The sea has come up over Babylon;

She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.

For the LORD is going to destroy Babylon and make her a ruin,

And He will still her great voice [that hums with city life].

And the waves [of her conquerors] roar like great waters,

The noise of their voices is raised up [like the marching of an army].

Is there wickedness (idolatry) in Gilead?

Surely the people there are worthless.

In Gilgal [they defy Me when] they sacrifice bulls,

Yes, [after My judgment] their [pagan] altars are like the stone heaps

In the furrows of the fields.

“For You cast me into the deep,

Into the [deep] heart of the seas,

And the currents surrounded and engulfed me;

All Your breakers and billowing waves passed over me.

“And they will pass through the sea of distress and anxiety [with the LORD leading His people, as at the Red Sea]

And He will strike the waves in the sea,

So that all the depths of the Nile will dry up;

And the pride of Assyria will be brought down

And the scepter [of the taskmasters] of Egypt will pass away.