Isaiah 39-41
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Hezekiah’s Folly
39 At that time(A) Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil—and all his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries.(B) There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.(C)
3 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?”
Hezekiah replied, “They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon.”
4 Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?”
Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything in my palace. There isn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of Hosts:(D) 6 ‘The time will certainly come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.(E) 7 ‘Some of your descendants who come from you will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,” for he thought: There will be peace and security during my lifetime.(F)
God’s People Comforted
40 “Comfort, comfort My people,”(G)
says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to[a] Jerusalem,
and announce to her
that her time of forced labor is over,
her iniquity(H) has been pardoned,(I)
and she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.”(J)
3 A voice of one crying out:
Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness;(K)
make a straight highway for our God in the desert.(L)
4 Every valley will be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled;
the uneven ground will become smooth
and the rough places, a plain.(M)
5 And the glory of the Lord will appear,(N)
and all humanity[b] together will see it,(O)
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.(P)
6 A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
Another[c] said, “What should I cry out?”
“All humanity is grass,(Q)
and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.(R)
7 The grass withers, the flowers fade
when the breath[d] of the Lord blows on them;[e]
indeed, the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flowers fade,(S)
but the word of our God remains forever.”(T)
9 Zion, herald of good news,
go up on a high mountain.(U)
Jerusalem, herald of good news,(V)
raise your voice loudly.
Raise it, do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”(W)
10 See, the Lord God comes with strength,
and His power establishes His rule.(X)
His reward is with Him,(Y)
and His gifts accompany Him.
11 He protects His flock like a shepherd;(Z)
He gathers the lambs in His arms
and carries them in the fold of His garment.
He gently leads those that are nursing.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?(AA)
Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure
or weighed the mountains in a balance
and the hills in the scales?
13 Who has directed[f] the Spirit of the Lord,
or who gave Him His counsel?(AB)
14 Who did He consult with?
Who gave Him understanding(AC)
and taught Him the paths of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge
and showed Him the way of understanding?
15 Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are considered as a speck of dust in the scales;
He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not enough for fuel,
or its animals enough for a burnt offering.(AD)
17 All the nations are as nothing before Him;
they are considered by Him
as nothingness and emptiness.(AE)
18 Who will you compare God with?
What likeness will you compare Him to?(AF)
19 To an idol?—something that a smelter casts,
and a metalworker plates with gold
and makes silver welds for it?(AG)
20 To one who shapes a pedestal,
choosing wood that does not rot?[g]
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not fall over.(AH)
21 Do you not know?(AI)
Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you
from the beginning?
Have you not considered
the foundations of the earth?(AJ)
22 God is enthroned above the circle of the earth;
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.(AK)
He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth(AL)
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.(AM)
23 He reduces princes to nothing(AN)
and makes judges of the earth irrational.
24 They are barely planted, barely sown,
their stem hardly takes root in the ground
when He blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.(AO)
25 “Who will you compare Me to,(AP)
or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.
26 Look up[h] and see:
who created(AQ) these?
He brings out the starry host by number;
He calls all of them by name.(AR)
Because of His great power and strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Jacob, why do you say,
and Israel, why do you assert:
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my claim is ignored by my God”?(AS)
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Yahweh is the everlasting God,(AT)
the Creator of the whole earth.
He never grows faint or weary;
there is no limit to His understanding.(AU)
29 He gives strength to the weary
and strengthens the powerless.
30 Youths may faint and grow weary,
and young men stumble and fall,
31 but those who trust in the Lord
will renew their strength;(AV)
they will soar on wings like eagles;(AW)
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not faint.
The Lord versus the Nations’ Gods
41 “Be silent before Me, islands!(AX)
And let peoples renew their strength.
Let them approach, then let them testify;
let us come together for the trial.
2 Who has stirred him up from the east?(AY)
He calls righteousness to his feet.[i](AZ)
The Lord hands nations over to him,(BA)
and he subdues kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
like wind-driven stubble with his bow.
3 He pursues them, going on safely,
hardly touching the path with his feet.
4 Who has performed and done this,
calling the generations from the beginning?
I, Yahweh, am the first,
and with the last(BB)—I am He.”(BC)
5 The islands see and are afraid,
the whole earth trembles.(BD)
They approach and arrive.
6 Each one helps the other,
and says to another, “Take courage!”
7 The craftsman encourages the metalworker;(BE)
the one who flattens with the hammer
supports the one who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good.”
He fastens it with nails so that it will not fall over.(BF)
8 But you, Israel, My servant,(BG)
Jacob, whom I have chosen,(BH)
descendant of Abraham, My friend(BI)—
9 I brought[j] you from the ends of the earth
and called you from its farthest corners.
I said to you: You are My servant;
I have chosen you and not rejected you.(BJ)
10 Do not fear, for I am with you;(BK)
do not be afraid, for I am your God.(BL)
I will strengthen you; I will help you;
I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.(BM)
11 Be sure that all who are enraged against you
will be ashamed and disgraced;(BN)
those who contend with you
will become as nothing and will perish.
12 You will look for those who contend with you,
but you will not find them.
Those who war against you
will become absolutely nothing.
13 For I, Yahweh your God,(BO)
hold your right hand
and say to you: Do not fear,
I will help you.
14 Do not fear, you worm Jacob,(BP)
you men[k] of Israel:
I will help you—
this is the Lord’s declaration.
Your Redeemer(BQ) is the Holy One of Israel.(BR)
15 See, I will make you into a sharp threshing board,
new, with many teeth.
You will thresh mountains and pulverize them
and make hills into chaff.(BS)
16 You will winnow them(BT)
and a wind will carry them away,
a gale will scatter them.
But you will rejoice in the Lord;
you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.
17 The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, Yahweh, will answer them;(BU)
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the barren heights,(BV)
and springs in the middle of the plains.
I will turn the desert into a pool of water
and dry land into springs of water.(BW)
19 I will plant cedars in the desert,
acacias, myrtles, and olive trees.(BX)
I will put juniper trees in the desert,
elms and cypress trees together,
20 so that all may see and know,
consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,(BY)
the Holy One of Israel has created(BZ) it.
21 “Submit your case,” says the Lord.
“Present your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.
22 “Let them come and tell us
what will happen.(CA)
Tell us the past events,
so that we may reflect on them
and know the outcome,
or tell us the future.
23 Tell us the coming events,(CB)
then we will know that you are gods.
Indeed, do something good or bad,
then we will be in awe[l] and perceive.
24 Look, you are nothing(CC)
and your work is worthless.
Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
25 “I have raised up one from the north,(CD) and he has come,
one from the east(CE) who invokes My[m] name.(CF)
He will march over rulers as if they were mud,
like a potter who treads the clay.
26 Who told about this from the beginning,
so that we might know,
and from times past,
so that we might say: He is right?
No one announced it,
no one told it,
no one heard your words.
27 I was the first to say to Zion:[n]
Look! Here they are!
And I gave a herald of good news to Jerusalem.(CG)
28 When I look, there is no one;
there is no counselor among them;
when I ask them, they have nothing to say.(CH)
29 Look, all of them are a delusion;[o]
their works are nonexistent;
their images are wind and emptiness.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 40:2 Lit Speak to the heart of
- Isaiah 40:5 Lit flesh
- Isaiah 40:6 DSS, LXX, Vg read I
- Isaiah 40:7 Or wind, or Spirit
- Isaiah 40:7 Lit it
- Isaiah 40:13 Or measured, or comprehended
- Isaiah 40:20 Or who is too poor for such an offering, or who chooses mulberry wood as a votive gift; Hb obscure
- Isaiah 40:26 Lit Lift up your eyes on high
- Isaiah 41:2 Hb obscure
- Isaiah 41:9 Or seized
- Isaiah 41:14 LXX reads small number; DSS read dead ones
- Isaiah 41:23 DSS read we may hear
- Isaiah 41:25 DSS read his
- Isaiah 41:27 Lit First to Zion
- Isaiah 41:29 DSS, Syr read are nothing
Revelation 14
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The Lamb and the 144,000
14 Then I looked, and there on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with Him were 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads.(A) 2 I heard a sound[a] from heaven like the sound of cascading waters(B) and like the rumbling of loud thunder. The sound I heard was also like harpists playing on their harps.(C) 3 They sang[b] a new song(D) before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders,(E) but no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed[c] from the earth. 4 These are the ones not defiled with women, for they have kept their virginity.(F) These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They were redeemed[d][e] from the human race as the firstfruits(G) for God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.(H)
The Proclamation of Three Angels
6 Then I saw another angel flying high overhead,(I) having the eternal gospel to announce to the inhabitants of the earth—to every nation, tribe, language, and people.(J) 7 He spoke with a loud voice: “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”
8 A second angel[f] followed, saying: “It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen,[g] who made all nations drink the wine of her sexual immorality,[h] which brings wrath.”(K)
9 And a third angel[i] followed them and spoke with a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, which is mixed full strength in the cup of His anger.(L) He will be tormented with fire and sulfur(M) in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb, 11 and the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever.(N) There is no rest[j] day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or anyone who receives the mark of his name. 12 This demands the perseverance[k] of the saints,(O) who keep God’s commands and their faith in Jesus.”[l]
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write: The dead who die in the Lord from now on are blessed.”(P)
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “let them rest from their labors, for their works follow them!”
Reaping the Earth’s Harvest
14 Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and One like the Son of Man[m](Q) was seated on the cloud, with a gold crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. 15 Another angel came out of the sanctuary, crying out in a loud voice to the One who was seated on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap, for the time to reap has come, since the harvest of the earth is ripe.”(R) 16 So the One seated on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
17 Then another angel who also had a sharp sickle came out of the sanctuary in heaven. 18 Yet another angel, who had authority over fire, came from the altar, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from earth’s vineyard, because its grapes have ripened.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle toward earth and gathered the grapes from earth’s vineyard, and he threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.(S) 20 Then the press was trampled outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press up to the horses’ bridles for about 180 miles.[n](T)
Footnotes
- Revelation 14:2 Or voice
- Revelation 14:3 Other mss add as it were
- Revelation 14:3 Or purchased
- Revelation 14:4 Other mss add by Jesus
- Revelation 14:4 Or purchased
- Revelation 14:8 Lit Another angel, a second
- Revelation 14:8 Other mss omit the second has fallen
- Revelation 14:8 Or wine of her passionate immorality
- Revelation 14:9 Lit Another angel, a third
- Revelation 14:11 Lit They have no rest
- Revelation 14:12 Lit Here is the perseverance
- Revelation 14:12 Or and faith in Jesus, or and faithfulness to Jesus
- Revelation 14:14 Or like a son of man
- Revelation 14:20 Lit 1,600 stadia
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.
