Yeshayah 1-3

Orthodox Jewish Bible

1 The chazon (vision) of Yeshayah ben Amotz, which he saw concerning Yehudah and Yerushalayim in the yamim of Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz, and Yechizkiyahu, melachim of Yehudah.

² Hear, O Shomayim, and give ear, O Eretz, for Hashem hath spoken; I have nourished and brought up banim, and they have rebelled against Me [i.e., willfully flouted My authority. See Yeshayah 53:5,8].

³ The ox knoweth his owner, and the donkey his master’s manger; but Yisroel doth not know, My people doth not consider.

⁴ Ah, goy choteh (sinful nation), a people weighed down with avon (guilt, iniquity), zera of evildoers, banim of corruption; they forsook Hashem, they have spurned the Kadosh Yisroel (the Holy One of Yisroel), they have turned their back on Him. [T.N. Here we see it is 'My people’ (Ex 6:6-7) who are stricken, whereas in Yeshayah 53:8 it is Moshiach Ben Dovid who is stricken for My people.]

⁵ Why, seeing that ye will be stricken again, will ye rebel stubbornly again? The kol rosh is sick, and the kol levav faint.

⁶ From the sole of the regel even unto the rosh there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither soothed with shemen.

⁷ Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with eish; your land, zarim devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by zarim.

⁸ And the Bat Tziyon (i.e., Yerushalayim) is left as a sukkah in a kerem (vineyard), as a shack in a cucumber field, as an ir (city) under siege.

⁹ Except Hashem Tzva’os had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Amora (Gomorrah).

¹⁰ Hear the Devar Hashem, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the Torat Eloheinu, ye people of Amora (Gomorrah).

¹¹ To what purpose is the multitude of your zevakhim unto Me? saith Hashem; I am fed up of the olot (burnt offerings) of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the dahm of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

¹² When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample khatzerai (My courts)?

¹³ Bring no more futile minchot; ketoret is an abomination unto Me; Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) and Shabbos, the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure aven (wickedness) and atzarah (solemn convocation).

¹⁴ Your Rosh Chodesh and your Mo’adim My Nefesh hateth; they are a burden unto Me; I am weary to bear them.

¹⁵ And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many tefillah, I will not hear; your hands are full of dahmim.

¹⁶ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil;

¹⁷ Learn to do good; seek mishpat, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the almanah.

¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, saith Hashem; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

¹⁹ If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of ha’aretz;

²⁰ But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the cherev; for the mouth of Hashem hath spoken.

²¹ How is the Kiryah Ne’emanah (Faithful City, i.e., Yerushalayim) become a zonah (harlot)! It was full of mishpat; tzedek lodged in it; but now murderers.

²² Thy kesef is become dross, thy wine mixed with mayim:

²³ Thy sarim (princes) are rebellious, and companions of ganavim: every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards: they give no justice to the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the almanah come unto them.

²⁴ Therefore saith HaAdon, Hashem Tzva’os, Avir Yisroel (the Mighty One of Yisroel), Ah, I will relieve Myself of Mine adversaries, and avenge Me of Mine enemies:

²⁵ And I will turn My hand upon thee, and refine away thy impurities, and take away all thy alloy:

²⁶ And I will restore thy shofetim as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The Ir HaTzedek, the Kiryah Ne’emanah.

²⁷ Tziyon shall be redeemed with mishpat, and those in her who make teshuvah with tzedakah.

²⁸ And the destruction of the poshe’im and of the chote’im shall be together, and they that forsake Hashem shall be consumed.

²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the sacred oaks which ye have delighted in, and ye shall blush for the gannot (gardens) that ye have chosen.

³⁰ For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no mayim. [T.N. The unquenchable fire of the apostate in the first chapter points to the unquenchable fire of Gehinnom in the last verse of the last chapter (66:24) and the loathesomeness of those there—Daniel 12:2].

³¹ And the strong shall be as tinder, and the maker of it [the idol] as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

2 The Davar that Yeshayah ben Amotz saw concerning Yehudah and Yerushalayim.

² And it shall come to pass in the acharit hayamim, that the Har Beis Hashem shall be established as the rosh of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all the Goyim shall flow unto it.

³ And amim rabbim (many peoples) shall come and say, Come ye, and let us go up to Har Hashem, to the Beis Elohei Ya’akov; and He will teach us of His Derakhim, and we will walk in His Orakhot; for out of Tziyon shall go forth the torah, and the Devar Hashem from Yerushalayim.

⁴ And He shall judge among the Goyim, and shall arbitrate for amim rabbim; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Goy shall not lift up cherev against Goy, neither shall they train for milchamah any more.

⁵ O Bais Ya’akov, come ye, and let us walk in the Ohr Hashem.

⁶ Therefore Thou hast abandoned Thy people Bais Ya’akov, because they have found their fullness from Kedem (the East), and practice divination like the Pelishtim, and they clasp hands contentedly with yaldei nochrim (children of foreigners).

⁷ Their land also is full of kesef and zahav, neither is there any end of their otzarot; their land is also full of susim, neither is there any end of their merkevot:

⁸ Their land also is full of elilim; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own etzbe’ot have made;

⁹ And adam are humbled and ish are brought low; therefore forgive them not.

¹⁰ Enter into the Tzur, and hide thee in the aphar, for pachad Hashem, and for the hadar of His majesty.

¹¹ The lofty looks of adam shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of anashim shall be brought low, and Hashem alone shall be exalted in Yom Hahu.

¹² For the Yom L’Hashem Tzva’os shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

¹³ And upon all the cedars of Levanon, that are high and lofty, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,

¹⁴ And upon kol heharim, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,

¹⁵ And upon every lofty migdal, and upon every fortified chomah (wall),

¹⁶ And upon all the oniyyot of Tarshish, and upon all the beautiful ships.

¹⁷ And the haughtiness of adam shall be humbled, and the pride of anashim shall be brought low; and Hashem alone shall be exalted in Yom Hahu.

¹⁸ And the elilim shall utterly pass away.

¹⁹ And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of aphar, for pachad (terror of) Hashem, and for the hadar of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake ha’aretz.

²⁰ In Yom Hahu a man shall cast his elilei kesef, and his elilei zahav, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

²¹ To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the crags before pachad (terror) of Hashem, and for the hadar of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake ha’aretz.

²² Cease ye from HaAdam, whose neshamah is in his nostrils: for of what account is he?

3 For, hinei, HaAdon, Hashem Tzva’os, doth take away from Yerushalayim and from Yehudah supply and support, the whole supply of lechem, and the whole supply of mayim.

² The Gibbor, and the Ish Milchamah, the Shofet, and the Navi, the Diviner, and the Zaken,

³ The sar chamishim, the men of rank and yo’etz (counselor), and masters in art, and the expert enchanter.

⁴ And I will make ne’arim (lads) to be their sarim, and babes shall rule over them.

⁵ And HaAm shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his re’a; the na’ar shall behave himself proudly against the zaken, and the base against the honorable.

⁶ When an ish shall take hold of his brother of his bais avi, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our katzin, and let this ruin be under thy yad;

⁷ In Yom Hahu shall he protest, saying, I am no curer of your ills; for in my bais is neither lechem nor simlah (clothing); make me not a Katzin Am.

⁸ For Yerushalayim is ruined, and Yehudah fallen; because their leshon and their deeds are against Hashem, to provoke the eyes of His kavod.

⁹ The show of their countenance doth testify against them; and they make known their chet like S’dom; they conceal it not. Oy to their nefesh! For they do ra’ah unto themselves.

¹⁰ Say ye to the tzaddik, that it shall be tov with him; for they shall eat the p’ri of their deeds.

¹¹ Oy to the rasha! It shall be rah with him; for what his hands have wrought will be done to him.

¹² As for My people, children are their nogesim (taskmasters), and nashim rule over them. O My people, they which lead thee cause thee to go astray, misleading and swallowing up the Derech Orkhot (way of paths) of thee.

¹³ Hashem hath stood to accuse, and standeth for Din (judging) the Amim (Nations).

¹⁴ Hashem will enter into mishpat with the Ziknei Amo (Elders of His People), and the sarim thereof; for ye have eaten up the kerem (vineyard); the plunder of the oni is in your batim (houses).

¹⁵ What mean ye that ye crush Ami, and grind the faces of the aniyim? saith Adonoi Hashem Tzva’os.

¹⁶ Moreover Hashem saith, Because the Banot Tziyon are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and winking [flirtatious] eyes, walking and tripping along as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet [ankle rings];

¹⁷ Therefore Adonoi will strike with a scab the kodkod (top of the head) Banot Tziyon, and Hashem will lay bare their nakedness.

¹⁸ In Yom Hahu, Adonoi will take away the fine show of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their headbands, and their crescent necklaces,

¹⁹ The earrings, and the bracelets, and the veils,

²⁰ The diadems, and the ankle chains, and the girdles, and the perfume bottles, and the lechashim (amulets),

²¹ The taba’ot (rings), and nose rings,

²² The machalatzot (festal robes), and the mantles, and the cloaks, and the charitim (money purses),

²³ The hand mirrors, and the sedinim (linen coverings), and the tzenifot (turbans), and the veils.

²⁴ And it shall come to pass, that instead of fragrance there shall be stench; and instead of a sash, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich cloak, a wrapping of sak (sackcloth); and branding instead of yofi (beauty).

²⁵ Thy men shall fall by the cherev, and thy gevurah in milchamah.

²⁶ And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon ha’aretz.