Isaiah 10-14

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

10 Woe to those who make iniquitous decrees,
    who write oppressive statutes,^(A)
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
    and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
to make widows their spoil
    and to plunder orphans!^(B)
3 What will you do on the day of punishment,
    in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you flee for help,
    and where will you leave your wealth,^(C)
4 so as not to crouch among the prisoners
    or fall among the slain?
For all this his anger has not turned away;
    his hand is stretched out still.^(D)

“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
    and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I have removed the boundaries of peoples
    and have plundered their treasures;
    like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.^(L)
14 My hand has found, like a nest,
    the wealth of the peoples,
and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,
    so I have gathered all the earth,
and there was none that moved a wing
    or opened its mouth or chirped.”^(M)

¹⁵ Shall the ax vaunt itself over the one who wields it
    or the saw magnify itself against the one who handles it?
As if a rod should raise the one who lifts it up,
    or as if a staff should lift the one who is not wood!^(N)
16 Therefore the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,
    will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,
and under his glory a burning will be kindled
    like the burning of fire.^(O)
17 The light of Israel will become a fire
    and his Holy One a flame,
and it will burn and devour
    his thorns and briers in one day.^(P)
18 The glory of his forest and his fruitful land
    the Lord will destroy, both soul and body,
    and it will be as when an invalid wastes away.^(Q)
19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few
    that a child can write them down.^(R)

He has gone up from Samaria;^[c](Y)
28     he has come to Aiath;
he has passed through Migron;
    at Michmash he stores his baggage;^(Z)
29 they have crossed over the pass;
    at Geba they lodge for the night;
Ramah trembles;
    Gibeah of Saul has fled.^(AA)
30 Cry aloud, O daughter Gallim!
    Listen, O Laishah!
    Answer her, O Anathoth!^(AB)
31 Madmenah is in flight;
    the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.^(AC)
32 This very day he will halt at Nob;
    he will shake his fist
    at the mount of daughter Zion,
    the hill of Jerusalem.^(AD)

³³ Look, the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,
    will lop the boughs with terrifying power;
the tallest trees will be cut down,
    and the lofty will be brought low.^(AE)
34 He will hack down the thickets of the forest with an ax,
    and Lebanon with its majestic trees^[d] will fall.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see
    or decide by what his ears hear,^(AH)
4 but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor
    and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.^(AI)
5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist
    and faithfulness the belt around his loins.^(AJ)

⁶ The wolf shall live with the lamb;
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feed^[f] together,
    and a little child shall lead them.
⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
⁹ They will not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.^(AK)

¹² He will raise a signal for the nations
    and will assemble the outcasts of Israel
and gather the dispersed of Judah
    from the four corners of the earth.^(AN)
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart;
    the hostility of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
    and Judah shall not be hostile toward Ephraim.^(AO)
14 But they shall swoop down on the backs of the Philistines in the west;
    together they shall plunder the people of the east.
They shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab,
    and the Ammonites shall obey them.^(AP)
15 And the Lord will dry up^[h]
    the tongue of the sea of Egypt
and will wave his hand over the River
    with his scorching wind
and will split it into seven channels
    and make a way to cross on foot;^(AQ)
16 so there shall be a highway from Assyria
    for the remnant that is left of his people,
as there was for Israel
    when they came up from the land of Egypt.^(AR)

² Surely God is my salvation;
    I will trust and will not be afraid,
for the Lord^[i] is my strength and my might;
    he has become my salvation.”^(AT)

“Give thanks to the Lord;
    call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
    proclaim that his name is exalted.

⁵ Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
    let this be known in all the earth.^(AV)
6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal^[j] Zion,
    for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”^(AW)

² On a bare hill raise a signal;
    cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
    the gates of the nobles.^(AY)
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
    have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,
    to execute my anger.^[k](AZ)

⁴ Listen, a tumult on the mountains
    as of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,
    of nations gathering together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
    an army for battle.^(BA)
5 They come from a distant land,
    from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
    to destroy the whole earth.^(BB)

⁶ Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
    it will come like destruction from the Almighty!^[l](BC)
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
    and every human heart will melt,^(BD)
8     and they will be terrified.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
    they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
    their faces will be aflame.^(BE)
9 See, the day of the Lord is coming,
    cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation
    and to destroy its sinners from it.^(BF)
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
    will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
    and the moon will not shed its light.^(BG)
11 I will punish the world for its evil
    and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
    and lay low the insolence of tyrants.^(BH)
12 I will make mortals more rare than fine gold
    and humans than the gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
    and the earth will be shaken out of its place
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
    in the day of his fierce anger.^(BI)
14 Like a gazelle on the run
    or like sheep with no one to gather them,
all will turn back to their own people,
    and all will flee to their own lands.^(BJ)
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
    and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed to pieces
    before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
    and their wives raped.^(BK)
17 See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
    who have no regard for silver
    and do not delight in gold.^(BL)
18 Their bows will slaughter the young men;
    they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
    their eyes will not pity children.^(BM)
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
    the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
    when God overthrew them.^(BN)
20 It will never be inhabited
    or lived in for all generations;
Arabs will not pitch their tents there;
    shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.^(BO)
21 But wild animals will lie down there,
    and its houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will live,
    and there goat-demons will dance.^(BP)
22 Hyenas will cry in its towers
    and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand;
    and its days will not be prolonged.^(BQ)

How the oppressor has ceased!
    How his insolence^[n] has ceased!^(BU)
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
    the scepter of rulers,
⁶ that struck down the peoples in wrath
    with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
    with unrelenting persecution.^(BV)
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
    they break forth into singing.
⁸ The cypresses exult over you,
    the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you were laid low,
    no one comes to cut us down.”^(BW)
9 Sheol beneath is stirred up
    to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
    all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
    all who were kings of the nations.^(BX)
10 All of them will speak
    and say to you:
“You, too, have become as weak as we!
    You have become like us!”
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
    and the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
    and worms are your covering.^(BY)

¹² How you are fallen from heaven,
    O Morning Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
    you who laid the nations low!^(BZ)
13 You said to yourself,
    “I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
    above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
    on the heights of Zaphon;^[o](CA)
14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds;
    I will make myself like the Most High.”^(CB)
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
    to the depths of the Pit.^(CC)
16 Those who see you will stare at you
    and ponder over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
    who shook kingdoms,^(CD)
17 who made the world like a desert
    and overthrew its cities,
    who would not let his prisoners go home?”^(CE)
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
    each in his own tomb,
¹⁹ but you are cast out, away from your grave,
    like loathsome carrion,^[p]
clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword,
    who go down to the stones of the Pit
    like a corpse trampled underfoot.^(CF)
20 You will not be joined with them in burial
    because you have destroyed your land;
    you have killed your people.

May the descendants of evildoers
    nevermore be named!^(CG)
21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons
    because of the guilt of their father.^[q]
Let them never rise to possess the earth
    or cover the face of the world with cities.^(CH)

²⁹ Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
    that the rod that struck you is broken,
for from the root of the snake will come forth an adder,
    and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.^(CP)
30 In my pastures the poor^[s] will graze
    and the needy lie down in safety,
but I will make your root die of famine,
    and your remnant I^[t] will kill.^(CQ)
31 Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
    melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes out of the north,
    and there is no straggler in its ranks.^(CR)

³² What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
“The Lord has founded Zion,
    and the needy among his people
    will find refuge in her.”^(CS)