Isaiah 20-36

Tree of Life Version

⁸ Then he cried out like a lion:
“Upon the watch tower, Adonai, I stand continually in the daytime,
    and stay at my post every night.
⁹ Look! Here comes a chariot of men,
    with a pair of horsemen.”
Then one answered and said,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon!
All the images of her gods
    are broken on the ground.”
¹⁰ O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,
what I heard from Adonai Tzva’ot, God of Israel,
I have declared to you.

¹¹ The burden of Dumah^[b]:
One calls to me from Seir,
“Watchman, what is left of the night?
Watchman, what is left of the night?”
¹² The watchman said,
“Morning comes, yet also it is night.”
If you would inquire, inquire.
Come back again.”

¹³ The burden of Arabia:
In the desert brush of Arabia you will stay for the night,
you caravans of Dedanites.
¹⁴ To him who is thirsty bring water,
inhabitants of the land of Tema,
    meet the fugitive with food.
¹⁵ For they fled from swords,
from drawn sword,
from bent bow
    and distress of war.

³ All your rulers have fled together,
then captured without a bow.
All who were caught were taken into exile together,
    though they had fled far off.

⁴ Therefore I said, “Look away from me!
Let me weep bitterly—
don’t try to comfort me
    about the ruin of the daughter of my people.”

⁵ For my Lord Adonai-Tzva’ot has a day
of panic, trampling and confusion—
in the Valley of Vision—
of tearing down a wall,
a catastrophe on the mountain.
⁶ Elam took up the quiver,
with chariots of men and horsemen,
and Kir uncovered the shield.

¹² Now in that day, Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot
will call for weeping and wailing,
for baldness and putting on sackcloth.
¹³ But instead, there is joy and gladness,
slaughtering cattle and killing sheep,
meat and drinking wine!
“Let’s eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we will die!”
¹⁴ But Adonai-Tzva’ot revealed in my ears:
“Surely this sin will not be atoned for until you die,”
    says my Lord Adonai-Tzva’ot.

Wail, ships of Tarshish!
For Tyre is destroyed.
There is no house and no harbor.
From the land of Cyprus,
    it was revealed to them.
² Be still, inhabitants of the coastland,
you merchants of Sidon,
your messengers crossing the sea.
³ On many waters the grain of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile was her revenue
and a marketplace of nations.
⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon.
For the sea has spoken,
    the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have not writhed or given birth.
I have not reared young men or brought up maidens.”
⁵ When the report reaches Egypt,
they will be in anguish at the report about Tyre.
⁶ Cross over to Tarshish.
Wail, you inhabitants of the island!
⁷ Is this your jubilant city?
Whose antiquity is from long ago,
whose feet have taken her
    to settle in far off lands?
⁸ Who planned this against Tyre,
the crowning city,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of earth?
⁹ Adonai-Tzva’ot has planned it,
to defile the pride of all glory,
to shame all the honored of earth.
¹⁰ Overflow through your land like the Nile,
O daughter of Tarshish!
There is no restraint any more.
¹¹ His hand has stretched out over the sea,
He has shaken the kingdoms.
Adonai has given a commandment concerning Canaan,
    to destroy its strongholds.
¹² He said, “You will exult no more.”
O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, cross over to Cyprus—
even there you will have no rest.
¹³ Look, the land of the Chaldeans—
this is the people who no longer exist.
Assyria set it up for desert animals.
They set up their siege towers;
    they stripped its palaces;
    they made it a ruin.
¹⁴ Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For your stronghold is destroyed.

¹⁶ “Take a harp, stroll about the city,
    forgotten harlot!
Skillfully play many songs,
so you may be remembered.”

¹⁷ Panic, pit and trap are upon you,
O inhabitant of the earth.
¹⁸ And it shall come to pass:
whoever flees from the sound of panic
    will fall in the pit,
and whoever climbs up out of the pit
    will be caught in the trap.
For the windows of heaven are opened
and the foundations of the earth shake.
¹⁹ The earth is broken apart,
the earth is split open,
the earth is shaken utterly.
²⁰ The earth reels to and fro like a drunk,
    and sways like a hut.
its transgression is so heavy upon it
that it will fall and never rise again.
²¹ It will come about in that day,
Adonai will punish the host of heaven on high,
    and the kings of the earth on the earth.
²² They will be gathered together,
    like prisoners in the Pit,
and will be shut up in the prison,
    and after many days be punished.
²³ Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed,
for Adonai-Tzva’ot will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
    and before His elders, gloriously.

⁶ On this mountain, Adonai-Tzva’ot
will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples—
a banquet of aged wine—
of rich food, of choice marrow, of aged wine well refined.
⁷ On this mountain He will swallow up
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the veil spread over all nations.
⁸ He will swallow up death forever.^[d]
my Lord Adonai will wipe away tears from every face.^[e]
He will remove His people’s reproach from all the earth.
For Adonai has spoken.

⁹ It will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God,
We waited for Him—He will save us.
This is Adonai—we waited for Him.
We will rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
¹⁰ For the hand of Adonai will rest on this mountain.
Moab will be trampled under Him,
as straw is trampled in a manure pile.
¹¹ When he spreads his hands in it
as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim,
his pride will be brought down low
together with the trickery of his hands.
¹² He will level your high-fortified walls,
lay them low,
    and cast them down to the ground,
    down to dust.

⁶ Feet will trample it down,
feet of the afflicted,
the footsteps of the poor.
⁷ The way of the righteous is straight.
Upright One, You make smooth the path of the righteous.
⁸ Yes, in the way of Your judgments,
Adonai, we have waited for You.
Your Name and Your remembrance
    is the desire of our soul.
⁹ My soul longs for You at night,
yes, my spirit within me seeks You.
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰ Though grace is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness.
Even in a land of uprightness he will act wrongly,
not perceiving the majesty of Adonai.
¹¹ Adonai, Your hand is lifted up,
yet they do not see it;
They will see Your zeal for the people and be put to shame.
Yes, fire will devour Your enemies.

¹⁹ Yet it will be:
“Your dead will live!
    My corpses will rise!
Awake and shout for joy,
    you who dwell in the dust!
Your dew is like the dew of the dawn.
The land of dead souls will come to life!

²⁰ Go, my people, enter your rooms,
and shut your doors behind you.
Hide for a little while,
    until the wrath is past.
²¹ For behold, Adonai is coming out from His place
to punish inhabitants of the earth for iniquity.
The earth will disclose her bloodshed,
    no longer covering up her slain.

¹² It will come about in that day,
Adonai will thresh from the channel of the River to the Wadi of Egypt,
and you will be gathered one by one, Bnei-Yisrael.

⁵ In that day Adonai-Tzva’ot
will be a crown of glory,
a diadem of beauty
to the remnant of His people,
⁶ a spirit of judgment for him
    who sits on the judgment seat,
and strength for those
    turning back the battle at the gate.
⁷ But these also reel from wine
and stagger from strong drink
—the kohen and the prophet reel from strong drink—
are confused because of wine,
they stagger because of strong drink,
they are muddled in vision,
they stumble in judgment.
⁸ Since all the tables are full of the filth of vomit,
no place is left.

⁹ To whom will He teach knowledge?
To whom will He explain the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?
¹⁰ For it must be ‘precept upon precept,
precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.’
¹¹ For through stammering lips and a foreign tongue
He will speak to this people,
¹² To whom He said,
    “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,
    here is repose”—but they would not listen.
¹³ So the word of Adonai is to them
‘precept on precept, precept on precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.’
So they walk, and fall backward,
and are broken, trapped, and captured.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of Adonai, you scoffers,
who rule this people who are in Jerusalem:
¹⁵ “Because you have said,
‘We cut a covenant with death,
    we made a pact with Sheol,
so when the overflowing scourge passes through,
    it won’t come for us,
for we have made lies our refuge,
    and hid ourselves in falsehood’—
¹⁶ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim:
‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
    a tested stone,
    a costly cornerstone,^[h] a firm foundation—
whoever trusts will not flee in haste.^[i]
17 But I will make justice the measuring line
    and righteousness the plumb line.
Hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and water will overflow the hiding place.
¹⁸ Your covenant with death is annulled,
and your pact with Sheol will not stand.
An overflowing scourge will pass through
    and you will be its trampling place.
¹⁹ As often as it passes through, it will seize you—
    morning by morning, by day and by night passing through.
It will be sheer terror
    to understand the message.’”

²⁰ For too short is the bed to stretch on,
too narrow the blanket to wrap up in.

²¹ For Adonai will rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He will quake with awe as at the valley of Gibeon,
to do His deed, His strange deed,
    and to work His work, His extraordinary work.

²² So now, stop your scoffing,
lest your shackles be strengthened!
For I have heard from Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot
of destruction determined upon the whole land.

²³ Give ear and hear my voice!
Pay attention and hear my words.
²⁴ Does a plowman plow all day to sow the seed?
Does he continually break open
    and harrow his ground?
²⁵ No! When he has leveled its surface,
he scatters dill and sows cumin,
plants wheat in rows,
    places barley, and rye on its border.
²⁶ For his God teaches him judgment,
instructing him.
²⁷ For dill is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin.
Rather, dill is beaten out with a staff,
    and cumin with a rod.
²⁸ Bread grain is crushed, but not endlessly.
Rumbling cart wheels and horses over it
    would only crush it to powder.
²⁹ This also comes from Adonai-Tzva’ot:
Wonderful is His counsel, great is His wisdom.

⁷ It will be like a dream, a night vision:
the multitude of all the nations warring against Ariel,
    yes, all warring against her,
    the ramparts around her and her besiegers.
⁸ It will be like a hungry man dreaming and behold, he is eating,
but awakes with his hunger unsatisfied,
or like a thirsty man dreaming and behold, he is drinking,
but awakes faint, his soul thirsting.
So it will be with the multitude of all the nations
    warring against Mount Zion.
⁹ Wait, and be astounded!
Blind yourselves, and be blind!
Drunk, but not with wine,
Stagger, but not with strong drink.
¹⁰ For Adonai has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep,
and has shut your eyes—the prophets,
and covered your heads—the seers.

¹³ So Adonai says,
    “Since these people draw near with their mouths
        and honor Me with their lips,
    yet their hearts are far from Me,
        and their fear of Me is a mitzvah taught by men.^[k]
14 Therefore, behold, once more I will do a marvelous work among this people—
a marvel and a wonder—
so the wisdom of their wise will perish,
and the discernment of their discerning will be concealed.”
¹⁵ Oy, those who go to great depths
    to hide their plans from Adonai!
Their works are in the dark.
They say, “Who sees us?
    Who knows us?”
¹⁶ Your perversity!
    Should the potter be regarded the same as the clay?
Should the thing made say to its maker,
    “You did not make me”?
Or the thing formed say of its former,
    “You have no understanding?”^[l]
17 Will it not be just a very little while
before Lebanon turns into a garden,
and a garden will seem like a forest?
¹⁸ In that day the deaf will hear words of a book,
and out of gloom and darkness
    the eyes of the blind will see.
¹⁹ The meek will add to their joy in Adonai,
and the needy of humanity will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰ For the ruthless will come to an end
and the scorner will be finished,
and all watching to do evil cut off.
²¹ Those who make a man out to be guilty with a word,
and trap him who reproves at the gate,
and deny justice with meaninglessness.
²² Therefore, thus says Adonai, Redeemer of Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
no longer will his face grow pale;
²³ for when he sees his children,
the work of My hands in his midst,
they will sanctify My Name;
they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴ Those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will learn instruction.”

¹² Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
“Because you despise this word,
    and trust in oppression
    and rely on perversity,
¹³ therefore this sin will be to you
like a crack bulging in a high wall, about to fall—
    its collapse comes suddenly,
in an instant!
¹⁴ Its collapse is like smashing a clay jar,
so ruthlessly shattered
that a shard will not be found among the pieces
to take fire from the hearth
or scoop water from the cistern.”

“This is the way, walk in it.
When you turn to the right, or when you turn to the left.”

²⁵ There will be, on every high mountain and on every lofty hill,
    streams running with water—
on a day of the great slaughter,
    when the towers fall.
²⁶ Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—
    like the light of seven days—
in the day Adonai binds up the brokenness of His people,
and heals the wounds He inflicted.
²⁷ Look, Adonai’s Name comes from afar,
burning with His anger, in thick rising smoke,
His lips full of indignation,
    His tongue like a consuming fire,
²⁸ His Ruach like an overflowing torrent
        rising up to the neck,
    to sift the nations with the sieve of the worthless,
    to put in the jaws of the peoples
        a bridle that leads away.

²⁹ You will have songs
as in the night when you keep a holy festival,
and gladness of heart
    like one walking with the flute
    to go to the mountain of Adonai,
        to the Rock of Israel.

² Yet He is also wise.
He brings disaster, and does not take back His words.
He rises against the house of evildoers,
against help for workers of iniquity.
³ Now Egyptians are men and not God,
and their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When Adonai stretches out His hand,
    both he who helps will stumble
    and he who is helped will fall,
    and both will perish together.

⁹ Rise up, you women at ease,
    And hear my voice.
You complacent daughters,
    give ear to my words.
¹⁰ Within a year and a few days
you will shudder, complacent ones.
For the grape harvest will fail
and the gathering will not come.
¹¹ Tremble, you women at ease!
Shudder, you complacent ones!
Strip and make yourselves bare,
and put sackcloth on your waist.
¹² Beat your breasts lamenting for pleasant fields,
or fruitful vine,
¹³ for the land of my people,
    where thorns and briars come up,
for all the joyful houses
    of the jubilant city.

¹⁴ For the palace will be abandoned;
the bustling city will be deserted;
the citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,
    a delight of wild donkeys,
    a pasture for flocks,
¹⁵ until the Ruach is poured out on us from on high,^[o]
and the desert becomes a garden,
and a garden seems like a forest.
¹⁶ Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in the garden.
¹⁷ The result of righteousness will be shalom
and the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
¹⁸ My people will live in a peaceful place,
in secure dwellings,
quiet resting places.
¹⁹ Then hail will flatten the forest;
and the city will be utterly laid low.
²⁰ Blessed are you, sowing by all waters,
letting the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.

² Adonai, be gracious to us!
We long for You.
Be our strength every morning,
    our salvation in time of trouble.
³ From the noise of tumult people will flee;
When You lift Yourself up, the nations will be scattered.
⁴ Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
like a swarm of locusts, they are rushing over it.

⁵ Adonai is exalted, for He dwells on high!
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶ It will be your time of faithfulness,
a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge—
the fear of Adonai is His treasure.

⁷ Behold, heroes cry outside.
Ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
⁸ Highways are desolate;
travel has ceased;
covenant is broken;
cities are despised;
there is no regard for humanity.
⁹ The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is shamed and withers;
Sharon is like a wilderness;
Bashan and Carmel are shaken bare.

¹⁴ Sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?”
“Who among us can live with everlasting burnings?”
¹⁵ One who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly,
who refuses unjust gain by extortion,
who shakes his hands free of bribes,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
and shuts his eyes from looking on evil.
¹⁶ He will dwell on the heights—
his refuge will be an impregnable cliff.
His bread will be provided,
    his water assured.
¹⁷ Your eyes will see the King in His beauty.
They will gaze at a far-distant land.

¹⁸ Your heart will meditate on terror:
“Where is the counter?”
“Where is the weigher?”
“Where is the counter of towers?”
¹⁹ You will no longer see the fierce people,
the people of speech too obscure to comprehend,
with a stammering tongue no one understands.

²⁰ Look upon Zion, city of our Festivals.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem as a quiet home,
    a tent that will never be folded,
        Its stakes never pulled up,
        its cords never broken.
²¹ For there the majestic One, Adonai, will be for us—
a place of rivers and wide canals,
on which no boat with oars will go,
nor any mighty ship will travel by.
²² For Adonai is our Judge,
Adonai is our Lawgiver,
Adonai is our King—
He will save us!
²³ Your cords hang slack,
not holding the mast in place firmly,
    nor spreading out the sail.
Then abundant spoil will be divided—
    even the lame will carry off plunder.
²⁴ No inhabitant will say, “I am sick.”
The people dwelling there will be forgiven their iniquity.