²⁶ For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.

²⁷ For as many [of you] as were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah] have put on (clothed yourselves with) Christ.

²⁸ There is [now no distinction] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male ^[a]and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

²⁹ And if you belong to Christ [are in Him Who is Abraham’s Seed], then you are Abraham’s offspring and [spiritual] heirs according to promise.

4 Now what I mean is that as long as the inheritor (heir) is a child and under age, he does not differ from a slave, although he is the master of all the estate;

² But he is under guardians and administrators or trustees until the date fixed by his father.

³ So we [Jewish Christians] also, when we were minors, were kept like slaves under [the rules of the Hebrew ritual and subject to] the elementary teachings of a system of external observations and regulations.

⁴ But when the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to [the regulations of] the Law,

⁵ To purchase the freedom of (to ransom, to redeem, to ^[b]atone for) those who were subject to the Law, that we might be adopted and have sonship conferred upon us [and be recognized as God’s sons].

⁶ And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the [^[c]Holy] Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba (Father)! Father!

⁷ Therefore, you are no longer a slave (bond servant) but a son; and if a son, then [it follows that you are] an heir ^[d]by the aid of God, through Christ.

⁸ But at that previous time, when you had not come to be acquainted with and understand and know the true God, you [Gentiles] were in bondage to gods who by their very nature could not be gods at all [gods that really did not exist].

⁹ Now, however, that you have come to be acquainted with and understand and know [the true] God, or rather to be understood and known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly and worthless elementary things [^[e]of all religions before Christ came], whose slaves you once more want to become?

¹⁰ You observe [particular] days and months and seasons and years!

¹¹ I am alarmed [about you], lest I have labored among and over you to no purpose and in vain.

¹² Brethren, I beg of you, become as I am [free from the bondage of Jewish ritualism and ordinances], for I also have become as you are [^[f]a Gentile]. You did me no wrong [^[g]in the days when I first came to you; do not do it now].

¹³ On the contrary, you know that it was on account of a bodily ailment that [I remained and] preached the Gospel to you the first time.

¹⁴ And [yet] although my physical condition was [such] a trial to you, you did not regard it with contempt, or scorn and loathe and reject me; but you received me as an angel of God, [even] as Christ Jesus [Himself]!

¹⁵ What has become of that blessed enjoyment and satisfaction and self-congratulation that once was yours [in what I taught you and in your regard for me]? For I bear you witness that you would have torn out your own eyes and have given them to me [to replace mine], if that were possible.

¹⁶ Have I then become your enemy by telling the truth to you and dealing sincerely with you?

¹⁷ These men [the Judaizing teachers] are zealously trying to dazzle you [paying court to you, making much of you], but their purpose is not honorable or worthy or for any good. What they want to do is to isolate you [from us who oppose them], so that they may win you over to their side and get you to court their favor.

¹⁸ It is always a fine thing [of course] to be zealously sought after [as you are, provided that it is] for a good purpose and done ^[h]by reason of purity of heart and life, and not just when I am present with you!

¹⁹ My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you,

²⁰ Would that I were with you now and could coax you vocally, for I am fearful and perplexed about you!

1 The vision [seen by spiritual perception] of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah [the kingdom] and Jerusalem [its capital] in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

² Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and brought up sons and have made them great and exalted, but they have rebelled against Me and broken away from Me.

³ The ox [instinctively] knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib, but Israel does not know or recognize Me [as Lord], My people do not consider or understand.

⁴ Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised and shown contempt and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they have become utterly estranged (alienated).

⁵ Why should you be stricken and punished any more [since it brings no correction]? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint (feeble, sick, and nauseated).

⁶ From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness or health in [the nation’s body]—but wounds and bruises and fresh and bleeding stripes; they have not been pressed out and closed up or bound up or softened with oil. [No one has troubled to seek a remedy.]

⁷ [Because of your detestable disobedience] your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land—strangers devour it in your very presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by aliens.

⁸ And the Daughter of Zion [Jerusalem] is left like a [deserted] booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, like a besieged city [spared, but in the midst of desolation].

⁹ Except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant [of survivors], we should have been like Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah.^(A)

¹⁰ Hear [O Jerusalem] the word of the Lord, you rulers or judges of [another] Sodom! Give ear to the law and the teaching of our God, you people of [another] Gomorrah!

¹¹ To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me [unless they are the offering of the heart]? says the Lord. I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts [without obedience]; and I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of he-goats [without righteousness].

¹² When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you that your [unholy feet] trample My courts?

¹³ Bring no more offerings of vanity (emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and futility); [your hollow offering of] incense is an abomination to Me; the New Moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure—[it is] iniquity and profanation, even the solemn meeting.

¹⁴ Your New Moon festivals and your [hypocritical] appointed feasts My soul hates. They are an oppressive burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵ And when you spread forth your hands [in prayer, imploring help], I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood!

¹⁶ Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes! Cease to do evil,

¹⁷ Learn to do right! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.

¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

²⁰ But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

²¹ How the faithful city has become an [idolatrous] harlot, she who was full of justice! Uprightness and right standing with God [once] lodged in her—but now murderers.

²² Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water.

²³ Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes and runs after compensation and rewards. They judge not for the fatherless nor defend them, neither does the cause of the widow come to them [for they delay or turn a deaf ear].

²⁴ Therefore says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will appease Myself on My adversaries and avenge Myself on My enemies.

²⁵ And I will bring My hand again upon you and thoroughly purge away your dross [as with lye] and take away all your tin or alloy.

²⁶ And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning; afterward you shall be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.

²⁷ Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her [returned] converts with righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God).

²⁸ But the crushing and destruction of rebels and sinners shall be together, and they who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

²⁹ For you will be ashamed [of the folly and degradation] of the oak or terebinth trees in which you found [idolatrous] pleasure, and you will blush with shame for the [idolatrous worship which you practice in the passion-inflaming] gardens which you have chosen.

³⁰ For you shall be like an oak or terebinth whose leaf withers, and like a garden that has no water.

³¹ And the strong shall become like tow and become tinder, and his work like a spark, and they shall both burn together, with none to quench them.

2 The word which Isaiah son of Amoz saw [revealed] concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

² It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be [firmly] established as the highest of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it.

³ And many people shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

⁴ And He shall judge between the nations and shall decide [disputes] for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.^(B)

⁵ O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

⁶ Surely [Lord] You have rejected and forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled [with customs] from the east and with soothsayers [who foretell] like the Philistines; also they strike hands and make pledges and agreements with the children of aliens.^(C)

⁷ Their land also is full of silver and gold; neither is there any end to their treasures. Their land is also full of horses; neither is there any end to their chariots.^(D)

⁸ Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, what their own fingers have made.

⁹ And the common man is bowed down [before idols], also the great man is brought low and humbles himself—therefore forgive them not [O Lord].

¹⁰ Enter into the rock and hide yourself in the dust from before the terror of the Lord and from the glory of His majesty.

¹¹ The proud looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be humbled; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹² For there shall be a day of the Lord of hosts against all who are proud and haughty and against all who are lifted up—and they shall be brought low—^(E)

¹³ [The wrath of God will begin by coming down] against all the cedars of Lebanon [west of the Jordan] that are high and lifted up, and against all the oaks of Bashan [east of the Jordan],

¹⁴ And [after that] against all the high mountains and all the hills that are lifted up,

¹⁵ And against every high tower and every fenced wall,

¹⁶ And against all the ships of Tarshish and all the picturesque and desirable imagery [designed for mere ornament and luxury].

¹⁷ Then the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹⁸ And the idols shall utterly pass away (be abolished).

¹⁹ Then shall [the stricken, deprived of all in which they had trusted] go into the caves of the rocks and into the holes of the earth from before the terror and dread of the Lord and from before the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake mightily and terribly the earth.^(F)

²⁰ In that day men shall cast away to the moles and to the bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship,

²¹ To go into the caverns of the rocks and into the clefts of the ragged rocks from before the terror and dread of the Lord and from before the glory of His majesty, when He rises to shake mightily and terribly the earth.

²² Cease to trust in [weak, frail, and dying] man, whose breath is in his nostrils [for so short a time]; in what sense can he be counted as having intrinsic worth?