Isaiah 29-50

New King James Version

Woe to Jerusalem

29 “Woe ^(A)to ^[a]Ariel, to Ariel, the city ^(B)where David dwelt!
Add year to year;
Let feasts come around.
²Yet I will distress Ariel;
There shall be heaviness and sorrow,
And it shall be to Me as Ariel.
³I will encamp against you all around,
I will lay siege against you with a mound,
And I will raise siegeworks against you.
⁴You shall be brought down,
You shall speak out of the ground;
Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;
Your voice shall be like a medium’s, ^(C)out of the ground;
And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

⁵“Moreover the multitude of your ^(D)foes
Shall be like fine dust,
And the multitude of the terrible ones
Like ^(E)chaff that passes away;
Yes, it shall be ^(F)in an instant, suddenly.
⁶^(G)You will be punished by the Lord of hosts
With thunder and ^(H)earthquake and great noise,
With storm and tempest
And the flame of devouring fire.
⁷^(I)The multitude of all the nations who fight against ^[b]Ariel,
Even all who fight against her and her fortress,
And distress her,
Shall be ^(J)as a dream of a night vision.
⁸^(K)It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,
And look—he eats;
But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;
Or as when a thirsty man dreams,
And look—he drinks;
But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,
And his soul still craves:
So the multitude of all the nations shall be,
Who fight against Mount Zion.”

The Blindness of Disobedience

⁹Pause and wonder!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
^(L)They are drunk, ^(M)but not with wine;
They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.
¹⁰For ^(N)the Lord has poured out on you
The spirit of deep sleep,
And has ^(O)closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, ^(P)the seers.

¹¹The whole vision has become to you like the words of a ^[c]book ^(Q)that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”

^(R)And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

¹²Then the book is delivered to one who ^[d]is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I am not literate.”

¹³Therefore the Lord said:

^(S)“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me ^(T)with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
¹⁴^(U)Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
^(V)For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”

¹⁵^(W)Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,
And their works are in the dark;
^(X)They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”
¹⁶Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the ^(Y)thing made say of him who made it,
“He did not make me”?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

Future Recovery of Wisdom

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while
Till ^(Z)Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?
¹⁸^(AA)In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book,
And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
¹⁹^(AB)The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,
And ^(AC)the poor among men shall rejoice
In the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰For the ^[e]terrible one is brought to nothing,
^(AD)The scornful one is consumed,
And all who ^(AE)watch for iniquity are cut off—
²¹Who make a man an offender by a word,
And ^(AF)lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
And turn aside the just ^(AG)by empty words.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord, ^(AH)who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall not now be ^(AI)ashamed,
Nor shall his face now grow pale;
²³But when he sees his children,
^(AJ)The work of My hands, in his midst,
They will hallow My name,
And hallow the Holy One of Jacob,
And fear the God of Israel.
²⁴These also ^(AK)who erred in spirit will come to understanding,
And those who complained will learn doctrine.”

Futile Confidence in Egypt

30 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,
^(AL)“Who take counsel, but not of Me,
And who ^[f]devise plans, but not of My Spirit,
^(AM)That they may add sin to sin;
²^(AN)Who walk to go down to Egypt,
And ^(AO)have not asked My advice,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
³^(AP)Therefore the strength of Pharaoh
Shall be your shame,
And trust in the shadow of Egypt
Shall be your humiliation.
⁴For his princes were at ^(AQ)Zoan,
And his ambassadors came to Hanes.
⁵^(AR)They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them,
Or be help or benefit,
But a shame and also a reproach.”

⁶^(AS)The ^[g]burden against the beasts of the South.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
From which came the lioness and lion,
^(AT)The viper and fiery flying serpent,
They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys,
And their treasures on the humps of camels,
To a people who shall not profit;
⁷^(AU)For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.
Therefore I have called her
^[h]Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.

A Rebellious People

⁸Now go, ^(AV)write it before them on a tablet,
And note it on a scroll,
That it may be for time to come,
Forever and ever:
⁹That ^(AW)this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who will not hear the law of the Lord;
¹⁰^(AX)Who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things;
^(AY)Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
¹¹Get out of the way,
Turn aside from the path,
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To cease from before us.”

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:

“Because you ^(AZ)despise this word,
And trust in oppression and perversity,
And rely on them,
¹³Therefore this iniquity shall be to you
^(BA)Like a breach ready to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose breaking ^(BB)comes suddenly, in an instant.
¹⁴And ^(BC)He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,
Which is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare.
So there shall not be found among its fragments
^[i]A shard to take fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the cistern.”

¹⁵For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:

^(BD)“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
^(BE)But you would not,
¹⁶And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!

¹⁷^(BF)One thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
At the threat of five you shall flee,
Till you are left as a ^[j]pole on top of a mountain
And as a banner on a hill.

God Will Be Gracious

¹⁸Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be ^(BG)gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
^(BH)Blessed are all those who ^(BI)wait for Him.

¹⁹For the people ^(BJ)shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem;
You shall ^(BK)weep no more.
He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
When He hears it, He will ^(BL)answer you.
²⁰And though the Lord gives you
^(BM)The bread of adversity and the water of ^[k]affliction,
Yet ^(BN)your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.
²¹Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you ^(BO)turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
²²^(BP)You will also defile the covering of your images of silver,
And the ornament of your molded images of gold.
You will throw them away as an unclean thing;
^(BQ)You will say to them, “Get away!”

²³^(BR)Then He will give the rain for your seed
With which you sow the ground,
And bread of the increase of the earth;
It will be ^[l]fat and plentiful.
In that day your cattle will feed
In large pastures.
²⁴Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground
Will eat cured fodder,
Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.
²⁵There will be ^(BS)on every high mountain
And on every high hill
Rivers and streams of waters,
In the day of the ^(BT)great slaughter,
When the towers fall.
²⁶Moreover ^(BU)the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound.

Judgment on Assyria

²⁷Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
Burning with His anger,
And His burden is heavy;
His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue like a devouring fire.
²⁸^(BV)His breath is like an overflowing stream,
^(BW)Which reaches up to the neck,
To sift the nations with the sieve of futility;
And there shall be ^(BX)a bridle in the jaws of the people,
Causing them to err.

²⁹You shall have a song
As in the night when a holy festival is kept,
And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute,
To come into ^(BY)the mountain of the Lord,
To ^[m]the Mighty One of Israel.
³⁰^(BZ)The Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard,
And show the descent of His arm,
With the indignation of His anger
And the flame of a devouring fire,
With scattering, tempest, ^(CA)and hailstones.
³¹For ^(CB)through the voice of the Lord
Assyria will be ^[n]beaten down,
As He strikes with the ^(CC)rod.
³²And in every place where the staff of punishment passes,
Which the Lord lays on him,
It will be with tambourines and harps;
And in battles of ^(CD)brandishing He will fight with it.
³³^(CE)For Tophet was established of old,
Yes, for the king it is prepared.
He has made it deep and large;
Its pyre is fire with much wood;
The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,
Kindles it.

The Folly of Not Trusting God

31 Woe to those ^(CF)who go down to Egypt for help,
And ^(CG)rely on horses,
Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
^(CH)Nor seek the Lord!
²Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster,
And ^(CI)will not ^[o]call back His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers,
And against the help of those who work iniquity.
³Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;
And their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out His hand,
Both he who helps will fall,
And he who is helped will fall down;
They all will perish ^(CJ)together.

God Will Deliver Jerusalem

⁴For thus the Lord has spoken to me:

^(CK)“As a lion roars,
And a young lion over his prey
(When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him,
He will not be afraid of their voice
Nor be disturbed by their noise),
So the Lord of hosts will come down
To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
⁵^(CL)Like birds flying about,
So will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.
Defending, He will also deliver it;
Passing over, He will preserve it.”

⁶Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have ^(CM)deeply revolted. ⁷For in that day every man shall ^(CN)throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—^(CO)sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.

⁸“Then Assyria shall ^(CP)fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of mankind shall ^(CQ)devour him.
But he shall flee from the sword,
And his young men shall become forced labor.
⁹^(CR)He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear,
And his princes shall be afraid of the banner,”
Says the Lord,
Whose fire is in Zion
And whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

A Reign of Righteousness

32 Behold, ^(CS)a king will reign in righteousness,
And princes will rule with justice.
²A man will be as a hiding place from the wind,
And ^(CT)a ^[p]cover from the tempest,
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
³^(CU)The eyes of those who see will not be dim,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.
⁴Also the heart of the ^[q]rash will ^(CV)understand knowledge,
And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The foolish person will no longer be called ^[r]generous,
Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
⁶For the foolish person will speak foolishness,
And his heart will work ^(CW)iniquity:
To practice ungodliness,
To utter error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry unsatisfied,
And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
⁷Also the schemes of the schemer are evil;
He devises wicked plans
To destroy the poor with ^(CX)lying words,
Even when the needy speaks justice.
⁸But a ^[s]generous man devises generous things,
And by generosity he shall stand.

Consequences of Complacency

⁹Rise up, you women ^(CY)who are at ease,
Hear my voice;
You complacent daughters,
Give ear to my speech.
¹⁰In a year and some days
You will be troubled, you complacent women;
For the vintage will fail,
The gathering will not come.
¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease;
Be troubled, you complacent ones;
Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare,
And gird sackcloth on your waists.

¹²People shall mourn upon their breasts
For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
¹³^(CZ)On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers,
Yes, on all the happy homes in ^(DA)the joyous city;
¹⁴^(DB)Because the palaces will be forsaken,
The bustling city will be deserted.
The forts and towers will become lairs forever,
A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
¹⁵Until ^(DC)the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
And ^(DD)the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

The Peace of God’s Reign

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
¹⁷^(DE)The work of righteousness will be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
¹⁸My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation,
In secure dwellings, and in quiet ^(DF)resting places,
¹⁹^(DG)Though hail comes down ^(DH)on the forest,
And the city is brought low in humiliation.

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
Who send out freely the feet of ^(DI)the ox and the donkey.

A Prayer in Deep Distress

33 Woe to you ^(DJ)who plunder, though you have not been plundered;
And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you!
^(DK)When you cease plundering,
You will be ^(DL)plundered;
When you make an end of dealing treacherously,
They will deal treacherously with you.

²O Lord, be gracious to us;
^(DM)We have waited for You.
Be ^[t]their arm every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of trouble.
³At the noise of the tumult the people ^(DN)shall flee;
When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered;
⁴And Your plunder shall be gathered
Like the gathering of the caterpillar;
As the running to and fro of locusts,
He shall run upon them.

⁵^(DO)The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times,
And the strength of salvation;
The fear of the Lord is His treasure.

⁷Surely their valiant ones shall cry outside,
^(DP)The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
⁸^(DQ)The highways lie waste,
The traveling man ceases.
^(DR)He has broken the covenant,
^[u]He has despised the ^[v]cities,
He regards no man.
⁹^(DS)The earth mourns and languishes,
Lebanon is shamed and shriveled;
Sharon is like a wilderness,
And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

Impending Judgment on Zion

¹⁰“Now^(DT) I will rise,” says the Lord;
“Now I will be exalted,
Now I will lift Myself up.
¹¹^(DU)You shall conceive chaff,
You shall bring forth stubble;
Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
¹²And the people shall be like the burnings of lime;
^(DV)Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
¹³Hear, ^(DW)you who are afar off, what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid;
Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites:
“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring ^(DX)fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
¹⁵He who ^(DY)walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
He who despises the gain of oppressions,
Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
And ^(DZ)shuts his eyes from seeing evil:
¹⁶He will dwell on ^[w]high;
His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks;
Bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.

The Land of the Majestic King

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King in His ^(EA)beauty;
They will see the land that is very far off.
¹⁸Your heart will meditate on terror:
^(EB)“Where is the scribe?
Where is he who weighs?
Where is he who counts the towers?”
¹⁹^(EC)You will not see a fierce people,
^(ED)A people of obscure speech, beyond perception,
Of a ^[x]stammering tongue that you cannot understand.

²⁰^(EE)Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see ^(EF)Jerusalem, a quiet home,
A tabernacle that will not be taken down;
^(EG)Not one of ^(EH)its stakes will ever be removed,
Nor will any of its cords be broken.
²¹But there the majestic Lord will be for us
A place of broad rivers and streams,
In which no ^[y]galley with oars will sail,
Nor majestic ships pass by
²²(For the Lord is our ^(EI)Judge,
The Lord is our ^(EJ)Lawgiver,
^(EK)The Lord is our King;
He will save us);
²³Your tackle is loosed,
They could not strengthen their mast,
They could not spread the sail.

Then the prey of great plunder is divided;
The lame take the prey.
²⁴And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”;
^(EL)The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.

Judgment on the Nations

34 Come ^(EM)near, you nations, to hear;
And heed, you people!
^(EN)Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
The world and all things that come forth from it.
²For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations,
And His fury against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to the ^(EO)slaughter.
³Also their slain shall be thrown out;
^(EP)Their stench shall rise from their corpses,
And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
⁴^(EQ)All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
^(ER)All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as ^(ES)fruit falling from a fig tree.

⁵“For ^(ET)My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it ^(EU)shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
⁶The ^(EV)sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is made ^[z]overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For ^(EW)the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust ^[aa]saturated with fatness.”

⁸For it is the day of the Lord’s ^(EX)vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
⁹^(EY)Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
¹⁰It shall not be quenched night or day;
^(EZ)Its smoke shall ascend forever.
^(FA)From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
¹¹^(FB)But the ^[ab]pelican and the ^[ac]porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And ^(FC)He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³And ^(FD)thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
^(FE)It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
¹⁴The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the ^[ad]jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also ^[ae]the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
¹⁵There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.

¹⁶“Search from ^(FF)the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail;
Not one shall lack her mate.
For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”

The Future Glory of Zion

35 The ^(FG)wilderness and the ^[af]wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the ^(FH)desert^[ag] shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
²^(FI)It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice,
Even with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the ^(FJ)glory of the Lord,
The excellency of our God.

³^(FK)Strengthen the ^[ah]weak hands,
And make firm the ^[ai]feeble knees.
⁴Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with ^(FL)vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and ^(FM)save you.”

⁵Then the ^(FN)eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And ^(FO)the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
⁶Then the ^(FP)lame shall leap like a deer,
And the ^(FQ)tongue of the dumb sing.
For ^(FR)waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
⁷The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In ^(FS)the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸A ^(FT)highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
^(FU)The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
⁹^(FV)No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,
¹⁰And the ^(FW)ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And ^(FX)sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Sennacherib Boasts Against the Lord^(FY)

36 Now ^(FZ)it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. ²Then the king of Assyria sent the ^[aj]Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. ³And ^(GA)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, ^(GB)Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

⁴^(GC)Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What confidence is this in which you trust? ⁵I say you speak of having plans and power for war; but they are ^[ak]mere words. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? ⁶Look! You are trusting in the ^(GD)staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who ^(GE)trust in him.

⁷“But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” ’ ⁸Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! ⁹How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ¹⁰Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in ^[al]Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you?”

¹³Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; ¹⁵nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ’ ¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; ^(GF)and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the ^(GG)gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered ^(GH)Samaria from my hand? ²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

²¹But they ^[am]held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” ²²Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Isaiah Assures Deliverance^(GI)

37 And ^(GJ)so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. ²Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of ^(GK)trouble and rebuke and ^[an]blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. ⁴It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ^(GL)reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer^(GM)

⁸Then the Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to make war with you.” So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? ¹²Have the ^(GN)gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of ^(GO)Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’ ”

¹⁴And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: ¹⁶“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You ^(GP)alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷^(GQ)Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and ^(GR)hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. ¹⁸Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their ^(GS)lands, ¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were ^(GT)not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. ²⁰Now therefore, O Lord our God, ^(GU)save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may ^(GV)know that You are the Lord, You alone.”

The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib^(GW)

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
Has shaken her head behind your back!

²³“Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
²⁴By your servants you have reproached the Lord,
And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter its farthest height,
To its fruitful forest.
²⁵I have dug and drunk water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of ^[ao]defense.’

²⁶“Did you not hear ^(GX)long ago
How I made it,
From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
²⁷Therefore their inhabitants had little power;
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.

²⁸“But I know your dwelling place,
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.
²⁹Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to My ears,
Therefore ^(GY)I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will ^(GZ)turn you back
By the way which you came.” ’

³⁰“This shall be a sign to you:

You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
And the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
³¹And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.
³²For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
The ^(HA)zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

³³“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:

‘He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.
³⁴By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the Lord.
³⁵‘For I will ^(HB)defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant ^(HC)David’s sake.’ ”

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death^(HD)

³⁶Then the ^(HE)angel^[ap] of the Lord went out, and ^[aq]killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. ³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. ³⁸Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then ^(HF)Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah’s Life Extended^(HG)

38 In ^(HH)those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ^(HI)‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, ³and said, ^(HJ)“Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a ^[ar]loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your ^(HK)sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years. ⁶I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and ^(HL)I will defend this city.” ’ ⁷And this is ^(HM)the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing which He has spoken: ⁸Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.

⁹This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰I said,
“In the prime of my life
I shall go to the gates of Sheol;
I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”
¹¹I said,
“I shall not see ^[as]Yah,
The Lord ^(HN)in the land of the living;
I shall observe man no more ^[at]among the inhabitants of ^[au]the world.
¹²^(HO)My life span is gone,
Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent;
I have cut off my life like a weaver.
He cuts me off from the loom;
From day until night You make an end of me.
¹³I have considered until morning—
Like a lion,
So He breaks all my bones;
From day until night You make an end of me.
¹⁴Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered;
^(HP)I mourned like a dove;
My eyes fail from looking upward.
O ^[av]Lord, I am oppressed;
^[aw]Undertake for me!

¹⁵“What shall I say?
^[ax]He has both spoken to me,
And He Himself has done it.
I shall walk carefully all my years
^(HQ)In the bitterness of my soul.
¹⁶O Lord, by these things men live;
And in all these things is the life of my spirit;
So You will restore me and make me live.
¹⁷Indeed it was for my own peace
That I had great bitterness;
But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
¹⁸For ^(HR)Sheol cannot thank You,
Death cannot praise You;
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
¹⁹The living, the living man, he shall praise You,
As I do this day;
^(HS)The father shall make known Your truth to the children.

²⁰“The Lord was ready to save me;
Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments
All the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.”

²¹Now ^(HT)Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”

²²And ^(HU)Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”

The Babylonian Envoys^(HV)

39 At ^(HW)that time ^[ay]Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. ²^(HX)And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?”

So Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a ^(HY)far country, from Babylon.”

⁴And he said, “What have they seen in your house?”

So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ⁶‘Behold, the days are coming ^(HZ)when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ⁷‘And they shall take away some of your ^(IA)sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

⁸So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ^(IB)“The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.”

God’s People Are Comforted^(IC)

40 “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
²“Speak ^[az]comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
^(ID)For she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double for all her sins.”

³^(IE)The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
^(IF)“Prepare the way of the Lord;
^(IG)Make straight ^[ba]in the desert
A highway for our God.
⁴Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
^(IH)The crooked places shall be made ^[bb]straight
And the rough places smooth;
⁵The ^(II)glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

⁶The voice said, “Cry out!”
And ^[bc]he said, “What shall I cry?”

^(IJ)“All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
⁷The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
⁸The grass withers, the flower fades,
But ^(IK)the word of our God stands forever.”

⁹O Zion,
You who bring good tidings,
Get up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem,
You who bring good tidings,
Lift up your voice with strength,
Lift it up, be not afraid;
Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

¹⁰Behold, the Lord God shall come ^[bd]with a strong hand,
And ^(IL)His arm shall rule for Him;
Behold, ^(IM)His reward is with Him,
And His ^[be]work before Him.
¹¹He will ^(IN)feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.

¹²^(IO)Who has measured the ^[bf]waters in the hollow of His hand,
Measured heaven with a ^[bg]span
And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?
Weighed the mountains in scales
And the hills in a balance?
¹³^(IP)Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His counselor has taught Him?
¹⁴With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,
And ^(IQ)taught Him in the path of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge,
And showed Him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket,
And are counted as the small dust on the scales;
Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.
¹⁶And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.
¹⁷All nations before Him are as ^(IR)nothing,
And ^(IS)they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.

¹⁸To whom then will you ^(IT)liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
¹⁹^(IU)The workman molds an image,
The goldsmith overspreads it with gold,
And the silversmith casts silver chains.
²⁰Whoever is too impoverished for such ^[bh]a contribution
Chooses a tree that will not rot;
He seeks for himself a skillful workman
^(IV)To prepare a carved image that will not totter.

²¹^(IW)Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
²²It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who ^(IX)stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a ^(IY)tent to dwell in.
²³He ^[bi]brings the ^(IZ)princes to nothing;
He makes the judges of the earth useless.

²⁴Scarcely shall they be planted,
Scarcely shall they be sown,
Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth,
When He will also blow on them,
And they will wither,
And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.

²⁵“To^(JA) whom then will you liken Me,
Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who has created these things,
Who brings out their host by number;
^(JB)He calls them all by name,
By the greatness of His might
And the strength of His power;
Not one is missing.

²⁷^(JC)Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel:
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
And my just claim is passed over by my God”?
²⁸Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
^(JD)His understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
³¹But those who ^(JE)wait on the Lord
^(JF)Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Israel Assured of God’s Help

41 “Keep ^(JG)silence before Me, O coastlands,
And let the people renew their strength!
Let them come near, then let them speak;
Let us ^(JH)come near together for judgment.

²“Who raised up one ^(JI)from the east?
Who in righteousness called him to His feet?
Who ^(JJ)gave the nations before him,
And made him rule over kings?
Who gave them as the dust to his sword,
As driven stubble to his bow?
³Who pursued them, and passed ^[bj]safely
By the way that he had not gone with his feet?
⁴^(JK)Who has performed and done it,
Calling the generations from the beginning?
‘I, the Lord, am ^(JL)the first;
And with the last I am ^(JM)He.’ ”

⁵The coastlands saw it and feared,
The ends of the earth were afraid;
They drew near and came.
⁶^(JN)Everyone helped his neighbor,
And said to his brother,
^[bk]“Be of good courage!”
⁷^(JO)So the craftsman encouraged the ^(JP)goldsmith;^[bl]
He who smooths with the hammer inspired him who strikes the anvil,
Saying, ^[bm]“It is ready for the soldering”;
Then he fastened it with pegs,
^(JQ)That it might not totter.

⁸“But you, Israel, are My servant,
Jacob whom I have ^(JR)chosen,
The descendants of Abraham My ^(JS)friend.
⁹You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its farthest regions,
And said to you,
‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and have not cast you away:
¹⁰^(JT)Fear not, ^(JU)for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

¹¹“Behold, all those who were incensed against you
Shall be ^(JV)ashamed and disgraced;
They shall be as nothing,
And those who strive with you shall perish.
¹²You shall seek them and not find them—
^[bn]Those who contended with you.
Those who war against you
Shall be as nothing,
As a nonexistent thing.
¹³For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand,
Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’

¹⁴“Fear not, you ^(JW)worm Jacob,
You men of Israel!
I will help you,” says the Lord
And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵“Behold, ^(JX)I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth;
You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small,
And make the hills like chaff.
¹⁶You shall ^(JY)winnow them, the wind shall carry them away,
And the whirlwind shall scatter them;
You shall rejoice in the Lord,
And ^(JZ)glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷“The poor and needy seek water, but there is none,
Their tongues fail for thirst.
I, the Lord, will hear them;
I, the God of Israel, will not ^(KA)forsake them.
¹⁸I will open ^(KB)rivers in desolate heights,
And fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the ^(KC)wilderness a pool of water,
And the dry land springs of water.
¹⁹I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree,
The myrtle and the oil tree;
I will set in the ^(KD)desert the cypress tree and the pine
And the box tree together,
²⁰^(KE)That they may see and know,
And consider and understand together,
That the hand of the Lord has done this,
And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Futility of Idols

²¹“Present your case,” says the Lord.
“Bring forth your strong reasons,” says the ^(KF)King of Jacob.
²²“Let^(KG) them bring forth and show us what will happen;
Let them show the ^(KH)former things, what they were,
That we may ^[bo]consider them,
And know the latter end of them;
Or declare to us things to come.
²³^(KI)Show the things that are to come hereafter,
That we may know that you are gods;
Yes, ^(KJ)do good or do evil,
That we may be dismayed and see it together.
²⁴Indeed ^(KK)you are nothing,
And your work is nothing;
He who chooses you is an abomination.

²⁵“I have raised up one from the north,
And he shall come;
From the ^[bp]rising of the sun ^(KL)he shall call on My name;
^(KM)And he shall come against princes as though mortar,
As the potter treads clay.
²⁶^(KN)Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know?
And former times, that we may say, ‘He is righteous’?
Surely there is no one who shows,
Surely there is no one who declares,
Surely there is no one who hears your words.
²⁷^(KO)The first time ^(KP)I said to Zion,
‘Look, there they are!’
And I will give to Jerusalem one who brings good tidings.
²⁸^(KQ)For I looked, and there was no man;
I looked among them, but there was no counselor,
Who, when I asked of them, could answer a word.
²⁹^(KR)Indeed they are all ^[bq]worthless;
Their works are nothing;
Their molded images are wind and confusion.

The Servant of the Lord

42 “Behold! ^(KS)My Servant whom I uphold,
My ^[br]Elect One in whom My soul ^(KT)delights!
^(KU)I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
²He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
³A bruised reed He will not break,
And ^[bs]smoking flax He will not ^[bt]quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
⁴He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
^(KV)And the coastlands shall wait for His law.”

⁵Thus says God the Lord,
^(KW)Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
^(KX)Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:
⁶“I,^(KY) the Lord, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You ^(KZ)and give You as a covenant to the people,
As ^(LA)a light to the Gentiles,
⁷^(LB)To open blind eyes,
To ^(LC)bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in ^(LD)darkness from the prison house.
⁸I am the Lord, that is My name;
And My ^(LE)glory I will not give to another,
Nor My praise to carved images.
⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Praise to the Lord

¹⁰^(LF)Sing to the Lord a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth,
^(LG)You who go down to the sea, and ^[bu]all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!
¹¹Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
The villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains.
¹²Let them give glory to the Lord,
And declare His praise in the coastlands.
¹³The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man;
He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.
He shall cry out, ^(LH)yes, shout aloud;
He shall prevail against His enemies.

Promise of the Lord’s Help

¹⁴“I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now I will cry like a woman in ^[bv]labor,
I will pant and gasp at once.
¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills,
And dry up all their vegetation;
I will make the rivers coastlands,
And I will dry up the pools.
¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them.
¹⁷They shall be ^(LI)turned back,
They shall be greatly ashamed,
Who trust in carved images,
Who say to the molded images,
‘You are our gods.’

¹⁸“Hear, you deaf;
And look, you blind, that you may see.
¹⁹^(LJ)Who is blind but My servant,
Or deaf as My messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as he who is perfect,
And blind as the Lord’s servant?
²⁰Seeing many things, ^(LK)but you do not observe;
Opening the ears, but he does not hear.”

Israel’s Obstinate Disobedience

²¹The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake;
He will exalt the law and make it honorable.
²²But this is a people robbed and plundered;
All of them are ^[bw]snared in holes,
And they are hidden in prison houses;
They are for prey, and no one delivers;
For plunder, and no one says, “Restore!”

²³Who among you will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
²⁴Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers?
Was it not the Lord,
He against whom we have sinned?
^(LL)For they would not walk in His ways,
Nor were they obedient to His law.
²⁵Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger
And the strength of battle;
^(LM)It has set him on fire all around,
^(LN)Yet he did not know;
And it burned him,
Yet he did not take it to ^(LO)heart.

The Redeemer of Israel

43 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, ^(LP)for I have redeemed you;
^(LQ)I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
²^(LR)When you pass through the waters, ^(LS)I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you ^(LT)walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.
³For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
^(LU)I gave Egypt for your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
⁴Since you were precious in My sight,
You have been honored,
And I have ^(LV)loved you;
Therefore I will give men for you,
And people for your life.
⁵^(LW)Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
And ^(LX)gather you from the west;
⁶I will say to the ^(LY)north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’
Bring My sons from afar,
And My daughters from the ends of the earth—
⁷Everyone who is ^(LZ)called by My name,
Whom ^(MA)I have created for My glory;
I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”

⁸^(MB)Bring out the blind people who have eyes,
And the ^(MC)deaf who have ears.
⁹Let all the nations be gathered together,
And let the people be assembled.
^(MD)Who among them can declare this,
And show us former things?
Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified;
Or let them hear and say, “It is truth.”
¹⁰“You^(ME) are My witnesses,” says the Lord,
^(MF)“And My servant whom I have chosen,
That you may know and ^(MG)believe Me,
And understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed,
Nor shall there be after Me.
¹¹I, even I, ^(MH)am the Lord,
And besides Me there is no savior.
¹²I have declared and saved,
I have proclaimed,
And there was no ^(MI)foreign god among you;
^(MJ)Therefore you are My witnesses,”
Says the Lord, “that I am God.
¹³^(MK)Indeed before the day was, I am He;
And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand;
I work, and who will ^(ML)reverse it?”

¹⁴Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
“For your sake I will send to Babylon,
And bring them all down as fugitives—
The Chaldeans, who rejoice in their ships.
¹⁵I am the Lord, your Holy One,
The Creator of Israel, your ^(MM)King.”

¹⁶Thus says the Lord, who ^(MN)makes a way in the sea
And a ^(MO)path through the mighty waters,
¹⁷Who ^(MP)brings forth the chariot and horse,
The army and the power
(They shall lie down together, they shall not rise;
They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):
¹⁸“Do^(MQ) not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹Behold, I will do a ^(MR)new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
^(MS)I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.
²⁰The beast of the field will honor Me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
Because ^(MT)I give waters in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My people, My chosen.
²¹^(MU)This people I have formed for Myself;
They shall declare My ^(MV)praise.

Pleading with Unfaithful Israel

²²“But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob;
And you ^(MW)have been weary of Me, O Israel.
²³^(MX)You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings,
Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.
I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings,
Nor wearied you with incense.
²⁴You have bought Me no sweet cane with money,
Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices;
But you have burdened Me with your sins,
You have ^(MY)wearied Me with your iniquities.

²⁵“I, even I, am He who ^(MZ)blots out your transgressions ^(NA)for My own sake;
^(NB)And I will not remember your sins.
²⁶Put Me in remembrance;
Let us contend together;
State your case, that you may be ^[bx]acquitted.
²⁷Your first father sinned,
And your ^[by]mediators have transgressed against Me.
²⁸Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary;
^(NC)I will give Jacob to the curse,
And Israel to reproaches.

God’s Blessing on Israel

44 “Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant,
And Israel whom I have chosen.
²Thus says the Lord who made you
And formed you from the womb, who will help you:
‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant;
And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
³For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
And floods on the dry ground;
I will pour My Spirit on your descendants,
And My blessing on your offspring;
⁴They will spring up among the grass
Like willows by the watercourses.’
⁵One will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’;
Another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
Another will write with his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’
And name himself by the name of Israel.

There Is No Other God

⁶“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel,
And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
^(ND)‘I am the First and I am the Last;
Besides Me there is no God.
⁷And ^(NE)who can proclaim as I do?
Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me,
Since I appointed the ancient people.
And the things that are coming and shall come,
Let them show these to them.
⁸Do not fear, nor be afraid;
^(NF)Have I not told you from that time, and declared it?
^(NG)You are My witnesses.
Is there a God besides Me?
Indeed ^(NH)there is no other Rock;
I know not one.’ ”

Idolatry Is Foolishness

⁹^(NI)Those who make an image, all of them are useless,
And their precious things shall not profit;
They are their own witnesses;
^(NJ)They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.
¹⁰Who would form a god or mold an image
^(NK)That profits him nothing?
¹¹Surely all his companions would be ^(NL)ashamed;
And the workmen, they are mere men.
Let them all be gathered together,
Let them stand up;
Yet they shall fear,
They shall be ashamed together.

¹²^(NM)The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals,
Fashions it with hammers,
And works it with the strength of his arms.
Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails;
He drinks no water and is faint.

¹³The craftsman stretches out his rule,
He marks one out with chalk;
He fashions it with a plane,
He marks it out with the compass,
And makes it like the figure of a man,
According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house.
¹⁴He cuts down cedars for himself,
And takes the cypress and the oak;
He ^[bz]secures it for himself among the trees of the forest.
He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.

¹⁵Then it shall be for a man to burn,
For he will take some of it and warm himself;
Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread;
Indeed he makes a god and worships it;
He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
¹⁶He burns half of it in the fire;
With this half he eats meat;
He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.
He even warms himself and says,
“Ah! I am warm,
I have seen the fire.”
¹⁷And the rest of it he makes into a god,
His carved image.
He falls down before it and worships it,
Prays to it and says,
“Deliver me, for you are my god!”

¹⁸^(NN)They do not know nor understand;
For ^(NO)He has ^[ca]shut their eyes, so that they cannot see,
And their hearts, so that they cannot ^(NP)understand.
¹⁹And no one ^(NQ)considers in his heart,
Nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
“I have burned half of it in the fire,
Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals;
I have roasted meat and eaten it;
And shall I make the rest of it an abomination?
Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”
²⁰He feeds on ashes;
^(NR)A deceived heart has turned him aside;
And he cannot deliver his soul,
Nor say, “Is there not a ^(NS)lie in my right hand?”

Israel Is Not Forgotten

²¹“Remember these, O Jacob,
And Israel, for you are My servant;
I have formed you, you are My servant;
O Israel, you will not be ^(NT)forgotten by Me!
²²^(NU)I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions,
And like a cloud, your sins.
Return to Me, for ^(NV)I have redeemed you.”

²³^(NW)Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it!
Shout, you lower parts of the earth;
Break forth into singing, you mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
And ^(NX)glorified Himself in Israel.

Judah Will Be Restored

²⁴Thus says the Lord, ^(NY)your Redeemer,
And ^(NZ)He who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who makes all things,
^(OA)Who stretches out the heavens ^[cb]all alone,
Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;
²⁵Who ^(OB)frustrates the signs ^(OC)of the babblers,
And drives diviners mad;
Who turns wise men backward,
^(OD)And makes their knowledge foolishness;
²⁶^(OE)Who confirms the word of His servant,
And performs the counsel of His messengers;
Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’
To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’
And I will raise up her waste places;
²⁷^(OF)Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry!
And I will dry up your rivers’;
²⁸Who says of ^(OG)Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd,
And he shall perform all My pleasure,
Saying to Jerusalem, ^(OH)“You shall be built,”
And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ’

Cyrus, God’s Instrument

45 “Thus says the Lord to His anointed,
To ^(OI)Cyrus, whose ^(OJ)right hand I have ^[cc]held—
^(OK)To subdue nations before him
And ^(OL)loose the armor of kings,
To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:
²‘I will go before you
^(OM)And^[cd] make the ^[ce]crooked places straight;
^(ON)I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.
³I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
^(OO)That you may know that I, the Lord,
Who ^(OP)call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.
⁴For ^(OQ)Jacob My servant’s sake,
And Israel My elect,
I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.
⁵I ^(OR)am the Lord, and ^(OS)there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.
^(OT)I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
⁶^(OU)That they may ^(OV)know from the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
⁷I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and ^(OW)create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.’

⁸“Rain^(OX) down, you heavens, from above,
And let the skies pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation,
And let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it.

⁹“Woe to him who strives with ^(OY)his Maker!
Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth!
^(OZ)Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?
¹⁰Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’
Or to the woman, ‘What have you brought forth?’ ”

¹¹Thus says the Lord,
The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:
^(PA)“Ask Me of things to come concerning ^(PB)My sons;
And concerning ^(PC)the work of My hands, you command Me.
¹²^(PD)I have made the earth,
And ^(PE)created man on it.
I—My hands—stretched out the heavens,
And ^(PF)all their host I have commanded.
¹³^(PG)I have raised him up in righteousness,
And I will ^[cf]direct all his ways;
He shall ^(PH)build My city
And let My exiles go free,
^(PI)Not for price nor reward,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

The Lord, the Only Savior

¹⁴Thus says the Lord:

^(PJ)“The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush
And of the Sabeans, men of stature,
Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours;
They shall walk behind you,
They shall come over ^(PK)in chains;
And they shall bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you, saying, ^(PL)‘Surely God is in you,
And there is no other;
^(PM)There is no other God.’ ”

¹⁵Truly You are God, ^(PN)who hide Yourself,
O God of Israel, the Savior!
¹⁶They shall be ^(PO)ashamed
And also disgraced, all of them;
They shall go in confusion together,
Who are makers of idols.
¹⁷^(PP)But Israel shall be saved by the Lord
With an ^(PQ)everlasting salvation;
You shall not be ashamed or ^(PR)disgraced
Forever and ever.

¹⁸For thus says the Lord,
^(PS)Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it ^[cg]in vain,
Who formed it to be ^(PT)inhabited:
^(PU)“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
¹⁹I have not spoken in ^(PV)secret,
In a dark place of the earth;
I did not say to the seed of Jacob,
‘Seek Me ^[ch]in vain’;
^(PW)I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right.

²⁰“Assemble yourselves and come;
Draw near together,
You who have escaped from the nations.
^(PX)They have no knowledge,
Who carry the wood of their carved image,
And pray to a god that cannot save.
²¹Tell and bring forth your case;
Yes, let them take counsel together.
^(PY)Who has declared this from ancient time?
Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord?
^(PZ)And there is no other God besides Me,
A just God and a Savior;
There is none besides Me.

²²“Look to Me, and be saved,
^(QA)All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
²³^(QB)I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
And shall not return,
That to Me every ^(QC)knee shall bow,
^(QD)Every tongue shall take an oath.
²⁴He shall say,
^[ci]‘Surely in the Lord I have ^(QE)righteousness and strength.
To Him men shall come,
And ^(QF)all shall be ashamed
Who are incensed against Him.
²⁵^(QG)In the Lord all the descendants of Israel
Shall be justified, and ^(QH)shall glory.’ ”

Dead Idols and the Living God

46 Bel ^(QI)bows down, Nebo stoops;
Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle.
Your carriages were heavily loaded,
^(QJ)A burden to the weary beast.
²They stoop, they bow down together;
They could not deliver the burden,
^(QK)But have themselves gone into captivity.

³“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
^(QL)Who have been upheld by Me from ^[cj]birth,
Who have been carried from the womb:
⁴Even to your old age, ^(QM)I am He,
And even to gray hairs ^(QN)I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear;
Even I will carry, and will deliver you.

⁵“To^(QO) whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal
And compare Me, that we should be alike?
⁶^(QP)They lavish gold out of the bag,
And weigh silver on the scales;
They hire a ^(QQ)goldsmith, and he makes it a god;
They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.
⁷^(QR)They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it
And set it in its place, and it stands;
From its place it shall not move.
Though ^(QS)one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer
Nor save him out of his trouble.

⁸“Remember this, and ^[ck]show yourselves men;
^(QT)Recall to mind, O you transgressors.
⁹^(QU)Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and ^(QV)there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
¹⁰^(QW)Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ^(QX)‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’
¹¹Calling a bird of prey ^(QY)from the east,
The man ^(QZ)who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed ^(RA)I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.

¹²“Listen to Me, you ^(RB)stubborn-hearted,
^(RC)Who are far from righteousness:
¹³^(RD)I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off;
My salvation ^(RE)shall not ^[cl]linger.
And I will place ^(RF)salvation in Zion,
For Israel My glory.

The Humiliation of Babylon

47 “Come ^(RG)down and ^(RH)sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of ^(RI)Babylon;
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
Tender and ^[cm]delicate.
²^(RJ)Take the millstones and grind meal.
Remove your veil,
Take off the skirt,
Uncover the thigh,
Pass through the rivers.
³^(RK)Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
Yes, your shame will be seen;
^(RL)I will take vengeance,
And I will not arbitrate with a man.”

⁴As for ^(RM)our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name,
The Holy One of Israel.

⁵“Sit in ^(RN)silence, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
^(RO)For you shall no longer be called
The Lady of Kingdoms.
⁶^(RP)I was angry with My people;
^(RQ)I have profaned My inheritance,
And given them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy;
^(RR)On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.
⁷And you said, ‘I shall be ^(RS)a lady forever,’
So that you did not ^(RT)take these things to heart,
^(RU)Nor remember the latter end of them.

⁸“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures,
Who dwell securely,
Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow,
Nor shall I know the loss of children’;
⁹But these two things shall come to you
^(RV)In a moment, in one day:
The loss of children, and widowhood.
They shall come upon you in their fullness
Because of the multitude of your sorceries,
For the great abundance of your enchantments.

¹⁰“For you have trusted in your wickedness;
You have said, ‘No one ^(RW)sees me’;
Your wisdom and your knowledge have ^[cn]warped you;
And you have said in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’
¹¹Therefore evil shall come upon you;
You shall not know from where it arises.
And trouble shall fall upon you;
You will not be able ^[co]to put it off.
And ^(RX)desolation shall come upon you ^(RY)suddenly,
Which you shall not know.

¹²“Stand now with your enchantments
And the multitude of your sorceries,
In which you have labored from your youth—
Perhaps you will be able to profit,
Perhaps you will prevail.
¹³^(RZ)You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels;
Let now ^(SA)the^[cp] astrologers, the stargazers,
And ^[cq]the monthly prognosticators
Stand up and save you
From what shall come upon you.
¹⁴Behold, they shall be ^(SB)as stubble,
The fire shall ^(SC)burn them;
They shall not deliver themselves
From the power of the flame;
It shall not be a coal to be warmed by,
Nor a fire to sit before!
¹⁵Thus shall they be to you
With whom you have labored,
^(SD)Your merchants from your youth;
They shall wander each one to his ^[cr]quarter.
No one shall save you.

Israel Refined for God’s Glory

48 “Hear this, O house of Jacob,
Who are called by the name of Israel,
And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah;
Who swear by the name of the Lord,
And make mention of the God of Israel,
But ^(SE)not in truth or in righteousness;
²For they call themselves ^(SF)after the holy city,
And ^(SG)lean on the God of Israel;
The Lord of hosts is His name:

³“I have ^(SH)declared the former things from the beginning;
They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it.
Suddenly I did them, ^(SI)and they came to pass.
⁴Because I knew that you were ^[cs]obstinate,
And ^(SJ)your neck was an iron sinew,
And your brow bronze,
⁵Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;
Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,
Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my carved image and my molded image
Have commanded them.’

⁶“You have heard;
See all this.
And will you not declare it?
I have made you hear new things from this time,
Even hidden things, and you did not know them.
⁷They are created now and not from the beginning;
And before this day you have not heard them,
Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’
⁸Surely you did not hear,
Surely you did not know;
Surely from long ago your ear was not opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
And were called ^(SK)a transgressor from the womb.

⁹“For^(SL) My name’s sake ^(SM)I will ^[ct]defer My anger,
And for My praise I will restrain it from you,
So that I do not cut you off.
¹⁰Behold, ^(SN)I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the ^(SO)furnace of affliction.
¹¹For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;
For ^(SP)how should My name be profaned?
And ^(SQ)I will not give My glory to another.

God’s Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel

¹²“Listen to Me, O Jacob,
And Israel, My called:
I am He, ^(SR)I am the ^(SS)First,
I am also the Last.
¹³Indeed ^(ST)My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;
When ^(SU)I call to them,
They stand up together.

¹⁴“All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
^(SV)The Lord loves him;
^(SW)He shall do His pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
¹⁵I, even I, have spoken;
Yes, ^(SX)I have called him,
I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

¹⁶“Come near to Me, hear this:
^(SY)I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there.
And now ^(SZ)the Lord God and His Spirit
^[cu]Have sent Me.”

¹⁷Thus says ^(TA)the Lord, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
^(TB)Who leads you by the way you should go.
¹⁸^(TC)Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
^(TD)Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
¹⁹^(TE)Your descendants also would have been like the sand,
And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;
His name would not have been cut off
Nor destroyed from before Me.”

²⁰^(TF)Go forth from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With a voice of singing,
Declare, proclaim this,
Utter it to the end of the earth;
Say, “The Lord has ^(TG)redeemed
His servant Jacob!”
²¹And they ^(TH)did not thirst
When He led them through the deserts;
He ^(TI)caused the waters to flow from the rock for them;
He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

²²“There^(TJ) is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles

49 “Listen, ^(TK)O coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
^(TL)The Lord has called Me from the womb;
From the ^[cv]matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
²And He has made ^(TM)My mouth like a sharp sword;
^(TN)In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me ^(TO)a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”

³“And He said to me,
^(TP)‘You are My servant, O Israel,
^(TQ)In whom I will be glorified.’
⁴^(TR)Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my ^[cw]just reward is with the Lord,
And my ^[cx]work with my God.’ ”

⁵“And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel ^(TS)is ^[cy]gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
⁶Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a ^(TT)light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

⁷Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, ^[cz]their Holy One,
^(TU)To Him ^[da]whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:
^(TV)“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the Lord who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”

⁸Thus says the Lord:

“In an ^(TW)acceptable^[db] time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will ^[dc]preserve You ^(TX)and give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate ^[dd]heritages;
⁹That You may say ^(TY)to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’

“They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
¹⁰They shall neither ^(TZ)hunger nor thirst,
^(UA)Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them ^(UB)will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
¹¹^(UC)I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
¹²Surely ^(UD)these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”

¹³^(UE)Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.

God Will Remember Zion

¹⁴^(UF)But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵“Can^(UG) a woman forget her nursing child,
^[de]And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
^(UH)Yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶See, ^(UI)I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
¹⁷Your ^[df]sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
¹⁸^(UJ)Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,” says the Lord,
“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all ^(UK)as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.

¹⁹“For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
^(UL)Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰^(UM)The children you will have,
^(UN)After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.’
²¹Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?’ ”

²²^(UO)Thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My ^[dg]standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their ^[dh]arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
²³^(UP)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And ^(UQ)lick up the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord,
^(UR)For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”

²⁴^(US)Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,
Or the captives ^[di]of the righteous be delivered?

²⁵But thus says the Lord:

“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
And the prey of the terrible be delivered;
For I will contend with him who contends with you,
And I will save your children.
²⁶I will ^(UT)feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own ^(UU)blood as with sweet wine.
All flesh ^(UV)shall know
That I, the Lord, am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

The Servant, Israel’s Hope

50 Thus says the Lord:

“Where is ^(UW)the certificate of your mother’s divorce,
Whom I have put away?
Or which of My ^(UX)creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
For your iniquities ^(UY)you have sold yourselves,
And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.
²Why, when I came, was there no man?
Why, when I called, was there none to answer?
Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Indeed with My ^(UZ)rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink because there is no water,
And die of thirst.
³^(VA)I clothe the heavens with blackness,
^(VB)And I make sackcloth their covering.”

⁴“The^(VC) Lord God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is ^(VD)weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.
⁵The Lord God ^(VE)has opened My ear;
And I was not ^(VF)rebellious,
Nor did I turn away.
⁶^(VG)I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And ^(VH)My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and ^(VI)spitting.

⁷“For the Lord God will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore ^(VJ)I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
⁸^(VK)He is near who justifies Me;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand together.
Who is ^[dj]My adversary?
Let him come near Me.
⁹Surely the Lord God will help Me;
Who is he who will condemn Me?
^(VL)Indeed they will all grow old like a garment;
^(VM)The moth will eat them up.

¹⁰“Who among you fears the Lord?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who ^(VN)walks in darkness
And has no light?
^(VO)Let him trust in the name of the Lord
And rely upon his God.
¹¹Look, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—
^(VP)This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down ^(VQ)in torment.

Notas al pie

Isaiah 29:1 Jerusalem, lit. Lion of God
Isaiah 29:7 Jerusalem
Isaiah 29:11 scroll
Isaiah 29:12 Lit. does not know books
Isaiah 29:20 terrifying
Isaiah 30:1 Lit. weave a web
Isaiah 30:6 oracle, prophecy
Isaiah 30:7 Lit. Rahab Sits Idle
Isaiah 30:14 A piece of broken pottery
Isaiah 30:17 A tree stripped of branches
Isaiah 30:20 oppression
Isaiah 30:23 rich
Isaiah 30:29 Lit. the Rock
Isaiah 30:31 Lit. shattered
Isaiah 31:2 retract
Isaiah 32:2 shelter
Isaiah 32:4 hasty
Isaiah 32:5 noble
Isaiah 32:8 noble
Isaiah 33:2 LXX omits their; Syr., Tg., Vg. our
Isaiah 33:8 Tg. They have been removed from their cities
Isaiah 33:8 So with MT, Vg.; DSS witnesses; LXX omits cities
Isaiah 33:16 Lit. heights
Isaiah 33:19 Unintelligible speech
Isaiah 33:21 ship
Isaiah 34:6 Lit. fat
Isaiah 34:7 Lit. made fat
Isaiah 34:11 Or owl
Isaiah 34:11 Or hedgehog
Isaiah 34:14 Lit. howling creatures
Isaiah 34:14 Heb. lilith
Isaiah 35:1 desert
Isaiah 35:1 Heb. arabah
Isaiah 35:3 Lit. sinking
Isaiah 35:3 tottering or stumbling
Isaiah 36:2 A title, probably Chief of Staff or Governor
Isaiah 36:5 Lit. a word of the lips
Isaiah 36:11 Lit. Judean
Isaiah 36:21 were silent
Isaiah 37:3 contempt
Isaiah 37:25 Or perhaps Egypt
Isaiah 37:36 Or Angel
Isaiah 37:36 Lit. struck
Isaiah 38:3 whole or peaceful
Isaiah 38:11 Heb. Yah, Yah
Isaiah 38:11 LXX omits among the inhabitants of the world
Isaiah 38:11 So with some Heb. mss.; MT, Vg. rest; Tg. land
Isaiah 38:14 So with Bg.; MT, DSS Lord
Isaiah 38:14 Be my surety
Isaiah 38:15 So with MT, Vg.; DSS, Tg. And shall I say to Him; LXX omits first half of this verse
Isaiah 39:1 Berodach-Baladan, 2 Kin. 20:12
Isaiah 40:2 Lit. to the heart of
Isaiah 40:3 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX omits in the desert
Isaiah 40:4 Or a plain
Isaiah 40:6 So with MT, Tg.; DSS, LXX, Vg. I
Isaiah 40:10 in strength
Isaiah 40:10 recompense
Isaiah 40:12 So with MT, LXX, Vg.; DSS adds of the sea; Tg. adds of the world
Isaiah 40:12 A span .5 cubit, 9 inches; or the width of His hand
Isaiah 40:20 an offering
Isaiah 40:23 reduces
Isaiah 41:3 Lit. in peace
Isaiah 41:6 Lit. Be strong
Isaiah 41:7 refiner
Isaiah 41:7 Or The soldering is good
Isaiah 41:12 Lit. Men of your strife
Isaiah 41:22 Lit. set our heart on them
Isaiah 41:25 East
Isaiah 41:29 So with MT, Vg.; DSS, Syr., Tg. nothing; LXX omits first line
Isaiah 42:1 Chosen
Isaiah 42:3 dimly burning
Isaiah 42:3 extinguish
Isaiah 42:10 Lit. its fullness
Isaiah 42:14 childbirth
Isaiah 42:22 Or trapped in caves
Isaiah 43:26 justified
Isaiah 43:27 interpreters
Isaiah 44:14 Lit. appropriates
Isaiah 44:18 Lit. smeared over
Isaiah 44:24 By Himself
Isaiah 45:1 strengthened or sustained
Isaiah 45:2 Tg. I will trample down the walls; Vg. I will humble the great ones of the earth
Isaiah 45:2 DSS, LXX mountains
Isaiah 45:13 Or make all his ways straight
Isaiah 45:18 Or empty, a waste
Isaiah 45:19 Or in a waste place
Isaiah 45:24 Or Only in the Lord are all righteousness and strength
Isaiah 46:3 Lit. the belly
Isaiah 46:8 be men, take courage
Isaiah 46:13 delay
Isaiah 47:1 dainty
Isaiah 47:10 led you astray
Isaiah 47:11 Lit. to cover it or atone for it
Isaiah 47:13 Lit. viewers of the heavens
Isaiah 47:13 Lit. those giving knowledge for new moons
Isaiah 47:15 own side or way
Isaiah 48:4 Heb. hard
Isaiah 48:9 delay
Isaiah 48:16 Heb. verb is sing.; or Has sent Me and His Spirit
Isaiah 49:1 Lit. inward parts
Isaiah 49:4 justice
Isaiah 49:4 recompense
Isaiah 49:5 Qr., DSS, LXX gathered to Him; Kt. not gathered
Isaiah 49:7 Lit. his or its
Isaiah 49:7 Lit. who is despised of soul
Isaiah 49:8 favorable
Isaiah 49:8 keep
Isaiah 49:8 inheritances
Isaiah 49:15 Lit. From having compassion
Isaiah 49:17 DSS, LXX, Tg., Vg. builders
Isaiah 49:22 banner
Isaiah 49:22 Lit. bosom
Isaiah 49:24 So with MT, Tg.; DSS, Syr., Vg. of the mighty; LXX unjustly
Isaiah 50:8 Lit. master of My judgment