Isaiah 1:2-9

New Living Translation

A Message for Rebellious Judah

²Listen, O heavens! Pay attention, earth!
    This is what the Lord says:
“The children I raised and cared for
    have rebelled against me.
³Even an ox knows its owner,
    and a donkey recognizes its master’s care—
but Israel doesn’t know its master.
    My people don’t recognize my care for them.”
⁴Oh, what a sinful nation they are—
    loaded down with a burden of guilt.
They are evil people,
    corrupt children who have rejected the Lord.
They have despised the Holy One of Israel
    and turned their backs on him.

⁵Why do you continue to invite punishment?
    Must you rebel forever?
Your head is injured,
    and your heart is sick.
⁶You are battered from head to foot—
    covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds—
    without any soothing ointments or bandages.
⁷Your country lies in ruins,
    and your towns are burned.
Foreigners plunder your fields before your eyes
    and destroy everything they see.
⁸Beautiful Jerusalem^[a] stands abandoned
    like a watchman’s shelter in a vineyard,
like a lean-to in a cucumber field after the harvest,
    like a helpless city under siege.
⁹If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    had not spared a few of us,^[b]
we would have been wiped out like Sodom,
    destroyed like Gomorrah.