Isaiah 1-27

New American Standard Bible

Rebellion of God’s People

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning ^(A)Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the ^[a]reigns of ^(B)Uzziah, ^(C)Jotham, ^(D)Ahaz, and ^(E)Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

²^(F)Listen, heavens, and hear, ^(G)earth;
For the Lord has spoken:
“^(H)Sons I have raised and brought up,
But they have ^(I)revolted against Me.
³An ox knows its owner,
And a donkey its master’s manger,
But Israel ^(J)does not know,
My people ^(K)do not understand.”

⁴Oh, sinful nation,
People weighed down with guilt,
^[b]^(L)Offspring of evildoers,
Sons who ^(M)act corruptly!
They have ^(N)abandoned the Lord,
They have ^(O)despised the Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away ^[c]from Him.

⁵Where will you be stricken again,
As you ^(P)continue in your rebellion?
The entire head is ^(Q)sick
And the entire heart is faint.
⁶^(R)From the sole of the foot even to the head
There is ^(S)nothing healthy in it,
Only bruises, slashes, and raw wounds;
^(T)Not pressed out nor bandaged,
Nor softened with oil.

⁷Your ^(U)land is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
As for your fields, strangers are devouring them in front of you;
It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers.
⁸The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,
Like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, like a city under watch.
⁹^(V)If the Lord of armies
Had not left us a few ^(W)survivors,
We would be like ^(X)Sodom,
We would be like Gomorrah.

God Has Had Enough

¹⁰Hear ^(Y)the word of the Lord,
You rulers of ^(Z)Sodom;
Listen to the instruction of our God,
You people of Gomorrah!
¹¹“^(AA)What are your many sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord.
“I ^[d]have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fattened cattle;
And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.
¹²When you come ^(AB)to appear before Me,
Who requires ^[e]of you this trampling of My courtyards?
¹³Do not go on bringing your worthless offerings,
^(AC)Incense is an abomination to Me.
^(AD)New moon and Sabbath, the ^(AE)proclamation of an assembly—
I cannot ^(AF)endure wrongdoing and the festive assembly.
¹⁴^[f]I hate your new moon festivals and your ^(AG)appointed feasts,
They have become a burden to Me;
I am ^(AH)tired of bearing them.
¹⁵So when you ^(AI)spread out your hands in prayer,
^(AJ)I will hide My eyes from you;
Yes, even though you ^(AK)offer many prayers,
I will not be listening.
^(AL)Your hands are ^[g]covered with blood.

¹⁶“^(AM)Wash yourselves, ^(AN)make yourselves clean;
^(AO)Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
^(AP)Stop doing evil,
¹⁷Learn to do good;
^(AQ)Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor,
^(AR)Obtain justice for the orphan,
Plead for the widow’s case.

Invitation to Debate

¹⁸“Come now, and ^(AS)let us ^[h]debate your case,”
Says the Lord,
“^(AT)Though your sins are as scarlet,
They shall become as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be like wool.
¹⁹^(AU)If you are willing and obedient,
You will ^(AV)eat the best of the land;
²⁰But if you refuse and rebel,
You will be ^(AW)devoured by the sword.”
For ^(AX)the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Zion Corrupted; Will Be Redeemed

²¹How the faithful city has become a ^(AY)prostitute,
She who was full of justice!
Righteousness once dwelt in her,
But now murderers.
²²Your silver has become ^[i]waste matter,
Your drink diluted with water.
²³Your ^(AZ)rulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone ^(BA)loves a bribe
And chases after gifts.
They ^(BB)do not obtain justice for the ^[j]orphan,
Nor does the widow’s case come before them.

²⁴Therefore the Lord ^[k]God of armies,
The ^(BC)Mighty One of Israel, declares,
“Ah, I will have satisfaction against My adversaries,
And ^(BD)avenge Myself on My enemies.
²⁵I will also turn My hand against you,
And ^(BE)smelt away your impurities as with lye;
And I will remove all your slag.
²⁶Then I will restore your ^(BF)judges as at first,
And your counselors as at the beginning;
After that you will be called the ^(BG)city of righteousness,
A faithful city.”

²⁷Zion will be ^(BH)redeemed with justice
And her ^[l]repentant ones with righteousness.
²⁸But ^[m]wrongdoers and sinners together will be ^(BI)broken,
And those who abandon the Lord will come to an end.
²⁹^[n]You certainly will be ashamed of the ^[o]^(BJ)oaks which you have desired,
And you will be embarrassed by the ^(BK)gardens which you have chosen.
³⁰For you will be like an ^[p]oak whose ^(BL)leaf withers away,
Or like a garden that has no water.
³¹The strong man will become like ^[q]flax fiber,
And his work a spark.
So they shall both ^(BM)burn together
And there will be ^(BN)no one to extinguish them.

God’s Universal Reign

2 The word which ^(BO)Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²Now it will come about that
^(BP)In the last days
The ^(BQ)mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established ^[r]as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And ^(BR)all the nations will stream to it.
³And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
So that He may teach us ^[s]about His ways,
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For ^[t]the law will go out ^(BS)from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴And He will judge between the nations,
And will mediate for many peoples;
And ^(BT)they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning knives.
^(BU)Nation will not lift up a sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.

⁵Come, ^(BV)house of Jacob, and let’s walk in the ^(BW)light of the Lord.
⁶For You have ^(BX)abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with influences from the east,
And they are soothsayers ^(BY)like the Philistines.
They also ^[u]^(BZ)strike bargains with the children of foreigners.
⁷Their land has also been filled with silver and gold
And there is no end to their treasures;
Their land has also been filled with ^(CA)horses,
And there is no end to their chariots.
⁸Their land has also been ^(CB)filled with idols;
They worship the ^(CC)work of their hands,
That which their fingers have made.
⁹So ^(CD)the common person has been humbled
And the person of importance has been brought low,
But ^(CE)do not forgive them.
¹⁰^(CF)Enter the rocky place and hide in the dust
^(CG)From the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty.
¹¹The ^[v]^(CH)proud look of humanity will be brought low,
And the ^(CI)arrogance of people will be humbled;
And the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.

A Day of Reckoning Coming

¹²For the Lord of armies will have a day of reckoning
Against ^(CJ)everyone who is arrogant and haughty,
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be brought low.
¹³And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up,
Against all the ^(CK)oaks of Bashan,
¹⁴Against all the ^(CL)lofty mountains,
Against all the hills that are lifted up,
¹⁵Against every ^(CM)high tower,
Against every fortified wall,
¹⁶Against all the ^(CN)ships of Tarshish
And against all the delightful ships.
¹⁷And the pride of humanity will be humbled
And the arrogance of people will be brought low;
And the Lord alone will be exalted on that day,
¹⁸And the ^(CO)idols will completely vanish.
¹⁹People will ^(CP)go into caves of the rocks
And into holes in the ^[w]ground
Away from the terror of the Lord
And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises ^(CQ)to terrify the earth.
²⁰On that day people will ^(CR)throw away to the moles and the ^(CS)bats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves to worship,
²¹In order to ^(CT)go into the clefts of the rocks and the crannies of the cliffs
Before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to terrify the earth.
²²^[x]^(CU)Take no account of man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;
For ^[y]^(CV)why should he be esteemed?

God Will Remove the Leaders

3 For behold, the Lord ^[z]God of armies ^(CW)is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah
Both supply and support, the entire supply of bread
And the entire supply of water;
²^(CX)The mighty man and the warrior,
The judge and the prophet,
The diviner and the elder,
³The captain of fifty and the esteemed person,
The counselor and the expert artisan,
And the skillful enchanter.
⁴And I will make mere ^(CY)boys their leaders,
And ^[aa]mischievous children will rule over them,
⁵And the people will be ^(CZ)oppressed,
Each one by another, and each one by his ^(DA)neighbor;
The youth will assault the elder,
And the contemptible person will assault the one honored.
⁶When a man ^(DB)lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying,
“You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler!
And these ruins will be under your ^[ab]authority,”
⁷He will ^[ac]protest on that day, saying,
“I will not be your ^[ad]^(DC)healer,
For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”
⁸For ^(DD)Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,
Because their ^[ae]^(DE)speech and their actions are against the Lord,
To ^(DF)rebel against ^[af]His glorious presence.
⁹^[ag]The expression of their faces testifies against them,
And they ^[ah]display their sin like ^(DG)Sodom;
They do not even conceal it.
Woe to ^[ai]them!
For they have ^(DH)done evil to themselves.
¹⁰Say to the ^(DI)righteous that it will go well for them,
For they will eat the fruit of their actions.
¹¹Woe to the wicked! It will go badly for him,
For ^[aj]^(DJ)what he deserves will be done to him.
¹²My people! Their oppressors ^(DK)treat them violently,
And women rule over them.
My people! ^(DL)Those who guide you lead you astray
And confuse the direction of your paths.

God Will Judge

¹³^(DM)The Lord arises to contend,
And stands to judge the people.
¹⁴The Lord ^(DN)enters into judgment with the elders and leaders of His people,
“It is you who have ^[ak]^(DO)devoured the vineyard;
The ^(DP)goods stolen from the poor are in your houses.
¹⁵What do you mean by ^(DQ)crushing My people
And ^[al]oppressing the face of the poor?”
Declares the Lord ^[am]God of armies.

Judah’s Women Denounced

¹⁶Moreover, the Lord said, “Because the ^(DR)daughters of Zion are haughty
And walk with ^[an]heads held high and seductive eyes,
And go along with mincing steps
And jingle the anklets on their feet,
¹⁷The Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs,
And the Lord will make their foreheads bare.”

¹⁸On that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, ^(DS)crescent ornaments, ¹⁹dangling earrings, bracelets, veils, ²⁰^(DT)headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets, ²¹^[ao]finger rings, ^(DU)nose rings, ²²festive robes, outer garments, shawls, purses, ²³papyrus garments, undergarments, headbands, and veils.

²⁴Now it will come about that instead of ^(DV)balsam oil there will be a stench;
Instead of a belt, a rope;
Instead of ^(DW)well-set hair, a ^(DX)plucked-out scalp;
Instead of fine clothes, a ^(DY)robe of sackcloth;
And branding instead of beauty.
²⁵Your men will ^(DZ)fall by the sword
And your ^[ap]mighty ones in battle.
²⁶And her ^[aq]^(EA)gates will lament and mourn,
And she will ^(EB)sit deserted on the ground.

A Remnant Prepared

4 For seven women will take hold of ^(EC)one man on that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; ^(ED)take away our disgrace!”

²On that day the ^(EE)Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the ^(EF)fruit of the earth will be the pride and the beauty of the ^(EG)survivors of Israel. ³And it will come about that the one who is ^(EH)left in Zion and remains behind in Jerusalem will be called ^(EI)holy—everyone who is ^(EJ)recorded for life in Jerusalem. ⁴When the Lord has washed away the filth of the ^(EK)daughters of Zion and ^[ar]purged the ^(EL)bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the ^(EM)spirit of judgment and the ^(EN)spirit of ^[as]burning, ⁵then the Lord will create over the entire area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies ^(EO)a cloud by day, and smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the ^(EP)glory will be a canopy. ⁶And there will be a ^(EQ)shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and ^[at]protection from the storm and the rain.

Parable of the Vineyard

5 Let me sing now for my beloved
A song of my beloved about His vineyard.
My beloved had a ^(ER)vineyard on ^[au]a fertile hill.
²He dug it all around, cleared it of stones,
And planted it with ^[av]the ^(ES)choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it,
And also carved out a ^[aw]wine vat in it;
Then He ^(ET)expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only ^[ax]worthless ones.

³“And now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
^(EU)Judge between Me and My vineyard.
⁴^(EV)What more was there to do for My vineyard ^[ay]that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce ^[az]worthless ones?
⁵So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will ^(EW)remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
I will ^(EX)break down its wall and it will become ^(EY)trampled ground.
⁶I will ^(EZ)lay it waste;
It will not be pruned nor hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also command the clouds not to ^(FA)rain on it.”

⁷For the ^(FB)vineyard of the Lord of armies is the house of Israel,
And the people of Judah are His delightful plant.
So He waited for justice, but behold, there was ^(FC)bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

Woes for the Wicked

⁸Woe to those who ^(FD)attach house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
And you alone are a landowner in the midst of the land!
⁹In my ears the Lord of armies has sworn, “^(FE)Many houses shall certainly become ^(FF)desolate,
Even great and fine ones, without occupants.
¹⁰For ^(FG)ten acres of vineyard will yield only one ^[ba]bath of wine,
And a ^[bb]^(FH)homer of seed will yield only an ^[bc]ephah of grain.”
¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning so that they may pursue ^(FI)intoxicating drink,
Who stay up late in the evening so that wine may inflame them!
¹²Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and ^(FJ)harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
But they ^(FK)do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord,
Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

¹³Therefore My people go into exile for their ^(FL)lack of knowledge;
And their ^[bd]^(FM)nobles are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
¹⁴Therefore ^(FN)Sheol has enlarged its ^[be]throat and opened its mouth beyond measure;
And ^[bf]Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her noise of revelry, and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
¹⁵So the common people will be humbled and the person of importance brought low,
^(FO)The eyes of the haughty also will be brought low.
¹⁶But the ^(FP)Lord of armies will be ^(FQ)exalted in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself ^(FR)holy in righteousness.
¹⁷^(FS)Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And strangers will eat in the ruins of the ^[bg]wealthy.

¹⁸Woe to those who drag ^(FT)wrongdoing with the cords of ^[bh]deceit,
And sin as if with cart ropes;
¹⁹^(FU)Who say, “Let Him hurry, let Him do His work quickly, so that we may see it;
And let the plan of the Holy One of Israel approach
And come to pass, so that we may know it!”
²⁰Woe to those who ^(FV)call evil good, and good evil;
Who ^[bi]^(FW)substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who ^[bj]substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
²¹Woe to those who are ^(FX)wise in their own eyes
And ^[bk]clever in their own sight!
²²^(FY)Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine,
And valiant men in mixing intoxicating drink,
²³^(FZ)Who declare the wicked innocent for a bribe,
And ^(GA)take away the ^[bl]rights of the ones who are in the right!

²⁴Therefore, ^(GB)as a tongue of fire consumes stubble,
And dry grass collapses in the flame,
So their ^(GC)root will become ^(GD)like rot, and their blossom ^[bm]blow away like dust;
For they have ^(GE)rejected the Law of the Lord of armies,
And discarded the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵For this reason the ^(GF)anger of the Lord has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them.
And the ^(GG)mountains quaked, and their ^(GH)corpses ^[bn]lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.
^(GI)Despite all this, His anger ^[bo]is not spent,
But His ^(GJ)hand is still stretched out.

²⁶He will also lift up a ^(GK)flag to the distant ^[bp]nation,
And ^(GL)whistle for it ^(GM)from the ends of the earth;
And behold, it will ^(GN)come with speed swiftly.
²⁷^(GO)No one in it is tired or stumbles,
No one slumbers or sleeps;
Nor is the ^(GP)undergarment at his waist loosened,
Nor his sandal strap broken.
²⁸^[bq]^(GQ)Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;
The hoofs of its horses ^[br]seem like flint, and its chariot ^(GR)wheels like a storm wind.
²⁹Its ^(GS)roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;
It growls as it ^(GT)seizes the prey
And carries it off with ^(GU)no one to save it.
³⁰And it will ^(GV)roar against it on that day like the roaring of the sea.
If one ^(GW)looks across to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;
Even the light is darkened by its clouds.

Isaiah’s Vision

6 In the year of ^(GX)King Uzziah’s death ^(GY)I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ²Seraphim were standing above Him, ^(GZ)each having six wings: with two each covered his face, and with two each covered his feet, and with two each flew. ³And one called out to another and said,

“^(HA)Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies.
The ^[bs]^(HB)whole earth is full of His glory.”

⁴And the ^[bt]foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the ^[bu]^(HC)temple was filling with smoke. ⁵Then I said,

“^(HD)Woe to me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of ^(HE)unclean lips,
And I live among a ^(HF)people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the ^(HG)King, the Lord of armies.”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the ^(HH)altar with tongs. ⁷He ^(HI)touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and ^(HJ)your guilt is taken away and atonement is made for your sin.”

Isaiah’s Commission

⁸Then I heard the ^(HK)voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then ^(HL)I said, “Here am I. Send me!” ⁹And He said, “Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on ^(HM)listening, but do not understand;
And keep on looking, but do not gain knowledge.’
¹⁰^(HN)Make the hearts of this people ^[bv]^(HO)insensitive,
Their ears ^[bw]dull,
And their eyes ^[bx]blind,
^(HP)So that they will not see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts,
And return and be healed.”

¹¹Then I said, “Lord, ^(HQ)how long?” And He answered,

“Until ^(HR)cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,
¹²The Lord has ^(HS)completely removed people,
And there ^[by]are many ^(HT)forsaken places in the midst of the land.
¹³Yet there will still be a tenth portion in it,
And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or an ^(HU)oak
Whose stump remains when it is cut down.
The ^(HV)holy seed is its stump.”

War against Jerusalem

7 Now it came about in the days of ^(HW)Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that ^(HX)Rezin the king of Aram and ^(HY)Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but ^(HZ)could not ^[bz]conquer it. ²When it was reported to the ^(IA)house of David, saying, “The Arameans ^(IB)have taken a stand by ^(IC)Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake from the wind.

³Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son ^[ca]Shear-jashub, at the end of the ^(ID)conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the ^[cb]fuller’s field, ⁴and say to him, ‘Take care and be ^(IE)calm, have no ^(IF)fear and ^(IG)do not be fainthearted because of these two stumps of smoldering ^(IH)logs, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the ^(II)son of Remaliah. ⁵Because ^(IJ)Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, ⁶“Let’s go up against Judah and ^[cc]terrorize it, and take it for ourselves by assault and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” ⁷this is what the Lord ^[cd]God says: “^(IK)It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. ⁸For the head of Aram is ^(IL)Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces, so that it is no longer a people), ⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. ^(IM)If you will not believe, you certainly shall not ^[ce]last.”’”

The Child Immanuel

¹⁰Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹“Ask for a ^(IN)sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ^[cf]make it deep as Sheol or high as ^[cg]heaven.” ¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I put the Lord to the test!” ¹³Then he said, “Listen now, ^(IO)house of David! Is it too trivial a thing for you to ^[ch]try the patience of men, that you will ^[ci]^(IP)try the patience of ^(IQ)my God as well? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, ^(IR)the ^[cj]virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him ^[ck]^(IS)Immanuel. ¹⁵He will eat ^[cl]^(IT)curds and honey ^[cm]at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. ¹⁶^(IU)For before the boy knows enough to refuse evil and choose good, ^(IV)the land whose two kings you dread will be abandoned.

Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁷The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that ^(IW)Ephraim separated from Judah—the days of the ^(IX)king of Assyria.”

¹⁸On that day the Lord will ^(IY)whistle for the fly that is in the ^[cn]^(IZ)remotest part of the canals of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹They will all come and settle on the steep ^[co]ravines, on the ^(JA)ledges of the cliffs, ^(JB)on all the thorn bushes, and on all the watering places.

²⁰On that day the Lord will ^(JC)shave with a ^(JD)razor, ^(JE)hired from regions beyond ^(JF)the Euphrates River (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

²¹Now on that day a person may keep alive only a ^(JG)heifer and a pair of sheep; ²²and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat ^[cp]curds, for everyone who is left within the land will eat ^[cq]^(JH)curds and honey.

²³And it will come about on that day, ^(JI)that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become ^(JJ)briars and thorns. ²⁴People will come there with bows and arrows, because all the land will be briars and thorns. ²⁵As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the plow, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for ^[cr]^(JK)pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

Damascus and Samaria Fall

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and ^(JL)write on it ^[cs]in ordinary letters: ^[ct]^(JM)Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ²And ^[cu]I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, ^(JN)Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” ³So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him ^[cv]^(JO)Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ⁴for ^(JP)before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of ^(JQ)Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵Again the Lord spoke to me further, saying,

⁶“Inasmuch as these people have ^(JR)rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
And rejoice in ^(JS)Rezin and the son of Remaliah;
⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the ^(JT)strong and abundant waters of the ^(JU)Euphrates River,
That is, the ^(JV)king of Assyria and all his glory;
And it will ^(JW)rise over all its channels and go over all its banks.
⁸Then ^(JX)it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,
It will ^(JY)reach as far as the neck;
And the spread of its wings will ^[cw]fill the expanse of ^[cx]your land, ^(JZ)Immanuel.

A Believing Remnant

⁹“^(KA)Be broken, you peoples, and be ^[cy]^(KB)shattered;
And listen, all remote places of the earth.
^[cz]Get ready, yet be ^[da]shattered;
^[db]Get ready, yet be ^[dc]shattered.
¹⁰^(KC)Devise a plan, but it will fail;
State a ^[dd]proposal, but ^(KD)it will not stand,
For ^[de]^(KE)God is with us.”

¹¹For so the Lord spoke to me ^[df]with ^(KF)mighty power and instructed me ^(KG)not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

¹²“You are not to say, ‘It is a ^(KH)conspiracy!’
Regarding everything that this people call a conspiracy,
And ^(KI)you are not to fear ^[dg]what they fear or be in dread of it.
¹³It is the ^(KJ)Lord of armies ^(KK)whom you are to regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread.
¹⁴Then He will become a ^(KL)sanctuary;
But to both houses of Israel, He will be a ^(KM)stone of stumbling and a rock ^[dh]of offense,
And a snare and a ^(KN)trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁵Many ^(KO)will stumble over them,
Then they will fall and be broken;
They will be snared and caught.”

¹⁶^(KP)Bind up the testimony, ^(KQ)seal the ^[di]Law among ^(KR)my disciples. ¹⁷And I will ^(KS)wait for the Lord ^(KT)who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will wait eagerly for Him. ¹⁸^(KU)Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for ^(KV)signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of armies, who ^(KW)dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹When they say to you, “^(KX)Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should a people not ^(KY)consult their God? Should they ^(KZ)consult the dead in behalf of the living? ²⁰To the ^[dj]^(LA)Law and to the testimony! If they do not speak in accordance with this word, it is because ^(LB)they have no dawn. ²¹They will pass through ^[dk]the land ^(LC)dejected and hungry, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will become enraged and curse ^[dl]their king and their God as they face upward. ²²Then they will ^(LD)look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be ^(LE)driven away into darkness.

Birth and Reign of the Prince of Peace

9 ^[dm]But there will be no more ^(LF)gloom for her who was in anguish. In earlier times He ^(LG)treated the ^(LH)land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the ^[dn]Gentiles.

²^[do]^(LI)The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
³^(LJ)You will multiply the nation,
You ^(LK)will ^[dp]increase ^[dq]their joy;
They will rejoice in Your presence
As with the joy ^[dr]of harvest,
As people ^(LL)rejoice when they divide the spoils.
⁴For ^(LM)You will break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their ^(LN)oppressor, as ^[ds]at the battle of ^(LO)Midian.
⁵For every boot of the marching warrior in the roar of battle,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
⁶For a ^(LP)Child will be born to us, a ^(LQ)Son will be given to us;
And the ^(LR)government will ^[dt]rest ^(LS)on His shoulders;
And His name will be called ^(LT)Wonderful Counselor, ^(LU)Mighty God,
Eternal ^(LV)Father, Prince of ^(LW)Peace.
⁷There will be ^(LX)no end to the increase of His government or of peace
On the ^(LY)throne of David and over ^[du]his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with ^(LZ)justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
^(MA)The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this.

God’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance

⁸The Lord sends a ^[dv]message against Jacob,
And it falls on Israel.
⁹And all the people know it,
That is, ^(MB)Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
Asserting in pride and in ^(MC)arrogance of heart:
¹⁰“The bricks have fallen down,
But we will ^(MD)rebuild with smooth stones;
The sycamores have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”
¹¹Therefore the Lord raises superior adversaries against them from ^(ME)Rezin
And provokes their enemies,
¹²The Arameans from the east and the ^(MF)Philistines from the west;
And they ^(MG)devour Israel with ^[dw]gaping jaws.
^(MH)In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away,
And His hand is still stretched out.

¹³Yet the people ^(MI)do not turn back to Him who struck them,
Nor do they ^(MJ)seek the Lord of armies.
¹⁴So the Lord cuts off ^(MK)head and tail from Israel,
Both palm branch and bulrush ^(ML)in a single day.
¹⁵The head is ^(MM)the elder and esteemed man,
And the prophet who teaches ^(MN)falsehood is the tail.
¹⁶^(MO)For those who guide this people are leading them astray;
And those who are guided by them are ^[dx]confused.
¹⁷Therefore the Lord does ^(MP)not rejoice over their young men,
^(MQ)Nor does He have compassion on their ^[dy]orphans or their widows;
For every one of them is ^(MR)godless and an ^(MS)evildoer,
And every ^(MT)mouth is speaking foolishness.
^(MU)In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away,
And His hand is still stretched out.

¹⁸^(MV)For wickedness burns like a fire;
It consumes briars and thorns;
It also sets the thickets of the forest aflame
And they roll upward in a column of smoke.
¹⁹By the ^(MW)wrath of the Lord of armies the ^(MX)land is burned,
And the ^(MY)people are like fuel for the fire;
No ^(MZ)one spares his brother.
²⁰^[dz]They devour what is on the right hand but are still ^(NA)hungry,
And ^[ea]they eat what is on the left hand, but they are not satisfied;
Each of them eats the ^(NB)flesh of his own arm.
²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
^(NC)And together they are against Judah.
^(ND)In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.

Assyria Is God’s Instrument

10 Woe to those who ^(NE)enact unjust statutes
And to those who constantly record ^[eb]harmful decisions,
²So as ^(NF)to ^[ec]deprive the needy of justice
And rob the poor among My people of their rights,
So ^(NG)that widows may be their spoil
And that they may plunder the ^[ed]orphans.
³Now ^(NH)what will you do in the ^(NI)day of punishment,
And in the devastation which will come ^(NJ)from afar?
^(NK)To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your wealth?
⁴Nothing remains but to crouch ^[ee]among the ^(NL)captives
Or fall ^[ef]among those ^(NM)killed.
^(NN)In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.

⁵Woe to ^(NO)Assyria, the ^(NP)rod of My anger
And the staff in whose hands is ^(NQ)My indignation,
⁶I send it against a ^(NR)godless nation
And commission it against the ^(NS)people of My fury
To capture spoils and ^(NT)to seize plunder,
And to ^[eg]trample them down like ^(NU)mud in the streets.
⁷Yet it ^(NV)does not so intend,
Nor does ^[eh]it plan so in its heart,
But rather it is ^[ei]its purpose to destroy
And to eliminate ^[ej]many nations.
⁸For it says, “Are not my officers ^[ek]all kings?
⁹Is not ^(NW)Calno like ^(NX)Carchemish,
Or ^(NY)Hamath like Arpad,
Or ^(NZ)Samaria like ^(OA)Damascus?
¹⁰As my hand has reached to the ^(OB)kingdoms of the idols,
Whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
¹¹Shall I not do the same to Jerusalem and her images
Just as I have done to Samaria and ^(OC)her idols?”

¹²So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His ^(OD)work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will ^[el]punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and ^(OE)the arrogant pride of his eyes.” ¹³For ^(OF)he has said,

“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,
Because I have understanding;
And I ^(OG)removed the boundaries of the peoples
And plundered their treasures,
And like a powerful man I brought down ^[em]their inhabitants,
¹⁴And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a ^(OH)nest,
And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;
And there was not one that flapped its wing, opened its beak, or chirped.”

¹⁵Is the ^(OI)axe to ^(OJ)boast itself over the one who chops with it?
Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?
That would be like ^(OK)a ^[en]club wielding those who lift it,
Or like ^(OL)a rod lifting the one who is not wood.
¹⁶Therefore the Lord, the ^[eo]God of armies, will send a ^(OM)wasting disease among his ^(ON)stout warriors;
And under his ^(OO)glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.
¹⁷And the ^(OP)Light of Israel will become a fire and ^[ep]Israel’s ^(OQ)Holy One a flame,
And it will ^(OR)burn and devour ^[eq]his thorns and his briars in a single day.
¹⁸And He will ^(OS)destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body,
And it will be as when a sick person wastes away.
¹⁹And the ^(OT)rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number
That a child could write them down.

A Remnant Will Return

²⁰Now on that day the ^(OU)remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob ^(OV)who have escaped, will no longer rely on the one who struck them, but will truly ^(OW)rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

²¹A ^(OX)remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the ^(OY)mighty God.
²²For ^(OZ)though your people, Israel, may be like the sand of the sea,
Only a remnant within them will return;
A ^(PA)destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

²³For a complete destruction, one that is determined, ^(PB)the Lord ^[er]God of armies will execute in the midst of the whole land.

²⁴Therefore this is what the Lord ^[es]God of armies says: “My people, you who dwell in ^(PC)Zion, ^(PD)do not fear the Assyrian ^[et]who ^(PE)strikes you with the rod, and lifts up his staff against you the way Egypt did. ²⁵For in a very ^(PF)little while ^(PG)My indignation against you will be ended and My anger will be directed toward their destruction.” ²⁶The Lord of armies will ^(PH)wield a whip against him like the defeat of ^(PI)Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His ^(PJ)staff will be over the sea, and He will lift it up ^(PK)the way He did in Egypt. ²⁷So it will be on that day, that ^[eu]his ^(PL)burden will be removed from your shoulders, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because ^(PM)of fatness.

²⁸He has come against Aiath,
He has passed through ^(PN)Migron;
At ^(PO)Michmash he deposited his ^(PP)baggage.
²⁹They have gone through ^(PQ)the pass, saying,
“^(PR)Geba will be our encampment for the night.”
^(PS)Ramah is terrified, and ^(PT)Gibeah of Saul has fled.
³⁰Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of ^(PU)Gallim!
Pay attention, Laishah and ^[ev]wretched ^(PV)Anathoth!
³¹Madmenah has fled.
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.
³²Yet today he will halt at ^(PW)Nob;
He ^(PX)shakes his fist at the mountain of the ^[ew]^(PY)daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Behold, the Lord, the ^[ex]God of armies, will lop off the branches with terrifying power;
Those also who are ^(PZ)tall in stature will be cut down,
And those who are lofty will be brought low.
³⁴He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe,
And ^(QA)Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

Righteous Reign of the Branch

11 Then a ^(QB)shoot will spring from the ^(QC)stem of Jesse,
And a ^(QD)Branch from ^(QE)his roots will bear fruit.
²The ^(QF)Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,
The spirit of ^(QG)wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and ^(QH)strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
³And He will delight in the fear of the Lord,
And He will not judge by what His eyes ^(QI)see,
Nor make decisions by what His ears hear;
⁴But with ^(QJ)righteousness He will judge the ^(QK)poor,
And decide with fairness for the ^(QL)humble of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the ^(QM)rod of His mouth,
And with the ^(QN)breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.
⁵Also ^(QO)righteousness will be the belt around His hips,
And ^(QP)faithfulness the belt around His waist.

⁶And the ^(QQ)wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion ^[ey]and the fattened steer will be together;
And a little boy will lead them.
⁷Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the ^(QR)lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
⁹They will ^(QS)not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the ^(QT)earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰Then on that day
The ^(QU)nations will resort to the ^(QV)root of Jesse,
Who will stand as a ^(QW)signal flag for the peoples;
And His ^(QX)resting place will be ^[ez]glorious.

The Restored Remnant

¹¹Then it will happen on that day that the Lord
Will again recover with His hand the second time
The ^(QY)remnant of His people who will remain,
From ^(QZ)Assyria, ^(RA)Egypt, Pathros, Cush, ^(RB)Elam, Shinar, Hamath,
And from the ^[fa]^(RC)islands of the sea.
¹²And He will lift up a ^(RD)flag for the nations
And ^(RE)assemble the banished ones of Israel,
And will gather the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
¹³Then the ^(RF)jealousy of Ephraim will depart,
And those who harass Judah will be eliminated;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
And Judah will not harass Ephraim.
¹⁴They will ^(RG)swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the ^(RH)west;
Together they will ^(RI)plunder the ^[fb]people of the east;
^[fc]They will possess ^(RJ)Edom and ^(RK)Moab,
And the sons of Ammon will be ^[fd]subject to them.
¹⁵And the Lord will ^[fe]^(RL)utterly destroy
The tongue of the ^[ff]Sea of Egypt;
And He will ^(RM)wave His hand over the ^(RN)Euphrates River
With His scorching wind;
And He will strike it into seven streams
And make people walk over in dry sandals.
¹⁶And there will be a ^(RO)highway from Assyria
For the ^(RP)remnant of His people who will be left,
Just as there was for Israel
On ^(RQ)the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

Thanksgiving Expressed

12 Then you will say on that day,
“^(RR)I will give thanks to You, Lord;
For although ^(RS)You were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away,
And You comfort me.
²Behold, ^(RT)God is my salvation,
I will ^(RU)trust and not be afraid;
For ^(RV)the Lord God is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.”
³Therefore you will joyously ^(RW)draw water
From the ^(RX)springs of salvation.
⁴And on that day you will ^(RY)say,
“^(RZ)Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name.
^(SA)Make known His deeds among the peoples;
^[fg]Make them remember that His name is exalted.”
⁵^(SB)Praise the Lord in song, for He has done ^[fh]glorious things;
Let this be known throughout the earth.
⁶^(SC)Rejoice and shout for joy, you inhabitant of Zion,
For ^(SD)great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Prophecies about Babylon

13 The ^(SE)pronouncement concerning ^(SF)Babylon which ^(SG)Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:

²^(SH)Lift up a flag on the ^[fi]^(SI)bare hill,
Raise your voice to them,
^(SJ)Wave the hand that they may ^(SK)enter the doors of the nobles.
³I have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have also called for My ^(SL)warriors
Who boast in My eminence,
To execute My anger.
⁴A ^(SM)sound of a roar on the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
The Lord of armies is mustering the army for battle.
⁵They are coming from a distant country,
From the ^[fj]^(SN)farthest horizons,
The Lord and the weapons of His ^(SO)indignation,
To ^(SP)destroy the whole land.

Judgment on the Day of the Lord

⁶Wail, for the ^(SQ)day of the Lord is near!
It will come as ^(SR)destruction from ^[fk]the Almighty.
⁷Therefore ^(SS)all hands will fall limp,
And every human ^(ST)heart will melt.
⁸They will be ^(SU)terrified,
Pains and anguish will take hold of them;
They will ^(SV)writhe like a woman in labor,
They will look at one another in astonishment,
Their faces aflame.
⁹Behold, ^(SW)the day of the Lord is coming,
Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
To make the land a desolation;
And He will exterminate its sinners from it.
¹⁰For the ^(SX)stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash their light;
The ^(SY)sun will be dark when it rises
And the moon will not shed its light.
¹¹So I will ^(SZ)punish the world for its evil
And the ^(TA)wicked for their wrongdoing;
I will also put an end to the ^(TB)audacity of the proud
And humiliate the ^(TC)arrogance of the ^[fl]^(TD)tyrants.
¹²I will make mortal man ^(TE)scarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the ^(TF)gold of Ophir.
¹³Therefore I will make the ^(TG)heavens tremble,
And ^(TH)the earth will be shaken from its place
At the fury of the Lord of armies
In ^(TI)the day of His burning anger.
¹⁴And it will be that, like a hunted gazelle,
Or like ^(TJ)sheep with no one to gather them,
Each of them will turn to his own people,
And each of them will flee to his own land.
¹⁵Anyone who is found will be ^(TK)thrust through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
¹⁶Their ^(TL)little ones also will be dashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives raped.

Babylon Will Fall to the Medes

¹⁷Behold, I am going to ^(TM)stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not value silver or ^(TN)take pleasure in gold.
¹⁸And their bows will ^[fm]mow down the ^(TO)young men,
They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,
Nor will their ^(TP)eye pity ^[fn]children.
¹⁹And ^(TQ)Babylon, the ^(TR)beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God ^(TS)overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
²⁰It will ^(TT)never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the ^(TU)Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will shepherds allow their flocks to lie down there.
²¹But ^(TV)desert creatures will lie down there,
And their houses will be full of ^[fo]owls;
Ostriches also will live there, and ^[fp]shaggy goats will frolic there.
²²^[fq]Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers
And jackals in their luxurious ^(TW)palaces.
Her fateful time also ^[fr]will soon come,
And her days will not be prolonged.

Israel’s Taunt against Babylon

14 When the Lord ^(TX)has compassion on Jacob and again ^(TY)chooses Israel, and settles them on their own land, then ^(TZ)strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. ²The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the ^(UA)house of Israel will make them their own possession in the land of the Lord ^(UB)as male and female servants; and ^[fs]they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

³And it will be on the day when the Lord gives you ^(UC)rest from your hardship, your turmoil, and from the harsh service in which you have been enslaved, ⁴that you will ^(UD)take up this ^[ft]taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

“How ^(UE)the oppressor has ceased,
And how the ^[fu]onslaught has ceased!
⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of rulers,
⁶^(UF)Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,
Which ^[fv]subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.
⁷The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
They ^(UG)break forth into shouts of joy.
⁸Even the ^(UH)juniper trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you have been laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’
⁹^(UI)Sheol below is excited about you, to meet you when you come;
It stirs the ^[fw]spirits of the dead for you, all the ^[fx]leaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.
¹⁰^(UJ)They will all respond and say to you,
‘Even you have become weak as we,
You have become like us.
¹¹Your ^(UK)pride and the music of your harps
Have been brought down to Sheol;
Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you
And worms are your covering.’
¹²How you have ^(UL)fallen from heaven,
You ^[fy]^(UM)star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who defeated the nations!
¹³But you said in your heart,
‘I will ^(UN)ascend to heaven;
I will ^(UO)raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
^(UP)I will make myself like the Most High.’
¹⁵Nevertheless you ^(UQ)will be brought down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.
¹⁶Those who see you will stare at you,
They will ^[fz]closely examine you, saying,
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
¹⁷Who made the world like a ^(UR)wilderness
And overthrew its cities,
Who ^(US)did not ^[ga]allow his prisoners to go home?’
¹⁸All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
Each in his own ^[gb]tomb.
¹⁹But you have been ^(UT)hurled out of your tomb
Like ^[gc]a rejected branch,
^[gd]Clothed with those killed who have been pierced with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the ^(UU)pit
Like a ^(UV)trampled corpse.
²⁰You will not be united with them in burial,
Because you have ruined your country,
You have killed your people.
May the ^(UW)descendants of evildoers never be mentioned.
²¹Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons
Because of the ^(UX)wrongdoing of their fathers.
They must not arise and take possession of the earth,
And fill the surface of the world with cities.”

²²“I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of armies, “and eliminate from Babylon ^(UY)name and survivors, ^(UZ)offspring and descendants,” declares the Lord. ²³“I will also make it the property of the ^(VA)hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it away with the broom of ^(VB)destruction,” declares the Lord of armies.

Judgment on Assyria

²⁴The Lord of armies has sworn, saying, “Certainly, ^(VC)just as I have intended, so it has happened, and just as I have planned, so it will stand, ²⁵to ^(VD)break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his ^(VE)yoke will be removed from them, and his burden removed from their shoulders. ²⁶This is the ^(VF)plan ^[ge]devised against the entire earth; and this is the ^(VG)hand that is stretched out against all the nations. ²⁷For ^(VH)the Lord of armies has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

Judgment on Philistia

²⁸In the ^(VI)year that King Ahaz died, this ^(VJ)pronouncement came:

²⁹“Do not rejoice, ^(VK)Philistia, all of you,
Because the rod that ^(VL)struck you is broken;
For from the serpent’s root a ^(VM)viper will come out,
And its fruit will be a ^(VN)winged serpent.
³⁰^[gf]Those who are most ^(VO)helpless will eat,
And the poor will lie down in security;
I will kill your root with ^(VP)famine,
And it will kill your survivors.
³¹Wail, you ^(VQ)gate; cry, you city;
^[gg]Melt away, ^(VR)Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes from the ^(VS)north,
And ^(VT)there is no straggler in his ranks.
³²What answer will one give the ^(VU)messengers of the nation?
That ^(VV)the Lord has founded Zion,
And ^(VW)the poor of His people will take refuge in it.”

Judgment on Moab

15 The pronouncement concerning ^(VX)Moab:

Certainly in a night ^(VY)Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;
Certainly in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.
²^[gh]The people have gone up to the ^[gi]temple and to ^(VZ)Dibon, to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;
Everyone’s head is ^(WA)bald and every beard is cut off.
³In their streets they have put on ^(WB)sackcloth;
^(WC)On their housetops and in their public squares
Everyone is wailing, ^[gj]^(WD)overcome with weeping.
⁴^(WE)Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out,
Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;
Therefore the ^[gk]armed men of Moab cry aloud;
His soul trembles within him.
⁵My heart cries out for Moab;
His fugitives are as far as ^(WF)Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,
For they go up the ^(WG)ascent of Luhith weeping;
Indeed, on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress ^(WH)over their collapse.
⁶For the ^(WI)waters of Nimrim are ^[gl]desolate.
Indeed, the grass is withered, the new growth has died,
There is ^(WJ)no greenery.
⁷Therefore the ^(WK)abundance which they have acquired and stored up,
They carry it off over the brook of ^[gm]Arabim.
⁸For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,
Its wailing goes as far as Eglaim and its howling to Beer-elim.
⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of ^[gn]blood;
I will certainly bring added woes upon Dimon,
A ^(WL)lion upon the fugitives of Moab and the remnant of the land.

Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation

16 ^(WM)Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,
From ^[go]^(WN)Sela by way of the wilderness to the ^(WO)mountain of the daughter of Zion.
²Then, like ^(WP)fluttering birds or scattered nestlings,
The daughters of ^(WQ)Moab will be at the crossing places of the ^(WR)Arnon.
³“^[gp]Give us advice, make a decision;
^[gq]Cast your ^(WS)shadow like night ^[gr]at high noon;
^(WT)Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.
⁴Let the ^[gs]outcasts of Moab stay with you;
Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”
For the oppressor has come to an end, destruction has ceased,
^(WU)Oppressors have been removed from the land.
⁵A ^(WV)throne will be established in faithfulness,
And a judge will sit on it in trustworthiness in the tent of ^(WW)David;
Moreover, he will seek justice,
And be prompt in righteousness.

⁶^(WX)We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;
Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;
^(WY)His idle boasts are ^[gt]false.
⁷Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.
You will moan for the ^(WZ)raisin cakes of ^(XA)Kir-hareseth
As those who are utterly stricken.
⁸For the fields of ^(XB)Heshbon have ^[gu]withered, the vines of ^(XC)Sibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;
^(XD)Its ^[gv]tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.
⁹Therefore I will ^(XE)weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;
I will drench you with my tears, ^(XF)Heshbon and Elealeh;
For the shouting over your ^(XG)summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.
¹⁰^(XH)Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;
In the ^(XI)vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,
No ^(XJ)treader treads out wine in the presses,
For I have made the shouting to cease.
¹¹Therefore my ^[gw]^(XK)inner being sounds like a harp for Moab.
And my ^[gx]heart for Kir-hareseth.
¹²So it will come about when Moab ^(XL)presents himself,
When he ^(XM)tires himself upon his ^(XN)high place
And comes to his sanctuary to pray,
That he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word which the Lord spoke earlier concerning Moab. ¹⁴But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as ^[gy]^(XO)a hired worker would count them, the glory of ^(XP)Moab will become contemptible along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and ^[gz]impotent.”

Prophecy about Damascus

17 The ^(XQ)pronouncement concerning ^(XR)Damascus:

“Behold, Damascus is about to be ^(XS)removed from being a city
And will become a ^(XT)fallen ruin.
²The cities ^[ha]of ^(XU)Aroer are abandoned;
They will be for ^(XV)herds ^[hb]to lie down in,
And there will be ^(XW)no one to frighten them.
³The ^[hc]^(XX)fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And ^[hd]sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the ^(XY)glory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of armies.

⁴Now on that day the ^(XZ)glory of Jacob will ^[he]fade,
And ^(YA)the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
⁵It will be ^(YB)like the ^[hf]reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the ^(YC)Valley of Rephaim.
⁶Yet ^(YD)gleanings will be left in it like the ^[hg]shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
⁷On that day man will ^(YE)look to his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸And he will not look to the ^(YF)altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his ^(YG)fingers have made,
Even the ^[hh]^(YH)Asherim and incense altars.
⁹On that day ^[hi]their strong cities will be like ^[hj]abandoned places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And ^[hk]the land will be a desolation.
¹⁰For ^(YI)you have forgotten the ^(YJ)God of your salvation
And have not remembered the ^(YK)rock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.
¹¹On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the ^(YL)morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will ^(YM)flee
On a day of illness and incurable pain.

¹²Oh, the uproar of many peoples
^(YN)Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the ^(YO)rumbling of mighty waters!
¹³The ^(YP)nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will ^(YQ)rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
And be chased ^(YR)like chaff on the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.
¹⁴At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning ^(YS)they are gone.
This will be the ^[hl]fate of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.

Message to Ethiopia

18 Woe, land of whirring wings
Which lies beyond the rivers of ^[hm]^(YT)Cush,
²Which sends messengers by the sea,
Even in ^(YU)papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation ^[hn]^(YV)tall and smooth,
To a people ^(YW)feared ^[ho]far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.
³^(YX)All you who inhabit the world, and live on earth,
As soon as a flag is raised on the mountains, ^(YY)you will see it,
And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

⁴For this is what the Lord has told me:

“I will quietly look ^[hp]from My ^(YZ)dwelling place
Like dazzling heat in the ^[hq]^(ZA)sunshine,
Like a cloud of ^(ZB)dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵For ^(ZC)before the harvest, as soon as the bud ^[hr]blossoms
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
And remove and tear away the spreading branches.
⁶They will be left together for mountain birds ^(ZD)of prey,
And for the animals of the earth;
And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,
And all the animals of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
⁷At that time a gift of tribute will be brought to the Lord of armies
^[hs]From a ^(ZE)people ^[ht]tall and smooth,
From a people feared ^[hu]far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the ^(ZF)place of the name of the Lord of armies, to Mount Zion.

Message to Egypt

19 The ^(ZG)pronouncement concerning ^(ZH)Egypt:

Behold, the Lord is ^(ZI)riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;
The ^(ZJ)idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,
And the ^(ZK)heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
²“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;
And they will fight, ^(ZL)each against his brother and each against his neighbor,
City against city and kingdom against kingdom.
³Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;
And I will confuse their strategy,
So that ^(ZM)they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead,
And to ^[hv]mediums and spiritists.
⁴Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a ^(ZN)cruel master,
And a ^[hw]mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord ^[hx]God of armies.

⁵^(ZO)The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.
⁶The ^[hy]^(ZP)canals will emit a stench,
The ^[hz]^(ZQ)streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;
^(ZR)The reeds and rushes will rot away.
⁷The bulrushes by the ^(ZS)Nile, by the ^[ia]edge of the Nile
And all the sown fields by the Nile
Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.
⁸And the ^(ZT)fishermen will grieve,
And all those who cast a ^[ib]line into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.
⁹Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax
And the weavers of white ^(ZU)cloth will be ^[ic]utterly dejected.
¹⁰And ^[id]the ^(ZV)pillars of Egypt will be crushed;
All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

¹¹The officials of ^[ie]^(ZW)Zoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become ^[if]stupid.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the ^(ZX)wise, a son of ancient kings”?
¹²Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them ^[ig]understand what the Lord of armies
Has ^(ZY)planned against Egypt.
¹³The officials of ^[ih]Zoan have turned out to be fools,
The officials of ^(ZZ)Memphis are deluded;
Those who are the ^(AAA)cornerstone of her tribes
Have ^[ii]led Egypt astray.
¹⁴The Lord has mixed within her a spirit of ^(AAB)distortion;
^(AAC)They have led Egypt astray in all ^[ij]that it does,
As a ^(AAD)drunken person ^[ik]staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵There will be no work for Egypt
^(AAE)Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

¹⁶On that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in great ^(AAF)fear because of the ^(AAG)waving of the hand of the Lord of armies, which He is going to wave over them. ¹⁷The land of Judah will become a cause of shame to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in great fear because of the ^(AAH)plan of the Lord of armies which He is making against them.

¹⁸On that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and ^(AAI)swearing allegiance to the Lord of armies; one will be called the City of ^[il]Destruction.

¹⁹On that day there will be an ^(AAJ)altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a ^(AAK)memorial stone to the Lord beside its border. ²⁰And it will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry out to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a ^(AAL)Savior and a ^(AAM)Champion, and He will save them. ²¹So the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day. They will even worship with ^(AAN)sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. ²²And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking but ^(AAO)healing; so they will ^(AAP)return to the Lord, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them.

²³On that day there will be a ^(AAQ)road from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria; and the Egyptians will ^(AAR)worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴On that day Israel will be the third party to Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵whom the Lord of armies has blessed, saying, “Blessed is ^(AAS)Egypt My people, and Assyria ^(AAT)the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

Prophecy about Egypt and Ethiopia

20 In the year that the ^[im]^(AAU)commander came to ^(AAV)Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it, ²at that time the Lord spoke through ^(AAW)Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the ^(AAX)sackcloth from your hips and take your ^(AAY)sandals off your feet.” And he did so, going ^(AAZ)naked and barefoot. ³Then the Lord said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a ^(ABA)sign and symbol against Egypt and ^[in]^(ABB)Cush, ⁴so the ^(ABC)king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, ^(ABD)young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the ^[io]shame of Egypt. ⁵Then they will be ^(ABE)terrified and ashamed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their ^(ABF)pride. ⁶So the inhabitants of this coastland will say on that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled ^(ABG)for help to be saved from the king of Assyria; and ^(ABH)how are we ourselves to escape?’”

God Commands That Babylon Be Taken

21 The ^(ABI)pronouncement concerning the ^[ip]^(ABJ)wilderness of the sea:

As ^(ABK)windstorms in the ^[iq]Negev come in turns,
It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land.
²A ^(ABL)harsh vision has been shown to me;
The ^(ABM)treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.
Go up, ^(ABN)Elam, lay siege, Media;
I have put an end to all ^[ir]the groaning she has caused.
³For this reason my ^(ABO)loins are full of anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a ^(ABP)woman in labor.
I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.
⁴My ^[is]mind reels, ^[it]horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been ^(ABQ)turned into trembling for me.
⁵They ^(ABR)set the table, they ^[iu]spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;
“Rise up, captains, oil the shields!”

⁶For this is what the Lord says to me:

“Go, station the lookout, have him ^(ABS)report what he sees.
⁷When he sees ^[iv]a ^(ABT)column of chariots, horsemen in pairs,
A train of donkeys, a train of camels,
He is to pay close attention, very close attention.”

⁸Then ^[iw]the lookout called,

“^(ABU)Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,
And I am stationed every night at my guard post.
⁹Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”
And one said, “^(ABV)Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
And all the ^(ABW)images of her gods ^[ix]are shattered on the ground.”
¹⁰My ^(ABX)downtrodden people, and my ^[iy]afflicted of the threshing floor!
What I have heard from the Lord of armies,
The God of Israel, I make known to you.

Pronouncements about Edom and Arabia

¹¹The pronouncement concerning ^[iz]^(ABY)Edom:

One keeps calling to me from ^(ABZ)Seir,
“Watchman, ^[ja]how far gone is the night?
Watchman, ^[jb]how far gone is the night?”
¹²The watchman says,
“Morning comes but also night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
Come back again.”

¹³The pronouncement about ^(ACA)Arabia:

In the thickets of Arabia you ^[jc]must spend the night,
You caravans of ^(ACB)Dedanites.
¹⁴Bring water ^[jd]for the thirsty,
You inhabitants of the land of ^(ACC)Tema;
Meet the fugitive with bread.
¹⁵For they have ^(ACD)fled from the swords,
From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow,
And from the press of battle.

¹⁶For this is what the Lord said to me: “In a ^(ACE)year, as ^[je]a hired worker would count it, all the splendor of ^(ACF)Kedar will come to an end; ¹⁷and the ^(ACG)remainder of the number of bowmen, the warriors of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the Lord God of Israel ^(ACH)has spoken.”

The Valley of Vision

22 The pronouncement concerning the ^(ACI)valley of vision:

What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the ^(ACJ)housetops?
²You who were full of noise,
You tumultuous town, you ^(ACK)jubilant city;
Your dead were ^(ACL)not killed with the sword,
Nor ^[jf]did they die in battle.
³^(ACM)All your rulers have fled together,
And have been captured ^[jg]without the bow;
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
^[jh]Though they had fled far away.
⁴Therefore I say, “Look away from me,
Let me ^(ACN)weep bitterly,
Do not ^[ji]try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
⁵^(ACO)For the Lord ^[jj]God of armies has a ^(ACP)day of panic, ^(ACQ)subjugation, and confusion
^(ACR)In the valley of vision,
A breaking down of walls
And a crying ^[jk]to the mountain.
⁶^(ACS)Elam picked up the quiver,
With the chariots, ^[jl]infantry, and horsemen;
And ^(ACT)Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
And the horsemen took positions at the gate.
⁸And He removed the ^[jm]defense of Judah.
On that day you ^[jn]depended on the weapons of the ^(ACU)house of the forest,
⁹And you saw that the breaches
In the wall of the city of David were many;
And you ^(ACV)collected the waters of the lower pool.
¹⁰Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem
And tore down houses to fortify the wall.
¹¹And you made a reservoir ^(ACW)between the two walls
For the waters of the ^(ACX)old pool.
But you did not ^[jo]depend on Him who made it,
Nor did you ^[jp]take into consideration Him who planned it long ago.

¹²Therefore on that day the Lord ^[jq]God of armies called you to ^(ACY)weeping, to wailing,
To ^(ACZ)shaving the head, and to wearing sackcloth.
¹³Instead, there is ^(ADA)joy and jubilation,
Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating of meat and drinking of wine:
“^(ADB)Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
¹⁴But the Lord of armies revealed Himself ^[jr]to me:
“Certainly this ^(ADC)wrongdoing ^(ADD)will not be ^[js]forgiven you
^(ADE)Until you die,” says the Lord ^[jt]God of armies.

¹⁵This is what the Lord ^[ju]God of armies says:

“Come, go to this steward,
To ^(ADF)Shebna who is in charge of the royal household,
¹⁶‘What right do you have here,
And whom do you have here,
That you have ^(ADG)cut out a tomb for yourself here,
You who cut out a tomb on the height,
You who carve a resting place for ^[jv]yourself in the rock?
¹⁷Behold, the Lord is about to hurl you violently, you strong man.
And He is about to grasp you firmly
¹⁸And wrap you up tightly like a ball,
To be ^(ADH)driven into a vast country;
There you will die,
And there your splendid chariots will be,
You shame of your master’s house!’
¹⁹I will ^(ADI)depose you from your office,
And ^[jw]I will pull you down from your position.
²⁰Then it will come about on that day,
That I will summon My servant ^(ADJ)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
²¹And I will clothe him with your tunic
And tie your sash securely around him.
I will hand your ^[jx]authority over to him,
And he will become a ^(ADK)father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
²²Then I will put ^(ADL)the key of the ^(ADM)house of David on his shoulder;
When he opens, no one will shut,
When he shuts, no one will ^(ADN)open.
²³I will drive him like a ^(ADO)peg in a firm place,
And he will become a ^(ADP)throne of glory to his father’s house.

²⁴So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the ^[jy]descendants, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars. ²⁵On that day,” declares the Lord of armies, “the ^(ADQ)peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will even ^(ADR)break off and fall, and the load that is hanging on it will be cut off, for the ^(ADS)Lord has spoken.”

The Fall of Tyre

23 The pronouncement concerning ^(ADT)Tyre:

Wail, you ^(ADU)ships of ^(ADV)Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house or ^[jz]^(ADW)harbor;
It is reported to them from the land of ^[ka]^(ADX)Cyprus.
²^(ADY)Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon;
^[kb]Your messengers crossed the sea
³And were on many waters.
^(ADZ)The grain of the ^[kc]^(AEA)Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue;
And she was the ^(AEB)market of nations.
⁴Be ashamed, ^(AEC)Sidon,
For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have neither been in labor nor given birth,
I have neither brought up young men nor raised virgins.”
⁵When the report reaches Egypt,
They will be in ^(AED)anguish over the report of Tyre.
⁶Pass over to ^(AEE)Tarshish;
Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland.
⁷Is this your ^(AEF)jubilant city,
Whose origin is from antiquity,
Whose feet used to bring her to ^[kd]colonize distant places?

⁸Who has planned this against Tyre, ^(AEG)the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
⁹^(AEH)The Lord of armies has planned it, to ^(AEI)defile the pride of all beauty,
To despise all the ^(AEJ)honored of the earth.
¹⁰^[ke]Overflow your land like the Nile, you daughter of Tarshish,
There is no more ^[kf]restraint.
¹¹He has ^(AEK)stretched His hand out ^(AEL)over the sea,
He has ^(AEM)made the kingdoms tremble;
The Lord has given a command concerning Canaan to ^(AEN)demolish its strongholds.

¹²He has said, “^(AEO)You shall not be jubilant anymore, you crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, pass over to ^[kg]^(AEP)Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people that did not exist; ^(AEQ)Assyria allocated it for ^(AER)desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, ^(AES)they made it a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, you ^(AET)ships of Tarshish,
For your stronghold is destroyed.

¹⁵Now on that day Tyre will be forgotten for ^(AEU)seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶Take your harp, wander around the city,
You forgotten prostitute;
Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.

¹⁷It will come about at ^(AEV)the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her prostitute’s wages and ^(AEW)commit prostitution with all the kingdoms ^[kh]on the face of the earth. ¹⁸Her ^(AEX)profit and her prostitute’s wages will be ^(AEY)sacred to the Lord; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her profit will become sufficient food and magnificent attire for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord.

Judgment on the Earth

24 Behold, the Lord ^(AEZ)lays the earth waste, devastates it, twists its surface, and scatters its inhabitants. ²And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the female servant like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the ^(AFA)creditor like the debtor. ³The earth will be completely laid waste and completely plundered, for the Lord has spoken this word. ⁴The ^(AFB)earth dries up and crumbles away, the mainland dries out and crumbles away, the ^(AFC)exalted of the people of the earth dwindle. ⁵The earth is also ^(AFD)defiled ^[ki]by its inhabitants, for they violated laws, altered statutes, and ^(AFE)broke the everlasting covenant. ⁶Therefore, a ^(AFF)curse devours the earth, and those who live on it suffer for their guilt. Therefore, the ^(AFG)inhabitants of the earth decrease in number, and few people are left.

⁷The ^(AFH)new wine mourns,
The vine decays,
All the joyful-hearted sigh.
⁸The ^(AFI)joy of tambourines ceases,
The noise of revelers stops,
The joy of the harp ceases.
⁹They do not drink wine with song;
^(AFJ)Intoxicating drink is ^(AFK)bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰The ^(AFL)city of chaos is broken down;
^(AFM)Every house is shut up so that no one may enter.
¹¹There is an ^(AFN)outcry in the streets concerning the wine;
^(AFO)All joy ^[kj]turns to gloom.
The joy of the earth is banished.
¹²Desolation is left in the city
And the ^(AFP)gate is battered to ruins.
¹³For ^(AFQ)so it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,
As the ^[kk]shaking of an olive tree,
As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.
¹⁴^(AFR)They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
They cry out from the ^[kl]west concerning the majesty of the Lord.
¹⁵Therefore ^(AFS)glorify the Lord in the ^[km]east,
The ^(AFT)name of the Lord, the God of Israel,
In the ^[kn]^(AFU)coastlands of the sea.
¹⁶From the ^(AFV)ends of the earth we hear songs: “^(AFW)Glory to the Righteous One,”
But I say, “^[ko]I am finished! I am finished! Woe to me!
The ^(AFX)treacherous deal treacherously,
And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”
¹⁷^(AFY)Terror and pit and snare
^[kp]Confront you, you inhabitant of the earth.
¹⁸Then it will be that the one who flees the sound of terror will fall into the pit,
And the one who ^[kq]climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare;
For the ^(AFZ)windows ^[kr]above are opened, and the ^(AGA)foundations of the earth shake.
¹⁹^(AGB)The earth is broken apart,
The earth is ^(AGC)split through,
The earth is shaken violently.
²⁰The earth ^(AGD)trembles like a heavy drinker
And sways like a hut,
For its ^(AGE)wrongdoing is heavy upon it,
And it will fall, ^(AGF)never to rise again.
²¹So it will happen on that day,
That the Lord will ^(AGG)punish the rebellious ^[ks]^(AGH)angels of ^[kt]heaven on high,
And the ^(AGI)kings of the earth on earth.
²²They will be gathered together
Like ^(AGJ)prisoners in the ^[ku]dungeon,
And will be confined in prison;
And after many days they will ^(AGK)be punished.
²³Then the ^(AGL)moon will be ashamed and the sun be put to shame,
For the ^(AGM)Lord of armies will reign on ^(AGN)Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
And His glory will be before His elders.

Song of Praise for God’s Favor

25 Lord, You are ^(AGO)my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have ^(AGP)worked wonders,
^(AGQ)Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
²For You have turned a city into a ^(AGR)heap,
A ^(AGS)fortified city into a ruin;
A ^(AGT)palace of strangers is no longer a city,
It will never be rebuilt.
³Therefore a strong people will ^(AGU)glorify You;
^(AGV)Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.
⁴For You have been a ^(AGW)stronghold for the helpless,
A stronghold for the poor in his distress,
A ^(AGX)refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;
For the breath of the ^(AGY)ruthless
Is like a rain storm against a wall.
⁵Like heat in a dry land, You subdue the ^(AGZ)uproar of foreigners;
Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is ^[kv]silenced.

⁶^(AHA)Now the Lord of armies will prepare a ^[kw]lavish banquet for ^(AHB)all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of ^[kx]aged wine, ^[ky]choice pieces with marrow,
And ^[kz]refined, aged wine.
⁷And on this mountain He will destroy the ^[la]^(AHC)covering which is over all peoples,
The veil which is ^[lb]stretched over all nations.
⁸He will ^[lc]^(AHD)swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord ^[ld]God will ^(AHE)wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the ^(AHF)disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
⁹And it will be said on that day,
“Behold, ^(AHG)this is our God for whom we have ^(AHH)waited ^[le]that ^(AHI)He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
^(AHJ)Let’s rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
¹⁰For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain,
And ^(AHK)Moab will be trampled down in his place
As straw is trampled down in the water of a manure pile.
¹¹And he will ^(AHL)spread out his hands in the middle of it
As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
But the Lord will ^(AHM)lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.
¹²The ^(AHN)unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,
Lay low, and throw to the ground, to the dust.

Song of Trust in God’s Protection

26 ^(AHO)On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a ^(AHP)strong city;
He sets up walls and ramparts for ^[lf]^(AHQ)security.
²Open the ^(AHR)gates, that the ^(AHS)righteous nation may enter,
The one that ^[lg]remains faithful.
³The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect ^(AHT)peace,
Because he trusts in You.
⁴^(AHU)Trust in the Lord forever,
For in ^[lh]God the Lord, we have an everlasting ^(AHV)Rock.
⁵For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the ^(AHW)unassailable city;
^(AHX)He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.
⁶^(AHY)The foot will trample it,
The feet of the ^(AHZ)poor, the steps of the helpless.”

⁷The ^(AIA)way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, ^(AIB)make the path of the righteous level.
⁸Indeed, while following the way of ^(AIC)Your judgments, Lord,
We have waited for You eagerly;
^(AID)Your name, and ^(AIE)remembering You, is the desire of our souls.
⁹^(AIF)At night ^[li]my soul longs for You,
Indeed, ^[lj]my spirit within me ^(AIG)seeks You diligently;
For when the earth ^[lk]experiences Your judgments,
The inhabitants of the world ^(AIH)learn righteousness.
¹⁰Though the wicked person is shown compassion,
He does not ^(AII)learn righteousness;
He ^(AIJ)deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,
And does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹Lord, Your hand is lifted up, yet they ^(AIK)do not see it.
^[ll]They see ^(AIL)Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
Indeed, ^[lm]^(AIM)fire will devour Your enemies.
¹²Lord, You will establish ^(AIN)peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all our works.
¹³Lord, our God, ^(AIO)other masters besides You have ruled us;
But through You alone we ^[ln]^(AIP)confess Your name.
¹⁴^(AIQ)The dead will not live, the ^[lo]departed spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have ^(AIR)punished and destroyed them,
And You have eliminated all remembrance of them.
¹⁵^(AIS)You have increased the nation, Lord,
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have ^(AIT)extended all the borders of the land.
¹⁶Lord, they sought You ^(AIU)in distress;
They ^[lp]could only whisper a prayer,
Your discipline was upon them.
¹⁷^(AIV)As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains;
This is how we were before You, Lord.
¹⁸We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,
We ^(AIW)gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were ^(AIX)inhabitants of the world ^[lq]born.
¹⁹Your ^(AIY)dead will live;
^[lr]Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, ^(AIZ)awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the ^[ls]dawn,
And the earth will ^[lt]give birth to the ^[lu]departed spirits.

²⁰Come, my people, ^(AJA)enter your rooms
And close your doors behind you;
Hide for a little ^[lv]^(AJB)while
Until ^(AJC)indignation ^[lw]runs its course.
²¹For behold, the Lord is about to ^(AJD)come out from His place
To ^(AJE)punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wrongdoing;
And the earth will ^(AJF)reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain.

God’s Blessings for Israel

27 On that day ^(AJG)the Lord will punish ^[lx]^(AJH)Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even ^[ly]Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And ^(AJI)He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

²On that day,
“A ^[lz]^(AJJ)vineyard of beauty, sing of it!
³I, the Lord, am its keeper;
^(AJK)I water it every moment.
So that no one will ^[ma]damage it,
I ^(AJL)guard it night and day.

Footnotes

Isaiah 1:1 Lit days
Isaiah 1:4 Lit Seed
Isaiah 1:4 Lit backward
Isaiah 1:11 Or am sated with
Isaiah 1:12 Lit of your hand
Isaiah 1:14 Lit My soul hates
Isaiah 1:15 Lit full of
Isaiah 1:18 Or argue
Isaiah 1:22 Lit dross
Isaiah 1:23 Or fatherless
Isaiah 1:24 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 1:27 Or returning
Isaiah 1:28 Lit a breaking of wrongdoers and sinners together
Isaiah 1:29 As in some mss; MT They
Isaiah 1:29 Or terebinths
Isaiah 1:30 Or terebinth
Isaiah 1:31 Lit tow
Isaiah 2:2 Lit on
Isaiah 2:3 Or some of
Isaiah 2:3 Or instruction
Isaiah 2:6 Lit clap their hands
Isaiah 2:11 Lit eyes of the pride of man
Isaiah 2:19 Lit dust
Isaiah 2:22 Or Stop caring about
Isaiah 2:22 Lit in what
Isaiah 3:1 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 3:4 Or arbitrary power will rule
Isaiah 3:6 Lit hand
Isaiah 3:7 Lit lift up his voice
Isaiah 3:7 Lit binder of wounds
Isaiah 3:8 Lit tongue
Isaiah 3:8 Lit the eyes of His glory
Isaiah 3:9 Or Their partiality testifies
Isaiah 3:9 Lit proclaim
Isaiah 3:9 Lit their soul
Isaiah 3:11 Lit the accomplishment of his hands
Isaiah 3:14 Lit grazed over
Isaiah 3:15 Lit grinding the face of
Isaiah 3:15 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 3:16 Lit outstretched necks
Isaiah 3:21 Or signet rings
Isaiah 3:25 Lit strength
Isaiah 3:26 Lit entrances
Isaiah 4:4 Lit rinsed away
Isaiah 4:4 Or destruction
Isaiah 4:6 Lit a hiding place
Isaiah 5:1 Lit horn, a son of fatness
Isaiah 5:2 Lit a bright red grape
Isaiah 5:2 Or wine press
Isaiah 5:2 Or unripe
Isaiah 5:4 Lit and I have not done
Isaiah 5:4 Or unripe
Isaiah 5:10 About 6 gallons or 23 liters
Isaiah 5:10 About 7.7 cubic feet or 0.22 cubit meters or more
Isaiah 5:10 About 1 cubic foot or 0.03 cubic meters
Isaiah 5:13 Lit glory is men of famine
Isaiah 5:14 Or appetite
Isaiah 5:14 Lit her
Isaiah 5:17 Lit fat
Isaiah 5:18 Or worthlessness
Isaiah 5:20 Lit set
Isaiah 5:20 Lit set
Isaiah 5:21 Lit discerning
Isaiah 5:23 Lit justice
Isaiah 5:24 Lit ascend
Isaiah 5:25 Lit were
Isaiah 5:25 Lit has not turned away
Isaiah 5:26 Lit nations; prob. Assyria
Isaiah 5:28 Lit Which, its arrows
Isaiah 5:28 Lit are regarded as
Isaiah 6:3 Lit fullness of the whole earth is His glory
Isaiah 6:4 Lit door sockets
Isaiah 6:4 Lit house
Isaiah 6:10 Lit fat
Isaiah 6:10 Lit heavy
Isaiah 6:10 Lit sealed over
Isaiah 6:12 Or forsakenness will be great
Isaiah 7:1 Lit fight against
Isaiah 7:3 I.e., a remnant shall return
Isaiah 7:3 I.e., launderer’s
Isaiah 7:6 Or demolish
Isaiah 7:7 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 7:9 Or endure
Isaiah 7:11 As in most ancient versions; MT make the request deep or high
Isaiah 7:11 Lit heights
Isaiah 7:13 Lit make men weary
Isaiah 7:13 Lit make my God weary
Isaiah 7:14 As in LXX; MT young unmarried woman
Isaiah 7:14 I.e., God is with us
Isaiah 7:15 Possibly butter
Isaiah 7:15 Lit with respect to his knowing
Isaiah 7:18 Or mouth of the rivers; i.e., the Nile Delta
Isaiah 7:19 Or wadis
Isaiah 7:22 Possibly butter
Isaiah 7:22 Possibly butter
Isaiah 7:25 Lit pastureland of
Isaiah 8:1 Lit with the stylus of man
Isaiah 8:1 I.e., swift is the plunder, speedy is the prey
Isaiah 8:2 Another reading is take for me
Isaiah 8:3 I.e., swift is the plunder, speedy is the prey
Isaiah 8:8 Lit be the fullness of
Isaiah 8:8 Or Your
Isaiah 8:9 Or dismayed
Isaiah 8:9 Lit Belt up your waist
Isaiah 8:9 Or dismayed
Isaiah 8:9 Lit Belt up your waist
Isaiah 8:9 Or dismayed
Isaiah 8:10 Lit word
Isaiah 8:10 Heb Immanu-el
Isaiah 8:11 Lit according to the strength of hand
Isaiah 8:12 Lit their fear
Isaiah 8:14 Or to trip on
Isaiah 8:16 Or teaching
Isaiah 8:20 Or teaching
Isaiah 8:21 Lit it
Isaiah 8:21 Or by their king
Isaiah 9:1 Ch 8:23 in Heb
Isaiah 9:1 Or nations
Isaiah 9:2 Ch 9:1 in Heb
Isaiah 9:3 Another reading is not increase
Isaiah 9:3 Lit the
Isaiah 9:3 Lit in
Isaiah 9:4 Lit in the day of Midian
Isaiah 9:6 Lit be
Isaiah 9:7 I.e., David’s
Isaiah 9:8 Lit word
Isaiah 9:12 Lit the whole mouth
Isaiah 9:16 Or swallowed up
Isaiah 9:17 Or fatherless
Isaiah 9:20 Lit And he slices
Isaiah 9:20 Lit he eats
Isaiah 10:1 Lit harm
Isaiah 10:2 Lit turn the needy aside from
Isaiah 10:2 Or fatherless
Isaiah 10:4 Lit under
Isaiah 10:4 Lit under
Isaiah 10:6 Lit make them a trampled place
Isaiah 10:7 Lit its heart so plan
Isaiah 10:7 Lit in its heart
Isaiah 10:7 Lit not a few
Isaiah 10:8 Lit altogether
Isaiah 10:12 Lit visit
Isaiah 10:13 Or those who sit on thrones
Isaiah 10:15 Lit staff
Isaiah 10:16 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 10:17 Lit his
Isaiah 10:17 I.e., the Assyrian king’s forces
Isaiah 10:23 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 10:24 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 10:24 Lit he
Isaiah 10:27 I.e., the Assyrian
Isaiah 10:30 An ancient version reads Answer her, O Anathoth
Isaiah 10:32 Another reading is house of
Isaiah 10:33 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 11:6 Some ancient versions will feed together
Isaiah 11:10 Lit glory
Isaiah 11:11 Or coastlands
Isaiah 11:14 Lit sons
Isaiah 11:14 Lit Edom and Moab will be the outstretching of their hand
Isaiah 11:14 Lit their obedience
Isaiah 11:15 Another reading is dry up the tongue
Isaiah 11:15 Perhaps the Red Sea
Isaiah 12:4 Or Proclaim to them that
Isaiah 12:5 Or gloriously
Isaiah 13:2 Or wind-swept mountain
Isaiah 13:5 Lit end of heaven
Isaiah 13:6 Heb Shaddai
Isaiah 13:11 Or violent
Isaiah 13:18 Lit dash in pieces
Isaiah 13:18 Lit sons
Isaiah 13:21 Or howling creatures
Isaiah 13:21 Or goat demons
Isaiah 13:22 Or howling creatures
Isaiah 13:22 Lit is near to come
Isaiah 14:2 Lit the captors will become their captives
Isaiah 14:4 Or proverb
Isaiah 14:4 As in DSS and ancient versions; MT uncertain
Isaiah 14:6 Or ruled
Isaiah 14:9 Or shades (Heb Repha’im)
Isaiah 14:9 Lit male goats
Isaiah 14:12 Heb Helel; i.e., shining one
Isaiah 14:16 Lit show themselves attentive to
Isaiah 14:17 Lit open
Isaiah 14:18 Lit house
Isaiah 14:19 Lit an abhorred branch
Isaiah 14:19 Or As the clothing of those who are slain
Isaiah 14:26 Lit planned
Isaiah 14:30 Lit The firstborn of the helpless
Isaiah 14:31 Or Become demoralized
Isaiah 15:2 Lit He has gone; i.e., Moab, meaning the people of Moab
Isaiah 15:2 Lit house
Isaiah 15:3 Lit going down in weeping
Isaiah 15:4 Another reading is the loins of
Isaiah 15:6 Lit desolations
Isaiah 15:7 Or the poplars
Isaiah 15:9 Heb dam (a wordplay)
Isaiah 16:1 I.e., Petra in Edom
Isaiah 16:3 Lit Bring
Isaiah 16:3 Lit Set
Isaiah 16:3 Lit in the midst of the noon
Isaiah 16:4 As in most ancient versions; MT My outcasts, as for Moab
Isaiah 16:6 Lit not so
Isaiah 16:8 Or dried out
Isaiah 16:8 I.e., parts of a climbing plant that attach to its support
Isaiah 16:11 Lit entrails murmur
Isaiah 16:11 Lit inward parts
Isaiah 16:14 Lit the years of a hired
Isaiah 16:14 Lit not mighty
Isaiah 17:2 LXX forever and ever
Isaiah 17:2 Lit and they will lie down
Isaiah 17:3 Or fortification
Isaiah 17:3 Or royal power
Isaiah 17:4 Lit become little
Isaiah 17:5 Lit gathering of the harvest, the standing grain
Isaiah 17:6 Lit striking
Isaiah 17:8 I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah)
Isaiah 17:9 Lit his; i.e., mankind’s
Isaiah 17:9 LXX the deserted places of the Amorites and the Hivites which they abandoned
Isaiah 17:9 Lit it
Isaiah 17:14 Lit portion
Isaiah 18:1 Or Ethiopia
Isaiah 18:2 Lit drawn out
Isaiah 18:2 Lit from it and beyond
Isaiah 18:4 Lit in
Isaiah 18:4 Lit light
Isaiah 18:5 Lit is finished
Isaiah 18:7 Some ancient versions and DSS; MT implies Consisting of a people
Isaiah 18:7 Lit drawn out
Isaiah 18:7 Lit from it and beyond
Isaiah 19:3 Or ghosts and spirits
Isaiah 19:4 Or fierce
Isaiah 19:4 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 19:6 Lit rivers
Isaiah 19:6 Or Nile branches; i.e., the delta
Isaiah 19:7 Or mouth
Isaiah 19:8 Lit hook
Isaiah 19:9 Lit ashamed
Isaiah 19:10 Lit her pillars; or her weavers
Isaiah 19:11 Or Tanis
Isaiah 19:11 Or brutish
Isaiah 19:12 Or know
Isaiah 19:13 Or Tanis
Isaiah 19:13 Or have caused Egypt to stagger
Isaiah 19:14 Lit its work
Isaiah 19:14 Or goes astray
Isaiah 19:18 Some mss and ancient versions the Sun
Isaiah 20:1 Heb Tartan
Isaiah 20:3 Or Ethiopia, as in vv 4, 5
Isaiah 20:4 Lit nakedness
Isaiah 21:1 Or sandy wastes, sea country
Isaiah 21:1 I.e., South country
Isaiah 21:2 Lit her groaning
Isaiah 21:4 Lit heart has wandered
Isaiah 21:4 Lit shuddering
Isaiah 21:5 Or spread out the rugs or possibly they arranged the seating
Isaiah 21:7 Or riders
Isaiah 21:8 As in DSS; MT he called like a lion
Isaiah 21:9 Lit he has shattered to the earth
Isaiah 21:10 Lit son
Isaiah 21:11 As in LXX; MT Dumah, silence
Isaiah 21:11 Lit what is the time of the night?
Isaiah 21:11 Lit what is the time of the night?
Isaiah 21:13 Or will spend
Isaiah 21:14 Lit to meet
Isaiah 21:16 Lit the years of a hired
Isaiah 22:2 Lit dead in battle
Isaiah 22:3 Lit from a bow
Isaiah 22:3 As in ancient versions; MT They fled far away
Isaiah 22:4 Lit insist
Isaiah 22:5 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 22:5 Or against
Isaiah 22:6 Lit man
Isaiah 22:8 Lit covering
Isaiah 22:8 Lit looked to
Isaiah 22:11 Or look to, consider
Isaiah 22:11 Lit see Him
Isaiah 22:12 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 22:14 Lit in my ears
Isaiah 22:14 Lit atoned for
Isaiah 22:14 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 22:15 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 22:16 Lit himself
Isaiah 22:19 As in many ancient versions; MT He
Isaiah 22:21 Lit dominion
Isaiah 22:24 Or perhaps, leaf
Isaiah 23:1 Lit entering
Isaiah 23:1 Heb Kittim
Isaiah 23:2 As in DSS; MT Who passed over the sea, they replenished you
Isaiah 23:3 Heb Shihor
Isaiah 23:7 Lit sojourn afar off
Isaiah 23:10 Lit Pass over
Isaiah 23:10 Perhaps girdle or shipyard
Isaiah 23:12 Heb Kittim
Isaiah 23:17 Lit of the earth on the face of the land
Isaiah 24:5 Lit under
Isaiah 24:11 Lit is darkened
Isaiah 24:13 Lit striking
Isaiah 24:14 Lit sea
Isaiah 24:15 Lit region of light
Isaiah 24:15 Or islands
Isaiah 24:16 Meaning uncertain
Isaiah 24:17 Lit Are upon you
Isaiah 24:18 Lit goes up from the midst of
Isaiah 24:18 Lit from the height; i.e., heaven
Isaiah 24:21 Lit host
Isaiah 24:21 Lit the height in the height
Isaiah 24:22 Lit pit
Isaiah 25:5 Lit humbled
Isaiah 25:6 Lit feast of fat things; i.e., abundance
Isaiah 25:6 Lit wine on the lees
Isaiah 25:6 Lit fat pieces
Isaiah 25:6 Lit wine refined on the lees
Isaiah 25:7 Lit face of the covering
Isaiah 25:7 Lit woven
Isaiah 25:8 I.e., destroy
Isaiah 25:8 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 25:9 Or and He saved us
Isaiah 26:1 Or salvation
Isaiah 26:2 Lit keeps faithfulness
Isaiah 26:4 Heb Yah, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 26:9 Lit with my soul I long
Isaiah 26:9 Lit with my spirit...I seek
Isaiah 26:9 Lit has
Isaiah 26:11 Or Let them see...and be
Isaiah 26:11 Or let the fire for Your adversaries devour them
Isaiah 26:13 Or make Your name known
Isaiah 26:14 Or shades
Isaiah 26:16 Lit sound forth a whisper
Isaiah 26:18 Lit fallen
Isaiah 26:19 As in some ancient versions; MT My
Isaiah 26:19 Lit lights
Isaiah 26:19 Lit cause to fall
Isaiah 26:19 Or shades
Isaiah 26:20 Lit moment
Isaiah 26:20 Lit passes over
Isaiah 27:1 Or sea monster
Isaiah 27:1 Or sea monster
Isaiah 27:2 Some mss a vineyard of wine
Isaiah 27:3 Lit punish

Isaiah 1-27

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

1 The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.^(A)

The Wickedness of Judah

²Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth,
    for the Lord has spoken:
I reared children and brought them up,
    but they have rebelled against me.^(B)
³The ox knows its owner
    and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know;
    my people do not understand.^(C)

⁴Woe, sinful nation,
    people laden with iniquity,
offspring who do evil,
    children who act corruptly,
who have forsaken the Lord,
    who have despised the Holy One of Israel,
    [[who are utterly estranged!]]^[a]^(D)

⁵Why do you seek further beatings?
    Why do you continue to rebel?
The whole head is injured,
    and the whole heart faint.^(E)
⁶From the sole of the foot to the head,
    there is no soundness in it,
only bruises and sores
    and bleeding wounds;
they have not been drained or bound up
    or softened with oil.^(F)

⁷Your country lies desolate;
    your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
    aliens devour your land;
    it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.^(G)
⁸And daughter Zion is left
    like a booth in a vineyard,
like a shelter in a cucumber field,
    like a besieged city.
⁹If the Lord of hosts
    had not left us a few survivors,
we would have been like Sodom
    and become like Gomorrah.^(H)

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
    you people of Gomorrah!^(I)
¹¹What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
    says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls
    or of lambs or of goats.^(J)

¹²When you come to appear before me,^[b]
    who asked this from your hand?
    Trample my courts no more!^(K)
¹³Bringing offerings is futile;
    incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation—
    I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.^(L)
¹⁴Your new moons and your appointed festivals
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.^(M)
¹⁵When you stretch out your hands,
    I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen;
    your hands are full of blood.^(N)
¹⁶Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove your evil deeds
    from before my eyes;
cease to do evil;^(O)
¹⁷    learn to do good;
seek justice;
    rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
    plead for the widow.^(P)

¹⁸Come now, let us argue it out,
    says the Lord:
If your sins are like scarlet,
    will they become like snow?
If they are red like crimson,
    will they become like wool?^(Q)
¹⁹If you are willing and obedient,
    you shall eat the good of the land,^(R)
²⁰but if you refuse and rebel,
    you shall be devoured by the sword,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.^(S)

The Degenerate City

²¹How the faithful city
    has become a prostitute!
    She that was full of justice,
righteousness lodged in her—
    but now murderers!^(T)
²²Your silver has become dross;
    your wine is mixed with water.^(U)
²³Your princes are rebels
    and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
    and runs after gifts.
They do not defend the orphan,
    and the widow’s cause does not come before them.^(V)

²⁴Therefore says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel:
Surely I will pour out my wrath on my enemies
    and avenge myself on my foes!^(W)
²⁵I will turn my hand against you;
    I will smelt away your dross as with lye
    and remove all your alloy.^(X)
²⁶And 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.^(Y)

²⁷Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
    and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
²⁸But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together,
    and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.^(Z)
²⁹For you shall be ashamed of the oaks
    in which you delighted,
and you shall blush for the gardens
    that you have chosen.^(AA)
³⁰For you shall be like an oak
    whose leaf withers
    and like a garden without water.
³¹The strong shall become like tinder
    and their work like a spark;
they and their work shall burn together,
    with no one to quench them.^(AB)

The Future House of God

2 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.^(AC)

²In days to come
    the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains
    and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.^(AD)
³    Many peoples 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 instruction
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.^(AE)
⁴He shall judge between the nations
    and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
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.^(AF)
⁵O house of Jacob,
    come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!^(AG)

Judgment Pronounced on Arrogance

⁶You have forsaken your people,
    the house of Jacob,
for they are full of diviners^[c] from the East
    and of soothsayers like the Philistines,
    and they clasp hands with foreigners.^(AH)
⁷Their land is filled with silver and gold,
    and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is filled with horses,
    and there is no end to their chariots.^(AI)
⁸Their land is filled with idols;
    they bow down to the work of their hands,
    to what their own fingers have made.^(AJ)
⁹And so people are humbled,
    and everyone is brought low—
    [[do not forgive them!^(AK)
¹⁰Enter into the rock,
    and hide in the dust
from the terror of the Lord
    and from the glory of his majesty.]]^[d]^(AL)
¹¹The haughty eyes of people shall be brought low,
    and the pride of everyone shall be humbled,
and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.^(AM)
¹²For the Lord of hosts has a day
    against all that is proud and lofty,
    against all that is lifted up and high;^[e]^(AN)
¹³against all the cedars of Lebanon,
    lofty and lifted up;
    and against all the oaks of Bashan;^(AO)
¹⁴against all the high mountains
    and against all the lofty hills;^(AP)
¹⁵against every high tower
    and against every fortified wall;
¹⁶against all the ships of Tarshish
    and against all the highly prized vessels.^(AQ)
¹⁷The haughtiness of people shall be humbled,
    and the pride of everyone shall be brought low,
    and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.^(AR)
¹⁸The idols shall utterly pass away.^(AS)
¹⁹Enter the caves of the rocks
    and the holes of the ground,
from the terror of the Lord
    and from the glory of his majesty,
    when he rises to terrify the earth.^(AT)
²⁰On that day people will throw away
    to the moles and to the bats
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
    which they made for themselves to worship,^(AU)
²¹to enter the caverns of the rocks
    and the clefts in the crags,
from the terror of the Lord
    and from the glory of his majesty,
    when he rises to terrify the earth.^(AV)
²²[[Turn away from mortals,
    who have only breath in their nostrils,
    for of what account are they?]]^[f]^(AW)

3 For now the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,
    is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah
support and staff—
    all support of bread
    and all support of water—^(AX)
²warrior and soldier,
    judge and prophet,
    diviner and elder,^(AY)
³captain of fifty
    and dignitary,
counselor and skillful magician
    and expert enchanter.
⁴And I will make youths their princes,
    and children shall rule over them.^(AZ)
⁵The people will be oppressed,
    everyone by another
    and everyone by a neighbor;
the youth will be insolent to the elder
    and the base to the honorable.^(BA)

⁶Someone will seize a relative,
    a member of the clan, saying,
“You have a cloak;
    you shall be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
    shall be under your rule.”^(BB)
⁷But the other will cry out on that day, saying,
“I will not be a healer;
    in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
you shall not make me
    leader of the people.”^(BC)
⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled,
    and Judah has fallen,
because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord,
    defying his glorious presence.^(BD)

⁹The look on their faces bears witness against them;
    they proclaim their sin like Sodom;
    they do not hide it.
Woe to them,
    for they have brought evil on themselves.^(BE)
¹⁰Tell the innocent how fortunate they are,
    for they shall eat the fruit of their labors.^(BF)
¹¹Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are,
    for what their hands have done shall be done to them.^(BG)
¹²My people—their oppressors extort them,
    and creditors^[g] rule over them.
O my people, your leaders mislead you
    and confuse the course of your paths.^(BH)

¹³The Lord rises to argue his case;
    he stands to judge the peoples.^(BI)
¹⁴The Lord enters into judgment
    with the elders and princes of his people:
It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
    the spoil of the poor is in your houses.^(BJ)
¹⁵What do you mean by crushing my people,
    by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.^(BK)

¹⁶The Lord said:
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty
    and walk with outstretched necks,
    glancing wantonly with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,
    tinkling with their feet;^(BL)
¹⁷the Lord will afflict with scabs
    the heads of the daughters of Zion,
    and the Lord will lay bare their scalps and heads.

¹⁸On that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents;^(BM) ¹⁹the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs; ²⁰the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets;^(BN) ²¹the signet rings and nose rings;^(BO) ²²the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; ²³the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

²⁴Instead of perfume there will be a stench;
    and instead of a sash, a rope;
and instead of well-styled hair, baldness;
    and instead of a rich robe, a binding of sackcloth;
    instead of beauty, shame.^[h]^(BP)
²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword
    and your warriors in battle.^(BQ)
²⁶And her gates shall lament and mourn;
    desolate, she shall sit upon the ground.^(BR)

4 Seven women shall take hold of one man on that day, saying,

“We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes;
just let us be called by your name;
take away our disgrace.”^(BS)

The Future Glory of the Survivors in Zion

²On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.^(BT) ³Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,^(BU) ⁴once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.^(BV) ⁵Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy.^(BW) ⁶It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.^(BX)

The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard

5 I will sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.^(BY)
²He dug it and cleared it of stones
    and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
    and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded rotten grapes.^(BZ)

³And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and people of Judah,
judge between me
    and my vineyard.^(CA)
⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard
    that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield rotten grapes?^(CB)

⁵And now I will tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
    and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trampled down.^(CC)
⁶I will make it a wasteland;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.^(CD)

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
    but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
    but heard a cry!^(CE)

Social Injustice Denounced

⁸Woe to those who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
    and you are left to live alone
    in the midst of the land!^(CF)
⁹The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
    large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.^(CG)
¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
    and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.^[i]^(CH)

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning
    in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
    to be inflamed by wine,^(CI)
¹²whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
    tambourine and flute and wine,
but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord
    or see the work of his hands!^(CJ)
¹³Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
    and their multitude is parched with thirst.^(CK)

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
    and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem^[j] and her multitude go down,
    her throng and all who exult in her.^(CL)
¹⁵People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
    and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.^(CM)
¹⁶But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
    and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.^(CN)
¹⁷Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture;
    fatted calves and kids^[k] shall feed among the ruins.

¹⁸Woe to those who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
    who drag sin along as with cart ropes,^(CO)
¹⁹who say, “Let him make haste;
    let him speed his work
    that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment,
    that we may know it!”^(CP)
²⁰Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter!^(CQ)
²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and shrewd in their own sight!^(CR)
²²Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
    and valiant at mixing drink,^(CS)
²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe
    and deprive the innocent of their rights!^(CT)

Foreign Invasion Predicted

²⁴Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble
    and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become rotten,
    and their blossom go up like dust,
for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts
    and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.^(CU)

²⁵Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
    and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
    the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
    in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
    and his hand is stretched out still.^(CV)

²⁶He will raise a signal for a nation far away
    and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth.
Here they come, swiftly, speedily!^(CW)
²⁷None of them is weary; none stumbles;
    none slumbers or sleeps;
not a loincloth is loose;
    not a sandal strap broken;^(CX)
²⁸their arrows are sharp;
    all their bows strung;
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
    and their wheels like the whirlwind.^(CY)
²⁹Their roaring is like a lion;
    like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey;
    they carry it off, and no one can rescue.^(CZ)
³⁰They will roar over it on that day,
    like the roaring of the sea.
And if one look to the land—
    only darkness and distress;
and the light grows dark with its clouds.^(DA)

A Vision of God in the Temple

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.^(DB) ²Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.^(DC) ³And one called to another and said,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”^(DD)

⁴The pivots^[l] on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. ⁵And I said, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”^(DE)

⁶Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. ⁷The seraph^[m] touched my mouth with it and said, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”^(DF) ⁸Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”^(DG) ⁹And he said, “Go and say to this people:

‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’^(DH)
¹⁰Make the mind of this people dull,
    and stop their ears,
    and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes
    and listen with their ears
and comprehend with their minds
    and turn and be healed.”^(DI)
¹¹Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said,
“Until cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
    and the land is utterly desolate;^(DJ)
¹²until the Lord sends everyone far away,
    and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.^(DK)
¹³Even if a tenth part remain in it,
    it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
    whose stump remains standing
    when it is felled.”^[n]
(The holy seed is its stump.)^(DL)

Isaiah Reassures King Ahaz

7 In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem but could not conquer it.^(DM) ²When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz^[o] and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.^(DN)

³Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub,^[p] at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller’s field,^(DO) ⁴and say to him: Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.^(DP) ⁵Because Aram—with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah—has plotted evil against you, saying, ⁶‘Let us go up against Judah and terrify it^[q] and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it’; ⁷therefore thus says the Lord God:

It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.^(DQ)
⁸For the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.

(Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.)^(DR)

⁹The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in faith,
you shall not stand at all.”^(DS)

Isaiah Gives Ahaz the Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹“Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”^(DT) ¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” ¹³Then Isaiah^[r] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals that you weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.^[s]^(DU) ¹⁵He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.^(DV) ¹⁶For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.^(DW) ¹⁷The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.”^(DX)

¹⁸On that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the sources of the streams of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.^(DY) ¹⁹And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the rocks and on all the thornbushes and on all the watering holes.^[t]^(DZ)

²⁰On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well.^(EA)

²¹On that day one will keep alive a young cow and two sheep ²²and will eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give, for everyone left in the land shall eat curds and honey.

²³On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. ²⁴With bow and arrows one will go there, for all the land will be briers and thorns, ²⁵and as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

Isaiah’s Son a Sign of the Assyrian Invasion

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz,’^[u]^(EB) ²and have it attested^[v] for me by reliable witnesses, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”^(EC) ³And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz, ⁴for before the child knows how to call ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”^(ED)

⁵The Lord spoke to me again: ⁶“Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently and melt in fear before^[w] Rezin and the son of Remaliah,^(EE) ⁷therefore the Lord is bringing up against it the mighty flood waters of the River, the king of Assyria and all his glory; it will rise above all its channels and overflow all its banks; ⁸it will sweep on into Judah as a flood and, pouring over, will reach up to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.^(EF)

⁹Take notice,^[x] you peoples, and be dismayed;
    listen, all you far countries;
gird yourselves and be dismayed!^[y]
¹⁰Take counsel together, but it shall be brought to naught;
    speak a word, but it will not stand,
    for God is with us.”^(EG)

¹¹The Lord spoke thus to me while his hand was strong upon me and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:^(EH) ¹²“Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears or be in dread.^(EI) ¹³But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.^(EJ) ¹⁴He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over, a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.^(EK) ¹⁵And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”^(EL)

Disciples of Isaiah

¹⁶Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples.^(EM) ¹⁷I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.^(EN) ¹⁸See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.^(EO) ¹⁹Now if people say to you, “Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp and mutter; should not a people consult their gods, the dead on behalf of the living,^(EP) ²⁰for teaching and for instruction?” surely those who speak like this will have no dawn!^(EQ) ²¹They will pass through the land,^[z] greatly distressed and hungry; when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse^[aa] their king and their gods. They will turn their faces upward,^(ER) ²²or they will look to the earth, but they will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust into thick darkness.^[ab]^(ES)

The Righteous Reign of the Coming King

9 ^[ac]But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.^(ET)

²^[ad]The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
    on them light has shined.^(EU)
³You have multiplied exultation;^[ae]
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as people exult when dividing plunder.^(EV)
⁴For the yoke of their burden
    and the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.^(EW)
⁵For all the boots of the tramping warriors
    and all the garments rolled in blood
    shall be burned as fuel for the fire.^(EX)
⁶For a child has been born for us,
    a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders,
    and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.^(EY)
⁷Great will be his authority,^[af]
    and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
    He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.^(EZ)

Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression

⁸The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
    and it fell on Israel,
⁹and all the people knew it—
    Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
    but in pride and arrogance of heart they said:^(FA)
¹⁰“The bricks have fallen,
    but we will build with dressed stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
    but we will put cedars in their place.”
¹¹So the Lord raised adversaries^[ag] against them
    and stirred up their enemies,^(FB)
¹²the Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west,
    and they devoured Israel with open mouth.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
    his hand is stretched out still.^(FC)

¹³The people did not turn to him who struck them
    or seek the Lord of hosts.^(FD)
¹⁴So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail,
    palm branch and reed in one day—^(FE)
¹⁵elders and dignitaries are the head,
    and prophets who teach lies are the tail,^(FF)
¹⁶for those who led this people led them astray,
    and those who were led by them were left in confusion.^(FG)
¹⁷That is why the Lord did not have pity on^[ah] their young people
    or compassion on their orphans and widows,
for everyone was godless and an evildoer,
    and every mouth spoke folly.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
    his hand is stretched out still.^(FH)

¹⁸For wickedness burned like a fire,
    consuming briers and thorns;
it kindled the thickets of the forest,
    and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.^(FI)
¹⁹Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts
    the land was burned,
and the people became like fuel for the fire;
    no one spared another.^(FJ)
²⁰They gorged on the right but still were hungry,
    and they devoured on the left but were not satisfied;
they devoured the flesh of their own kindred;^[ai]^(FK)
²¹Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
    and together they were against Judah.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
    his hand is stretched out still.^(FL)

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

Arrogant Assyria Also Judged

⁵Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger—
    the club in their hands is my fury!^(FQ)
⁶Against a godless nation I send him,
    and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
    and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.^(FR)
⁷But this is not what he intends,
    nor does he have this in mind,
but it is in his heart to destroy
    and to cut off nations not a few.^(FS)
⁸For he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?^(FT)
⁹Is not Calno like Carchemish?
    Is not Hamath like Arpad?
    Is not Samaria like Damascus?^(FU)
¹⁰As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols
    whose images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,^(FV)
¹¹shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
    what I have done to Samaria and her images?”

¹²When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he^[aj] will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride.^(FW) ¹³For he says:

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

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

The Repentant Remnant of Israel

²⁰On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on the one who struck them but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.^(GE) ²¹A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.^(GF) ²²For though your people, O Israel, were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, an overwhelming verdict.^(GG) ²³For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in all the earth.^[ak]^(GH)

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they beat you with a rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. ²⁵For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.”^(GI) ²⁶The Lord of hosts will wield a whip against them, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.^(GJ) ²⁷On that day his burden will be removed from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck.

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

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

The Peaceful Kingdom

11 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch shall grow^[an] out of his roots.^(GR)
²The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
    the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the spirit of counsel and might,
    the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.^(GS)
³His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

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

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

Return of the Remnant of Israel and Judah

¹⁰On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.^(GX)

¹¹On that day the Lord will again raise^[ap] his hand to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.^(GY)

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

Thanksgiving and Praise

12 You will say on that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
and you comforted me.^(HE)

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

³With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.^(HG) ⁴And you will say on that day:

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

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

Proclamation against Babylon

13 The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.^(HJ)

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

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

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

Restoration of Judah

14 But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel and will settle them in their own land, and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.^(ID) ²And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess the nations^[av] as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors and rule over those who oppressed them.^(IE)

Downfall of the King of Babylon

³When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve,^(IF) ⁴you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

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

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

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

²²I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says the Lord.^(IU) ²³And I will make it a possession of the screech owl^[ba] and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts.^(IV)

An Oracle concerning Assyria

²⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have designed,
    so shall it be,
and as I have planned,
    so shall it come to pass:^(IW)
²⁵I will break the Assyrian in my land
    and on my mountains trample him under foot;
his yoke shall be removed from them
    and his burden from their shoulders.^(IX)
²⁶This is the plan that is planned
    concerning the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out
    over all the nations.^(IY)
²⁷For the Lord of hosts has planned,
    and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
    and who will turn it back?^(IZ)

An Oracle concerning Philistia

²⁸In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:^(JA)

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

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

An Oracle concerning Moab

15 An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar is laid waste in a night,
    Moab is undone;
because Kir is laid waste in a night,
    Moab is undone.^(JF)
²Daughter Dibon^[bd] has gone up
    to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
    Moab wails.
Every head is shaved;
    every beard is shorn;^(JG)
³in the streets they bind on sackcloth;
    on the housetops and in the squares
    everyone wails and melts in tears.^(JH)
⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
    their voices are heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the loins of Moab quiver;^[be]
    his soul trembles.
⁵My heart cries out for Moab;
    his fugitives flee to Zoar,
    to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
    they raise a cry of destruction;^(JI)
⁶the waters of Nimrim
    are a desolation;
the grass is withered; the new growth fails;
    vegetation is no more.^(JJ)
⁷Therefore the abundance they have gained
    and what they have laid up
they carry away
    over the Wadi of the Willows.^(JK)
⁸For a cry has gone
    around the land of Moab;
the wailing reaches to Eglaim;
    the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
⁹For the waters of Dibon^[bf] are full of blood,
    yet I will bring upon Dibon^[bg] even more—
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
    for the remnant of the land.^(JL)

16 Send lambs
    to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, by way of the desert,
    to the mount of daughter Zion.^(JM)
²Like fluttering birds,
    like scattered nestlings,
so are the daughters of Moab
    at the fords of the Arnon.^(JN)
³“Give counsel;
    grant justice;
make your shade like night
    at the height of noon;
hide the outcasts;
    do not betray the fugitive;^(JO)
⁴let the outcasts of Moab
    settle among you;
be a refuge to them
    from the destroyer.”

When the oppressor is no more,
    and destruction has ceased,
and marauders have vanished from the land,^(JP)
⁵then a throne shall be established in steadfast love
    in the tent of David,
    and on it shall sit in faithfulness
a ruler who seeks justice
    and is swift to do what is right.^(JQ)

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab
    —how proud he is!—
of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;
    his boasts are false.^(JR)
⁷Therefore let Moab wail;
    let everyone wail for Moab.
Mourn, utterly stricken,
    for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.^(JS)

⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish,
    and the vines of Sibmah,
whose clusters once made drunk
    the lords of the nations,
reached to Jazer
    and strayed to the desert;
their shoots once spread abroad
    and crossed over the sea.^(JT)
⁹Therefore I weep as Jazer weeps
    for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
    O Heshbon and Elealeh,
for the shout over your fruit harvest
    and your grain harvest has ceased.^(JU)
¹⁰Joy and gladness are taken away
    from the fruitful field,
and in the vineyards no exultation is heard;
    no shouts are raised;
no treader treads out wine in the presses;
    the vintage shout is hushed.^[bh]^(JV)
¹¹Therefore my heart moans like a harp for Moab
    and my very soul for Kir-heres.^(JW)

¹²When Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.^(JX)

¹³This was the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past. ¹⁴But now the Lord says, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all its great multitude, and those who survive will be very few and feeble.”^(JY)

An Oracle concerning Damascus

17 An oracle concerning Damascus.

See, Damascus will cease to be a city
    and will become a heap of ruins.^(JZ)
²Her towns will be deserted forever;^[bi]
    they will be places for flocks,
    which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid.^(KA)
³The fortress will disappear from Ephraim
    and the kingdom from Damascus,
and the remnant of Aram will be
    like the glory of the people of Israel,
            says the Lord of hosts.^(KB)

⁴On that day
    the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
    and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.^(KC)
⁵And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain
    and their arms harvest the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
    in the Valley of Rephaim.^(KD)
⁶Gleanings will be left in it,
    as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
    in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
    on the branches of a fruit tree,
            says the Lord God of Israel.^(KE)

⁷On that day people will look to their Maker, with their eyes on the Holy One of Israel;^(KF) ⁸they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles^[bj] or the altars of incense.^(KG)

⁹On that day their fortified cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites,^[bk] which they deserted because of the people of Israel, and there will be desolation.^(KH)

¹⁰For you have forgotten God your Savior
    and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant gardens
    and set out branches of a foreign god,^(KI)
¹¹though you make them grow on the day that you plant them
    and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away
    in a day of sickness and incurable pain.^(KJ)

¹²Woe, the thunder of many peoples,
    they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
The roar of nations,
    they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!^(KK)
¹³[[When the nations roar like the roaring of many waters,]]^[bl]
    he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
    and like whirling dust before the storm.^(KL)
¹⁴At evening time, sudden terror!
    Before morning, they are no more.
This is the fate of those who despoil us
    and the lot of those who plunder us.^(KM)

An Oracle concerning Cush

18 Woe, land of buzzing^[bm] wings
    beyond the rivers of Cush,^(KN)
²sending ambassadors by the Nile
    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
    to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
    a nation mighty^[bn] and conquering,
    whose land the rivers divide.^(KO)

³All you inhabitants of the world,
    you who live on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
    When a trumpet is blown, listen!^(KP)
⁴For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
    like clear heat in sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”^(KQ)
⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is over
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks,
    and the spreading branches he will hew away.^(KR)
⁶They shall all be left
    to the birds of prey of the mountains
    and to the animals of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
    and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.^(KS)

⁷At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of hosts from^[bo] a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.^(KT)

An Oracle concerning Egypt

19 An oracle concerning Egypt.

See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
    and comes to Egypt;
the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.^(KU)
²I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
    and they will fight, one against the other,
    neighbor against neighbor,
    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;^(KV)
³the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
    and I will confound their plans;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead
    and the ghosts and the familiar spirits;^(KW)
⁴I will deliver the Egyptians
    into the hand of a hard master;
a fierce king will rule over them,
    says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts.^(KX)

⁵The waters of the Nile will be dried up,
    and the river will be parched and dry;^(KY)
⁶its canals will become foul,
    and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up.
Reeds and rushes will rot away,^(KZ)
⁷    the reeds beside the Nile;^[bp]
all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
    be driven away, and be no more.
⁸Those who fish will mourn;
    all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament,
    and those who spread nets on the water will languish.
⁹The workers in flax will be in despair,
    and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale.
¹⁰Its weavers will be dismayed,
    and all who work for wages will be grieved.^(LA)

¹¹Clearly the princes of Zoan are foolish;
    the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
    “I am one of the sages,
    a descendant of ancient kings”?^(LB)
¹²Where now are your sages?
    Let them tell you and make known
    what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.^(LC)
¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools,
    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of its tribes
    have led Egypt astray.^(LD)
¹⁴The Lord has poured into them^[bq]
    a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings
    as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.^(LE)
¹⁵Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed,
    will be able to do anything for Egypt.

¹⁶On that day the Egyptians will be like women and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts raises against them.^(LF) ¹⁷And the land of Judah will become a terror^[br] to the Egyptians; everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the plan that the Lord of hosts is planning against them.^(LG)

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed

¹⁸On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.^[bs]^(LH)

¹⁹On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord at its border.^(LI) ²⁰It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and will defend and deliver them.^(LJ) ²¹The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day and will serve with sacrifice and offerings, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.^(LK) ²²The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing, so that they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their supplications and heal them.^(LL)

²³On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.^(LM)

²⁴On that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel my heritage.”^(LN)

Isaiah Dramatizes the Conquest of Egypt and Cush

20 In the year that the commander-in-chief, who was sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and took it^(LO)— ²at that time the Lord had spoken to Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet,” and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot.^(LP) ³Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,^(LQ) ⁴so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as captives and the Cushites as exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.^(LR) ⁵And they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast.^(LS) ⁶On that day the inhabitants of this coastland will say, ‘See, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’ ”^(LT)

Oracles concerning Babylon, Edom, and Arabia

21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
    it comes from the desert,
    from a terrible land.^(LU)
²A stern vision is told to me;
    the betrayer betrays,
    and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam;
    lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
    I bring to an end.^(LV)
³Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
    pangs have seized me
    like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.^(LW)
⁴My mind reels; horror has appalled me;
    the twilight I longed for
    has been turned for me into trembling.^(LX)
⁵They prepare the table;
    they spread the rugs;
    they eat; they drink.
Rise up, commanders;
    oil the shield!^(LY)
⁶For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, post a lookout;
    let him announce what he sees.
⁷When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him watch closely,
    very closely.”^(LZ)
⁸Then the watcher^[bt] called out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
    continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
    throughout the night.^(MA)
⁹Look, there they come, riders,
    horsemen in pairs!”
Then he responded,
    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon,
and all the images of her gods
    lie shattered on the ground.”^(MB)
¹⁰O my threshed and winnowed one,
    what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
    the God of Israel, I announce to you.^(MC)

¹¹The oracle concerning Dumah.

One is calling to me from Seir,
    “Sentinel, what of the night?
    Sentinel, what of the night?”^(MD)
¹²The sentinel says:
“Morning comes and also the night.
    If you will inquire, inquire;
    come back again.”

¹³The oracle concerning the desert plain.

In the scrub of the desert plain you will lodge,
    O caravans of Dedanites.^(ME)
¹⁴Bring water to the thirsty,
    O inhabitants of the land of Tema;
    meet the fugitive with bread.^(MF)
¹⁵For they have fled from the swords,
    from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow,
    and from the stress of battle.^(MG)

¹⁶For thus the Lord said to me: “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end,^(MH) ¹⁷and the remaining bows of Kedar’s warriors will be few, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.”^(MI)

A Warning of Destruction of Jerusalem

22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.

What has happened that you have gone up,
    all of you, to the housetops,^(MJ)
²city full of shouting,
    tumultuous city, panic-stricken town?
Your slain are not slain by the sword,
    nor are they dead in battle.^(MK)
³Your rulers have all fled together;
    they were captured without the use of a bow.^[bu]
All of your people who were found were captured,
    though they had fled far away.^[bv]^(ML)
⁴Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
    let me weep bitter tears;
do not try to comfort me
    for the destruction of my beloved people.”^(MM)

⁵For the Lord God of hosts has a day
    of tumult and trampling and confusion
    in the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
    and a cry for help to the mountains.^(MN)
⁶Elam bore the quiver
    with chariots and cavalry,^[bw]
    and Kir uncovered the shield.^(MO)
⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
    and the cavalry took their stand at the gates.^(MP)
⁸He has taken away the covering of Judah.

On that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,^(MQ) ⁹and you saw that there were many breaches in the city of David, and you collected the waters of the lower pool.^(MR) ¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it or have regard for him who planned it long ago.^(MS)

¹²On that day the Lord God of hosts
    called for weeping and mourning,
    for baldness and putting on sackcloth,^(MT)
¹³but instead there was joy and festivity,
    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
    eating meat and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we die.”^(MU)
¹⁴The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,”
    says the Lord God of hosts.^(MV)

Denunciation of Self-Seeking Officials

¹⁵Thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Go to the steward Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him:^(MW) ¹⁶What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb^[bx] on the height and carving a habitation for yourself^[by] in the rock?^(MX) ¹⁷The Lord is about to hurl you away violently, my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you, ¹⁸whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there your splendid chariots shall lie, O you disgrace to your master’s house!^(MY) ¹⁹I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.

²⁰“On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah^(MZ) ²¹and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²²I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.^(NA) ²³I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house.^(NB) ²⁴And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. ²⁵On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the Lord has spoken.”^(NC)

An Oracle concerning Tyre

23 The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
    for your fortress is destroyed.^[bz]
When they came in from Cyprus
    they learned of it.^(ND)
²Be still, O inhabitants of the coast,
    O merchants of Sidon;
your messengers crossed over the sea^[ca]^(NE)
³    and were on the mighty waters;
your revenue^[cb] was the grain of Shihor,
    the harvest of the Nile;
    you were the merchant of the nations.^(NF)
⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
    the fortress of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth;
    I have neither reared young men
    nor brought up young women.”^(NG)
⁵When the report comes to Egypt,
    they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
⁶Cross over to Tarshish—
    wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
⁷Is this your exultant city
    whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
    to settle far away?^(NH)
⁸Who has planned this
    against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
    whose traders were the honored of the earth?
⁹The Lord of hosts has planned it—
    to defile the pride of all glory,
    to shame all the honored of the earth.^(NI)
¹⁰Cross over to your own land,
    O ships of^[cc] Tarshish;
    this is a harbor^[cd] no more.
¹¹He has stretched out his hand over the sea;
    he has shaken the kingdoms;
the Lord has given command concerning Canaan,
    to destroy its fortresses.^(NJ)
¹²He said:
“You will exult no longer,
    O oppressed virgin daughter Sidon;
rise, cross over to Cyprus—
    even there you will have no rest.”^(NK)

¹³Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined it for wild animals.^[ce] They erected their siege towers; they tore down her palaces; they made her a ruin.^(NL)

¹⁴Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your fortress is destroyed.^(NM)

¹⁵From that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song about the prostitute:^(NN)

¹⁶Take a harp;
    go about the city,
    you forgotten prostitute!
Make sweet melody;
    sing many songs,
    that you may be remembered.

¹⁷At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her trade and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.^(NO) ¹⁸Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated to the Lord; her profits^[cf] will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in the presence of the Lord.^(NP)

Impending Judgment on the Earth

24 Now the Lord is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate,
    and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.^(NQ)
²And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
    as with the male slave, so with his master;
    as with the female slave, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
    as with the lender, so with the borrower;
    as with the creditor, so with the debtor.^(NR)
³The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled,
    for the Lord has spoken this word.^(NS)

⁴The earth dries up and withers;
    the world languishes and withers;
    the heavens languish together with the earth.
⁵The earth lies polluted
    under its inhabitants,
for they have transgressed laws,
    violated the statutes,
    broken the everlasting covenant.^(NT)
⁶Therefore a curse devours the earth,
    and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled,
    and few people are left.^(NU)
⁷The wine dries up;
    the vine languishes;
    all the merry-hearted sigh.^(NV)
⁸The mirth of the timbrels is stilled;
    the noise of the jubilant has ceased;
    the mirth of the lyre is stilled.^(NW)
⁹No longer do they drink wine with singing;
    strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰The city of chaos is broken down;
    every house is shut up so that no one can enter.^(NX)
¹¹There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
    all joy has reached its eventide;
    the gladness of the earth is banished.^(NY)
¹²Desolation is left in the city;
    the gates are battered into ruins.
¹³For thus it shall be on the earth
    and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
    as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is ended.^(NZ)

¹⁴They lift up their voices; they sing for joy;
    they shout from the west over the majesty of the Lord.^(OA)
¹⁵Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord;
    in the coastlands of the sea glorify the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.^(OB)
¹⁶From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
    of glory to the Righteous One.

But I say, “I pine away;
    I pine away. Woe is me!
For the treacherous deal treacherously;
    the treacherous deal very treacherously.”^(OC)
¹⁷Terror, the pit, and the snare
    are upon you, O inhabitants of the earth!^(OD)
¹⁸Whoever flees at the sound of the terror
    shall fall into the pit,
and whoever climbs out of the pit
    shall be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven are opened,
    and the foundations of the earth tremble.^(OE)
¹⁹The earth is utterly broken;
    the earth is torn apart;
    the earth is violently shaken.^(OF)
²⁰The earth staggers like a drunkard;
    it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
    and it falls and will not rise again.^(OG)

²¹On that day the Lord will punish
    the host of heaven in heaven
    and on earth the kings of the earth.^(OH)
²²They will be gathered together
    like prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
    and after many days they will be punished.^(OI)
²³Then the moon will be abashed
    and the sun ashamed,
for the Lord of hosts will reign
    on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and before his elders he will be glorified.^(OJ)

Praise for Deliverance from Oppression

25 O Lord, you are my God;
    I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
    plans formed of old, faithful and sure.^(OK)
²For you have made the city a heap,
    the fortified city a ruin;
the palace of foreigners is a city no more;
    it will never be rebuilt.^(OL)
³Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
    cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
⁴For you have been a refuge to the poor,
    a refuge to the needy in their distress,
    a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,^(OM)
⁵    the noise of foreigners like heat in a dry place,
you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;
    the song of the ruthless was stilled.^(ON)

⁶On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
    of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.^(OO)
⁷And he will destroy on this mountain
    the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
    the covering that is spread over all nations;
⁸    he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
    and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.^(OP)
⁹It will be said on that day,
    “See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
    This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”^(OQ)
¹⁰For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.

The Moabites shall be trodden down in their place
    as straw is trodden down in the manure.^(OR)
¹¹Though they spread out their hands in the midst of it,
    as swimmers spread out their hands to swim,
    their pride will be laid low despite the struggle^[cg] of their hands.
¹²The high fortifications of his walls will be brought down,
    laid low, cast to the ground, even to the dust.

Judah’s Song of Victory

26 On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;
    he sets up walls and bulwarks as a safeguard.^(OS)
²Open the gates,
    so that the righteous nation that maintains faithfulness
    may enter in.^(OT)
³Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace,
    in peace because they trust in you.
⁴Trust in the Lord forever,
    for in the Lord God^[ch]
    you have an everlasting rock.^(OU)
⁵For he has brought low
    the inhabitants of the height;
    the lofty city he lays low.
He lays it low to the ground,
    casts it to the dust.^(OV)
⁶The foot tramples it,
    the feet of the poor,
    the steps of the needy.^(OW)

⁷The way of the righteous is level;
    straight is the path of the righteous that you clear.^(OX)
⁸In the path of your judgments,
    O Lord, we have placed hope;
your name and your renown
    are the soul’s desire.^(OY)
⁹My soul yearns for you in the night;
    my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.^(OZ)
¹⁰If favor is shown to the wicked,
    they do not learn righteousness;
they corrupt what is upright on the earth
    and do not see the majesty of the Lord.^(PA)
¹¹O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
    but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed.
    Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.^(PB)
¹²O Lord, may you ordain peace for us,
    for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.^(PC)
¹³O Lord our God,
    other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    but we acknowledge your name alone.^(PD)
¹⁴The dead do not live;
    shades do not rise
because you have punished and destroyed them
    and wiped out all memory of them.^(PE)
¹⁵But you have increased the nation, O Lord;
    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
    you have enlarged all the borders of the land.^(PF)

¹⁶O Lord, in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a prayer^[ci]
    when your chastening was on them.^(PG)
¹⁷Like a woman with child
    about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we because of you, O Lord;^(PH)
¹⁸    we were with child; we writhed,
    but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
    and no one is born to inhabit the world.^(PI)
¹⁹Your dead shall live; their corpses^[cj] shall rise.
    Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy!^[ck]
For your dew is a radiant dew,
    and the earth will give birth to those long dead.^[cl]^(PJ)

²⁰Come, my people, enter your chambers,
    and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
    until the wrath is past.^(PK)
²¹For the Lord comes out from his place
    to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth will disclose the blood shed on it
    and will no longer cover its slain.^(PL)

Israel’s Redemption

27 On that day the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.^(PM)

²On that day:
A pleasant vineyard—sing about it!^(PN)
³    I, the Lord, am its keeper;
    every moment I water it.
I guard it night and day
    so that no one can harm it;^(PO)

Footnotes

1.4 Gk OL lack: Heb adds who are utterly estranged
1.12 Or see my face
2.6 Cn: Heb lacks of diviners
2.9–10 Q ms lacks do not forgive . . . majesty
2.12 Cn Compare Gk: Heb low
2.22 Gk OL lack 2.22
3.12 Gk: Heb women
3.24 Q ms: MT lacks shame
5.10 The Heb bath, homer, and ephah are measures of quantity
5.14 Heb her nobility
5.17 Gk: Heb aliens
6.4 Meaning of Heb uncertain
6.7 Heb He
6.13 Meaning of Heb uncertain
7.2 Heb his heart
7.3 That is, a remnant shall return
7.6 Or cut it off
7.13 Heb he
7.14 That is, God is with us
7.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain
8.1 That is, the spoil speeds, the prey hastens
8.2 Q ms Gk Syr: MT and I caused to be attested
8.6 Cn: Heb rejoicing with
8.9 Gk: Heb Be shattered
8.9 Q mss: MT repeats gird yourselves and be dismayed!
8.21 Heb it
8.21 Or curse by
8.22 Meaning of Heb uncertain
9.1 8.23 in Heb
9.2 9.1 in Heb
9.3 Cn: Heb multiplied the nation not
9.7 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
9.11 Cn: Heb the adversaries of Rezin
9.17 Q ms: MT rejoice over
9.20 Or arm
10.12 Gk: Heb I
10.23 Or land
10.27 Cn: Heb and his yoke from your neck, and a yoke will be destroyed because of fatness
10.34 Cn Compare Gk Vg: Heb with a majestic one
11.1 Cn Compare Syr: Heb bear fruit
11.6 Q ms Gk Syr: MT and the fatted calf
11.11 Cn Compare Gk: Heb the Lord will again a second time
11.15 Gk Syr: Heb destroy
12.2 Q ms Heb mss Gk Syr Vg Tg: MT for Yah, the Lord
12.6 Or O inhabitant of
13.3 Gk: Heb for my anger
13.6 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
14.2 Heb them
14.4 Q ms Compare Gk Syr Vg: Meaning of MT uncertain
14.13 Or assembly in the far north
14.19 Cn Compare Gk: Heb like a loathed branch
14.21 Syr Compare Gk: Heb fathers
14.23 Meaning of Heb uncertain
14.30 Heb mss: MT the firstborn of the poor
14.30 Q ms Vg: MT he
15.2 Cn: Heb the house and Dibon
15.4 Or the armed men of Moab cry aloud
15.9 Q ms Vg: MT Dimon
15.9 Q ms Vg: MT Dimon
16.10 Cn Compare Gk: Heb I have hushed
17.2 Cn Compare Gk: Heb the cities of Aroer are deserted
17.8 Heb Asherahs
17.9 Cn Compare Gk: Heb places of the wood and the highest bough
17.13 Heb mss Syr lack When . . . waters
18.1 Meaning of Heb uncertain
18.2 Meaning of Heb uncertain
18.7 Q ms Gk Vg: MT of
19.7 Gk: Heb beside the Nile, beside the mouth of the Nile
19.14 Gk Compare Tg: Heb it
19.17 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
19.18 Q mss Heb mss Tg Vg: MT city of destruction
21.8 Q ms Syr Vg: MT a lion
22.3 Or without their bows
22.3 Gk Syr Vg: Heb fled from far away
22.6 Meaning of Heb uncertain
22.16 Gk Vg: Heb his tomb
22.16 Gk Vg: Heb himself
23.1 Cn: Heb for it is destroyed, without houses
23.2 Q ms: MT crossing over the sea, they replenished you
23.3 Heb its
23.10 Cn Compare Gk: Heb like the Nile, daughter
23.10 Cn: Heb restraint
23.13 Or This is the people that was not. Assyria founded it for its fleet.
23.18 Heb it
25.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain
26.4 Heb in Yah, the Lord
26.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
26.19 Cn Compare Syr Tg: Heb my corpse
26.19 Q ms Compare Gk Syr: MT dust, awake and shout for joy!
26.19 Heb to the shades

Isaiah 1-49

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

1 The vision of Isaias the son of Amos I which he saw concerning Juda and Jerusalem in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda.

²Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have despised me.

³The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood.

⁴Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.

⁵For what shall I strike you any more, you that increase transgression? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad.

⁶From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein: wounds and bruises and swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil.

⁷Your land is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your country strangers devour before your face, and it shall be desolate as when wasted by enemies.

⁸And the daughter of Sion shall be left as a covert in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as a city that is laid waste.

⁹Except the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we had been as Sodom, and we should have been like to Gomorrha.

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha.

¹¹To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims, saith the Lord? I am full, I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck goats.

¹²When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts?

¹³Offer sacrifice no more in vain: incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, and the sabbaths, and other festivals I will not abide, your assemblies are wicked.

¹⁴My soul hateth your new moons, and your solemnities: they are become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear: for your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely,

¹⁷Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow.

¹⁸And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool.

¹⁹If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land.

²⁰But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath: the sword shall devour you because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

²¹How is the faithful city, that was full of judgment, become a harlot? justice dwelt in it, but now murderers.

²²Thy silver is turned into dross: thy wine is mingled with water.

²³Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves: they all love bribes, the run after rewards. They judge not for the fatherless: and the widow's cometh not in to them.

²⁴Therefore saith the Lord the God of hosts, the mighty one of Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my adversaries: and I will be revenged of my enemies.

²⁵And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy dress, and I will take away all thy tin.

²⁶And I will restore thy judges as they were before, and thy counsellors as of old. After this thou shalt be called the city of the just, a faithful city.

²⁷Sion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall bring her back in justice.

²⁸And he shall destroy the wicked, and the sinners together: and they that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed.

²⁹For they shall be confounded for the idols, to which they have sacrificed: and you shall be ashamed of the gardens which you have chosen.

³⁰When you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling off, and as a garden without water.

³¹And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a spark: and both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench it.

2 The word that Isaias the son of Amos saw, concerning Juda and Jerusalem.

²And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

³And many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

⁴And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war.

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

⁶For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob: because they are filled as in times past, and have had soothsayers as the Philistines, and have adhered to strange children.

⁷Their land is filled with silver and gold: and there is no end of their treasures.

⁸And their land is filled with horses: and their chariots are innumerable. Their land also is full of idols: they have adored the work of their own hands, which their own fingers have made.

⁹And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased: therefore forgive them not.

¹⁰Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.

¹¹The lofty eyes of man are humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be made to stoop: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹²Because the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and highminded, and upon every one that is arrogant, and he shall be humbled.

¹³And upon all the tall and lofty cedars of Libanus, and upon all the oaks of Basan.

¹⁴And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the elevated hills.

¹⁵And upon every high tower, and every fenced wall.

¹⁶And upon all the ships of Tharsis, and upon all that is fair to behold.

¹⁷And the loftiness of men shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹⁸And idols shall be utterly destroyed.

¹⁹And they shall go into the holes of rocks, and into the caves of the earth from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.

²⁰In that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which he had made for himself to adore, moles and bats.

²¹And he shall go into the clefts of rocks, and into the holes of stones from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.

²²Cease ye therefore from the man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he is reputed high.

3 For behold the sovereign the Lord of hosts shall take away from Jerusalem, and from Juda the valiant and the strong, the whole strength of bread, and the whole strength of water.

²The strong man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the cunning man, and the ancient.

³The captain over fifty, and the honourable in countenance, and the counsellor, and the architect, and the skillful in eloquent speech.

⁴And I will give children to be their princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them.

⁵And the people shall rush one upon another, and every man against his neighbour: the child shall make it tumult against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

⁶For a man shall take hold or his brother, one of the house of his father, saying: Thou hast a garment, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand.

⁷In that day he shall answer, saying: I am no healer, and in my house there is no bread, nor clothing: make me not ruler of the people.

⁸For Jerusalem is ruined, and Juda is fallen: because their tongue, and their devices are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his majesty.

⁹The shew of their countenance hath answered them: and they have proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom, and they have not hid it: woe to their souls, for evils are rendered to them.

¹⁰Say to the just man that it is well, for he shall eat the fruit of his doings.

¹¹Woe to the wicked unto evil: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.

¹²As for my people, their oppressors have stripped them, and women have ruled over them. O my people, they that call thee blessed, the same deceive thee, and destroy the way of thy steps.

¹³The Lord standeth up to judge, and he standeth to judge the people.

¹⁴The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and its princes: for you have devoured the vineyard, and the spoil of the poor is in your house.

¹⁵Why do you consume my people, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord the God of hosts.

¹⁶And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and have walked with stretched out necks, and wanton glances of their eyes, and made a noise as they walked with their feet and moved in a set pace:

¹⁷The Lord will make bald the crown of the head of the daughters of Sion, and the Lord will discover their hair.

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the ornaments of shoes, and little moons,

¹⁹And chains and necklaces, and bracelets, and bonnets,

²⁰And bodkins, and ornaments of the legs, and tablets, and sweet balls, and earrings,

²¹And rings, and jewels hanging on the forehead,

²²And changes of apparel, and short cloaks, and fine linen, and crisping pins,

²³And looking-glasses, and lawns, and headbands, and fine veils.

²⁴And instead of a sweet smell there shall be stench, and instead of a girdle, a cord, and instead of curled hair, baldness, and instead of a stomacher, haircloth.

²⁵Thy fairest men also shall fall by the sword, and thy valiant ones in battle.

²⁶And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall sit desolate on the ground.

4 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, take away our reproach.

²In that day the bud of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be high, and a great joy to them that shall have escaped of Israel.

³And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall be left in Sion, and that shall remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one that is written in life in Jerusalem.

⁴If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

⁵And the Lord will create upon every place of mount Sion, and where he is called upon, a cloud by day, and a smoke and the brightness of a flaming fire in the night: for over all the glory shall be a protection.

⁶And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a security and covert from the whirlwind, and from rain.

5 I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place.

²And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it broutht forth wild grapes.

³And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it?

⁵And now I will shew you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.

⁶And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.

⁸Woe to you that join house to house and lay field to field, even to the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth?

⁹These things are in my ears, saith the Lord of hosts: unless many great and fair houses shall become desolate, without an inhabitant.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little measure, and thirty bushels of seed shall yield three bushels.

¹¹Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be inflamed with wine.

¹²The harp, and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you consider the works of his hands.

¹³Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their multitude were dried up with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their high and glorious ones shall go down into it.

¹⁵And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low.

¹⁶And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be sanctified in justice.

¹⁷And the lambs shall feed according to their order, and strangers shall eat the deserts turned into fruitfulness.

¹⁸Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the rope of a cart.

¹⁹That say: Let him make haste, and let his work come quickly, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it.

²⁰Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

²¹Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits.

²²Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness.

²³That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him.

²⁴Therefore as the tongue of the fire devoureth the stubble, and the heat of the dame consumeth it: so shall their root be as ashes, and their bud shall go up as dust: for they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched out his hand upon them, and struck them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses became as dung in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

²⁶And he will lift up a sign to the nations afar off, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and behold they shall come with speed swiftly.

²⁷There is none that shall faint, nor labour among them: they shall not slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken.

²⁸Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of their horses shall be like the hint, and their wheels like the violence of a tempest.

²⁹Their roaring like that of a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea they shall roar, and take hold of the prey, and they shall keep fast hold of it, and there shall be none to deliver it.

³⁰And they shall make a noise against them that day, like the roaring of the sea; we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness of tribulation, and the light is darkened with the mist thereof.

6 In the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated: and his train filled the temple.

²Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they hew.

³And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.

⁴And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King the Lord of hosts.

⁶And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar.

⁷And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.

⁸And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I, send me.

⁹And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: Hearing, hear, and understand not: and see the vision, and know it not.

¹⁰Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.

¹¹And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land shall be left desolate.

¹²And the Lord shall remove men far away, and she shall be multiplied that was left in the midst of the earth.

¹³And there shall be still a tithing therein, and she shall turn, and shall be made a shew as a turpentine tree, and as an oak that spreadeth its branches: that which shall stand therein, shall be a holy seed.

7 And it came to pass in the days of Achaz the son of Joathan, the son of Ozias, king of Juda, that Basin king of Syria, and Phacee the son of Romelia king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem, to fight against it: but they could not prevail over it.

²And they told the house of David, saying: Syria hath rested upon Ephraim, and his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.

³And the Lord said to Isaias: Go forth to meet Achaz, thou and Jasub thy son that is left, to the conduit of the upper pool, a in the way of the fuller's held.

⁴And thou shalt say to him: See thou be quiet: fear not, and let not thy heart be afraid of the two tails of these fire brands, smoking with the wrath of the fury of Rasin king of Syria, and of the son of Romelia.

⁵Because Syria hath taken counsel against thee, unto the evil of Ephraim and the son of Romelia, saying:

⁶Let us go up to Juda, and rouse it up, and draw it away to us, and make the son of Tabeel king in the midst thereof.

⁷Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, and this shall not be.

⁸But the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Basin: and within threescore and five years, Ephraim shall cease to be a people:

⁹And the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria the son of Romelia. If you will not believe, you shall not continue.

¹⁰And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying:

¹¹Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God either unto the depth of hell, or unto the height above.

¹²And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.

¹³And he said: Hear ye therefore, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God also?

¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.

¹⁵He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.

¹⁶For before the child know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of the face of her two kings.

¹⁷The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon the house of thy father, days that have not come since the time of the separation of Ephraim from Juda with the king of the Assyrians.

¹⁸And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly, that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹And they shall come, and shall all of them rest in the torrents of the valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all places set with shrubs, and in all hollow places.

²⁰In that day the Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired by them that are beyond the river, by the king of the Assyrians, the head and the hairs of the feet, and the whole beard.

²¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep.

²²And for the abundance of milk he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that shall be left in the midst of the land.

²³And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place where there were a thousand vines, at a thousand pieces of silver, shall become thorns and briers.

²⁴With arrows and with bows they shall go in thither: for briars and thorns shall be in all the land.

²⁵And as for all the hills that shall be raked with a rake, the fear of thorns and briers shall not come thither, but they shall be for the ox to feed on, and the lesser cattle to tread upon.

8 And the Lord said to me: Take thee a great book, and write in it with a man's pen. Take sway the spoils with speed, quickly take the prey.

²And I took unto me faithful witnesses, Urias the priest, and Zacharias the son of Barachias.

³And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son. And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Hasten to take away the spoils: Make haste to take away the prey.

⁴For before the child know to call his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of the Assyrians.

⁵And the Lord spoke to me again, saying:

⁶Forasmuch as this people hath cast away the waters of Siloe, that go with silence, and hath rather taken Basin, and the son of Romelia:

⁷Therefore behold the Lord will bring upon them the waters of the river strong and many, the king of the Assyrians, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and shall overflow all his banks,

⁸And shall pass through Juda, overflowing, and going over shall reach even to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel.

⁹Gather yourselves together, O ye people, and be overcome, and give ear, all ye lands afar off: strengthen yourselves, and be overcome, gird yourselves, and be overcome.

¹⁰Take counsel together, and it shall be defeated: speak a word, and it shall not be done: because God is with us.

¹¹For thus saith the Lord to me: As he hath taught me, with a strong arm, that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:

¹²Say ye not: A conspiracy: for all that this people speaketh, is a conspiracy: neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

¹³Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself: and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

¹⁴And he shall be a sanctification to you. But for a stone or stumbling, and for a rock of offence to the two houses of Israel, for a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵And very many of them shall stumble and fall, and shall be broken in pieces, and shall be snared, and taken.

¹⁶Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷And I will wait for the Lord, who hath hid his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

¹⁸Behold I and my children, whom the Lord hath given me for a sign, and for a wonder in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Sion.

¹⁹And when they shall say to you: Seek of pythons, and of diviners, who mutter in their enchantments: should not the people seek of their God, for the living of the dead?

²⁰To the law rather, and to the testimony. And if they speak not according to this word, they shall not have the morning light.

²¹And they shall pass by it, they shall fall, and be hungry: and when they shall be hungry, they will be angry, and curse their king, and their God, and look upwards.

²²And they shall look to the earth, and behold trouble and darkness, weakness and distress, and a mist following them, and they cannot fly away from their distress.

9 At the first time the land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephtali was lightly touched: and at the last the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily loaded.

²The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.

³Thou hast multiplied the nation, and hast not increased the joy. They shall rejoice before thee, as they that rejoice in the harvest, as conquerors rejoice after taking a prey, when they divide the spoils.

⁴For the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and the sceptre of their oppressor thou hast overcome, as in the day of Median.

⁵For every violent taking of spoils, with tumult, and garment mingled with blood, shall be burnt, and be fuel for the fire.

⁶For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.

⁷His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

⁸The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.

⁹And all the people of Ephraim shall know, and the inhabitants of Samaria that say in the pride and haughtiness of their heart:

¹⁰The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with square stones: they have cut down the sycamores, but we will change them for cedars.

¹¹And the Lord shall set up the enemies of Rasin over him, and shall bring on his enemies in a crowd:

¹²The Syrians from the east, and the Philistines from the west: and they shall devour Israel with open mouth, For all this his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹³And the people are not returned to him who hath struck them, and have not sought after the Lord of hosts.

¹⁴And the Lord shall destroy out of Israel the head and the tail, him that bendeth down, and him that holdeth back, in one day.

¹⁵The aged and honourable, he is the head: and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

¹⁶And they that call this people blessed, shall cause them to err: and they that are called blessed, shall be thrown down headlong.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men: neither shall he have mercy on their fatherless, and widows: for every one is a hypocrite and wicked, and every mouth hath spoken folly. For all this his indignation is not turned away, but his bend is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in smoke ascending on high.

¹⁹By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is troubled, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

²⁰And he shall turn to the right hand, and shall be hungry: and shall eat on the left hand, and shall not be filled: every one shall eat the flesh of his own arm: Manasses Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasses, and they together shall be against Juda.

²¹After all these things his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

10 Woe to them that make wicked laws: and when they write, write injustice:

²To oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of the humble of my people: that widows might be their prey, and that they might rob the fatherless.

³What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity which cometh from afar? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

⁴That you be not bowed down under the bond, and fall with the slain? In all these things his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁵Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.

⁶I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will give him a charge against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

⁷But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not think so: but his heart shall be set to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.

⁸For he shall say:

⁹Are not my princes as so many kings? is not Calano as Charcamis: and Emath as Arphad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idol, so also their idols of Jerusalem, and of Samaria.

¹¹Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

¹²And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed all his works in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, I will visit the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.

¹³For he hath said: By the strength of my own hand I have done it, and by my own wisdom I have understood: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have taken the spoils of the princes, and as a mighty man hath pulled down them that sat on high.

¹⁴And my hand hath found the strength of the people as a nest; and as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise.

¹⁵Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood.

¹⁶Therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory shall be kindled a burning, as it were the burning of a fire.

¹⁷And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the Holy One thereof as a flame: and his thorns and his briers shall be set on fire, and shall be devoured in one day.

¹⁸And the glory of his forest, and of his beautiful hill, shall be consumed from the soul even to the flesh, and he shall run away through fear.

¹⁹And they that remain of the trees of his forest shall be so few, that they shall easily be numbered, and a child shall write them down.

²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean no more upon him that striketh them: but they shall lean upon the Lord the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹The remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say, of Jacob, to the mighty God.

²²For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted, the consumption abridged shall overflow with justice.

²³For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, and an abridgment in the midst of all the land.

²⁴Therefore, thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: O my people that dwellest in Sion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall strike thee with his rod, and he shall lift up his staff over thee in the way of Egypt.

²⁵For yet a little and a very little while, and my indignation shall cease, and my wrath shall be upon their wickedness.

²⁶And the Lord of hosts shall raise up a scourge against him, according to the slaughter of Madian in the rock of Oreb, and his rod over the sea, and he shall lift it up in the way of Egypt.

²⁷And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall putrify at the presence of the oil.

²⁸He shall come into Aiath, he shall pass into Magron: at Machmas he shall lay up his carriages.

²⁹They have passed in haste, Gaba is our lodging: Rama was astonished, Gabaath of Saul fled away.

³⁰Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim, attend, O Laisa, poor Anathoth.

³¹Medemena is removed: ye inhabitants of Gabim, take courage.

³²It is yet day enough, to remain in Nobe: he shall shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Sion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall break the earthen vessel with terror, and the tall of stature shall be cut down, and the lofty shall be humbled.

³⁴And the thickets of the forest shall be cut down with iron, and Libanus with its high ones shall fall.

11 And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.

²And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness.

³And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.

⁴But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: land he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

⁵And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins.

⁶The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them.

⁷The calf and the bear shall feed: their young ones shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp: and the weaned child shall thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk.

⁹They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain, for the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea.

¹⁰In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.

¹¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand the second time to possess the remnant of his people, which shall be left from the Assyrians, and from Egypt, and from Phetros, and from Ethiopia, and from Elam, and from Sennaar, and from Emath, and from the islands of the sea.

¹²And he shall set up a standard unto the nations, and shall assemble the fugitives of Israel, and shall gather together the dispersed of Juda from the four quarters of the earth.

¹³And the envy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Juda shall perish: Ephraim shall not envy Juda, and Juda shall not fight against Ephraim.

¹⁴But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines by the sea, they together shall spoil the children of the east: Edom, and Moab shall be under the rule of their hand, and the children of Ammon shall be obedient.

¹⁵And the Lord shall lay waste the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and shall lift up his hand over the river in the strength of his spirit: and he shall strike it in the seven streams, so that men may pass through it in their shoes.

¹⁶And there shall be a highway for the remnant of my people, which shall be left from the Assyrians: as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

12 And thou shalt say in that day: I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for thou wast angry with me: thy wrath is turned away, and thou hast comforted me.

²Behold, God is my saviour, I will deal confidently, and will not fear: O because the Lord is my strength, and my praise, and he is become my salvation.

³You shall draw waters with joy out of the saviour's fountains:

⁴And you shall say in that day: Praise ye the Lord, and call upon his name: make his works known among the people: remember that his name is high.

⁵Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath done great things: shew this forth in all the earth.

⁶Rejoice, and praise, O thou habitation of Sion: for great is he that is in the midst of thee, the Holy One of Israel.

13 The burden of Babylon, which Isaias the son of Amos saw.

²Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates.

³I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my strong ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory.

⁴The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as it were of many people, the noise of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts hath given charge to the troops of war.

⁵To them that come from a country afar off, from the end of heaven: tile Lord and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy the whole land.

⁶Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near: it shall come as a destruction from the Lord.

⁷Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every heart of man shall melt,

⁸And shall be broken. Gripings and pains shall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman in labour. Every one shall be amazed at his neighbour, their countenances shall be as faces burnt.

⁹Behold, the day of the Lord shall come, a cruel day, and full of indignation, and of wrath, and fury, to lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

¹⁰For the stars of heaven, and their brightness shall not display their light: the sun shall be darkened in his rising, and the moon shall not shine with her light.

¹¹And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and will bring down the arrogancy of the mighty.

¹²A man shall be more precious than gold, yea a man than the finest of gold.

¹³For this I will trouble the heaven: and the earth shall be moved out of her place, for the indignation of the Lord of hosts, and for the day of his fierce wrath.

¹⁴And they shall be as a doe fleeing away, and as a sheep: and there shall be none to gather them together: every man shall turn to his own people, and every one shall flee to his own land.

¹⁵Every one that shall be found, shall be slain: and every one that shall come to their aid, shall fall by the sword.

¹⁶Their infants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes: their houses shall be pillaged, and their wives shall be ravished.

¹⁷Behold I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not seek silver, nor desire gold:

¹⁸But with their arrows they shall kill the children, and shall have no pity upon the sucklings of the womb, and their eye shall not spare their sons.

¹⁹And that Babylon, glorious among kingdoms, the famous pride of the Chaldeans, shall be even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha.

²⁰It shall no more be inhabited for ever, and it shall not be founded unto generation and generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch his tents there, nor shall shepherds rest there.

²¹But wild beasts shall rest there, and their houses shall be filled with serpents, and ostriches shall dwell there, and the hairy ones shall dance there:

²²And owls shall answer one another there, in the houses thereof, and sirens in the temples of pleasure.

14 Her time is near at hand, and her days shall not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger shall be joined with them, and shall adhere to the house of Jacob.

²And the people shall take them, and bring them into their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall make them captives that had taken them, and shall subdue their oppressors.

³And it shall come to pass in that day, that when God shall give thee rest from thy labour, and from thy vexation, and from the hard bondage, wherewith thou didst serve before,

⁴Thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and shalt say: How is the oppressor come to nothing, the tribute hath ceased?

⁵The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers,

⁶That struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner.

⁷The whole earth is quiet and still, it is glad and hath rejoiced.

⁸The fir trees also have rejoiced over thee, and the cedars of Libanus, saying: Since thou hast slept, there hath none come up to cut us down.

⁹Hell below was in an uproar to meet thee at thy coming, it stirred up the giants for thee. All the princes of the earth are risen up from their thrones, all the princes of nations.

¹⁰All shall answer, and say to thee: Thou also art wounded as well as we, thou art become like unto us.

¹¹Thy pride is brought down to hell, thy carcass is fallen down: under thee shall the moth be strewed, and worms shall be thy covering.

¹²How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didst wound the nations?

¹³And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north.

¹⁴I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High.

¹⁵But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth of the pit.

¹⁶They that shall see thee, shall turn toward thee, and behold thee. Is this the man that troubled the earth, that shook kingdoms,

¹⁷That made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the prison to his prisoners?

¹⁸All the kings of the nations have all of them slept in glory, every one in his own house.

¹⁹But thou art cast out of thy grave, as an unprofitable branch defiled, and wrapped up among them that were slain by the sword, and art gone down to the bottom of the pit, as a rotten carcass.

²⁰Thou shalt not keep company with them, even in burial: for thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people: the seed of the wicked shall not be named for ever.

²¹Prepare his children for slaughter for the iniquity of their fathers: they shall not rise up, nor inherit the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

²²And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will destroy the name of Babylon, and the remains, and the bud, and the offspring, saith the Lord.

²³And I will make it a possession for the ericius and pools of waters, and I will sweep it and wear it out with a besom, saith the Lord of hosts.

²⁴The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it be: and as I have purposed,

²⁵So shall it fall out: That I will destroy the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: and his yoke shall be taken away from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulder.

²⁶This is the counsel, that I have purposed upon all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations.

²⁷For the Lord of hosts hath decreed, and who can disannul it? and his hand is stretched out: and who shall turn it away?

²⁸In the year that king Achaz died, was this burden:

²⁹Rejoice not thou, whole Philistia, that the rod of him that struck thee is broken in pieces: for out of the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk, and his seed shall swallow the bird.

³⁰And the firstborn of the poor shall be fed, and the poor shall rest with confidence: and I will make thy root perish with famine, and I will kill thy remnant.

³¹Howl, O gate; cry, O city: all Philistia is thrown down: for a smoke shall come from the north, and there is none that shall escape his troop.

³²And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nations? That the Lord hath founded Sion, and the poor of his people shall hope in him.

15 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, it is silent: because the wall of Moab is destroyed in the night, it is silent.

²The house is gone up, and Dibon to the high places to mourn over Nabo, and over Medaba, Moab hath howled: ton all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard shall be shaven.

³In their streets they are girded with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets all shall howl and come down weeping.

⁴Hesebon shall cry, and Eleale, their voice is heard even to Jasa. For this shall the well appointed men of Moab howl, his soul shall howl to itself.

⁵My heart shall cry to Moab, the bars thereof shall flee unto Segor a heifer of three years old: for by the ascent of Luith they shall go up weeping: and in the way of Oronaim they shall lift up a cry of destruction.

⁶For the waters of Nemrim shall be desolate, for the grass is withered away, the spring is faded, all the greenness is perished.

⁷According to the greatness of their work, is their visitation also: they shall lead them to the torrent of the willows.

⁸For the cry is gone round about the border of Moab: the howling thereof unto Gallim, and unto the well of Elim the cry thereof.

⁹For the waters of Dibon are filled with blood: for I will bring more upon Dibon: the lion upon them that shall flee of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.

16 Send forth, O Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Sion.

²And it shall come to pass, that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be in the passage of Arnon.

³Take counsel, gather a council: make thy shadow as the night in the midday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about.

⁴My fugitives shall dwell with thee: O Moab, be thou a covert to them from the face of the destroyer: for the dust is at an end, the wretch is consumed: he hath failed, that trod the earth under foot.

⁵And a throne shall be prepared in mercy, and one shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment and quickly rendering that which is just.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is exceeding proud: his pride and his arrogancy, and his indignation is more than his strength.

⁷Therefore shall Moab howl to Moab, every one shall howl: to them that rejoice upon the brick walls, tell ye their stripes.

⁸For the suburbs of Hesebon are desolate, and the lords of the nations have destroyed the vineyard of Sabama: the branches thereof have reached even to Jazer: they have wandered in the wilderness, the branches thereof are left, they are gone over the sea.

⁹Therefore I will lament with the weeping of Jazer the vineyard of Sabama: I will water thee with my tears, O Hesebon, and Eleale: for the voice of the treaders hath rushed in upon thy vintage, and upon thy harvest.

¹⁰And gladness and joy shall be taken away from Carmel, and there shall be no rejoicing nor shouting in the vineyards. He shall not tread out wine in the press that was wont to tread it out: the voice of the treaders I have taken away.

¹¹Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for the brick wall.

¹²And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is wearied on his high places, that he shall go in to his sanctuaries to pray, and shall not prevail.

¹³This is the word, that the Lord spoke to Moab from that time:

¹⁴And now the Lord hath spoken, saying: In three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be taken away for all the multitude of the people, and it shall be left small and feeble, not many.

17 The burden of Damascus. Behold Damascus shall cease to be a city, and shall be as a ruinous heap of stones.

²The cities of Aroer shall be left for flocks, and they shall rest there, and there shall be none to make them afraid.

³And aid shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: and the remnant of Syria shall be as the glory of the children of Israel: saith the Lord of hosts.

⁴And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean.

⁵And it shall be as when one gathereth in the harvest that which remaineth, and his arm shall gather the ears of corn: and it shall be as he that seeketh ears in the vale of Raphaim.

⁶And the fruit thereof that shall be left upon it, shall be as one cluster of grapes, and as the shaking of the olive tree, two or three berries in the top of a bough, or four or five upon the top of the tree, saith the Lord the God of Israel.

⁷In that day man shall bow down himself to his Maker, and his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸And he shall not look to the altars which his hands made: and he shall not have respect to the things that his fingers wrought, such as groves and temples.

⁹In that day his strong cities shall be forsaken, as the ploughs, and the corn that were left before the face of the children of Israel, and thou shalt be desolate.

¹⁰Because thou hast forgotten God thy saviour, and hast not remembered thy strong helper: therefore shalt thou plant good plants, and shalt sow strange seed.

¹¹In the day of thy planting shall be the wild grape, and in the morning thy seed shall flourish: the harvest is taken away in the day of inheritance, and shall grieve thee much.

¹²Woe to the multitude of many people, like the multitude of the roaring sea: and the tumult of crowds, like the noise of many waters.

¹³Nations shall make a noise like the noise of waters overflowing, but he shall rebuke him, and he shall flee far off: and he shall be carried away as the dust of the mountains before the wind, and as a whirlwind before a tempest.

¹⁴In the time of the evening, behold there shall be trouble: the morning shall come, and he shall not be: this is the portion of them that have wasted us, and the lot of them that spoiled us.

18 Woe to the land, the winged cymbal, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,

²That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, and in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters. Go, ye swift angels, to a nation rent and torn in pieces: to a terrible people, after which there is no other: to a nation expecting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled.

³All ye inhabitants of the world, who dwell on the earth, when the sign shall be lifted up on the mountains, you shall see, and you shall hear the sound of the trumpet.

⁴For thus saith the Lord to me: I will take my rest, and consider in my place, as the noon light is clear, and as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest.

⁵For before the harvest it was all flourishing, and it shall bud without perfect ripeness, and the sprigs thereof shall be cut off with pruning hooks: and what is left shall be cut away and shaken out.

⁶And they shall be left together to the birds of the mountains, and the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall be upon them all the summer, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

⁷At that time shall a present be brought to the Lord of hosts, from a people rent and torn in pieces: from a terrible people, after which there hath been no other: from a nation expecting, expecting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, to mount Sion.

19 The burden of Egypt. Behold the Lord will ascend upon a swift cloud, and will enter into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst thereof.

²And I will set the Egyptians to fight against the Egyptians: and they shall fight brother against brother, and friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

³And the spirit of Egypt shall be broken in the bowels thereof, and I will cast down their counsel: and they shall consult their idols, and their diviners, and their wizards, and soothsayers.

⁴And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel masters, and a strong king shall rule over them, saith the Lord the God of hosts.

⁵And the water of the sea shall be dried up, and the river shall be wasted and dry.

⁶And the rivers shall fail: the streams of the banks shall be diminished, and be dried up. The reed and the bulrush shall wither away.

⁷The channel of the river shall be laid bare from its fountain, and every thing sown by the water shall be dried up, it shall wither away, and shall be no more.

⁸The fishers also shall mourn, and all that cast a hook into the river shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish away.

⁹They shall be confounded that wrought in flax, combing and weaving fine linen.

¹⁰And its watery places shall be dry, all they shall mourn that made pools to take fishes.

¹¹The princes of Tanis are become fools, the wise counsellors of Pharao have given foolish counsel: how will you say to Pharao: I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?

¹²Where are now thy wise men? let them tell thee, and shew what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

¹³The princes of Tanis are become fools, the princes of Memphis are gone astray, they have deceived Egypt, the stay of the people thereof.

¹⁴The Lord hath mingled in the midst thereof the spirit of giddiness: and they have caused Egypt to err in all its works, as a drunken man staggereth and vomiteth.

¹⁵And there shall be no work for Egypt, to make head or tail, him that bendeth down, or that holdeth back.

¹⁶In that day Egypt shall be like unto women, and they shall be amazed, and afraid, because of the moving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shall move over it.

¹⁷And the land of Juda shall be a terror to Egypt: every one that shall remember it shall tremble because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined concerning it.

¹⁸In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt, speaking the language of Chanaan, and swearing by the Lord of hosts: one shall be called the city of the sun.

¹⁹In that day there shall be an altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a monument of the Lord at the borders thereof:

²⁰It shall be for a sign, and for a testimony to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressor, and he shall send them a Saviour and a defender to deliver them.

²¹And the Lord shall be known by Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall worship him with sacrifices and offerings: and they shall make vows to the Lord, and perform them.

²²And the Lord shall strike Egypt with a scourge, and shall heal it, and they shall return to the Lord, and he shall be pacified towards them, and heal them.

²³In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians, and the Assyrian shall enter into Egypt, and the Egyptian to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrian.

²⁴In that day shall Israel be the third to the Egyptian and the Assyrian: a blessing in the midst of the land,

²⁵Which the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying: Blessed be my people of Egypt, and the work of my hands to the Assyrian: but Israel is my inheritance.

20 In the year that Tharthan entered into Azotus, when Sargon the king of the Assyrians had sent him, and he had fought against Azotus, and had taken it:

²At that same time the Lord spoke by the hand of Isaias the son of Amos, saying: Go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and take off thy shoes from thy feet. And he did so, and went naked, and barefoot.

³And the Lord said: As my servant Isaias hath walked, naked and barefoot, it shall be a sign and a wonder of three years upon Egypt, and upon Ethiopia,

⁴So shall the king of the Assyrians lead away the prisoners of Egypt, and the captivity of Ethiopia, young and old. naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt.

⁵And they shall be afraid, and ashamed of Ethiopia their hope, and of Egypt their glory.

⁶And the inhabitants of this isle shall say in that day: Lo this was our hope, to whom we fled for help, to deliver up from the face of the king of the Assyrians: and how shall we be able to escape?

21 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds come from the south, it cometh from the desert from a terrible land.

²A grievous vision is told me: he that is unfaithful dealeth unfaithfully: and he that is a spoiler, spoileth. Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Mede: I have made all the mourning thereof to cease.

³Therefore are my loins filled with pain, anguish hath taken hold of me, as the anguish of a woman in labour: I fell down at the hearing of it, I was troubled at the seeing of it.

⁴My heart failed, darkness amazed me: Babylon my beloved is become a wonder to me.

⁵Prepare the table, behold in the watchtower them that eat and drink: arise, ye princes, take up the shield.

⁶For thus hath the Lord said to me: Go, and set a watchman: and whatsoever he shall see, let him tell.

⁷And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, a rider upon an ass, and a rider upon a camel: and he beheld them diligently with much heed.

⁸And a lion cried out: I am upon the watchtower of the Lord, standing continually by day: and I am upon my ward, standing whole nights.

⁹Behold this man cometh, the rider upon the chariot with two horsemen, and he answered, and said: Babylon is fallen, she is fallen, and all the graven gods thereof are broken unto the ground.

¹⁰O my thrashing and the children of my door, that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared unto you.

¹¹The burden of Duma calleth to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of the eight? watchman, what of the night?

¹²The watchman said: The morning cometh, also the night: if you seek, seek: return, come.

¹³The burden in Arabia. In the forest at evening you shall sleep, in the paths of Dedanim.

¹⁴Meeting the thirsty bring him water, you that inhabit the land of the south, meet with bread him that fleeth.

¹⁵For they are fled from before the swords, from the sword that hung over them, from the bent bow, from the face of a grievous battle.

¹⁶For thus saith the Lord to me: Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Cedar shall be taken away.

¹⁷And the residue of the number of strong archers of the children of Cedar shall be diminished: for the Lord the God of Israel hath spoken it.

22 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee also, that thou too art wholly gone up to the housetops?

²Full of clamour, a populous city, a joyous city: thy slain are not slain by the sword, nor dead in battle.

³All the princes are fled together, and are bound hard: all that were found, are bound together, they are fled far off.

⁴Therefore have I said: Depart from me, I will weep bitterly: labour not to comfort me, for the devastation of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of slaughter and of treading down, and of weeping to the Lord the God of hosts in the valley of vision, searching the wall, and magnificent upon the mountain.

⁶And Elam took the quiver, the chariot of the horseman, and the shield was taken down from the wall.

⁷And thy choice valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horseman shall place themselves in the gate.

⁸And the covering of Juda shall be discovered, and thou shalt see in that day the armoury of the house of the forest.

⁹And you shall see the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you have gathered together the waters of the lower pool,

¹⁰And have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and broken down houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹And you made a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: and you have not looked up to the maker thereof, nor regarded him even at a distance, that wrought it long ago.

¹²And the Lord, the God of hosts, in that day shall call to weeping, and to mourning, to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

¹³And behold joy and gladness, killing calves, and slaying rams, eating flesh, and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.

¹⁴And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in my ears: Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you till you die, saith the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁵Thus saith the Lord God of hosts: Go, get thee in to him that dwelleth in the tabernacle, to Sobna who is over the temple: and thou shalt say to him:

¹⁶What dost thou here, or as if thou wert somebody here? for thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, thou hast hewed out a monument carefully in a high place, a dwelling for thyself in a rock.

¹⁷Behold the Lord will cause thee to be carried away, as a cock is carried away, and he will lift thee up as a garment.

¹⁸He will crown thee with a crown of tribulation, he will toss thee like a ball into a large and spacious country: there shalt thou die, and there shall the chariot of thy glory be, the shame of the house of thy Lord.

¹⁹And I will drive thee out From thy station, and depose thee from thy ministry.

²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliacim the son of Helcias,

²¹And I will clothe him with thy robe, and will strengthen him with thy girdle, and will give thy power into his hand: and he shall be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Juda.

²²And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open.

²³And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father.

²⁴And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, divers kinds of vessels, every little vessel, from the vessels of cups even to every instrument of music.

²⁵In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the peg be removed, that was fastened in the sure place: and it shall be broken and shall fall: and that which hung thereon, shall perish, because the Lord hath spoken it.

23 The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of the sea, for the house is destroyed, from whence they were wont to come: from the land of Cethim it is revealed to them.

²Be silent, you that dwell in the island: the merchants of Sidon passing over the sea, have filled thee.

³The seed of the Nile in many waters, the harvest of the river is her revenue: and she is become the mart of the nations.

⁴Be thou ashamed, O Sidon: for the sea speaketh, even the strength of the sea, saying: I have not been in labour, nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished up young men, nor brought up virgins.

⁵When it shall be heard in Egypt, they will be sorry when they shall hear of Tyre:

⁶Pass over the seas, howl, ye inhabitants of the island.

⁷Is not this your city, which gloried from of old in her antiquity? her feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.

⁸Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, that was formerly crowned, whose merchants were princes, and her traders the nobles of the earth?

⁹The Lord of hosts hath designed it, to pull down the pride of all glory, and bring to disgrace all the glorious ones of the earth.

¹⁰Pass thy land as a river, O daughter of the sea, thou hast a girdle no more.

¹¹He stretched out his hand over the sea, he troubled kingdoms: the Lord hath given a charge against Chanaan, to destroy the strong ones thereof.

¹²And he said: Thou shalt glory no more, O virgin daughter of Sidon, who art oppressed: arise and sail over to Cethim, there also thou shalt have no, rest.

¹³Behold the land of the Chaldeans, there was not such a people, the Assyrian founded it: they have led away the strong ones thereof into captivity, they have destroyed the houses thereof, they have brought it to ruin.

¹⁴Howl, O ye ships of the sea, for your strength is laid waste.

¹⁵And it shall come to pass in that day that thou, O Tyre, shalt be forgotten, seventy years, according to the days of one king: but after seventy years, there shall be unto Tyre as the song of a harlot.

¹⁶Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten: sing well, sing many a song, that thou mayst be remembered.

¹⁷And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and will bring her back again to her traffic: and she shall commit fornication again with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

¹⁸And her merchandise and her hire shall be sanctified to the Lord: they shall not be kept in store, nor laid up: for her merchandise shall be for them that shall dwell before the Lord, that they may eat unto fulness, and be clothed for a continuance.

24 Behold the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it, and shall afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof.

²And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest: and as with the servant, so with his master: as with the handmaid, so with her mistress: as with the buyer, so with the seller: as with the lender, so with the borrower: as with him that calleth for his money, so with him that oweth.

³With desolation shall the earth be laid waste, and it shall be utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

⁴The earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened: the world faded away, the height of the people of the earth is weakened.

⁵And the earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore shall a curse devour the earth, and the inhabitants thereof shall sin: and therefore they that dwell therein shall be mad, and few men shall be left.

⁷The vintage hath mourned, the vine hath languished away, all the merryhearted have sighed.

⁸The mirth of timbrels hath ceased, the noise of them that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent.

⁹They shall not drink wine with a song: the drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

¹⁰The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no man cometh in.

¹¹There shall be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is forsaken: the joy of the earth is gone away.

¹²Desolation is left in the city, and calamity shall oppress the gates.

¹³For it shall be thus in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the people, as if a few olives, that remain, should be shaken out of the olive tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended.

¹⁴These shall lift up their voice, and shall give praise: when the Lord shall be glorified, they shall make a joyful noise from the sea.

¹⁵Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea.

¹⁶From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret to myself, my secret to myself, woe is me: the prevaricators have prevaricated, and with the prevarication of transgressors they have prevaricated.

¹⁷Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O thou inhabitant of the earth.

¹⁸And it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: and he that shall rid himself out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for the flood-gates from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken.

¹⁹With breaking shall the earth be broken, with crushing shall the earth be crushed, with trembling shall the earth be moved.

²⁰With shaking shall the earth be shaken as a drunken man, and shall be removed as the tent of one night: and the iniquity thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fell, and not rise again.

²¹And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth, on the earth.

²²And they shall be gathered together as in the gathering of one bundle into the pit, and they shall be shut up there in prison: and after many days they shall be visited.

²³And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of his ancients.

25 O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee, and give glory to thy name: for thou hast done wonderful things, thy designs of old faithful, amen.

²For thou hast reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers, to be no city, and to be no more built up for ever.

³Therefore shall a strong people praise thee, the city of mighty nations shall fear thee.

⁴Because thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. For the blast of the mighty is like a whirlwind beating against a wall.

⁵Thou shalt bring down the tumult of strangers, as heat in thirst: and as with heat under a burning cloud, thou shalt make the branch of the mighty to wither away.

⁶And the Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees.

⁷And he shall destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people were tied, and the web that he began over all nations.

⁸He shall cast death down headlong for ever: and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face, and the reproach of his people he shall take away from off the whole earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

⁹And they shall say in that day: Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord, we have patiently waited for him, we shall rejoice and be joyfull in his salvation.

¹⁰For the hand of the Lord shall rest in this mountain: and Moab shall be trodden down under him, as straw is broken in pieces with the wain.

¹¹And he shall stretch forth his hands under him, as he that swimmeth stretcheth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down his glory with the dashing of his hands.

¹²And the bulwarks of thy high walls shall fall, and be brought low, and shall be pulled down to the ground, even to the dust.

26 In that day shall this canticle be sung the land of Juda. Sion the city of our strength a saviour, a wall and a bulwark shall be set therein.

²Open ye the gates, and let the just nation, that keepeth the truth, enter in.

³The old error is passed away: thou wilt keep peace: peace, because we have hoped in thee.

⁴You have hoped in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord God mighty for ever.

⁵For he shall bring down them that dwell on high, the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground, he shall pull it down even to the dust.

⁶The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.

⁷The way of the just is right, the path of the just is right to walk in.

⁸And in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for thee: thy name, and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul.

⁹My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me in the morning early I will watch to thee. When thou shalt do thy judgments on the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn justice.

¹⁰Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice: in the land of the saints he hath done wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord.

¹¹Lord, let thy hand be exalted, and let them not see: let the envious people see, and be confounded: and let fire devour thy enemies.

¹²Lord, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought all our works for us.

¹³O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, only in thee let us remember thy name.

¹⁴Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and hast destroyed all their memory.

¹⁵Thou hast been favourable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favourable to the nation: art thou glorified? thou hast removed all the ends of the earth far off.

¹⁶Lord, they have sought after thee in distress, in the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them.

¹⁷As a woman with child, when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs: so are we become in thy presence, O Lord.

¹⁸We have conceived, and been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.

¹⁹Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again: awake, and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin.

²⁰Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee, hide thyself a little for a moment, until the indignation pass away.

²¹For behold the Lord will come out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more.

27 In that day the Lord with his hard, and great, and strong sword shall visit leviathan the bar serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent, and shall slay the whale that is in the see.

²In that day there shall be singing to the vineyard of pure wine.

³I am the Lord that keep it, I will suddenly give it drink: lest any hurt come to it, I keep it night and day.

⁴There is no indignation in me: who shall make me a thorn and a brier in battle: shall march against it, shall I set it on fire together?

⁵Or rather shall it take hold of my strength, shall it make peace with me, shall it make peace with me?

⁶When they shall rush in unto Jacob, Israel shall blossom and bud, and they shall fill the face of the world with seed.

⁷Hath he struck him according to the stroke of him that struck him? or is he slain, as he killed them that were slain by him?

⁸In measure against measure, when it shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it. He hath meditated with his severe spirit in the day of heat.

⁹Therefore upon this shall the iniquity of the house of Jacob be forgiven: and this is all the fruit, that the sin thereof should be taken away, when he shall have made all the stones of the altar, as burnt stones broken in pieces, the groves and temples shall not stand.

¹⁰For the strong city shall be desolate, the beautiful city shall be forsaken, and shall be left as a wilderness: there the calf shall feed, and there shall he lie down, and shall consume its branches.

¹¹Its harvest shall be destroyed with drought, women shall come and teach it: for it is not a wise people, therefore he that made it, shall not have mercy on it: and he that formed it, shall not spare it.

¹²And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord will strike from the channel of the river even to the torrent of Egypt, and you shall be gathered together one by one, O ye children of Israel.

¹³And it shall come to pass, that in that day a noise shall be made with a great trumpet, and they that were lost, shall come from the land of the Assyrians, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall adore the Lord in the holy mount in Jerusalem.

28 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower the glory of his joy, who were on the head of the fat valley, staggering with wine.

²Behold the Lord is mighty and strong, as a storm of hail: a destroying whirlwind, as the violence of many waters overflowing, and sent forth upon a spacious land.

³The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet.

⁴And the fading flower the glory of his joy, who is on the head of the fat valley, shall be as a hasty fruit before the ripeness of autumn: which when he that seeth it shall behold, as soon as he taketh it in his hand, he will eat it up.

⁵In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of glory, and a garland of joy to the residue of his people:

⁶And a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and strength to them that return out of the battle to the gate.

⁷But these also have been ignorant through wine, and through drunkenness have erred: the priest and the prophet have been ignorant through drunkenness, they are swallowed up with wine, they have gone astray in drunkenness, they have not known him that seeth, they have been ignorant of judgment.

⁸For all tables were full of vomit and filth, so that there was no more place.

⁹Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts.

¹⁰For command, command again; command, command again; expect, expect again; expect, expect again: a little there, a little there.

¹¹For with the speech of lips, and with another tongue he will speak to this people.

¹²To whom he said: This is my rest, refresh the weary, and this is my refreshing: and they would not hear.

¹³And the word of the Lord shall be to them: Command, command again; command, command again: expect, expect again; expect, expect again: a little there, a little there: that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

¹⁴Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, who rule over my people that is in Jerusalem.

¹⁵For you have said: We have entered into a league with death, and we have made a covenant with hell. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us: for we have placed our hope in lies, and by falsehood we are protected.

¹⁶Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believeth, let him not hasten.

¹⁷And I will set judgment in weight, and justice in measure: and hail shall overturn the hope of falsehood: and waters shall overflow its protection.

¹⁸And Sour league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass, you shall be trodden down by it.

¹⁹Whensoever it shall pass through, it shall take you away: because in the morning early it shall pass through, in the day and in the night, and vexation alone shall make you understand what you hear.

²⁰For the bed is straitened, so that one must fall out, and a short covering cannot cover both.

²¹For the Lord shall stand up as in the mountain of divisions: he shall be angry as in the valley which is in Gabaon: that he may do his work, his strange work: that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him.

²²And now do not mock, lest your bonds be tied strait. For I have heard of the Lord the God of hosts a consumption and a cutting short upon all the earth.

²³Give ear, and hear my voice, hearken, and hear my speech.

²⁴Shall the ploughman plough all the day to sow, shall he open and harrow his ground?

²⁵Will he not, when he hath made plain the surface thereof, sow gith, and scatter cummin, and put wheat in order, and barley, and millet, and vetches in their bounds?

²⁶For he will instruct him in judgment: his God will teach him.

²⁷For gith shall not be thrashed with saws, neither shall the cart wheel turn about upon cummin: but gith shall be beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a staff.

²⁸But bread corn shall be broken small: but the thrasher shall not thrash it for ever, neither shall the cart wheel hurt it, nor break it with its teeth.

²⁹This also is come forth from the Lord God of hosts, to make his counsel wonderful, and magnify justice.

29 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city which David took: year is added to year: the solemnities are at an end.

²And I will make a trench about Ariel, and it shall be in sorrow and mourning, and it shall be to me as Ariel.

³And I will make a circle round about thee, and will cast up a rampart against thee, and raise up bulwarks to besiege thee.

⁴Thou shalt be brought down, thou shalt speak out of the earth, and thy speech shall be heard out of the ground: and thy voice shall be from the earth like that of the python, and out of the ground thy speech shall mutter.

⁵And the multitude of them that fan thee, shall be like small dust: and as ashes passing away, the multitude of them that have prevailed against thee.

⁶And it shall be at an instant suddenly. A visitation shall come from the Lord of hosts in thunder, and with earthquake, and with a great noise of whirlwind and tempest, and with the flame of devouring fire.

⁷And the multitude of all nations that have fought against Ariel, shall be as the dream of a vision by night, and all that have fought, and besieged and prevailed against it.

⁸And as he that is hungry dreameth, and eateth, but when he is awake, his soul is empty: and as he that is thirsty dreameth, and drinketh, and after he is awake, is yet faint with thirst, and his soul is empty: so shall be the multitude of all the Gentiles, that have fought against mount Sion.

⁹Be astonished, and wander, waver, and stagger: be drunk, and not with wine: stagger, and not with drunkenness.

¹⁰For the Lord hath mingled for you the spirit of a deep sleep, he will shut up your eyes, he will cover your prophets and princes, that see visions.

¹¹And the vision of all shall be unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which when they shall deliver to one that is learned, they shall say: Read this: and he shall answer: I cannot, for it is sealed.

¹²And the book shall be given to one that knoweth no letters, and it shall be said to him: Read: and he shall answer: I know no letters.

¹³And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify me, but their heart is far from me, and they have feared me with the commandment and doctrines of men:

¹⁴Therefore behold I will proceed to cause an admiration in this people, by a great and wonderful miracle: for wisdom shall perish from their wise men, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

¹⁵Woe to you that are deep of heart, to hide your counsel from the Lord: and their works are in the dark, and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us?

¹⁶This thought of yours is perverse: as if the clay should think against the potter, and the work should say to the maker thereof: Thou madest me not: or the thing framed should say to him that fashioned it: Thou understandest not.

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while, and Libanus shall be turned into charmel, and charmel shall be esteemed as a forest?

¹⁸And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and out of darkness and obscurity the eyes of the blind shall see.

¹⁹And the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For he that did prevail hath failed, the scorner is consumed, and they are all cut off that watched for iniquity:

²¹That made men sin by word, and supplanted him that reproved them in the gate, and declined in vain from the just.

²²Therefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Jacob, he that redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not now be confounded, neither shall his countenance now be ashamed:

²³But when he shall see his children, the work of my hands in the midst of him sanctifying my name, and they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall glorify the God of Israel:

²⁴And they that erred in spirit, shall know understanding, and they that murmured, shall learn the law.

30 Woe to you, apostate children, saith the Lord, that you would take counsel, and not of me: and would begin a web, and not by my spirit, that you might add sin upon sin:

²Who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, hoping for help in the strength of Pharao, and trusting in the shadow of Egypt.

³And the strength of Pharao shall be to your confusion, and the confidence of the shadow of Egypt to your shame.

⁴For thy princes were in Tanis, and thy messengers came even to Hanes.

⁵They were all confounded at a people that could not profit them: they were no help, nor to any profit, but to confusion and to reproach.

⁶The burden of the beasts of the south. In a land of trouble and distress, from whence come the lioness, and the lion, the viper and the flying basilisk, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of beasts, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall not be able to profit them.

⁷For Egypt shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this: It is pride only, sit still.

⁸Now therefore go in and write for them upon box, and note it diligently in a book, and it shall be in the latter days for a testimony for ever.

⁹For it is a people that provoketh to wrath, and lying children, children that will not hear the law of God.

¹⁰Who say to the seers: See not: and to them that behold: Behold not for us those things that are right: speak unto us pleasant things, see errors for us.

¹¹Take away from me the way, turn away the path from me, let the Holy One of Israel cease from before us.

¹²Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word, and have trusted in oppression and tumult, and have leaned upon it:

¹³Therefore shall this iniquity be to you as a breach that falleth, and is found wanting in a high wall, for the destruction thereof shall come on a sudden, when it is not looked for.

¹⁴And it shall be broken small, as the potter's vessel is broken all to pieces with mighty breaking, and there shall not a sherd be found of the pieces thereof, wherein a little fire may be carried from the hearth, or a, little water be drawn out of the pit.

¹⁵For thus saith the Lord God the Holy One of Israel: If you return and be quiet, you shall be saved: in silence and in hope shall your strength be. And you would not:

¹⁶But have said: No, but we will flee to horses: therefore shall you flee. And we will mount upon swift ones: therefore shall they be swifter that shall pursue after you.

¹⁷A thousand men shall flee for fear of one: and for fear of five shall you flee, till you be left as the mast of a ship on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a hill.

¹⁸Therefore the Lord waiteth that be may have mercy on you: and therefore shall he be exalted sparing you: because the Lord is the God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

¹⁹For the people of Sion shall dwell in Jerusalem: weeping thou shalt not weep, he will surely have pity on thee: at the voice of thy cry, as soon as he shall hear, he will answer thee.

²⁰And the Lord will give you spare bread, and short water: and will not cause thy teacher to flee away from thee any more, and thy eyes shall see thy teacher.

²¹And thy ears shall hear the word of one admonishing thee behind thy back: This is the way, walk ye in it: and go not aside neither to the right hand, nor to the left.

²²And thou shalt defile the plates of thy graven things of silver, and the garment of thy molten things of gold, and shalt cast them away as the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. Thou shalt say to it: Get thee hence.

²³And rain shall be given to thy seed, wheresoever thou shalt sow in the land: and the bread of the corn of the land shall be most plentiful, and fat. The lamb in that day shall feed at large in thy possession:

²⁴And thy oxen, and the ass colts that till the ground, shall eat mingled provender as it was winnowed in the floor.

²⁵And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every elevated hill rivers of running waters in the day of the slaughter of many, when the tower shall fall.

²⁶And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days: in the day when the Lord shall bind up the wound of his people, and shall heal the stroke of their wound.

²⁷Behold the name of the Lord cometh from afar, his wrath burneth, and is heavy to bear: his lips are filled with indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire.

²⁸His breath as a torrent overflowing even to the midst of the neck, to destroy the nations unto nothing, and the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the people.

²⁹You shall have a song as in the night of the sanctified solemnity, and joy of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe, to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel.

³⁰And the Lord shall make the glory of his voice to be heard, and shall shew the terror of his arm, in the threatening of wrath, and the dame of devouring fire: he shall crush to pieces with whirlwind, and hailstones.

³¹For at the voice of the Lord the Assyrian shall fear being struck with the rod.

³²And the passage of the rod shall be strongly grounded, which the Lord shall make to rest upon him with timbrels and harps, and in great battles he shall over throw them.

³³For Topheth is prepared from yesterday, prepared by the king, deep, and wide. The nourishment thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord as a torrent of brimstone kindling it.

31 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, trusting in horses, and putting their confidence in chariots, because they me many: and in horsemen, because they me very strong: and have not trusted in the Holy One of Israel, and have not sought after the Lord.

²But he that is the wise one hath brought evil, and hath not removed his words: and he will rise up against the house of the wicked, and against the aid of them that work iniquity.

³Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses, flesh, and not spirit: and the Lord shall put down his hand, and the helper shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall, and they shall all be confounded together.

⁴For thus saith the Lord to me: Like as the lion roareth, and the lion's whelp upon his prey, and when a multitude of shepherds shall come against him, he will not fear at their voice, nor be afraid of their multitude: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight upon mount Sion, and upon the hill thereof.

⁵As birds dying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem, protecting and delivering, passing over and saving.

⁶Return as you had deeply revolted, O children of Israel.

⁷For in that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you to sin.

⁸And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword not of a man, and the sword not of a man shall devour him, and he shall flee not at the face of the sword: and his young men shall be tributaries.

⁹And his strength shall pass away with dread, and his princes fleeing shall be afraid: the Lord hath said it, whose die is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

32 Behold a king shall reign in justice, and princes shall rule in judgment.

²And a man shall be as when one is hid from the wind, and hideth himself from a storm, as rivers of waters in drought, and the shadow of a rock that standeth out in a desert land.

³The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken diligently.

⁴And the heart of fools shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of stammerers shall speak readily and plain.

⁵The fool shall no more be called prince: neither shall the deceitful be called great:

⁶For the fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and speak to the Lord deceitfully, and to make empty the soul of the hungry, and take away drink from the thirsty.

⁷The vessels of the deceitful are most wicked: for he hath framed devices to destroy the meek, with lying words, when the poor man speaketh judgment.

⁸But the prince will devise such things as are worthy of a prince, and he shall stand above the rulers.

⁹Rise up, ye rich women, and hear my voice: ye confident daughters, give ear to my speech.

¹⁰For after days and a year, you that are confident shall be troubled: for the vintage is at an end, the gathering shall come no more.

¹¹Be astonished, ye rich women, be troubled, ye confident ones: strip yen, and be confounded, gird your loins.

¹²Mourn for your breasts, for the delightful country, for the fruitful vineyard.

¹³Upon the land of my people shall thorns and briers come up: how much more upon all the houses of joy, of the city that rejoiced?

¹⁴For the house is forsaken, the multitude of the city is left, darkness and obscurity are come upon its dens for ever. A joy of wild asses, the pastures of flocks,

¹⁵Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high: and the desert shall be as a charmel, and charmel shall be counted for a forest.

¹⁶And judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and justice shall sit in charmel.

¹⁷And the work of justice shall be peace, and the service of justice quietness, and security for ever.

¹⁸And my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest.

¹⁹But hail shall be in the descent of the forest, and the city shall be made very low.

²⁰Blessed are ye that sow upon all waters, sending thither the foot of the ox and the ass.

33 Woe to thee that spoilest, shalt not thou thyself also be spoiled? and thou that despisest, shalt not thyself also be despised? when thou shalt have made an end of spoiling, thou shalt be spoiled: when being wearied thou shalt cease to despise, thou shalt be despised.

²O Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for thee: be thou our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of trouble.

³At the voice of the angel the people fled, and at the lifting up thyself the nations are scattered.

⁴And your spoils shall be gathered together as the locusts are gathered, as when the ditches are full of them.

⁵The Lord is magnified, for he hath dwelt on high: he hath filled Sion with judgment and justice.

⁶And there shall be faith in thy times: riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is his treasure.

⁷Behold they that see shall cry without, the angels of peace shall weep bitterly.

⁸The ways are made desolate, no one passeth by the road, the covenant is made void, he hath rejected the cities, he hath not regarded the men.

⁹The land hath mourned, and languished: Libanus is confounded and become foul, and Saron is become as a desert: and Basan and Carmel are shaken.

¹⁰Now will I rise up, saith the Lord: now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself.

¹¹You shall conceive heat, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath as fire shall devour you.

¹²And the people shall be as ashes after a fire, as a bundle of thorns they shall be burnt with fire.

¹³Hear, you that are far off, what I have done, and you that are near know my strength.

¹⁴The sinners in Sion are afraid, trembling hath seized upon the hypocrites. Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

¹⁵He that walketh in justices, and speaketh truth, that casteth away avarice by oppression, and shaketh his hands from all bribes, that stoppeth his ears lest he hear blood, and shutteth his eyes that he may see no evil.

¹⁶He shall dwell on high, the fortifications of rocks shall be his highness: bread is given him, his waters are sure.

¹⁷His eyes shall see the king in his beauty, they shall see the land far off.

¹⁸Thy heart shall meditate fear: where is the learned? where is he that pondereth the words of the law? where is the teacher of little ones?

¹⁹The shameless people thou shalt not see, the people of profound speech: so that thou canst not understand the eloquence of his tongue, in whom there is no wisdom.

²⁰Look upon Sion the city of our solemnity: thy eyes shall see Jerusalem, a rich habitation, a tabernacle that cannot be removed: neither shall the nails thereof be taken away for ever, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken:

²¹Because only there our Lord is magnificent: it place of rivers, very broad and spacious streams: no ship with oars shall pass by it, neither shall the great galley pass through it.

²²For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us.

²³Thy tacklings are loosed, and they shall be of no strength: thy mast shall be in such condition, that thou shalt not be able to spread the flag. Then shall the spoils of much prey be divided: the lame shall take the spoil.

²⁴Neither shall he that is near, say: I am feeble. The people that dwell therein, shall have their iniquity taken away from them.

34 Come near, ye Gentiles, and hear, and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world, and every thing that cometh forth of it.

²For the indignation of the Lord if upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath killed them, and delivered them to slaughter.

³Their slain shall be cast forth, and out of their carcasses shall rise a slink: the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

⁴And all the host of the heavens shall pine away, and the heavens shall be folded together as a book: and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the vine, and from the fig tree.

⁵For my sword is inebriated in heaven: behold it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter unto judgment.

⁶The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made thick with the blood of lambs and buck goats, with the blood of rams full of marrow: for there is a victim of the Lord in Bosra and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷And the unicorns shall go down with them, and the bulls with the mighty: their land shall be soaked with blood, and their ground with the fat of fat ones.

⁸For it is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of recompenses of the judgment of Sion.

⁹And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the ground thereof into brimstone: and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

¹⁰Night and day it shall not be quenched, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste, none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

¹¹The bittern and ericius shall possess it: and the ibis and the raven shall dwell in it: and a line shall be stretched out upon it, to bring it to nothing, and a plummet, unto desolation.

¹²The nobles thereof shall not be there: they shall call rather upon the king, and all the princes thereof shall be nothing.

¹³And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.

¹⁴And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself.

¹⁵There hath the ericius had its hole, and brought up its young ones, and hath dug round about, and cherished them in the shadow thereof: thither are the kites gathered together one to another.

¹⁶Search ye diligently in the book of the Lord, and read: not one of them was wanting, one hath not sought for the other: for that which proceedeth out of my mouth, he hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

¹⁷And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it to them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation they shall dwell therein.

35 The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily.

²It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Libanus is given to it: the beauty of Carmel, and Saron, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God.

³Strengthen ye the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees.

⁴Say to the fainthearted: Take courage, and fear not: behold your God will bring the revenge of recompense: God himself will come and will save you.

⁵Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

⁶Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free: for waters are broken out in the desert, and streams in the wilderness.

⁷And that which was dry land, shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the dens where dragons dwell before, shall rise up the verdure of the reed and the bulrush.

⁸And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools shall not err therein.

⁹No lion shall be there, nor shall any mischievous beast go up by it, nor be found there: but they shall walk there that shall be delivered.

¹⁰And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and shall come into Sion with praise, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

36 And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Ezechias, that Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came up against all the fenced cities of Juda, and took them.

²And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabsaces from Lachis to Jerusalem, to king Ezechias with a great army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the fuller's held.

³And there went out to him Eliacim the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the recorder.

⁴And Rabsaces said to them: Tell Ezechias: Thus saith the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this confidence wherein thou trustest?

⁵Or with what counsel or strength dost thou prepare for war? on whom dost thou trust, that thou art revolted from me?

⁶Lo thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt: upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharao king or Egypt to all that trust in him.

⁷But if thou wilt answer me: We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he whose high places and altars Ezechias hath taken away, and hath said to Juda and Jerusalem: You shall worship before this altar?

⁸And now deliver thyself up to my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give thee two thousand horses, and thou wilt not be able on thy part to find riders for them.

⁹And how wilt thou stand against the face of the judge of one place, of the least of my master's servants? But if thou trust in Egypt, in chariots and in horsemen:

¹⁰And am 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.

¹¹And Eliacim, and Sobna, and Joahe said to Rabsaces: Speak to thy servants in the Syrian tongue: for we understand it: speak not to us in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people, that are upon the wall.

¹²And Rabsaces said to them: Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee, to speak all these words; and not rather to the men that sit on the wall; that they may eat their own dung, and drink their urine with you?

¹³Then Rabsaces stood, and cried out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said: Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians.

¹⁴Thus saith the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you.

¹⁵And let not Ezechias make you trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.

¹⁶Do not hearken to Ezechias: for thus said the king of the Assyrians: Do with me that which is for your advantage, and come out to me, and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the water of his cistern,

¹⁷Till I come and take you away to a land, like to your own, a land of corn and of wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Neither let Ezechias trouble you, saying: The Lord will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians?

¹⁹Where is the god of Emath and of Arphad? where is the god of Sepharvaim? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

²⁰Who is there among all the gods of these lands, that hath delivered his country out of my hand, that the Lord may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

²¹And they held their peace, and answered him not a word. For the king had commanded, saying: answer him not.

²²And Eliacim the son of Helcias, that was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the recorder, went in to Ezechias with their garments rent, and told him the words of Rabsaces.

37 And it came to pass, when king Ezechias had heard it, that he rent his garments and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

²And he sent Eliacim who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and the ancients of the priests covered with sackcloth, to Isaias the son of Amos the prophet.

³And they said to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

⁴It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians his master hath sent to blaspheme the living God, and to reproach with words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

⁵And the servants of Ezechias came to Isaias.

⁶And Isaias said to them: Thus shall you say to your master: Thus saith the Lord: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed me.

⁷Behold, I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a message, and shall return to his own country, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own country.

⁸And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of the Assyrians besieging Lobna. For he had heard that he was departed from Lachis.

⁹And he heard say about Tharaca the king of Ethiopia: He is come forth to fight against thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying:

¹⁰Thus shall you speak to Ezechias the king of Juda, saying: Let not thy God deceive thee, in whom thou trustest, saying: Jerusalem shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.

¹¹Behold thou hast heard all that the kings of the Assyrians hare done to all countries which they have destroyed, and canst thou be delivered?

¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozam, and Haram, and Reseph, and the children of Eden, that were in Thalassar?

¹³Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Ana, and of Ava?

¹⁴And Ezechias took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it, and went up to the house of the Lord, and Ezechias spread it before the Lord.

¹⁵And Ezechias prayed to the Lord, saying:

¹⁶O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who sittest upon the cherubims, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth.

¹⁷Incline, O Lord, thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, thy eyes, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to blaspheme the living God.

¹⁸For of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste lands, and their countries.

¹⁹And they have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the works of men's hands, of wood and stone: and they broke them in pieces.

²⁰And now, O Lord our God, save us out of his hand: and let all the kingdoms of the earth know, that thou only art the Lord.

²¹And Isaias the son of Amos sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: For the prayer thou hast made to me concerning Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians:

²²This is the word which the Lord hath spoken of him: The virgin the daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath wagged the head after thee.

²³Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord: and hast said: With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the top of Libanus: and I will out down its tall cedars, and its choice fir trees, and will enter to the top of its height, to the forest of its Carmel.

²⁵I have digged, and drunk water, and have dried up with the sole of my foot, all the rivers shut up in banks.

²⁶Hast thou not heard what I have done to him of old? from the days of old I have formed it: and now I have brought it to effect: and it hath come to pass that hills fighting together, and fenced cities should be destroyed.

²⁷The inhabitants of them were weak of hand, they trembled, and were confounded: they became like the grass of the field, and the herb of the pasture, and like the grass of the housetops, which withered before it was ripe.

²⁸I know thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

²⁹When thou wast mad against me, thy pride came up to my ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy nose, and a bit between thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

³⁰But to thee this shall be a sign: Eat this year the things that spring of themselves, and in the second year eat fruits: but in the third year sow and reap, and giant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

³¹And that which shall be saved of the house of Juda, and which is left, shall take root downward, and shall bear fruit upward:

³²For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a, remnant, and salvation from mount Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

³³Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a trench about it.

³⁴By the way that he came, he shall return, and into this city he shall not come, saith the Lord.

³⁵And I will protect this city, and will save it for my own sake, and for the sake of David my servant.

³⁶And the angel of the Lord went out, and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And they arose in the morning, and behold they were all dead corpses.

³⁷And Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians went out and departed, and returned, and dwelt in Ninive.

³⁸And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch his god, that Adramelech and Sarasar his sons slew him with the sword: and they fled into the land of Ararat, and Asarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

38 In those days Ezechias was sick even to death, and Isaias the son of Amos the prophet came unto him, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live.

²And Ezechias turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord,

³And said: I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Ezechias wept with great weeping.

⁴And the word of the Lord came to Isaias, saying:

⁵Go and say to Ezechias: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: behold I will add to thy days fifteen years:

⁶And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.

⁷And this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word which he hath spoken:

⁸Behold I will bring again the shadow of the lines, by which it is now gone down in the sun dial of Achaz with the sun, ten lines backward. And the sun returned ten lines by the degrees by which it was gone down.

⁹The writing of Ezechias king of Juda, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.

¹⁰I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I sought for the residue of my years.

¹¹I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest.

¹²My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, as a shepherd's tent. My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he out me off: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.

¹³I hoped till morning, as a lion so hath he broken all my bones: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.

¹⁴I will cry like a young swallow, I will meditate like a dove: my eyes are weakened looking upward: Lord, I suffer violence, answer thou for me.

¹⁵What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me, whereas he himself hath done it? I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, if man's life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live.

¹⁷Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

¹⁸For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth.

¹⁹The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: the father shall make thy truth known to the children.

²⁰O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

²¹Now Isaias had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as it plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed.

²²And Ezechias bed said: What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

39 At that time Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan king of Babylon, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered.

²And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he shewed them the storehouses of his aromatical spices, and of the silver, and of the gold, and of the sweet odours, and of the precious ointment, and all the storehouses of his furniture, and all things that were found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion that Ezechias shewed them not.

³Then Isaias the prophet came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men, and from whence came they to thee? And Ezechias said: From a far country they came to me, from Babylon.

⁴And he said: What saw they in thy house? And Ezechias said: All things that are in my house have they seen, there was not any thing which I have not shewn them in my treasures.

⁵And Isaias said to Ezechias: Rear the word of the Lord of hosts.

⁶Behold the days shall come, that all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried away into Babylon: there shall not any thing be left, saith the Lord.

⁷And of thy children, that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

⁸And Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord, which he hath spoken, is good. And he said: Only let peace and truth be in my days.

40 Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God.

²Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.

³The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God.

⁴Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain.

⁵And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.

⁶The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the held.

⁷The grass is withered, and the dower is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed the people is grass:

⁸The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord endureth for ever.

⁹Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God:

¹⁰Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his work is before him.

¹¹He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are with young.

¹²Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heavens with his palm? who hath poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

¹³Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor, and hath taught him?

¹⁴With whom hath he consulted, and who hath instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and shewed him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance: behold the islands are as a little dust.

¹⁶And Libanus shall not be enough to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All nations are before him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to him as nothing, and vanity.

¹⁸To whom then have you likened God? or what image will you make for him?

¹⁹Hath the workman cast a graven statue? or hath the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?

²⁰He hath chosen strong wood, and that will not rot: the skillful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that may not be moved.

²¹Do you not know? hath it not been heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood the foundations of the earth?

²²It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

²³He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to nothing, that hath made the judges of the earth as vanity.

²⁴And surely their stock was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the earth: suddenly he hath blown upon them, and they are withered, and a whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

²⁵And to whom have ye likened me, or made me equal, saith the Holy One?

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these things: who bringeth out their host by number, and calleth them all by their names: by the greatness of his might, and strength, and power, not one of them was missing.

²⁷Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel: My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

²⁸Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord is the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom.

²⁹It is he that giveth strength to the weary, and increaseth force and might to them that are not.

³⁰Youths shall faint, and labour, and young men shall fall by infirmity.

³¹But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

41 Let the islands keep silence before me, and the nations take new strength: let them come near, and then speak, let us come near to judgment together.

²Who hath raised up the just one from the east, hath called him to follow him? he shall give the nations in his sight, and he shall rule over kings: he shall give them as the dust to his sword, as stubble driven by the wind, to his bow.

³He shall pursue them, he shall pass in peace, no path shall appear after his feet.

⁴Who hath wrought and done these things, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, I am the first and the last.

⁵The islands saw it, and feared, the ends of the earth were astonished, they drew near, and came.

⁶Every one shall help his neighbour, and shall say to his brother: Be of good courage.

⁷The coppersmith striking with the hammer encouraged him that forged at that time, saying: It is ready for soldering: and he strengthened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

⁸But thou Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend:

⁹In whom I have taken thee from the ends of the earth, and from the remote parts thereof have called thee, and said to thee: Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and have not cast thee away.

¹⁰Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am thy God: I have strengthened thee, and have helped thee, and the right hand of my just one hath upheld thee.

¹¹Behold all that fight against thee shall be confounded and ashamed, they shall be as nothing, and the men shall perish that strive against thee.

¹²Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find the men that resist thee: they shall be as nothing: and as a thing consumed the men that war against thee.

¹³For I am the Lord thy God, who take thee by the hand, and say to thee: Fear not, I have helped thee.

¹⁴Fear not, thou worm of Jacob, you that are dead of Israel: I have helped thee, saith the Lord: and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵I have made thee as a new thrashing wain, with teeth like a saw: thou shall thrash the mountains, and break them in pieces: and shalt make the hills as chaff.

¹⁶Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, in the Holy One of Israel thou shalt be joyful.

¹⁷The needy and the poor seek for waters, and there are none: their tongue hath been dry with thirst. I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

¹⁸I will open rivers in the high bills, and fountains in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of waters.

¹⁹I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the thorn, and the myrtle, and the olive tree: I will set in the desert the fir tree, the elm, and the box tree together:

²⁰That they may see and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

²¹Bring your cause near, saith the Lord: bring hither, if you have any thing to allege, saith the King of Jacob.

²²Let them come, and tell us all things that are to come: tell us the former things what they were: and we will set our heart upon them, and shall know the latter end of them, and tell us the things that are to come.

²³shew the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that ye are gods. Do ye also good or evil, if you can: and let us speak, and see together.

²⁴Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of that which hath no being: he that hath chosen you is an abomination.

²⁵I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun: he shall call upon my name, and he shall make princes to be as dirt, and as the potter treading clay.

²⁶Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know: and from time of old, that we may say: Thou art just. There is none that sheweth, nor that foretelleth, nor that heareth your words.

²⁷The first shall say to Sion: Behold they are here, and to Jerusalem I will give an evangelist.

²⁸And I saw, and there was no one even among them to consult, or who, when I asked, could answer a word.

²⁹Behold they are all in the wrong, and their works are vain: their idols are wind and vanity.

42 Behold my servant, I will uphold him: my elect, my soul delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

²He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad.

³The bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

⁴He shall not be sad, nor troublesome, till he set judgment in the earth: and the islands shall wait for his law.

⁵Thus saith the Lord God that created the heavens, and stretched them out: that established the earth, and the things that spring out of it: that giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that tread thereon.

⁶I the Lord have called thee in justice, and taken thee by the hand, and preserved thee. And I have given thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles:

⁷That thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

⁸I the Lord, this is my name: I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven things.

⁹The things that were first, behold they are come: and new things do I declare: before they spring forth, I will make you head them.

¹⁰Sing ye to the Lord a new song, his praise is from the ends of the earth: you that go down to the sea, and all that are therein: ye islands, and ye inhabitants of them.

¹¹Let the desert and the cities thereof be exalted: Cedar shall dwell in houses: ye inhabitants of Petra, give praise, they shall cry from the top of the mountains.

¹²They shall give glory to the Lord, and shall declare his praise in the islands.

¹³The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, as a man of war shall he stir up zeal: he shall shout and cry: he shall prevail against his enemies.

¹⁴I have always held my peace, I have I kept silence, I have been patient, I will speak now as a woman in labour: I will destroy, and swallow up at once.

¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and will make all their grass to wither: and I will turn rivers into islands, and will dry up the standing pools.

¹⁶And I will lead the blind into the way which they know not: and in the paths which they were ignorant of I will make them walk: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things have I done to them, and have not forsaken them.

¹⁷They are turned back: let them be greatly confounded, that trust in a graven thing, that say to a molten thing: You are our god.

¹⁸Hear, ye deaf, and, ye blind, behold that you may see.

¹⁹Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, but he to whom I have sent my messengers? Who is blind, but he that is sold? or who is blind, but the servant of the Lord?

²⁰Thou that seest many things, wilt thou not observe them? thou that hast ears open, wilt thou not hear?

²¹And the Lord was willing to sanctify him, and to magnify the law, and exalt it.

²²But this is a people that is robbed and wasted: they are all the snare of young men, and they are hid in the houses of prisons: they are made a prey, and there is none to deliver them: a spoil, and there is none that saith: Restore.

²³Who is there among you that will give ear to this, that will attend and hearken for times to come?

²⁴Who hath given Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers? hath not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned? And they would not walk in his ways, and they have not hearkened to his law.

²⁵And he hath poured out upon him the indignation of his fury, and a strong battle, and hath burnt him round about, and he knew not: and set him on fire, and he understood not.

43 And now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine.

²When thou shalt pass through the waters, I will be with thee, and the rivers shall not cover thee: when thou shalt walk in the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flames shall not burn in thee:

³For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I have given Egypt for thy atonement, Ethiopia and Saba for thee.

⁴Since thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art glorious: I have loved thee, and I will give men for thee, and people for thy life.

⁵Fear not, for I am with thee: I will. bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west.

⁶I will say to the north: Give up: and to the south: Keep not back: bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.

⁷And every one that calleth upon my name, I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, and made him.

⁸Bring forth the people that are blind, and have eyes: that are deaf, and have ears.

⁹All the nations are assembled together, and the tribes are gathered: who among you can declare this, and shall make us hear the former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, let them be justified, and hear, and say: It is truth.

¹⁰You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you may know, and believe me, and understand that I myself am. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there shall be none.

¹¹I am, I am the Lord: and there is no saviour besides me.

¹²I have declared, and have saved. I have made it heard, and there was no strange one among you. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God.

¹³And from the beginning I am the same, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall turn it away?

¹⁴Thus saith the Lord your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their bars, and the Chaldeans glorying in their ships.

¹⁵I am the Lord your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

¹⁶Thus saith the Lord, who made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.

¹⁷Who brought forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the strong: they lay down to sleep together, and they shall not rise again: they are broken as flax, and are extinct.

¹⁸Remember not former things, and look not on things of old.

¹⁹Behold I do new things, and now they shall spring forth, verily you shall know them: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

²⁰The beast of the field shall glorify me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, to my chosen.

²¹This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise.

²²But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, neither hast thou laboured about me, O Israel.

²³Thou hast not offered me the ram of thy holocaust, nor hast thou glorified me with thy victims: I have not caused thee to serve with oblations, nor wearied thee with incense.

²⁴Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy victims. But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities.

²⁵I am, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember thy sins.

²⁶Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together: tell if thou hast any thing to justify thyself.

²⁷Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.

²⁸And I have profaned the holy princes, I have given Jacob to slaughter, and Israel to reproach.

44 And now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen.

²Thus saith the Lord that made and formed thee, thy helper from the womb: Fear not, O my servant Jacob, and thou most righteous whom I have chosen.

³For I will pour out waters upon the thirsty ground, and streams upon the dry land: I will pour out my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy stock.

⁴And they shall spring up among the herbs, as willows beside the running waters.

⁵One shall say: I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand, To the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.

⁶Thus saith the Lord the king of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God.

⁷Who is like to me? let him call and declare: and let him set before me the order, since I appointed the ancient people: and the things to come, and that shall be hereafter, let them shew unto them.

⁸Fear ye not, neither be ye troubled, from that time I have made thee to hear, and have declared: you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me, a maker, whom I have not known?

⁹The makers of idols are all of them nothing, and their best beloved things shall not profit them. They are their witnesses, that they do not see, nor understand, that they may be ashamed.

¹⁰Who hath formed a god, and made a graven thing that is profitable for nothing?

¹¹Behold, all the partakers thereof shall be confounded: for the makers are men: they shall all assemble together, they shall stand and fear, and shall be confounded together.

¹²The smith hath wrought with his file, with coals, and with hammers he hath formed it, and hath wrought with the strength of his arm: he shall hunger and faint, he shall drink no water, and shall be weary.

¹³The carpenter hath stretched out his rule, he hath formed it with a plane: he hath made it with corners, and hath fashioned it round with the compass: and he hath made the image of a man as it were a beautiful man dwelling in a house.

¹⁴He hath cut down cedars, taken the holm, and the oak that stood among the trees of the forest: he hath planted the pine tree, which the rain hath nourished.

¹⁵And it hath served men for fuel: he took thereof, and warmed himself: and he kindled it, and baked bread: but of the rest he made a god, and adored it: he made a graven thing, and bowed down before it.

¹⁶Part of it he burnt with fire, and with part of it he dressed his meat: he boiled pottage, and was filled, and was warmed, and said: Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire.

¹⁷But the residue thereof he made a god, and a graven thing for himself: he boweth down before it, and adoreth it, and prayeth unto it, saying: Deliver me, for thou art my God.

¹⁸They have not known, nor understood: for their eyes are covered that they may not see, and that they may not understand with their heart.

¹⁹They do not consider in their mind, nor know, nor have the thought to say: I have burnt part of it in the fire, and I have baked bread upon the coals thereof: I have broiled flesh and have eaten, and of the residue thereof shall I make an idol? shall I fall down before the stock of a tree?

²⁰Part thereof is ashes: his foolish heart adoreth it, and he will not save his soul, nor say: Perhaps there is a lie in my right hand.

²¹Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for thou art my servant. I have formed thee, thou art my servant, O Israel, forget me not.

²²I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud, and thy sins as a mist: return to me, for I have redeemed thee.

²³Give praise, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath shewn mercy: shout with joy, ye ends of the earth: ye mountains, resound with praise, thou, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and Israel shall be glorified.

²⁴Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, and thy maker, from the womb: I am the Lord, that make all things, that alone stretch out the heavens, that establish the earth, and there is none with me.

²⁵That make void the tokens of diviners, and make the soothsayers mad. That turn the wise backward, and that, make their knowledge foolish.

²⁶That raise up the word of my servant and perform the counsel of my messengers, who say to Jerusalem: Thou shalt be inhabited: and to the cities of Juda: You shall be built, and I will raise up the wastes thereof.

²⁷Who say to the deep: Be thou desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers.

²⁸Who say to Cyrus: Thou art my shepherd, and thou shalt perform all my pleasure. Who say to Jerusalem: Thou shalt be built: and to the temple: Thy foundations shall be laid.

45 Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue nations before his face, and to turn the backs of kings, and to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut.

²I will go before thee, and will humble the great ones of the earth: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and will burst the bars of iron.

³And I will give thee hidden treasures, and the concealed riches of secret places: that thou mayest know that I am the Lord who call thee by thy name, the God of Israel.

⁴For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have made a likeness of thee, and thou hast not known me.

⁵I am the Lord, and there is none else: there is no God, besides me: I girded thee, and thou hast not known me:

⁶That they may know who are from the rising of the sun, and they who are from the west, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is none else:

⁷I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.

⁸Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour: and let justice spring up together: I the Lord have created him.

⁹Woe to him that gainsayeth his maker, a sherd of the earthen pots: shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it: What art thou making, and thy work is without hands?

¹⁰Woe to him that saith to his father: Why begettest thou? and to the woman: Why dost thou bring forth?

¹¹Thus saith the Lord the Holy One of Israel, his maker: Ask me of things to come, concerning my children, and concerning the work of my hands give ye charge to me.

¹²I made the earth: and I created man upon it: my hand stretched forth the heavens, and I have commanded all their host.

¹³I have raised him up to justice, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and let go my captives, not for ransom, nor for presents, saith the Lord the God of hosts.

¹⁴Thus saith the Lord: The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and of Sabaim, men of stature shall come over to thee, and shall be thins: they shall walk after thee, they shall go bound with manacles: and they shall worship thee, and shall make supplication to thee: only in thee is God, and there is no God besides thee.

¹⁵Verily thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the saviour.

¹⁶They are all confounded and ashamed: the forgers of errors are gone together into confusion.

¹⁷Israel is saved in the Lord with as eternal salvation: you shall not be confounded, and you shall not be ashamed for ever and ever.

¹⁸For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth, and made it, the very maker thereof: he did not create it in vain: he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other.

¹⁹I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I have not said to the seed of Jacob: Seek me in vain. I am the Lord that speak justice, that declare right things.

²⁰Assemble yourselves, and come, and draw near together, ye that are saved of the Gentiles: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven work, and pray to a god that cannot save.

²¹Tell ye, and come, and consult together: who hath declared this from the beginning, who hath foretold this from that time? Have not I the Lord, and there is no God else besides me? A just God and a saviour, there is none besides me.

²²Be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other.

²³I have sworn by myself, the word of justice shall go out of my mouth, and shall not return:

²⁴For every knee shall be bowed to me, and every tongue shall swear.

²⁵Therefore shall he say: In the Lord are my justices and empire: they shall come to him, and all that resist him shall be confounded.

²⁶In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and praised.

46 Bel is broken, Nebo is destroyed: their idols are put upon beasts and cattle, your burdens of heavy weight even unto weariness.

²They are consumed, and are broken together: they could not save him that carried them, and they themselves shall go into captivity.

³Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are carried by my bowels, are borne up by my womb.

⁴Even to your old age I am the same, and to your grey hairs I will carry you: I have made you, and I will bear: I will carry and will save.

⁵To whom have you likened me, and made me equal, and compared me, and made me like?

⁶You that contribute gold out of the bag, and weigh out silver in the scales: and hire a goldsmith to make a god: and they fall down and worship.

⁷They bear him on their shoulders and carry him, and set him in his piece, and he shall stand, and shall not stir out of his place. Yea, when they shall cry also unto him, he shall not hear: he shall not save them from tribulation.

⁸Remember this, and be ashamed: return, ye transgressors, to the heart.

⁹Remember the former age, for I am God, and there is no God beside, neither is there the like to me:

¹⁰Who shew from the beginning the things that shall be at last, and from ancient times the things that as yet are not done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and all my will shall be done:

¹¹Who call a bird from the east, and from a far country the man of my own will, and I have spoken, and will bring it to pass: I have created, and I will do it. Hear me, O ye hardhearted, who are far from justice.

¹²I have brought my justice near, it shall not be afar off: and my salvation shall not tarry. I will give salvation in Sion, and my glory in Israel.

47 Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called delicate and tender.

²Take a millstone and grind meal: uncover thy shame, strip thy shoulder, make bare thy legs, pass over the rivers.

³Thy nakedness shall be discovered, and thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and no man shall resist me.

⁴Our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

⁵Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms.

⁶I was angry with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and have given them into thy bend: thou hast shewn no mercy to them: upon the ancient thou hast laid thy yoke exceeding heavy.

⁷And thou hast said: I shall be a lady for ever: thou hast not laid these things to thy heart, neither hast thou remembered thy latter end.

⁸And now hear these things, thou that art delicate, and dwellest confidently, that sayest in thy heart: I am, and there is none else besides me: I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know barrenness.

⁹These two things shall come upon thee suddenly in one day, barrenness and widowhood. All things are come upon thee, because of the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great hardness of thy enchanters.

¹⁰And thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, and hast said: There is none that seeth me. Thy wisdom, and thy knowledge, this hath deceived thee. And thou hast said in thy heart: I am, and besides me there is no other.

¹¹Evil shall come upon thee, and then shalt not know the rising thereof: and calamity shall fall violently upon thee, which thou canst not keep off: misery shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.

¹²Stand now with thy enchanters, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast laboured from thy youth, if so be it may profit thee any thing, or if thou mayst become stronger.

¹³Thou hast failed in the multitude or thy counsels: let now the astrologers stand and save thee, they that gazed at the stars, and counted the months, that from them they might tell the things that shall come to thee.

¹⁴Behold they are as stubble, fire hath burnt them, they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flames: there are no coals wherewith they may be warmed, nor fire, that they may sit thereat.

¹⁵Such are all the things become to thee, in which thou hast laboured: thy merchants from thy youth, every one hath erred in his own way, there is none that can save thee.

48 Hear ye these things, O house of Jacob, you that are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Juda, you who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in justice.

²For they are called of the holy city, and are established upon the God of Israel: the Lord of hosts is his name.

³The former things of old I have declared, and they went forth out of my mouth, and I have made them to be heard: I did them suddenly and they came to pass.

⁴For I knew that thou art stubborn, and thy neck is as an iron sinew, and thy forehead as brass.

⁵I foretold thee of old, before they came to pass I told thee, lest thou shouldst say: My idols have done these things, and my graven and molten things have commanded them.

⁶See now all the things which thou hast heard: but have you declared them? I have shewn thee new things from that time, and things are kept which thou knowest not:

⁷They are created now, and not of old: and before the day, when thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldst say: Behold I knew them.

⁸Thou hast neither heard, nor known, neither was thy ear opened of old. For I know that transgressing thou wilt transgress, and I have called thee a transgressor from the womb.

⁹For my name's sake I will remove my wrath far off: and for my praise I will bridle thee, lest thou shouldst perish.

¹⁰Behold I have refined thee, but not as silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of poverty.

¹¹For my own sake, for my own sake will I do it, that I may not be blasphemed: and I will not give my glory to another.

¹²Hearken to me, O Jacob, and thou Israel whom I call: I am he, I am the first, and I am the last.

¹³My hand also hath founded the earth, and my right hand hath measured the heavens: I shall call them, and they shall stand together.

¹⁴Assemble yourselves together, all you, and hear: who among them hath declared these things? the Lord hath loved him, he will do his pleasure in Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

¹⁵I, even I have spoken and called him: I have brought him, and his way is made prosperous.

¹⁶Come ye near unto me, and hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning: from the time before it was done, I was there, and now the Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit.

¹⁷Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord thy God that teach thee profitable things, that govern thee in the way that thou walkest.

¹⁸O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments: thy peace had been as a river, and thy justice as the waves of the sea,

¹⁹And thy seed had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof: his name should not have perished, nor have been destroyed from before my face.

²⁰Come forth out of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, declare it with the voice of joy: make this to be heard, and speak it out even to the ends of the earth. Say: The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.

²¹They thirsted not in the desert, when he led them out: he brought forth water out of the rock for them, and he clove the rock, and the waters gushed out.

²²There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord.

49 Give ear, ye islands, and hearken, ye people from afar. The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother he hath been mindful of my name.

²And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the shadow of his hand he hath protected me, and hath made me as a chosen arrow: in his quiver he hath hidden me.

³And he said to me: Thou art my servant Israel, for in thee will I glory.

⁴And I said: I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength without cause and in vain: therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.

⁵And now saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I may bring back Jacob unto him, and Israel will not be gathered together: and I am glorified in the eyes of the Lord, and my God is made my strength.

⁶And he said: It is a small thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel. Behold, I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth.

⁷Thus saith the Lord the redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to the soul that is despised, to the nation that is abhorred, to the servant of rulers: Kings shall see, and princes shall rise up, and adore for the Lord's sake, because he is faithful, and for the Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee.

⁸Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee: and I have preserved thee, and given thee to be a covenant of the people, that thou mightest raise up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed:

⁹That thou mightest say to them that are bound: Come forth: and to them that are in darkness: shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in every plain.

¹⁰They shall not hunger, nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to them, shall be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he shall give them drink.

¹¹And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths shall be exalted.

¹²Behold these shall come from afar, and behold these from the north and from the sea, and these from the south country.

¹³Give praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth, ye mountains, give praise with jubilation: because the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor ones.

¹⁴And Sion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me.

¹⁵Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.

¹⁶Behold, I have graven thee in my hands: thy walls are always before my eyes.

¹⁷Thy builders are come: they that destroy thee and make thee waste shall go out of thee.

¹⁸Lift up thy eyes round about, and see all these are gathered together, they are come to thee: I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and as a bride thou shalt put them about thee.

Isaiah 1-66

The Message

Messages of Judgment

Quit Your Worship Charades

1 The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

^2-4Heaven and earth, you’re the jury.
    Listen to God’s case:
“I had children and raised them well,
    and they turned on me.
The ox knows who’s boss,
    the mule knows the hand that feeds him,
But not Israel.
    My people don’t know up from down.
Shame! Misguided God-dropouts,
    staggering under their guilt-baggage,
Villainous gang,
    band of vandals—
My people have walked out on me, their God,
    turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,
    walked off and never looked back.

^5-9“Why bother even trying to do anything with you
    when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?
You keep beating your heads against brick walls.
    Everything within you protests against you.
From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,
    nothing’s working right.
Wounds and bruises and running sores—
    untended, unwashed, unbandaged.
Your country is laid waste,
    your cities burned down.
Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,
    reduced to rubble by barbarians.
Daughter Zion is deserted—
    like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,
Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,
    like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.
If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn’t left us a few survivors,
    we’d be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.

¹⁰“Listen to my Message,
you Sodom-schooled leaders.
Receive God’s revelation,
you Gomorrah-schooled people.

^11-12“Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”
    God’s asking.
“Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices,
    rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don’t you think I’ve had my fill
    of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me,
    whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that—
    all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?

^13-17“Quit your worship charades.
    I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
    meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
    You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
    while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
    I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
    I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
    people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
    Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
    so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
    Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
    Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
    Go to bat for the defenseless.

Let’s Argue This Out

^18-20“Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”
    This is God’s Message:
“If your sins are blood-red,
    they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
    they’ll be like wool.
If you’ll willingly obey,
    you’ll feast like kings.
But if you’re willful and stubborn,
    you’ll die like dogs.”
That’s right. God says so.

Those Who Walk Out on God

^21-23Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city
    has become a whore!
She was once all justice,
    everyone living as good neighbors,
And now they’re all
    at one another’s throats.
Your coins are all counterfeits.
    Your wine is watered down.
Your leaders are turncoats
    who keep company with crooks.
They sell themselves to the highest bidder
    and grab anything not nailed down.
They never stand up for the homeless,
    never stick up for the defenseless.

^24-31This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    the Strong One of Israel:
“This is it! I’ll get my oppressors off my back.
    I’ll get back at my enemies.
I’ll give you the back of my hand,
    purge the junk from your life, clean you up.
I’ll set honest judges and wise counselors among you
    just like it was back in the beginning.
Then you’ll be renamed
    City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City.”
God’s right ways will put Zion right again.
    God’s right actions will restore her prodigals.
But it’s curtains for rebels and God-traitors,
    a dead end for those who walk out on God.
“Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines
    will leave you looking mighty foolish,
All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens
    that you thought was the latest thing.
You’ll end up like an oak tree
    with all its leaves falling off,
Like an unwatered garden,
    withered and brown.
‘The Strong Man’ will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,
    and his ‘work,’ the spark that starts the fire
That exposes man and work both
    as nothing but cinders and smoke.”

Climb God’s Mountain

2 ^1-5The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:

There’s a day coming
    when the mountain of God’s House
Will be The Mountain—
    solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
    people from all over set out for it.
They’ll say, “Come,
    let’s climb God’s Mountain,
    go to the House of the God of Jacob.
He’ll show us the way he works
    so we can live the way we’re made.”
Zion’s the source of the revelation.
    God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.
He’ll settle things fairly between nations.
    He’ll make things right between many peoples.
They’ll turn their swords into shovels,
    their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
    they won’t play war anymore.
Come, family of Jacob,
    let’s live in the light of God.

^6-9God, you’ve walked out on your family Jacob
    because their world is full of hokey religion,
Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus,
    a world rolling in wealth,
Stuffed with things,
    no end to its machines and gadgets,
And gods—gods of all sorts and sizes.
    These people make their own gods and worship what they make.
A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter.
    Don’t bother with them! They’re not worth forgiving!

Pretentious Egos Brought Down to Earth

¹⁰Head for the hills,
hide in the caves
From the terror of God,
from his dazzling presence.

^11-17People with a big head are headed for a fall,
    pretentious egos brought down a peg.
It’s God alone at front-and-center
    on the Day we’re talking about,
The Day that God-of-the-Angel-Armies
    is matched against all big-talking rivals,
    against all swaggering big names;
Against all giant sequoias
    hugely towering,
    and against the expansive chestnut;
Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna,
    against the ranges of Alps and Andes;
Against every soaring skyscraper,
    against all proud obelisks and statues;
Against ocean-going luxury liners,
    against elegant three-masted schooners.
The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders,
    the pretentious egos brought down to earth,
Leaving God alone at front-and-center
    on the Day we’re talking about.

¹⁸And all those sticks and stones
dressed up to look like gods
will be gone for good.

¹⁹Clamber into caves in the cliffs,
    duck into any hole you can find.
Hide from the terror of God,
    from his dazzling presence,
When he assumes his full stature on earth,
    towering and terrifying.

^20-21On that Day men and women will take
    the sticks and stones
They’ve decked out in gold and silver
    to look like gods and then worshiped,
And they will dump them
    in any ditch or gully,
Then run for rock caves
    and cliff hideouts
To hide from the terror of God,
    from his dazzling presence,
When he assumes his full stature on earth,
    towering and terrifying.

²²Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans,
so full of themselves, so full of hot air!
Can’t you see there’s nothing to them?

Jerusalem on Its Last Legs

3 ^1-7The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    is emptying Jerusalem and Judah
Of all the basic necessities,
    plain bread and water to begin with.
He’s withdrawing police and protection,
    judges and courts,
    pastors and teachers,
    captains and generals,
    doctors and nurses,
    and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades.
He says, “I’ll put little kids in charge of the city.
    Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around.
People will be at each other’s throats,
    stabbing one another in the back:
Neighbor against neighbor, young against old,
    the no-account against the well-respected.
One brother will grab another and say,
    ‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders.
Do something!
    Get us out of this mess.’
And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue.
    Don’t put me in charge of anything.’

^8-9“Jerusalem’s on its last legs.
    Judah is soon down for the count.
Everything people say and do
    is at cross-purposes with God,
    a slap in my face.
Brazen in their depravity,
    they flaunt their sins like degenerate Sodom.
Doom to their eternal souls! They’ve made their bed;
    now they’ll sleep in it.

^10-11“Reassure the righteous
that their good living will pay off.
But doom to the wicked! Disaster!
Everything they did will be done to them.

¹²“Skinny kids terrorize my people.
Silly girls bully them around.
My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley.
They’re sending you off on a wild-goose chase.”

A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows

^13-15God enters the courtroom.
    He takes his place at the bench to judge his people.
God calls for order in the court,
    hauls the leaders of his people into the dock:
“You’ve played havoc with this country.
    Your houses are stuffed with what you’ve stolen from the poor.
What is this anyway? Stomping on my people,
    grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?”
That’s what the Master,
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.

^16-17God says, “Zion women are stuck-up,
    prancing around in their high heels,
Making eyes at all the men in the street,
    swinging their hips,
Tossing their hair,
    gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry.”
The Master will fix it so those Zion women
    will all turn bald—
Scabby, bald-headed women.
    The Master will do it.

^18-23The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles—the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, all the world’s finest in fabrics and design.

²⁴Instead of wearing seductive scents,
    these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages;
Instead of modeling flowing gowns,
    they’ll be sporting rags;
Instead of their stylish hairdos,
    scruffy heads;
Instead of beauty marks,
    scabs and scars.

^25-26Your finest fighting men will be killed,
    your soldiers left dead on the battlefield.
The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted
    with people mourning their dead—
A city stooped under the weight of her loss,
    brought to her knees by her sorrows.

* * *

4 That will be the day when seven women
    will gang up on one man, saying,
“We’ll take care of ourselves,
    get our own food and clothes.
Just give us a child. Make us pregnant
    so we’ll have something to live for!”

God’s Branch

^2-4And that’s when God’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious. God will give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.

^5-6Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.

Looking for a Crop of Justice

5 ^1-2I’ll sing a ballad to the one I love,
    a love ballad about his vineyard:
The one I love had a vineyard,
    a fine, well-placed vineyard.
He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds,
    and planted the very best vines.
He built a lookout, built a winepress,
    a vineyard to be proud of.
He looked for a vintage yield of grapes,
    but for all his pains he got garbage grapes.

^3-4“Now listen to what I’m telling you,
    you who live in Jerusalem and Judah.
What do you think is going on
    between me and my vineyard?
Can you think of anything I could have done
    to my vineyard that I didn’t do?
When I expected good grapes,
    why did I get bitter grapes?

^5-6“Well now, let me tell you
    what I’ll do to my vineyard:
I’ll tear down its fence
    and let it go to ruin.
I’ll knock down the gate
    and let it be trampled.
I’ll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for—
    thistles and thorns will take over.
I’ll give orders to the clouds:
    ‘Don’t rain on that vineyard, ever!’”

⁷Do you get it? The vineyard of God-of-the-Angel-Armies
    is the country of Israel.
All the men and women of Judah
    are the garden he was so proud of.
He looked for a crop of justice
    and saw them murdering each other.
He looked for a harvest of righteousness
    and heard only the moans of victims.

You Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil

^8-10Doom to you who buy up all the houses
    and grab all the land for yourselves—
Evicting the old owners,
    posting no trespassing signs,
Taking over the country,
    leaving everyone homeless and landless.
I overheard God-of-the-Angel-Armies say:
“Those mighty houses will end up empty.
    Those extravagant estates will be deserted.
A ten-acre vineyard will produce a pint of wine,
    a fifty-pound sack of seed, a quart of grain.”

^11-17Doom to those who get up early
    and start drinking booze before breakfast,
Who stay up all hours of the night
    drinking themselves into a stupor.
They make sure their banquets are well-furnished
    with harps and flutes and plenty of wine,
But they’ll have nothing to do with the work of God,
    pay no mind to what he is doing.
Therefore my people will end up in exile
    because they don’t know the score.
Their “honored men” will starve to death
    and the common people die of thirst.
Sheol developed a huge appetite,
    swallowing people nonstop!
Big people and little people alike
    down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks.
The down-and-out on a par
    with the high-and-mighty,
Windbag boasters crumpled,
    flaccid as a punctured bladder.
But by working justice,
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be a mountain.
By working righteousness,
    Holy God will show what “holy” is.
And lambs will graze
    as if they owned the place,
Kids and calves
    right at home in the ruins.

^18-19Doom to you who use lies to sell evil,
    who haul sin to market by the truckload,
Who say, “What’s God waiting for?
    Let him get a move on so we can see it.
Whatever The Holy of Israel has cooked up,
    we’d like to check it out.”

²⁰Doom to you who call evil good
    and good evil,
Who put darkness in place of light
    and light in place of darkness,
Who substitute bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter!

^21-23Doom to you who think you’re so smart,
    who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!
All you’re good at is drinking—champion boozers
    who collect trophies from drinking bouts
And then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty
    while you violate the rights of the innocent.

²⁴But they won’t get by with it. As fire eats stubble
    and dry grass goes up in smoke,
Their souls will atrophy,
    their achievements crumble into dust,
Because they said no to the revelation
    of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
Would have nothing to do
    with The Holy of Israel.

^25-30That’s why God flamed out in anger against his people,
    reached out and knocked them down.
The mountains trembled
    as their dead bodies piled up in the streets.
But even after that, he was still angry,
    his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.
He raises a flag, signaling a distant nation,
    whistles for people at the ends of the earth.
And here they come—
    on the run!
None drag their feet, no one stumbles,
    no one sleeps or dawdles.
Shirts are on and pants buckled,
    every boot is spit-polished and tied.
Their arrows are sharp,
    bows strung,
The hooves of their horses shod,
    chariot wheels greased.
Roaring like a pride of lions,
    the full-throated roars of young lions,
They growl and seize their prey,
    dragging it off—no rescue for that one!
They’ll roar and roar and roar on that Day,
    like the roar of ocean billows.
Look as long and hard as you like at that land,
    you’ll see nothing but darkness and trouble.
Every light in the sky
    will be blacked out by the clouds.

Holy, Holy, Holy!

6 ^1-8In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted!—and the train of his robes filled the Temple. Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew. And they called back and forth one to the other,

Holy, Holy, Holy is God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
His bright glory fills the whole earth.

The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke. I said,

“Doom! It’s Doomsday!
    I’m as good as dead!
Every word I’ve ever spoken is tainted—
    blasphemous even!
And the people I live with talk the same way,
    using words that corrupt and desecrate.
And here I’ve looked God in the face!
    The King! God-of-the-Angel-Armies!”

Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with the coal and said,

“Look. This coal has touched your lips.
    Gone your guilt,
    your sins wiped out.”
And then I heard the voice of the Master:
    “Whom shall I send?
    Who will go for us?”
I spoke up,
    “I’ll go.
    Send me!”

* * *

^9-10He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Listen hard, but you aren’t going to get it;
    look hard, but you won’t catch on.’
Make these people blockheads,
    with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes,
So they won’t see a thing,
    won’t hear a word,
So they won’t have a clue about what’s going on
    and, yes, so they won’t turn around and be made whole.”

^11-13Astonished, I said,
    “And Master, how long is this to go on?”
He said, “Until the cities are emptied out,
    not a soul left in the cities—
Houses empty of people,
    countryside empty of people.
Until I, God, get rid of everyone, sending them off,
    the land totally empty.
And even if some should survive, say a tenth,
    the devastation will start up again.
The country will look like pine and oak forest
    with every tree cut down—
Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps.
    But there’s a holy seed in those stumps.”

A Virgin Will Bear a Son

7 ^1-2During the time that Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel attacked Jerusalem, but the attack sputtered out. When the Davidic government learned that Aram had joined forces with Ephraim (that is, Israel), Ahaz and his people were badly shaken. They shook like trees in the wind.

^3-6Then God told Isaiah, “Go and meet Ahaz. Take your son Shear-jashub (A-Remnant-Will-Return) with you. Meet him south of the city at the end of the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry. Tell him, Listen, calm down. Don’t be afraid. And don’t panic over these two burnt-out cases, Rezin of Aram and the son of Remaliah. They talk big but there’s nothing to them. Aram, along with Ephraim’s son of Remaliah, have plotted to do you harm. They’ve conspired against you, saying, ‘Let’s go to war against Judah, dismember it, take it for ourselves, and set the son of Tabeel up as a puppet king over it.’

^7-9But God, the Master, says,

“It won’t happen.
    Nothing will come of it
Because the capital of Aram is Damascus
    and the king of Damascus is a mere man, Rezin.
As for Ephraim, in sixty-five years
    it will be rubble, nothing left of it.
The capital of Ephraim is Samaria,
    and the king of Samaria is the mere son of Remaliah.
If you don’t take your stand in faith,
    you won’t have a leg to stand on.”

* * *

^10-11God spoke again to Ahaz. This time he said, “Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!”

¹²But Ahaz said, “I’d never do that. I’d never make demands like that on God!”

^13-17So Isaiah told him, “Then listen to this, government of David! It’s bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you’re making God tired. So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She’ll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us). By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions, the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture. But also be warned: God will bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!”

^18-19That’s when God will whistle for the flies at the headwaters of Egypt’s Nile, and whistle for the bees in the land of Assyria. They’ll come and infest every nook and cranny of this country. There’ll be no getting away from them.

²⁰And that’s when the Master will take the razor rented from across the Euphrates—the king of Assyria no less!—and shave the hair off your heads and genitals, leaving you shamed, exposed, and denuded. He’ll shave off your beards while he’s at it.

^21-22It will be a time when survivors will count themselves lucky to have a cow and a couple of sheep. At least they’ll have plenty of milk! Whoever’s left in the land will learn to make do with the simplest foods—curds, whey, and honey.

^23-25But that’s not the end of it. This country that used to be covered with fine vineyards—thousands of them, worth millions!—will revert to a weed patch. Weeds and thornbushes everywhere! Good for nothing except, perhaps, hunting rabbits. Cattle and sheep will forage as best they can in the fields of weeds—but there won’t be a trace of all those fertile and well-tended gardens and fields.

* * *

8 Then God told me, “Get a big sheet of paper and write in indelible ink, ‘This belongs to Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Spoil-Speeds-Plunder-Hurries).’”

^2-3I got two honest men, Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, to witness the document. Then I went home to my wife, the prophetess. She conceived and gave birth to a son.

^3-4God told me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Before that baby says ‘Daddy’ or ‘Mamma’ the king of Assyria will have plundered the wealth of Damascus and the riches of Samaria.”

* * *

^5-8God spoke to me again, saying:

“Because this people has turned its back
    on the gently flowing stream of Shiloah
And gotten all excited over Rezin
    and the son of Remaliah,
I’m stepping in and facing them with
    the wild floodwaters of the Euphrates,
The king of Assyria and all his fanfare,
    a river in flood, bursting its banks,
Pouring into Judah, sweeping everything before it,
    water up to your necks,
A huge wingspan of a raging river,
    O Immanuel, spreading across your land.”

* * *

^9-10But face the facts, all you oppressors, and then wring your hands.
    Listen, all of you, far and near.
Prepare for the worst and wring your hands.
    Yes, prepare for the worst and wring your hands!
Plan and plot all you want—nothing will come of it.
    All your talk is mere talk, empty words,
Because when all is said and done,
    the last word is Immanuel—God-With-Us.

A Boulder Blocking Your Way

^11-15God spoke strongly to me, grabbed me with both hands and warned me not to go along with this people. He said:

“Don’t be like this people,
    always afraid somebody is plotting against them.
Don’t fear what they fear.
    Don’t take on their worries.
If you’re going to worry,
    worry about The Holy. Fear God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
The Holy can be either a Hiding Place
    or a Boulder blocking your way,
The Rock standing in the willful way
    of both houses of Israel,
A barbed-wire Fence preventing trespass
    to the citizens of Jerusalem.
Many of them are going to run into that Rock
    and get their bones broken,
Get tangled up in that barbed wire
    and not get free of it.”

* * *

^16-18Gather up the testimony,
    preserve the teaching for my followers,
While I wait for God as long as he remains in hiding,
    while I wait and hope for him.
I stand my ground and hope,
    I and the children God gave me as signs to Israel,
Warning signs and hope signs from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    who makes his home in Mount Zion.

^19-22When people tell you, “Try out the fortunetellers.
    Consult the spiritualists.
Why not tap into the spirit-world,
    get in touch with the dead?”
Tell them, “No, we’re going to study the Scriptures.”
    People who try the other ways get nowhere—a dead end!
Frustrated and famished,
    they try one thing after another.
When nothing works out they get angry,
    cursing first this god and then that one,
Looking this way and that,
    up, down, and sideways—and seeing nothing,
A blank wall, an empty hole.
    They end up in the dark with nothing.

A Child Has Been Born—for Us!

9 But there’ll be no darkness for those who were in trouble. Earlier he did bring the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali into disrepute, but the time is coming when he’ll make that whole area glorious—the road along the Sea, the country past the Jordan, international Galilee.

^2-7The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light.
For those who lived in a land of deep shadows—
    light! sunbursts of light!
You repopulated the nation,
    you expanded its joy.
Oh, they’re so glad in your presence!
    Festival joy!
The joy of a great celebration,
    sharing rich gifts and warm greetings.
The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants—
    all their whips and clubs and curses—
Is gone, done away with, a deliverance
    as surprising and sudden as Gideon’s old victory over Midian.
The boots of all those invading troops,
    along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood,
Will be piled in a heap and burned,
    a fire that will burn for days!
For a child has been born—for us!
    the gift of a son—for us!
He’ll take over
    the running of the world.
His names will be: Amazing Counselor,
    Strong God,
Eternal Father,
    Prince of Wholeness.
His ruling authority will grow,
    and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.
He’ll rule from the historic David throne
    over that promised kingdom.
He’ll put that kingdom on a firm footing
    and keep it going
With fair dealing and right living,
    beginning now and lasting always.
The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies
    will do all this.

God Answered Fire with Fire

^8-10The Master sent a message against Jacob.
    It landed right on Israel’s doorstep.
All the people soon heard the message,
    Ephraim and the citizens of Samaria.
But they were a proud and arrogant bunch.
    They dismissed the message, saying,
“Things aren’t that bad.
    We can handle anything that comes.
If our buildings are knocked down,
    we’ll rebuild them bigger and finer.
If our forests are cut down,
    we’ll replant them with finer trees.”

^11-12So God incited their adversaries against them,
    stirred up their enemies to attack:
From the east, Arameans; from the west, Philistines.
    They made hash of Israel.
But even after that, he was still angry,
    his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

^13-17But the people paid no mind to him who hit them,
    didn’t seek God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
So God hacked off Israel’s head and tail,
    palm branch and reed, both on the same day.
The bigheaded elders were the head,
    the lying prophets were the tail.
Those who were supposed to lead this people
    led them down blind alleys,
And those who followed the leaders
    ended up lost and confused.
That’s why the Master lost interest in the young men,
    had no feeling for their orphans and widows.
All of them were godless and evil,
    talking filth and folly.
And even after that, he was still angry,
    his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

^18-21Their wicked lives raged like an out-of-control fire,
    the kind that burns everything in its path—
Trees and bushes, weeds and grasses—
    filling the skies with smoke.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies answered fire with fire,
    set the whole country on fire,
Turned the people into consuming fires,
    consuming one another in their lusts—
Appetites insatiable, stuffing and gorging
    themselves left and right with people and things.
But still they starved. Not even their children
    were safe from their greedy hunger.
Manasseh ate Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
    and then the two ganged up against Judah.
And after that, he was still angry,
    his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

* * *

You Who Legislate Evil

10 ^1-4Doom to you who legislate evil,
    who make laws that make victims—
Laws that make misery for the poor,
    that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
    taking advantage of homeless children.
What will you have to say on Judgment Day,
    when Doomsday arrives out of the blue?
Who will you get to help you?
    What good will your money do you?
A sorry sight you’ll be then, huddled with the prisoners,
    or just some corpses stacked in the street.
Even after all this, God is still angry,
    his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

Doom to Assyria!

^5-11“Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger.
    My wrath is a club in his hands!
I send him against a godless nation,
    against the people I’m angry with.
I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind,
    and then push their faces in the mud and leave them.
But Assyria has another agenda;
    he has something else in mind.
He’s out to destroy utterly,
    to stamp out as many nations as he can.
Assyria says, ‘Aren’t my commanders all kings?
    Can’t they do whatever they like?
Didn’t I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish?
    Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus?
I’ve eliminated kingdoms full of gods
    far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria.
So what’s to keep me from destroying Jerusalem
    in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?’”

^12-13When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he’ll say, “Now it’s Assyria’s turn. I’ll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing, the way he goes around saying,

^13-14“‘I’ve done all this by myself.
    I know more than anyone.
I’ve wiped out the boundaries of whole countries.
    I’ve walked in and taken anything I wanted.
I charged in like a bull
    and toppled their kings from their thrones.
I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured
    as easily as a boy taking a bird’s eggs from a nest.
Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse,
    I gathered the world in my basket,
And no one so much as fluttered a wing
    or squawked or even chirped.’”

^15-19Does an ax take over from the one who swings it?
    Does a saw act more important than the sawyer?
As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger!
    As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails!
Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters.
Under the canopy of God’s bright glory
    a fierce fire will break out.
Israel’s Light will burst into a conflagration.
    The Holy will explode into a firestorm,
And in one day burn to cinders
    every last Assyrian thornbush.
God will destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens.
    The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing
    like a disease-ridden invalid.
A child could count what’s left of the trees
    on the fingers of his two hands.

* * *

^20-23And on that Day also, what’s left of Israel, the straggling survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They’ll lean on God, The Holy—yes, truly. The ragtag remnant—what’s left of Jacob—will come back to the Strong God. Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness. For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe.

^24-27Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: “My dear, dear people who live in Zion, don’t be terrorized by the Assyrians when they beat you with clubs and threaten you with rods like the Egyptians once did. In just a short time my anger against you will be spent and I’ll turn my destroying anger on them. I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will go after them with a cat-o’-nine-tails and finish them off decisively—as Gideon downed Midian at the rock Oreb, as Moses turned the tables on Egypt. On that day, Assyria will be pulled off your back, and the yoke of slavery lifted from your neck.”

* * *

^27-32Assyria’s on the move: up from Rimmon,
    on to Aiath,
through Migron,
    with a bivouac at Micmash.
They’ve crossed the pass,
    set camp at Geba for the night.
Ramah trembles with fright.
    Gibeah of Saul has run off.
Cry for help, daughter of Gallim!
    Listen to her, Laishah!
    Do something, Anathoth!
Madmenah takes to the hills.
    The people of Gebim flee in panic.
The enemy’s soon at Nob—nearly there!
    In sight of the city he shakes his fist
At the mount of dear daughter Zion,
    the hill of Jerusalem.

^33-34But now watch this: The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    swings his ax and lops the branches,
Chops down the giant trees,
    lays flat the towering forest-on-the-march.
His ax will make toothpicks of that forest,
    that Lebanon-like army reduced to kindling.

A Green Shoot from Jesse’s Stump

11 ^1-5A green Shoot will sprout from Jesse’s stump,
    from his roots a budding Branch.
The life-giving Spirit of God will hover over him,
    the Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit that gives direction and builds strength,
    the Spirit that instills knowledge and Fear-of-God.
Fear-of-God
    will be all his joy and delight.
He won’t judge by appearances,
    won’t decide on the basis of hearsay.
He’ll judge the needy by what is right,
    render decisions on earth’s poor with justice.
His words will bring everyone to awed attention.
    A mere breath from his lips will topple the wicked.
Each morning he’ll pull on sturdy work clothes and boots,
    and build righteousness and faithfulness in the land.

A Living Knowledge of God

^6-9The wolf will romp with the lamb,
    the leopard sleep with the kid.
Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,
    and a little child will tend them.
Cow and bear will graze the same pasture,
    their calves and cubs grow up together,
    and the lion eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,
    the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
    on my holy mountain.
The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive,
    a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.

* * *

¹⁰On that day, Jesse’s Root will be raised high, posted as a rallying banner for the peoples. The nations will all come to him. His headquarters will be glorious.

¹¹Also on that day, the Master for the second time will reach out to bring back what’s left of his scattered people. He’ll bring them back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Sinar, Hamath, and the ocean islands.

^12-16And he’ll raise that rallying banner high, visible to all nations,
    gather in all the scattered exiles of Israel,
Pull in all the dispersed refugees of Judah
    from the four winds and the seven seas.
The jealousy of Ephraim will dissolve,
    the hostility of Judah will vanish—
Ephraim no longer the jealous rival of Judah,
    Judah no longer the hostile rival of Ephraim!
Blood brothers united, they’ll pounce on the Philistines in the west,
    join forces to plunder the people in the east.
They’ll attack Edom and Moab.
    The Ammonites will fall into line.
God will once again dry up Egypt’s Red Sea,
    making for an easy crossing.
He’ll send a blistering wind
    down on the great River Euphrates,
Reduce it to seven mere trickles.
    None even need get their feet wet!
In the end there’ll be a highway all the way from Assyria,
    easy traveling for what’s left of God’s people—
A highway just like the one Israel had
    when he marched up out of Egypt.

My Strength and Song

12 And you will say in that day,
    “I thank you, God.
You were angry
    but your anger wasn’t forever.
You withdrew your anger
    and moved in and comforted me.

²“Yes, indeed—God is my salvation.
I trust, I won’t be afraid.
God—yes God!—is my strength and song,
best of all, my salvation!”

^3-4Joyfully you’ll pull up buckets of water
    from the wells of salvation.
And as you do it, you’ll say,
    “Give thanks to God.
Call out his name.
    Ask him anything!
Shout to the nations, tell them what he’s done,
    spread the news of his great reputation!

^5-6“Sing praise-songs to God. He’s done it all!
Let the whole earth know what he’s done!
Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion!
The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel.”

Babylon Is Doomed!

13 The Message on Babylon. Isaiah son of Amoz saw it:

^2-3“Run up a flag on an open hill.
    Yell loud. Get their attention.
Wave them into formation.
    Direct them to the nerve center of power.
I’ve taken charge of my special forces,
    called up my crack troops.
They’re bursting with pride and passion
    to carry out my angry judgment.”

^4-5Thunder rolls off the mountains
    like a mob huge and noisy—
Thunder of kingdoms in an uproar,
    nations assembling for war.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling
    his army into battle formation.
They come from far-off countries,
    they pour in across the horizon.
It’s God on the move with the weapons of his wrath,
    ready to destroy the whole country.

^6-8Wail! God’s Day of Judgment is near—
    an avalanche crashing down from the Strong God!
Everyone paralyzed in the panic,
    hysterical and unstrung,
Doubled up in pain
    like a woman giving birth to a baby.
Horrified—everyone they see
    is like a face out of a nightmare.

* * *

^9-16“Watch now. God’s Judgment Day comes.
    Cruel it is, a day of wrath and anger,
A day to waste the earth
    and clean out all the sinners.
The stars in the sky, the great parade of constellations,
    will be nothing but black holes.
The sun will come up as a black disk,
    and the moon a blank nothing.
I’ll put a full stop to the evil on earth,
    terminate the dark acts of the wicked.
I’ll gag all braggarts and boasters—not a peep anymore from them—
    and trip strutting tyrants, leave them flat on their faces.
Proud humanity will disappear from the earth.
    I’ll make mortals rarer than hens’ teeth.
And yes, I’ll even make the sky shake,
    and the earth quake to its roots
Under the wrath of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    the Judgment Day of his raging anger.
Like a hunted white-tailed deer,
    like lost sheep with no shepherd,
People will huddle with a few of their own kind,
    run off to some makeshift shelter.
But tough luck to stragglers—they’ll be killed on the spot,
    throats cut, bellies ripped open,
Babies smashed on the rocks
    while mothers and fathers watch,
Houses looted,
    wives raped.

^17-22“And now watch this:
    Against Babylon, I’m inciting the Medes,
A ruthless bunch indifferent to bribes,
    the kind of brutality that no one can blunt.
They massacre the young,
    wantonly kick and kill even babies.
And Babylon, most glorious of all kingdoms,
    the pride and joy of Chaldeans,
Will end up smoking and stinking like Sodom,
    and, yes, like Gomorrah, when God had finished with them.
No one will live there anymore,
    generation after generation a ghost town.
Not even Bedouins will pitch tents there.
    Shepherds will give it a wide berth.
But strange and wild animals will like it just fine,
    filling the vacant houses with eerie night sounds.
Skunks will make it their home,
    and unspeakable night hags will haunt it.
Hyenas will curdle your blood with their laughing,
    and the howling of coyotes will give you the shivers.

“Babylon is doomed.
It won’t be long now.”

Now You Are Nothing

14 ^1-2But not so with Jacob. God will have compassion on Jacob. Once again he’ll choose Israel. He’ll establish them in their own country. Outsiders will be attracted and throw their lot in with Jacob. The nations among whom they lived will actually escort them back home, and then Israel will pay them back by making slaves of them, men and women alike, possessing them as slaves in God’s country, capturing those who had captured them, ruling over those who had abused them.

^3-4When God has given you time to recover from the abuse and trouble and harsh servitude that you had to endure, you can amuse yourselves by taking up this satire, a taunt against the king of Babylon:

^4-6Can you believe it? The tyrant is gone!
    The tyranny is over!
God has broken the rule of the wicked,
    the power of the bully-rulers
That crushed many people.
    A relentless rain of cruel outrage
Established a violent rule of anger
    rife with torture and persecution.

^7-10And now it’s over, the whole earth quietly at rest.
    Burst into song! Make the rafters ring!
Ponderosa pine trees are happy,
    giant Lebanon cedars are relieved, saying,
“Since you’ve been cut down,
    there’s no one around to cut us down.”
And the underworld dead are all excited,
    preparing to welcome you when you come.
Getting ready to greet you are the ghostly dead,
    all the famous names of earth.
All the buried kings of the nations
    will stand up on their thrones
With well-prepared speeches,
    royal invitations to death:
“Now you are as nothing as we are!
    Make yourselves at home with us dead folks!”

¹¹This is where your pomp and fine music led you, Babylon,
to your underworld private chambers,
A king-size mattress of maggots for repose
and a quilt of crawling worms for warmth.

¹²What a comedown this, O Babylon!
Daystar! Son of Dawn!
Flat on your face in the underworld mud,
you, famous for flattening nations!

^13-14You said to yourself,
    “I’ll climb to heaven.
I’ll set my throne
    over the stars of God.
I’ll run the assembly of angels
    that meets on sacred Mount Zaphon.
I’ll climb to the top of the clouds.
    I’ll take over as King of the Universe!”

^15-17But you didn’t make it, did you?
    Instead of climbing up, you came down—
Down with the underground dead,
    down to the abyss of the Pit.
People will stare and muse:
    “Can this be the one
Who terrorized earth and its kingdoms,
    turned earth to a moonscape,
Wasted its cities,
    shut up his prisoners to a living death?”

^18-20Other kings get a decent burial,
    honored with eulogies and placed in a tomb.
But you’re dumped in a ditch unburied,
    like a stray dog or cat,
Covered with rotting bodies,
    murdered and indigent corpses.
Your dead body desecrated, mutilated—
    no state funeral for you!
You’ve left your land in ruins,
    left a legacy of massacre.
The progeny of your evil life
    will never be named. Oblivion!

²¹Get a place ready to slaughter the sons of the wicked
and wipe out their father’s line.
Unthinkable that they should own a square foot of land
or desecrate the face of the world with their cities!

^22-23“I will confront them”—Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies—“and strip Babylon of name and survivors, children and grandchildren.” God’s Decree. “I’ll make it a worthless swamp and give it as a prize to the hedgehog. And then I’ll bulldoze it out of existence.” Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

Who Could Ever Cancel Such Plans?

^24-27God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:

“Exactly as I planned,
    it will happen.
Following my blueprints,
    it will take shape.
I will shatter the Assyrian who trespasses my land
    and stomp him into the dirt on my mountains.
I will ban his taking and making of slaves
    and lift the weight of oppression from all shoulders.”
This is the plan,
    planned for the whole earth,
And this is the hand that will do it,
    reaching into every nation.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies has planned it.
    Who could ever cancel such plans?
His is the hand that’s reached out.
    Who could brush it aside?

^28-31In the year King Ahaz died, this Message came:

Hold it, Philistines! It’s too soon to celebrate
    the defeat of your cruel oppressor.
From the death throes of that snake a worse snake will come,
    and from that, one even worse.
The poor won’t have to worry.
    The needy will escape the terror.
But you Philistines will be plunged into famine,
    and those who don’t starve, God will kill.
Wail and howl, proud city!
    Fall prostrate in fear, Philistia!
On the northern horizon, smoke from burned cities,
    the wake of a brutal, disciplined destroyer.

³²What does one say to
outsiders who ask questions?
Tell them, “God has established Zion.
Those in need and in trouble find refuge in her.”

Poignant Cries Reverberate Through Moab

15 ^1-4A Message concerning Moab:

Village Ar of Moab is in ruins,
    destroyed in a night raid.
Village Kir of Moab is in ruins,
    destroyed in a night raid.
Village Dibon climbs to its chapel in the hills,
    goes up to lament.
Moab weeps and wails
    over Nebo and Medba.
Every head is shaved bald,
    every beard shaved clean.
They pour into the streets wearing black,
    go up on the roofs, take to the town square,
Everyone in tears,
    everyone in grief.
Towns Heshbon and Elealeh cry long and loud.
    The sound carries as far as Jahaz.
Moab sobs, shaking in grief.
    The soul of Moab trembles.

^5-9Oh, how I grieve for Moab!
    Refugees stream to Zoar
    and then on to Eglath-shelishiyah.
Up the slopes of Luhith they weep;
    on the road to Horonaim they cry their loss.
The springs of Nimrim are dried up—
    grass brown, buds stunted, nothing grows.
They leave, carrying all their possessions
    on their backs, everything they own,
Making their way as best they can
    across Willow Creek to safety.
Poignant cries reverberate
    all through Moab,
Gut-wrenching sobs as far as Eglaim,
    heart-racking sobs all the way to Beer-elim.
The banks of the Dibon crest with blood,
    but God has worse in store for Dibon:
A lion—a lion to finish off the fugitives,
    to clean up whoever’s left in the land.

A New Government in the David Tradition

16 ^1-4“Dispatch a gift of lambs,” says Moab,
    “to the leaders in Jerusalem—
Lambs from Sela sent across the desert
    to buy the goodwill of Jerusalem.
The towns and people of Moab
    are at a loss,
New-hatched birds knocked from the nest,
    fluttering helplessly
At the banks of the Arnon River,
    unable to cross:
‘Tell us what to do,
    help us out!
Protect us,
    hide us!
Give the refugees from Moab
    sanctuary with you.
Be a safe place for those on the run
    from the killing fields.’”

^4-5“When this is all over,” Judah answers,
    “the tyrant toppled,
The killing at an end,
    all signs of these cruelties long gone,
A new government of love will be established
    in the venerable David tradition.
A Ruler you can depend upon
    will head this government,
A Ruler passionate for justice,
    a Ruler quick to set things right.”

* * *

^6-12We’ve heard—everyone’s heard!—of Moab’s pride,
    world-famous for pride—
Arrogant, self-important, insufferable,
    full of hot air.
So now let Moab lament for a change,
    with antiphonal mock-laments from the neighbors!
What a shame! How terrible!
    No more fine fruitcakes and Kir-hareseth candies!
All those lush Heshbon fields dried up,
    the rich Sibmah vineyards withered!
Foreign thugs have crushed and torn out
    the famous grapevines
That once reached all the way to Jazer,
    right to the edge of the desert,
Ripped out the crops in every direction
    as far as the eye can see.
I’ll join the weeping. I’ll weep right along with Jazer,
    weep for the Sibmah vineyards.
And yes, Heshbon and Elealeh,
    I’ll mingle my tears with your tears!
The joyful shouting at harvest is gone.
    Instead of song and celebration, dead silence.
No more boisterous laughter in the orchards,
    no more hearty work songs in the vineyards.
Instead of the bustle and sound of good work in the fields,
    silence—deathly and deadening silence.
My heartstrings throb like harp strings for Moab,
    my soul in sympathy for sad Kir-heres.
When Moab trudges to the shrine to pray,
    he wastes both time and energy.
Going to the sanctuary and praying for relief
    is useless. Nothing ever happens.

^13-14This is God’s earlier Message on Moab. God’s updated Message is, “In three years, no longer than the term of an enlisted soldier, Moab’s impressive presence will be gone, that splendid hot-air balloon will be punctured, and instead of a vigorous population, just a few shuffling bums panhandling handouts.”

Damascus: A Pile of Dust and Rubble

17 ^1-3A Message concerning Damascus:

“Watch this: Damascus undone as a city,
    a pile of dust and rubble!
Her towns emptied of people.
    The sheep and goats will move in
And take over the towns
    as if they owned them—which they will!
Not a sign of a fort is left in Ephraim,
    not a trace of government left in Damascus.
What’s left of Aram?
    The same as what’s left of Israel—not much.”
        Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

The Day Is Coming

^4-6“The Day is coming when Jacob’s robust splendor goes pale
    and his well-fed body turns skinny.
The country will be left empty, picked clean
    as a field harvested by field hands.
She’ll be like a few stalks of barley left standing
    in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest,
Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked
    in the top of the olive tree,
Or the four or five apples
    that the pickers couldn’t reach in the orchard.”
        Decree of the God of Israel.

^7-8Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They’ll lose interest in all the stuff they’ve made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is.

⁹And yes, the Day is coming when their fortress cities will be abandoned—the very same cities that the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when Israel invaded! And the country will be empty, desolate.

You Have Forgotten God

^10-11And why? Because you have forgotten God-Your-Salvation,
    not remembered your Rock-of-Refuge.
And so, even though you are very religious,
    planting all sorts of bushes and herbs and trees
    to honor and influence your fertility gods,
And even though you make them grow so well,
    bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms,
Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest
    you’ll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain.

^12-13Oh my! Thunder! A thundering herd of people!
    Thunder like the crashing of ocean waves!
Nations roaring, roaring,
    like the roar of a massive waterfall,
Roaring like a deafening Niagara!
    But God will silence them with a word,
And then he’ll blow them away like dead leaves off a tree,
    like down from a thistle.

¹⁴At bedtime, terror fills the air.
By morning it’s gone—not a sign of it anywhere!
This is what happens to those who would ruin us,
this is the fate of those out to get us.

People Mighty and Merciless

18 ^1-2Doom to the land of flies and mosquitoes
beyond the Ethiopian rivers,
Shipping emissaries all over the world,
down rivers and across seas.

Go, swift messengers,
    go to this people tall and handsome,
This people held in respect everywhere,
    this people mighty and merciless,
    from the land crisscrossed with rivers.

³Everybody everywhere,
all earth-dwellers:
When you see a flag flying on the mountain, look!
When you hear the trumpet blown, listen!

^4-6For here’s what God told me:

“I’m not going to say anything,
    but simply look on from where I live,
Quiet as warmth that comes from the sun,
    silent as dew during harvest.”
And then, just before harvest, after the blossom
    has turned into a maturing grape,
He’ll step in and prune back the new shoots,
    ruthlessly hack off all the growing branches.
He’ll leave them piled on the ground
    for birds and animals to feed on—
Fodder for the summering birds,
    fodder for the wintering animals.

⁷Then tribute will be brought to God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    brought from this people tall and handsome,
This people once held in respect everywhere,
    this people once mighty and merciless,
From the land crisscrossed with rivers,
    to Mount Zion, God’s place.

Anarchy and Chaos and Killing!

19 A Message concerning Egypt:

Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud,
moving in on Egypt!
The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake,
Egyptians paralyzed by panic.

^2-4God says, “I’ll make Egyptian fight Egyptian,
    brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor,
City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom—
    anarchy and chaos and killing!
I’ll knock the wind out of the Egyptians.
    They won’t know coming from going.
They’ll go to their god-idols for answers;
    they’ll conjure ghosts and hold séances, desperate for answers.
But I’ll turn the Egyptians
    over to a tyrant most cruel.
I’ll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king.”
    Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

^5-10The River Nile will dry up,
    the riverbed baked dry in the sun.
The canals will become stagnant and stink,
    every stream touching the Nile dry up.
River vegetation will rot away
    the banks of the Nile-baked clay,
The riverbed hard and smooth,
    river grasses dried up and gone with the wind.
Fishermen will complain
    that the fishing’s been ruined.
Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers
    and workers in linen and cotton and wool
Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness—
    everyone who works for a living, jobless.

^11-15The princes of Zoan are fools,
    the advisors of Pharaoh stupid.
How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh,
    “Trust me: I’m wise. I know what’s going on.
    Why, I’m descended from the old wisdom of Egypt”?
There’s not a wise man or woman left in the country.
    If there were, one of them would tell you
    what God-of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt.
As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools
    and the princes of Memphis, idiots.
The honored pillars of your society
    have led Egypt into detours and dead ends.
God has scrambled their brains,
    Egypt’s become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk.
Egypt’s hopeless, past helping,
    a senile, doddering old fool.

* * *

^16-17On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say “Judah” to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies’ plan against Egypt.

¹⁸On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith and promise to follow God-of-the-Angel-Armies. One of these cities will be honored with the title “City of the Sun.”

^19-22On that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border. It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he’ll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them. God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they’ll get to know him on that Day. They’ll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They’ll make vows and keep them. God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe.

²³On that Day, there will be a highway all the way from Egypt to Assyria: Assyrians will have free range in Egypt and Egyptians in Assyria. No longer rivals, they’ll worship together, Egyptians and Assyrians!

^24-25On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessing from the center. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who blessed Israel, will generously bless them all: “Blessed be Egypt, my people! . . . Blessed be Assyria, work of my hands! . . . Blessed be Israel, my heritage!”

Exposed to Mockery and Jeers

20 ^1-2In the year the field commander, sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought and took it, God told Isaiah son of Amoz, “Go, take off your clothes and sandals,” and Isaiah did it, going about naked and barefooted.

^3-6Then God said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked around town naked and barefooted for three years as a warning sign to Egypt and Ethiopia, so the king of Assyria is going to come and take the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles. He’ll take young and old alike and march them out of there naked and barefooted, exposed to mockery and jeers—the bared buttocks of Egypt on parade! Everyone who has put hope in Ethiopia and expected help from Egypt will be thrown into confusion. Everyone who lives along this coast will say, ‘Look at them! Naked and barefooted, shuffling off to exile! And we thought they were our best hope, that they’d rescue us from the king of Assyria. Now what’s going to happen to us? How are we going to get out of this?’”

The Betrayer Betrayed

21 ^1-4A Message concerning the desert at the sea:

As tempests drive through the Negev Desert,
    coming out of the desert, that terror-filled place,
A hard vision is given me:
    The betrayer betrayed, the plunderer plundered.
Attack, Elam!
    Lay siege, Media!
Persians, attack!
    Attack, Babylon!
I’ll put an end to
    all the moaning and groaning.
Because of this news I’m doubled up in pain,
    writhing in pain like a woman having a baby,
Baffled by what I hear,
    undone by what I see.
Absolutely stunned,
    horror-stricken,
I had hoped for a relaxed evening,
    but it has turned into a nightmare.

⁵The banquet is spread,
the guests reclining in luxurious ease,
Eating and drinking, having a good time,
and then, “To arms, princes! The fight is on!”

^6-9The Master told me, “Go, post a lookout.
    Have him report whatever he spots.
When he sees horses and wagons in battle formation,
    lines of donkeys and columns of camels,
Tell him to keep his ear to the ground,
    note every whisper, every rumor.”
Just then, the lookout shouted,
    “I’m at my post, Master,
Sticking to my post day after day
    and all through the night!
I watched them come,
    the horses and wagons in battle formation.
I heard them call out the war news in headlines:
    ‘Babylon fallen! Fallen!
And all its precious god-idols
    smashed to pieces on the ground.’”

¹⁰Dear Israel, you’ve been through a lot,
you’ve been put through the mill.
The good news I get from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
the God of Israel, I now pass on to you.

* * *

^11-12A Message concerning Edom:

A voice calls to me
    from the Seir mountains in Edom,
“Night watchman! How long till daybreak?
    How long will this night last?”
The night watchman calls back,
    “Morning’s coming,
But for now it’s still night.
    If you ask me again, I’ll give the same answer.”

* * *

^13-15A Message concerning Arabia:

You’ll have to camp out in the desert badlands,
    you caravans of Dedanites.
Haul water to the thirsty,
    greet fugitives with bread.
Show your desert hospitality,
    you who live in Tema.
The desert’s swarming with refugees
    escaping the horrors of war.

^16-17The Master told me, “Hang on. Within one year—I’ll sign a contract on it!—the arrogant brutality of Kedar, those hooligans of the desert, will be over, nothing much left of the Kedar toughs.” The God of Israel says so.

A Country of Cowards

22 ^1-3A Message concerning the Valley of Vision:

What’s going on here anyway?
    All this partying and noisemaking,
Shouting and cheering in the streets,
    the city noisy with celebrations!
You have no brave soldiers to honor,
    no combat heroes to be proud of.
Your leaders were all cowards,
    captured without even lifting a sword,
A country of cowards
    captured escaping the battle.

You Looked, but You Never Looked to Him

^4-8In the midst of the shouting, I said, “Let me alone.
    Let me grieve by myself.
Don’t tell me it’s going to be all right.
    These people are doomed. It’s not all right.”
For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    is bringing a day noisy with mobs of people,
Jostling and stampeding in the Valley of Vision,
    knocking down walls
    and hollering to the mountains, “Attack! Attack!”
Old enemies Elam and Kir arrive armed to the teeth—
    weapons and chariots and cavalry.
Your fine valleys are noisy with war,
    chariots and cavalry charging this way and that.
    God has left Judah exposed and defenseless.

^8-11You assessed your defenses that Day, inspected your arsenal of weapons in the Forest Armory. You found the weak places in the city walls that needed repair. You secured the water supply at the Lower Pool. You took an inventory of the houses in Jerusalem and tore down some to get bricks to fortify the city wall. You built a large cistern to ensure plenty of water.

You looked and looked and looked, but you never looked to him who gave you this city, never once consulted the One who has long had plans for this city.

^12-13The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    called out on that Day,
Called for a day of repentant tears,
    called you to dress in somber clothes of mourning.
But what do you do? You throw a party!
    Eating and drinking and dancing in the streets!
You barbecue bulls and sheep, and throw a huge feast—
    slabs of meat, kegs of beer.
“Seize the day! Eat and drink!
    Tomorrow we die!”

¹⁴God-of-the-Angel-Armies whispered to me his verdict on this frivolity: “You’ll pay for this outrage until the day you die.” The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says so.

The Key of the Davidic Heritage

^15-19The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, spoke: “Come. Go to this steward, Shebna, who is in charge of all the king’s affairs, and tell him: What’s going on here? You’re an outsider here and yet you act like you own the place, make a big, fancy tomb for yourself where everyone can see it, making sure everyone will think you’re important. God is about to sack you, to throw you to the dogs. He’ll grab you by the hair, swing you round and round dizzyingly, and then let you go, sailing through the air like a ball, until you’re out of sight. Where you’ll land, nobody knows. And there you’ll die, and all the stuff you’ve collected heaped on your grave. You’ve disgraced your master’s house! You’re fired—and good riddance!

^20-24“On that Day I’ll replace Shebna. I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I’ll dress him in your robe. I’ll put your belt on him. I’ll give him your authority. He’ll be a father-leader to Jerusalem and the government of Judah. I’ll give him the key of the Davidic heritage. He’ll have the run of the place—open any door and keep it open, lock any door and keep it locked. I’ll pound him like a nail into a solid wall. He’ll secure the Davidic tradition. Everything will hang on him—not only the fate of Davidic descendants but also the detailed daily operations of the house, including cups and cutlery.

²⁵“And then the Day will come,” says God-of-the-Angel-Armies, “when that nail will come loose and fall out, break loose from that solid wall—and everything hanging on it will go with it.” That’s what will happen. God says so.

It Was All Numbers, Dead Numbers, Profit and Loss

23 ^1-4Wail, ships of Tarshish,
    your strong seaports all in ruins!
When the ships returned from Cyprus,
    they saw the destruction.
Hold your tongue, you who live on the seacoast,
    merchants of Sidon.
Your people sailed the deep seas,
    buying and selling,
Making money on wheat from Shihor,
    grown along the Nile—
    multinational broker in grains!
Hang your head in shame, Sidon. The Sea speaks up,
    the powerhouse of the ocean says,
“I’ve never had labor pains, never had a baby,
    never reared children to adulthood,
Never gave life, never worked with life.
    It was all numbers, dead numbers, profit and loss.”

⁵When Egypt gets the report on Tyre,
what wailing! what wringing of hands!

Nothing Left Here to Be Proud Of

^6-12Visit Tarshish, you who live on the seacoast.
    Take a good, long look and wail—yes, cry buckets of tears!
Is this the city you remember as energetic and alive,
    bustling with activity, this historic old city,
Expanding throughout the globe,
    buying and selling all over the world?
And who is behind the collapse of Tyre,
    the Tyre that controlled the world markets?
Tyre’s merchants were the business tycoons.
    Tyre’s traders called all the shots.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies ordered the crash
    to show the sordid backside of pride
    and puncture the inflated reputations.
Sail for home, O ships of Tarshish.
    There are no docks left in this harbor.
God reached out to the sea and sea traders,
    threw the sea kingdoms into turmoil.
God ordered the destruction
    of the seacoast cities, the centers of commerce.
God said, “There’s nothing left here to be proud of,
    bankrupt and bereft Sidon.
Do you want to make a new start in Cyprus?
    Don’t count on it. Nothing there will work out for you either.”

¹³Look at what happened to Babylon: There’s nothing left of it. Assyria turned it into a desert, into a refuge for wild dogs and stray cats. They brought in their big siege engines, tore down the buildings, and left nothing behind but rubble.

¹⁴Wail, ships of Tarshish,
your strong seaports all in ruins!

* * *

^15-16For the next seventy years, a king’s lifetime, Tyre will be forgotten. At the end of the seventy years, Tyre will stage a comeback, but it will be the comeback of a worn-out whore, as in the song:

“Take a harp, circle the city,
unremembered whore.
Sing your old songs, your many old songs.
Maybe someone will remember.”

^17-18At the end of the seventy years, God will look in on Tyre. She’ll go back to her old whoring trade, selling herself to the highest bidder, doing anything with anyone—promiscuous with all the kingdoms of earth—for a fee. But everything she gets, all the money she takes in, will be turned over to God. It will not be put in banks. Her profits will be put to the use of God-Aware, God-Serving-People, providing plenty of food and the best of clothing.

The Landscape Will Be a Moonscape

24 ^1-3Danger ahead! God’s about to ravish the earth
    and leave it in ruins,
Rip everything out by the roots
    and send everyone scurrying:
        priests and laypeople alike,
        owners and workers alike,
        celebrities and nobodies alike,
        buyers and sellers alike,
        bankers and beggars alike,
        the haves and have-nots alike.
The landscape will be a moonscape,
    totally wasted.
And why? Because God says so.
    He’s issued the orders.

⁴The earth turns gaunt and gray,
the world silent and sad,
sky and land lifeless, colorless.

Earth Polluted by Its Very Own People

^5-13Earth is polluted by its very own people,
    who have broken its laws,
Disrupted its order,
    violated the sacred and eternal covenant.
Therefore a curse, like a cancer,
    ravages the earth.
Its people pay the price of their sacrilege.
    They dwindle away, dying out one by one.
No more wine, no more vineyards,
    no more songs or singers.
The laughter of castanets is gone,
    the shouts of celebrants, gone,
    the laughter of fiddles, gone.
No more parties with toasts of champagne.
    Serious drinkers gag on their drinks.
The chaotic cities are unlivable. Anarchy reigns.
    Every house is boarded up, condemned.
People riot in the streets for wine,
    but the good times are gone forever—
    no more joy for this old world.
The city is dead and deserted,
    bulldozed into piles of rubble.
That’s the way it will be on this earth.
    This is the fate of all nations:
An olive tree shaken clean of its olives,
    a grapevine picked clean of its grapes.

^14-16But there are some who will break into glad song.
    Out of the west they’ll shout of God’s majesty.
Yes, from the east God’s glory will ascend.
    Every island of the sea
Will broadcast God’s fame,
    the fame of the God of Israel.
From the four winds and the seven seas we hear the singing:
    “All praise to the Righteous One!”

^16-20But I said, “That’s all well and good for somebody,
    but all I can see is doom, doom, and more doom.”
All of them at one another’s throats,
    yes, all of them at one another’s throats.
Terror and pits and booby traps
    are everywhere, whoever you are.
If you run from the terror,
    you’ll fall into the pit.
If you climb out of the pit,
    you’ll get caught in the trap.
Chaos pours out of the skies.
    The foundations of earth are crumbling.
Earth is smashed to pieces,
    earth is ripped to shreds,
    earth is wobbling out of control,
Earth staggers like a drunk,
    sways like a shack in a high wind.
Its piled-up sins are too much for it.
    It collapses and won’t get up again.

^21-23That’s when God will call on the carpet
    rebel powers in the skies and
Rebel kings on earth.
    They’ll be rounded up like prisoners in a jail,
Corralled and locked up in a jail,
    and then sentenced and put to hard labor.
Shamefaced moon will cower, humiliated,
    red-faced sun will skulk, disgraced,
Because God-of-the-Angel-Armies will take over,
    ruling from Mount Zion and Jerusalem,
Splendid and glorious
    before all his leaders.

God’s Hand Rests on This Mountain

25 ^1-5God, you are my God.
    I celebrate you. I praise you.
You’ve done your share of miracle-wonders,
    well-thought-out plans, solid and sure.
Here you’ve reduced the city to rubble,
    the strong city to a pile of stones.
The enemy Big City is a non-city,
    never to be a city again.
Superpowers will see it and honor you,
    brutal oppressors bow in worshipful reverence.
They’ll see that you take care of the poor,
    that you take care of poor people in trouble,
Provide a warm, dry place in bad weather,
    provide a cool place when it’s hot.
Brutal oppressors are like a winter blizzard
    and vicious foreigners like high noon in the desert.
But you, shelter from the storm and shade from the sun,
    shut the mouths of the big-mouthed bullies.

^6-8But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies
    will throw a feast for all the people of the world,
A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines,
    a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts.
And here on this mountain, God will banish
    the pall of doom hanging over all peoples,
The shadow of doom darkening all nations.
    Yes, he’ll banish death forever.
And God will wipe the tears from every face.
    He’ll remove every sign of disgrace
From his people, wherever they are.
    Yes! God says so!

^9-10Also at that time, people will say,
    “Look at what’s happened! This is our God!
We waited for him and he showed up and saved us!
    This God, the one we waited for!
Let’s celebrate, sing the joys of his salvation.
    God’s hand rests on this mountain!”

^10-12As for the Moabites, they’ll be treated like trash,
    waste shoveled into a cesspool.
Thrash away as they will,
    like swimmers trying to stay afloat,
They’ll sink in the sewage.
    Their pride will pull them under.
Their famous fortifications will crumble to nothing,
    those mighty walls reduced to dust.

Stretch the Borders of Life

26 ^1-6At that time, this song
    will be sung in the country of Judah:
We have a strong city, Salvation City,
    built and fortified with salvation.
Throw wide the gates
    so good and true people can enter.
People with their minds set on you,
    you keep completely whole,
Steady on their feet,
    because they keep at it and don’t quit.
Depend on God and keep at it
    because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.
Those who lived high and mighty
    he knocked off their high horse.
He used the city built on the hill
    as fill for the marshes.
All the exploited and outcast peoples
    build their lives on the reclaimed land.

^7-10The path of right-living people is level.
    The Leveler evens the road for the right-living.
We’re in no hurry, God. We’re content to linger
    in the path sign-posted with your decisions.
Who you are and what you’ve done
    are all we’ll ever want.
Through the night my soul longs for you.
    Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you.
When your decisions are on public display,
    everyone learns how to live right.
If the wicked are shown grace,
    they don’t seem to get it.
In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living,
    blind to the splendor of God.

^11-15You hold your hand up high, God,
    but they don’t see it.
Open their eyes to what you do,
    to see your zealous love for your people.
Shame them. Light a fire under them.
    Get the attention of these enemies of yours.
God, order a peaceful and whole life for us
    because everything we’ve done, you’ve done for us.
O God, our God, we’ve had other masters rule us,
    but you’re the only Master we’ve ever known.
The dead don’t talk,
    ghosts don’t walk,
Because you’ve said, “Enough—that’s all for you,”
    and wiped them off the books.
But the living you make larger than life.
    The more life you give, the more glory you display,
    and stretch the borders to accommodate more living!

^16-18O God, they begged you for help when they were in trouble,
    when your discipline was so heavy
    they could barely whisper a prayer.
Like a woman having a baby,
    writhing in distress, screaming her pain
    as the baby is being born,
That’s how we were because of you, O God.
    We were pregnant full-term.
We writhed in labor but bore no baby.
    We gave birth to wind.
Nothing came of our labor.
    We produced nothing living.
    We couldn’t save the world.

¹⁹But friends, your dead will live,
    your corpses will get to their feet.
All you dead and buried,
    wake up! Sing!
Your dew is morning dew
    catching the first rays of sun,
The earth bursting with life,
    giving birth to the dead.

^20-21Come, my people, go home
    and shut yourselves in.
Go into seclusion for a while
    until the punishing wrath is past,
Because God is sure to come from his place
    to punish the wrong of the people on earth.
Earth itself will point out the bloodstains;
    it will show where the murdered have been hidden away.

Selected Grain by Grain

27 At that time God will unsheathe his sword,
    his merciless, massive, mighty sword.
He’ll punish the serpent Leviathan as it flees,
    the serpent Leviathan thrashing in flight.
He’ll kill that old dragon
    that lives in the sea.

^2-5“At that same time, a fine vineyard will appear.
    There’s something to sing about!
I, God, tend it.
    I keep it well-watered.
I keep careful watch over it
    so that no one can damage it.
I’m not angry. I care.
    Even if it gives me thistles and thornbushes,
I’ll just pull them out
    and burn them up.
Let that vine cling to me for safety,
    let it find a good and whole life with me,
    let it hold on for a good and whole life.”

⁶The days are coming when Jacob
shall put down roots,
Israel blossom and grow fresh branches,
and fill the world with its fruit.

^7-11Has God knocked them to the ground
    as he knocked down those who hit them? Oh, no.
Were they killed
    as their killers were killed? Again, no.
He was hard on them all right. The exile was a harsh sentence.
    He blew them away on a fierce blast of wind.
But the good news is that through this experience
    Jacob’s guilt was taken away.
    The evidence that his sin is removed will be this:
He will tear down the alien altars,
    take them apart stone by stone,
And then crush the stones into gravel
    and clean out all the sex-and-religion shrines.
For there’s nothing left of that pretentious grandeur.
    Nobody lives there anymore. It’s unlivable.
But animals do just fine,
    browsing and bedding down.
And it’s not a bad place to get firewood.
    Dry twigs and dead branches are plentiful.
It’s the remains of a people with no sense of God.
    So, the God who made them
Will have nothing to do with them.
    He who formed them will turn his back on them.

^12-13At that time God will thresh
    from the River Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt,
And you, people of Israel,
    will be selected grain by grain.
At that same time a great trumpet will be blown,
    calling home the exiles from Assyria,
Welcoming home the refugees from Egypt
    to come and worship God on the holy mountain, Jerusalem.

God Will Speak in Baby Talk

28 ^1-4Doom to the pretentious drunks of Ephraim,
    shabby and washed out and seedy—
Tipsy, sloppy-fat, beer-bellied parodies
    of a proud and handsome past.
Watch closely: God has someone picked out,
    someone tough and strong to flatten them.
Like a hailstorm, like a hurricane, like a flash flood,
    one-handed he’ll throw them to the ground.
Samaria, the party hat on Israel’s head,
    will be knocked off with one blow.
It will disappear quicker than
    a piece of meat tossed to a dog.

^5-6At that time, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be
the beautiful crown on the head of what’s left of his people:
Energy and insights of justice to those who guide and decide,
strength and prowess to those who guard and protect.

^7-8These also, the priest and prophet, stagger from drink,
    weaving, falling-down drunks,
Besotted with wine and whiskey,
    can’t see straight, can’t talk sense.
Every table is covered with vomit.
    They live in vomit.

^9-10“Is that so? And who do you think you are to teach us?
    Who are you to lord it over us?
We’re not babies in diapers
    to be talked down to by such as you—
‘Da, da, da, da,
    blah, blah, blah, blah.
That’s a good little girl,
    that’s a good little boy.’”

^11-12But that’s exactly how you will be addressed.
    God will speak to this people
In baby talk, one syllable at a time—
    and he’ll do it through foreign oppressors.
He said before, “This is the time and place to rest,
    to give rest to the weary.
This is the place to lay down your burden.”
    But they won’t listen.

¹³So God will start over with the simple basics
    and address them in baby talk, one syllable at a time—
“Da, da, da, da,
    blah, blah, blah, blah.
That’s a good little girl,
    that’s a good little boy.”
And like toddlers, they will get up and fall down,
    get bruised and confused and lost.

^14-15Now listen to God’s Message, you scoffers,
    you who rule this people in Jerusalem.
You say, “We’ve taken out good life insurance.
    We’ve hedged all our bets, covered all our bases.
No disaster can touch us. We’ve thought of everything.
    We’re advised by the experts. We’re set.”

The Meaning of the Stone

^16-17But the Master, God, has something to say to this:

“Watch closely. I’m laying a foundation in Zion,
    a solid granite foundation, squared and true.
And this is the meaning of the stone:
    a trusting life won’t topple.
I’ll make justice the measuring stick
    and righteousness the plumb line for the building.
A hailstorm will knock down the shantytown of lies,
    and a flash flood will wash out the rubble.

^18-22“Then you’ll see that your precious life insurance policy
    wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
Your careful precautions against death
    were a pack of illusions and lies.
When the disaster happens,
    you’ll be crushed by it.
Every time disaster comes, you’ll be in on it—
    disaster in the morning, disaster at night.”
Every report of disaster
    will send you cowering in terror.
There will be no place where you can rest,
    nothing to hide under.
God will rise to full stature,
    raging as he did long ago on Mount Perazim
And in the valley of Gibeon against the Philistines.
    But this time it’s against you.
Hard to believe, but true.
    Not what you’d expect, but it’s coming.
Sober up, friends, and don’t scoff.
    Scoffing will just make it worse.
I’ve heard the orders issued for destruction, orders from
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies—ending up in an international disaster.

* * *

^23-26Listen to me now.
    Give me your closest attention.
Do farmers plow and plow and do nothing but plow?
    Or harrow and harrow and do nothing but harrow?
After they’ve prepared the ground, don’t they plant?
    Don’t they scatter dill and spread cumin,
Plant wheat and barley in the fields
    and raspberries along the borders?
They know exactly what to do and when to do it.
    Their God is their teacher.

^27-29And at the harvest, the delicate herbs and spices,
    the dill and cumin, are treated delicately.
On the other hand, wheat is threshed and milled, but still not endlessly.
    The farmer knows how to treat each kind of grain.
He’s learned it all from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    who knows everything about when and how and where.

Blind Yourselves So That You See Nothing

29 ^1-4Doom, Ariel, Ariel,
    the city where David set camp!
Let the years add up,
    let the festivals run their cycles,
But I’m not letting up on Jerusalem.
    The moaning and groaning will continue.
    Jerusalem to me is an Ariel.
Like David, I’ll set up camp against you.
    I’ll set siege, build towers,
    bring in siege engines, build siege ramps.
Driven into the ground, you’ll speak,
    you’ll mumble words from the dirt—
Your voice from the ground, like the muttering of a ghost.
    Your speech will whisper from the dust.

^5-8But it will be your enemies who are beaten to dust,
    the mob of tyrants who will be blown away like chaff.
Because, surprise, as if out of nowhere,
    a visit from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
With thunderclaps, earthquakes, and earsplitting noise,
    backed up by hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning strikes,
And the mob of enemies at war with Ariel,
    all who trouble and hassle and torment her,
    will turn out to be a bad dream, a nightmare.
Like a hungry man dreaming he’s eating steak
    and wakes up hungry as ever,
Like a thirsty woman dreaming she’s drinking iced tea
    and wakes up thirsty as ever,
So that mob of nations at war against Mount Zion
    will wake up and find they haven’t shot an arrow,
    haven’t killed a single soul.

^9-10Drug yourselves so you feel nothing.
    Blind yourselves so you see nothing.
Get drunk, but not on wine.
    Black out, but not from whiskey.
For God has rocked you into a deep, deep sleep,
    put the discerning prophets to sleep,
    put the farsighted seers to sleep.

You Have Everything Backward

^11-12What you’ve been shown here is somewhat like a letter in a sealed envelope. If you give it to someone who can read and tell her, “Read this,” she’ll say, “I can’t. The envelope is sealed.” And if you give it to someone who can’t read and tell him, “Read this,” he’ll say, “I can’t read.”

* * *

^13-14The Master said:

“These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
    but their hearts aren’t in it.
Because they act like they’re worshiping me
    but don’t mean it,
I’m going to step in and shock them awake,
    astonish them, stand them on their ears.
The wise ones who had it all figured out
    will be exposed as fools.
The smart people who thought they knew everything
    will turn out to know nothing.”

^15-16Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track.
    You shut God out and work behind the scenes,
Plotting the future as if you knew everything,
    acting mysterious, never showing your hand.
You have everything backward!
    You treat the potter as a lump of clay.
Does a book say to its author,
    “He didn’t write a word of me”?
Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it,
    “She had nothing to do with this”?

^17-21And then before you know it,
    and without you having anything to do with it,
Wasted Lebanon will be transformed into lush gardens,
    and Mount Carmel reforested.
At that time the deaf will hear
    word-for-word what’s been written.
After a lifetime in the dark,
    the blind will see.
The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in God,
    the down-and-outs shouting praise to The Holy of Israel.
For there’ll be no more gangs on the street.
    Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species.
Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean
    will never be heard of again:
Gone the people who corrupted the courts,
    gone the people who cheated the poor,
    gone the people who victimized the innocent.

^22-24And finally this, God’s Message for the family of Jacob,
    the same God who redeemed Abraham:
“No longer will Jacob hang his head in shame,
    no longer grow gaunt and pale with waiting.
For he’s going to see his children,
    my personal gift to him—lots of children.
And these children will honor me
    by living holy lives.
In holy worship they’ll honor the Holy One of Jacob
    and stand in holy awe of the God of Israel.
Those who got off-track will get back on-track,
    and complainers and whiners will learn gratitude.”

All Show, No Substance

30 ^1-5“Doom, rebel children!”
    God’s Decree.
“You make plans, but not mine.
    You make deals, but not in my Spirit.
You pile sin on sin,
    one sin on top of another,
Going off to Egypt
    without so much as asking me,
Running off to Pharaoh for protection,
    expecting to hide out in Egypt.
Well, some protection Pharaoh will be!
    Some hideout, Egypt!
They look big and important, true,
    with officials strategically established in
Zoan in the north and Hanes in the south,
    but there’s nothing to them.
Anyone stupid enough to trust them
    will end up looking stupid—
All show, no substance,
    an embarrassing farce.”

^6-7And this note on the animals of the Negev
    encountered on the road to Egypt:
A most dangerous, treacherous route,
    menaced by lions and deadly snakes.
And you’re going to lug all your stuff down there,
    your donkeys and camels loaded down with bribes,
Thinking you can buy protection
    from that hollow farce of a nation?
Egypt is all show, no substance.
    My name for her is Toothless Dragon.

This Is a Rebel Generation

^8-11So, go now and write all this down.
    Put it in a book
So that the record will be there
    to instruct the coming generations,
Because this is a rebel generation,
    a people who lie,
A people unwilling to listen
    to anything God tells them.
They tell their spiritual leaders,
    “Don’t bother us with irrelevancies.”
They tell their preachers,
    “Don’t waste our time on impracticalities.
Tell us what makes us feel better.
    Don’t bore us with obsolete religion.
That stuff means nothing to us.
    Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel.”

^12-14Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this:
    “Because you scorn this Message,
Preferring to live by injustice
    and shape your lives on lies,
This perverse way of life
    will be like a towering, badly built wall
That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts,
    and then one day, without warning, collapses—
Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery,
    smashed beyond recognition or repair,
Useless, a pile of debris
    to be swept up and thrown in the trash.”

God Takes the Time to Do Everything Right

^15-17God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,
    has this solemn counsel:
“Your salvation requires you to turn back to me
    and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.
Your strength will come from settling down
    in complete dependence on me—
The very thing
    you’ve been unwilling to do.
You’ve said, ‘No way! We’ll rush off on horseback!’
    You’ll rush off, all right! Just not far enough!
You’ve said, ‘We’ll ride off on fast horses!’
    Do you think your pursuers ride old nags?
Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker.
    Before a mere five you’ll all run off.
There’ll be nothing left of you—
    a flagpole on a hill with no flag,
    a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off.”

¹⁸But God’s not finished. He’s waiting around to be gracious to you.
He’s gathering strength to show mercy to you.
God takes the time to do everything right—everything.
Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.

^19-22Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you’ll find it’s grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he’ll answer. Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he’ll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: “This is the right road. Walk down this road.” You’ll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You’ll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, “Good riddance!”

^23-26God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills. Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.

* * *

^27-28Look, God’s on his way,
    and from a long way off!
Smoking with anger,
    immense as he comes into view,
Words steaming from his mouth,
    searing, indicting words!
A torrent of words, a flash flood of words
    sweeping everyone into the vortex of his words.
He’ll shake down the nations in a sieve of destruction,
    herd them into a dead end.

^29-33But you will sing,
    sing through an all-night holy feast!
Your hearts will burst with song,
    make music like the sound of flutes on parade,
En route to the mountain of God,
    on the way to the Rock of Israel.
God will sound out in grandiose thunder,
    display his hammering arm,
Furiously angry, showering sparks—
    cloudburst, storm, hail!
Oh yes, at God’s thunder
    Assyria will cower under the clubbing.
Every blow God lands on them with his club
    is in time to the music of drums and pipes,
God in all-out, two-fisted battle,
    fighting against them.
Topheth’s fierce fires are well prepared,
    ready for the Assyrian king.
The Topheth furnace is deep and wide,
    well stoked with hot-burning wood.
God’s breath, like a river of burning pitch,
    starts the fire.

Impressed by Military Mathematics

31 ^1-3Doom to those who go off to Egypt
    thinking that horses can help them,
Impressed by military mathematics,
    awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders—
And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance,
    not so much as a prayer to God.
Still, he must be reckoned with,
    a most wise God who knows what he’s doing.
He can call down catastrophe.
    He’s a God who does what he says.
He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong,
    stands up against interfering evildoers.
Egyptians are mortal, not God,
    and their horses are flesh, not Spirit.
When God gives the signal, helpers and helped alike
    will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.

* * *

^4-5This is what God told me:

“Like a lion, king of the beasts,
    that gnaws and chews and worries its prey,
Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds
    who arrive to chase it off,
So God-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down
    to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights.
And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky,
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem.
I’ll protect and rescue it.
    Yes, I’ll hover and deliver.”

^6-7Repent, return, dear Israel, to the One you so cruelly abandoned. On the day you return, you’ll throw away—every last one of you—the no-gods your sinful hands made from metal and wood.

^8-9“Assyrians will fall dead,
    killed by a sword-thrust but not by a soldier,
    laid low by a sword not swung by a mortal.
Assyrians will run from that sword, run for their lives,
    and their prize young men made slaves.
Terrorized, that rock-solid people will fall to pieces,
    their leaders scatter hysterically.”
God’s Decree on Assyria.
    His fire blazes in Zion,
    his furnace burns hot in Jerusalem.

Safe Houses, Quiet Gardens

32 ^1-8But look! A king will rule in the right way,
    and his leaders will carry out justice.
Each one will stand as a shelter from high winds,
    provide safe cover in stormy weather.
Each will be cool running water in parched land,
    a huge granite outcrop giving shade in the desert.
Anyone who looks will see,
    anyone who listens will hear.
The impulsive will make sound decisions,
    the tongue-tied will speak with eloquence.
No more will fools become celebrities,
    nor crooks be rewarded with fame.
For fools are fools and that’s that,
    thinking up new ways to do mischief.
They leave a wake of wrecked lives
    and lies about God,
Turning their backs on the homeless hungry,
    ignoring those dying of thirst in the streets.
And the crooks? Underhanded sneaks they are,
    inventive in sin and scandal,
Exploiting the poor with scams and lies,
    unmoved by the victimized poor.
But those who are noble make noble plans,
    and stand for what is noble.

* * *

^9-14Take your stand, idle women!
    Listen to me!
Indulgent, idle women,
    listen closely to what I have to say.
In just a little over a year from now,
    you’ll be shaken out of your lazy lives.
The grape harvest will fail,
    and there’ll be no fruit on the trees.
Oh tremble, you idle women.
    Get serious, you pampered dolls!
Strip down and discard your silk fineries.
    Put on funeral clothes.
Shed honest tears for the lost harvest,
    the failed vintage.
Weep for my people’s gardens and farms
    that grow nothing but thistles and thornbushes.
Cry tears, real tears, for the happy homes no longer happy,
    the merry city no longer merry.
The royal palace is deserted,
    the bustling city quiet as a morgue,
The emptied parks and playgrounds
    taken over by wild animals,
    delighted with their new home.

^15-20Yes, weep and grieve until the Spirit is poured
    down on us from above
And the badlands desert grows crops
    and the fertile fields become forests.
Justice will move into the badlands desert.
    Right will build a home in the fertile field.
And where there’s Right, there’ll be Peace
    and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust.
My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood—
    in safe houses, in quiet gardens.
The forest of your pride will be clear-cut,
    the city showing off your power leveled.
But you will enjoy a fortunate life,
    planting well-watered fields and gardens,
    with your farm animals grazing freely.

The Ground Under Our Feet Mourns

33 Doom to you, Destroyer,
    not yet destroyed;
And doom to you, Betrayer,
    not yet betrayed.
When you finish destroying,
    your turn will come—destroyed!
When you quit betraying,
    your turn will come—betrayed!

^2-4God, treat us kindly. You’re our only hope.
    First thing in the morning, be there for us!
    When things go bad, help us out!
You spoke in thunder and everyone ran.
    You showed up and nations scattered.
Your people, for a change, got in on the loot,
    picking the field clean of the enemy spoils.

^5-6God is supremely esteemed. His center holds.
    Zion brims over with all that is just and right.
God keeps your days stable and secure—
    salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus,
    and best of all, Zion’s treasure, Fear-of-God.

^7-9But look! Listen!
    Tough men weep openly.
    Peacemaking diplomats are in bitter tears.
The roads are empty—
    not a soul out on the streets.
The peace treaty is broken,
    its conditions violated,
    its signers reviled.
The very ground under our feet mourns,
    the Lebanon mountains hang their heads,
Flowering Sharon is a weed-choked gully,
    and the forests of Bashan and Carmel? Bare branches.

^10-12“Now I’m stepping in,” God says.
    “From now on, I’m taking over.
    The gloves come off. Now see how mighty I am.
There’s nothing to you.
    Pregnant with chaff, you produce straw babies;
    full of hot air, you self-destruct.
You’re good for nothing but fertilizer and fuel.
    Earth to earth—and the sooner the better.

^13-14“If you’re far away,
    get the reports on what I’ve done,
And if you’re in the neighborhood,
    pay attention to my record.
The sinners in Zion are rightly terrified;
    the godless are at their wit’s end:
‘Who among us can survive this firestorm?
    Who of us can get out of this purge with our lives?’”

^15-16The answer’s simple:
    Live right,
    speak the truth,
    despise exploitation,
    refuse bribes,
    reject violence,
    avoid evil amusements.
This is how you raise your standard of living!
    A safe and stable way to live.
    A nourishing, satisfying way to live.

God Makes All the Decisions Here

^17-19Oh, you’ll see the king—a beautiful sight!
    And you’ll take in the wide vistas of land.
In your mind you’ll go over the old terrors:
    “What happened to that Assyrian inspector who condemned and confiscated?
And the one who gouged us of taxes?
    And that cheating moneychanger?”
Gone! Out of sight forever! Their insolence
    nothing now but a fading stain on the carpet!
No more putting up with a language you can’t understand,
    no more sounds of gibberish in your ears.

^20-22Just take a look at Zion, will you?
    Centering our worship in festival feasts!
Feast your eyes on Jerusalem,
    a quiet and permanent place to live.
No more pulling up stakes and moving on,
    no more patched-together lean-tos.
Instead, God! God majestic, God himself the place
    in a country of broad rivers and streams,
But rivers blocked to invading ships,
    off-limits to predatory pirates.
For God makes all the decisions here. God is our king.
    God runs this place and he’ll keep us safe.

²³Ha! Your sails are in shreds,
    your mast wobbling,
    your hold leaking.
The plunder is free for the taking, free for all—
    for weak and strong, insiders and outsiders.

²⁴No one in Zion will say, “I’m sick.”
Best of all, they’ll all live guilt-free.

The Fires Burning Day and Night

34 Draw in close now, nations. Listen carefully,
you people. Pay attention!
Earth, you, too, and everything in you.
World, and all that comes from you.

^2-4And here’s why: God is angry,
    good and angry with all the nations,
So blazingly angry at their arms and armies
    that he’s going to rid earth of them, wipe them out.
The corpses, thrown in a heap,
    will stink like the town dump in midsummer,
Their blood flowing off the mountains
    like creeks in spring runoff.
Stars will fall out of the sky
    like overripe, rotting fruit in the orchard,
And the sky itself will be folded up like a blanket
    and put away in a closet.
All that army of stars, shriveled to nothing,
    like leaves and fruit in autumn, dropping and rotting!

^5-7“Once I’ve finished with earth and sky,
    I’ll start in on Edom.
I’ll come down hard on Edom,
    a people I’ve slated for total termination.”
God has a sword, thirsty for blood and more blood,
    a sword hungry for well-fed flesh,
Lamb and goat blood,
    the suet-rich kidneys of rams.
Yes, God has scheduled a sacrifice in Bozrah, the capital,
    the whole country of Edom a slaughterhouse.
A wholesale slaughter, wild animals
    and farm animals alike slaughtered.
The whole country soaked with blood,
    all the ground greasy with fat.

^8-15It’s God’s scheduled time for vengeance,
    the year all Zion’s accounts are settled.
Edom’s streams will flow sluggish, thick with pollution,
    the soil sterile, poisoned with waste,
The whole country
    a smoking, stinking garbage dump—
The fires burning day and night,
    the skies black with endless smoke.
Generation after generation of wasteland—
    no more travelers through this country!
Vultures and skunks will police the streets;
    owls and crows will feel at home there.
God will reverse creation. Chaos!
    He will cancel fertility. Emptiness!
Leaders will have no one to lead.
    They’ll name it No Kingdom There,
A country where all kings
    and princes are unemployed.
Thistles will take over, covering the castles,
    fortresses conquered by weeds and thornbushes.
Wild dogs will prowl the ruins,
    ostriches have the run of the place.
Wildcats and hyenas will hunt together,
    demons and devils dance through the night.
The night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious,
    will establish permanent quarters.
Scavenging carrion birds will breed and brood,
    infestations of ominous evil.

^16-17Get and read God’s book:
    None of this is going away,
    this breeding, brooding evil.
God has personally commanded it all.
    His Spirit set it in motion.
God has assigned them their place,
    decreed their fate in detail.
This is permanent—
    generation after generation, the same old thing.

The Voiceless Break into Song

35 ^1-2Wilderness and desert will sing joyously,
    the badlands will celebrate and flower—
Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom,
    a symphony of song and color.
Mountain glories of Lebanon—a gift.
    Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon—gifts.
God’s resplendent glory, fully on display.
    God awesome, God majestic.

^3-4Energize the limp hands,
    strengthen the rubbery knees.
Tell fearful souls,
    “Courage! Take heart!
God is here, right here,
    on his way to put things right
And redress all wrongs.
    He’s on his way! He’ll save you!”

^5-7Blind eyes will be opened,
    deaf ears unstopped,
Lame men and women will leap like deer,
    the voiceless break into song.
Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness,
    streams flow in the desert.
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,
    thirsty ground a splashing fountain.
Even lowly jackals will have water to drink,
    and barren grasslands flourish richly.

^8-10There will be a highway
    called the Holy Road.
No one rude or rebellious
    is permitted on this road.
It’s for God’s people exclusively—
    impossible to get lost on this road.
    Not even fools can get lost on it.
No lions on this road,
    no dangerous wild animals—
Nothing and no one dangerous or threatening.
    Only the redeemed will walk on it.
The people God has ransomed
    will come back on this road.
They’ll sing as they make their way home to Zion,
    unfading halos of joy encircling their heads,
Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness
    as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night.

It’s Their Fate That’s at Stake

36 ^1-3In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria made war on all the fortress cities of Judah and took them. Then the king of Assyria sent his general, the “Rabshekah,” accompanied by a huge army, from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah. The general stopped at the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry. Three men went out to meet him: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, in charge of the palace; Shebna the secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the official historian.

^4-7The Rabshekah said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that the Great King, the king of Assyria, says this: ‘What kind of backing do you think you have against me? You’re bluffing and I’m calling your bluff. Your words are no match for my weapons. What kind of backup do you have now that you’ve rebelled against me? Egypt? Don’t make me laugh. Egypt is a rubber crutch. Lean on Egypt and you’ll end up flat on your face. That’s all Pharaoh king of Egypt is to anyone who leans on him. And if you try to tell me, “We’re leaning on our God,” isn’t it a bit late? Hasn’t Hezekiah just gotten rid of all the places of worship, telling you, “You’ve got to worship at this altar”?

^8-9“‘Be reasonable. Face the facts: My master the king of Assyria will give you two thousand horses if you can put riders on them. You can’t do it, can you? So how do you think, depending on flimsy Egypt’s chariots and riders, you can stand up against even the lowest-ranking captain in my master’s army?

¹⁰“‘And besides, do you think I came all this way to destroy this land without first getting God’s blessing? It was your God who told me, Make war on this land. Destroy it.’”

¹¹Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah answered the Rabshekah, “Please talk to us in Aramaic. We understand Aramaic. Don’t talk to us in Hebrew within earshot of all the people gathered around.”

¹²But the Rabshekah replied, “Do you think my master has sent me to give this message to your master and you but not also to the people clustered here? It’s their fate that’s at stake. They’re the ones who are going to end up eating their own excrement and drinking their own urine.”

^13-15Then the Rabshekah stood up and called out loudly in Hebrew, the common language, “Listen to the message of the Great King, the king of Assyria! Don’t listen to Hezekiah’s lies. He can’t save you. And don’t pay any attention to Hezekiah’s pious sermons telling you to lean on God, telling you ‘God will save us, depend on it. God won’t let this city fall to the king of Assyria.’

^16-20“Don’t listen to Hezekiah. Listen to the king of Assyria’s offer: ‘Make peace with me. Come and join me. Everyone will end up with a good life, with plenty of land and water, and eventually something far better. I’ll turn you loose in wide open spaces, with more than enough fertile and productive land for everyone.’ Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you with his lies, ‘God will save us.’ Has that ever happened? Has any god in history ever gotten the best of the king of Assyria? Look around you. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? The gods of Sepharvaim? Did the gods do anything for Samaria? Name one god that has ever saved its countries from me. So what makes you think that God could save Jerusalem from me?’”

²¹The three men were silent. They said nothing, for the king had already commanded, “Don’t answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, tearing their clothes in defeat and despair, went back and reported what the Rabshekah had said to Hezekiah.

The Only God There Is

37 ^1-2When King Hezekiah heard the report, he also tore his clothes and dressed in rough, penitential burlap gunnysacks, and went into the sanctuary of God. He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all of them also dressed in penitential burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

^3-4They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘This is a black day. We’re in crisis. We’re like pregnant women without even the strength to have a baby! Do you think your God heard what the Rabshekah said, sent by his master the king of Assyria to mock the living God? And do you think your God will do anything about it? Pray for us, Isaiah. Pray for those of us left here holding the fort!’”

^5-7Then King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah. Isaiah said, “Tell your master this, ‘God’s Message: Don’t be upset by what you’ve heard, all those words the servants of the Assyrian king have used to mock me. I personally will take care of him. I’ll arrange it so that he’ll get a rumor of bad news back home and rush home to take care of it. And he’ll die there. Killed—a violent death.’”

* * *

⁸The Rabshekah left and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. (He had gotten word that the king had left Lachish.)

^9-13Just then the Assyrian king received an intelligence report on King Tirhakah of Ethiopia: “He is on his way to make war on you.”

On hearing that, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with instructions to deliver this message: “Don’t let your God, on whom you so naively lean, deceive you, promising that Jerusalem won’t fall to the king of Assyria. Use your head! Look around at what the kings of Assyria have done all over the world—one country after another devastated! And do you think you’re going to get off? Have any of the gods of any of these countries ever stepped in and saved them, even one of these nations my predecessors destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who lived in Telassar? Look around. Do you see anything left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, the king of Ivvah?”

¹⁴Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of the messengers and read it. Then he went into the sanctuary of God and spread the letter out before God.

^15-20Then Hezekiah prayed to God: “God-of-the-Angel-Armies, enthroned over the cherubim-angels, you are God, the only God there is, God of all kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth. Listen, O God, and hear. Look, O God, and see. Mark all these words of Sennacherib that he sent to mock the living God. It’s quite true, O God, that the kings of Assyria have devastated all the nations and their lands. They’ve thrown their gods into the trash and burned them—no great achievement since they were no-gods anyway, gods made in workshops, carved from wood and chiseled from rock. An end to the no-gods! But now step in, O God, our God. Save us from him. Let all the kingdoms of earth know that you and you alone are God.”

* * *

^21-25Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this word to Hezekiah: “God’s Message, the God of Israel: Because you brought King Sennacherib of Assyria to me in prayer, here is my answer, God’s answer:

“‘She has no use for you, Sennacherib, nothing but contempt,
this virgin daughter Zion.
She spits at you and turns on her heel,
this daughter Jerusalem.

“‘Who do you think you’ve been mocking and reviling
    all these years?
Who do you think you’ve been jeering
    and treating with such utter contempt
All these years?
    The Holy of Israel!
You’ve used your servants to mock the Master.
    You’ve bragged, “With my fleet of chariots
I’ve gone to the highest mountain ranges,
    penetrated the far reaches of Lebanon,
Chopped down its giant cedars,
    its finest cypresses.
I conquered its highest peak,
    explored its deepest forest.
I dug wells
    and drank my fill.
I emptied the famous rivers of Egypt
    with one kick of my foot.”

^26-27“‘Haven’t you gotten the news
    that I’ve been behind this all along?
This is a longstanding plan of mine
    and I’m just now making it happen,
using you to devastate strong cities,
    turning them into piles of rubble
and leaving their citizens helpless,
    bewildered, and confused,
drooping like unwatered plants,
    stunted like withered seedlings.

^28-29“‘I know all about your pretentious poses,
    your self-important comings and goings,
    and, yes, the tantrums you throw against me.
Because of all your wild raging against me,
    your unbridled arrogance that I keep hearing of,
I’ll put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth.
I’ll show you who’s boss. I’ll turn you around
    and take you back to where you came from.

^30-32“‘And this, Hezekiah, will be your confirming sign: This year’s crops will be slim pickings, and next year it won’t be much better. But in three years, farming will be back to normal, with regular sowing and reaping, planting and harvesting. What’s left of the people of Judah will put down roots and make a new start. The people left in Jerusalem will get moving again. Mount Zion survivors will take hold again. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this.’

* * *

^33-35“Finally, this is God’s verdict on the king of Assyria:

“‘Don’t worry, he won’t enter this city,
    won’t let loose a single arrow,
Won’t brandish so much as one shield,
    let alone build a siege ramp against it.
He’ll go back the same way he came.
    He won’t set a foot in this city.
        God’s Decree.
I’ve got my hand on this city
    to save it,
Save it for my very own sake,
    but also for the sake of my David dynasty.’”

^36-38Then the Angel of God arrived and struck the Assyrian camp—185,000 Assyrians died. By the time the sun came up, they were all dead—an army of corpses! Sennacherib, king of Assyria, got out of there fast, back home to Nineveh. As he was worshiping in the sanctuary of his god Nisroch, he was murdered by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer. They escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esar-haddon became the next king.

Time Spent in Death’s Waiting Room

38 At that time, Hezekiah got sick. He was about to die. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and said, “God says, ‘Prepare your affairs and your family. This is it: You’re going to die. You’re not going to get well.’”

^2-3Hezekiah turned away from Isaiah and, facing the wall, prayed to God: “God, please, I beg you: Remember how I’ve lived my life. I’ve lived faithfully in your presence, lived out of a heart that was totally yours. You’ve seen how I’ve lived, the good that I have done.” And Hezekiah wept as he prayed—painful tears.

^4-6Then God told Isaiah, “Go and speak with Hezekiah. Give him this Message from me, God, the God of your ancestor David: ‘I’ve heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll add fifteen years to your life. And I’ll save both you and this city from the king of Assyria. I have my hand on this city.

^7-8“‘And this is your confirming sign, confirming that I, God, will do exactly what I have promised. Watch for this: As the sun goes down and the shadow lengthens on the sundial of Ahaz, I’m going to reverse the shadow ten notches on the dial.’” And that’s what happened: The declining sun’s shadow reversed ten notches on the dial.

* * *

^9-15This is what Hezekiah king of Judah wrote after he’d been sick and then recovered from his sickness:

In the very prime of life
    I have to leave.
Whatever time I have left
    is spent in death’s waiting room.
No more glimpses of God
    in the land of the living,
No more meetings with my neighbors,
    no more rubbing shoulders with friends.
This body I inhabit is taken down
    and packed away like a camper’s tent.
Like a weaver, I’ve rolled up the carpet of my life
    as God cuts me free of the loom
And at day’s end sweeps up the scraps and pieces.
    I cry for help until morning.
Like a lion, God pummels and pounds me,
    relentlessly finishing me off.
I squawk like a doomed hen,
    moan like a dove.
My eyes ache from looking up for help:
    “Master, I’m in trouble! Get me out of this!”
But what’s the use? God himself gave me the word.
    He’s done it to me.
I can’t sleep—
    I’m that upset, that troubled.

^16-19O Master, these are the conditions in which people live,
    and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive—
    fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life!
It seems it was good for me
    to go through all those troubles.
Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline.
    You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing.
But my sins you let go of,
    threw them over your shoulder—good riddance!
The dead don’t thank you,
    and choirs don’t sing praises from the morgue.
Those buried six feet under
    don’t witness to your faithful ways.
It’s the living—live men, live women—who thank you,
    just as I’m doing right now.
Parents give their children
    full reports on your faithful ways.

* * *

²⁰God saves and will save me.
As fiddles and mandolins strike up the tunes,
We’ll sing, oh we’ll sing, sing,
for the rest of our lives in the Sanctuary of God.

^21-22Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and put it on the boil so he may recover.”

Hezekiah had said, “What is my cue that it’s all right to enter again the Sanctuary of God?”

There Will Be Nothing Left

39 Sometime later, King Merodach-baladan son of Baladan of Babylon sent messengers with greetings and a gift to Hezekiah. He had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and was now well.

²Hezekiah received the messengers warmly. He took them on a tour of his royal precincts, proudly showing them all his treasures: silver, gold, spices, expensive oils, all his weapons—everything out on display. There was nothing in his house or kingdom that Hezekiah didn’t show them.

³Later the prophet Isaiah showed up. He asked Hezekiah, “What were these men up to? What did they say? And where did they come from?”

Hezekiah said, “They came from a long way off, from Babylon.”

⁴“And what did they see in your palace?”

“Everything,” said Hezekiah. “I showed them the works, opened all the doors and impressed them with it all.”

^5-7Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Now listen to this Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies: I have to warn you, the time is coming when everything in this palace, along with everything your ancestors accumulated before you, will be hauled off to Babylon. God says that there will be nothing left. Nothing. And not only your things but your sons. Some of your sons will be taken into exile, ending up as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

⁸Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “Good. If God says so, it’s good.” Within himself he was thinking, “But surely nothing bad will happen in my lifetime. I’ll enjoy peace and stability as long as I live.”

Messages of Comfort

Prepare for God’s Arrival

40 ^1-2“Comfort, oh comfort my people,”
    says your God.
“Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem,
    but also make it very clear
That she has served her sentence,
    that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!
She’s been punished enough and more than enough,
    and now it’s over and done with.”

^3-5Thunder in the desert!
    “Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road straight and smooth,
    a highway fit for our God.
Fill in the valleys,
    level off the hills,
Smooth out the ruts,
    clear out the rocks.
Then God’s bright glory will shine
    and everyone will see it.
    Yes. Just as God has said.”

^6-8A voice says, “Shout!”
I said, “What shall I shout?”

“These people are nothing but grass,
    their love fragile as wildflowers.
The grass withers, the wildflowers fade,
    if God so much as puffs on them.
    Aren’t these people just so much grass?
True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade,
    but our God’s Word stands firm and forever.”

^9-11Climb a high mountain, Zion.
    You’re the preacher of good news.
Raise your voice. Make it good and loud, Jerusalem.
    You’re the preacher of good news.
    Speak loud and clear. Don’t be timid!
Tell the cities of Judah,
    “Look! Your God!”
Look at him! God, the Master, comes in power,
    ready to go into action.
He is going to pay back his enemies
    and reward those who have loved him.
Like a shepherd, he will care for his flock,
    gathering the lambs in his arms,
Hugging them as he carries them,
    leading the nursing ewes to good pasture.

The Creator of All You Can See or Imagine

^12-17Who has scooped up the ocean
    in his two hands,
    or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger,
Who has put all the earth’s dirt in one of his baskets,
    weighed each mountain and hill?
Who could ever have told God what to do
    or taught him his business?
What expert would he have gone to for advice,
    what school would he attend to learn justice?
What god do you suppose might have taught him what he knows,
    showed him how things work?
Why, the nations are but a drop in a bucket,
    a mere smudge on a window.
Watch him sweep up the islands
    like so much dust off the floor!
There aren’t enough trees in Lebanon
    nor enough animals in those vast forests
    to furnish adequate fuel and offerings for his worship.
All the nations add up to simply nothing before him—
    less than nothing is more like it. A minus.

^18-20So who even comes close to being like God?
    To whom or what can you compare him?
Some no-god idol? Ridiculous!
    It’s made in a workshop, cast in bronze,
Given a thin veneer of gold,
    and draped with silver filigree.
Or, perhaps someone will select a fine wood—
    olive wood, say—that won’t rot,
Then hire a woodcarver to make a no-god,
    giving special care to its base so it won’t tip over!

^21-24Have you not been paying attention?
    Have you not been listening?
Haven’t you heard these stories all your life?
    Don’t you understand the foundation of all things?
God sits high above the round ball of earth.
    The people look like mere ants.
He stretches out the skies like a canvas—
    yes, like a tent canvas to live under.
He ignores what all the princes say and do.
    The rulers of the earth count for nothing.
Princes and rulers don’t amount to much.
    Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted,
They shrivel when God blows on them.
    Like flecks of chaff, they’re gone with the wind.

^25-26“So—who is like me?
    Who holds a candle to me?” says The Holy.
Look at the night skies:
    Who do you think made all this?
Who marches this army of stars out each night,
    counts them off, calls each by name
—so magnificent! so powerful!—
    and never overlooks a single one?

^27-31Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
    or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me.
    He doesn’t care what happens to me”?
Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
    He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
    And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
    gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
    young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
    They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
    they walk and don’t lag behind.

Do You Feel Like a Lowly Worm?

41 “Quiet down, far-flung ocean islands. Listen!
Sit down and rest, everyone. Recover your strength.
Gather around me. Say what’s on your heart.
Together let’s decide what’s right.

^2-3“Who got things rolling here,
    got this champion from the east on the move?
Who recruited him for this job,
    then rounded up and corralled the nations
    so he could run roughshod over kings?
He’s off and running,
    pulverizing nations into dust,
    leaving only stubble and chaff in his wake.
He chases them and comes through unscathed,
    his feet scarcely touching the path.

⁴“Who did this? Who made it happen?
Who always gets things started?
I did. God. I’m first on the scene.
I’m also the last to leave.

^5-7“Far-flung ocean islands see it and panic.
    The ends of the earth are shaken.
    Fearfully they huddle together.
They try to help each other out,
    making up stories in the dark.
The godmakers in the workshops
    go into overtime production, crafting new models of no-gods,
Urging one another on—‘Good job!’ ‘Great design!’—
    pounding in nails at the base
    so that the things won’t tip over.

^8-10“But you, Israel, are my servant.
    You’re Jacob, my first choice,
    descendants of my good friend Abraham.
I pulled you in from all over the world,
    called you in from every dark corner of the earth,
Telling you, ‘You’re my servant, serving on my side.
    I’ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you.’
Don’t panic. I’m with you.
    There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.
I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.
    I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.

^11-13“Count on it: Everyone who had it in for you
    will end up out in the cold—
    real losers.
Those who worked against you
    will end up empty-handed—
    nothing to show for their lives.
When you go out looking for your old adversaries
    you won’t find them—
Not a trace of your old enemies,
    not even a memory.
That’s right. Because I, your God,
    have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go.
I’m telling you, ‘Don’t panic.
    I’m right here to help you.’

^14-16“Do you feel like a lowly worm, Jacob?
    Don’t be afraid.
Feel like a fragile insect, Israel?
    I’ll help you.
I, God, want to reassure you.
    The God who buys you back, The Holy of Israel.
I’m transforming you from worm to harrow,
    from insect to iron.
As a sharp-toothed harrow you’ll smooth out the mountains,
    turn those tough old hills into loamy soil.
You’ll open the rough ground to the weather,
    to the blasts of sun and wind and rain.
But you’ll be confident and exuberant,
    expansive in The Holy of Israel!

^17-20“The poor and homeless are desperate for water,
    their tongues parched and no water to be found.
But I’m there to be found, I’m there for them,
    and I, God of Israel, will not leave them thirsty.
I’ll open up rivers for them on the barren hills,
    spout fountains in the valleys.
I’ll turn the baked-clay badlands into a cool pond,
    the waterless waste into splashing creeks.
I’ll plant the red cedar in that treeless wasteland,
    also acacia, myrtle, and olive.
I’ll place the cypress in the desert,
    with plenty of oaks and pines.
Everyone will see this. No one can miss it—
    unavoidable, indisputable evidence
That I, God, personally did this.
    It’s created and signed by The Holy of Israel.

^21-24“Set out your case for your gods,” says God.
    “Bring your evidence,” says the King of Jacob.
“Take the stand on behalf of your idols, offer arguments,
    assemble reasons.
Spread out the facts before us
    so that we can assess them ourselves.
Ask them, ‘If you are gods, explain what the past means—
    or, failing that, tell us what will happen in the future.
Can’t do that?
    How about doing something—anything!
Good or bad—whatever.
    Can you hurt us or help us? Do we need to be afraid?’
They say nothing, because they are nothing—
    sham gods, no-gods, fool-making gods.

^25-29“I, God, started someone out from the north and he’s come.
    He was called out of the east by name.
He’ll stomp the rulers into the mud
    the way a potter works the clay.
Let me ask you, Did anyone guess that this might happen?
    Did anyone tell us earlier so we might confirm it
    with ‘Yes, he’s right!’?
No one mentioned it, no one announced it,
    no one heard a peep out of you.
But I told Zion all about this beforehand.
    I gave Jerusalem a preacher of good news.
But around here there’s no one—
    no one who knows what’s going on.
    I ask, but no one can tell me the score.
Nothing here. It’s all smoke and hot air—
    sham gods, hollow gods, no-gods.”

God’s Servant Will Set Everything Right

42 ^1-4“Take a good look at my servant.
    I’m backing him to the hilt.
He’s the one I chose,
    and I couldn’t be more pleased with him.
I’ve bathed him with my Spirit, my life.
    He’ll set everything right among the nations.
He won’t call attention to what he does
    with loud speeches or gaudy parades.
He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt
    and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant,
    but he’ll steadily and firmly set things right.
He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped
    until he’s finished his work—to set things right on earth.
Far-flung ocean islands
    wait expectantly for his teaching.”

The God Who Makes Us Alive with His Own Life

^5-9God’s Message,
    the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,
    laid out the earth and all that grows from it,
Who breathes life into earth’s people,
    makes them alive with his own life:
“I am God. I have called you to live right and well.
    I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.
I have set you among my people to bind them to me,
    and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,
To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:
    opening blind eyes,
    releasing prisoners from dungeons,
    emptying the dark prisons.
I am God. That’s my name.
    I don’t franchise my glory,
    don’t endorse the no-god idols.
Take note: The earlier predictions of judgment have been fulfilled.
    I’m announcing the new salvation work.
Before it bursts on the scene,
    I’m telling you all about it.”

^10-16Sing to God a brand-new song,
    sing his praises all over the world!
Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,
    with all the far-flung islands joining in.
Let the desert and its camps raise a tune,
    calling the Kedar nomads to join in.
Let the villagers in Sela round up a choir
    and perform from the tops of the mountains.
Make God’s glory resound;
    echo his praises from coast to coast.
God steps out like he means business.
    You can see he’s primed for action.
He shouts, announcing his arrival;
    he takes charge and his enemies fall into line:
“I’ve been quiet long enough.
    I’ve held back, biting my tongue.
But now I’m letting loose, letting go,
    like a woman who’s having a baby—
Stripping the hills bare,
    withering the wildflowers,
Drying up the rivers,
    turning lakes into mudflats.
But I’ll take the hand of those who don’t know the way,
    who can’t see where they’re going.
I’ll be a personal guide to them,
    directing them through unknown country.
I’ll be right there to show them what roads to take,
    make sure they don’t fall into the ditch.
These are the things I’ll be doing for them—
    sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute.”

¹⁷But those who invested in the no-gods
are bankrupt—dead broke.

You’ve Seen a Lot, but Looked at Nothing

^18-25Pay attention! Are you deaf?
    Open your eyes! Are you blind?
You’re my servant, and you’re not looking!
    You’re my messenger, and you’re not listening!
The very people I depended upon, servants of God,
    blind as a bat—willfully blind!
You’ve seen a lot, but looked at nothing.
    You’ve heard everything, but listened to nothing.
God intended, out of the goodness of his heart,
    to be lavish in his revelation.
But this is a people battered and cowed,
    shut up in attics and closets,
Victims licking their wounds,
    feeling ignored, abandoned.
But is anyone out there listening?
    Is anyone paying attention to what’s coming?
Who do you think turned Jacob over to the thugs,
    let loose the robbers on Israel?
Wasn’t it God himself, this God against whom we’ve sinned—
    not doing what he commanded,
    not listening to what he said?
Isn’t it God’s anger that’s behind all this,
    God’s punishing power?
Their whole world collapsed but they still didn’t get it;
    their life is in ruins but they don’t take it to heart.

When You’re Between a Rock and a Hard Place

43 ^1-4But now, God’s Message,
    the God who made you in the first place, Jacob,
    the One who got you started, Israel:
“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.
    I’ve called your name. You’re mine.
When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
    When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place,
    it won’t be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,
    The Holy of Israel, your Savior.
I paid a huge price for you:
    all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!
That’s how much you mean to me!
    That’s how much I love you!
I’d sell off the whole world to get you back,
    trade the creation just for you.

^5-7“So don’t be afraid: I’m with you.
    I’ll round up all your scattered children,
    pull them in from east and west.
I’ll send orders north and south:
    ‘Send them back.
Return my sons from distant lands,
    my daughters from faraway places.
I want them back, every last one who bears my name,
    every man, woman, and child
Whom I created for my glory,
    yes, personally formed and made each one.’”

* * *

^8-13Get the blind and deaf out here and ready—
    the blind (though there’s nothing wrong with their eyes)
    and the deaf (though there’s nothing wrong with their ears).
Then get the other nations out here and ready.
    Let’s see what they have to say about this,
    how they account for what’s happened.
Let them present their expert witnesses
    and make their case;
    let them try to convince us what they say is true.
“But you are my witnesses.” God’s Decree.
    “You’re my handpicked servant
So that you’ll come to know and trust me,
    understand both that I am and who I am.
Previous to me there was no such thing as a god,
    nor will there be after me.
I, yes I, am God.
    I’m the only Savior there is.
I spoke, I saved, I told you what existed
    long before these upstart gods appeared on the scene.
And you know it, you’re my witnesses,
    you’re the evidence.” God’s Decree.
“Yes, I am God.
    I’ve always been God
    and I always will be God.
No one can take anything from me.
    I make; who can unmake it?”

You Didn’t Even Do the Minimum

^14-15God, your Redeemer,
    The Holy of Israel, says:
“Just for you, I will march on Babylon.
    I’ll turn the tables on the Babylonians.
Instead of whooping it up,
    they’ll be wailing.
I am God, your Holy One,
    Creator of Israel, your King.”

^16-21This is what God says,
    the God who builds a road right through the ocean,
    who carves a path through pounding waves,
The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—
    they lie down and then can’t get up;
    they’re snuffed out like so many candles:
“Forget about what’s happened;
    don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
    It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
    rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’
    —the coyotes and the buzzards—
Because I provided water in the desert,
    rivers through the sunbaked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose,
    the people I made especially for myself,
    a people custom-made to praise me.

^22-24“But you didn’t pay a bit of attention to me, Jacob.
    You so quickly tired of me, Israel.
You wouldn’t even bring sheep for offerings in worship.
    You couldn’t be bothered with sacrifices.
It wasn’t that I asked that much from you.
    I didn’t expect expensive presents.
But you didn’t even do the minimum—
    so stingy with me, so closefisted.
Yet you haven’t been stingy with your sins.
    You’ve been plenty generous with them—and I’m fed up.

²⁵“But I, yes I, am the one
who takes care of your sins—that’s what I do.
I don’t keep a list of your sins.

^26-28“So, make your case against me. Let’s have this out.
    Make your arguments. Prove you’re in the right.
Your original ancestor started the sinning,
    and everyone since has joined in.
That’s why I had to disqualify the Temple leaders,
    repudiate Jacob and discredit Israel.”

Proud to Be Called Israel

44 ^1-5“But for now, dear servant Jacob, listen—
    yes, you, Israel, my personal choice.
God who made you has something to say to you;
    the God who formed you in the womb wants to help you.
Don’t be afraid, dear servant Jacob,
    Jeshurun, the one I chose.
For I will pour water on the thirsty ground
    and send streams coursing through the parched earth.
I will pour my Spirit into your descendants
    and my blessing on your children.
They shall sprout like grass on the prairie,
    like willows alongside creeks.
This one will say, ‘I am God’s,’
    and another will go by the name Jacob;
That one will write on his hand ‘God’s property’—
    and be proud to be called Israel.”

^6-8God, King of Israel,
    your Redeemer, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says:
“I’m first, I’m last, and everything in between.
    I’m the only God there is.
Who compares with me?
    Speak up. See if you measure up.
From the beginning, who else has always announced what’s coming?
    So what is coming next? Anybody want to venture a try?
Don’t be afraid, and don’t worry:
    Haven’t I always kept you informed, told you what was going on?
You’re my eyewitnesses:
    Have you ever come across a God, a real God, other than me?
    There’s no Rock like me that I know of.”

Lover of Emptiness

^9-11All those who make no-god idols don’t amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing—they’re total embarrassments! Who would bother making gods that can’t do anything, that can’t “god”? Watch all the no-god worshipers hide their faces in shame. Watch the no-god makers slink off humiliated when their idols fail them. Get them out here in the open. Make them face God-reality.

¹²The blacksmith makes his no-god, works it over in his forge, hammering it on his anvil—such hard work! He works away, fatigued with hunger and thirst.

^13-17The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel. He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain. Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships—carves it into a god shape and prays before it. With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: “Ah, this is the life.” And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design—a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, “Save me. You’re my god.”

^18-19Pretty stupid, wouldn’t you say? Don’t they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all? Doesn’t it occur to them to say, “Half of this tree I used for firewood: I baked bread, roasted meat, and enjoyed a good meal. And now I’ve used the rest to make a repulsive no-god. Here I am praying to a stick of wood!”

²⁰This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, so far gone, that he can’t even look at what he’s doing, can’t even look at the no-god stick of wood in his hand and say, “This is crazy.”

* * *

^21-22“Remember these things, O Jacob.
    Take it seriously, Israel, that you’re my servant.
I made you, shaped you: You’re my servant.
    O Israel, I’ll never forget you.
I’ve wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings.
    There’s nothing left of your sins.
Come back to me, come back.
    I’ve redeemed you.”

²³High heavens, sing!
    God has done it.
Deep earth, shout!
    And you mountains, sing!
    A forest choir of oaks and pines and cedars!
God has redeemed Jacob.
    God’s glory is on display in Israel.

²⁴God, your Redeemer,
    who shaped your life in your mother’s womb, says:
“I am God. I made all that is.
    With no help from you I spread out the skies
    and laid out the earth.”

^25-28He makes the magicians look ridiculous
    and turns fortunetellers into jokes.
He makes the experts look trivial
    and their latest knowledge look silly.
But he backs the word of his servant
    and confirms the counsel of his messengers.
He says to Jerusalem, “Be inhabited,”
    and to the cities of Judah, “Be rebuilt,”
    and to the ruins, “I raise you up.”
He says to Ocean, “Dry up.
    I’m drying up your rivers.”
He says to Cyrus, “My shepherd—
    everything I want, you’ll do it.”
He says to Jerusalem, “Be built,”
    and to the Temple, “Be established.”

The God Who Forms Light and Darkness

45 ^1-7God’s Message to his anointed,
    to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand
To give the task of taming the nations,
    of terrifying their kings—
He gave him free rein,
    no restrictions:
“I’ll go ahead of you,
    clearing and paving the road.
I’ll break down bronze city gates,
    smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances.
I’ll lead you to buried treasures,
    secret caches of valuables—
Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God,
    the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
It’s because of my dear servant Jacob,
    Israel my chosen,
That I’ve singled you out, called you by name,
    and given you this privileged work.
    And you don’t even know me!
I am God, the only God there is.
    Besides me there are no real gods.
I’m the one who armed you for this work,
    though you don’t even know me,
So that everyone, from east to west, will know
    that I have no god-rivals.
    I am God, the only God there is.
I form light and create darkness,
    I make harmonies and create discords.
    I, God, do all these things.

^8-10“Open up, heavens, and rain.
    Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!
Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;
    sprout right living.
    I, God, generate all this.
But doom to you who fight your Maker—
    you’re a pot at odds with the potter!
Does clay talk back to the potter:
    ‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’
Would a sperm say to a father,
    ‘Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?’
Or a fetus to a mother,
    ‘Why have you cooped me up in this belly?’”

^11-13Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel’s Maker, says:
    “Do you question who or what I’m making?
    Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?
I made earth,
    and I created man and woman to live on it.
I handcrafted the skies
    and direct all the constellations in their turnings.
And now I’ve got Cyrus on the move.
    I’ve rolled out the red carpet before him.
He will build my city.
    He will bring home my exiles.
I didn’t hire him to do this. I told him.
    I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.”

* * *

¹⁴God says:

“The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia,
    and those statuesque Sabeans
Will all come over to you—all yours.
    Docile in chains, they’ll follow you,
Hands folded in reverence, praying before you:
    ‘Amazing! God is with you!
    There is no other God—none.’”

Look at the Evidence

^15-17Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes,
    God of Israel, Savior God.
Humiliated, all those others
    will be ashamed to show their faces in public.
Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols
    won’t know what to do with themselves.
The people of Israel, though, are saved by you, God,
    saved with an eternal salvation.
They won’t be ashamed,
    they won’t be at loose ends, ever.

^18-24God, Creator of the heavens—
    he is, remember, God.
Maker of earth—
    he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch.
He didn’t go to all that trouble
    to just leave it empty, nothing in it.
    He made it to be lived in.

This God says:

“I am God,
    the one and only.
I don’t just talk to myself
    or mumble under my breath.
I never told Jacob,
    ‘Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.’
I am God. I work out in the open,
    saying what’s right, setting things right.
So gather around, come on in,
    all you refugees and castoffs.
They don’t seem to know much, do they—
    those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood,
    praying for help to a dead stick?
So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence.
    Put your heads together. Make your case.
Who told you, and a long time ago, what’s going on here?
    Who made sense of things for you?
Wasn’t I the one? God?
    It had to be me. I’m the only God there is—
The only God who does things right
    and knows how to help.
So turn to me and be helped—saved!—
    everyone, whoever and wherever you are.
I am God,
    the only God there is, the one and only.
I promise in my own name:
    Every word out of my mouth does what it says.
    I never take back what I say.
Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me.
    Everyone is going to end up saying of me,
    ‘Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!’”

^24-25All who have raged against him
    will be brought before him,
    disgraced by their unbelief.
And all who are connected with Israel
    will have a robust, praising, good life in God!

This Is Serious Business, Rebels

46 ^1-2The god Bel falls down, god Nebo slumps.
    The no-god hunks of wood are loaded on mules
And have to be hauled off,
    wearing out the poor mules—
Dead weight, burdens who can’t bear burdens,
    hauled off to captivity.

^3-4“Listen to me, family of Jacob,
    everyone that’s left of the family of Israel.
I’ve been carrying you on my back
    from the day you were born,
And I’ll keep on carrying you when you’re old.
    I’ll be there, bearing you when you’re old and gray.
I’ve done it and will keep on doing it,
    carrying you on my back, saving you.

^5-7“So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable?
    Can you picture me without reducing me?
People with a lot of money
    hire craftsmen to make them gods.
The artisan delivers the god,
    and they kneel and worship it!
They carry it around in holy parades,
    then take it home and put it on a shelf.
And there it sits, day in and day out,
    a dependable god, always right where you put it.
Say anything you want to it, it never talks back.
    Of course, it never does anything either!

^8-11“Think about this. Wrap your minds around it.
    This is serious business, rebels. Take it to heart.
Remember your history,
    your long and rich history.
I am God, the only God you’ve had or ever will have—
    incomparable, irreplaceable—
From the very beginning
    telling you what the ending will be,
All along letting you in
    on what is going to happen,
Assuring you, ‘I’m in this for the long haul,
    I’ll do exactly what I set out to do,’
Calling that eagle, Cyrus, out of the east,
    from a far country the man I chose to help me.
I’ve said it, and I’ll most certainly do it.
    I’ve planned it, so it’s as good as done.

^12-13“Now listen to me:
    You’re a hardheaded bunch and hard to help.
I’m ready to help you right now.
    Deliverance is not a long-range plan.
    Salvation isn’t on hold.
I’m putting salvation to work in Zion now,
    and glory in Israel.”

The Party’s Over

47 ^1-3“Get off your high horse and sit in the dirt,
    virgin daughter of Babylon.
No more throne for you—sit on the ground,
    daughter of the Chaldeans.
Nobody will be calling you ‘charming’
    and ‘alluring’ anymore. Get used to it.
Get a job, any old job:
    Clean gutters, scrub toilets.
Pawn your gowns and scarves,
    put on your working pants—the party’s over.
Your nude body will be on public display,
    exposed to vulgar taunts.
It’s vengeance time, and I’m taking vengeance.
    No one gets let off the hook.”

You’re Acting Like the Center of the Universe

^4-13Our Redeemer speaks,
    named God-of-the-Angel-Armies, The Holy of Israel:
“Shut up and get out of the way,
    daughter of Chaldeans.
You’ll no longer be called
    ‘First Lady of the Kingdoms.’
I was fed up with my people,
    thoroughly disgusted with my progeny.
I turned them over to you,
    but you had no compassion.
You put old men and women
    to cruel, hard labor.
You said, ‘I’m the First Lady.
    I’ll always be the pampered darling.’
You took nothing seriously, took nothing to heart,
    never gave tomorrow a thought.
Well, start thinking, party girl.
    You’re acting like the center of the universe,
Smugly saying to yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.
    I’ll never be a widow, I’ll never lose my children.’
Those two things are going to hit you both at once,
    suddenly, on the same day:
Spouse and children gone, a total loss,
    despite your many enchantments and charms.
You were so confident and comfortable in your evil life,
    saying, ‘No one sees me.’
You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out.
    What delusion!
    Smugly telling yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.’
Ruin descends—
    you can’t charm it away.
Disaster strikes—
    you can’t cast it off with spells.
Catastrophe, sudden and total—
    and you’re totally at sea, totally bewildered!
But don’t give up. From your great repertoire
    of enchantments there must be one you haven’t yet tried.
You’ve been at this a long time.
    Surely something will work.
I know you’re exhausted trying out remedies,
    but don’t give up.
Call in the astrologers and stargazers.
    They’re good at this. Surely they can work up something!

^14-15“Fat chance. You’d be grasping at straws
    that are already in the fire,
A fire that is even now raging.
    Your ‘experts’ are in it and won’t get out.
It’s not a fire for cooking venison stew,
    not a fire to warm you on a winter night!
That’s the fate of your friends in sorcery, your magician cronies
    you’ve been colluding with all your life.
They reel, confused, bumping into one another.
    None of them bother to help you.”

Tested in the Furnace of Affliction

48 ^1-11“And now listen to this, family of Jacob,
    you who are called by the name Israel:
Who got you started in the loins of Judah,
    you who use God’s name to back up your promises
    and pray to the God of Israel?
But do you mean it?
    Do you live like it?
You claim to be citizens of the Holy City;
    you act as though you lean on the God of Israel,
    named God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
For a long time now, I’ve let you in on the way I work:
    I told you what I was going to do beforehand,
    then I did it and it was done, and that’s that.
I know you’re a bunch of hardheads,
    obstinate and flint-faced,
So I got a running start and began telling you
    what was going on before it even happened.
That is why you can’t say,
    ‘My god-idol did this.’
    ‘My favorite god-carving commanded this.’
You have all this evidence
    confirmed by your own eyes and ears.
    Shouldn’t you be talking about it?
And that was just the beginning.
    I have a lot more to tell you,
    things you never knew existed.
This isn’t a variation on the same old thing.
    This is new, brand-new,
    something you’d never guess or dream up.
When you hear this you won’t be able to say,
    ‘I knew that all along.’
You’ve never been good listeners to me.
    You have a history of ignoring me,
A sorry track record of fickle attachments—
    rebels from the womb.
But out of the sheer goodness of my heart,
    because of who I am,
I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper.
    I don’t wash my hands of you.
Do you see what I’ve done?
    I’ve refined you, but not without fire.
    I’ve tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction.
Out of myself, simply because of who I am, I do what I do.
    I have my reputation to keep up.
    I’m not playing second fiddle to either gods or people.

^12-13“Listen, Jacob. Listen, Israel—
    I’m the One who named you!
I’m the One.
    I got things started and, yes, I’ll wrap them up.
Earth is my work, handmade.
    And the skies—I made them, too, horizon to horizon.
When I speak, they’re on their feet, at attention.

^14-16“Come everybody, gather around, listen:
    Who among the gods has delivered the news?
I, God, love this man Cyrus, and I’m using him
    to do what I want with Babylon.
I, yes I, have spoken. I’ve called him.
    I’ve brought him here. He’ll be successful.
Come close, listen carefully:
    I’ve never kept secrets from you.
    I’ve always been present with you.”

Your Progeny, Like Grains of Sand

^16-19And now, the Master, God, sends me and his Spirit
    with this Message from God
    your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel:
“I am God, your God,
    who teaches you how to live right and well.
    I show you what to do, where to go.
If you had listened all along to what I told you,
    your life would have flowed full like a river,
    blessings rolling in like waves from the sea.
Children and grandchildren are like sand,
    your progeny like grains of sand.
There would be no end of them,
    no danger of losing touch with me.”

²⁰Get out of Babylon! Run from the Babylonians!
Shout the news. Broadcast it.
Let the world know, the whole world.
Tell them, “God redeemed his dear servant Jacob!”

²¹They weren’t thirsty when he led them through the deserts.
He made water pour out of the rock;
he split the rock and the water gushed.

²²“There is no peace,” says God, “for the wicked.”

A Light for the Nations

49 ^1-3Listen, far-flung islands,
    pay attention, faraway people:
God put me to work from the day I was born.
    The moment I entered the world he named me.
He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.
    He kept his hand on me to protect me.
He made me his straight arrow
    and hid me in his quiver.
He said to me, “You’re my dear servant,
    Israel, through whom I’ll shine.”

⁴But I said, “I’ve worked for nothing.
I’ve nothing to show for a life of hard work.
Nevertheless, I’ll let God have the last word.
I’ll let him pronounce his verdict.”

^5-6“And now,” God says,
    this God who took me in hand
    from the moment of birth to be his servant,
To bring Jacob back home to him,
    to set a reunion for Israel—
What an honor for me in God’s eyes!
    That God should be my strength!
He says, “But that’s not a big enough job for my servant—
    just to recover the tribes of Jacob,
    merely to round up the strays of Israel.
I’m setting you up as a light for the nations
    so that my salvation becomes global!”

⁷God, Redeemer of Israel, The Holy of Israel,
    says to the despised one, kicked around by the nations,
    slave labor to the ruling class:
“Kings will see, get to their feet—the princes, too—
    and then fall on their faces in homage
Because of God, who has faithfully kept his word,
    The Holy of Israel, who has chosen you.”

^8-12God also says:

“When the time’s ripe, I answer you.
    When victory’s due, I help you.
I form you and use you
    to reconnect the people with me,
To put the land in order,
    to resettle families on the ruined properties.
I tell prisoners, ‘Come on out. You’re free!’
    and those huddled in fear, ‘It’s all right. It’s safe now.’
There’ll be foodstands along all the roads,
    picnics on all the hills—
Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty,
    shade from the sun, shelter from the wind,
For the Compassionate One guides them,
    takes them to the best springs.
I’ll make all my mountains into roads,
    turn them into a superhighway.
Look: These coming from far countries,
    and those, out of the north,
These streaming in from the west,
    and those from all the way down the Nile!”

¹³Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead!
Mountains, send up cheers!
God has comforted his people.
He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people.

¹⁴But Zion said, “I don’t get it. God has left me.
My Master has forgotten I even exist.”

^15-18“Can a mother forget the infant at her breast,
    walk away from the baby she bore?
But even if mothers forget,
    I’d never forget you—never.
Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands.
    The walls you’re rebuilding are never out of my sight.
Your builders are faster than your wreckers.
    The demolition crews are gone for good.
Look up, look around, look well!
    See them all gathering, coming to you?
As sure as I am the living God”—God’s Decree—
    “you’re going to put them on like so much jewelry,
    you’re going to use them to dress up like a bride.

^19-21“And your ruined land?
    Your devastated, decimated land?
Filled with more people than you know what to do with!
    And your barbarian enemies, a fading memory.
The children born in your exile will be saying,
    ‘It’s getting too crowded here. I need more room.’
And you’ll say to yourself,
    ‘Where on earth did these children come from?
I lost everything, had nothing, was exiled and penniless.
    So who reared these children?
    How did these children get here?’”

^22-23The Master, God, says:

“Look! I signal to the nations,
    I raise my flag to summon the people.
Here they’ll come: women carrying your little boys in their arms,
    men carrying your little girls on their shoulders.
Kings will be your babysitters,
    princesses will be your nursemaids.
They’ll offer to do all your drudge work—
    scrub your floors, do your laundry.
You’ll know then that I am God.
    No one who hopes in me ever regrets it.”

^24-26Can plunder be retrieved from a giant,
    prisoners of war gotten back from a tyrant?
But God says, “Even if a giant grips the plunder
    and a tyrant holds my people prisoner,
I’m the one who’s on your side,
    defending your cause, rescuing your children.
And your enemies, crazed and desperate, will turn on themselves,
    killing each other in a frenzy of self-destruction.
Then everyone will know that I, God,
    have saved you—I, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Who Out There Fears God?

50 ^1-3God says:

“Can you produce your mother’s divorce papers
    proving I got rid of her?
Can you produce a receipt
    proving I sold you?
Of course you can’t.
    It’s your sins that put you here,
    your wrongs that got you shipped out.
So why didn’t anyone come when I knocked?
    Why didn’t anyone answer when I called?
Do you think I’ve forgotten how to help?
    Am I so decrepit that I can’t deliver?
I’m as powerful as ever,
    and can reverse what I once did:
I can dry up the sea with a word,
    turn river water into desert sand,
And leave the fish stinking in the sun,
    stranded on dry land . . .
Turn all the lights out in the sky
    and pull down the curtain.”

* * *

^4-9The Master, God, has given me
    a well-taught tongue,
So I know how to encourage tired people.
    He wakes me up in the morning,
Wakes me up, opens my ears
    to listen as one ready to take orders.
The Master, God, opened my ears,
    and I didn’t go back to sleep,
    didn’t pull the covers back over my head.
I followed orders,
    stood there and took it while they beat me,
    held steady while they pulled out my beard,
Didn’t dodge their insults,
    faced them as they spit in my face.
And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me,
    so I’m not disgraced.
Therefore I set my face like flint,
    confident that I’ll never regret this.
My champion is right here.
    Let’s take our stand together!
Who dares bring suit against me?
    Let him try!
Look! the Master, God, is right here.
    Who would dare call me guilty?
Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of threadbare
    socks and shirts, fodder for moths!

* * *

^10-11Who out there fears God,
    actually listens to the voice of his servant?
For anyone out there who doesn’t know where you’re going,
    anyone groping in the dark,
Here’s what: Trust in God.
    Lean on your God!
But if all you’re after is making trouble,
    playing with fire,
Go ahead and see where it gets you.
    Set your fires, stir people up, blow on the flames,
But don’t expect me to just stand there and watch.
    I’ll hold your feet to those flames.

Committed to Seeking God

51 ^1-3“Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living
    and committed to seeking God.
Ponder the rock from which you were cut,
    the quarry from which you were dug.
Yes, ponder Abraham, your father,
    and Sarah, who bore you.
Think of it! One solitary man when I called him,
    but once I blessed him, he multiplied.
Likewise I, God, will comfort Zion,
    comfort all her mounds of ruins.
I’ll transform her dead ground into Eden,
    her moonscape into the garden of God,
A place filled with exuberance and laughter,
    thankful voices and melodic songs.

^4-6“Pay attention, my people.
    Listen to me, nations.
Revelation flows from me.
    My decisions light up the world.
My deliverance arrives on the run,
    my salvation right on time.
    I’ll bring justice to the peoples.
Even faraway islands will look to me
    and take hope in my saving power.
Look up at the skies,
    ponder the earth under your feet.
The skies will fade out like smoke,
    the earth will wear out like work pants,
    and the people will die off like flies.
But my salvation will last forever,
    my setting-things-right will never be obsolete.

^7-8“Listen now, you who know right from wrong,
    you who hold my teaching inside you:
Pay no attention to insults, and when mocked
    don’t let it get you down.
Those insults and mockeries are moth-eaten,
    from brains that are termite-ridden,
But my setting-things-right lasts,
    my salvation goes on and on and on.”

^9-11Wake up, wake up, flex your muscles, God!
    Wake up as in the old days, in the long ago.
Didn’t you once make mincemeat of Rahab,
    dispatch the old chaos-dragon?
And didn’t you once dry up the sea,
    the powerful waters of the deep,
And then made the bottom of the ocean a road
    for the redeemed to walk across?
In the same way God’s ransomed will come back,
    come back to Zion cheering, shouting,
Joy eternal wreathing their heads,
    exuberant ecstasies transporting them—
    and not a sign of moans or groans.

What Are You Afraid of—or Who?

^12-16“I, I’m the One comforting you.
    What are you afraid of—or who?
Some man or woman who’ll soon be dead?
    Some poor wretch destined for dust?
You’ve forgotten me, God, who made you,
    who unfurled the skies, who founded the earth.
And here you are, quaking like an aspen
    before the tantrums of a tyrant
    who thinks he can kick down the world.
But what will come of the tantrums?
    The victims will be released before you know it.
They’re not going to die.
    They’re not even going to go hungry.
For I am God, your very own God,
    who stirs up the sea and whips up the waves,
    named God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
I teach you how to talk, word by word,
    and personally watch over you,
Even while I’m unfurling the skies,
    setting earth on solid foundations,
    and greeting Zion: ‘Welcome, my people!’”

^17-20So wake up! Rub the sleep from your eyes!
    Up on your feet, Jerusalem!
You’ve drunk the cup God handed you,
    the strong drink of his anger.
You drank it down to the last drop,
    staggered and collapsed, dead-drunk.
And nobody to help you home,
    no one among your friends or children
    to take you by the hand and put you in bed.
You’ve been hit with a double dose of trouble
    —does anyone care?
Assault and battery, hunger and death
    —will anyone comfort?
Your sons and daughters have passed out,
    strewn in the streets like stunned rabbits,
Sleeping off the strong drink of God’s anger,
    the rage of your God.

^21-23Therefore listen, please,
    you with your splitting headaches,
You who are nursing the hangovers
    that didn’t come from drinking wine.
Your Master, your God, has something to say,
    your God has taken up his people’s case:
“Look, I’ve taken back the drink that sent you reeling.
    No more drinking from that jug of my anger!
I’ve passed it over to your abusers to drink, those who ordered you,
    ‘Down on the ground so we can walk all over you!’
And you had to do it. Flat on the ground,
    you were the dirt under their feet.”

God Is Leading You Out of Here

52 ^1-2Wake up, wake up! Pull on your boots, Zion!
    Dress up in your Sunday best, Jerusalem, holy city!
Those who want no part of God have been culled out.
    They won’t be coming along.
Brush off the dust and get to your feet, captive Jerusalem!
    Throw off your chains, captive daughter of Zion!

³God says, “You were sold for nothing. You’re being bought back for nothing.”

^4-6Again, the Master, God, says, “Early on, my people went to Egypt and lived, strangers in the land. At the other end, Assyria oppressed them. And now, what have I here?” God’s Decree. “My people are hauled off again for no reason at all. Tyrants on the warpath, whooping it up, and day after day, incessantly, my reputation blackened. Now it’s time that my people know who I am, what I’m made of—yes, that I have something to say. Here I am!”

^7-10How beautiful on the mountains
    are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,
Breaking the news that all’s well,
    proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,
    telling Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts,
    shouting in joyful unison.
They see with their own eyes
    God coming back to Zion.
Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem:
    “God has comforted his people!
    He’s redeemed Jerusalem!”
God has rolled up his sleeves.
    All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.
Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,
    sees him at work, doing his salvation work.

^11-12Out of here! Out of here! Leave this place!
    Don’t look back. Don’t contaminate yourselves with plunder.
Just leave, but leave clean. Purify yourselves
    in the process of worship, carrying the holy vessels of God.
But you don’t have to be in a hurry.
    You’re not running from anybody!
God is leading you out of here,
    and the God of Israel is also your rear guard.

It Was Our Pains He Carried

^13-15“Just watch my servant blossom!
    Exalted, tall, head and shoulders above the crowd!
But he didn’t begin that way.
    At first everyone was appalled.
He didn’t even look human—
    a ruined face, disfigured past recognition.
Nations all over the world will be in awe, taken aback,
    kings shocked into silence when they see him.
For what was unheard of they’ll see with their own eyes,
    what was unthinkable they’ll have right before them.”
53 Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?
    Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

^2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
    a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
    nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
    a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
    We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
    that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
    Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
    on him, on him.

^7-9He was beaten, he was tortured,
    but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
    and like a sheep being sheared,
    he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
    and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
    beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
    threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
    or said one word that wasn’t true.

¹⁰Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,
    to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
    so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
    And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

^11-12Out of that terrible travail of soul,
    he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
    will make many “righteous ones,”
    as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
    the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
    because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
    he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Spread Out! Think Big!

54 ^1-6“Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby.
    Fill the air with song, you who’ve never experienced childbirth!
You’re ending up with far more children
    than all those childbearing women.” God says so!
“Clear lots of ground for your tents!
    Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!
Use plenty of rope,
    drive the tent pegs deep.
You’re going to need lots of elbow room
    for your growing family.
You’re going to take over whole nations;
    you’re going to resettle abandoned cities.
Don’t be afraid—you’re not going to be embarrassed.
    Don’t hold back—you’re not going to come up short.
You’ll forget all about the humiliations of your youth,
    and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory.
For your Maker is your bridegroom,
    his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
Your Redeemer is The Holy of Israel,
    known as God of the whole earth.
You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief,
    and God welcomed you back,
Like a woman married young
    and then left,” says your God.

^7-8Your Redeemer God says:

“I left you, but only for a moment.
    Now, with enormous compassion, I’m bringing you back.
In an outburst of anger I turned my back on you—
    but only for a moment.
It’s with lasting love
    that I’m tenderly caring for you.

^9-10“This exile is just like the days of Noah for me:
    I promised then that the waters of Noah
    would never again flood the earth.
I’m promising now no more anger,
    no more dressing you down.
For even if the mountains walk away
    and the hills fall to pieces,
My love won’t walk away from you,
    my covenant commitment of peace won’t fall apart.”
    The God who has compassion on you says so.

^11-17“Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:
    I’m about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
Lay your foundations with sapphires,
    construct your towers with rubies,
Your gates with jewels,
    and all your walls with precious stones.
All your children will have God for their teacher—
    what a mentor for your children!
You’ll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,
    far from any trouble—nothing to fear!
    far from terror—it won’t even come close!
If anyone attacks you,
    don’t for a moment suppose that I sent them,
And if any should attack,
    nothing will come of it.
I create the blacksmith
    who fires up his forge
    and makes a weapon designed to kill.
I also create the destroyer—
    but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged.
Any accuser who takes you to court
    will be dismissed as a liar.
This is what God’s servants can expect.
    I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.”
        God’s Decree.

Buy Without Money

55 ^1-5“Hey there! All who are thirsty,
    come to the water!
Are you penniless?
    Come anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
    Buy without money—everything’s free!
Why do you spend your money on junk food,
    your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
    fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
    listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you,
    the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.
I set him up as a witness to the nations,
    made him a prince and leader of the nations,
And now I’m doing it to you:
    You’ll summon nations you’ve never heard of,
and nations who’ve never heard of you
    will come running to you
Because of me, your God,
    because The Holy of Israel has honored you.”

^6-7Seek God while he’s here to be found,
    pray to him while he’s close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life
    and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful,
    come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.

^8-11“I don’t think the way you think.
    The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
        God’s Decree.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
    so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
    and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
    and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
    producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
    not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
    they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.

^12-13“So you’ll go out in joy,
    you’ll be led into a whole and complete life.
The mountains and hills will lead the parade,
    bursting with song.
All the trees of the forest will join the procession,
    exuberant with applause.
No more thistles, but giant sequoias,
    no more thornbushes, but stately pines—
Monuments to me, to God,
    living and lasting evidence of God.”

Messages of Hope

Salvation Is Just Around the Corner

56 ^1-3God’s Message:

“Guard my common good:
    Do what’s right and do it in the right way,
For salvation is just around the corner,
    my setting-things-right is about to go into action.
How fortunate are you who enter into these things,
    you men and women who embrace them,
Who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it,
    who watch your step and don’t do anything evil!
Make sure no outsider who now follows God
    ever has occasion to say, ‘God put me in second-class.
    I don’t really belong.’
And make sure no physically mutilated person
    is ever made to think, ‘I’m damaged goods.
    I don’t really belong.’”

^4-5For God says:

“To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths
    and choose what delights me
    and keep a firm grip on my covenant,
I’ll provide them an honored place
    in my family and within my city,
    even more honored than that of sons and daughters.
I’ll confer permanent honors on them
    that will never be revoked.

^6-8“And as for the outsiders who now follow me,
    working for me, loving my name,
    and wanting to be my servants—
All who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it,
    holding fast to my covenant—
I’ll bring them to my holy mountain
    and give them joy in my house of prayer.
They’ll be welcome to worship the same as the ‘insiders,’
    to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar.
Oh yes, my house of worship
    will be known as a house of prayer for all people.”
The Decree of the Master, God himself,
    who gathers in the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather others also,
    gather them in with those already gathered.”

* * *

^9-12A call to the savage beasts: Come on the run.
    Come, devour, beast barbarians!
For Israel’s watchmen are blind, the whole lot of them.
    They have no idea what’s going on.
They’re dogs without sense enough to bark,
    lazy dogs, dreaming in the sun—
But hungry dogs, they do know how to eat,
    voracious dogs, with never enough.
And these are Israel’s shepherds!
    They know nothing, understand nothing.
They all look after themselves,
    grabbing whatever’s not nailed down.
“Come,” they say, “let’s have a party.
    Let’s go out and get drunk!”
And tomorrow, more of the same:
    “Let’s live it up!”

Never Tired of Trying New Religions

57 ^1-2Meanwhile, right-living people die
    and no one gives them a thought.
God-fearing people are carted off
    and no one even notices.
The right-living people are out of their misery,
    they’re finally at rest.
They lived well and with dignity
    and now they’re finally at peace.

* * *

^3-10“But you, children of a witch, come here!
    Sons of a slut, daughters of a whore.
What business do you have taunting,
    sneering, and sticking out your tongue?
Do you have any idea what wretches you’ve turned out to be?
    A race of rebels, a generation of liars.
You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade
    and fornicate at whim.
You kill your children at any convenient spot—
    any cave or crevasse will do.
You take stones from the creek
    and set up your sex-and-religion shrines.
You’ve chosen your fate.
    Your worship will be your doom.
You’ve climbed a high mountain
    to practice your foul sex-and-death religion.
Behind closed doors
    you assemble your precious gods and goddesses.
Deserting me, you’ve gone all out, stripped down
    and made your bed your place of worship.
You’ve climbed into bed with the ‘sacred’ whores
    and loved every minute of it,
    adoring every curve of their naked bodies.
You anoint your king-god with ointments
    and lavish perfumes on yourselves.
You send scouts to search out the latest in religion,
    send them all the way to hell and back.
You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different,
    and never see what a waste it all is.
You’ve always found strength for the latest fad,
    never got tired of trying new religions.

^11-13“Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense,
    leaving me high and dry,
    forgetting you ever knew me?
Because I don’t yell and make a scene,
    do you think I don’t exist?
I’ll go over, detail by detail, all your ‘righteous’ attempts at religion,
    and expose the absurdity of it all.
Go ahead, cry for help to your collection of no-gods:
    A good wind will blow them away.
    They’re smoke, nothing but smoke.

“But anyone who runs to me for help
will inherit the land,
will end up owning my holy mountain!”

* * *

¹⁴Someone says: “Build, build! Make a road!
Clear the way, remove the rocks
from the road my people will travel.”

^15-21A Message from the high and towering God,
    who lives in Eternity,
    whose name is Holy:
“I live in the high and holy places,
    but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed,
And what I do is put new spirit in them,
    get them up and on their feet again.
For I’m not going to haul people into court endlessly,
    I’m not going to be angry forever.
Otherwise, people would lose heart.
    These souls I created would tire out and give up.
I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel’s sins.
    I struck him hard and turned away in anger,
    while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways.
When I looked again and saw what he was doing,
    I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him,
    creating a new language of praise for the mourners.
Peace to the far-off, peace to the near-at-hand,” says God—
    “and yes, I will heal them.
But the wicked are storm-battered seas
    that can’t quiet down.
    The waves stir up garbage and mud.
There’s no peace,” God says, “for the wicked.”

Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground

58 ^1-3“Shout! A full-throated shout!
    Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,
    face my family Jacob with their sins!
They’re busy, busy, busy at worship,
    and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—
    law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
    and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
    ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?
    Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’

^3-5 “Well, here’s why:

“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.
    You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
    You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
    won’t get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
    and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
    a fast day that I, God, would like?

^6-9“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
    sharing your food with the hungry,
    inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
    putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
    being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
    and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
    The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
    You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

^9-12“If you get rid of unfair practices,
    quit blaming victims,
    quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
    and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
    your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
    I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
    firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
    a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
    rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
    restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
    make the community livable again.

^13-14“If you watch your step on the Sabbath
    and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
    God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
    making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
    Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
    Yes! God says so!

We Long for Light but Sink into Darkness

59 ^1-8Look! Listen!
    God’s arm is not amputated—he can still save.
    God’s ears are not stopped up—he can still hear.
There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you.
    Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God.
    Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear.
Your hands are drenched in blood,
    your fingers dripping with guilt,
Your lips smeared with lies,
    your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.
No one speaks up for the right,
    no one deals fairly.
They trust in illusion, they tell lies,
    they get pregnant with mischief and have sin-babies.
They hatch snake eggs and weave spider webs.
    Eat an egg and die; break an egg and get a snake!
The spider webs are no good for shirts or shawls.
    No one can wear these weavings!
They weave wickedness,
    they hatch violence.
They compete in the race to do evil
    and run to be the first to murder.
They plan and plot evil, think and breathe evil,
    and leave a trail of wrecked lives behind them.
They know nothing about peace
    and less than nothing about justice.
They make tortuously twisted roads.
    No peace for the wretch who walks down those roads!

^9-11Which means that we’re a far cry from fair dealing,
    and we’re not even close to right living.
We long for light but sink into darkness,
    long for brightness but stumble through the night.
Like the blind, we inch along a wall,
    groping eyeless in the dark.
We shuffle our way in broad daylight,
    like the dead, but somehow walking.
We’re no better off than bears, groaning,
    and no worse off than doves, moaning.
We look for justice—not a sign of it;
    for salvation—not so much as a hint.

^12-15Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God,
    our sins stand up and accuse us.
Our wrongdoings stare us down;
    we know in detail what we’ve done:
Mocking and denying God,
    not following our God,
Spreading false rumors, whipping up revolt,
    pregnant with lies, muttering malice.
Justice is beaten back,
    Righteousness is banished to the sidelines,
Truth staggers down the street,
    Honesty is nowhere to be found,
Good is missing in action.
    Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed.

^15-19God looked and saw evil looming on the horizon—
    so much evil and no sign of Justice.
He couldn’t believe what he saw:
    not a soul around to correct this awful situation.
So he did it himself, took on the work of Salvation,
    fueled by his own Righteousness.
He dressed in Righteousness, put it on like a suit of armor,
    with Salvation on his head like a helmet,
Put on Judgment like an overcoat,
    and threw a cloak of Passion across his shoulders.
He’ll make everyone pay for what they’ve done:
    fury for his foes, just deserts for his enemies.
    Even the far-off islands will get paid off in full.
In the west they’ll fear the name of God,
    in the east they’ll fear the glory of God,
For he’ll arrive like a river in flood stage,
    whipped to a torrent by the wind of God.

²⁰“I’ll arrive in Zion as Redeemer,
to those in Jacob who leave their sins.”
God’s Decree.

²¹“As for me,” God says, “this is my covenant with them: My Spirit that I’ve placed upon you and the words that I’ve given you to speak, they’re not going to leave your mouths nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your grandchildren. You will keep repeating these words and won’t ever stop.” God’s orders.

People Returning for the Reunion

60 ^1-7“Get out of bed, Jerusalem!
    Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight.
    God’s bright glory has risen for you.
The whole earth is wrapped in darkness,
    all people sunk in deep darkness,
But God rises on you,
    his sunrise glory breaks over you.
Nations will come to your light,
    kings to your sunburst brightness.
Look up! Look around!
    Watch as they gather, watch as they approach you:
Your sons coming from great distances,
    your daughters carried by their nannies.
When you see them coming you’ll smile—big smiles!
    Your heart will swell and, yes, burst!
All those people returning by sea for the reunion,
    a rich harvest of exiles gathered in from the nations!
And then streams of camel caravans as far as the eye can see,
    young camels of nomads in Midian and Ephah,
Pouring in from the south from Sheba,
    loaded with gold and frankincense,
    preaching the praises of God.
And yes, a great roundup
    of flocks from the nomads in Kedar and Nebaioth,
Welcome gifts for worship at my altar
    as I bathe my glorious Temple in splendor.

What’s That We See in the Distance?

^8-22“What’s that we see in the distance,
    a cloud on the horizon, like doves darkening the sky?
It’s ships from the distant islands,
    the famous Tarshish ships
Returning your children from faraway places,
    loaded with riches, with silver and gold,
And backed by the name of your God, The Holy of Israel,
    showering you with splendor.
Foreigners will rebuild your walls,
    and their kings assist you in the conduct of worship.
When I was angry I hit you hard.
    It’s my desire now to be tender.
Your Jerusalem gates will always be open
    —open house day and night!—
Receiving deliveries of wealth from all nations,
    and their kings, the delivery boys!
Any nation or kingdom that doesn’t deliver will perish;
    those nations will be totally wasted.
The rich woods of Lebanon will be delivered
    —all that cypress and oak and pine—
To give a splendid elegance to my Sanctuary,
    as I make my footstool glorious.
The descendants of your oppressor
    will come bowing and scraping to you.
All who looked down at you in contempt
    will lick your boots.
They’ll confer a title on you: City of God,
    Zion of The Holy of Israel.
Not long ago you were despised refuse—
    out-of-the-way, unvisited, ignored.
But now I’ve put you on your feet,
    towering and grand forever, a joy to look at!
When you suck the milk of nations
    and the breasts of royalty,
You’ll know that I, God, am your Savior,
    your Redeemer, Champion of Jacob.
I’ll give you only the best—no more hand-me-downs!
    Gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron,
    bronze instead of wood, iron instead of stones.
I’ll install Peace to run your country,
    make Righteousness your boss.
There’ll be no more stories of crime in your land,
    no more robberies, no more vandalism.
You’ll name your main street Salvation Way,
    and install Praise Park at the center of town.
You’ll have no more need of the sun by day
    nor the brightness of the moon at night.
God will be your eternal light,
    your God will bathe you in splendor.
Your sun will never go down,
    your moon will never fade.
I will be your eternal light.
    Your days of grieving are over.
All your people will live right and well,
    in permanent possession of the land.
They’re the green shoot that I planted,
    planted with my own hands to display my glory.
The runt will become a great tribe,
    the weakling become a strong nation.
I am God.
    At the right time I’ll make it happen.”

Announce Freedom to All Captives

61 ^1-7The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me
    because God anointed me.
He sent me to preach good news to the poor,
    heal the heartbroken,
Announce freedom to all captives,
    pardon all prisoners.
God sent me to announce the year of his grace—
    a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies—
    and to comfort all who mourn,
To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,
    give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,
Messages of joy instead of news of doom,
    a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.
Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness”
    planted by God to display his glory.
They’ll rebuild the old ruins,
    raise a new city out of the wreckage.
They’ll start over on the ruined cities,
    take the rubble left behind and make it new.
You’ll hire outsiders to herd your flocks
    and foreigners to work your fields,
But you’ll have the title “Priests of God,”
    honored as ministers of our God.
You’ll feast on the bounty of nations,
    you’ll bask in their glory.
Because you got a double dose of trouble
    and more than your share of contempt,
Your inheritance in the land will be doubled
    and your joy go on forever.

^8-9“Because I, God, love fair dealing
    and hate thievery and crime,
I’ll pay your wages on time and in full,
    and establish my eternal covenant with you.
Your descendants will become well-known all over.
    Your children in foreign countries
Will be recognized at once
    as the people I have blessed.”

^10-11I will sing for joy in God,
    explode in praise from deep in my soul!
He dressed me up in a suit of salvation,
    he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo
    and a bride a jeweled tiara.
For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers,
    and as a garden cascades with blossoms,
So the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom
    and puts praise on display before the nations.

Look, Your Savior Comes!

62 ^1-5Regarding Zion, I can’t keep my mouth shut,
    regarding Jerusalem, I can’t hold my tongue,
Until her righteousness blazes down like the sun
    and her salvation flames up like a torch.
Foreign countries will see your righteousness,
    and world leaders your glory.
You’ll get a brand-new name
    straight from the mouth of God.
You’ll be a stunning crown in the palm of God’s hand,
    a jeweled gold cup held high in the hand of your God.
No more will anyone call you Rejected,
    and your country will no more be called Ruined.
You’ll be called Hephzibah (My Delight),
    and your land Beulah (Married),
Because God delights in you
    and your land will be like a wedding celebration.
For as a young man marries his virgin bride,
    so your builder marries you,
And as a bridegroom is happy in his bride,
    so your God is happy with you.

^6-7I’ve posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem.
    Day and night they keep at it, praying, calling out,
    reminding God to remember.
They are to give him no peace until he does what he said,
    until he makes Jerusalem famous as the City of Praise.

^8-9God has taken a solemn oath,
    an oath he means to keep:
“Never again will I open your grain-filled barns
    to your enemies to loot and eat.
Never again will foreigners drink the wine
    that you worked so hard to produce.
No. The farmers who grow the food will eat the food
    and praise God for it.
And those who make the wine will drink the wine
    in my holy courtyards.”

^10-12Walk out of the gates. Get going!
    Get the road ready for the people.
Build the highway. Get at it!
    Clear the debris,
    hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples!
Yes! God has broadcast to all the world:
    “Tell daughter Zion, ‘Look! Your Savior comes,
Ready to do what he said he’d do,
    prepared to complete what he promised.’”
Zion will be called new names: Holy People, God-Redeemed,
    Sought-Out, City-Not-Forsaken.

Who Goes There?

63 The watchmen call out,
“Who goes there, marching out of Edom,
out of Bozrah in clothes dyed red?
Name yourself, so splendidly dressed,
advancing, bristling with power!”

“It is I: I speak what is right,
I, mighty to save!”

²“And why are your robes so red,
your clothes dyed red like those who tread grapes?”

^3-6“I’ve been treading the winepress alone.
    No one was there to help me.
Angrily, I stomped the grapes;
    raging, I trampled the people.
Their blood spurted all over me—
    all my clothes were soaked with blood.
I was set on vengeance.
    The time for redemption had arrived.
I looked around for someone to help
    —no one.
I couldn’t believe it
    —not one volunteer.
So I went ahead and did it myself,
    fed and fueled by my rage.
I trampled the people in my anger,
    crushed them under foot in my wrath,
    soaked the earth with their lifeblood.”

All the Things God Has Done That Need Praising

^7-9I’ll make a list of God’s gracious dealings,
    all the things God has done that need praising,
All the generous bounties of God,
    his great goodness to the family of Israel—
Compassion lavished,
    love extravagant.
He said, “Without question these are my people,
    children who would never betray me.”
So he became their Savior.
    In all their troubles,
    he was troubled, too.
He didn’t send someone else to help them.
    He did it himself, in person.
Out of his own love and pity
    he redeemed them.
He rescued them and carried them along
    for a long, long time.

¹⁰But they turned on him;
they grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned on them,
became their enemy and fought them.

^11-14Then they remembered the old days,
    the days of Moses, God’s servant:
“Where is he who brought the shepherds of his flock
    up and out of the sea?
And what happened to the One who set
    his Holy Spirit within them?
Who linked his arm with Moses’ right arm,
    divided the waters before them,
Making him famous ever after,
    and led them through the muddy abyss
    as surefooted as horses on hard, level ground?
Like a herd of cattle led to pasture,
    the Spirit of God gave them rest.”

^14-19That’s how you led your people!
    That’s how you became so famous!
Look down from heaven, look at us!
    Look out the window of your holy and magnificent house!
Whatever happened to your passion,
    your famous mighty acts,
Your heartfelt pity, your compassion?
    Why are you holding back?
You are our Father.
    Abraham and Israel are long dead.
    They wouldn’t know us from Adam.
But you’re our living Father,
    our Redeemer, famous from eternity!
Why, God, did you make us wander from your ways?
    Why did you make us cold and stubborn
    so that we no longer worshiped you in awe?
Turn back for the sake of your servants.
    You own us! We belong to you!
For a while your holy people had it good,
    but now our enemies have wrecked your holy place.
For a long time now, you’ve paid no attention to us.
    It’s like you never knew us.

Can We Be Saved?

64 ^1-7Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and descend,
    make the mountains shudder at your presence—
As when a forest catches fire,
    as when fire makes a pot to boil—
To shock your enemies into facing you,
    make the nations shake in their boots!
You did terrible things we never expected,
    descended and made the mountains shudder at your presence.
Since before time began
    no one has ever imagined,
No ear heard, no eye seen, a God like you
    who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who happily do what is right,
    who keep a good memory of the way you work.
But how angry you’ve been with us!
    We’ve sinned and kept at it so long!
    Is there any hope for us? Can we be saved?
We’re all sin-infected, sin-contaminated.
    Our best efforts are grease-stained rags.
We dry up like autumn leaves—
    sin-dried, we’re blown off by the wind.
No one prays to you
    or makes the effort to reach out to you
Because you’ve turned away from us,
    left us to stew in our sins.

^8-12Still, God, you are our Father.
    We’re the clay and you’re our potter:
    All of us are what you made us.
Don’t be too angry with us, O God.
    Don’t keep a permanent account of wrongdoing.
    Keep in mind, please, we are your people—all of us.
Your holy cities are all ghost towns:
    Zion’s a ghost town,
    Jerusalem’s a field of weeds.
Our holy and beautiful Temple,
    which our ancestors filled with your praises,
Was burned down by fire,
    all our lovely parks and gardens in ruins.
In the face of all this,
    are you going to sit there unmoved, God?
Aren’t you going to say something?
    Haven’t you made us miserable long enough?

The People Who Bothered to Reach Out to God

65 ^1-7“I’ve made myself available
    to those who haven’t bothered to ask.
I’m here, ready to be found
    by those who haven’t bothered to look.
I kept saying ‘I’m here, I’m right here’
    to a nation that ignored me.
I reached out day after day
    to a people who turned their backs on me,
People who make wrong turns,
    who insist on doing things their own way.
They get on my nerves,
    are rude to my face day after day,
Make up their own kitchen religion,
    a potluck religious stew.
They spend the night in tombs
    to get messages from the dead,
Eat forbidden foods
    and drink a witch’s brew of potions and charms.
They say, ‘Keep your distance.
    Don’t touch me. I’m holier than thou.’
These people gag me.
    I can’t stand their stench.
Look at this! Their sins are all written out—
    I have the list before me.
I’m not putting up with this any longer.
    I’ll pay them the wages
They have coming for their sins.
    And for the sins of their parents lumped in,
    a bonus.” God says so.
“Because they’ve practiced their blasphemous worship,
    mocking me at their hillside shrines,
I’ll let loose the consequences
    and pay them in full for their actions.”

* * *

^8-10God’s Message:

“But just as one bad apple doesn’t ruin the whole bushel,
    there are still plenty of good apples left.
So I’ll preserve those in Israel who obey me.
    I won’t destroy the whole nation.
I’ll bring out my true children from Jacob
    and the heirs of my mountains from Judah.
My chosen will inherit the land,
    my servants will move in.
The lush valley of Sharon in the west
    will be a pasture for flocks,
And in the east, the valley of Achor,
    a place for herds to graze.
These will be for the people
    who bothered to reach out to me, who wanted me in their lives,
    who actually bothered to look for me.

* * *

^11-12“But you who abandon me, your God,
    who forget the holy mountains,
Who hold dinners for Lady Luck
    and throw cocktail parties for Sir Fate,
Well, you asked for it. Fate it will be:
    your destiny, Death.
For when I invited you, you ignored me;
    when I spoke to you, you brushed me off.
You did the very things I exposed as evil;
    you chose what I hate.”

^13-16Therefore, this is the Message from the Master, God:

“My servants will eat,
    and you’ll go hungry;
My servants will drink,
    and you’ll go thirsty;
My servants will rejoice,
    and you’ll hang your heads.
My servants will laugh from full hearts,
    and you’ll cry out heartbroken,
    yes, wail from crushed spirits.
Your legacy to my chosen
    will be your name reduced to a cussword.
I, God, will put you to death
    and give a new name to my servants.
Then whoever prays a blessing in the land
    will use my faithful name for the blessing,
And whoever takes an oath in the land
    will use my faithful name for the oath,
Because the earlier troubles are gone and forgotten,
    banished far from my sight.

New Heavens and a New Earth

^17-25“Pay close attention now:
    I’m creating new heavens and a new earth.
All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
    are things of the past, to be forgotten.
Look ahead with joy.
    Anticipate what I’m creating:
I’ll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,
    create my people as pure delight.
I’ll take joy in Jerusalem,
    take delight in my people:
No more sounds of weeping in the city,
    no cries of anguish;
No more babies dying in the cradle,
    or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime;
One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—
    anything less will seem like a cheat.
They’ll build houses
    and move in.
They’ll plant fields
    and eat what they grow.
No more building a house
    that some outsider takes over,
No more planting fields
    that some enemy confiscates,
For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
    my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
They won’t work and have nothing come of it,
    they won’t have children snatched out from under them.
For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,
    with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.
Before they call out, I’ll answer.
    Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard.
Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow,
    lion and ox eat straw from the same trough,
    but snakes—they’ll get a diet of dirt!
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
    anywhere on my Holy Mountain,” says God.

Living Worship to God

66 ^1-2God’s Message:

“Heaven’s my throne,
    earth is my footstool.
What sort of house could you build for me?
    What holiday spot reserve for me?
I made all this! I own all this!”
    God’s Decree.
“But there is something I’m looking for:
    a person simple and plain,
    reverently responsive to what I say.

^3-4“Your acts of worship
    are acts of sin:
Your sacrificial slaughter of the ox
    is no different from murdering the neighbor;
Your offerings for worship,
    no different from dumping pig’s blood on the altar;
Your presentation of memorial gifts,
    no different from honoring a no-god idol.
You choose self-serving worship,
    you delight in self-centered worship—disgusting!
Well, I choose to expose your nonsense
    and let you realize your worst fears,
Because when I invited you, you ignored me;
    when I spoke to you, you brushed me off.
You did the very things I exposed as evil,
    you chose what I hate.”

⁵But listen to what God has to say
    to you who reverently respond to his Word:
“Your own families hate you
    and turn you out because of me.
They taunt you, ‘Let us see God’s glory!
    If God’s so great, why aren’t you happy?’
But they’re the ones
    who are going to end up shamed.”

* * *

⁶Rumbles of thunder from the city!
A voice out of the Temple!
God’s voice,
handing out judgment to his enemies:

^7-9“Before she went into labor,
    she had the baby.
Before the birth pangs hit,
    she delivered a son.
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?
    Has anyone seen anything like this?
A country born in a day?
    A nation born in a flash?
But Zion was barely in labor
    when she had her babies!
Do I open the womb
    and not deliver the baby?
Do I, the One who delivers babies,
    shut the womb?

^10-11“Rejoice, Jerusalem,
    and all who love her, celebrate!
And all you who have shed tears over her,
    join in the happy singing.
You newborns can satisfy yourselves
    at her nurturing breasts.
Yes, delight yourselves and drink your fill
    at her ample bosom.”

^12-13God’s Message:

“I’ll pour robust well-being into her like a river,
    the glory of nations like a river in flood.
You’ll nurse at her breasts,
    nestle in her bosom,
    and be bounced on her knees.
As a mother comforts her child,
    so I’ll comfort you.
    You will be comforted in Jerusalem.”

^14-16You’ll see all this and burst with joy
    —you’ll feel ten feet tall—
As it becomes apparent that God is on your side
    and against his enemies.
For God arrives like wildfire
    and his chariots like a tornado,
A furious outburst of anger,
    a rebuke fierce and fiery.
For it’s by fire that God brings judgment,
    a death sentence on the human race.
Many, oh so many,
    are under God’s sentence of death:

¹⁷“All who enter the sacred groves for initiation in those unholy rituals that climaxed in that foul and obscene meal of pigs and mice will eat together and then die together.” God’s Decree.

^18-21“I know everything they’ve ever done or thought. I’m going to come and then gather everyone—all nations, all languages. They’ll come and see my glory. I’ll set up a station at the center. I’ll send the survivors of judgment all over the world: Spain and Africa, Turkey and Greece, and the far-off islands that have never heard of me, who know nothing of what I’ve done nor who I am. I’ll send them out as missionaries to preach my glory among the nations. They’ll return with all your long-lost brothers and sisters from all over the world. They’ll bring them back and offer them in living worship to God. They’ll bring them on horses and wagons and carts, on mules and camels, straight to my holy mountain Jerusalem,” says God. “They’ll present them just as Israelites present their offerings in a ceremonial vessel in the Temple of God. I’ll even take some of them and make them priests and Levites,” says God.

^22-23“For just as the new heavens and new earth
    that I am making will stand firm before me”
        —God’s Decree—
“So will your children
    and your reputation stand firm.
Month after month and week by week,
    everyone will come to worship me,” God says.

²⁴“And then they’ll go out and look at what happened
    to those who rebelled against me. Corpses!
Maggots endlessly eating away on them,
    an endless supply of fuel for fires.
Everyone who sees what’s happened
    and smells the stench retches.”

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

New American Standard Bible is made available by The Lockman Foundation

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

Public Domain (Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted?)

The Message (MSG)

Isaiah 1-27 New American Standard Bible

Rebellion of God’s People

God Has Had Enough

Invitation to Debate

Zion Corrupted; Will Be Redeemed

God’s Universal Reign

A Day of Reckoning Coming

God Will Remove the Leaders

God Will Judge

Judah’s Women Denounced

A Remnant Prepared

Parable of the Vineyard

Woes for the Wicked

Isaiah’s Vision

Isaiah’s Commission

War against Jerusalem

The Child Immanuel

Trials to Come for Judah

Damascus and Samaria Fall

A Believing Remnant

Birth and Reign of the Prince of Peace

God’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance

Assyria Is God’s Instrument

A Remnant Will Return

Righteous Reign of the Branch

The Restored Remnant

Thanksgiving Expressed

Prophecies about Babylon

Judgment on the Day of the Lord

Babylon Will Fall to the Medes

Israel’s Taunt against Babylon

Judgment on Assyria

Judgment on Philistia

Judgment on Moab

Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation

Prophecy about Damascus

Message to Ethiopia

Message to Egypt

Prophecy about Egypt and Ethiopia

God Commands That Babylon Be Taken

Pronouncements about Edom and Arabia

The Valley of Vision

The Fall of Tyre

Judgment on the Earth

Song of Praise for God’s Favor

Song of Trust in God’s Protection

God’s Blessings for Israel

Footnotes

Cross references

Isaiah 1-27 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Wickedness of Judah

The Degenerate City

The Future House of God

Judgment Pronounced on Arrogance

The Future Glory of the Survivors in Zion

The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard

Social Injustice Denounced

Foreign Invasion Predicted

A Vision of God in the Temple

Isaiah Reassures King Ahaz

Isaiah Gives Ahaz the Sign of Immanuel

Isaiah’s Son a Sign of the Assyrian Invasion

Disciples of Isaiah

The Righteous Reign of the Coming King

Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression

Arrogant Assyria Also Judged

The Repentant Remnant of Israel

The Peaceful Kingdom

Return of the Remnant of Israel and Judah

Thanksgiving and Praise

Proclamation against Babylon

Restoration of Judah

Downfall of the King of Babylon

An Oracle concerning Assyria

An Oracle concerning Philistia

An Oracle concerning Moab

An Oracle concerning Damascus

An Oracle concerning Cush

An Oracle concerning Egypt

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed

Isaiah 1-27

New American Standard Bible

Isaiah 1-27

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Isaiah 1-49

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

Isaiah 1-66

The Message