Isaiah 14:1-41:18

Amplified Bible

“How the oppressor has ceased [his insolence],
And how the fury has ceased!
⁵ 
“The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of the [tyrant] rulers
⁶ 
Which used to strike the peoples in anger with incessant blows,
Which subdued and ruled the nations in wrath with unrelenting persecution.
⁷ 
“The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
They break into shouts of joy.
⁸ 
“Even the cypress trees rejoice over you [kings of Babylon], even the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’
⁹ 
“^[a]Sheol below is excited about you to meet you when you come [you tyrant of Babylon];
It stirs up the spirits of the dead [to greet you], all the leaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones [in astonishment at your fall].
¹⁰ 
“All of them will respond [tauntingly] and say to you,
‘You have become as weak as we are.
You have become like us.
¹¹ 
‘Your pomp and magnificence have been brought down to Sheol,
Along with the music of your harps;
The maggots [which prey on the dead] are spread out under you [as a bed]
And worms are your covering [Babylonian rulers].’
¹² 
“How you have fallen from heaven,
O ^[b]star of the morning [light-bringer], son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the ground,
You who have weakened the nations [king of Babylon]!
¹³ 
“But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the remote parts of the north.
¹⁴ 
‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
¹⁵ 
“But [in fact] you will be brought down to Sheol,
To the remote recesses of the pit (the region of the dead).
¹⁶ 
“Those who see you will gaze at you,
They will consider you, saying,
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
¹⁷ 
Who made the world like a wilderness
And overthrew its cities,
Who did not permit his prisoners to return home?’
¹⁸ 
“All the kings of the nations, all of them lie [dead] in glorious array,
Each one in his own sepulcher.
¹⁹ 
“But you [king of Babylon] have been cast out of your tomb (denied burial)
Like a rejected branch,
Clothed with the slain who are pierced by the sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit [into which carcasses are thrown],
Like a dead body trampled [underfoot].
²⁰ 
“You will not be united with them in burial,
Because you have destroyed your land,
You have slain your people.
May the descendants of evildoers never be named!
²¹ 
“Prepare a slaughtering place for his sons
Because of the wickedness [the sin, the injustice, the wrongdoing] of their fathers.
They must not rise and take possession of the earth,
And fill the face of the world with cities.”

²⁹ 
“Do not rejoice, O Philistia, any of you,
Because the rod [of Judah] that struck you is broken;
For out of the serpent’s root will come a viper [King Hezekiah of Judah],
And its offspring will be a flying serpent.^(C)
30 
“The firstborn of the helpless [of Judah] will feed [on My meadows],
And the needy will lie down in safety;
But I will kill your root with famine,
And your survivors will be put to death.
³¹ 
“Howl, O gate; cry, O city!
Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;
For smoke comes out of the north,
And there is no straggler in his ranks and no one stands detached [in Hezekiah’s battalions].
³² 
“Then what answer will one give the messengers of the [Philistine] nation?
That the Lord has founded Zion,
And the afflicted of His people will seek and find refuge in it.”

Because in a night Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;
Because in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.
² 
They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba;
Everyone’s head is shaved, and every beard is cut off [in mourning].^(D)
3 
In their streets they have wrapped themselves with sackcloth;
On their [flat] housetops and in their open squares
Everyone is wailing, dissolved in tears.
⁴ 
Heshbon and Elealeh [cities claimed by Moab] cry out;
Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out;
Moab’s soul trembles within him.
⁵ 
My heart cries out for Moab;
His fugitives are [fleeing] as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah.
For they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping;
For on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress over their destruction.^(E)
6 
For the waters of Nimrim are desolate.
Indeed the grass is withered, the new growth dies;
There is no green thing.
⁷ 
Therefore the abundance which they have acquired and stored away
They carry off over the Brook of the Willows.
⁸ 
For the cry of distress has echoed around the territory of Moab;
The wailing goes as far as Eglaim and the mournful cry to Beer-elim.
⁹ 
For the waters of Dimon are full of blood;
Yet I will bring even more woes on Dimon—
A lion upon those of Moab who escape and upon the remnant of the land.

⁶ 
We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride—
Even of his arrogance, his conceit, his rage,
His untruthful boasting.
⁷ 
Therefore Moab will wail for Moab; everyone will wail.
You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth,
As those who are utterly stricken and discouraged.
⁸ 
For the fields of Heshbon have languished and withered, and the vines of Sibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down [Moab’s] choice vine branches,
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered into the wilderness;
Its tendrils stretched out, they passed over [the shores of] the [Dead] Sea.
⁹ 
Therefore I (Isaiah) will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vines of Sibmah.
I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh;
For the war-cry [of the enemy] has fallen on your summer fruits and your harvest.
¹⁰ 
Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;
In the vineyards there will be no singing or joyful sound;
No treader treads out wine in the presses,
For I (God) put an end to the joyful shouting.
¹¹ 
Therefore my heart sounds like a harp [in mournful compassion] for Moab,
And my inner being mourns for Kir-hareseth.
¹² 
So it will come to pass when Moab presents himself,
When he wearies himself [worshiping] on his high place [of idolatry]
And comes to his sanctuary [of Chemosh, god of Moab] to pray,
That he will not prevail.^(H)

“Listen carefully, Damascus will cease to be a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
² 
“The cities of Aroer [east of the Jordan] are deserted;
They will be [only a refuge] for flocks to lie down in,
And there will be no one to make them afraid.
³ 
“The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram (Syria);
They will be like the [departed] glory of [her ally] the children of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of hosts.

⁴ 
“Now in that day the [former] glory of Jacob [Israel—his might, his population, his prosperity] will fade,
And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
⁵ 
“And it will be like the reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears of grain;
Yes, it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the [fertile] Valley of Rephaim.
⁶ 
“Yet gleanings will be left in the land [of Israel] like the shaking of the olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the [outermost] branches of the fruitful tree,”
Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
⁷ 
In that day man will have regard for his Maker,
And his eyes will regard the Holy One of Israel [with awe-inspired reverence].
⁸ 
And he will not have regard for the [idolatrous] altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Neither the Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah) nor the incense altars.
⁹ 
In that day the strong cities of Aram and Israel will be like ^[k]deserted places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the children of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.
¹⁰ 
Because you [Judah] have forgotten the God of your salvation
And have not remembered the Rock of your Stronghold—
Therefore you plant ^[l]lovely plants
And set the grounds with vine slips of a strange god,
¹¹ 
In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;
Yet [promising as it is] the harvest will be a heap [of ruins that passes away]
In the day of sickness and incurable pain.

¹² 
Oh, the uproar of many peoples
Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the noise of nations
Who roar like the rumbling of mighty waters!
¹³ 
The nations roar on like the roaring of many waters,
But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before the storm.
¹⁴ 
At evening time, now look, sudden terror!
Before ^[m]morning the Assyrians are no more.
This is the portion (fate) of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who pillage us.

“I will be quiet and I will look on from My dwelling place,
Like shimmering heat above the sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ 
For before the harvest, when the blossom is over
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the sprigs [without buds] with pruning knives,
And [He will] remove and cut away the spreading branches.
⁶ 
They (warriors) will be left together for the mountain birds of prey,
And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will [spend the] summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
⁷ 
At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of hosts
From a people tall and smooth (clean shaven),
From a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place [of worship] of the ^[p]name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem].^(I)

Listen carefully, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;
The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,
And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
² 
“So I will provoke Egyptians against Egyptians;
And they will fight, each one against his brother and each one against his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
³ 
“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will become exhausted within them and emptied out;
And I will confuse their strategy,
So that they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
And mediums and soothsayers.
⁴ 
“And I will hand over the Egyptians to a hard and cruel master,
And a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord God of hosts.

⁵ 
The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.
⁶ 
The canals will become foul-smelling,
The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up,
The reeds and the rushes will rot away.
⁷ 
The meadows by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile,
And all the sown fields of the Nile
Will become dry, be blown away, and be no more.
⁸ 
The fishermen will lament (cry out in grief),
And all those who cast a hook into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets upon the waters will languish.
⁹ 
Moreover, those who make linen from combed flax
And those who weave white cloth will be ashamed.
¹⁰ 
[Those who are] the pillars and foundations of Egypt will be crushed;
And all those who work for wages will be grieved in soul.

¹¹ 
The princes of ^[r]Zoan are complete fools;
The counsel of the Pharaoh’s wisest advisors has become stupid.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings?”
¹² 
Where then are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them understand what the Lord of hosts
Has purposed against Egypt [if they can].
¹³ 
The princes of Zoan have acted like fools,
The princes of Memphis are deluded [and entertain false hope];
Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes
Have led Egypt astray.
¹⁴ 
The Lord has mixed a spirit of distortion within her;
Her leaders have caused Egypt to stagger in all that she does,
As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵ 
There will be no work for Egypt
Which head or tail, [high] palm branch or [low] bulrush, may do.

As windstorms in the Negev (the South) sweep through,
So it (God’s judgment) comes from the desert, from [the hostile armies of] a terrifying land.
² 
A harsh vision has been shown to me;
The treacherous one deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media!
All the groaning [caused by Babylon’s ruthless oppressions] I [the Lord] have brought to an end.^(L)
3 
Therefore [continues Isaiah] my loins are filled with anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in childbirth;
I am so bent and bewildered that I cannot hear, I am so terrified that I cannot see.
⁴ 
My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been ^[z]turned into fear and trembling for me.^(M)
5 
They set the table [for the doomed banquet], they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;
“Rise up, captains [of Belshazzar’s court], oil your shields [for battle, for your enemy is at the gates]!”

“Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees.
⁷ 
“When he sees a chariot, horsemen in pairs,
A train of donkeys and a train of camels,
Let him pay attention and listen closely, very closely.”

“O Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower by day,
And I am stationed every night at my guard post.
⁹ 
“Now look! Here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”
And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
And all the carved images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”
¹⁰ 
O my threshed people [Judah, who must be judged and trampled down by Babylon], my afflicted of the threshing floor.
What I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel, I have [joyfully] announced to you [that Babylon is to fall].

Someone keeps calling to me from Seir (Edom),
“Watchman, what is left of the night [of Assyrian oppression]?
Watchman, what is left of the night? [How long until morning?]”
¹² 
The watchman says,
“The morning comes [only briefly], but also [comes] the night [of Babylonian oppression].
If you would ask [of me then], ask [again, if Edom really wishes to know];
Come back again.”

In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,
Caravans of Dedanites.
¹⁴ 
Bring water for the thirsty [Dedanites],
O inhabitants of the land of Tema [in Arabia];
Meet the fugitive with bread.
¹⁵ 
For they have fled from the swords,
From the drawn sword, from the bent bow
And from the press of battle and grief of war.

What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
² 
You [Jerusalem] who were full of noise,
A tumultuous city, a joyous and exuberant city;
Your slain were not slain [in a glorious death] with the sword,
Nor did they die in battle.
³ 
All your leaders have fled together [with your king],
And have been captured without the bow [which they had thrown away];
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
Though they had fled far away.
⁴ 
Therefore I say, “Look away from me;
Let me weep bitterly.
Do not try to comfort me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
⁵ 
For the Lord God of hosts has a day of panic and of tumult, of trampling, of confusion
In the Valley of Vision,
A [day of] breaking down walls
And a crying [for help] to the mountain.
⁶ 
Elam took up the quiver
With the chariots, infantry and horsemen;
And Kir uncovered the shield.
⁷ 
And it came to pass that your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
And the horsemen took their fixed positions [in an offensive array] at the gate [of Jerusalem].^(N)
8 
Then God removed the [protective] covering of Judah;
And in that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest (Solomon’s armory).^(O)
9 
You saw that the breaches
In the wall of the City of David [the citadel of Zion] were many;
You collected [within the city’s walls] the waters of the Lower Pool (Siloam).
¹⁰ 
Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem
And you tore down the houses [to get materials] to fortify the city wall [by extending it].
¹¹ 
You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the waters of the ^[ad]Old Pool,
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you recognize Him who planned it long ago.

¹² 
Therefore in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to mourning,
To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth [in humiliation].
¹³ 
Instead, there is joy and jubilation,
Killing of oxen and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating meat and drinking wine, saying,
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
¹⁴ 
But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in my ears,
“This sin absolutely will not be forgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁵ 
For the Lord God of hosts says this, “Go to this [contemptible] steward,
To ^[ae]Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household [but is building himself a tomb worthy of a king, and say to him],
¹⁶ 
‘What business do you have here?
And whom do you have here,
That you have hewn out a tomb here for yourself,
You who hew a sepulcher on the height,
You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?
¹⁷ 
‘Listen carefully, the Lord is about to hurl you away violently, O man;
And He is about to grasp you firmly
¹⁸ 
And roll you up tightly like a ball
And toss you into a vast country;
There you will die
And there your splendid chariots will be,
You shame of your master’s house.’
¹⁹ 
“I will depose you from your office,
And you will be pulled down from your position [of importance].
²⁰ 
“Then it will come to pass in that day
That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.
²¹ 
“And I will clothe him with your tunic [of distinction]
And tie your sash securely around him.
I will entrust him with your authority;
He will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
²² 
“Then I will set on his shoulder the key of the house of David;
When he opens no one will shut,
When he shuts no one will open.
²³ 
“I will drive him like a peg in a firm place,
And he will become a throne of honor and glory to his father’s house.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house, without harbor;
It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus (Kittim).
² 
Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You ^[ah]merchants of Sidon;
^[ai]Your messengers crossed the sea
³ 
And they were on great waters.
The grain of the ^[aj]Shihor, the harvest of the Nile River, was Tyre’s revenue;
And she was the market of nations.
⁴ 
Be ashamed, O Sidon [mother-city of Tyre, now like a widow bereaved of her children];
For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have neither labored nor given birth [to children];
I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.”
⁵ 
When the report reaches Egypt,
They will be in agony at the report about Tyre.
⁶ 
Cross over to Tarshish [to seek safety as exiles];
Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland [of Tyre].
⁷ 
Is this your jubilant city,
Whose origin dates back to antiquity,
Whose feet used to carry her [far away] to colonize distant places?

⁸ 
Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
⁹ 
The Lord of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty,
To bring into contempt and humiliation all the honored of the earth.
¹⁰ 
Overflow your land like [the overflow of] the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more restraint [on you to make you pay tribute to Tyre].
¹¹ 
He has stretched out His hand over the sea,
He has shaken the kingdoms;
The Lord has given a command concerning Canaan to destroy her strongholds and her fortresses [like Tyre and Sidon].

¹² 
He has said, “You shall never again exult [in triumph], O crushed Virgin Daughter of Sidon.
Arise, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

¹⁴ 
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For your stronghold [of Tyre] is destroyed.

¹⁶ 
Take a harp, walk around the city,
O forgotten prostitute;
Play the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.

⁷ 
The new wine mourns,
The vine decays;
All the merry-hearted sigh and groan.
⁸ 
The mirth of the timbrels (tambourines) ceases,
The noise of those who rejoice ends,
The joy of the harp ceases.
⁹ 
They do not drink wine with a song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰ 
The city of chaos is broken down;
Every house is shut up so that no one may enter.
¹¹ 
There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;
All jubilation is darkened,
The joy of the earth is banished.
¹² 
Horrible desolation is left in the city,
And the gate is battered into ruins.
¹³ 
For so it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,
As the shaking of an olive tree,
As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over [and only a little of the fruit remains].
¹⁴ 
They [who have escaped and remain] raise their voices, they shout for joy;
They rejoice from the [Mediterranean] Sea in the majesty of the Lord.
¹⁵ 
Therefore honor and glorify the Lord in the east [in the region of light],
The name of the Lord, the God of Israel [honor His name],
In the coastlands and islands of the [Mediterranean] Sea.
¹⁶ 
From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory and honor to the Righteous One,”
But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe to me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
Indeed, the treacherous deal very treacherously.”
¹⁷ 
Terror and pit [of destruction] and snare
Confront you, O inhabitant of the earth.
¹⁸ 
Then it will be that he who flees at the sound of terror will fall into the pit,
And he who comes up out of the pit will be caught in the snare;
For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.
¹⁹ 
The earth is broken completely apart,
The earth is split apart,
The earth is shaken violently.
²⁰ 
The earth reels back and forth like a drunkard
And sways like a shack;
Its transgression lies heavily upon it,
And it will fall and not rise again.
²¹ 
So it will happen in that day
That the Lord will visit and punish the host (fallen angels) of heaven on high,
And the kings of the earth on the earth.^(R)
22 
They will be gathered together
As prisoners [are gathered] in a dungeon;
They will be shut up in prison,
And after many days they will be visited and punished.^(S)
23 
Then the full moon will be embarrassed and the sun ashamed,
For the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
And His glory and brilliance will shine before His elders.

⁶ 
On this mountain [Zion] the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples [to welcome His reign on earth],
A banquet of aged wines—choice pieces [flavored] with marrow,
Of refined, aged wines.
⁷ 
And on this mountain He will destroy the covering that is [cast] over all peoples,
And the veil [of death] that is woven and spread over all the nations.
⁸ 
He will swallow up death [and abolish it] for all time.
And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
And He will take away the disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.^(T)
9 
It will be said in that day,
“Indeed, this is our God for whom we have waited that He would save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
Let us shout for joy and rejoice in His salvation.”
¹⁰ 
For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain [Zion],
And Moab will be trampled down in his place
As straw is trampled down in the [filthy] water of a manure pile.
¹¹ 
And Moab will spread out his hands in the middle of the filth
As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
But the Lord will humiliate his pride in spite of the [skillful] movements of his hands.
¹² 
The high fortifications of your walls He will bring down,
Lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

“We have a strong city;
He sets up salvation as walls and ramparts.
² 
“Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter,
The one that ^[aq]remains faithful and trustworthy.
³ 
“You will keep in ^[ar]perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both ^[as]inclination and character],
Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].
⁴ 
“Trust [confidently] in the Lord forever [He is your fortress, your shield, your banner],
For the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].
⁵ 
“For He has thrown down the [arrogant] ones who dwell on high, the lofty and inaccessible city;
He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He hurls it to the dust.
⁶ 
“The foot will trample it,
Even the feet of the suffering, and the steps of the helpless.”

⁷ 
The way of the righteous [those in right-standing with God—living in moral and spiritual integrity] is smooth and level;
O Upright One, make a level path for the just and righteous.
⁸ 
Indeed, in the path of Your judgments, O Lord,
We have waited expectantly for You;
Your name, even Your memory, is the desire and deep longing of our souls.
⁹ 
In the night my soul longs for You [O Lord],
Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
For [only] when Your judgments are experienced on the earth
Will the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰ 
Though the wicked is shown compassion and favor,
He does not learn righteousness;
In the land of uprightness he deals unjustly,
And refuses to see the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹ 
Though Your hand is lifted up [to strike], O Lord, the wicked do not see it.
Let them see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame;
Indeed, let the fire reserved for Your enemies consume them.
¹² 
Lord, You will establish peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all that we have done.
¹³ 
O Lord our God, other masters besides You have ruled over us;
But through You alone we confess Your name.
¹⁴ 
The [wicked] dead will not live [again], the spirits of the dead will not rise and return;
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And You have wiped out every memory of them [every trace of them].
¹⁵ 
You have increased the nation, O Lord;
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.
¹⁶ 
O Lord, they sought You in distress;
They managed only a prayerful whisper
When Your discipline was upon them.
¹⁷ 
As a woman with child approaches the time to give birth,
She is in pain and struggles and cries out in her labor,
So we were before You, O Lord.
¹⁸ 
We have been with child, we have twisted and struggled in labor;
We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish salvation for the earth,
Nor were inhabitants of the world ^[at]born.
¹⁹ 
Your dead will live;
^[au]Their dead bodies will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy!
For your dew is a dew of [celestial] light [heavenly, supernatural],
And the earth will give birth to the spirits of the dead.^(U)

²⁰ 
Come, my people, enter your chambers
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide for a little while
Until the [Lord’s] ^[av]wrath is past.
²¹ 
Listen carefully, the Lord is about to come out of His [heavenly] place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing];
The earth will reveal the [innocent] blood shed upon her
And will no longer cover her slain.

² 
In that day [it will be said of the redeemed nation of Israel],
“A vineyard of ^[aw]wine, sing in praise of it!
³ 
“I, the Lord, am its Keeper;
I water it every moment.
So that no one will harm it,
I guard it night and day.
⁴ 
“I have no wrath.
Should anyone give Me briars and thorns in battle,
I would step on them, I would set them all on fire.
⁵ 
“Or let him (Israel) cling to My strength and rely on My protection [My stronghold],
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him make peace with Me.”
^6 
[ax]In the generations to come Jacob will take root;
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the surface of the world with fruit.^(V)

⁷ 
Like the striking ^[ay]by Him who has struck them, has He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?
⁸ 
You contended with them by exile, by driving them away [from Canaan];
He has expelled them with His fierce wind on the day of the east wind.
⁹ 
Therefore through this the wickedness [the sin, the injustice, the wrongdoing] of Jacob (Israel) will be atoned for and forgiven;
And this will be ^[az]the full price [that God requires] for taking away his sin:
When Israel makes all the stones of the [pagan] altars like crushed chalk stones;
When the Asherim and the incense altars will not stand.
¹⁰ 
For the fortified city is isolated,
A settlement deserted and abandoned like the desert;
There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and ^[ba]feed on its branches.
¹¹ 
When its branches are dry, they are broken off;
The women come and ^[bb]make a fire with them.
For they are not a people of understanding,
Therefore He who made them will not have compassion on them,
And He who created them will not be gracious to them.

⁹ 
They say “To whom would He teach knowledge?
And to whom would He explain the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?
¹⁰ 
“For He says,
‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
Rule upon rule, rule upon rule,
Here a little, there a little.’”
¹¹ 
Indeed, the Lord will teach this people [in a more humiliating way]
By [men with] stammering lips and a foreign tongue,
¹² 
He who said to them, “This is the place of quiet, give rest to the weary,”
And, “This is the resting place,” yet they would not listen.
¹³ 
Therefore the word of the Lord to them will be [merely monotonous repetitions]:
“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
Rule upon rule, rule upon rule,
Here a little, there a little.”
That they may go and stumble backward, and be broken, ensnared, and taken captive.

“Listen carefully, I am laying in Zion a Stone, a tested Stone,
A precious Cornerstone for the [secure] foundation, firmly placed.
He who believes [who trusts in, relies on, and adheres to that Stone] will not ^[bd]be disturbed or give way [in sudden panic].^(X)
17 
“I will make justice the measuring line
And righteousness the mason’s level;
Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies
And waters will flood over the secret [hiding] place.
¹⁸ 
“Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol (the place of the dead) will not stand;
When the overwhelming scourge passes through,
Then you will become its trampling ground.
¹⁹ 
“As often as it passes through, it will seize you;
For morning after morning it will pass through, by day and by night,
And it will be sheer terror to understand what it means.”
²⁰ 
For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
And the blanket is too narrow to wrap around oneself [and likewise all their preparations are inadequate].
²¹ 
For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He will be stirred up as in the Valley of Gibeon,
To do His work, His unusual and incredible work,
And to accomplish His work, His extraordinary work.^(Y)
22 
Now do not carry on as scoffers,
Or the bands which bind you will be made stronger;
For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts [a decree]
Of decisive destruction on all the earth.

²³ 
Listen and hear my voice;
Listen carefully and hear my words.
²⁴ 
Does the farmer plow all day to plant seed?
Does he continually dig furrows and harrow his ground [after it is prepared]?
²⁵ 
When he has leveled its surface,
Does he not sow [the seed of] dill and scatter cumin,
And plant wheat in rows,
And barley in its [intended] place and ^[be]rye within its border?
²⁶ 
For his God instructs [him correctly] and teaches him properly.
²⁷ 
For dill is not threshed with a sharp threshing sledge,
Nor is a cartwheel rolled over cumin;
But dill is beaten out with a staff, and cumin with a rod.
²⁸ 
Bread grain is crushed fine,
Indeed, the farmer does not continue to thresh it forever.
Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it,
He does not thresh it longer.
²⁹ 
This also comes from the Lord of hosts,
Who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great.

⁵ 
But the multitude of your enemies [that assault you] will become like fine dust,
And the multitude of the tyrants like the chaff which ^[bi]blows away;
And it will happen in an instant, suddenly [that your enemy is destroyed].
⁶ 
You will be punished by the Lord of hosts with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.
⁷ 
And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel (Jerusalem),
Even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,
Will be like a dream, a vision of the night.
⁸ 
It will be as when a hungry man dreams
That he is eating,
But when he awakens, his ^[bj]hunger is not satisfied;
Or as when a thirsty man dreams
That he is drinking,
But when he awakens, in fact, he is faint
And his thirst is not quenched.
So will the multitude of all the nations be
Who fight against Mount Zion.

⁹ 
Stop and take some time and wonder [at this prophecy],
Blind yourselves and be blinded [at its fulfillment by your spiritual incompetence].
They are drunk, but not from wine;
They stagger, but not from strong drink.
¹⁰ 
For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep.
He has closed your eyes, [you who are] the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, [you who are] the seers.

“Because this nation approaches [Me only] with their words
And honors Me [only] with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me is a tradition that is learned by rote [without any regard for its meaning],
¹⁴ 
Therefore, listen carefully, I will again do marvelous and amazing things with this people, wonderful and astonishing things;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the understanding of their discerning men will be hidden.”

¹⁵ 
Woe (judgment is coming) to those who [try to] deeply hide their plans from the Lord,
Whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And who say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”
¹⁶ 
You turn things upside down [with your perversity]!
Shall the potter be considered equal with the clay,
That the thing that is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or the thing that is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

“Jacob will not be ashamed, nor will his face turn pale [with disappointment because of his children’s degenerate behavior];
²³ 
For when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst,
They will sanctify My Name;
They will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
And will stand in awe and reverent fear of the God of Israel.
²⁴ 
“Those who err in mind will know the truth,
And those who criticize and murmur discontentedly will accept instruction.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
From ^[bm]where come lioness and lion, viper and [fiery] flying serpent,
They carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys
And their treasures on the humps of camels,
To a people (Egyptians) who cannot benefit them.
⁷ 
For Egypt’s help is worthless and good for nothing.
Therefore, I have called her
“Rahab Who Has Been Exterminated.”
⁸ 
Now, go, write it on a tablet before them
And inscribe it on a scroll,
So that it may serve in the time to come
As a witness [against them] forevermore.
⁹ 
For this is a rebellious people, lying sons,
Sons who refuse to listen to
The law and instruction of the Lord;
¹⁰ 
Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions from God”;
And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right!
Speak to us pleasant things and smooth words,
Prophesy [deceitful] illusions [that we will enjoy].
¹¹ 
“Get out of the [true] way, turn aside from the path [of God],
Stop bothering us with the Holy One of Israel.”

“Because you have refused and rejected this word [of Mine]
And have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them,
¹³ 
Therefore this wickedness [this sin, this injustice, this wrongdoing] will be to you
Like a crack [in a wall] about to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant,
¹⁴ 
“Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar,
Crushed so savagely
that there cannot be found among its pieces a potsherd [large enough]
To take [coals of] fire from a fireplace,
Or to scoop water from a cistern.”

“In returning [to Me] and rest you shall be saved,
In quietness and confident trust is your strength.”
But you were not willing,
¹⁶ 
And you said, “No! We will flee on horses!”
Therefore you will flee [from your enemies]!
And [you said], “We will ride on swift horses!”
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
¹⁷ 
A thousand of you will flee at the threat of one man;
You will flee at the threat of five,
Until you are left like a flag on the top of a mountain,
And like a signal on a hill.

²⁷ 
Now look, the ^[bp]name of the Lord comes from far away,
Burning with His anger, and heavy with ^[bq]smoke;
His lips are full of ^[br]indignation,
And His tongue is like a consuming fire.
²⁸ 
His breath is like an overflowing river,
Which reaches to the neck,
To sift the nations back and forth in a sieve [of disaster],
And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin.
²⁹ 
You will have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept,
And joy of heart as when one marches [in procession] with a flute,
To go to the [temple on the] mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.
³⁰ 
And the Lord will make His majestic voice heard,
And show the descending of His arm [striking] in [His] fierce anger,
And in the flame of a devouring fire,
In the crashing sound of heavy rain, cloudburst, and hailstones.
³¹ 
For at the voice of the Lord the Assyrians will be terrified,
When He strikes [them] with the rod.
³² 
And every blow of the rod of punishment,
Which the Lord will lay on them,
Will be to the music of Israel’s tambourines and lyres;
And in battles, brandishing weapons, He will fight Assyria.
³³ 
For ^[bs]Topheth [in Hinnom] has long been ready;
Indeed, it has been prepared for the [Assyrian] king.
He has made it deep and wide,
A pit of fire with plenty of wood;
The breath of the Lord, like a river of brimstone (blazing sulfur), kindles and fans it.^(AA)

“As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey,
And though a large group of shepherds is called out against him
He will not be terrified at their voice nor cringe at their noise,
So the Lord of hosts will come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”
⁵ 
Like flying birds, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem;
He will protect and save it,
He will pass over and rescue it.

⁸ 
Then the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of man will devour him.
And he will flee from the sword [of God],
And his young men will become forced labor.
⁹ 
“His rock [his stronghold] will pass away because of panic,
And his princes will be terrified at the [sight of the battle] standard,”
Declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

⁹ 
Rise up, you women who are carefree,
And hear my voice,
You confident and unsuspecting daughters!
Listen to what I am saying.
¹⁰ 
In little more than a year
You will tremble [with anxiety], you unsuspecting and complacent women;
For the vintage has ended,
And the harvest will not come.
¹¹ 
Tremble, you women who are carefree;
Tremble with fear, you complacent ones!
Strip, undress and wear sackcloth on your waist [in grief],
¹² 
Beat your breasts [in mourning] for the beautiful fields, for the fruitful vine,
¹³ 
For the land of my people growing over with thorns and briars—
Yes, [mourn] for all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
¹⁴ 
For the palace has been abandoned, the populated city deserted;
The hill [of the city] and the watchtower have become caves [for wild animals] forever,
A delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
¹⁵ 
Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high,
And the wilderness becomes a fertile field,
And the fertile field is valued as a forest.^(AB)
16 
Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness will live in the fertile field.
¹⁷ 
And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
And the result of righteousness will be quietness and confident trust forever.
¹⁸ 
Then my people will live in a peaceful surrounding,
And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places.
¹⁹ 
But it will hail, when the forest comes down,
And the [capital] city will fall in utter humiliation.
²⁰ 
Blessed (happy, fortunate) are you who cast your seed upon all waters [^[bu]when the river overflows its banks and irrigates the land],
You who allow the ox and the donkey to roam freely.

¹³ 
“You who are far away, hear what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
¹⁴ 
The sinners in Zion are terrified;
Trembling has seized the godless.
[They cry] “Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting burning?”
¹⁵ 
He who walks righteously and speaks with integrity,
Who rejects gain from fraud and from oppression,
Who shakes his hand free from the taking of bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed
And shuts his eyes to avoid looking upon evil;
¹⁶ 
He will dwell on the heights,
His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks,
His bread will be given him;
His water will be permanent.

¹⁷ 
Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;
They will see a far-distant land.
¹⁸ 
Your mind will meditate on the terror [asking]:
“Where is he who counts?
Where is he who weighs [the tribute]?
Where is he who counts the towers?”
¹⁹ 
You will no longer see the fierce and insolent people,
A people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends,
Of a strange and stammering tongue which no one understands.
²⁰ 
Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts and observances;
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a undisturbed settlement,
A tent which will not be taken down;
Not one of its stakes will ever be pulled up,
Nor any of its ropes be severed.
²¹ 
But there the mighty and magnificent Lord will be for us
A place of broad rivers and streams,
Where no oar-driven boat will go,
And on which no mighty and stately ship will pass.
²² 
For the Lord is our Judge,
The Lord is our Ruler,
The Lord is our King;
He will save us.^(AC)
23 
Your ship’s ropes (tackle) hang loose;
They cannot hold the base of their mast firmly,
Nor spread out the sail.
Then an abundance of spoil and plunder will be divided;
Even the lame will take the plunder.
²⁴ 
And no inhabitant [of Zion] will say, “I am sick”;
The people who dwell there will be forgiven their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing].

Not one of these [creatures] will be missing;
None will lack its mate.
For His mouth has commanded,
And His Spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷ 
The Lord has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided and apportioned ^[cb]Edom to the wild beasts by measuring-line.
They will possess it forever;
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

“She has shown contempt for you and mocked you,
The Virgin Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem);
She has shaken her head behind you,
The Daughter of Jerusalem!
²³ 
“Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice
And haughtily lifted up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
²⁴ 
“Through your servants you have taunted and defied the Lord,
And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have gone up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars and its choicest cypress trees;
And I will go to its remotest height, its most luxuriant and thickest forest.
²⁵ 
‘I dug wells and drank [foreign] waters,
And with the sole of my feet I dried up
All the canals [of the Nile] of Egypt.’
²⁶ 
“Have you not heard [says the God of Israel]
That I did it long ago,
That I planned it in ancient times?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you [king of Assyria] would [be My instrument to] turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
²⁷ 
“Therefore their inhabitants had little power,
They were terrorized and shamed;
They were like the grass of the field and the green vegetation,
Like grass on the housetops and like a field [of grain] scorched before it is grown.
²⁸ 
“But I know your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in [every detail of your life],
And your raging against Me.
²⁹ 
“Because your raging against Me
And your arrogance has come up to My ears,
I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your ^[ck]mouth,
And I will turn you back by the way you came.

¹⁰ 
I said, “In mid-life
I am to go through the gates of Sheol (the place of the dead),
I am to be summoned, deprived of the remainder of my years.”
¹¹ 
I said, “I will not see the Lord
The Lord in the land of the living;
I will no longer see man among the inhabitants of the world.
¹² 
“My dwelling (body) is pulled up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent;
I have rolled up my life as a weaver [rolls up the finished web].
He cuts me free from the warp [of the loom];
From day to night You bring me to an end.
¹³ 
“I lay down until morning.
Like a lion, so He breaks all my bones;
From day until night You bring me to an end.
¹⁴ 
“Like a swallow, like a crane, so I chirp;
I coo like a dove.
My eyes look wistfully upward;
O Lord, I am oppressed, take my side and be my security.

¹⁵ 
“What shall I say?
For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;
I will wander aimlessly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
¹⁶ 
“O Lord, by these things men live,
And in all these is the life of my spirit;
Restore me to health and let me live!
¹⁷ 
“Indeed, it was for my own well-being that I had such bitterness;
But You have loved back my life from the pit of nothingness (destruction),
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
¹⁸ 
“For Sheol cannot praise or thank You,
Death cannot praise You and rejoice in You;
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
¹⁹ 
“It is the living who give praise and thanks to You, as I do today;
A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.
²⁰ 
“The Lord is ready to save me;
Therefore we will play my songs on stringed instruments
All the days of our lives at the house of the Lord.”

³ 
A voice of one is calling out,
“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness [remove the obstacles];
Make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God.^(AR)
4 
“Every valley shall be raised,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged places a broad valley.
⁵ 
“And the glory and majesty and splendor of the Lord will be revealed,
And all humanity shall see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.”^(AS)
6 
A voice says, “Call out [prophesy].”
Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
[The voice answered:] All humanity is [as frail as] grass, and all that makes it attractive [its charm, its loveliness] is [momentary] like the flower of the field.
⁷ 
The grass withers, the flower fades,
When the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Most certainly [all] the people are [like] grass.
⁸ 
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.^(AT)

⁹ 
O Zion, herald of good news,
Get up on a high mountain.
O Jerusalem, herald of good news,
Lift up your voice with strength,
Lift it up, do not fear;
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”^(AU)
10 
Listen carefully, the Lord God will come with might,
And His arm will rule for Him.
Most certainly His reward is with Him,
And His restitution accompanies Him.^(AV)
11 
He will protect His flock like a shepherd,
He will gather the lambs in His arm,
He will carry them in His bosom;
He will gently and carefully lead those nursing their young.

¹² 
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens with a span [of the hand],
And calculated the dust of the earth with a ^[cs]measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
¹³ 
Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or has taught Him as His counselor?^(AW)
14 
With whom did He consult and who enlightened Him?
Who taught Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And informed Him of the way of understanding?
¹⁵ 
In fact, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
Now look, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
¹⁶ 
And [the forests of] Lebanon cannot supply sufficient fuel to start a fire,
Nor are its wild beasts enough for a burnt offering [worthy of the Lord].
¹⁷ 
All the nations are as nothing before Him,
They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

¹⁸ 
To whom then will you liken God?
Or with what likeness will you compare Him?^(AX)
19 
As for the cast image (idol), a metalworker casts it,
A goldsmith overlays it with gold
And a silversmith casts its silver chains.
²⁰ 
He who is too impoverished for such an offering [to give to his god]
Chooses a tree that will not rot;
He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman
To [carve and] set up an idol that will not totter.

²¹ 
Do you [who worship idols] not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth [the omnipotence of God and the stupidity of bowing to idols]?^(AY)
22 
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
[It is He] who stretches out the heavens like a veil
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
²³ 
It is He who reduces dignitaries to nothing,
Who makes the judges (rulers) of the earth meaningless (useless).
²⁴ 
Scarcely have they been planted,
Scarcely have they been sown,
Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,
But He merely blows on them, and they wither,
And a strong wind carries them away like stubble.
²⁵ 
“To whom then will you compare Me
That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶ 
Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these heavenly bodies,
The One who brings out their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one is missing.

²⁷ 
Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?
²⁸ 
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become tired or grow weary;
There is no searching of His understanding.
²⁹ 
He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who has no might He increases power.^(AZ)
30 
Even youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
³¹ 
But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him]
Will gain new strength and renew their power;
They will lift up their wings [and rise up close to God] like eagles [rising toward the sun];
They will run and not become weary,
They will walk and not grow tired.^(BA)

⁵ 
The islands and coastlands have seen and they fear;
The ends of the earth tremble;
They have drawn near and have come.
⁶ 
They each help his neighbor
And say to his brother [as he fashions his idols], “Be of good courage!”
⁷ 
So the craftsman encourages the goldsmith,
And he who smooths metal with the smith’s hammer encourages him who beats the anvil,
Saying of the soldering (welding), “That is good”;
And he fastens the idol with nails,
So that it will not totter nor be moved.
⁸ 
“But you, Israel, My servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
The offspring of Abraham My friend,^(BC)
9 
You whom I [the Lord] have ^[ct]taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its remotest parts
And said to you, ‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and have not rejected you [even though you are exiled].
¹⁰ 
‘Do not fear [anything], for I am with you;
Do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, be assured I will help you;
I will certainly take hold of you with My righteous right hand [a hand of justice, of power, of victory, of salvation].’^(BD)
11 
“Indeed, all those who are angry with you will be put to shame and humiliated;
Those who strive against you will be as nothing and will perish.
¹² 
“You shall search for those who quarrel with you, but will not find them;
They who war against you will be as nothing, as nothing at all.
¹³ 
“For I the Lord your God keep hold of your right hand; [I am the Lord],
Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’
¹⁴ 
“Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel;
I will help you,” declares the Lord, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵ 
“In fact, I have made of you a new, sharp ^[cu]threshing implement with sharp edges;
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
And make the hills like chaff.
¹⁶ 
“You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,
And a high wind will scatter them;
But you will rejoice in the Lord,
You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ 
“The poor and needy are seeking water, but there is none;
Their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the Lord, will answer them Myself;
I, the God of Israel, will not neglect them.
¹⁸ 
“I will open rivers on the barren heights
And springs in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a reed-pool of water
And the dry land springs of water.