Isaiah 28-40
Tree of Life Version
A Cornerstone of Zion
28 Oy, the proud crown of Ephraim’s drunks!
Its glorious beauty is a fading flower,
which is at the head of the fertile valleys
of those overcome with wine!
2 Behold, Adonai is strong and mighty,
like a hailstorm, a destructive tempest,
like a downpour of overflowing water,
He hurls it down to earth with His hand.
3 The proud crown of Ephraim’s drunks
will be trampled underfoot.
4 The glorious beauty is a fading flower
which is at the head of the fertile valley,
like a first-ripe fig before summer—
whoever sees it, swallows it up while it is still in his palm.
5 In that day Adonai-Tzva’ot
will be a crown of glory,
a diadem of beauty
to the remnant of His people,
6 a spirit of judgment for him
who sits on the judgment seat,
and strength for those
turning back the battle at the gate.
7 But these also reel from wine
and stagger from strong drink
—the kohen and the prophet reel from strong drink—
are confused because of wine,
they stagger because of strong drink,
they are muddled in vision,
they stumble in judgment.
8 Since all the tables are full of the filth of vomit,
no place is left.
9 To whom will He teach knowledge?
To whom will He explain the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?
10 For it must be ‘precept upon precept,
precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.’
11 For through stammering lips and a foreign tongue
He will speak to this people,
12 To whom He said,
“Here is rest, give rest to the weary,
here is repose”—but they would not listen.
13 So the word of Adonai is to them
‘precept on precept, precept on precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.’
So they walk, and fall backward,
and are broken, trapped, and captured.
14 Therefore hear the word of Adonai, you scoffers,
who rule this people who are in Jerusalem:
15 “Because you have said,
‘We cut a covenant with death,
we made a pact with Sheol,
so when the overflowing scourge passes through,
it won’t come for us,
for we have made lies our refuge,
and hid ourselves in falsehood’—
16 Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim:
‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a tested stone,
a costly cornerstone,[a] a firm foundation—
whoever trusts will not flee in haste.[b]
17 But I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line.
Hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and water will overflow the hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death is annulled,
and your pact with Sheol will not stand.
An overflowing scourge will pass through
and you will be its trampling place.
19 As often as it passes through, it will seize you—
morning by morning, by day and by night passing through.
It will be sheer terror
to understand the message.’”
20 For too short is the bed to stretch on,
too narrow the blanket to wrap up in.
21 For Adonai will rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He will quake with awe as at the valley of Gibeon,
to do His deed, His strange deed,
and to work His work, His extraordinary work.
22 So now, stop your scoffing,
lest your shackles be strengthened!
For I have heard from Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot
of destruction determined upon the whole land.
23 Give ear and hear my voice!
Pay attention and hear my words.
24 Does a plowman plow all day to sow the seed?
Does he continually break open
and harrow his ground?
25 No! When he has leveled its surface,
he scatters dill and sows cumin,
plants wheat in rows,
places barley, and rye on its border.
26 For his God teaches him judgment,
instructing him.
27 For dill is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin.
Rather, dill is beaten out with a staff,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Bread grain is crushed, but not endlessly.
Rumbling cart wheels and horses over it
would only crush it to powder.
29 This also comes from Adonai-Tzva’ot:
Wonderful is His counsel, great is His wisdom.
Night Vision of Ariel
29 Oy, Ariel[c], Ariel! City where David camped.
Year to year again—festivals in a cycle.
2 But I will distress Ariel.
There will be lamenting and moaning—
then will she be like Ariel to Me?
3 I will encamp against you all around,
I will set up siege-works against you
and will raise up ramps against you.
4 You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground.
From the dust where you are prostrate your speech will come.
Your voice will be like a ghost out of the ground,
and your speech will whisper out of the dust.
5 Yet the multitude of your foes will become like fine dust,
and the multitude of the terrifying like chaff that passes away.
It will happen in an instant, suddenly.
6 You will be visited by Adonai-Tzva’ot
with thunder, earthquake, huge noise,
whirlwind and storm-wind, and the flame of a consuming fire.
7 It will be like a dream, a night vision:
the multitude of all the nations warring against Ariel,
yes, all warring against her,
the ramparts around her and her besiegers.
8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming and behold, he is eating,
but awakes with his hunger unsatisfied,
or like a thirsty man dreaming and behold, he is drinking,
but awakes faint, his soul thirsting.
So it will be with the multitude of all the nations
warring against Mount Zion.
9 Wait, and be astounded!
Blind yourselves, and be blind!
Drunk, but not with wine,
Stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For Adonai has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep,
and has shut your eyes—the prophets,
and covered your heads—the seers.
11 So this entire vision is for you like the words of a sealed scroll, which they give to one who knows books, saying, “Read this, please,” but he says, “I can’t, because it’s sealed.” 12 Then the scroll is given to one who does not know books, saying, “Read this, please,” but he says, “I don’t know books.”
13 So Adonai says,
“Since these people draw near with their mouths
and honor Me with their lips,
yet their hearts are far from Me,
and their fear of Me is a mitzvah taught by men.[d]
14 Therefore, behold, once more I will do a marvelous work among this people—
a marvel and a wonder—
so the wisdom of their wise will perish,
and the discernment of their discerning will be concealed.”
15 Oy, those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from Adonai!
Their works are in the dark.
They say, “Who sees us?
Who knows us?”
16 Your perversity!
Should the potter be regarded the same as the clay?
Should the thing made say to its maker,
“You did not make me”?
Or the thing formed say of its former,
“You have no understanding?”[e]
17 Will it not be just a very little while
before Lebanon turns into a garden,
and a garden will seem like a forest?
18 In that day the deaf will hear words of a book,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The meek will add to their joy in Adonai,
and the needy of humanity will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the ruthless will come to an end
and the scorner will be finished,
and all watching to do evil cut off.
21 Those who make a man out to be guilty with a word,
and trap him who reproves at the gate,
and deny justice with meaninglessness.
22 Therefore, thus says Adonai, Redeemer of Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
no longer will his face grow pale;
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 stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will learn instruction.”
No Help In Egypt
30 “Oy, the rebellious children”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“Who carry out a plan, but not Mine,
and make an alliance, but not of My Ruach,
so they may add sin to sin,
2 who go down to Egypt,
but did not consult Me,
to take refuge in Pharaoh’s stronghold,
to seek shelter in Egypt’s shadow.
3 Therefore Pharaoh’s stronghold will become your shame,
and the shelter in Egypt’s shadow will become your disgrace.
4 For though their princes are at Zoan
and their ambassadors reach Hanes,
5 they will all be ashamed of a people
who cannot profit them.
They are neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”
6 The burden concerning the beasts of the Negev[f]:
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
in which are lioness and lion,
viper and flying serpent,
they are carrying their riches on the backs of young donkeys,
their treasures on camel humps,
to a people who cannot profit them.
7 Egypt’s help is futile and pointless.
Therefore I have called her
“Rahab who just sits.”
Witness Against False Prophets
8 Now go, write it on a tablet for them
and inscribe it in a scroll,
so that it may be as a witness
for the last day, forever.
9 For this is a rebellious people, lying children,
children unwilling to obey the Torah of Adonai.
10 They say to the seers,
“Do not see,”
and to the prophets,
“Do not prophesy to us what is right.
Speak to us smooth words.
Prophesy illusions.
11 Get out of the way!
Turn away from the path!
Let’s hear no more about
the Holy One of Israel.”
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
“Because you despise this word,
and trust in oppression
and rely on perversity,
13 therefore this sin will be to you
like a crack bulging in a high wall, about to fall—
its collapse comes suddenly,
in an instant!
14 Its collapse is like smashing a clay jar,
so ruthlessly shattered
that a shard will not be found among the pieces
to take fire from the hearth
or scoop water from the cistern.”
Longing to Be Gracious
15 For thus says Adonai Elohim, the Holy One of Israel:
“By repentance and rest you are saved,
in quietness and trust is your strength—
but you were not willing.”
16 But you said, “No, we will flee on horses!”
Therefore you will flee.
And, “We will ride on swift horses!”
Therefore your pursuers will be swift.
17 A thousand will flee at the threat of one,
at the threat of five you will flee,
until you are left
like a flag on the top of a mountain,
and like a banner on a hill.
18 Therefore Adonai is longing to be gracious to you.
Thus He will be exalted, so He may have mercy on you.
For Adonai is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.
19 For the people of Zion who are dwelling in Jerusalem will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When He hears you, He will answer. 20 Though Adonai gives you the bread of adversity and the water of oppression, your teachers will no longer be hidden, but your eyes will see your teachers. 21 Your ears will hear a word behind you saying:
“This is the way, walk in it.
When you turn to the right, or when you turn to the left.”
22 You will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your metal images covered with gold. You will throw them away like a menstrual cloth. You will say, “Be gone!”
23 Then He will give you rain for your seed, which you will sow in the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed in wide-open pasture. 24 The oxen and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
25 There will be, on every high mountain and on every lofty hill,
streams running with water—
on a day of the great slaughter,
when the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—
like the light of seven days—
in the day Adonai binds up the brokenness of His people,
and heals the wounds He inflicted.
27 Look, Adonai’s Name comes from afar,
burning with His anger, in thick rising smoke,
His lips full of indignation,
His tongue like a consuming fire,
28 His Ruach like an overflowing torrent
rising up to the neck,
to sift the nations with the sieve of the worthless,
to put in the jaws of the peoples
a bridle that leads away.
29 You will have songs
as in the night when you keep a holy festival,
and gladness of heart
like one walking with the flute
to go to the mountain of Adonai,
to the Rock of Israel.
Punishing Rod
30 Adonai will make His glorious voice heard,
and reveal His arm descending
with fierce fury in a consuming fire,
in cloudburst, rainstorm and hailstones.
31 For at the voice of Adonai, Assyria will be terrified—
when He strikes with the rod.
32 Every stroke of His punishing rod
that Adonai brings down on him
—with tambourines and harps,
and battles brandishing His arm—
He will fight against them.
33 For Topheth[g] has long been ready,
prepared for the king,
its fire pit made deep and wide,
a pyre of fire with plenty of wood.
The breath of Adonai,
like a torrent of brimstone,
sets it aflame.
Egypt’s Horses Will Stumble
31 Oy, those going down to Egypt for help.
They are relying on horses,
trusting in chariots since they are many,
and in horsemen since they are very mighty,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
nor seek Adonai!
2 Yet He is also wise.
He brings disaster, and does not take back His words.
He rises against the house of evildoers,
against help for workers of iniquity.
3 Now Egyptians are men and not God,
and their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When Adonai stretches out His hand,
both he who helps will stumble
and he who is helped will fall,
and both will perish together.
A Lion Protects Zion
4 For thus says Adonai to me:
“As a lion or a young lion
growls over its prey,
though a company of shepherds
is called out against him
—their voice does not disturb him,
nor does their noise upset him—
so Adonai-Tzva’ot will come down
to fight on Mount Zion, on its hill.
5 Like hovering birds,
so Adonai-Tzva’ot will protect Jerusalem.
By protecting, He will deliver.
By passing over, He will save.”
6 Return to the One from whom rebellion is so deep, Bnei-Yisrael.
7 For in that day everyone will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which you made for yourselves with your hands of sin.
8 “Then Assyria will fall, not by a sword of man,
so a sword not of man will devour him
and he will flee from the sword.
His young men will be put to forced labor.
9 His rock will pass away because of fear.
His princes will be afraid of the banner”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
His fire is in Zion,
and His furnace is in Jerusalem.
Reign in Righteousness
32 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness
and princes will rule in justice.
2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind
and a shelter from the storm,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a massive rock in a weary land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will pay attention.
4 The heart of the hasty will understand knowledge,
and the tongue of stammerers will speak fluently, clearly.
5 No longer will a fool be called noble,
or a scoundrel said to be a gentleman.
6 For the fool speaks foolishness
and his heart works wickedness,
to practice ungodliness,
and speak error about Adonai,
to deprive the hungry of food
and withhold drink from the thirsty.
7 The scoundrel’s methods are evil—
he makes up wicked schemes
to destroy the poor with lies,
even when the plea of the needy is just.
8 But the noble devises noble plans,
and for noble causes he stands.
9 Rise up, you women at ease,
And hear my voice.
You complacent daughters,
give ear to my words.
10 Within a year and a few days
you will shudder, complacent ones.
For the grape harvest will fail
and the gathering will not come.
11 Tremble, you women at ease!
Shudder, you complacent ones!
Strip and make yourselves bare,
and put sackcloth on your waist.
12 Beat your breasts lamenting for pleasant fields,
or fruitful vine,
13 for the land of my people,
where thorns and briars come up,
for all the joyful houses
of the jubilant city.
14 For the palace will be abandoned;
the bustling city will be deserted;
the citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,
a delight of wild donkeys,
a pasture for flocks,
15 until the Ruach is poured out on us from on high,[h]
and the desert becomes a garden,
and a garden seems like a forest.
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in the garden.
17 The result of righteousness will be shalom
and the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
18 My people will live in a peaceful place,
in secure dwellings,
quiet resting places.
19 Then hail will flatten the forest;
and the city will be utterly laid low.
20 Blessed are you, sowing by all waters,
letting the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.
Ambassadors of Peace Weep Bitterly
33 Oy, you destroyer, never destroyed,
you traitor, never betrayed!
When you have stopped destroying,
you will be destroyed;
and when you finish betraying,
they will betray you.
2 Adonai, be gracious to us!
We long for You.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in time of trouble.
3 From the noise of tumult people will flee;
When You lift Yourself up, the nations will be scattered.
4 Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
like a swarm of locusts, they are rushing over it.
5 Adonai is exalted, for He dwells on high!
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 It will be your time of faithfulness,
a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge—
the fear of Adonai is His treasure.
7 Behold, heroes cry outside.
Ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
8 Highways are desolate;
travel has ceased;
covenant is broken;
cities are despised;
there is no regard for humanity.
9 The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is shamed and withers;
Sharon is like a wilderness;
Bashan and Carmel are shaken bare.
Our Eternal Judge Arises
10 “Now I will arise,” says Adonai.
“Now I will be exalted.
Now I will lift Myself up.
11 You conceive chaff,
you will give birth to stubble.
My breath is a fire that will consume you.
12 Then peoples will be burned as lime,
like thorns cut down, burned in the fire.
13 Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done,
and you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
14 Sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?”
“Who among us can live with everlasting burnings?”
15 One who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly,
who refuses unjust gain by extortion,
who shakes his hands free of bribes,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
and shuts his eyes from looking on evil.
16 He will dwell on the heights—
his refuge will be an impregnable cliff.
His bread will be provided,
his water assured.
17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty.
They will gaze at a far-distant land.
18 Your heart will meditate on terror:
“Where is the counter?”
“Where is the weigher?”
“Where is the counter of towers?”
19 You will no longer see the fierce people,
the people of speech too obscure to comprehend,
with a stammering tongue no one understands.
20 Look upon Zion, city of our Festivals.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem as a quiet home,
a tent that will never be folded,
Its stakes never pulled up,
its cords never broken.
21 For there the majestic One, Adonai, will be for us—
a place of rivers and wide canals,
on which no boat with oars will go,
nor any mighty ship will travel by.
22 For Adonai is our Judge,
Adonai is our Lawgiver,
Adonai is our King—
He will save us!
23 Your cords hang slack,
not holding the mast in place firmly,
nor spreading out the sail.
Then abundant spoil will be divided—
even the lame will carry off plunder.
24 No inhabitant will say, “I am sick.”
The people dwelling there will be forgiven their iniquity.
End-Time Vision
34 Draw near, O nations, to hear,
and listen, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all it contains,
the world, and all its offspring!
2 For Adonai is enraged at all the nations,
and furious at all their armies.
He will utterly destroy them.
He will give them over to slaughter.
3 So their slain will be thrown out,
and the stench of their corpses will rise,
and the hills will be drenched with their blood.
4 Then all the host of heaven will dissolve,
and the skies will be rolled up like a scroll—
so all their array will wither away,
like a leaf drooping from a vine,
like a fig shriveling from a fig tree.
Seek the Scroll and Read
5 For My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.
See, it will come down upon Edom,
upon the people I have devoted to judgment.
6 The sword of Adonai is filled with blood, gorged with fat—
the blood of lambs and goats,
the fat of kidneys of rams.
For Adonai has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will go down with them,
bull calves with mighty steers.
So their land will be soaked with blood
and their dust greasy with fat.
8 For Adonai has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the hostility against Zion.
9 Its streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into brimstone,
and its land will become burning tar.
10 It will not be quenched night or day.
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will lay waste—
forever and ever none will pass through it.
11 But pelican and porcupine will have it,
owl and raven will dwell in it.
He will stretch a line of chaos over it
and stones of desolation.
12 As for its nobles, there are none there to call it a kingdom,
and all its princes will come to nothing.
13 Thorns will come up in its palaces,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It will be a haunt of jackals,
an abode for ostriches.
14 Wildcats will meet with wolves,
the goat-demon will cry to its kind—
yes, the night monster will settle there
and find itself a resting place.
15 A tree snake will nest and lay eggs there,
hatch and gather them under its shadow.
Surely, hawks are gathered there,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek from the scroll of Adonai, and read!
Not one of them will be missing;
none will lack its mate.
For His mouth commanded it,
and His Ruach gathered them.
17 He cast the lot for them,
and His hand divided it out to them with the line.
They will possess it forever,
and dwell in it from generation to generation.
Highway in the Wilderness
35 The wilderness and dry land will be glad.
The desert will rejoice and blossom like a lily.
2 It will blossom profusely,
will rejoice with joy and singing,
will be given the glory of Lebanon,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of Adonai,
the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the limp hands,
make firm the wobbly knees.
4 Say to those with anxious heart,
“Be strong, have no fear!”
Behold, your God!
Vengeance is coming!
God’s recompense—it is coming!
Then He will save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.[i]
6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing.[j]
For water will burst forth in the desert
and streams in the wilderness.
7 The parched land will become a pool,
the thirsty ground springs of water.
In the haunt of jackals, where they rest,
grass will become reeds and rushes.
8 A highway will be there—a roadway.
It will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it.
It is for the one who walks the way.
Fools will not go astray.
9 No lion will be there.
No ravenous beast will go up on it.
They will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there.
10 The ransomed of Adonai will return
and come to Zion with singing,
with everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Sennacherib Dares Jerusalem
36 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that King Sennacherib of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 The king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh[k] from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a massive army. The Rab-shakeh stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool in the highway of the washer’s field. 3 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came out to him.
4 So the Rab-shakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: ‘What is this confidence you’ve relied on? 5 I say your strategy and strength for war are only words of a lip. Who do you rely on now, so that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you rely on this splintered reed as a staff—Egypt! If a man leans on it, it will go into the palm of his hand and pierce it—thus Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.
7 “‘But if you say to me: ‘We trust in Adonai our God’—is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, and then said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar’?
8 “So now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses—if you could put riders of your own on them. 9 So, how can you repulse a single lieutenant—the least of my master’s servants? Yes, you’re relying on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen.
10 “Moreover, have I now come up against this land to destroy it without Adonai’s approval? Adonai said to me: ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’”
11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh: “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the language of the Jews when the people on the wall are listening.”
12 But the Rab-shakeh said: “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words? Hasn’t he sent me to the men who sit on the wall—who will eat their own waste and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then the Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the language of the Jews and said: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 Thus says the king: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you! 15 Nor let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in Adonai by saying, “Adonai will surely deliver us—this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’
16 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah! For thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me and come out to me. Then everyone will eat from his own vine and fig tree, and everyone will drink water from his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land—a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.’
18 “Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘Adonai will deliver us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, when did they deliver Samaria from my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their country out of my hand? So will Adonai deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
21 But they were silent, and did not answer him a word, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”
22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rab-shakeh.
Hezekiah Tears His Clothes
37 When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the House of Adonai. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe and the senior kohanim, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz.
3 Then they said to him: “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, rebuke and contempt. For children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength for giving birth. 4 Perhaps Adonai your God, will hear the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words which Adonai your God has heard. So offer prayer for the remnant that is left.”
5 When the officials of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them: “Thus you will say to your master, ‘Thus says Adonai: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the boys of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Behold, I am putting a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor, and will return to his own country; then I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’”
8 Then the Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard he had withdrawn from Lachish. 9 Now he had heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, saying: “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying: 10 “Thus you will say to King Hezekiah of Judah, saying, do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying: ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands—utterly destroying them—so will you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered those my fathers destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, or the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, or the king of Arpad, or the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, or Ivvah?’”
14 Then Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it.
Then Hezekiah went up to the House of Adonai and spread it before Adonai. 15 Hezekiah prayed to Adonai saying: 16 “Adonai-Tzva’ot, God of Israel, who is enthroned upon the cheruvim, You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline Your ear, Adonai, and hear! Open Your eyes, Adonai, and see! Listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who was sent to mock the living God. 18 It is true, Adonai, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire—for they were not gods, but the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 20 Now, Adonai our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone are Adonai!”
Answered Prayer and Sennacherib’s Demise
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: ‘Because you prayed to Me about King Sennacherib of Assyria, 22 this is the word that Adonai has spoken about him:
“The virgin Daughter of Zion
will despise you and mock you.
The daughter of Jerusalem
will shake her head at you.
23 Whom did you taunt and blaspheme?
Against whom did you raise your voice
and haughtily lift up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 Through your servants,
you have blasphemed my Lord and said:
‘With my many chariots
I have climbed to the heights of the mountains,
to the remotest parts of Lebanon!
I cut down its tall cedars
and choice cypress trees.
I have gone to its farthest peak,
its thickest forest.
25 I dug and drank water,
and with the sole of my feet,
I dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
26 Have you not heard?
I did it long ago!
From ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it to pass—
that you should turn fortified cities
into heaps of rubble.
27 Their inhabitants are weak handed,
shattered and ashamed.
They are like the grass of the field
and green herb,
like grass on roofs,
scorched before it is grown up.
28 But I know your sitting down,
your going out and your coming in,
and your raging against Me.
29 Because your raging against Me
and your arrogance reached My ears,
I will put My hook in your nose,
and My bridle in your lips,
and I will turn you back
by the way that you came.”
30 So this shall be the sign to you: This year you will eat what grows by itself, in the second year what springs from that. But in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For from Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of Adonai-Tzva’ot shall perform this.”
33 Therefore thus says Adonai concerning the king of Assyria:
“He will not come to the city,
or shoot an arrow there,
or come before it with a shield,
or throw up a siege-ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came, by the same he will return,
and he will not come into this city”
—it is a declaration of Adonai.
35 “For I will defend this city to save it,
for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.”
36 Then the angel of Adonai went out and struck down 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When the men arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 37 So King Sennacherib of Assyria withdrew, and returned home, and stayed in Nineveh. 38 It also came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of his god Nisroch, that his sons Adrammelech and Sarezer struck him down with the sword, and escaped into the land of Ararat. Then his son Esarhaddon became king in his place.
“Put Your House In Order”
38 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. So Isaiah the prophet son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says Adonai: Put your house in order. For you are dying, and will not live.”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Adonai. 3 He said: “Please, Adonai, remember how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then it came to pass, the word of Adonai came to Isaiah saying: 5 “Go, and say to Hezekiah, thus says Adonai, the God of your father David: ‘I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add 15 years to your life. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.’
7 “Now this will be the sign to you from Adonai, that Adonai will do this word He has spoken: 8 Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairs, which went down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, to turn back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.
9 A writing of King Hezekiah of Judah, after his illness, when he recovered from his illness:
10 I said: “In the prime of my life,
I am to enter the gates of Sheol.
I am deprived of the rest of my years.”
11 I said: “I will not see Adonai,
Adonai, in the land of the living.
I will look on humanity no longer
among the inhabitants of the world.
12 Like a shepherd’s tent,
my dwelling is pulled up and carried away from me.
Like a weaver I rolled up my life.
He cuts me off from the loom.
From day until night You make my end.
13 I stilled my soul till morning.
Like a lion, He will break all my bones.
From day till night You make my end.
14 Like a swallow or a crane, I whisper,
I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary, looking upward.
Adonai, I am oppressed, be my security!
15 What should I say?
For He has spoken to me—
He Himself has done it!
I will wander about all my years
because of the bitterness of my soul.
16 Adonai, by such things men live,
and my spirit has life in them too.
Restore me to health,
and let me live!
17 Behold, it was for my own shalom
that I had great bitterness.
You have loved my soul
out of the Pit of destruction!
For You have flung all my sins
behind Your back.
18 For Sheol cannot thank You,
death cannot praise You.
Those who go down to the Pit
cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living—they praise You—
as I do today.
A father makes Your faithfulness
known to his children.
20 Adonai will save me.
So we will play my songs on stringed instruments
all the days of our life in the House of Adonai.”
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and apply it to the boil, and he will live.” 22 Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the House of Adonai?”
Hezekiah Shows Off
39 At that time Merodach-baladan, son of King Baladan of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 Now Hezekiah was pleased with them, so he showed them his treasure house—the silver and the gold, the spices and the precious oil—and his whole armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?”
Hezekiah replied, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.”
4 Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?”
Hezekiah said, “They have seen everything in my house. There is nothing among my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah: “Hear the word of Adonai-Tzva’ot, 6 ‘Behold, days are coming when everything in your house, which your fathers have stored up to this day, will be carried to Babylon—nothing will be left,’ says Adonai. 7 ‘Moreover, some of your descendants—who will issue from you, whom you will father—will be taken away and will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of Adonai which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “For there will be shalom and security in my days.”
Comfort, Proclaim Good News
40 “Comfort, comfort My people,”
says your God.
2 Speak kindly to the heart of Jerusalem
and proclaim to her
that her warfare has ended,
that her iniquity has been removed.
For she has received from Adonai’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice cries out in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way of Adonai,
Make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.[l]
4 Every valley will be lifted up,
every mountain and hill made low,
the rough ground will be a plain
and the rugged terrain smooth.
5 The glory of Adonai will be revealed,
and all flesh will see it together.”
For the mouth of Adonai has spoken.
6 A voice is saying, “Cry out!”
So I said, “What shall I cry out?”
“All flesh is grass,
and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades.
For the breath of Adonai blows on it.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades.
But the word of our God stands forever.”[m]
9 Get yourself up on a high mountain,
you who bring good news to Zion!
Lift up your voice with strength,
you who bring good news to Jerusalem!
Lift it up! Do not fear!
Say to the cities of Judah:
“Behold your God!”
10 Look, Adonai Elohim comes with might,
with His arm ruling for Him.
Behold, His reward is with Him,
and His recompense before Him.[n]
11 Like a shepherd, He tends His flock.[o]
He gathers the lambs in His arms
carries them in his bosom,
and gently guides nursing ewes.
Who Is Like Him?
12 Who has measured the waters in the palm of His hand,
or measured out heaven with a span,
or calculated the dust of the earth in a measure,
or weighed the mountains in scales,
or the hills in a balance?
13 Who can fathom the Ruach Adonai?
Or instruct Him as His counselor?
14 With whom did He consult,
and who instructed Him?
Who taught Him in the path of justice
or taught Him knowledge?
Who informed Him about
the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and count as a speck of dust on the scales.
Behold, the islands weigh as fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not enough to burn,
or its animals enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before Him.
By Him they are accounted null and void.
18 To whom then will you liken God?
To what likeness will you compare Him?
19 To an idol? A craftsman casts it,
a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
20 One too poor for such an offering
chooses wood that will not rot.
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to prepare him an idol that will not totter.
21 Do you 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?
22 He sits above the circle of the earth—
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers—
He stretches out the skies like a curtain,
spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23 He reduces princes to nothing.
He makes the judges of the earth a confusion.
24 Scarcely are they planted,
scarcely are they sown,
scarcely their stem takes root in the earth,
when He blows on them and they wither,
and a storm carries them off as stubble.
25 “To whom then will you liken Me?
Or who is My equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see!
Who created these?
The One who brings out their host by number,
the One who calls them all by name.
Because of His great strength and vast power,
not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and assert, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from Adonai,
and the justice due me escapes
the notice of my God”?
28 Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Adonai is the eternal God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not grow tired or weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives strength to the weary,
and to one without vigor He adds might.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall,
31 but they who wait for Adonai
will renew their strength.
They will soar up with wings as eagles.
They will run, and not grow weary.
They will walk, and not be faint.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 28:16 cf. Matt. 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:19-20.
- Isaiah 28:16 cf. Rom. 9:33; 10:11; 1 Pet. 2:6.
- Isaiah 29:1 Meaning Lion of God; i.e., Jerusalem.
- Isaiah 29:13 cf. Matt. 15:8-9; Mark 7:6-7.
- Isaiah 29:16 cf. Rom. 9:20.
- Isaiah 30:6 Or the South.
- Isaiah 30:33 Lit. high place for burning.
- Isaiah 32:15 cf. Acts 2:33; Rom. 5:5.
- Isaiah 35:5 cf. John 9:6-7; Acts 26:18.
- Isaiah 35:6 cf. Matt. 9:35-36; Luke 11:14.
- Isaiah 36:2 Official title, possibly meaning Chief Cupbearer or Chief Adviser.
- Isaiah 40:3 cf. Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4-6; John 1:23.
- Isaiah 40:8 cf. 1 Pet. 1:22-25.
- Isaiah 40:10 cf. Rev. 22:12.
- Isaiah 40:11 cf. John 10:11.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.