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19 So people will live in Zion. In Jerusalem you will weep no more. The Lord will be very gracious to you when he hears your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you. 20 Though the Lord has given you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, he is your teacher.[a] He will not be hidden any longer. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. 21 Whenever you are tempted to turn to the right or to the left, you will hear his voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” 22 You will defile your idols that are plated with silver and your images overlaid with gold. You will throw them away like a filthy cloth,[b] saying, “Get away from me!”

23 Then he will give you rain so that you can sow seed in the ground. The bread from your land’s harvest will be excellent and plentiful. On that day your livestock will graze in wide pastures. 24 The oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat the best feed[c]—winnowed with a shovel and a winnowing fork. 25 On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams flowing with water.

It will be a day of terrible slaughter, when towers fall. 26 The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day when the Lord will bind up the wounds of his people and heal the injuries he inflicted.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 30:20 The Hebrew reads teachers, perhaps referring to the prophets, but the singular he occurs throughout verses 20-26.
  2. Isaiah 30:22 The Hebrew words refer to a cloth stained with menstrual blood. Blood made a person who contacted it ceremonially unclean.
  3. Isaiah 30:24 Or seasoned feed

19 For people will live in Zion;
    in Jerusalem, you will surely not weep.
Surely he will be gracious to you;
    when he hears the sound of your cry, he will answer you.
20 And the Lord will give you the bread of distress
    and the water of oppression,
but[a] your teachers will not hide themselves[b] any longer.
    And your eyes shall see[c] your teachers.
21 And your ears shall hear a word from behind you, saying,
    “this is the way; walk in it,”
when you go to your right
    and when you go to your left.
22 And you will defile the plating of your silver idols
    and the covering of your gold image.
You will scatter them like contaminated things;[d]
    you will say to it, “Filth!”[e]
23 And he will give rain for your seed with which you sow the ground,
    and grain, the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and fertile.[f]
On that day, your cattle will graze in broad pastures;[g]
24     and the oxen and the donkeys that till[h] the ground will eat fodder, sorrel
        that has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
25 And there will be streams on every high mountain and elevated hill,
    watercourses of water, on a day of great slaughter, when towers fall.
26 And the light of the full moon will be like the light of the sun,
    and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days,
on the day when Yahweh binds up the breakage of his people,
    and he heals the wound of his blow.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 30:20 Or “and”
  2. Isaiah 30:20 Hebrew “himself”
  3. Isaiah 30:20 Literally “be seeing”
  4. Isaiah 30:22 Hebrew “contaminated thing”
  5. Isaiah 30:22 Or “Get out!”
  6. Isaiah 30:23 Literally “fat”
  7. Isaiah 30:23 Hebrew “pasture”
  8. Isaiah 30:24 Or “tilling”