Isaiah 1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
1 The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.(A)
The Wickedness of Judah
2 Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth,
for the Lord has spoken:
I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.(B)
3 The ox knows its owner
and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know;
my people do not understand.(C)
4 Woe, sinful nation,
people laden with iniquity,
offspring who do evil,
children who act corruptly,
who have forsaken the Lord,
who have despised the Holy One of Israel,
[[who are utterly estranged!]][a](D)
5 Why do you seek further beatings?
Why do you continue to rebel?
The whole head is injured,
and the whole heart faint.(E)
6 From the sole of the foot to the head,
there is no soundness in it,
only bruises and sores
and bleeding wounds;
they have not been drained or bound up
or softened with oil.(F)
7 Your country lies desolate;
your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
aliens devour your land;
it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.(G)
8 And daughter Zion is left
like a booth in a vineyard,
like a shelter in a cucumber field,
like a besieged city.
9 If the Lord of hosts
had not left us a few survivors,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.(H)
10 Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!(I)
11 What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls
or of lambs or of goats.(J)
12 When you come to appear before me,[b]
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more!(K)
13 Bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation—
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.(L)
14 Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.(M)
15 When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.(N)
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove your evil deeds
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil;(O)
17 learn to do good;
seek justice;
rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
plead for the widow.(P)
18 Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
If your sins are like scarlet,
will they become like snow?
If they are red like crimson,
will they become like wool?(Q)
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land,(R)
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.(S)
The Degenerate City
21 How the faithful city
has become a prostitute!
She that was full of justice,
righteousness lodged in her—
but now murderers!(T)
22 Your silver has become dross;
your wine is mixed with water.(U)
23 Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
They do not defend the orphan,
and the widow’s cause does not come before them.(V)
24 Therefore says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel:
Surely I will pour out my wrath on my enemies
and avenge myself on my foes!(W)
25 I will turn my hand against you;
I will smelt away your dross as with lye
and remove all your alloy.(X)
26 And I will restore your judges as at the first
and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness,
the faithful city.(Y)
27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
28 But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together,
and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.(Z)
29 For you shall be ashamed of the oaks
in which you delighted,
and you shall blush for the gardens
that you have chosen.(AA)
30 For you shall be like an oak
whose leaf withers
and like a garden without water.
31 The strong shall become like tinder
and their work like a spark;
they and their work shall burn together,
with no one to quench them.(AB)
Isaiah 6-7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
A Vision of God in the Temple
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.(A) 2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.(B) 3 And one called to another and said,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”(C)
4 The pivots[a] on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I said, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”(D)
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph[b] touched my mouth with it and said, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”(E) 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”(F) 9 And he said, “Go and say to this people:
‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’(G)
10 Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes
and listen with their ears
and comprehend with their minds
and turn and be healed.”(H)
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said,
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;(I)
12 until the Lord sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.(J)
13 Even if a tenth part remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.”[c]
(The holy seed is its stump.)(K)
Isaiah Reassures King Ahaz
7 In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem but could not conquer it.(L) 2 When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz[d] and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.(M)
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub,[e] at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller’s field,(N) 4 and say to him: Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.(O) 5 Because Aram—with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah—has plotted evil against you, saying, 6 ‘Let us go up against Judah and terrify it[f] and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it’; 7 therefore thus says the Lord God:
It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.(P)
8 For the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
(Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.)(Q)
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in faith,
you shall not stand at all.”(R)
Isaiah Gives Ahaz the Sign of Immanuel
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”(S) 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah[g] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.[h](T) 15 He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.(U) 16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.(V) 17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.”(W)
18 On that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the sources of the streams of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.(X) 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the rocks and on all the thornbushes and on all the watering holes.[i](Y)
20 On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well.(Z)
21 On that day one will keep alive a young cow and two sheep 22 and will eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give, for everyone left in the land shall eat curds and honey.
23 On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24 With bow and arrows one will go there, for all the land will be briers and thorns, 25 and as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.
Isaiah 9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Righteous Reign of the Coming King
9 [a]But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.(A)
2 [b]The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.(B)
3 You have multiplied exultation;[c]
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.(C)
4 For the yoke of their burden
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.(D)
5 For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.(E)
6 For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders,
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.(F)
7 Great will be his authority,[d]
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.(G)
Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression
8 The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
and it fell on Israel,
9 and all the people knew it—
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
but in pride and arrogance of heart they said:(H)
10 “The bricks have fallen,
but we will build with dressed stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
but we will put cedars in their place.”
11 So the Lord raised adversaries[e] against them
and stirred up their enemies,(I)
12 the Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west,
and they devoured Israel with open mouth.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.(J)
13 The people did not turn to him who struck them
or seek the Lord of hosts.(K)
14 So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail,
palm branch and reed in one day—(L)
15 elders and dignitaries are the head,
and prophets who teach lies are the tail,(M)
16 for those who led this people led them astray,
and those who were led by them were left in confusion.(N)
17 That is why the Lord did not have pity on[f] their young people
or compassion on their orphans and widows,
for everyone was godless and an evildoer,
and every mouth spoke folly.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.(O)
18 For wickedness burned like a fire,
consuming briers and thorns;
it kindled the thickets of the forest,
and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.(P)
19 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts
the land was burned,
and the people became like fuel for the fire;
no one spared another.(Q)
20 They gorged on the right but still were hungry,
and they devoured on the left but were not satisfied;
they devoured the flesh of their own kindred;[g](R)
21 Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
and together they were against Judah.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.(S)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.