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A Rebellious Nation
Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.
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“The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
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When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
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Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
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Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
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“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
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Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.
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Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
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Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
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Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?
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“I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.”
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But in that day he will cry out, “I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house; do not make me the leader of the people.”
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What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
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Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle.
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“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
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to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel— let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”
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He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
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“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
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Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
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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!”
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Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.
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They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes.
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Isaiah and His Children as Signs
The Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.”
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So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.
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Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
