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.

The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!

The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.”

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.

He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,

the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

“I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.”

People will oppress each other— man against man, neighbor against neighbor. The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honored.

A man will seize one of his brothers in his father’s house, and say, “You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!”

In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”

The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.

“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.”

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.”

Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”

Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh; together they will turn against Judah. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations.

And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants, nor will they look with compassion on children.