-
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.
-
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.
-
“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.
-
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
-
Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
-
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.
-
Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?
-
“I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.”
-
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.”
-
What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
-
Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle.
-
“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
-
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.”
-
Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
-
“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.”
-
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
-
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!”
-
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.
-
Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.
-
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
-
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.”
-
So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.
-
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.
-
The Lord spoke to me again:
-
This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:
