Rebellion of God’s People

The vision of [the prophet] Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning [the kingdom of] Judah and [its capital] Jerusalem, which he saw [as revealed by God] during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem) is left like a [deserted] shelter in a vineyard, Like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city [isolated, surrounded by devastation].

God Has Had Enough

Hear the word of the Lord [rulers of Jerusalem], You rulers of [another] Sodom, Listen to the law and instruction of our God, You people of [another] Gomorrah.

God’s Universal Reign

The word [from God] which Isaiah son of Amoz saw [in a vision] concerning [the nation of] Judah and [its capital city] Jerusalem.

And many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house (temple) of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go out from Zion And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

God Will Remove the Leaders

Listen carefully, the Lord God of hosts is removing from Jerusalem and from Judah Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread And the whole supply of water;

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, Because their words and their actions are against the Lord, To rebel against His glorious presence and defiantly provoke Him.

And Jerusalem’s gates will lament (cry out in grief) and mourn [as those who wail for the dead]; And she, being ruined and desolate, will sit upon the ground.

It will come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy (set apart for God)—everyone who is recorded for [eternal] life in Jerusalem.

When the Lord has washed away the [moral] filth of the daughters of Zion and has cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,

“And now, says the Lord, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard (My people).

Therefore Sheol (the realm of the dead) has increased its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure; And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her [boisterous] uproar and her [drunken] revelers descend into it.

War against Jerusalem

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Aram (Syria) and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it.

“Then it will sweep on into Judah; it will overflow and pass through [the hills], Reaching even to the neck [of which Jerusalem is the head], And its outstretched wings (the armies of Assyria) will fill the width of Your land, O Immanuel.

“Then He shall be a sanctuary [a sacred, indestructible shelter for those who fear and trust Him]; But to both the houses of Israel [both the northern and southern kingdoms—Israel and Judah, He will be] a stone on which to stumble and a rock on which to trip, A trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

“As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, Whose carved images were greater and more feared than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?” [declares Assyria].

So when the Lord has completed all His work [of judgment] on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit [the thoughts, the declarations, and the actions] of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the haughtiness of his pride.”

Yet today the Assyrian will halt at Nob [the city of priests]; He shakes his fist at the mountain of the Daughter of Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.

Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation

Send lambs to the ruler of the land [you Moabites], From Sela [that is, Petra in Edom] through the wilderness to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem).

At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of hosts From a people tall and smooth (clean shaven), From a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation, Whose land the rivers divide— To the place [of worship] of the name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem].

You [Jerusalem] who were full of noise, A tumultuous city, a joyous and exuberant city; Your slain were not slain [in a glorious death] with the sword, Nor did they die in battle.

And it came to pass that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, And the horsemen took their fixed positions [in an offensive array] at the gate [of Jerusalem].

Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem And you tore down the houses [to get materials] to fortify the city wall [by extending it].

“And I will clothe him with your tunic [of distinction] And tie your sash securely around him. I will entrust him with your authority; He will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.