Beginning
The Lord’s Vineyard
5 I will sing[a] for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:
“The one I love had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He plowed its land[b] and cleared it of stones.
Then he planted it with the choicest vines,
built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and dug a wine vat in it;
He expected[c] it to produce good[d] grapes,
but it produced only wild ones.”[e]
3 “So now, you inhabitants[f] of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge, won’t you please,
between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could I do in[g] my vineyard,
that I haven’t already done?
When I expected it to produce good[h] grapes,
why did it yield[i] wild ones?[j]
5 “Now, let me tell you, won’t you please,
what I’m going to do to my vineyard.
“I’m going to take away its protective hedge,
and it will be devoured;[k]
I’ll break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
6 I’ll make it a wasteland,
and it won’t be pruned or cultivated.
Instead, briers and thorns will grow up.
I’ll also issue commands to the clouds,
that they drop no rain upon it.”
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden in which he delights.[l]
He looked for justice,
but saw only bloodshed;
he searched[m] for righteousness,
but heard only an outcry!
Judgment on Land Barons
8 “How terrible it will be for you who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you have settled yourselves alone[n]
in the middle of the land!”
9 The Lord of the Heavenly Armies has declared this so I could hear it:
“Surely many houses will become desolate,
great and beautiful houses,
without occupants.
10 For ten acres of vineyard will produce only one bath,[o]
and one omer[p] of seed[q] will produce only one ephah.”[r]
Judgment on Alcoholics
11 “How terrible it will be for those who rise at dawn
in order to grab[s] a stiff drink,
for those who stay up late at night
as wine inflames them!
12 They have the lyre and harp,
the tambourine and flute,
as well as wine at their festivals,
but they don’t respect what the Lord is doing,
nor do they consider his actions.[t]
13 Therefore my people go into exile
because they lack understanding;
my[u] honored men go hungry,
and the crowd is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol’s[v] appetite has grown;
it has opened its mouth beyond limit.
Jerusalem’s nobility and her multitudes will go there,
along with her brawlers and whoever is reveling within her.
15 Humanity is brought low,
and each one is humbled,
while the eyes of the self-exalting are brought low.
16 But the Lord of the Heavenly Armies is exalted in justice,
and the Holy God proves himself to be righteously holy.
17 Then the lambs will graze in their pasture;
fatlings and foreigners will eat
among the waste places of the rich.”
Judgment on Mockers
18 “How terrible it will be for those who parade iniquity with cords of falsehood,
who draw sin along as[w] with a cart rope;
19 who say: ‘Let God[x] be quick,
let him speed up[y] his work
so we may see it!
Let it happen!
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
so we may recognize it!’”
Judgment on Moral Relativists
20 “How terrible it will be for those who call evil good
and good evil,
who substitute darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who substitute what is bitter for what is sweet
and what is sweet for what is bitter!”
Judgment on the Arrogant
21 “How terrible it will be for those who are wise in their own opinion,
and clever in their own reckoning!
22 “How terrible it will be for those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and champions in mixing strong drink,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of justice!”
The Effects of Divine Judgment
24 Therefore, as flames of fire devour straw,
as dry grass[z] collapses in flames,
so their root will be rotten,
and their blossom will blow away like dust,
because they have rejected the instruction[aa] of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore[ab] the anger of the Lord[ac] burned against his people,
so he stretched out his hands[ad] against them
and afflicted them.
The mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
in the middle of the streets.
Throughout all of this, his anger has not turned away,
and his hands are[ae] still stretched out to attack.[af]
26 The Lord[ag] will signal[ah] for nations far away,
whistling for them to come[ai]
from the ends of the earth.
Look how quickly
and how swiftly they come!
27 No one is weary, no one stumbles,[aj]
and no one slumbers or sleeps.
No belt around their waists will come undone,
nor will their sandal straps be broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp,
all their bows ready for action.[ak]
Their horses’ hooves seem like flint,
and their chariot wheels spin[al] like a whirlwind.
29 With a roar like a lion, they snarl,
and like young lions, they growl;[am]
they seize their prey
and then carry it off,
with no one to rescue.
30 They will roar over it[an] at that time,[ao]
like the sea waves roar.
If one surveys the land, watch out!
There’s darkness and distress;
even the daylight is darkened by its clouds.
Holy is the Lord
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon his[ap] throne, high and exalted. The train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 The seraphim stood above him. Each had six wings:[aq] with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he was flying. 3 They kept on calling to each other:[ar]
“Holy, holy, holy[as] is the Lord of the Heavenly Armies!
The whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 The foundations of the thresholds quaked at the sound of those who kept calling out,[at] and the Temple was filled with smoke.
5 “How terrible it will be for me!” I cried, “because I am ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips! And my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of the Heavenly Armies!”
The Calling of Isaiah
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a burning coal in his hand that he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth and said, “Look! Now that this has touched your[au] lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sins[av] atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord as he was asking, “Whom will I send? Who will go for us?”
“Here I am!” I replied. “Send me.”
9 “Go!” he responded. “Tell this people:
“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep[aw] on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Dull the mind[ax] of this people,
deafen their ears,
and blind their eyes.
By doing so, they won’t see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their minds,
turn back,
and be healed.”
11 Then I asked, “For how long, Lord?”[ay]
He replied:
“Until cities lie waste,
without inhabitants,
and houses without people;
and the land becomes utterly desolate.
12 Until[az] the Lord removes people far away,
and there are many empty places
in the middle of the land.
13 Even though a tenth of its people remain[ba] in it,
it will once again be burned,[bb]
like a terebinth[bc] or an oak tree,[bd]
the stump of which, though the tree has been[be] felled,
still contains holy seed.”[bf]
The Message to Ahaz
7 During the reign of Jotham’s son Ahaz, Uzziah’s grandson, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Remaliah’s son Pekah, king of Israel, approached Jerusalem and waged war against it, but they[bg] could not mount an attack against it. 2 When it was reported to the house of David, “Aram has joined forces with Ephraim!” the[bh] heart of the people of Ahaz[bi] trembled like forest[bj] trees in a windstorm.
3 So the Lord told Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool that proceeds along the highway to Launderer’s Field. 4 Tell him, ‘Be careful, be calm, don’t be afraid, and don’t lose heart because of these two smoldering stumps of torches, that is, because of[bk] the fierce anger of Rezin, from Aram, and Remaliah’s son. 5 Aram, Ephraim, and Remaliah’s son have plotted this evil against you: 6 “Let’s go attack Judah, let’s terrorize it, and let’s conquer it for ourselves. Then we’ll install Tabeel’s son as king!”’
7 ‘But this is what the Lord God has to say:
“‘It won’t take place.
It won’t ever happen.
8 Because Aram’s head is Damascus,
and Rezin is its king,[bl]
within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be shattered as a people.
9 Furthermore, Ephraim’s head is Samaria,
and Remaliah’s son is its king.[bm]
If all of you don’t keep on believing,
you’ll never remain loyal.’”[bn]
God with Us
10 Later on, the Lord spoke to Ahaz again: 11 “Ask a sign from the Lord your God. Make it as deep as Sheol[bo] or as high as heaven above.”
12 But Ahaz replied, “I won’t ask! I won’t put the Lord to the test.”
13 In reply, the Lord[bp] announced, “Please listen, you household of David. Is it such a minor thing for you to try the patience of[bq] men? Must you also try the patience of[br] my God?
14 “Therefore the Lord[bs] himself will give you a sign. Watch! The virgin[bt] is conceiving a child, and will give birth to a son, and his name will be called[bu] Immanuel.[bv] 15 He’ll eat cheese[bw] and honey, when he knows enough to reject what’s wrong and choose what’s right. 16 However, before the youth knows enough to reject what’s wrong and choose what’s right, the land whose two kings you dread will be devastated.”
Conquest by Assyria
17 “The Lord will bring to you, to your people, and to your ancestor’s house such a time[bx] as has never been since Ephraim broke away from Judah—the king of Assyria will come.[by]
18 “At that time,[bz] the Lord will call[ca] for flies that will come from far away—from the headwaters of Egypt’s rivers—and for bees that are in the land of Assyria. 19 They will all come and settle in the steep ravines, in the rocky crevices, in all the thorn bushes, and in all the pastures.[cb] 20 At that time,[cc] the Lord will hire a barber[cd] to come[ce] from beyond the Euphrates[cf] River—that is, the king of Assyria—and he will shave your heads, your leg[cg] hair, and your beards, too.
21 “At that time,[ch] a man will keep alive a heifer and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will have cheese[ci] to eat, since whoever remains in the land will be eating cheese[cj] and honey.
23 “At that time,[ck] every place where once there were a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels[cl] of silver, only briars and thorns will grow.
24 “People will come there armed with bows[cm] and arrows, because the entire land will be nothing but briers and thorns. 25 As for all the hills that used to be cultivated with a hoe, you won’t go there, because you’ll fear iron[cn] briars and thorns. Nevertheless, those hills[co] will be reserved as a pasture where cattle will feed and where sheep will graze.”[cp]
Isaiah’s Son is Born
8 The Lord also told me, “Take a large tablet and write on it with a stylus[cq] pen, ‘For Maher-shalal-hash-baz’.[cr] 2 Then I will call[cs] Uriah the priest and Jeberechiah’s son Zechariah as reliable witnesses to testify on my behalf.”
3 After this, I was intimate with the prophetess and she conceived. Later, she bore a son, and then the Lord told me,[ct] “Call him[cu] ‘Maher-shalal-hash-baz,’ 4 for before the young lad knows how to call out to his father or mother,[cv] the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”
Invasion by Assyria
5 The Lord spoke to me again: 6 “Because this people have rejected the gently-flowing waters of Shiloah, and because[cw] they keep rejoicing in Rezin and Remaliah’s son, 7 watch out! The Lord God[cx] is about to bring the flood waters of the Euphrates[cy] River against them, mighty and strong.[cz]
“It’s the king of Assyria and all of his arrogance! He will rise over all of the river’s channels and run over all of its banks. 8 He will sweep on into Judah, overflowing as he passes through, like flood waters[da] reaching up to a person’s neck. His outstretched wings will flow as wide as your land, O Immanuel!”
9 “Band together,[db] you peoples,
but be shattered!
Listen, all you distant countries!
Strap on your armor,
but be shattered.[dc]
10 Take counsel together,
but it will all be for nothing;
go ahead and talk,
but[dd] it will all be for nothing,[de]
for God is with us.”[df]
Waiting on God
11 For[dg] this is what the Lord spoke to me, as his forceful hand was resting on me, and as he was warning me not to live the way this people were living:[dh]
12 “Don’t call conspiracy everything
that this people calls conspiracy,
and don’t fear what they fear,
or live in terror.
13 The Lord of the Heavenly Armies—
he’s the one you are to regard as holy.
Let him be the one whom you fear,
and let him be the one before whom you stand in terror!
14 Then he will be a sanctuary,
but for both houses of Israel
he’ll also be a stone with which someone strikes himself,
a rock one stumbles over,
a trap and a snare to those who live in Jerusalem.
15 Many will stumble on them;
They’ll fall and be broken;
They’ll be snared and captured.
16 “Bind up the testimony,
and seal up the teaching among my disciples.
17 I’ll wait for the Lord,
who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob,
and I’ll put my trust in him.
18 Watch out! I and the children
whom the Lord has given me
are a sign and a wonder[di] in Israel
from the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
who resides on Mount Zion.”
Rejecting Occultic Wisdom
19 “So when they advise you,
‘Ask the mediums your questions,
and quiz the spiritists who chirp and mutter,’
shouldn’t a people instead be consulting their God—[dj]
and not the dead—
on behalf of those who are living
20 for instruction and for testimony?
Surely they are speaking like this
because the truth[dk] hasn’t dawned on them.
21 “They’ll pass through the land,[dl]
while[dm] greatly distressed and hungry.
When they are hungry,
they’ll become enraged,
and they’ll curse their king and their god.[dn]
They’ll turn their faces upwards,
22 or they’ll look toward the[do] earth,
but they’ll see only distress and darkness,
the gloom that comes from anguish,
and then they’ll be thrown into total darkness.”
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