Bible in 90 Days
Superscription
1 The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Rebellious Judah
2 Hear, heavens,
and listen, earth,
for Yahweh has spoken:
“I reared children
and I brought them up,
but they rebelled against me.
3 An ox knows its owner
and a donkey the manger of its master.
Israel does not know;
my people do not understand.
4 Ah, sinful nation,
a people heavy with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly.
They have forsaken Yahweh;
they have despised the holy one of Israel.
They are estranged and gone backward.
5 Why do you want to be beaten again?
You continue in rebellion.
The whole of the head is sick,
and the whole of the heart is faint.
6 From the sole of the foot and up to the head
there is no health in it;
bruise and sore and bleeding wound have not been cleansed,
and they have not been bound up
and not softened with the oil.
7 Your country is desolate,
your cities are burned with fire;
As for your land, aliens are devouring it in your presence,
and it is desolate, like devastation by foreigners.
8 And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard,
like a shelter in a cucumber field,
like a city that is besieged.[a]
9 If Yahweh of hosts had not left us survivors,[b]
we would have been as few as Sodom,
we would have become like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of Yahweh, rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God, people of Gomorrah!
11 What is the abundance of your sacrifices to me? says Yahweh.
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fattened animals
and I do not delight in the blood of bulls
and ram-lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
who asked for this from your hand:
you trampling my courts?
13 You must not continue[c] to bring offerings[d] of futility,
incense—it is an abomination to me;
new moon and Sabbath, the calling of a convocation—
I cannot endure iniquity with solemn assembly.
14 Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates;
they have become to me like a burden,
I am not able to bear them.
15 And when you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,[e]
I will not be listening.
Your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash! Make yourselves clean!
Remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes!
Cease to do evil! 17 Learn to do good!
Seek justice! Rescue the oppressed!
Defend the orphan! Plead for the widow!
18 “Come now, and let us argue,” says Yahweh.
“Even though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white like snow;
even though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
19 If you are willing and you are obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land.
20 But if you refuse and you rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.
For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”
Purifying Jerusalem
21 How has a faithful city become like a whore?
Full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
22 Your silver has become as dross;
Your wine is diluted with waters.
23 Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Every one loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
They do not defend the orphan
and the legal dispute of the widow does not come before them.
24 Therefore, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel:
“Ah, I will be relieved of my enemies,
and I will avenge myself on my foes.
25 And I will turn my hand against you;
I will purify your dross like lye,
and I will remove all of your tin.
26 And I will restore your judges, as at the first,
and your counselors, as at the beginning.
After this you will be called[f] the city of righteousness,
faithful city.
27 Zion will be redeemed by justice,
and those of her who repent, by righteousness.
28 But the destruction of rebels and sinners shall be together,
and those who forsake Yahweh will perish.
29 For you[g] will be ashamed of the oaks in which you delighted,
and you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.
30 For you shall be like an oak withering its leaves,
and like a garden where there is no water for her.
31 And the strong man shall become like tinder,
and his work like a spark.
And both of them shall burn together,
and there is not one to quench them.”
The Mountain of Yahweh
2 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 And it shall happen in the future of the days
the mountain of the house[h] of Yahweh shall be established;
it will be among the highest[i] of the mountains,
and it shall be raised from the hills.
All of the nations shall travel to him;
3 many peoples shall come.
And they shall say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh,
to the house[j] of the God of Jacob,
and may he teach us part of his ways,
and let us walk in his paths.”
For instruction shall go out from Zion,
and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations
and he shall arbitrate for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
A nation shall not lift up a sword against a nation,
and they shall not learn war again.
The Day of Yahweh
5 House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Yahweh.
6 For you have forsaken your people, house of Jacob,
because they are full[k] from the east,
and of soothsayers like the Philistines,
and they make alliances[l] with the offspring of foreigners.
7 And its land is filled with silver and gold,
and there is no end to its treasures;
and its land is filled with horses,
and there is no end to its chariots.
8 Its land is filled with idols;
they bow down to the work of their[m] hands,
to what they made with their[n] fingers.
9 So humanity is humbled;
everyone is humbled,
and you must not forgive them.
10 Enter into the rock
and hide yourself in the dust
from the presence of the terror of Yahweh
and from the glory of his majesty.
11 The haughty eyes[o] of humanity will[p] be brought low,
and the pride of everyone will be humbled,
and Yahweh alone will be exalted on that day.
12 For there is a day for Yahweh of hosts
against all of the proud and the lofty
and against all that is lifted up and humble,[q]
13 and against all the lofty and lifted up cedars of Lebanon,
and against all the large trees of Bashan,
14 and against all the high mountains,
and against all the lofty hills,
15 and against every kind of high tower,
and against every kind of fortified wall,
16 and against all the ships of Tarshish,
and against all the ships of desire.
17 And the haughtiness of the people shall be humbled,
and the pride of everyone shall be brought low,
and Yahweh alone will be exalted on that day.
18 And the idols shall pass away entirely,
19 and they will enter into the caves of the rocks
and into the holes of the ground
from the presence of the terror of Yahweh
and from the glory of his majesty
when he rises[r] to terrify the earth.
20 On that day humanity will throw away its idols of silver
and its idols of gold,
which they made for it to worship,
to the rodents[s] and to the bats—
21 to enter into the crevices of the rocks
and into the clefts of the crags
from the presence of the terror of Yahweh
and from the glory of his majesty,
when he rises[t] to terrify the earth.
22 Turn away from humanity,
who has breath in its nostrils,[u]
for by[v] what is it esteemed?
Leaders of Judah and Jerusalem
3 For look, the Lord Yahweh of hosts is removing every source of support[w]
from Jerusalem and from Judah:
all of the supplies of bread
and all of the supplies of water,
2 mighty warrior and man of war,
judge and prophet,
and diviner and elder,
3 captain of fifty and the honorable men of rank,
and counselor and skillful magicians and skillful enchanter.
4 And I will make boys their princes,
and children shall rule over them.
5 And the people will be oppressed by each other[x]
and a man by his neighbor.
The boy will act arrogantly toward the elder,
and the dishonorable toward the honorable.
6 Indeed, a man will seize his brother
in the house of his father:
“You have a cloak;[y]
you shall be a leader for us,
and this heap of ruins shall be under your hand!”
7 He will lift up his voice on that day, saying,
“I will not be a healer;
in my house there is no bread
and there is no cloak.
You shall not make me the leader of the people!”
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,
and Judah has fallen
because their speech and their deeds are against Yahweh,
defying the eyes of his glory.
9 The look on their faces testifies against them
and they declare their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have dealt out evil to themselves.
10 Tell the innocent[z] that it is good
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked![aa] It is bad!
For what is done by his hands will be done to him.
12 My people—children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
My people, your leaders are misleading you,
and they confuse the course of your paths.
13 Yahweh takes his stand to conduct a legal case
and takes his stand to judge the peoples.
14 Yahweh enters into judgment with the elders of his people and its princes.
“And you! You have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses!
15 Why[ab] do you crush my people
and grind the face of the poor?”
declares[ac] the Lord Yahweh of hosts.
The Pride of Jerusalem’s Women
16 And Yahweh said: “Because[ad] the daughters of Zion are haughty,
and they walk with outstretched neck,
and they give flirting glances with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,[ae]
and with their feet they rattle their bangles,[af]
17 the Lord will make the heads[ag] of the daughters of Zion scabby,
and Yahweh will lay their foreheads bare.”
18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets
and the headbands and the crescent necklaces,
19 the pendants and the bracelets and the veils,
20 the headdresses and the armlets and the sashes,
and the perfume boxes[ah] and the amulets,
21 the signet rings and the nose rings,
22 the festal robes and the mantles,
and the cloaks and the handbags,
23 and the mirrors and the linen garments,
and the turbans and the wraps.
24 And this shall happen: There will be
a stench instead of perfume,
and a rope instead of a sash,
and baldness instead of a well-set hairdo,
and a clothing wrap of sackcloth instead of a rich robe,
branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men shall fall by the sword,
and your warriors in battle.
26 And her[ai] gates shall lament and mourn,
and she shall be banished;
she shall sit upon the ground.
4 And seven women shall grasp at one man on that day, saying,
“We will eat our own bread,
and we will wear our own clothing;
only let us be called by your name![aj]
Take away our disgrace!”
The Glory of the Branch of Yahweh
2 On that day the branch of Yahweh shall become beautiful and glorious,
and the fruit of the land shall become the pride and glory of the survivors[ak] of Israel.
3 And this shall happen: He who is left in Zion
and he who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy,
everyone written for life in Jerusalem,
4 when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion
and cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from her midst
by a spirit of judgment
and by a spirit of burning.
5 Then Yahweh will create over all of the site[al] of Mount Zion[am]
and over her assembly a cloud by day
and smoke and the brightness of flaming fire by night.
Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy,
6 and it will be a shelter for shade from the heat by day,
and a refuge and a hiding place from rainstorm and from rain.
The Song of the Vineyard
5 Let me sing for my beloved
a song of my love concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard[an] on a fertile hill.[ao]
2 And he dug it and cleared it of stones,
and he planted it with choice vines,[ap]
and he built a watchtower in the middle of it,
and he even hewed out a wine vat in it,
and he waited for it to yield grapes—
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men[aq] of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why did I hope for it to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?
5 And now let me tell you what I myself am about to do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it shall become a devastation.
I will break down its wall, and it shall become a trampling.
6 And I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned and hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers[ar] and thornbushes.[as]
And concerning the clouds, I will command them not to send[at] rain down upon it.
7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the man[au] of Judah is the plantation of his delight.
And he waited for justice,[av]
but look! Bloodshed![aw]
For righteousness,[ax]
but look! A cry of distress![ay]
Woes on the Wicked
8 Ah! Those who join[az] house with house,
they join field together with field
until there is no place[ba]
and you are caused to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
9 Yahweh of hosts said in my ears:
Surely[bb] many houses shall become a desolation,
large and beautiful ones without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,[bc]
and the seed of a homer will yield an ephah.[bd]
11 Ah! Those who rise early in the morning,
they pursue strong drink.
Those who linger in the evening,
wine inflames them.
12 And there will be lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute,
and wine at their feasts,
but they do not look at the deeds[be] of Yahweh,
and they do not see the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people will go into exile without knowledge,
and their[bf] nobles[bg] will be men of hunger,
and their[bh] multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat,
and it has opened wide its mouth without limit,
and her[bi] nobles[bj] will go down, and her multitude,
her tumult and those who revel in her.
15 And humankind is bowed down,
and man is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humiliated.
16 But Yahweh of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
17 And then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
and fatlings, kids[bk] will eat among the sites of ruins.[bl]
18 Ah! Those who drag iniquity along with the cords of falsehood
and sin as with rope of the cart,
19 those who say,
“Let him make haste;
let him hurry his work
so that we may see it
and let it draw near
and let the plan of the holy one of Israel come
so that we may know it!”
20 Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil,
those who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Ah! Those who are wise in their own eyes
and have understanding in their view![bm]
22 Ah! Heroes at drinking wine,
and men of capability at mixing strong drink!
23 Those who acquit the guilty because of a bribe
and remove the justice of the innocent from him.
24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become like the stench,
and their blossom will go up like the dust.
For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts,
and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.
25 Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was kindled[bn] against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them[bo] and struck them,[bp]
and the mountains quaked,
and their corpses[bq] were like refuse in the middle of the streets.
Yahweh’s Outstretched Hand
In all of this his anger has not turned back,
and still his hand is stretched out.
26 And he will raise a signal for a nation[br] from afar,
and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth.
And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!
27 None is weary,
and none among him stumbles;
none slumbers and none sleeps.
And no loincloth on his waist is opened,
and no thong of his sandals is drawn away.
28 Whose arrows are sharp,
and all of his bows are bent.
The hoofs of his horses are reckoned like flint,
and his wheels like the storm wind.
29 His roaring is like the lion,
and he roars like young lions.
And he growls and seizes his prey,
and he carries it off,
and not one can rescue it.
30 And he will roar over him on that day
like the roaring of the sea,
and if one looks to the land, look! Darkness! Distress!
And the light grows dark with its[bs] clouds.
Isaiah’s Commission
6 In the year of the death of Uzziah the king, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and raised throne, and the hem of his robe was filling the temple. 2 Seraphs were standing above him. Each had six wings:[bt] with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3 And the one called to the other and said,
“Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts!
The whole earth is full of his glory.”[bu]
4 And the pivots of the thresholds shook from the sound of those who called, and the house[bv] was filled with smoke.
5 And I said, “Woe to me! For I am destroyed![bw] For I am a man of unclean lips,[bx] and I am living among[by] a people of unclean lips,[bz] for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!”
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
7 And he touched my mouth, and he said,
“Look! This has touched your lips
and has removed your guilt,
and your sin is annulled.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?”
And I said,
“I am here!
Send me!”
9 And he said, “Go and say to this people,
‘Keep on listening and do not comprehend!
And keep on looking and do not understand!’
10 Make the heart of this people insensitive,
and make its ears unresponsive,
and shut its eyes
so that it may not look with its eyes
and listen with its ears
and comprehend with its mind
and turn back, and it may be healed for him.”
11 Then I said, “Until when, Lord?”
And he said,
“Until the cities lie wasted without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is ruined and a waste,
12 and Yahweh sends the people far away,
and the abandonment is great in the midst of the land.
13 And even if only a tenth part remain,[ca] again she will be destroyed[cb]
like a terebinth or like an oak,
which although felled, a tree stump remains in them.
The seed of holiness will be her tree stump.”
The Sign to Ahaz
7 This happened in the days of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah. Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went[cc] up to Jerusalem for warfare against it,[cd] but he was not able to fight against it.[ce] 2 When it was reported to the house of David, saying “Aram stands by Ephraim,” his heart and the heart of his people shook like the shaking of the trees of the forest because of the wind.
3 Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the washer’s field. 4 And you must say to him, ‘Take heed and be quiet! You must not fear, and your heart must not be faint because of these two stumps of smoldering firebrands, because of the fierce anger of[cf] Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Aram has plotted evil against you with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and let us tear her apart, and let us lay it open and so bring it unto ourselves,[cg] and let us install the son of Tabeel as king in her midst.” 7 Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. 8 For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin, and in sixty-five years from now Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not believe then you will not endure.”’”
10 And Yahweh continued to speak to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask for a sign for yourself from Yahweh God; make it deep as Sheol or make it high as above.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put Yahweh to the test.”
13 Then he said, “Hear, house of David! Is it too little for you to make men weary, that you should also make my God weary? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[ch] a sign. Look! the virgin[ci] is with child and she is about to give birth to a son, and she shall call his name ‘God with us.’ 15 He shall eat curds and honey until he knows to reject the evil and to choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows to reject the evil and to choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be abandoned.[cj]
That Day
17 “Yahweh will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your ancestor[ck] days that have not come since the day Ephraim departed from Judah: the king of Assyria.” 18 And this shall happen: On that day, Yahweh will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the stream of Egypt and the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And all of them will come and settle in the rivers of the cliffs and in the clefts of the rocks and on all of the thornbushes and watering places. 20 On that day, the Lord will shave the head and the hair of the feet with a razor of the one hired from beyond the river—with the king of Assyria—and it will even take off the beard. 21 And this shall happen: on that day, a young man will keep a young cow of the herd and two sheep alive. 22 And this shall happen: because of the abundance of milk production, he will eat curds, for every one that is left in the midst of the land will eat curds and honey. 23 And this shall happen on that day: Every place where there are a thousand vines[cl] for a thousand silver pieces will become briers,[cm] and it will be thornbushes.[cn] 24 One will go there with arrows and bow, for all of the land will be briers[co] and thornbushes.[cp] 25 And as for all of the hills that they hoed with the hoe, you will not go there, for fear of briers[cq] and thornbushes.[cr] And it will become like pastureland for cattle and overtrodden land for sheep.
Signs of the Assyrian Invasion
8 Then Yahweh said to me, “Take yourself a large tablet and write on it with a common stylus pen: Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz. 2 And I will require reliable witnesses as a witness for me: Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.” 3 And I approached the prophetess, and she conceived, and she gave birth to a son. And Yahweh said to me, “Call his name Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz. 4 For before the boy knows to call ‘my father’ and ‘my mother,’ one will carry away the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria in the presence of the king of Assyria.”
Shiloah Waters and Euphrates Flood
5 And Yahweh continued to speak to me again, saying,
6 “Because this people has refused the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 therefore look! The Lord is bringing up the waters of the great and mighty river against them, the king of Assyria and all his glory.
And he will rise above all his channels,
and he will flow over all his banks.
8 And he will sweep into Judah;
he will overflow and he will flood up to the neck.
He will reach, and he will spread his wings out over your entire land,[cs] God with us.”
9 Be broken, you peoples, and be dismayed.
And listen, all distant parts of the earth;
gird yourselves and be dismayed;
gird yourselves and be dismayed!
10 Make a plan,[ct] but it will be frustrated!
Speak a word, but it will not stand,
for God is with us!
Wait for Yahweh
11 For Yahweh said this to me while his hand weighed heavily on me,[cu]
and he warned me not to walk[cv] in the way of this people, saying,
12 “You must not call conspiracy everything that this people calls conspiracy,
and you must not share its fear,[cw] and you must not be in dread.
13 You shall regard Yahweh of hosts as holy,
and he is your[cx] fear, and he is your dread.
14 And he will become like a sanctuary and a stumbling-stone,
and like a stumbling-rock for the two houses of Israel,
like a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many shall stumble among them,
and they shall fall and they shall be broken,
and they shall be ensnared and they shall be caught.”
16 Bind up the testimony;
seal the teaching among my disciples.
17 And I will wait for Yahweh,
who hides his face from the house of Jacob,
and I will await him.
18 Look! I and the children whom Yahweh has given to me are like signs and portents in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, the one who dwells on the mountain of Zion. 19 Now if they tell you, “Consult the ghosts and the spirits, those who chirp and those who mutter. Should not a people consult its gods, the dead on behalf of the living, 20 for teaching and for testimony?” surely they who speak like this have no dawn.[cy]
21 And it[cz] will pass through it[da] distressed and hungry, and this shall happen: when it is hungry, it will be enraged, and it will curse its king and its gods,[db] and it will face upwar 22 or look to the earth. But look! Distress and darkness, the gloom of affliction! And it will be thrust into darkness!
New Light: The Birth of a King
9 [dc] But there will be no gloom for those who were in distress.[dd]
In former times he[de] treated the land of Zebulun and Naphtali with contempt, but in the future he will honor the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
light has shined on those who lived in a land of darkness.
3 You have made the nation numerous;
you have not[df] made the joy great.
They rejoice in your presence as with joy at the harvest,
as they rejoice when they divide plunder.
4 For you have shattered the yoke of its burden
and the stick of its shoulder,
the rod of its oppressor, on[dg] the day of Midian.
5 For every boot that marches and shakes the earth[dh]
and garment rolled in blood
will[di] be for burning—fire fuel.
6 For a child has been born for us;
a son has been given to us.
And the dominion will be on his shoulder,
and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His dominion will grow continually,
and to peace there will be no end[dj]
on[dk] the throne of David and over[dl] his kingdom,
to establish it[dm] and sustain it
with justice and righteousness
now and forever.
The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.
Yahweh’s Anger against Arrogance
8 The Lord has sent out a word against Jacob,
and it fell on Israel.
9 And all of the people knew it,
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria
in pride and arrogance of heart, saying,
10 “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stone.
The sycamore-fig trees were felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”
11 So Yahweh strengthened the adversaries of Rezin[dn] against him,
and he provoked his enemies—
12 Aram from the east
and Philistines[do] from the west—
and they devoured Israel with the whole mouth.
He has not turned away his anger in all of this,
and his hand is still stretched out.
13 And the people did not turn to the one who struck it,[dp]
and they did not seek Yahweh of hosts.
14 So Yahweh cut off head and tail from Israel,
palm branch and reed in one day.
15 Elders[dq] and the respectable[dr] are the head,
and prophets[ds] who teach lies[dt] are the tail.
16 And the leaders of this people were misleading them,
and those who were led were confused.
17 Therefore the Lord did not rejoice over its young men,
and he did not have compassion on its orphans and widows,
for everyone was godless and an evildoer,
and every mouth was speaking folly.
In all of this his anger did not turn away,
and still his hand is stretched out.
18 For wickedness burned like fire;
it consumed brier and thorn.
And it kindled the thickets of the forest,
and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.
19 The land was burned through the wrath of Yahweh of hosts,
and the people became like fire fuel.
People had no compassion toward each other.[du]
20 They devoured on the right but still were hungry
and devoured on the left but they were not satisfied.
Each one devoured the flesh of his arm,
21 Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh;
together they were against Judah.
In all of this his anger has not turned away,
and still his hand is stretched out.
Woes on the Wicked
10 Ah! Those who decree decrees of evil,
and writers who have written harm,
2 to guide the needy away from legal claims,[dv]
and to rob the justice from the poor of my people,
to make widows their spoil;
and they plunder orphans.
3 And what will you do at the day of punishment,
and at calamity? It comes from afar!
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth,
4 save that they bow down under the prisoners
and fall under the slain?[dw]
In all of this his anger has not turned away,
and still his hand is stretched out.
Judgment on Assyria’s Arrogance
5 Ah! Assyria, the rod of my anger,
and a staff is in their hand: my wrath!
6 I send him against a godless nation,
and I command him against the people of my wrath,
to capture spoil
and to carry off plunder,
and to make them[dx] a trampling place,
like the clay of the streets.
7 But he does not think this,[dy]
and his heart does not plan this.
For it is in his heart to destroy
and to cut off not a few nations.
8 For he says, “Are not my commanders altogether kings?
9 Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols[dz]
—and their images were greater than those of[ea] Jerusalem and Samaria—
11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and its idols
what I have done to Samaria and her idols?”
12 And this shall happen: when the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion[eb] and Jerusalem, “I will punish the arrogance[ec] of the king of Assyria and his haughtiness.”[ed]
13 For he says,
“I have done it by the strength of my hand
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding,
and I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
and I have plundered their stores,
and like a bull I have brought down the inhabitants.[ee]
14 And my hand has found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples,
and like the gathering of forsaken eggs, I myself have gathered all the earth.
And there was no fluttering wing or open mouth or chirp.”
15 Does the ax boast against the one who cuts with it,
or the saw magnify itself against the one who moves it to and fro?
As if a rod should move the one who lifts it![ef]
As if a staff should lift up that which is not wood![eg]
16 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send leanness among his sturdy warriors,
and a burning like the burning of fire will burn under his glory.
17 And the light of Israel will become like a fire,
and his holy one like a flame,
and it will burn and devour his thorns[eh] and briers[ei] in one day.
18 And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard completely,[ej]
and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.
19 And the rest of the trees[ek] of his forest will be a small number,
and a boy can write them down.
The Return of the Remnant
20 And this shall happen: on that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors[el] of the house of Jacob will not continue to lean on the one who struck it
but will lean on Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, in truth.
21 A remnant will return—
the remnant of Jacob—to the mighty God.
22 For though your people Israel was like the sand of the sea,
only a remnant of it will return.
Annihilation is determined,
overflowing with righteousness.
23 For the Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to make a complete destruction
and a determined end in the midst of all the earth.
24 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh of hosts:
“My people who live in Zion,
you must not be afraid of Assyria.
It beats you with the rod,
and it lifts up its staff against you as the Egyptians did.[em]
25 My indignation will come to an end in just a very little while,[en]
and my anger will be directed to their destruction.”
26 And Yahweh of hosts is going to swing a whip against him,
as when Midian was defeated at the rock of Oreb;
and his staff will be over the sea,
and he will lift him up as he did in Egypt.[eo]
27 And this shall happen: on that day,
he will remove his burden from your shoulder
and his yoke from your neck,
and a yoke will be destroyed because of fat.[ep]
28 He has come to Aiath,
he has passed through Migron;
at Micmash he deposited his baggage.
29 They crossed over the pass;
Geba is a place of overnight lodging for us.
Ramah trembles;
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Daughter of Gallim, cry out with your voice;
Laishah, listen!
Anathoth is poor.[eq]
31 Madmenah flees!
The inhabitants of Gebim bring themselves into safety!
32 This day[er] taking a stand[es] at Nob,
he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter[et] of Zion,
at the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Look! The Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to lop off the branches[eu] with great power,
and the towering trees[ev] will be felled,
and the tall trees[ew] will be brought low.
34 And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with the axe,
and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one.
The Branch’s Righteous Reign
11 And a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from its roots will bear fruit.
2 And the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him—
a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a spirit of counsel and might,
a spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.
3 And his breath[ex] is in the fear of Yahweh.
And he shall judge not by his eyesight,
and he shall rebuke not by what he hears with[ey] his ears.
4 But he shall judge the poor with righteousness,
and he shall decide for the needy of the earth with rectitude.
And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and he shall kill the wicked person with the breath of his lips.
5 And righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
6 And a wolf shall stay[ez] with a lamb,
and a leopard shall lie down with a kid,
and a calf and a lion and a fatling together
as a small boy leads[fa] them.
7 And a cow and a bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together.
And a lion shall eat straw like the cattle.
8 And an infant[fb] shall play over a serpent’s hole,
and a toddler[fc] shall put his hand on a viper’s hole.
9 They will not injure and they will not destroy on all of my holy mountain,[fd]
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh,
as the waters cover the sea.
10 And this shall happen on that day:
the nations shall inquire of the root of Jesse,
which shall be standing as a signal to the peoples,
and his resting place shall be glorious.
The Regathered Remnant
11 And this shall happen on that day:
The Lord will again extend his hand a second time
to acquire the remnant of his people that is left,
from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea,
12 and he will raise a signal for the nations.
And he will gather the outcasts of Israel,
and he will gather the scattered ones of Judah together from the four corners[fe] of the earth.
13 And the jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
and the enemies of Judah shall be cut off.
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not be an enemy of Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop[ff] upon the Philistine shoulder,[fg] westward.[fh]
Together they shall plunder the sons of the east.
Edom and Moab will be under their command,[fi]
and the sons of Ammon will be their subjugated people.
15 And Yahweh will divide[fj] the tongue[fk] of the sea of Egypt,[fl]
and he will wave his hand over the river[fm] with his scorching wind;
and he will strike it into seven streams,
and he will make it passable by foot.[fn]
16 So there shall be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people that remains,
as there was for Israel when[fo] it went up from the land of Egypt.
A Song of Thanksgiving
12 And you will say on that day,
“I will give you thanks, Yahweh,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
and you comforted me.
2 Look! God is my salvation;
I will trust, and I will not be afraid,
for my strength and might is Yah, Yahweh;
and he has become salvation for me.”
3 And you will draw water from the wells of salvation in joy. 4 And you will say on that day,
“Give thanks to Yahweh;
call on his name.
Make his deeds known among the peoples;
bring to remembrance that his name is exalted.
5 Sing praises to Yahweh, for he has done a glorious thing;
this is known in all the earth.
6 Inhabitant of Zion, shout out and sing for joy,
for the holy one of Israel is great in your midst.”
An Oracle against Babylon
13 The oracle of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
2 Raise a signal on a bare hill,
lift up your voice to them;
wave the hand and may they enter the gateways of the noblemen.
3 I myself I have commanded my consecrated ones,
I have also summoned my mighty warriors concerning my anger,
the ones who exalt over[fp] my majesty.
4 A sound, a noise is on the mountains,
the likeness of many people!
A sound of the roar of the kingdoms,
of nations gathering!
Yahweh of hosts is mustering an army for battle.
5 They are coming from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole earth.[fq]
6 Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near;
it will come like destruction from Shaddai![fr]
7 Therefore all hands will grow slack,
and every human heart will melt,
8 and they will be dismayed.
Pangs and labor pains will seize them;
they will tremble like a woman giving birth.
They will stare at one another,[fs]
their faces flushing.[ft]
9 Look! The day of Yahweh is coming,
cruel and wrath and the burning of anger,
to make the earth a desolation,
and he will destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not flash forth their light;
the sun will keep back when it comes out,
and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their iniquity.
And I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
and I will bring the haughtiness of tyrants low.
12 I will make humanity more rare than gold
and humankind more than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will quake from its place
because of the wrath of Yahweh of hosts,
and in the day his anger burns.
14 And this shall happen:
like a hunted gazelle or sheep with none to gather them,[fu]
they will each turn to his own people,
and they will each flee to his own land.
15 Everyone who is found will be pierced through,
and everyone who is carried away will fall by the sword.
16 And their children will be dashed into pieces before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be raped.[fv]
17 Look! I am stirring the Medes up against them,
who do not value silver
and do not delight in gold.
18 And their bows will shatter young men.
And they will not show mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not look compassionately on children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew[fw] Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It will not be inhabited forever,
and it will not be dwelled in forever;[fx]
and no Arab will pitch a tent there,
and shepherds will not allow their flocks to lie down there.
21 But wild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures,
and the daughters of ostriches[fy] will live there,
and goats will dance there.
22 And hyenas will answer in its palaces,
and jackals in the pleasure palaces;
and its time is coming soon,[fz]
and its days will not be prolonged.
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