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Bible in 90 Days

An intensive Bible reading plan that walks through the entire Bible in 90 days.
Duration: 88 days
Modern English Version (MEV)
Version
Isaiah 1-13

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The Wickedness of Judah

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.
    For the Lord has spoken:
I have nourished and brought up children,
    and they have rebelled against Me;
the ox knows his owner,
    and the donkey his master’s crib,
but Israel does not know;
    My people do not consider.

Alas, sinful nation,
    a people laden with iniquity,
a brood of evildoers,
    children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord,
    they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger,
    they are estranged and backward.

Why should you be beaten again,
    that you revolt more and more?
The whole head is sick,
    and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head
    there is no soundness in it.
Wounds, bruises,
    and open sores;
they have not been closed,
    nor bandaged, nor soothed with oil.

Your country is desolate,
    your cities are burned with fire;
strangers devour your land
    in your presence;
    and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
The daughter of Zion is left
    like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a hut in a field of melons,
    like a besieged city.
Unless the Lord of Hosts
    had left to us a very small remnant,
we would have been as Sodom;
    we would have been like Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the law of our God,
    you people of Gomorrah:
11 For what purpose is the multitude
    of your sacrifices to Me? says the Lord.
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams,
    and the fat of fed animals.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
    or of lambs, or of male goats.
12 When you come to appear before Me,
    who has required this at your hand,
    to trample My courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings;
    incense is an abomination to Me.
New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations—
    I cannot bear with evil assemblies.
14 My soul hates
    your New Moons and your appointed feasts;
they are a burden to Me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you reach out your hands,
    I will hide My eyes from you;
even when you make many prayers,
    I will not hear.

Your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
    put away the evil from your deeds, from before My eyes.
    Cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good; seek justice,
    relieve the oppressed;
judge the fatherless,
    plead for the widow.

18 Come now, and let us reason together,
    says the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson,
    they shall be as wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
    you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
    you shall be devoured with the sword;
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

The Degenerate City

21 How the faithful city
    has become a prostitute!
She was full of justice;
    righteousness lodged in her,
    but now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross,
    your wine mixed with water.
23 Your princes are rebellious
    and companions of thieves;
everyone loves a bribe
    and follows after rewards.
They do not defend the fatherless,
    nor does the cause of the widow come before them.

24 Therefore the Lord, the Lord of Hosts,
    the Mighty One of Israel, says:
Ah, I will get relief from My adversaries,
    and avenge Myself on My enemies.
25 And I will turn My hand against you,
    thoroughly purge away your dross,
    and take away all your impurities.
26 I will restore your judges as at the first,
    and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called
    the city of righteousness,
    a faithful town.

27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice
    and her converts with righteousness.
28 But the destruction of the transgressors and sinners shall be together,
    and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks
    which you have desired,
and you shall be humiliated for the gardens
    that you have chosen.
30 For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades,
    and as a garden that has no water.
31 The strong shall be as tinder,
    and his work like a spark;
they will both burn together,
    and no one will quench them.

The Mountain of the Lord(A)

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In the last days,

the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established
    on the top of the mountains,
and shall be exalted above the hills,
    and all nations shall flow to it.

Many people shall go and say,

“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
and He will teach us of His ways,
    and we will walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge among the nations,
    and shall rebuke many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    nor shall they learn war any more.

O house of Jacob, come,
    and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

The Day of the Lord

For You have forsaken Your people,
    the house of Jacob,
because they are replenished from the east,
    and are soothsayers like the Philistines,
    and they please themselves with the children of strangers.
Their land also is full of silver and gold,
    and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is also full of horses,
    and there is no end to their chariots.
Their land also is full of idols;
    they worship the work of their own hands,
    that which their own fingers have made.
And the common man bows down,
    and the great man humbles himself;
    therefore, do not forgive them.

10 Enter into the rock,
    and hide in the dust
from the fear of the Lord
    and from the glory of His majesty.
11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
    and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

12 For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be
    upon everything that is proud and lofty,
    and upon everything that is lifted up,
    and it shall be brought low;
13 and it will be upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up,
    and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 and upon all the high mountains,
    and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15 and upon all the high towers,
    and upon every fenced wall,
16 and upon all the ships of Tarshish,
    and upon all pleasant sloops.
17 The loftiness of man shall be humbled,
    and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day;
18     the idols He shall utterly abolish.

19 They shall go into the holes of the rocks,
    and into the caves of the earth,
from the fear of the Lord,
    and from the glory of His majesty,
    when He shall arise to shake the earth mightily.
20 In that day a man shall cast away
    his idols of silver and his idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
    to the moles and to the bats,
21 to enter the caverns of the rocks,
    and into the clefts of the cliffs,
from the terror of the Lord,
    and from the glory of His majesty,
    when He arises to shake the earth mightily.

22 Cease regarding man,
    whose breath is in his nostrils;
for why should he be esteemed?

Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

For now the Lord,
    the Lord of Hosts,
takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah
    the stock and the store,
the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water;
    the mighty man and the man of war,
the judge and the prophet,
    and the prudent and the ancient,
the captain of fifty and the honorable man,
    the counselor and the skillful artisan, and the eloquent orator.

I will give youths to be their princes,
    and unweaned children shall rule over them.

The people shall be oppressed,
    every one by another, and every one by his neighbor;
the youth shall behave himself proudly against the elder,
    and the inferior against the honorable.

When a man shall take hold of his brother
    in the house of his father saying,
“You have clothing; be our ruler,
    and let this ruin be under your power,”
in that day he shall swear saying,
    “I will not be a healer.
For in my house is neither bread nor clothing;
    do not make me a ruler of the people.”

For Jerusalem is ruined,
    and Judah is fallen,
because their tongue and their deeds are against the Lord,
    to provoke the eyes of His glory.
The expression of their countenance witnesses against them,
    and they declare their sin as Sodom;
    they hide it not.
Woe to them!
    For they have brought evil on themselves.

10 Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them,
    for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
for the reward of his hands shall be given him.

12 As for My people, children are their oppressors,
    and women rule over them.
O My people, those who lead you cause you to err,
    and destroy the way of your paths.

13 The Lord stands up to plead
    and stands to judge the people.
14 The Lord will enter into judgment
    with the elders and the princes of His people:
For you have eaten up the vineyard;
    the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15 What do you mean that you beat My people to pieces
    and grind the faces of the poor?
    says the Lord God of Hosts.

16 Moreover the Lord says:
    Because the daughters of Zion are haughty
and walk with outstretched necks
    and wanton eyes,
walking and mincing as they go,
    and making a tinkling with their feet,
17 therefore, the Lord will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,
    and the Lord will make their foreheads bare.

18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the ankle ornaments, and the headbands, and the crescent ornaments, 19 the chains, and the bracelets, and the veils, 20 the bonnets, the leg ornaments, the sashes, perfume boxes, amulets, 21 the finger rings, nose rings, 22 festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, purses, 23 hand mirrors, and undergarments, hoods, and veils.

24 Instead of sweet perfume there shall be a stench;
    and instead of a belt, a rope;
and instead of well-set hair, baldness;
    and instead of fine clothes, a girding of sackcloth;
    and branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men shall fall by the sword,
    and your mighty in the war.
26 Her gates shall lament and mourn,
    and she, being desolate, shall sit on the ground.
And in that day seven women
    shall take hold of one man, saying,
“We will eat our own bread,
    and wear our own apparel,
only let us be called by your name,
    to take away our reproach.”

The Branch of the Lord

In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for those of Israel who have escaped. He who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and has purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst by the spirit of justice and by the spirit of burning, then the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory shall be a covering. There shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and from rain.

The Song of the Vineyard

Now I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved
    concerning His vineyard:
My well-beloved has a vineyard
    in a very fruitful hill.
And He fenced it, and removed its stones,
    and planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the midst of it,
    and also made a winepress in it;
and He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
    but it brought forth wild grapes.

Now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
    judge between My vineyard and Me.
What more could have been done to My vineyard
    that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
    did it bring forth wild grapes?
So now I will tell you
    what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
    and it shall be consumed;
I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trodden down.
And I will lay it waste:
    It shall not be pruned or dug,
    but briers and thorns shall come up.
I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain on it.

For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
    His pleasant plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but saw oppression;
    for righteousness, but heard a cry.

Woes and Judgment

Woe to those who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is no more space
    where they may live alone in the midst of the land!

In my ears the Lord of Hosts said:

Truly, many houses shall be desolate,
    even great and beautiful, without inhabitants.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,[a]
    and the homer[b] of seed shall yield an ephah.[c]

11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning
    that they may pursue strong drink;
who continue late in the evening
    until wine inflames them!
12 The lyre and the harp, the tambourine and pipe,
    and wine are in their feasts;
but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
    or consider the work of His hands.
13 Therefore My people go into captivity
    because they have no knowledge;
and their honorable men are famished,
    and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself
    and opened its mouth without measure;
so their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp,
    and he who rejoices shall descend into it.
15 The common man shall be brought down,
    and the great man shall be humbled,
    and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
16 But the Lord of Hosts shall be exalted in judgment,
    and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
17 Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,
    and strangers shall eat in the waste places of the wealthy.

18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood
    and sin as if with a cart rope,
19 who say, “Let Him make speed
    and hasten His work,
    that we may see it;
and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel
    draw near and come,
    that we may know it!”

20 Woe to those who call evil good,
    and good evil;
who exchange darkness for light,
    and light for darkness;
who exchange bitter for sweet,
    and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and prudent in their own sight!

22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine,
    and men of strength to mingle strong drink,
23 who justify the wicked for a reward,
    and take away the justice of the righteous from him!
24 Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble
    and the flame consumes the chaff,
so their root shall be as rottenness,
    and their blossom shall go up as dust;
because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts
    and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord burns against His people,
    and He has stretched out His hand against them, and has stricken them,
and the hills trembled.
    Their corpses were torn in the midst of the streets.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
    and His hand is still stretched out.

26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar
    and will hiss at them from the ends of the earth;
certainly they shall come
    with speed, swiftly.
27 No one shall be weary or stumble among them;
    no one shall slumber or sleep;
neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed,
    nor the strap of their shoes be broken;
28 their arrows are sharp
    and all their bows bent;
their horses’ hooves will seem like flint,
    and their wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring shall be like a lion,
    they shall roar like young lions;
they shall roar and lay hold of the prey;
    and shall carry it away, and no one shall deliver it.
30 In that day they shall roar against them
    like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks to the land—
    only darkness and sorrow,
    and the light is darkened by the clouds.

The Commission of Isaiah

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. One cried to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts;
    the whole earth is full of His glory.”

The posts of the door moved at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar in his hand. And he laid it on my mouth, and said, “This has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”

Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here am I. Send me.”

He said, “Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
    keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull,
    and their ears heavy,
    and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
    and understand with their heart,
and turn and be healed.”

11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”

And He answered:

“Until the cities are laid waste
    without inhabitants,
and the houses without man,
    and the land is utterly desolate,
12 and the Lord has removed men far away,
    and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 But yet in it shall be a tenth,
    and it shall return, and shall be burned,
as a terebinth tree or as an oak,
    whose stump remains when it is cut down,
    so the holy seed is its stump.”

Isaiah Reassures King Ahaz

And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

It was said to the house of David, “Aram is allied with Ephraim.” Then his heart trembled and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood tremble with the wind.

Then the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field, and say to him, Take heed, and be quiet. Do not fear nor be fainthearted because of the two tails of these smoking firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin with Aram and of the son of Remaliah, because Aram, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have taken evil counsel against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and trouble it, and let us make a breach there for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel. Thus says the Lord God:

It shall not stand,
    nor shall it come to pass.
For the head of Aram is Damascus,
    and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Now within sixty-five years
    Ephraim shall be broken so that it is not a people.
The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
    and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you will not believe,
    surely you shall not be established.

The Sign of Immanuel

10 Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying: 11 Ask for a sign from the Lord your God. Make it either as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.

12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I tempt the Lord.

13 Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David. Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: The virgin[d] shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.[e] 15 Curds and honey he shall eat at the time that he knows enough to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread shall be forsaken of both her kings. 17 The Lord shall bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon your father’s house, days that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria.”

18 In that day the Lord shall whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 They shall come, and all of them shall rest in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and on all thorns, and on all bushes. 20 In that same day the Lord shall shave with a hired razor, from regions beyond the River,[f] with the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the legs, and it shall also remove the beard. 21 In that day a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he shall eat curds; for everyone who is left in the land shall eat curds and honey. 23 In that day every place where there were a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels[g] of silver, shall become briers and thorns. 24 With arrows and with bows shall men come there because all the land shall become briers and thorns. 25 On all hills that used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns. But it shall be for pasturing oxen and for sheep to tread.

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

Moreover the Lord said to me, Take for yourself a large book and write in it with a man’s pen: “Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.”[h] I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberekiah. So I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.[i] For before the child knows how to cry “My father” and “My mother,” the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

The Lord spoke to me again, saying:

Because this people refuses
    the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
and rejoices in Rezin
    and the son of Remaliah,
now therefore the Lord certainly is about to bring upon them
    the strong and plentiful waters of the River,[j]
    even the king of Assyria and all his glory;
and he shall come up over all his channels
    and go over all his banks.
And he shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over,
    he shall reach even to the neck,
and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land,
    O Immanuel.

Be broken, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces.
    And give ear, all you from far countries.
Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces;
    gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, but it shall come to nothing;
    speak the word, but it shall not stand
    for God is with us.

Fear God

11 For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:

12 You should not say, “It is a conspiracy,”
    concerning all that this people calls a conspiracy,
neither fear their threats
    nor be afraid of them.
13 Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself,
    and let Him be your fear,
    and let Him be your dread.
14 He shall become a sanctuary,
    but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
to both the houses of Israel,
    and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 Many among them shall stumble
    and fall and be broken
    and be snared and be taken.

16 Bind up the testimony;
    seal the law among My disciples.
17 I will wait on the Lord,
    who hides His face from the house of Jacob,
and I will eagerly look for Him.

18 See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts who dwells in Mount Zion.

19 When they say to you, “Seek after the mediums and the wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek after their God? Should they consult the dead for the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony; if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21 They shall pass through the land hard-pressed and hungry; when they are hungry, they shall be furious and curse their king and their God as they look upward. 22 Then they shall look to the earth and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish. And they shall be driven away into darkness.

The Coming King

Nevertheless there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time He contemptuously treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
    upon them the light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation
    and increased the joy;
they rejoice before You
    according to the joy of harvest
and as men rejoice
    when they divide the spoil.
For You have broken the yoke of his burden
    and the bar of his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor
    as in the day of Midian’s defeat.
For all the sandals of the tramping warriors
    and all the garments rolled in blood
    shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For unto us a child is born,
    unto us a son is given,
    and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
And his name shall be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
    there shall be no end,
upon the throne of David
    and over his kingdom,
to order it and to establish it
    with justice and with righteousness,
    from now until forever.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
    will perform this.

The Message Against Israel

The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
    and it falls upon Israel.
All the people shall know,
    even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
who say in the pride
    and stoutness of heart,
10 “The bricks are fallen down,
    but we will build with hewn stones;
the sycamores are cut down,
    but we will replace them with cedars.”
11 Therefore, the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him,
    and join his enemies together.
12 The Arameans shall be before and the Philistines behind;
    and they shall devour Israel with open jaws.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
    and His hand is stretched out still.

13 For the people do not turn to Him who struck them,
    nor do they seek the Lord of Hosts.
14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail,
    branch and bulrush, in one day.
15 The elder and honorable man, he is the head;
    and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.
16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err,
    and those who are led by them are destroyed.
17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men,
    nor shall He have mercy on their fatherless and widows;
for every one of them is a hypocrite and an evildoer,
    and every mouth speaks folly.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
    and His hand is stretched out still.

18 For wickedness burns as a fire;
    it shall devour the briers and thorns,
and shall ignite in the thickets of the forest,
    and they shall mount up like rising smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts
    is the land burned up,
and the people shall be as fuel for the fire;
    no man shall spare his brother.
20 They shall snatch on the right hand,
    but still be hungry;
and they shall eat on the left hand,
    and shall not be satisfied;
every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.
21     Manasseh consumes Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh,
    and they together shall be against Judah.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
    and His hand is stretched out still.

10 Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees
    and who write unjust judgments which they have prescribed
to turn aside the needy from justice
    and to take away the right from the poor of My people,
that widows may be their prey,
    and that they may rob the fatherless!
And what will you do in the day of punishment
    and in the desolation which shall come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
    and where will you leave your wealth?
Nothing remains but to bow down among the prisoners,
    and they shall fall among the slain.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
    and His hand is stretched out still.

Judgment on Assyria

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
    and the staff in whose hand is My indignation.
I will send him against an ungodly nation,
    and against the people of My wrath I will give him a command,
to seize the plunder, to take the prey,
    and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
However he does not so intend,
    nor does he plan so in his heart;
but his purpose is to destroy
    and to cut off many nations.
For he says, “Are not my princes altogether kings?
    Is not Kalno as Carchemish?
Is not Hamath as Arpad?
    Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols
    whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols,
    so do to Jerusalem and her idols?”

12 When the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks.” 13 For he says:

“By the strength of my hand and by my wisdom,
    I have done it, for I am prudent;
and I have removed the bounds of the people,
    and have robbed their treasures,
    and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.
14 And my hand has found as a nest
    the riches of the people,
and as one gathers eggs that are left,
    I have gathered all the earth
and there was no one who moved the wing
    or opened the mouth or peeped.”

15 Shall the axe boast itself against him who hews with it?
    Or shall the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
That is as if the rod wields itself against those who lift it up,
    or as if the staff should lift itself up as if it were not wood.
16 Therefore the Lord, God of Hosts,
    shall send leanness among his stout ones,
and under his glory he shall kindle a burning
    like the burning of a fire.
17 The light of Israel shall be a fire,
    and his Holy One a flame,
and it shall burn and devour
    his thorns and his briers in one day,
18 and shall consume the glory of his forest,
    and of his fruitful field, both soul and body;
    and it shall be as when a sick man faints.
19 The rest of the trees of his forest shall be so few
    that a child may write them down.

The Returning Remnant of Israel

20 In that day the remnant of Israel
    and those who have escaped of the house of Jacob
shall never again depend on him
    who struck them,
but shall depend on the Lord,
    the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob,
    to the mighty God.
22 For though your people, O Israel, are as the sand of the sea,
    yet a remnant of them shall return;
the destruction is decreed,
    overflowing with righteousness.
23 For the Lord God of Hosts shall make a complete destruction,
    as decreed, in the midst of all the land.

24 Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Hosts:

O My people who dwell in Zion,
    do not be afraid of the Assyrian.
He shall strike you with a rod
    and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.
25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease,
    and My anger will be directed to their destruction.

26 The Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him
    according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb;
and as His rod was over the sea, so shall He lift it up
    after the manner of Egypt.
27 In that day his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder,
    and his yoke from off your neck;
and the yoke shall be destroyed
    because of the anointing oil.

28 He has come against Aiath,
    he has passed through Migron;
    at Mikmash he has laid up his carriages.
29 They are gone over the pass,
    they have taken up their lodging at Geba.
Ramah is afraid,
    Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Lift up your voice, O daughter of Gallim.
    Listen, Laishah
    and poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah has fled,
    the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
32 Yet today he shall remain at Nob;
    he shakes his fist
against the mount of the daughter of Zion,
    the hill of Jerusalem.

33 See, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts,
    shall lop the bough with terror;
and the tall ones of stature shall be hewn down,
    and the haughty shall be humbled.
34 He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,
    and Lebanon shall fall by the Mighty One.

The Righteous Branch of Jesse

11 And there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
    and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and might,
    the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

He shall delight in the fear of the Lord,
    and he shall not judge by what his eyes see,
    nor reprove by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
    and reprove with fairness for the meek of the earth.
He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
    and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins,
    and faithfulness the belt about his waist.

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
    and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young ones shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play by the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
    in all My holy mountain,
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
    as the waters cover the sea.

10 In that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the peoples. For him shall the nations seek. And his rest shall be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, who shall be left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

12 He shall set up a banner for the nations,
    and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather together the dispersed of Judah
    from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,
    and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
    and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines towards the west;
    they shall plunder the sons of the east together;
they shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab,
    and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 The Lord shall utterly destroy
    the tongue of the Egyptian sea,
and with His mighty wind He shall shake His hand
    over the River,[k]
and shall strike it into seven streams,
    and make men walk over dry-shod.
16 There shall be a highway for the remnant of His people,
    who will be left from Assyria,
as it was for Israel
    when he came up from the land of Egypt.

Hymns of Praise

12 And in that day you shall say:

O Lord, I will praise You;
    though You were angry with me,
Your anger has turned away,
    and You comforted me.
Certainly God is my salvation;
    I will trust and not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song;
    He also has become my salvation.
Therefore with joy you shall draw water
    out of the wells of salvation.

In that day you shall say:

Praise the Lord, call upon His name,
    declare His deeds among the peoples,
    make them remember that His name is exalted.
Sing to the Lord, for He has done excellent things;
    let this be known in all the earth.
Cry out and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion.
    For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst.

A Prophecy Against Babylon

13 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

Lift up a banner on the high mountain,
    exalt the voice to them,
shake the hand,
    that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
I have commanded My sanctified ones,
    I have also called My mighty ones for My anger,
    even those who rejoice in My exaltation.

The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
    like as of a great people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms
    of nations gathered together!
The Lord of Hosts musters
    the army for battle.
They come from a far country,
    from the end of heaven,
the Lord and the weapons of His indignation,
    to destroy the whole land.

Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
    It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore all hands shall be faint,
    and every man’s heart shall melt,
and they shall be afraid.
    Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them;
    they shall be in pain as a woman who travails;
they shall be amazed one at another;
    their faces shall be as flames.

See, the day of the Lord comes,
    cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger,
to lay the land desolate,
    and He shall destroy its sinners out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
    shall not give their light;
the sun shall be dark when it rises,
    and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
    and the wicked for their iniquity;
and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease,
    and will lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.
12 I will make a man more rare than fine gold,
    and mankind than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore, I will shake the heavens,
    and the earth shall be shaken out of her place
at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts
    and in the day of His fierce anger.

14 It shall be as the chased roe,
    and as a sheep that no man takes up;
every man shall turn to his own people
    and flee every one into his own land.
15 Every one who is found shall be thrust through,
    and every one who is joined to them shall fall by the sword.
16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
    their houses shall be devastated and their wives ravished.

17 See, I will stir up the Medes against them,
    who shall not regard silver;
    and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces,
    and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
    their eye shall not spare children.
19 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
    the beauty of the Chaldean’s excellency,
shall be as when God overthrew
    Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It shall never be inhabited,
    nor shall it be lived in from generation to generation,
nor shall the Arabian pitch a tent there,
    nor shall the shepherds make their fold there.
21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie down there,
    and their houses shall be full of owls,
ostriches also shall dwell there,
    and shaggy goats shall dance there.
22 The wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses
    and jackals in their pleasant palaces.
And her time is near to come,
    and her days shall not be prolonged.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.