Old/New Testament

^2 [c]Listen, O heavens, and pay close attention, O earth,
    for the Lord is speaking.
I reared children and brought them up,
    but they have rebelled against me.
³ An ox knows its owner
    and the donkey its master’s stall,
but Israel does not know,
    my people do not understand.
⁴ You are a sinful nation,
    a people weighed down with iniquity,
a race of evildoers
    whose children are corrupt;
you have forsaken the Lord,
    despised the Holy One of Israel,
    and turned your backs on him.
^{5     [d]}Why do you continue to seek further beatings?
    Why do you persist in your rebellion?
Your entire head is sick
    and your whole heart is faint.
⁶ From the sole of your foot to your head
    there is not a single healthy area
nothing but bruises and welts and open sores
    that have not been drained or bandaged
    or soothed with ointment.
⁷ Your country is a desolate waste,
    and fire has destroyed your cities.
Before your very eyes
    foreigners have devoured your land
and left it as desolate
    as Sodom after it had been overthrown.
⁸ Daughter Zion^[e] is left
    like a shack in a vineyard,
like a shed in a field of cucumbers,
    like a besieged city.
⁹ If the Lord of hosts^[f]
    had not left us a few survivors,
we would have become like Sodom
    and been like Gomorrah.
^{10     [g]}Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of Sodom.
Listen to the teaching of our God,
    you people of Gomorrah.
¹¹ What do I care about your unceasing sacrifices?
    says the Lord.
I am weary of burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of well-fed animals.
I derive no delight in the blood
    of bulls and lambs and goats.
¹² When you come into my presence,
    who has asked you to present such offerings?
    Never again trample my courts!
¹³ To bring me offerings is futile;
    I regard your incense as loathsome.
New moons and Sabbaths and sacred assemblies—
    I cannot tolerate your iniquity that accompanies them.
¹⁴ I loathe your new moons and your festivals;
    they have become a burden to me
    and I can no longer endure bearing them.
¹⁵ When you stretch out your hands,^[h]
    I will turn away my eyes from you.
Even if you pray endlessly,
    I will not listen,
    for your hands are covered with blood.
¹⁶ Wash yourselves and become clean;
    remove your evil deeds
    far from my sight.
Cease to do evil
¹⁷     and learn to do good.
Pursue justice and rescue the oppressed;
    listen to the plea of the orphan^[i]
    and defend the widow.
¹⁸ Come now and let us discuss this,
    says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be like snow.
Though they are as red as crimson,
    they shall become as white as wool.
¹⁹ If you are willing to obey,
    you will eat the best food
    that the land has to offer.
²⁰ However, if you refuse and rebel,
    the sword will devour you,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
²¹ How the faithful city
    has become an adulteress,^[j]
    she who used to be a symbol of justice.
Righteousness used to dwell in her,
    but now she is the abode of murderers.
²² Your silver has turned to dross,
    and your wine is mixed with water.
²³ Your princes are rebels
    and companions of thieves.
All of them love bribes
    and are eager to receive gifts.
They do not treat the orphan with justice,
    and they refuse to listen to the pleas of widows.
²⁴ Therefore, the Lord of hosts,
    the Mighty One of Israel, says this:
I am determined to vent my anger upon my enemies
    and wreak vengeance on my foes.
²⁵ I will turn my hand against you
    and refine your dross in the furnace,
    purging all of your impurities.
²⁶ And I will restore your judges
    as in the days of old
    and your counselors as at the beginning.
Then you will be called the city of righteousness,
    the faithful city.
²⁷ Zion will be redeemed by judgment
    and those who are repentant by righteousness.
²⁸ But rebels and sinners alike will be destroyed,
    and those who forsake the Lord will perish.
²⁹ You will be ashamed of the sacred oaks^[k]
    which offered you such delight,
and you will blush when you behold the gardens
    which you chose in their stead.
³⁰ You will be like a tree whose leaves are withered,
    like a garden without water.
³¹ The strong man will become like straw
    and his work like a spark.
Both will burn together,
    and no one will be able to quench the flames.

² In days to come
    the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be established as the highest mountain
    and raised high above the hills.
Then all the nations will stream toward it;
³     many peoples will come to it and say,
“Come, let us ascend the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
so that he may teach us his ways
    and we may walk in his paths.”
For from Zion will go forth instruction,
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴ He will judge between the nations
    and serve as an arbiter for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
One nation will not lift up a sword against another,
    nor will they ever again be trained for war.

⁵ Come, O house of Jacob,
    let us walk in the light of the Lord.
⁶ For you, O Lord, have abandoned your people,
    the house of Jacob.
They are surrounded by fortune tellers
    and by soothsayers like the Philistines,
    and they are allying themselves with foreigners.^[n]
7 Their land is full of silver and gold,
    and their treasures are without limit.
Their land is filled with horses,
    and there is no end to their chariots.^[o]
8 Their land is full of idols;
    they bow down before the work of their hands,
    before what their own fingers have fashioned.
⁹ Therefore human nature has been humbled
    and mankind has been brought low;
    do not forgive them.
¹⁰ Let them conceal themselves among the rocks
    and hide in the dust
in their terror of the Lord
    and from the splendor of his majesty.
¹¹ The haughty looks of men will be brought low
    and human arrogance will be humbled;
the Lord alone will be exalted
    on that day.
¹² For the Lord of hosts has ordained a day
    against all those who are proud and haughty,
    against all those who have been exalted and raised high,
¹³ against all the lofty and proud cedars of Lebanon
    and against all the oaks of Bashan,
¹⁴ against all the soaring mountains
    and all the towering hills,
¹⁵ against every high tower
    and every fortified wall,
¹⁶ against all the ships of Tarshish^[p]
    and every stately vessel.
¹⁷ Human pride will be humbled
    and human arrogance will be brought low.
On that day,
    the Lord alone will be exalted.
¹⁸ The idols will completely disappear;
¹⁹     they will crawl into the caves of the rocks
    and the holes of the ground,
fleeing from the terror of the Lord
    and the splendor of his majesty
    when he arises to strike the world with terror.
²⁰ On that day people will throw away
    to the moles and to the bats
their idols of silver and gold
    that they had made for themselves to worship.
²¹ They will crawl into the crevices of the rocks
    and the clefts in the cliffs
to hide from the terror of the Lord
    and the splendor of his majesty
    when he arises to terrify the earth.
²² Have nothing more to do with men
    who have only the breath in their nostrils.
    Of what value are they?