Isaiah,
Chapter 1
1:
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem in the days of Uzzi'ah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezeki'ah, kings of
Judah.
2:
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has
spoken: "Sons have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled
against Me.
3: The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but
Israel does not know, My people does not understand."
4:
Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of
evildoers, sons who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord they
have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.
5: Why will you still be smitten, that you continue to rebel? The
whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6: From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no
soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds; they are not
pressed out, or bound up, or softened with oil.
7:
Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence aliens devour your land; it is desolate, as
overthrown by aliens.
8: And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard,
like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.
9: If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we
should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomor'rah.
10: Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to
the teaching of our God, you people of Gomor'rah!
11:
"What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says
the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of
fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of
he-goats.
12: "When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you
this trampling of My courts?
13: Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to
Me. New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies -- I cannot
endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
14: Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they
have become a burden to Me, I am weary of bearing them.
15:
When you spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from
you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands
are full of blood.
16: Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of
your doings from before My eyes; cease to do evil,
17: learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend
the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18: "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though
your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
are red like crimson, they shall become like 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 by the
sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
21: How the faithful city has become a harlot, she that 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 rebels and companions of thieves. Every one
loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the fatherless,
and the widow's cause does not come to them.
24:
Therefore the Lord says, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of
Israel: "Ah, I will vent My wrath on My enemies, and avenge Myself
on My foes.
25: I will turn My hand against you and will smelt away your
dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.
26: And 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, the faithful city."
27: Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who
repent, by righteousness.
28: But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together, and those
who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
29:
For you shall be ashamed of the oaks in which you delighted;
and you shall blush for the gardens which you have chosen.
30: For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a
garden without water.
31: And the strong shall become tow, and his work a spark, and
both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.
Isaiah, chapter
2
1: The word which Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem.
2: It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of
the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the
mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations
shall flow to it,
3: and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He
may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths." For out
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4: He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many
peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5: O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
6: For Thou hast rejected Thy people, the house of Jacob, because
they are full of diviners from the east and of soothsayers like the
Philistines, and they strike hands with foreigners.
7: Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end
to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no
end to their chariots.
8: Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of
their hands, to what their own fingers have made.
9: So man is humbled, and men are brought low -- forgive them
not!
10: Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust from before the
terror of the Lord, and from the glory of His majesty.
11: The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the pride
of men shall be humbled; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
12: For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and
lofty, against all that is lifted up and high;
13: against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and
against all the oaks of Bashan;
14: against all the high mountains, and against all the lofty
hills;
15: against every high tower, and against every fortified wall;
16: against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the
beautiful craft.
17: And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the pride of
men shall be brought low; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that
day.
18: And the idols shall utterly pass away.
19: And men shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of
the ground, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of
His majesty, when He rises to terrify the earth.
20: In that day men will cast forth their idols of silver and
their 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 the clefts of the
cliffs, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of His
majesty, when He rises to terrify the earth.
22: Turn away from man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what
account is He?
Isaiah, chapter
3
1: For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, is taking away from
Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and
the whole stay of water;
2: the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the
diviner and the elder,
3: the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and
the skilful magician and the expert in charms.
4: And I will make boys their princes, and babes shall rule over
them.
5: And the people will oppress one another, every man his fellow
and every man his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and
the base fellow to the honorable.
6: When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his
father, saying: "You have a mantle; you shall be our leader, and
this heap of ruins shall be under your rule";
7: in that day he will speak out, saying: "I will not be a
healer; in my house there is neither bread nor mantle; you shall not
make me leader of the people."
8: For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen; because
their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying His glorious
presence.
9: Their partiality witnesses against them; they proclaim their
sin like Sodom, they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought
evil upon themselves.
10: Tell 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 what his
hands have done shall be done to him.
12: My people -- children are their oppressors, and women rule
over them. O My people, your leaders mislead you, and confuse the course
of your paths.
13: The Lord has taken His place to contend, He stands to judge
His people.
14: The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of
His people: "It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of
the poor is in your houses.
15: What do you mean by crushing My people, by grinding the face
of the poor?" says the Lord God of hosts.
16: The Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and
walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing
along as they go, tinkling with their feet;
17: the Lord will smite with a scab the heads of the daughters of
Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.
18: In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the
anklets, the headbands, and the crescents;
19: the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarf’s;
20: the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes,
and the amulets;
21: the signet rings and nose rings;
22: the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags;
23: the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans, and
the veils.
24: Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a
girdle, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a
rich robe, a girding of sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame.
25: Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in
battle.
26: And her gates shall lament and mourn; ravaged, she shall sit
upon the ground.
Isaiah, chapter
4
1: And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day,
saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only
let us be called by your name; take away our reproach."
2: In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and
glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the
survivors of Israel.
3: And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be
called holy, every one who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,
4: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the
daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its
midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.
5: Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion
and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a
flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy and
a pavilion.
6: It will be for a shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge
and a shelter from the storm and rain.
Isaiah, chapter
5
1: Let me sing for My beloved a love song concerning His
vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2: He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice
vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine
vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild
grapes.
3: And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I
pray you, between Me and My vineyard.
4: What more was there to do for My vineyard, that I have not
done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild
grapes?
5: And now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard. I will
remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6: I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and
briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that
they rain no rain upon it.
7: For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah are His pleasant planting; and he looked for
justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry!
8: Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field,
until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the
midst of the land.
9: The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing: "Surely many
houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without
inhabitant.
10: For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a
homer of seed shall yield but an ephod."
11: Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run
after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening till wine inflames
them!
12: They have lyre and harp, timbre and flute and wine at their
feasts; but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of
His hands.
13: Therefore My people go into exile for want of knowledge;
their honored men are dying of hunger, and their multitude is parched
with thirst.
14: Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its
mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude go
down, her throng and he who exults in her.
15: Man is bowed down, and men are brought low, and the eyes of
the haughty are humbled.
16: But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God
shows himself holy in righteousness.
17: Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, fatlings and
kids shall feed among the ruins.
18: Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who
draw sin as with cart ropes,
19: who say: "Let him make haste, let him speed his work
that we may see it; let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
and let it come, that we may know it!"
20: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put
darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter!
21: Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in
their own sight!
22: Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men
in mixing strong drink,
23: who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent
of his right!
24: Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as
dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness,
and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the
Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25: Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against His
people, and He stretched out His hand against them and smote them, and
the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of
the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away and His hand is
stretched out still.
26: He will raise a signal for a nation afar off, and whistle for
it from the ends of the earth; and lo, swiftly, speedily it comes!
27: None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a
waistcloth is loose, not a sandal-thong broken;
28: their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses'
hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind.
29: Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey, they carry it off, and none can rescue.
30: They will growl over it on that day, like the roaring of the
sea. And if one look to the land, behold, darkness and distress; and the
light is darkened by its clouds.
Isaiah, chapter
6
1: In the year that King Uzzi'ah died I saw the Lord sitting upon
a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple.
2: Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two He
covered his face, and with two He covered his feet, and with two He
flew.
3: And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."
4: And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of
him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
5: And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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!"
6: Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a
burning coal which He had taken with tongs from the altar.
7: And He touched my mouth, and said: "Behold, this has
touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin
forgiven."
8: And 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."
9: And He said, "Go, and say to this people: `Hear and hear,
but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive.'
10: Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and
shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
11: Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And He said:
"Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without men,
and the land is utterly desolate,
12: and the Lord removes men far away, and the forsaken places
are many in the midst of the land.
13: And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains standing when it is
felled." The holy seed is its stump.
Isaiah, chapter
7
1: In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzzi'ah, king of
Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remali'ah the king
of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could
not conquer it.
2: When the house of David was told, "Syria is in league
with E'phraim," his heart and the heart of his people shook as the
trees of the forest shake before the wind.
3: And the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go forth to meet Ahaz, you
and She'ar-jash'ub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool
on the highway to the Fuller's Field,
4: and say to him, `Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not
let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of
firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of
Remali'ah.
5: Because Syria, with E'phraim and the son of Remali'ah, has
devised evil against you, saying,
6: "Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us
conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Ta'be-el as king in the
midst of it,"
7: thus says the Lord God: It shall not stand, and it shall not
come to pass.
8: For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is
Rezin. (Within sixty-five years E'phraim will be broken to pieces so
that it will no longer be a people.)
9: And the head of E'phraim is Sama'ria, and the head of Sama'ria
is the son of Remali'ah. If you will not believe, surely you shall not
be established.'"
10: Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz,
11: "Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as
Sheol or high as heaven."
12: But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the
Lord to the test."
13: And He said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too
little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?
14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a
young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name
Imman'u-el.
15: He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the
evil and choose the good.
16: For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose
the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be
deserted.
17: The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon
your father's house such days as have not come since the day that
E'phraim departed from Judah -- the king of Assyria."
18: In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly which is at the
sources of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of
Assyria.
19: And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and
in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thorn-bushes, and on all the
pastures.
20: In that day the Lord will shave with a razor which is hired
beyond the River -- with the king of Assyria -- the head and the hair of
the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.
21: In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep;
22: and because of the abundance of milk which they give, he will
eat curds; for every one that is left in the land will eat curds and
honey.
23: In that day every place where there used to be a thousand
vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and
thorns.
24: With bow and arrows men will come there, for all the land
will be briers and thorns;
25: and as for all the hills which used to be hoed with a hoe,
you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but they will
become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.
Isaiah, chapter
8
1: Then the Lord said to me, "Take a large tablet and write
upon it in common characters, `Belonging to Ma'hershal'alhashbaz.'"
2: And I got reliable witnesses, Uri'ah the priest and Zechari'ah
the son of Jeberechi'ah, to attest for me.
3: And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a
son. Then the Lord said to me, "Call his name Ma'hershal'alhashbaz;
4: for before the child knows how to cry `My father' or `My
mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Sama'ria will be
carried away before the king of Assyria."
5: The Lord spoke to me again:
6: "Because this people have refused the waters of Shilo'ah
that flow gently, and melt in fear before Rezin and the son of
Remali'ah;
7: therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the
waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his
glory; and it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks;
8: and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on,
reaching even to the neck; and its outspread wings will fill the breadth
of your land, O Imman'uel."
9: Be broken, you peoples, and be dismayed; give ear, all you far
countries; gird yourselves and be dismayed; gird yourselves and be
dismayed.
10: Take counsel together, but it will come to naught; speak a
word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
11: For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me,
and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:
12: "Do not call conspiracy all that this people call
conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.
13: But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him
be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14: And He will become a sanctuary, and a stone of offense, and a
rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15: And many shall stumble thereon; they shall fall and be
broken; they shall be snared and taken."
16: Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among My disciples.
17: I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding His face from the
house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.
18: Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given Me are
signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount
Zion.
19: And when they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the
wizards who chirp and mutter," should not a people consult their
God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?
20: To the teaching and to the testimony! Surely for this word
which they speak there is no dawn.
21: They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and
hungry; and when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse
their king and their God, and turn their faces upward;
22: and they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and
darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be thrust into thick
darkness.
Isaiah, chapter
9
1: But there will be no gloom for her that was in anguish. In the
former time he brought into contempt the land of Zeb'ulun and the land
of Naph'tali, but in the latter time He will make glorious the way of
the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
3: Thou hast multiplied the nation, Thou hast increased its joy;
they rejoice before Thee as with joy at the harvest, as men rejoice when
they divide the spoil.
4: For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor, Thou hast broken as on the day of Mid'ian.
5: For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and
every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the
government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called
"Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace."
7: Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be
no end, upon the throne of David, and over His kingdom, to establish it,
and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time
forth and for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
8: The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will light upon
Israel;
9: and all the people will know, E'phraim and the inhabitants of
Sama'ria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:
10: "The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed
stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in
their place."
11: So the Lord raises adversaries against them, and stirs up
their enemies.
12: The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west
devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away
and his hand is stretched out still.
13: The people did not turn to him who smote them, nor seek the
Lord of hosts.
14: So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch
and reed in one day --
15: the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who
teaches lies is the tail;
16: for those who lead this people lead them astray, and those
who are led by them are swallowed up.
17: Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and
has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for every one is
godless 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 like a fire, it consumes briers and
thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a
column of smoke.
19: Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is burned,
and the people are like fuel for the fire; no man spares his brother.
20: They snatch on the right, but are still hungry, and they
devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours his neighbor's
flesh,
21: Manas'seh E'phraim, and E'phraim Manas'seh, and together they
are against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away and his
hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah, chapter
10
1: Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers
who keep writing oppression,
2: to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of My
people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may
make the fatherless their prey!
3: What will you do on the day of punishment, in the storm which
will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you
leave your wealth?
4: Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall
among the slain. For all this His anger is not turned away and His hand
is stretched out still.
5: Ah, Assyria, the rod of My anger, the staff of My fury!
6: Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of
My wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread
them down like the mire of the streets.
7: But he does not so intend, and his mind does not so think; but
it is in his mind to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;
8: for he says: "Are not my commanders all kings?
9: Is not Calno like Car'chemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is
not Sama'ria like Damascus?
10: As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols whose
graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Sama'ria,
11: shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to
Sama'ria and her images?"
12: When the Lord has finished all His work on Mount Zion and on
Jerusalem He will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria
and his haughty pride.
13: For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I have removed the
boundaries of peoples, and have plundered their treasures; like a bull I
have brought down those who sat on thrones.
14: My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and
as men gather eggs that have been forsaken so I have gathered all the
earth; and there was none that moved a wing, or opened the mouth, or
chirped."
15: Shall the axe vaunt itself over him who hews with it, or the
saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield
him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
16: Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send wasting
sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be
kindled, like the burning of fire.
17: The light of Israel will become a fire, and His Holy One a
flame; and it will burn and devour His thorns and briers in one day.
18: The glory of His forest and of His fruitful land the Lord
will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man
wastes away.
19: The remnant of the trees of His forest will be so few that a
child can write them down.
20: In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the
house of Jacob will no more lean upon him that smote them, but will lean
upon the Lord, 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 be as the sand of the sea, only
a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with
righteousness.
23: For the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will make a full end, as
decreed, in the midst of all the earth.
24: Therefore thus says the Lord, the Lord of hosts: "O My
people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they
smite with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians
did.
25: For in a very little while My indignation will come to an
end, and My anger will be directed to their destruction.
26: And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a scourge, as
when He smote Mid'ian at the rock of Oreb; and His rod will be over the
sea, and He will lift it as He did in Egypt.
27: And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder,
and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck." He has gone up from
Rimmon,
28: He has come to Ai'ath; He has passed through Migron, at
Michmash He stores his baggage;
29: they have crossed over the pass, at Geba they lodge for the
night; Ramah trembles, Gib'eah of Saul has fled.
30: Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Hearken, O La'ishah! Answer
her, O An'athoth!
31: Madme'nah is in flight, the inhabitants of Gebim flee for
safety.
32: This very day He will halt at Nob, He will shake his fist at
the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33: Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts will lop the boughs with
terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty
will be brought low.
34: He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and
Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.
Isaiah, chapter
11
1: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots.
2: And 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 the fear of the Lord.
3: And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not
judge by what His eyes see, or decide by what His ears hear;
4: but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide
with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall smite the earth with
the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the
wicked.
5: Righteousness shall be the girdle of His waist, and
faithfulness the girdle of His loins.
6: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie
down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
7: The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down
together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8: The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the
weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
9: 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 the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the
peoples; him shall the nations seek, and His dwellings shall be
glorious.
11: In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time
to recover the remnant which is left of His people, from Assyria, from
Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath,
and from the coastlands of the sea.
12: He will raise an ensign for the nations, and will assemble
the outcasts of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the earth.
13: The jealousy of E'phraim shall depart, and those who harass
Judah shall be cut off; E'phraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and
Judah shall not harass E'phraim.
14: But they shall swoop down upon the shoulder of the
Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of
the east. They shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab, and the
Ammonites shall obey them.
15: And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of
Egypt; and will wave His hand over the River with His scorching wind,
and smite it into seven channels that men may cross dry-shod.
16: And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant
which is left of His people, as there was for Israel when they came up
from the land of Egypt.
Isaiah, chapter
12
1: You will say in that day: "I will give thanks to Thee, O
Lord, for though Thou was angry with me, Thy anger turned away, and
Thou did comfort me.
2: "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not
be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He has
become my salvation."
3: With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
4: And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon His name; make known His deeds among the nations, proclaim
that His name is exalted.
5: "Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously;
let this be known in all the earth.
6: Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in
your midst is the Holy One of Israel."
Isaiah, chapter
13
1: The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz
saw.
2: On a bare hill raise a signal, cry aloud to them; wave the
hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles.
3: I Myself have commanded My consecrated ones, have summoned My
mighty men to execute My anger, My proudly exulting ones.
4: Hark, a tumult on the mountains as of a great multitude! Hark,
an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The Lord of hosts
is mustering a host for battle.
5: They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole earth.
6: Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the
Almighty it will come!
7: Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every man's heart will
melt,
8: and they will be dismayed. Pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in travail. They will look aghast
at one another; their faces will be aflame.
9: Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and
fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners
from it.
10: For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will
not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon
will not shed its light.
11: I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for
their iniquity; I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, and lay
low the haughtiness of the ruthless.
12: I will make men more rare than fine gold, and mankind than
the gold of Ophir.
13: Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will
be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day
of His fierce anger.
14: And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather
them, every man will turn to his own people, and every man will flee to
his own land.
15: Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is
caught will fall by the sword.
16: Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.
17: Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no
regard for silver and do not delight in gold.
18: Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no
mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.
19: And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pride of
the Chalde'ans, will be like Sodom and Gomor'rah when God overthrew
them.
20: It will never be inhabited or dwelt in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherds will make their flocks
lie down there.
21: But wild beasts will lie down there, and its houses will be
full of howling creatures; there ostriches will dwell, and there satyrs
will dance.
22: Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant
palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged.
Isaiah, chapter
14
1: The Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose
Israel, and will set them in their own land, and aliens will join them
and will cleave to the house of Jacob.
2: And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place,
and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord's land as male and
female slaves; they will take captive those who were their captors, and
rule over those who oppressed them.
3: When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil
and the hard service with which you were made to serve,
4: you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
"How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!
5: The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of
rulers,
6: that smote the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that
ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution.
7: The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into
singing.
8: The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
`Since you were laid low, no hewer comes up against us.'
9: Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come, it
rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it
raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations.
10: All of them will speak and say to you: `You too have become
as weak as we! You have become like us!'
11: Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you, and worms are your covering.
12: "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of
Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!
13: You said in your heart, `I will ascend to heaven; above the
stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of
assembly in the far north;
14: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make
myself like the Most High.'
15: But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit.
16: Those who see you will stare at you, and ponder over you: `Is
this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,
17: who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities,
who did not let his prisoners go home?'
18: All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own
tomb;
19: but you are cast out, away from your sepulcher, like a
loathed untimely birth, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the
sword, who go down to the stones of the Pit, like a dead body trodden
under foot.
20: You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have
destroyed your land, you have slain your people. "May the
descendants of evildoers nevermore be named!
21: Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their
fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the
world with cities."
22: "I will rise up against them," says the Lord of
hosts, "and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring
and posterity, says the Lord.
23: And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of
water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord
of hosts."
24: The Lord of hosts has sworn: "As I have planned, so
shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,
25: that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and upon My
mountains trample him under foot; and his yoke shall depart from them,
and his burden from their shoulder."
26: This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole
earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27: For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
28: In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle:
29: "Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod
which smote you is broken, for from the serpent's root will come forth
an adder, and its fruit will be a flying serpent.
30: And the first-born of the poor will feed, and the needy lie
down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant
I will slay.
31: Wail, O gate; cry, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of
you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his
ranks."
32: What will one answer the messengers of the nation? "The
Lord has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find
refuge."
Isaiah, chapter
15
1: An oracle concerning Moab. Because Are is laid waste in a
night Moab is undone; because Kir is laid waste in a night Moab is
undone.
2: The daughter of Dibon has gone up to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Med'eba Moab wails. On every head is baldness, every
beard is shorn;
3: in the streets they gird on sackcloth; on the housetops and in
the squares every one wails and melts in tears.
4: Heshbon and Ele-a'leh cry out, their voice is heard as far as
Jahaz; therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembles.
5: My heart cries out for Moab; his fugitives flee to Zo'ar, to
Eg'lath-shelish'iyah. For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping; on
the road to Horona'im they raise a cry of destruction;
6: the waters of Nimrim are a desolation; the grass is withered,
the new growth fails, the verdure is no more.
7: Therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have
laid up they carry away over the Brook of the Willows.
8: For a cry has gone round the land of Moab; the wailing reaches
to Egla'im, the wailing reaches to Beer-e'lim.
9: For the waters of Dibon are full of blood; yet I will bring
upon Dibon even more, a lion for those of Moab who escape, for the
remnant of the land.
Isaiah, chapter
16
1: They have sent lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by
way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2: Like fluttering birds, like scattered nestlings, so are the
daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.
3: "Give counsel, grant justice; make your shade like night
at the height of noon; hide the outcasts, betray not the fugitive;
4: let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a refuge to
them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, and destruction
has ceased, and He who tramples under foot has vanished from the land,
5: then a throne will be established in steadfast love and on it
will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks
justice and is swift to do righteousness."
6: We have heard of the pride of Moab, how proud he was; of his
arrogance, his pride, and his insolence -- his boasts are false.
7: Therefore let Moab wail, let every one wail for Moab. Mourn,
utterly stricken, for the raisin-cakes of Kir-har'eseth.
8: For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah;
the Lords of the nations have struck down its branches, which reached to
Jazer and strayed to the desert; its shoots spread abroad and passed
over the sea.
9: Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of
Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Ele-a'leh; for upon
your fruit and your harvest the battle shout has fallen.
10: And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field;
and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no shouts are raised; no treader
treads out wine in the presses; the vintage shout is hushed.
11: Therefore my soul moans like a lyre for Moab, and my heart
for Kir-he'res.
12: And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon
the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not
prevail.
13: This is the word which the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the
past.
14: But now the Lord says, "In three years, like the years
of a hireling, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite
of all his great multitude, and those who survive will be very few and
feeble."
Isaiah, chapter
17
1: An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to
be a city, and will become a heap of ruins.
2: Her cities will be deserted forever; they will be for flocks,
which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.
3: The fortress will disappear from E'phraim, and the kingdom
from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the
children of Israel, says the Lord of hosts.
4: And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and
the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
5: And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and
his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in
the Valley of Reph'aim.
6: Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten
-- two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on
the branches of a fruit tree, says the Lord God of Israel.
7: In that day men will regard their Maker, and their eyes will
look to the Holy One of Israel;
8: they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their
hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made,
either the ashe'rim or the altars of incense.
9: In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted
places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted because of
the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.
10: For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have
not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant
pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god,
11: though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and
make them blossom in the morning that you sow; yet the harvest will flee
away in a day of grief and incurable pain.
12: Ah, the thunder of many peoples, they thunder like the
thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations, they roar like the
roaring of mighty waters!
13: The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but He will
rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the
mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.
14: At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no
more! This is the portion of those who despoil us, and the lot of those
who plunder us.
Isaiah, chapter
18
1: Ah, land of whirring wings which is beyond the rivers of
Ethiopia;
2: which sends ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus
upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose
land the rivers divide.
3: All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown,
hear!
4: For thus the Lord said to me: "I will quietly look from
My dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat
of harvest."
5: For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the
flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with pruning
hooks, and the spreading branches He will hew away.
6: They shall all of them be left to the birds of prey of the
mountains and to the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey will
summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them.
7: At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a
people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation
mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the
place of the name of the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah, chapter
19
1: An oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the Lord is riding on a
swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at
His presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
2: And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will
fight, every man against his brother and every man against his neighbor,
city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
3: and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied
out, and I will confound their plans; and they will consult the idols
and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the wizards;
4: and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard
master; and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord
of hosts.
5: And the waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river
will be parched and dry;
6: and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's
Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away.
7: There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the
Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and
be no more.
8: The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast hook in the
Nile; and they will languish who spread nets upon the water.
9: The workers in combed flax will be in despair, and the weavers
of white cotton.
10: Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed, and
all who work for hire will be grieved.
11: The princes of Zo'an are utterly foolish; the wise counselors
of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a
son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?
12: Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you and make
known what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
13: The princes of Zo'an have become fools, and the princes of
Memphis are deluded; those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have
led Egypt astray.
14: The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion; and
they have made Egypt stagger in all her doings as a drunken man staggers
in his vomit.
15: And there will be nothing for Egypt which head or tail, palm
branch or reed, may do.
16: In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble
with fear before the hand which the Lord of hosts shakes over them.
17: And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians;
every one to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose which
the Lord of hosts has purposed against them.
18: In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt
which speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of
hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.
19: In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst
of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.
20: It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the
land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors He will
send them a savior, and will defend and deliver them.
21: And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians; and
the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice
and burnt offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform
them.
22: And the Lord will smite Egypt, smiting and healing, and they
will return to the Lord, and He will heed their supplications and heal
them.
23: In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria,
and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria,
and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24: In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria,
a blessing in the midst of the earth,
25: whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed be
Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My
heritage."
Isaiah, chapter
20
1: In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by
Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and
took it, --
2: at that time the Lord had spoken by Isaiah the son of Amoz,
saying, "Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take off
your shoes from your feet," and he had done so, walking naked and
barefoot --
3: the Lord said, "As My servant Isaiah has walked naked and
barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and
Ethiopia,
4: so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians captives
and the Ethiopians exiles, both the young and the old, naked and
barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5: Then they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Ethiopia
their hope and of Egypt their boast.
6: And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day,
`Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom
we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how
shall we escape?'"
Isaiah, chapter
21
1: The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds
in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
2: A stern vision is told to me; the plunderer plunders, and the
destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam, lay siege, O Media; all the sighing
she has caused I bring to an end.
3: Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized
me, like the pangs of a woman in travail; I am bowed down so that I
cannot hear, I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
4: My mind reels, horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed
for has been turned for me into trembling.
5: They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they
drink. Arise, O princes, oil the shield!
6: For thus the Lord said to me: "Go, set a watchman, let
him announce what he sees.
7: When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on asses,
riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently."
8: Then he who saw cried: "Upon a watchtower I stand, O
Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am stationed whole nights.
9: And, behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!" And he
answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her
gods he has shattered to the ground."
10: O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the
Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.
11: The oracle concerning Dumah. One is calling to me from Se'ir,
"Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"
12: The watchman says: "Morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire; come back again."
13: The oracle concerning Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia you
will lodge, O caravans of De'danites.
14: To the thirsty bring water, meet the fugitive with bread, O
inhabitants of the land of Tema.
15: For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow, and from the press of battle.
16: For thus the Lord said to me, "Within a year, according
to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end;
17: and the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the
sons of Kedar will be few; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has
spoken."
Isaiah, chapter
22
1: The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean
that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,
2: you who are full of shouting’s, tumultuous city, exultant
town? Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle.
3: All your rulers have fled together, without the bow they were
captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled
far away.
4: Therefore I said: "Look away from me, let me weep bitter
tears; do not labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of
my people."
5: For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling
and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a
shouting to the mountains.
6: And Elam bore the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir
uncovered the shield.
7: Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen
took their stand at the gates.
8: He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you
looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,
9: and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many,
and you collected the waters of the lower pool,
10: and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down
the houses to fortify the wall.
11: You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of
the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for
him who planned it long ago.
12: In that day the Lord God of hosts called to weeping and
mourning, to baldness and girding with sackcloth;
13: and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow
we die."
14: The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
"Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you till you die,"
says the Lord God of hosts.
15: Thus says the Lord God of hosts, "Come, go to this
steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him:
16: What have you to do here and whom have you here, that you
have hewn here a tomb for yourself, you who hew a tomb on the height,
and carve a habitation for yourself in the rock?
17: Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong
man. He will seize firm hold on you,
18: and whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into
a wide land; there you shall die, and there shall be your splendid
chariots, you shame of your master's house.
19: I will thrust you from your office, and you will be cast down
from your station.
20: In that day I will call My servant Eli'akim the son of
Hilki'ah,
21: and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your
girdle on him, and will commit your authority to His hand; and He shall
be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22: And I will place on His shoulder the key of the house of
David; He shall open, and none shall shut; and He shall shut, and none
shall open.
23: And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and He will
become a throne of honor to His father's house.
24: And they will hang on him the whole weight of His father's
house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all
the flagons.
25: In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was
fastened in a sure place will give way; and it will be cut down and
fall, and the burden that was upon it will be cut off, for the Lord has
spoken."
Isaiah, chapter
23
1: The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for
Tyre is laid waste, without house or haven! From the land of Cyprus it
is revealed to them.
2: Be still, O inhabitants of the coast, O merchants of Sidon;
your messengers passed over the sea
3: and were on many waters; your revenue was the grain of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations.
4: Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of
the sea, saying: "I have neither travailed nor given birth, I have
neither reared young men nor brought up virgins."
5: When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish over
the report about Tyre.
6: Pass over to Tarshish, wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
7: Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her to settle afar?
8: Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the
earth?
9: The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pride of all
glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
10: Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish;
there is no restraint any more.
11: He has stretched out His hand over the sea, He has shaken the
kingdoms; the Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its
strongholds.
12: And He said: "You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin
daughter of Sidon; arise, pass over to Cyprus, even there you will have
no rest."
13: Behold the land of the Chalde'ans! This is the people; it was
not Assyria. They destined Tyre for wild beasts. They erected their
siege-towers, they razed her palaces, they made her a ruin.
14: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.
15: In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like
the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to
Tyre as in the song of the harlot:
16: "Take a harp, go about the city, O forgotten harlot!
Make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered."
17: At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and
she will return to her hire, and will play the harlot with all the
kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
18: Her merchandise and her hire will be dedicated to the Lord;
it will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply
abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.
Isaiah, chapter
24
1: Behold, the Lord will lay waste the earth and make it
desolate, and He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
2: And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as
with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her
mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so
with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3: The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled;
for the Lord has spoken this word.
4: The earth mourns and withers, the world languishes and
withers; the heavens languish together with the earth.
5: The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have
transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting
covenant.
6: Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants
suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are
scorched, and few men are left.
7: The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted
sigh.
8: The mirth of the timbrels is stilled, the noise of the
jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
9: No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is
bitter to those who drink it.
10: The city of chaos is broken down, every house is shut up so
that none can enter.
11: There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy
has reached its eventide; the gladness of the earth is banished.
12: Desolation is left in the city, the gates are battered into
ruins.
13: For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the
nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the
vintage is done.
14: They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the
majesty of the Lord they shout from the west.
15: Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the
coastlands of the sea, to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
16: From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory
to the Righteous One. But I say, "I pine away, I pine away. Woe is
me! For the treacherous deal treacherously, the treacherous deal very
treacherously."
17: Terror, and the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant
of the earth!
18: He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the
pit; and He who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For
the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth
tremble.
19: The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the
earth is violently shaken.
20: The earth staggers like a drunken man, it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise
again.
21: On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in
heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22: They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they
will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.
23: Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for
the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before
his elders He will manifest His glory.
Isaiah, chapter
25
1: O Lord, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy
name; for Thou hast done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful
and sure.
2: For Thou hast made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin;
the palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt.
3: Therefore strong peoples will glorify Thee; cities of ruthless
nations will fear Thee.
4: For Thou hast been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to
the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the
heat; for the blast of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
5: like heat in a dry place. Thou dost subdue the noise of the
aliens; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is
stilled.
6: On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a
feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of
marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.
7: And He will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast
over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
8: He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord God will wipe
away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take
away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.
9: It will be said on that day, "Lo, this is our God; we
have waited for him, that He might save us. This is the Lord; we have
waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation."
10: For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab
shall be trodden down in his place, as straw is trodden down in a
dung-pit.
11: And He will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a
swimmer spreads his hands out to swim; but the Lord will lay low his
pride together with the skill of his hands.
12: And the high fortifications of his walls He will bring down,
lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.
Isaiah, chapter
26
1: In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
"We have a strong city; He sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.
2: Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith
may enter in.
3: Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
Thee, because he trusts in Thee.
4: Trust in the Lord for ever, for the Lord God is an everlasting
rock.
5: For He has brought low the inhabitants of the height, the
lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the
dust.
6: The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the
needy."
7: The way of the righteous is level; Thou dost make smooth the
path of the righteous.
8: In the path of Thy judgments, O Lord, we wait for Thee; Thy
memorial name is the desire of our soul.
9: My soul yearns for Thee in the night, my spirit within me
earnestly seeks Thee. For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the
inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10: If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn
righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals perversely and does
not see the majesty of the Lord.
11: O Lord, Thy hand is lifted up, but they see it not. Let them
see Thy zeal for Thy people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for Thy
adversaries consume them.
12: O Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us, Thou hast wrought for
us all our works.
13: O Lord our God, other Lords besides Thee have ruled over us,
but Thy name alone we acknowledge.
14: They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will
not arise; to that end Thou hast visited them with destruction and wiped
out all remembrance of them.
15: But Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, Thou hast
increased the nation; Thou art glorified; Thou hast enlarged all the
borders of the land.
16: O Lord, in distress they sought Thee, they poured out a
prayer when Thy chastening was upon them.
17: Like a woman with child, who writhes and cries out in her
pangs, when she is near her time, so were we because of Thee, O Lord;
18: we were with child, we writhed, we have as it were brought
forth wind. We have wrought no deliverance in the earth, and the
inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
19: Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. O dwellers in
the dust, awake and sing for joy! For Thy dew is a dew of light, and on
the land of the shades Thou wilt let it fall.
20: Come, My people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors
behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past.
21: For behold, the Lord is coming forth out of His place to
punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth
will disclose the blood shed upon her, and will no more cover her slain.
Isaiah, chapter
27
1: In that day the Lord with His hard and great and strong sword
will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting
serpent, and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2: In that day: "A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
3: I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest any
one harm it, I guard it night and day;
4: I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would set out against them, I would burn them up together.
5: Or let them lay hold of My protection, let them make peace
with Me, let them make peace with Me."
6: In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom
and put forth shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit.
7: Has He smitten them as He smote those who smote them? Or have
they been slain as their slayers were slain?
8: Measure by measure, by exile Thou did contend with them; He
removed them with His fierce blast in the day of the east wind.
9: Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated, and
this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when He makes all
the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no
ashe'rim
or incense altars will remain standing.
10: For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and
forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes, there He lies
down, and strips its branches.
11: When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make
a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore He
who made them will not have compassion on them, He that formed them will
show them no favor.
12: In that day from the river Euphra'tes to the Brook of Egypt
the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gathered one by one,
O people of Israel.
13: And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who
were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the
land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at
Jerusalem.
Isaiah, chapter
28
1: Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of E'phraim, and to
the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the
rich valley of those overcome with wine!
2: Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a
storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing
waters, He will cast down to the earth with violence.
3: The proud crown of the drunkards of E'phraim will be trodden
under foot;
4: and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the
head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the
summer: when a man sees it, he eats it up as soon as it is in his hand.
5: In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a
diadem of beauty, to the remnant of His people;
6: and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and
strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7: These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the
priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are confused with
wine, they stagger with strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble
in giving judgment.
8: For all tables are full of vomit, no place is without
filthiness.
9: "Whom will He teach knowledge, and to whom will He
explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken
from the breast?
10: For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line
upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."
11: Nay, but by men of strange lips and with an alien tongue the
Lord will speak to this people,
12: to whom He has said, "This is rest; give rest to the
weary; and this is repose"; yet they would not hear.
13: Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon
precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a
little, there a little; that they may go, and fall backward, and be
broken, and snared, and taken.
14: Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule
this people in Jerusalem!
15: Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with
death, and with Sheol we have an agreement; when the overwhelming
scourge passes through it will not come to us; for we have made lies our
refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter";
16: therefore thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I am laying
in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious
cornerstone, of a sure foundation: `He who believes will not be in
haste.'
17: And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the
plummet; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will
overwhelm the shelter."
18: Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your
agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge
passes through you will be beaten down by it.
19: As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning
by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be
sheer terror to understand the message.
20: For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it, and the
covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.
21: For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Pera'zim, He will be
wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; to do His deed -- strange is His deed!
and to work His work -- alien is His work!
22: Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts upon
the whole land.
23: Give ear, and hear My voice; hearken, and hear My speech.
24: Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? does he
continually open and harrow his ground?
25: When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill,
sow cummin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and
spelt as the border?
26: For he is instructed aright; his God teaches him.
27: Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart
wheel rolled over cummin; but dill is beaten out with a stick, and
cummin with a rod.
28: Does one crush bread grain? No, he does not thresh it for
ever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not
crush it.
29: This also comes from the Lord of hosts; He is wonderful in
counsel, and excellent in wisdom.
Isaiah, chapter
29
1: Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to
year; let the feasts run their round.
2: Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and
lamentation, and she shall be to Me like an Ariel.
3: And I will encamp against you round about, and will besiege
you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.
4: Then deep from the earth you shall speak, from low in the dust
your words shall come; your voice shall come from the ground like the
voice of a ghost, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
5: But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust, and
the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
6.
And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the Lord of hosts
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and
tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7: And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be
like a dream, a vision of the night.
8: As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his
hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and
awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of
all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
9: Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor, blind yourselves and be
blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink!
10: For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the
seers.
11: And the vision of all this has become to you like the words
of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying,
"Read this," he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed."
12: And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying,
"Read this," he says, "I cannot read."
13: And the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with
their mouth and honor Me with their lips, while their hearts are far
from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment of men learned by rote;
14: therefore, behold, I will again do marvelous things with this
people, wonderful and marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men shall
perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid."
15: Woe to those who hide deep from the Lord their counsel, whose
deeds are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us? Who knows
us?"
16: You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as
the clay; that the thing made should say of its maker, "He did not
make Me"; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He
has no understanding"?
17: Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be
turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded
as a forest?
18: In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out
of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.
19: The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor
among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20: For the ruthless shall come to naught and the scoffer cease,
and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
21: who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a
snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn
aside him who is in the right.
22: Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham,
concerning the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no
more shall his face grow pale.
23: For when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his
midst, they will sanctify My name; they will sanctify the Holy One of
Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24: And those who err in spirit will come to understanding, and
those who murmur will accept instruction."
Isaiah, chapter
30
1: "Woe to the rebellious children," says the Lord,
"who carry out a plan, but not Mine; and who make a league, but not
of My spirit, that they may add sin to sin;
2: who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for My
counsel, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek
shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3: Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
4: For though his officials are at Zo'an and his envoys reach
Ha'nes,
5: every one comes to shame through a people that cannot profit
them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace."
6: An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of
trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the viper
and the flying serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of asses,
and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot
profit them.
7: For Egypt's help is worthless and empty, therefore I have
called her "Rahab who sits still."
8: And now, go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it
in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness for ever.
9: For they are a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who will
not hear the instruction of the Lord;
10: who say to the seers, "See not"; and to the
prophets, "Prophesy not to us what is right; speak to us smooth
things, prophesy illusions,
11: leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more
of the Holy One of Israel."
12: Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you
despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on
them;
13: therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a break in a
high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose crash comes
suddenly, in an instant;
14: and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel which is
smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shred is found with
which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the
cistern."
15: For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, "In
returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall
be your strength." And you would not,
16: but you said, "No! We will speed upon horses,"
therefore you shall speed away; and, "We will ride upon swift
steeds," therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17: A thousand shall flee at the threat of one, at the threat of
five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a
mountain, like a signal on a hill.
18: Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore He
exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
19: Yea, O people in Zion who dwell at Jerusalem; you shall weep
no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
when He hears it, He will answer you.
20: And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the
water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more,
but your eyes shall see your Teacher.
21: And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
"This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or
when you turn to the left.
22: Then you will defile your silver-covered graven images and
your gold-plated molten images. You will scatter them as unclean things;
you will say to them, "Be gone!"
23: And He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the
ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and
plenteous. In that day your cattle will graze in large pastures;
24: and the oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat
salted provender, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
25: And upon every lofty mountain and every high hill there will
be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when
the towers fall.
26: Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the
sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven
days, in the day when the Lord binds up the hurt of His people, and
heals the wounds inflicted by His blow.
27: Behold, the name of the Lord comes from far, burning with His
anger, and in thick rising smoke; His lips are full of indignation, and
His tongue is like a devouring fire;
28: His breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to
the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to
place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
29: You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is
kept; and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the
flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.
30: And the Lord will cause His majestic voice to be heard and
the descending blow of His arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame
of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and tempest and hailstones.
31: The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the
Lord, when He smites with His rod.
32: And every stroke of the staff of punishment which the Lord
lays upon them will be to the sound of timbrels and lyres; battling with
brandished arm He will fight with them.
33: For a burning place has long been prepared; yea, for the king
it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in
abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles
it.
Isaiah, chapter
31
1: Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they
are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult
the Lord!
2: And yet He is wise and brings disaster, He does not call back
His words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and
against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
3: The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are
flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His hand, the helper
will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish
together.
4: For thus the Lord said to me, As a lion or a young lion growls
over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called forth against him
is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the
Lord of hosts will come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.
5: Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect
Jerusalem; He will protect and deliver it, He will spare and rescue it.
6: Turn to him from whom you have deeply revolted, O people of
Israel.
7: For in that day every one shall cast away his idols of silver
and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
8: "And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword not of man; and
a sword not of man shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword,
and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
9: His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert
the standard in panic," says the Lord whose fire is in Zion, and
whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Isaiah, chapter
32
1: Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will
rule in justice.
2: Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from
the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a
great rock in a weary land.
3: Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the
ears of those who hear will hearken.
4: The mind of the rash will have good judgment, and the tongue
of them that stammer will speak readily and distinctly.
5: The fool will no more be called noble, nor the knave said to
be honorable.
6: For the fool speaks folly, and his mind plots iniquity: to
practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord, to leave the
craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
7: The knaveries of the knave are evil; he devises wicked devices
to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is
right.
8: But he who is noble devises noble things, and by noble things
he stands.
9: Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear My voice; you
complacent daughters, give ear to My speech.
10: In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent
women; for the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come.
11: Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent
ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth upon your
loins.
12: Beat upon your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the
fruitful vine,
13: for the soil of My people growing up in thorns and briers;
yea, for all the joyous houses in the joyful city.
14: For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower will become dens for ever, a joy of wild
asses, a pasture of flocks;
15: until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the
wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a
forest.
16: Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness
abide in the fruitful field.
17: And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result
of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever.
18: My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure
dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
19: And the forest will utterly go down, and the city will be
utterly laid low.
20: Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of
the ox and the ass range free.
Isaiah, chapter
33
1: Woe to you, destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed;
you treacherous one, with whom none has dealt treacherously! When you
have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an
end of dealing treacherously, you will be dealt with treacherously.
2: O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for Thee. Be our arm every
morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.
3: At the thunderous noise peoples flee, at the lifting up of
Thyself nations are scattered;
4: and spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts
leap, men leap upon it.
5: The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He will fill Zion
with justice and righteousness;
6: and He will be the stability of your times, abundance of
salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is his treasure.
7: Behold, the valiant ones cry without; the envoys of peace weep
bitterly.
8: The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases. Covenants
are broken, witnesses are despised, there is no regard for man.
9: The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and
withers away; Sharon is like a desert; and Bashan and Carmel shake off
their leaves.
10: "Now I will arise," says the Lord, "now I will
lift Myself up; now I will be exalted.
11: You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble; your breath is a
fire that will consume you.
12: And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut
down, that are burned in the fire."
13: Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and you who are
near, acknowledge My might.
14: The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the
godless: "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among
us can dwell with everlasting burnings?"
15: He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises
the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from
looking upon evil,
16: He will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be
the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him, his water will be
sure.
17: Your eyes will see the king in His beauty; they will behold a
land that stretches afar.
18: Your mind will muse on the terror: "Where is he who
counted, where is he who weighed the tribute? Where is he who counted
the towers?"
19: You will see no more the insolent people, the people of an
obscure speech which you cannot comprehend, stammering in a tongue which
you cannot understand.
20: Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts! Your eyes
will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes
will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.
21: But there the Lord in majesty will be for us a place of broad
rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor stately ship
can pass.
22: For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is
our king; He will save us.
23: Your tackle hangs loose; it cannot hold the mast firm in its
place, or keep the sail spread out. Then prey and spoil in abundance
will be divided; even the lame will take the prey.
24: And no inhabitant will say, "I am sick"; the people
who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.
Isaiah, chapter
34
1: Draw near, O nations, to hear, and hearken, O peoples! Let the
earth listen, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from
it.
2: For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious
against all their host, He has doomed them, has given them over for
slaughter.
3: Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses
shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4: All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up
like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree.
5: For My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it
descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have doomed.
6: The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood, it is gorged
with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys
of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in
the land of Edom.
7: Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the
mighty bulls. Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made
rich with fat.
8: For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for
the cause of Zion.
9: And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her
soil into brimstone; her land shall become burning pitch.
10: Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up
for ever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall
pass through it for ever and ever.
11: But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and
the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over
it, and the plummet of chaos over its nobles.
12: They shall name it No Kingdom There, and all its princes
shall be nothing.
13: Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles
in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for
ostriches.
14: And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas, the satyr shall cry
to his fellow; yea, there shall the night hag alight, and find for
herself a resting place.
15: There shall the owl nest and lay and hatch and gather her
young in her shadow; yea, there shall the kites be gathered, each one
with her mate.
16: Seek and read from the book of the Lord: Not one of these
shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the
Lord has commanded, and His Spirit has gathered them.
17: He has cast the lot for them, His hand has portioned it out
to them with the line; they shall possess it for ever, from generation
to generation they shall dwell in it.
Isaiah, chapter
35
1: The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert
shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus
2: it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and
Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
3: Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
4: Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, fear
not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of
God. He will come and save you."
5: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of
the deaf unstopped;
6: then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of
the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
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7:
the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of
water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become
reeds and rushes.
8: And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy
Way; the unclean shall not pass over it, and fools shall not err
therein.
9: No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up
on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
10: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion
with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah, chapter
36
1: In the fourteenth year of King Hezeki'ah, Sennach'erib king of
Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
2: And the king of Assyria sent the Rab'shakeh from Lachish to
King Hezeki'ah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And He stood by the
conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller's Field.
3: And there came out to him Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, who
was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Jo'ah the son of
Asaph, the recorder.
4: And the Rab'shakeh said to them, "Say to Hezeki'ah, `Thus
says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this
confidence of yours?
5: Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war?
On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against Me?
6: Behold, you are relying on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff,
which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh
king of Egypt to all who rely on him.
7: But if you say to Me, "We rely on the Lord our God,"
is it not He whose high places and altars Hezeki'ah has removed, saying
to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship before this
altar"?
8: Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I
will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set
riders upon them.
9: How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of
my master's servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for
horsemen?
10: Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against
this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land,
and destroy it.'"
11: Then Eli'akim, Shebna, and Jo'ah said to the Rab'shakeh,
"Pray, speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do
not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the
people who are on the wall."
12: But the Rab'shakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak
these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the
wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own
urine?"
13: Then the Rab'shakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in
the language of Judah: "Hear the words of the great king, the king
of Assyria!
14: Thus says the king: `Do not let Hezeki'ah deceive you, for he
will not be able to deliver you.
15: Do not let Hezeki'ah make you rely on the Lord by saying,
"The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into
the hand of the king of Assyria."
16: Do not listen to Hezeki'ah; for thus says the king of
Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of
you will eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree, and
every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern;
17: until I come and take you away to a land like your own land,
a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18: Beware lest Hezeki'ah mislead you by saying, "The Lord
will deliver us." Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his
land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
19: Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of
Sepharva'im? Have they delivered Sama'ria out of my hand?
20: Who among all the gods of these countries have delivered
their countries out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem
out of my hand?'"
21: But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the
king's command was, "Do not answer him."
22: Then Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, who was over the
household, and Shebna the secretary, and Jo'ah the son of Asaph, the
recorder, came to Hezeki'ah with their clothes rent, and told him the
words of the Rab'shakeh.
Isaiah, chapter
37
1: When King Hezeki'ah heard it, he rent his clothes, and covered
himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
2: And he sent Eli'akim, who was over the household, and Shebna
the secretary, and the senior priests, clothed with sackcloth, to the
prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.
3: They said to him, "Thus says Hezeki'ah, `This day is a
day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the
birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.
4: It may be that the Lord your God heard the words of the
Rab'shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the
living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard;
therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"
5: When the servants of King Hezeki'ah came to Isaiah,
6: Isaiah said to them, "Say to your master, `Thus says the
Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with
which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.
7: Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a
rumor, and return to his own land; and I will make him fall by the sword
in his own land.'"
8: The Rab'shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria
fighting against Libnah; for he had heard that the king had left
Lachish.
9: Now the king heard concerning Tirha'kah king of Ethiopia,
"He has set out to fight against you." And when he heard it,
he sent messengers to Hezeki'ah, saying,
10: "Thus shall you speak to Hezeki'ah king of Judah: `Do
not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that
Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11: Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to
all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered?
12: Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations
which my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden
who were in Tel-assar?
13: Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of
the city of Sepharva'im, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?'"
14: Hezeki'ah received the letter from the hand of the
messengers, and read it; and Hezeki'ah went up to the house of the Lord,
and spread it before the Lord.
15: And Hezeki'ah prayed to the Lord:
16: "O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who art enthroned above
the cherubim, Thou art the God, Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the
earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth.
17: Incline Thy ear, O Lord, and hear; open Thy eyes, O Lord, and
see; and hear all the words of Sennach'erib, which he has sent to mock
the living God.
18: Of a truth, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all
the nations and their lands,
19: and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no
gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they were
destroyed.
20: So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou alone art the Lord."
21: Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezeki'ah, saying,
"Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to
Me concerning Sennach'erib king of Assyria,
22: this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
`She despises you, she scorns you -- the virgin daughter of Zion; she
wags her head behind you -- the daughter of Jerusalem.
23: `Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you
raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One
of Israel!
24: By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said,
With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to
the far recesses of Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest
cypresses; I came to its remotest height, its densest forest.
25: I dug wells and drank waters, and I dried up with the sole of
my foot all the streams of Egypt.
26: `Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned
from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make
fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins,
27: while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and
confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender
grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.
28: `I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against Me.
29: Because you have raged against Me and your arrogance has come
to My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.'
30: "And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what
grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same; then
in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their
fruit.
31: And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again
take root downward, and bear fruit upward;
32: for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of
Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will
accomplish this.
33: "Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of
Assyria: He shall not come into this city, or shoot an arrow there, or
come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege mound against it.
34: By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he
shall not come into this city, says the Lord.
35: For I will defend this city to save it, for My own sake and
for the sake of My servant David."
36: And the angel of the Lord went forth, and slew a hundred and
eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose
early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
37: Then Sennach'erib king of Assyria departed, and went home and
dwelt at Nin'eveh.
38: And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god,
Adram'melech and Share'zer, his sons, slew him with the sword, and
escaped into the land of Ar'arat. And E'sar-had'don his son reigned in
his stead.
Isaiah, chapter
38
1: In those days Hezeki'ah became sick and was at the point of
death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to
him, "Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order; for you shall
die, you shall not recover."
2: Then Hezeki'ah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the
Lord,
3: and said, "Remember now, O Lord, I beseech Thee, how I
have walked before Thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have
done what is good in Thy sight." And Hezeki'ah wept bitterly.
4: Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:
5: "Go and say to Hezeki'ah, Thus says the Lord, the God of
David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears;
behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
6: I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king
of Assyria, and defend this city.
7: "This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord
will do this thing that He has promised:
8: Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on
the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps." So the sun turned back on
the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.
9: A writing of Hezeki'ah king of Judah, after he had been sick
and had recovered from his sickness:
10: I said, In the noontide of my days I must depart; I am
consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.
11: I said, I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living; I
shall look upon man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
12: My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a
shepherd's tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; He cuts me off
from the loom; from day to night Thou dost bring me to an end;
13: I cry for help until morning; like a lion He breaks all my
bones; from day to night Thou dost bring me to an end.
14: Like a swallow or a crane I clamor, I moan like a dove. My
eyes are weary with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be Thou my
security!
15: But what can I say? For He has spoken to me, and He himself
has done it. All my sleep has fled because of the bitterness of my soul.
16: O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the
life of my spirit. Oh, restore me to health and make me live!
17: Lo, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but
Thou hast held back my life from the pit of destruction, for Thou hast
cast all my sins behind Thy back.
18: For Sheol cannot thank Thee, death cannot praise Thee; those
who go down to the pit cannot hope for Thy faithfulness.
19: The living, the living, he thanks Thee, as I do this day; the
father makes known to the children Thy faithfulness.
20: The Lord will save me, and we will sing to stringed
instruments all the days of our life, at the house of the Lord.
21: Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and
apply it to the boil, that he may recover."
22: Hezeki'ah also had said, "What is the sign that I shall
go up to the house of the Lord?"
Isaiah, chapter
39
1: At that time Mer'odach-bal'adan the son of Bal'adan, king of
Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezeki'ah, for he
heard that he had been sick and had recovered.
2: And Hezeki'ah welcomed them; and he showed them his treasure
house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole
armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his
house or in all his realm that Hezeki'ah did not show them.
3: Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezeki'ah, and said to
him, "What did these men say? And whence did they come to
you?" Hezeki'ah said, "They have come to me from a far
country, from Babylon."
4: He said, "What have they seen in your house?"
Hezeki'ah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there
is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them."
5: Then Isaiah said to Hezeki'ah, "Hear the word of the Lord
of hosts:
6: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house,
and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be
carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord.
7: And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken
away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of
Babylon."
8: Then said Hezeki'ah to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord
which you have spoken is good." For he thought, "There will be
peace and security in my days."
Isaiah, chapter
40
1: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2: Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare
is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the
Lord's hand double for all her sins.
3: A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the
Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4: Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill
be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places
a plain.
5: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh
shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
6: A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I
cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of
the field.
7: The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the
Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass.
8: The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God
will stand for ever.
9: Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your
God!"
10: Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and His arm rules for
him; behold, His reward is with him, and His recompense before Him.
11: He will feed His flock like a shepherd, He will gather the
lambs in His arms, He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead
those that are with young.
12: Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and
marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a
measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
13: Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor
has instructed him?
14: Whom did He consult for His enlightenment, and who taught him
the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of
understanding?
15: Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are
accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, He takes up the isles like
fine dust.
16: Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough
for a burnt offering.
17: All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted
by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18: To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare
with him?
19: The idol! a workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it
with gold, and casts for it silver chains.
20: He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will
not rot; he seeks out a skilful craftsman to set up an image that will
not move.
21: Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told
you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of
the earth?
22: It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its
inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a
curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23: who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the
earth as nothing.
24: Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their
stem taken root in the earth, when He blows upon them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25: To whom then will you compare Me, that I should be like him?
says the Holy One.
26: Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who
brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the
greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power not one is
missing.
27: Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is
hid from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God"?
28: Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the
everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint
or grow weary, His understanding is unsearchable.
29: He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He
increases strength.
30: Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall
fall exhausted;
31: but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be
weary, they shall walk and not faint
Isaiah, chapter
41
1: Listen to Me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew
their strength; let them approach, then let them speak; let us together
draw near for judgment.
2: Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every
step? He gives up nations before him, so that He tramples kings under
foot; He makes them like dust with His sword, like driven stubble with
His bow.
3: He pursues them and passes on safely, by paths his feet have
not trod.
4: Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from
the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am He.
5: The coastlands have seen and are afraid, the ends of the earth
tremble; they have drawn near and come.
6: Every one helps his neighbor, and says to his brother,
"Take courage!"
7: The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who smoothes with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering,
"It is good"; and they fasten it with nails so that it cannot
be moved.
8: But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the
offspring of Abraham, My friend;
9: you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from
its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are My servant, I have
chosen you and not cast you off";
10: fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your
God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My
victorious right hand.
11: Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to
shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing
and shall perish.
12: You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not
find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all.
13: For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who
say to you, "Fear not, I will help you."
14: Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you,
says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15: Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp,
and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you
shall make the hills like chaff;
16: You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away, and
the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the Lord; in
the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.
17: When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and
their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them, I the
God of Israel will not forsake them.
18: I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the
midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and
the dry land springs of water.
19: I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the
myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane
and the pine together;
20: that men may see and know, may consider and understand
together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of
Israel has created it.
21: Set forth your case, says the Lord; bring your proofs, says
the King of Jacob.
22: Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us
the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may
know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come.
23: Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you
are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.
24: Behold, you are nothing, and your work is naught; an
abomination is he who chooses you.
25: I stirred up one from the north, and he has come, from the
rising of the sun, and he shall call on My name; he shall trample on
rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay.
26: Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know, and
beforetime, that we might say, "He is right"? There was none
who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words.
27: I first have declared it to Zion, and I give to Jerusalem a
herald of good tidings.
28: But when I look there is no one; among these there is no
counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer.
29: Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing;
their molten images are empty wind.
Isaiah, chapter
42
1: Behold My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen, in whom My soul
delights; I have put My Spirit upon him, He will bring forth justice to
the nations.
2: He will not cry or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the
street;
3: a bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He
will not quench; He will faithfully bring forth justice.
4: He will not fail or be discouraged till He has established
justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for His law.
5: Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched
them out, who spread forth the earth and what comes from it, who gives
breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it:
6: "I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I
have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant
to the people, a light to the nations,
7: to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners
from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8: I am the Lord, that is My name; My glory I give to no other,
nor My praise to graven images.
9: Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I
now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."
10: Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise from the end of the
earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the coastlands and their
inhabitants.
11: Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the
villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy,
let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12: Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare His praise in
the coastlands.
13: The Lord goes forth like a mighty man, like a man of war He
stirs up His fury; He cries out, He shouts aloud, He shows himself
mighty against His foes.
14: For a long time I have held My peace, I have kept still and
restrained Myself; now I will cry out like a woman in travail, I will
gasp and pant.
15: I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their
herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools.
16: And I will lead the blind in a way that they know not, in
paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the
darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.
17: They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust
in graven images, who say to molten images, "You are our
gods."
18: Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see!
19: Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My messenger whom I
send? Who is blind as My dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the
Lord?
20: He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are
open, but he does not hear.
21: The Lord was pleased, for His righteousness' sake, to magnify
His law and make it glorious.
22: But this is a people robbed and plundered, they are all of
them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become a prey
with none to rescue, a spoil with none to say, "Restore!"
23: Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen
for the time to come?
24: Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers?
Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they
would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?
25: So He poured upon him the heat of His anger and the might of
battle; it set him on fire round about, but he did not understand; it
burned him, but he did not take it to heart.
Isaiah, chapter
43
1: But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He
who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I
have called you by name, you are mine.
2: When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and
through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through
fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
3: For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your
Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for
you.
4: Because you are precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love
you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.
5: Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from
the east, and from the west I will gather you;
6: I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not
withhold; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the
earth,
7: every one who is called by My name, whom I created for My
glory, whom I formed and made."
8: Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are
deaf, yet have ears!
9: Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples
assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former
things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them
hear and say, It is true.
10: "You are My witnesses," says the Lord, "and My
servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and
understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, nor shall there be
any after Me.
11: I, I am the Lord, and besides Me there is no savior.
12: I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no
strange god among you; and you are My witnesses," says the Lord.
13: "I am God, and also henceforth I am He; there is none
who can deliver from My hand; I work and who can hinder it?"
14: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
"For your sake I will send to Babylon and break down all the bars,
and the shouting of the Chalde'ans will be turned to lamentations.
15: I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your
King."
16: Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the
mighty waters,
17: who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they
lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18: "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things
of old.
19: Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you
not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the
desert.
20: The wild beasts will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink
to My chosen people,
21: the people whom I formed for Myself that they might declare
My praise.
22: "Yet you did not call upon Me, O Jacob; but you have
been weary of Me, O Israel!
23: You have not brought Me your sheep for burnt offerings, or
honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings,
or wearied you with frankincense.
24: You have not bought Me sweet cane with money, or satisfied Me
with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your
sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities.
25: "I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for My own
sake, and I will not remember your sins.
26: Put Me in remembrance, let us argue together; set forth your
case, that you may be proved right.
27: Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed
against Me.
28: Therefore I profaned the princes of the sanctuary, I
delivered Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.
Isaiah, chapter
44
1: "But now hear, O Jacob My servant, Israel whom I have
chosen!
2: Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb
and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob My servant, Jeshu'run whom I have
chosen.
3: For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the
dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon your descendants, and My blessing
on your offspring.
4: They shall spring up like grass amid waters, like willows by
flowing streams.
5: This one will say, `I am the Lord's,' another will call
himself by the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, `The
Lord's,' and surname himself by the name of Israel."
6: Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and His Redeemer, the
Lord of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last; besides Me there
is no god.
7: Who is like Me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set
it forth before Me. Who has announced from of old the things to come?
Let them tell us what is yet to be.
8: Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and
declared it? And you are My witnesses! Is there a God besides Me? There
is no Rock; I know not any."
9: All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in
do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be
put to shame.
10: Who fashions a god or casts an image, that is profitable for
nothing?
11: Behold, all his fellows shall be put to shame, and the
craftsmen are but men; let them all assemble, let them stand forth, they
shall be terrified, they shall be put to shame together.
12: The ironsmith fashions it and works it over the coals; He
shapes it with hammers, and forges it with his strong arm; He becomes
hungry and his strength fails, he drinks no water and is faint.
13: The carpenter stretches a line, he marks it out with a
pencil; he fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he
shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell
in a house.
14: He cuts down cedars; or he chooses a Holm tree or an oak and
lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest; he plants a cedar and
the rain nourishes it.
15: Then it becomes fuel for a man; he takes a part of it and
warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread; also he makes a god
and worships it, he makes it a graven image and falls down before it.
16: Half of it he burns in the fire; over the half he eats flesh,
he roasts meat and is satisfied; also he warms himself and says,
"Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!"
17: And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol; and falls
down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, "Deliver me,
for Thou art my god!"
18: They know not, nor do they discern; for he has shut their
eyes, so that they cannot see, and their minds, so that they cannot
understand.
19: No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to
say, "Half of it I burned in the fire, I also baked bread on its
coals, I roasted flesh and have eaten; and shall I make the residue of
it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?"
20: He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he
cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie in my right
hand?"
21: Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are My
servant; I formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be
forgotten by Me.
22: I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your
sins like mist; return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
23: Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout, O depths of
the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every
tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in
Israel.
24: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the
womb: "I am the Lord, who made all things, who stretched out the
heavens alone, who spread out the earth -- Who was with Me? --
25: who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of
diviners; who turns wise men back, and makes their knowledge foolish;
26: who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the
counsel of His messengers; who says of Jerusalem, `She shall be
inhabited,' and of the cities of Judah, `They shall be built, and I will
raise up their ruins';
27: who says to the deep, `Be dry, I will dry up your rivers';
28: who says of Cyrus, `He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all My purpose'; saying of Jerusalem, `She shall be built,' and of the
temple, `Your foundation shall be laid.'"
Isaiah, chapter
45
1: Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand
I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and ungirded the loins of
kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
2: "I will go before you and level the mountains, I will
break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron,
3: I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in
secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of
Israel, who call you by your name.
4: For the sake of My servant Jacob, and Israel My chosen, I call
you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know Me.
5: I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides Me there is no
God; I gird you, though you do not know Me,
6:
that men may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west,
that there is none besides Me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7: I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe,
I am the Lord, who do all these things.
8: "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain
down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may sprout forth,
and let it cause righteousness to spring up also; I the Lord have
created it.
9: "Woe to him who strives with His Maker, an earthen vessel
with the potter! Does the clay say to him who fashions it, `What are you
making'? or `Your work has no handles'?
10: Woe to him who says to a father, `What are you begetting?' or
to a woman, `With what are you in travail?'"
11: Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and His Maker: "Will
you question Me about My children, or command Me concerning the work of
My hands?
12: I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was My hands
that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.
13: I have aroused him in righteousness, and I will make straight
all His ways; He shall build My city and set My exiles free, not for
price or reward," says the Lord of hosts.
14: Thus says the Lord: "The wealth of Egypt and the
merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabe'ans, men of stature, shall come
over to you and be yours, they shall follow you; they shall come over in
chains and bow down to you. They will make supplication to you, saying: `God
is with you only, and there is no other, no god besides
him.'"
15: Truly, Thou art a God who hides Thyself, O God of Israel, the
Savior.
16: All of them are put to shame and confounded, the makers of
idols go in confusion together.
17: But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation;
you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.
18: For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is God!),
who formed the earth and made it (He established it; He did not create
it a chaos, He formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the Lord, and
there is no other.
19: I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not
say to the offspring of Jacob, `Seek Me in chaos.' I the Lord speak the
truth, I declare what is right.
20: "Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, you
survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their
wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.
21: Declare and present your case; let them take counsel
together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I,
the Lord? And there is no other god besides Me, a righteous God and a
Savior; there is none besides Me.
22: "Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For
I am God, and there is no other.
23: By Myself I have sworn, from My mouth has gone forth in
righteousness a word that shall not return: `To Me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear.'
24: "Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are
righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed, all who
were incensed against him.
25: In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall triumph and
glory."
Isaiah, chapter
46
1: Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are on beasts and
cattle; these things you carry are loaded as burdens on weary beasts.
2: They stoop, they bow down together, they cannot save the
burden, but themselves go into captivity.
3: "Hearken to Me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the
house of Israel, who have been borne by Me from your birth, carried from
the womb;
4: even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry
you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
5: "To whom will you liken Me and make Me equal, and compare
Me, that we may be alike?
6: Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in
the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; then they fall
down and worship!
7: They lift it upon their shoulders, they carry it, they set it
in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one
cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.
8: "Remember this and consider, recall it to mind, you
transgressors,
9: remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is
no other; I am God, and there is none like Me,
10: declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times
things not yet done, saying, `My counsel shall stand, and I will
accomplish all My purpose,'
11: calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My counsel
from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have
purposed, and I will do it.
12: "Hearken to Me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far
from deliverance:
13: I bring near My deliverance, it is not far off, and My
salvation will not tarry; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel My
glory."
Isaiah, chapter
47
1: Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chalde'ans! For
you shall no more be called tender and delicate.
2: Take the millstones and grind meal, put off your veil, strip
off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers.
3: Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall be
seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no man.
4: Our Redeemer -- the Lord of hosts is His name -- is the Holy
One of Israel.
5: Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the
Chalde'ans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.
6: I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage; I gave
them into your hand, you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your
yoke exceedingly heavy.
7: You said, "I shall be mistress for ever," so that
you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end.
8: Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit
securely, who say in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides
me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children":
9: These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day;
the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your
enchantments.
10: You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, "No one
sees me"; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you
said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me."
11: But evil shall come upon you, for which you cannot atone;
disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to expiate; and
ruin shall come on you suddenly, of which you know nothing.
12: Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with
which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to
succeed, perhaps you may inspire terror.
13: You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth
and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who
at the new moons predict what shall befall you.
14: Behold, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them; they
cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for
warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!
15: Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have
trafficked with you from your youth; they wander about each in his own
direction; there is no one to save you.
Isaiah, chapter
48
1: Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of
Israel, and who came forth from the loins of Judah; who swear by the
name of the Lord, and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or
right.
2: For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay
themselves on the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is His name.
3: "The former things I declared of old, they went forth
from My mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them and they
came to pass.
4: Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an
iron sinew and your forehead brass,
5: I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I
announced them to you, lest you should say, `My idol did them, my graven
image and my molten image commanded them.'
6: "You have heard; now see all this; and will you not
declare it? From this time forth I make you hear new things, hidden
things which you have not known.
7: They are created now, not long ago; before today you have
never heard of them, lest you should say, `Behold, I knew them.'
8: You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your
ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would deal very
treacherously, and that from birth you were called a rebel.
9: "For My name's sake I defer My anger, for the sake of My
praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.
10: Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried
you in the furnace of affliction.
11: For My own sake, for My own sake, I do it, for how should My
name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
12: "Hearken to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am
He, I am the first, and I am the last.
13: My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand
spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.
14: "Assemble, all of you, and hear! Who among them has
declared these things? The Lord loves him; he shall perform His purpose
on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chalde'ans.
15: I, even I, have spoken and called him, I have brought him,
and he will prosper in his way.
16: Draw near to Me, hear this: from the beginning I have not
spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there."
And now the Lord God has sent me and His Spirit.
17: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
"I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you
in the way you should go.
18: O that you had hearkened to My commandments! Then your peace
would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of
the sea;
19: your offspring would have been like the sand, and your
descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or
destroyed from before Me."
20: Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chalde'a, declare this with
a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the end of the earth; say,
"The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob!"
21: They thirsted not when He led them through the deserts; He
made water flow for them from the rock; He cleft the rock and the water
gushed out.
22: "There is no peace," says the Lord, "for the
wicked."
Isaiah, chapter
49
1: Listen to Me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from
afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he
named my name.
2: He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand
He hid me; He made me a polished arrow, in His quiver He hid me away.
3: And He said to me, "You are My servant, Israel, in whom I
will be glorified."
4: But I said, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my
strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord,
and my recompense with my God."
5: And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be His
servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered
to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become
my strength --
6: He says: "It is too light a thing that you should be My
servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of
Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that My salvation may
reach to the end of the earth."
7: Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the servant of rulers:
"Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate
themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of
Israel, who has chosen you."
8: Thus says the Lord: "In a time of favor I have answered
you, in a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given
you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the
desolate heritages;
9: saying
to the prisoners, `Come forth,' to those who are in darkness, `Appear.'
They shall feed along the ways, on all bare heights shall be their
pasture;
10: they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor
sun shall smite them, for He who has pity on them will lead them, and by
springs of water will guide them.
11: And I will make all My mountains a way, and My highways shall
be raised up.
12: Lo, these shall come from afar, and lo, these from the north
and from the west, and these from the land of Syene."
13: Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O
mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted His people, and will
have compassion on His afflicted.
14: But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has
forgotten me."
15: "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should
have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I
will not forget you.
16: Behold, I have graven you on the palms of My hands; your
walls are continually before Me.
17: Your builders outstrip your destroyers, and those who laid
you waste go forth from you.
18: Lift up your eyes round about and see; they all gather, they
come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall put them all on as an
ornament, you shall bind them on as a bride does.
19: "Surely your waste and your desolate places and your
devastated land -- surely now you will be too narrow for your
inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20: The children born in the time of your bereavement will yet
say in your ears: `The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to
dwell in.'
21: Then you will say in your heart: `Who has borne me these? I
was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up
these? Behold, I was left alone; whence then have these come?'"
22: Thus says the Lord God: "Behold, I will lift up My hand
to the nations, and raise My signal to the peoples; and they shall bring
your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their
shoulders.
23: Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your
nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to
you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the
Lord; those who wait for Me shall not be put to shame."
24: Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a
tyrant be rescued?
25: Surely, thus says the Lord: "Even the captives of the
mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will
contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.
26: I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they
shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall
know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One
of Jacob."
Isaiah, chapter
50
1: Thus says the Lord: "Where is your mother's bill of
divorce, with which I put her away? Or which of my creditors is it to
whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for
your transgressions your mother was put away.
2: Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there
no one to answer? Is My hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I
no power to deliver? Behold, by My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the
rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst.
3: I clothe the heavens with blackness, and make sackcloth their
covering."
4: The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. Morning by
morning He wakens, He wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
5: The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I
turned not backward.
6: I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to those who
pulled out the beard; I hid not My face from shame and spitting.
7: For the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been
confounded; therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I
shall not be put to shame;
8: He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us
stand up together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near to me.
9: Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them
up.
10: Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of His
servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name
of the Lord and relies upon His God?
11: Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who set brands alight!
Walk by the light of your fire, and by the brands which you have
kindled! This shall you have from My hand: you shall lie down in
torment.
Isaiah, chapter
51
1: "Hearken to Me, you who pursue deliverance, you who seek
the Lord; look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry
from which you were dug.
2: Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for
when He was but one I called him, and I blessed him and made him many.
3: For the Lord will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste
places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the
garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving
and the voice of song.
4: "Listen to Me, My people, and give ear to Me, My nation;
for a law will go forth from Me, and My justice for a light to the
peoples.
5: My deliverance draws near speedily, My salvation has gone
forth, and My arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for Me,
and for My arm they hope.
6: Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth
beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out
like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die like gnats; but My
salvation will be for ever, and My deliverance will never be ended.
7: "Hearken to Me, you who know righteousness, the people in
whose heart is My law; fear not the reproach of men, and be not dismayed
at their reviling.
8: For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm
will eat them like wool; but My deliverance will be for ever, and My
salvation to all generations."
9: Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in
days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not Thou that did cut
Rahab in pieces, that did pierce the dragon?
10: Was it not Thou that did dry up the sea, the waters of the
great deep; that did make the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed
to pass over?
11: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion
with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12: "I, I am He that comforts you; who are you that you are
afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass,
13: and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out
the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and fear continually
all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when He sets himself
to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor?
14: He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not
die and go down to the Pit, neither shall his bread fail.
15: For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its
waves roar -- the Lord of hosts is His name.
16: And I have put My words in your mouth, and hid you in the
shadow of My hand, stretching out the heavens and laying the foundations
of the earth, and saying to Zion, `You are My people.'"
17: Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you
who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath, who have
drunk to the dregs the bowl of staggering.
18: There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne;
there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought
up.
19: These two things have befallen you -- who will condole with
you? -- devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort
you?
20: Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of every street
like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the Lord, the
rebuke of your God.
21: Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk,
but not with wine:
22: Thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads the cause
of His people: "Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of
staggering; the bowl of My wrath you shall drink no more;
23: and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have
said to you, `Bow down, that we may pass over'; and you have made your
back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over."
Isaiah,
chapter 52
1: Awake, awake, put on your
strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy
city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the
unclean.
2: Shake yourself from the dust, arise, O captive Jerusalem;
loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3: For thus says the Lord: "You were sold for nothing, and
you shall be redeemed without money.
4: For thus says the Lord God: My people went down at the first
into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for
nothing.
5: Now therefore what have I here, says the Lord, seeing that My
people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail, says the Lord, and
continually all the day My name is despised.
6: Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore in that day
they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I."
7: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who
brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of
good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God
reigns."
8: Hark, your watchmen lift up their voice, together they sing
for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion.
9:
Break forth together into singing, you waste places of
Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed
Jerusalem.
10: The Lord has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the
nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our
God.
11: Depart, depart, go out thence, touch no unclean thing; go out
from the midst of her, purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of
the Lord.
12: For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in
flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be
your rear guard.
13: Behold, My servant shall prosper, He shall be exalted and
lifted up, and shall be very high.
14:
As many were astonished at Him -- His appearance was so
marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the sons of
men --
15: so shall He startle many nations; kings shall shut their
mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall
see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand.
Isaiah,
chapter 53
1:
Who has believed what we have
heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2: For He grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root
out of dry ground; He had no form or comeliness that we should look at
him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3: He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was
despised, and we esteemed him not.
4: Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we
esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5: But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for
our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and
with His stripes we are healed.
6:
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one
to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7: He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His
mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that
before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
8: By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His
generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the
living, stricken for the transgression of My people?
9: And they made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in
His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in
His mouth.
10:
Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him; He has put him
to grief; when He makes himself an offering for sin, He shall see His
offspring, He shall prolong His days; the will of the Lord shall prosper
in His hand;
11: He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul and be
satisfied; by His knowledge shall the righteous one, My servant, make
many to be accounted righteous; and He shall bear their iniquities.
12:
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and He
shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He poured out His soul
to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin
of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah, chapter
54
1: "Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into
singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in travail! For the
children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her that
is married, says the Lord.
2: Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your
habitations be stretched out; hold not back, lengthen your cords and
strengthen your stakes.
3: For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and
your descendants will possess the nations and will people the desolate
cities.
4: "Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not
confounded, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the
shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will
remember no more.
5: For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth
He is called.
6: For the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved
in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.
7: For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I
will gather you.
8: In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid My face from you, but
with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your
Redeemer.
9: "For this is like the days of Noah to Me: as I swore that
the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn
that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you.
10: For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My
steadfast love shall not depart from you, and My covenant of peace shall
not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
11: "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted,
behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations
with sapphires.
12: I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of
carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones.
13: All your sons shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be
the prosperity of your sons.
14: In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far
from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall
not come near you.
15: If any one stirs up strife, it is not from Me; whoever stirs
up strife with you shall fall because of you.
16: Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals,
and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager
to destroy;
17: no weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper, and
you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This
is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from
Me, says the Lord."
Isaiah, chapter
55
1: "Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he
who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price.
2: Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and
your labor for that which does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me,
and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in fatness.
3: Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may
live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, My steadfast,
sure love for David.
4: Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and
commander for the peoples.
5: Behold, you shall call nations that you know not, and nations
that knew you not shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of
the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you.
6: "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon him while
He is near;
7: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have mercy on him, and
to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
8: For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
My ways, says the Lord.
9: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways
higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10: "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and
return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and
sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11: so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall
not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
12: "For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13: Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of
the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a
memorial, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off."
Isaiah, chapter
56
1: Thus says the Lord: "Keep justice, and do righteousness,
for soon My salvation will come, and My deliverance be revealed.
2: Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds
it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand
from doing any evil."
3: Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
"The Lord will surely separate me from His people"; and let
not the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree."
4: For thus says the Lord: "To the eunuchs who keep My
sabbaths, who choose the things that please Me and hold fast My
covenant,
5: I will give in My house and within My walls a monument and a
name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting
name which shall not be cut off.
6: "And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to
minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants,
every one who keeps the sabbath, and does not profane it, and holds fast
My covenant --
7: these I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful
in My house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will
be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.
8: Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I
will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered."
9: All you beasts of the field, come to devour -- all you beasts
in the forest.
10: His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they
are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to
slumber.
11: The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. The
shepherds also have no understanding; they have all turned to their own
way, each to his own gain, one and all.
12: "Come," they say, "let us get wine, let us
fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like this day,
great beyond measure."
Isaiah, chapter
57
1: The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart;
devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous
man is taken away from calamity, 2: he enters into peace; they
rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness.
3: But you, draw near hither, sons of the sorceress, offspring of
the adulterer and the harlot.
4: Of whom are you making sport? Against whom do you open your
mouth wide and put out your tongue? Are you not children of
transgression, the offspring of deceit,
5: you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree;
who slay your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
6: Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they,
they, are your lot; to them you have poured out a drink offering, you
have brought a cereal offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?
7: Upon a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed, and
thither you went up to offer sacrifice.
8: Behind the door and the doorpost you have set up your symbol;
for, deserting Me, you have uncovered your bed, you have gone up to it,
you have made it wide; and you have made a bargain for yourself with
them, you have loved their bed, you have looked on nakedness.
9: You journeyed to Molech with oil and multiplied your perfumes;
you sent your envoys far off, and sent down even to Sheol.
10: You were wearied with the length of your way, but you did not
say, "It is hopeless"; you found new life for your strength,
and so you were not faint.
11: Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not
remember Me, did not give Me a thought? Have I not held My peace, even
for a long time, and so you do not fear Me?
12: I will tell of your righteousness and your doings, but they
will not help you.
13: When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!
The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But he who
takes refuge in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit My holy
mountain.
14: And it shall be said, "Build up, build up, prepare the
way, remove every obstruction from My people's way."
15: For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity,
whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also
with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16: For I will not contend for ever, nor will I always be angry;
for from Me proceeds the spirit, and I have made the breath of life.
17: Because of the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, I
smote him, I hid My face and was angry; but he went on backsliding in
the way of his own heart.
18: I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him
and requite him with comfort, creating for his mourners the fruit of the
lips.
19: Peace, peace, to the far and to the near, says the Lord; and
I will heal him.
20: But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot rest,
and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
21: There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked."
Isaiah, chapter
58
1: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to My people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their
sins.
2: Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as if
they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the
ordinance of their God; they ask of Me righteous judgments, they delight
to draw near to God.
3: `Why have we fasted, and Thou see it not? Why have we
humbled ourselves, and Thou take no knowledge of it?' Behold, in the
day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your
workers.
4: Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with
wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be
heard on high.
5: Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to humble
himself? Is it to bow down his head like a rush, and to spread sackcloth
and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to
the Lord?
6: "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds
of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go
free, and to break every yoke?
7: Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the
homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and
not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8: Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your
healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before
you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9: Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry,
and He will say, Here I am. "If you take away from the midst of you
the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10: if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the
desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and
your gloom be as the noonday.
11: And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your
desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be
like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12: And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up
the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of
the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.
13: "If you turn back your foot from the sabbath, from doing
your pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight and the
holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own
ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
14: then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you
ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of
Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
Isaiah, chapter
59
1: Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or His ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2: but your iniquities have made a separation between you and
your God, and your sins have hid His face from you so that he does not
hear.
3: For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with
iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.
4: No one enters suit justly, no one goes to law honestly; they
rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring
forth iniquity.
5: They hatch adders' eggs, they weave the spider's web; he who
eats their eggs dies, and from one which is crushed a viper is hatched.
6: Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover
themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and
deeds of violence are in their hands.
7: Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent
blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, desolation and
destruction are in their highways.
8: The way of peace they know not, and there is no justice in
their paths; they have made their roads crooked, no one who goes in them
knows peace.
9: Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not
overtake us; we look for light, and behold, darkness, and for
brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10: We grope for the wall like the blind, we grope like those who
have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full
vigor we are like dead men.
11: We all growl like bears, we moan and moan like doves; we look
for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
12: For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our
sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know
our iniquities:
13: transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning away from
following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and
uttering from the heart lying words.
14: Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off;
for truth has fallen in the public squares, and uprightness cannot
enter.
15: Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself
a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no
justice.
16: He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no
one to intervene; then His own arm brought him victory, and His
righteousness upheld him.
17: He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of
salvation upon His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in fury as a mantle.
18: According to their deeds, so will He repay, wrath to His
adversaries, requital to His enemies; to the coastlands He will render
requital.
19: So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and
His glory from the rising of the sun; for He will come like a rushing
stream, which the wind of the Lord drives.
20: "And He will come to Zion as Redeemer, to those in Jacob
who turn from transgression, says the Lord.
21: "And as for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the
Lord: My spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your
mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your
children, or out of the mouth of your children's children, says the
Lord, from this time forth and for evermore."
Isaiah, chapter
60
1: Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the
Lord has risen upon you.
2: For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness
the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will be
seen upon you.
3: And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the
brightness of your rising.
4: Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather
together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your
daughters shall be carried in the arms.
5: Then you shall see and be radiant, your heart shall thrill and
rejoice; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the
wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6: A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of
Mid'ian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring
gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
7: All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of
Nebai'oth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on
My altar, and I will glorify My glorious house.
8: Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their
windows?
9: For the coastlands shall wait for Me, the ships of Tarshish
first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and gold with them, for
the name of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because
He has glorified you.
10: Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall
minister to you; for in My wrath I smote you, but in My favor I have had
mercy on you.
11: Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they
shall not be shut; that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations,
with their kings led in procession.
12: For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall
perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.
13: The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the
plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will
make the place of My feet glorious.
14: The sons of those who oppressed you shall come bending low to
you; and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall
call you the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
15: Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing
through, I will make you majestic for ever, a joy from age to age.
16: You shall suck the milk of nations, you shall suck the breast
of kings; and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your
Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
17: Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I
will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron. I
will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness.
18: Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or
destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation,
and your gates Praise.
19: The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for
brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the Lord will
be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
20: Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw
itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of
mourning shall be ended.
21: Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the
land for ever, the shoot of My planting, the work of My hands, that I
might be glorified.
22: The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a
mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it.
Isaiah, chapter
61
1: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has
anointed Me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; He has sent Me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2: to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of
vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
3: to grant to those who mourn in Zion -- to give them a garland
instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of
praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.
4: They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the
former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the
devastations of many generations.
5: Aliens shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall be
your plowmen and vinedressers;
6: but you shall be called the priests of the Lord, men shall
speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of
the nations, and in their riches you shall glory.
7: Instead of your shame you shall have a double portion, instead
of dishonor you shall rejoice in your lot; therefore in your land you
shall possess a double portion; yours shall be everlasting joy.
8: For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrong; I will
faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting
covenant with them.
9: Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their
offspring in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall
acknowledge them, that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
10: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my
God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has
covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself
with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11: For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden
causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause
righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Isaiah, chapter
62
1: For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's
sake I will not rest, until her vindication goes forth as brightness,
and her salvation as a burning torch.
2: The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your
glory; and you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord
will give.
3: You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a
royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4: You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no
more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My delight is in her,
and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall
be married.
5: For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry
you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God
rejoice over you.
6: Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day
and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in
remembrance, take no rest,
7: and give him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes
it a praise in the earth.
8: The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm:
"I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and
foreigners shall not drink your wine for which you have labored;
9: but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the Lord, and
those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of My sanctuary."
10: Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the
people; build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up an
ensign over the peoples.
11: Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say
to the daughter of Zion, "Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His
reward is with him, and His recompense before him."
12: And they shall be called The holy people, The redeemed of the
Lord; and you shall be called Sought out, a city not forsaken.
Isaiah, chapter
63
1: Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from
Bozrah, He that is glorious in His apparel, marching in the greatness of
His strength? "It is I, announcing vindication, mighty to
save."
2: Why is Thy apparel red, and Thy garments like His that treads
in the wine press?
3: "I have trodden the wine press alone, and from the
peoples no one was with Me; I trod them in My anger and trampled them in
My wrath; their lifeblood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have
stained all My raiment.
4: For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and My year of
redemption has come.
5: I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but
there was no one to uphold; so My own arm brought Me victory, and My
wrath upheld Me.
6: I trod down the peoples in My anger, I made them drunk in My
wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."
7: I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of
the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great
goodness to the house of Israel which He has granted them according to
His mercy, according to the abundance of His steadfast love.
8: For He said, Surely they are My people, sons who will not deal
falsely; and He became their Savior.
9: In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His
presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; He
lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
10: But they rebelled and grieved His holy Spirit; therefore He
turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.
11: Then He remembered the days of old, of Moses His servant.
Where is He who brought up out of the sea the shepherds of His flock?
Where is He who put in the midst of them His holy Spirit,
12: who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,
who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting
name,
13: who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert,
they did not stumble.
14: Like cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the
Lord gave them rest. So Thou did lead Thy people, to make for Thyself
a glorious name.
15: Look down from heaven and see, from Thy holy and glorious
habitation. Where are Thy zeal and Thy might? The yearning of Thy heart
and Thy compassion are withheld from me.
16: For Thou art our Father, though Abraham does not know us and
Israel does not acknowledge us; Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our
Redeemer from of old is Thy name.
17: O Lord, why dost Thou make us err from Thy ways and harden
our heart, so that we fear Thee not? Return for the sake of Thy
servants, the tribes of Thy heritage.
18: Thy holy people possessed Thy sanctuary a little while; our
adversaries have trodden it down.
19: We have become like those over whom Thou hast never ruled,
like those who are not called by Thy name.
Isaiah, chapter
64
1: O that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the
mountains might quake at Thy presence --
2: as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to
boil -- to make Thy name known to Thy adversaries, and that the nations
might tremble at Thy presence!
3: When Thou did terrible things which we looked not for, Thou came
down, the mountains quaked at Thy presence.
4: From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye
has seen a God besides Thee, who works for those who wait for him.
5: Thou meets him that joyfully works righteousness, those that
remember Thee in Thy ways. Behold, Thou was angry, and we sinned; in
our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
6: We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our
righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7: There is no one that calls upon Thy name, that bestirs himself
to take hold of Thee; for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast
delivered us into the hand of our iniquities.
8: Yet, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou
art our potter; we are all the work of Thy hand.
9: Be not exceedingly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity
for ever. Behold, consider, we are all Thy people.
10: Thy holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a
wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11: Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee,
has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
12: Wilt Thou restrain Thyself at these things, O Lord? Wilt Thou
keep silent, and afflict us sorely?
Isaiah,
chapter 65
1: I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I
was ready to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, "Here
am I, here am I," to a nation that did not call on My name.
2: I spread out My hands all the day to a rebellious people, who
walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;
3: a people who provoke Me to My face continually, sacrificing in
gardens and burning incense upon bricks;
4: who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who
eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
5: who say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am
set apart from you." These are a smoke in My nostrils, a fire that
burns all the day.
6: Behold, it is written before Me: "I will not keep silent,
but I will repay, yea, I will repay into their bosom
7: their iniquities and their fathers' iniquities together, says
the Lord; because they burned incense upon the mountains and reviled Me
upon the hills, I will measure into their bosom payment for their former
doings."
8: Thus says the Lord: "As the wine is found in the cluster,
and they say, `Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,' so I
will do for My servants' sake, and not destroy them all.
9: I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah
inheritors of My mountains; My chosen shall inherit it, and My servants
shall dwell there.
10: Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of
Achor a place for herds to lie down, for My people who have sought Me.
11: But you who forsake the Lord, who forget My holy mountain,
who set a table for fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for destiny;
12: I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow
down to the slaughter; because, when I called, you did not answer, when
I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in My eyes, and
chose what I did not delight in."
13: Therefore thus says the Lord God: "Behold, My servants
shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but
you shall be thirsty; behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall
be put to shame;
14: behold, My servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you
shall cry out for pain of heart, and shall wail for anguish of spirit.
15: You shall leave your name to My chosen for a curse, and the
Lord God will slay you; but His servants He will call by a different
name.
16: So that He who blesses himself in the land shall bless
himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall
swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and
are hid from My eyes.
17: "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and
the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
18: But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for
behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
19: I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people; no
more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.
20: No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few
days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the child shall
die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be
accursed.
21: They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant
vineyards and eat their fruit.
22: They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not
plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of My
people be, and My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23: They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their
children with them.
24: Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I
will hear.
25: The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat
straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not
hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, says the Lord."
Isaiah, chapter
66
1: Thus says the Lord: "Heaven is My throne and the earth is
My footstool; what is the house which you would build for Me, and what
is the place of My rest?
2: All these things My hand has made, and so all these things are
mine, says the Lord. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is
humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My word.
3: "He who slaughters an ox is like him who kills a man; he
who sacrifices a lamb, like him who breaks a dog's neck; he who presents
a cereal offering, like him who offers swine's blood; he who makes a
memorial offering of frankincense, like him who blesses an idol. These
have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their
abominations;
4: I also will choose affliction for them, and bring their fears
upon them; because, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke they
did not listen; but they did what was evil in My eyes, and chose that in
which I did not delight."
5: Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word:
"Your brethren who hate you and cast you out for My name's sake
have said, `Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy'; but it
is they who shall be put to shame.
6: "Hark, an uproar from the city! A voice from the temple!
The voice of the Lord, rendering recompense to His enemies!
7: "Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain
came upon her she was delivered of a son.
8: Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a
land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?
For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her sons.
9: Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? says
the Lord; shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb? says your
God.
10: "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you
who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her;
11: that you may suck and be satisfied with her consoling
breasts; that you may drink deeply with delight from the abundance of
her glory."
12: For thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will extend
prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an
overflowing stream; and you shall suck, you shall be carried upon her
hip, and dandled upon her knees.
13: As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you
shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14: You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall
flourish like the grass; and it shall be known that the hand of the Lord
is with His servants, and His indignation is against His enemies.
15: "For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and His
chariots like the storm wind, to render His anger in fury, and His rebuke
with flames of fire.
16: For by fire will the Lord execute judgment, and by His sword,
upon all flesh; and those slain by the Lord shall be many.
17: "Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the
gardens, following one in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the
abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, says the Lord.
18: "For I know their works and their thoughts, and I am
coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall
see My glory,
19: and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send
survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, who draw the bow,
to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard My
fame or seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the
nations.
20: And they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations
as an offering to the Lord, upon horses, and in chariots, and in
litters, and upon mules, and upon dromedaries, to My holy mountain
Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their cereal
offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord.
21: And some of them also I will take for priests and for
Levites, says the Lord.
22: "For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will
make shall remain before Me, says the Lord; so shall your descendants
and your name remain.
23: From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to sabbath, all
flesh shall come to worship before Me, says the Lord.
24: "And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of
the men that have rebelled against Me; for their worm shall not die,
their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all
flesh."
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