Isaiah

¹The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

²Hear, heavens,

³The ox knows his owner,

⁴Ah sinful nation,

⁵Why should you be beaten more,

⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it,

⁷Your country is desolate.

⁸The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,

⁹Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant,

¹⁰Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom!

¹¹“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh.

¹²When you come to appear before me,

¹³Bring no more vain offerings.

¹⁴My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts.

¹⁵When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.

¹⁶Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean.

¹⁷Learn to do well.

¹⁸“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh:

¹This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains,

³Many peoples shall go and say,

⁴He will judge between the nations,

⁵House of Jacob, come, and let’s walk in the light of Yahweh.

⁶For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob,

⁷Their land is full of silver and gold,

⁸Their land also is full of idols.

⁹Man is brought low,

¹⁰Enter into the rock,

¹¹The lofty looks of man will be brought low,

¹²For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant,

¹³for all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up,

¹⁴for all the high mountains,

¹⁵for every lofty tower,

¹⁶for all the ships of Tarshish,

¹⁷The loftiness of man shall be bowed down,

¹For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support,

²the mighty man,

³the captain of fifty,

⁴I will give boys to be their princes,

⁵The people will be oppressed,

⁶Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying,

⁷In that day he will cry out, saying, “I will not be a healer;

⁸For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen;

⁹The look of their faces testify against them.

¹⁰Tell the righteous that it will be well with them,

¹¹Woe to the wicked!

¹²As for my people, children are their oppressors,

¹³Yahweh stands up to contend,

¹⁴Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people

¹⁵What do you mean that you crush my people,

¹⁶Moreover Yahweh said, “Because the daughters of Zion are arrogant,

¹⁷therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion,

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces,

¹Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.”

²In that day, Yahweh’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of Israel. ³It will happen that he who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem, ⁴when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from within it, by the spirit of justice and by the spirit of burning. ⁵Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all the glory will be a canopy. ⁶There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.

¹Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard.

²He dug it up,

³“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,

⁴What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?

⁵Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.

⁶I will lay it a wasteland.

⁷For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel,

⁸Woe to those who join house to house,

⁹In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate,

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, 8 U. S. gallons

¹¹Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink,

¹²The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts;

¹³Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire,

¹⁵So man is brought low,

¹⁶but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice,

¹⁷Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,

¹In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. ²Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. ³One called to another, and said,

⁴The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. ⁷He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”

⁸I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

⁹He said, “Go, and tell this people,

¹⁰Make the heart of this people fat.

¹¹Then I said, “Lord, how long?”

¹²and Yahweh has removed men far away,

¹³If there is a tenth left in it,

¹In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. ²David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.

³Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field. ⁴Tell him, ‘Be careful, and keep calm. Don’t be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. ⁵Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying, ⁶“Let’s go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves, and set up a king within it, even the son of Tabeel.” ⁷This is what the Lord Yahweh says: “It shall not stand, neither shall it happen.” ⁸For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people. ⁹The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’”

¹⁰Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹“Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”

¹²But Ahaz said, “I won’t ask. I won’t tempt Yahweh.”

¹³He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ¹⁵He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good. ¹⁶For before the child knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken. ¹⁷Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria.

¹⁸It will happen in that day that Yahweh will whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹Yahweh said to me, “Take a large tablet, and write on it with a man’s pen, ‘For Maher Shalal Hash Baz’; ²and I will take for myself faithful witnesses to testify: Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

³I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son. Then Yahweh said to me, “Call his name ‘Maher Shalal Hash Baz.’ ⁴For before the child knows how to say, ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”

⁵Yahweh spoke to me yet again, saying, ⁶“Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; ⁷now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks. ⁸It will sweep onward into Judah. It will overflow and pass through. It will reach even to the neck. The stretching out of its wings will fill the width of your land, O Immanuel.

⁹Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered! ¹⁰Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand, for God is with us.”

¹¹For Yahweh spoke this to me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, ¹²“Don’t call a conspiracy all that this people call a conspiracy. Don’t fear their threats or be terrorized. ¹³Yahweh of Armies is who you must respect as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread. ¹⁴He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a stumbling stone and a rock that makes them fall. For the people of Jerusalem, he will be a trap and a snare. ¹⁵Many will stumble over it, fall, be broken, be snared, and be captured.”

¹⁶Wrap up the covenant. Seal the law among my disciples. ¹⁷I will wait for Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. ¹⁸Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of Armies, who dwells in Mount Zion.

¹But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

²The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

³You have multiplied the nation.

⁴For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian. ⁵For all the armor of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. ⁶For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.

⁸The Lord sent a word into Jacob,

⁹All the people will know,

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen,

¹¹Therefore Yahweh will set up on high against him the adversaries of Rezin,

¹²The Syrians in front,

¹³Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them,

¹⁴Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail,

¹⁵The elder and the honorable man is the head,

¹⁶For those who lead this people lead them astray;

¹⁷Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men,

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire.

¹Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees ²to deprive the needy of justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! ³What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

⁴They will only bow down under the prisoners,

⁵Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! ⁶I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. ⁷However, he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations. ⁸For he says, “Aren’t all of my princes kings? ⁹Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?” ¹⁰As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria, ¹¹shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

¹²Therefore it will happen that when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his arrogant looks. ¹³For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding. I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers. ¹⁴My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, I have gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped.”

¹⁵Should an ax brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood. ¹⁶Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire. ¹⁷The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day. ¹⁸He will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. It will be as when a standard bearer faints.

¹A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse,

²Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him:

³His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh.

⁴but he will judge the poor with righteousness,

⁵Righteousness will be the belt around his waist,

⁶The wolf will live with the lamb,

⁷The cow and the bear will graze.

⁸The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole,

⁹They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain;

¹⁰It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.

¹¹It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. ¹²He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. ¹³The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim. ¹⁴They will fly down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them. ¹⁵Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals. ¹⁶There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

¹In that day you will say, “I will give thanks to you, Yahweh; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort me. ²Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.” ³Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation. ⁴In that day you will say, “Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name! Declare his doings among the peoples! Proclaim that his name is exalted! ⁵Sing to Yahweh, for he has done excellent things! Let this be known in all the earth! ⁶Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is great among you!”

¹The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

²Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. ³I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones. ⁴The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the battle. ⁵They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

⁶Wail, for Yahweh’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. ⁷Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt. ⁸They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame. ⁹Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it. ¹⁰For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. ¹¹I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the arrogance of the terrible. ¹²I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir. ¹³Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his fierce anger. ¹⁴It will happen that like a hunted gazelle and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land. ¹⁵Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. ¹⁶Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.

¹⁷Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.

¹For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob. ²The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh’s land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

³It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve, ⁴that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!” ⁵Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, ⁶who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained. ⁷The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out in song. ⁸Yes, the cypress trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us.” ⁹Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. ¹⁰They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?” ¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.

¹²How you have fallen from heaven, shining one, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low! ¹³You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! ¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!” ¹⁵Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit. ¹⁶Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms, ¹⁷who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”

¹⁸All the kings of the nations sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.

¹The burden of Moab.

²They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off. ³In their streets, they clothe themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly. ⁴Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them. ⁵My heart cries out for Moab! Her nobles flee to Zoar, to Eglath Shelishiyah; for they go up by the ascent of Luhith with weeping; for on the way to Horonaim, they raise up a cry of destruction. ⁶For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate; for the grass has withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing. ⁷Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the willows. ⁸For the cry has gone around the borders of Moab, its wailing to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beer Elim. ⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.

¹Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. ²For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon. ³Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive! ⁴Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortionist is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land. ⁵A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing. ⁷Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken. ⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea. ⁹Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen. ¹⁰Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop. ¹¹Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres. ¹²It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab in time past. ¹⁴But now Yahweh has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”

¹The burden of Damascus.

²The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and no one shall make them afraid. ³The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” says Yahweh of Armies.

⁴“It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean. ⁵It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim. ⁶Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says Yahweh, the God of Israel. ⁷In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. ⁸They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherah poles or the incense altars. ⁹In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation. ¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings. ¹¹In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

¹²Ah, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! ¹³The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. ¹⁴At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

¹Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; ²that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!” ³All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen!

⁴For Yahweh said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” ⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches. ⁶They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will eat them in the summer, and all the animals of the earth will eat them in the winter. ⁷In that time, a present will be brought to Yahweh of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies, Mount Zion.

¹The burden of Egypt.

²I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. ³The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards. ⁴I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

⁵The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. ⁶The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. ⁷The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more. ⁸The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish. ⁹Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded. ¹⁰The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul.

¹¹The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?” ¹²Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt. ¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, those who are the cornerstone of her tribes. ¹⁴Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit. ¹⁵Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do. ¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of Yahweh of Armies’s hand, which he shakes over them. ¹⁷The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of Yahweh of Armies, which he determines against it.

¹In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it; ²at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot. ³Yahweh said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, ⁴so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. ⁵They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. ⁶The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?’”

¹The burden of the wilderness of the sea.

²A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing. ³Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed that I can’t see. ⁴My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. ⁵They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield! ⁶For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees. ⁷When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.” ⁸He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post. ⁹Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

¹⁰You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

¹¹The burden of Dumah.

¹²The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”

¹³The burden on Arabia.

¹⁴They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread. ¹⁵For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle. ¹⁶For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail, ¹⁷and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”

¹The burden of the valley of vision.

²You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. ³All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away. ⁴Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.” ⁶Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. ⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. ⁸He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. ⁹You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. ¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who planned it long ago.

¹²In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; ¹³and behold, there is joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.” ¹⁴Yahweh of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

¹⁵The Lord, Yahweh of Armies says, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, ¹⁶‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!” ¹⁷Behold, Yahweh will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly.

¹The burden of Tyre.

²Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon that pass over the sea have replenished. ³On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations. ⁴Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have not travailed, nor given birth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins.” ⁵When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre. ⁶Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast! ⁷Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?

⁸Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? ⁹Yahweh of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. ¹⁰Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more. ¹¹He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. Yahweh has ordered the destruction of Canaan’s strongholds. ¹²He said, “You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest.”

¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people didn’t exist. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin. ¹⁴Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste! ¹⁵It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute. ¹⁶Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered. ¹⁷It will happen after the end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre. She will return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.

¹Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. ²It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest. ³The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. ⁵The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. ⁷The new wine mourns. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh. ⁸The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases. ⁹They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it. ¹⁰The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. ¹¹There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. ¹²The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction. ¹³For it will be so within the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.

¹⁴These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of Yahweh. They cry aloud from the sea. ¹⁵Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea! ¹⁶From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous!

¹⁷Fear, the pit, and the snare are on you who inhabit the earth. ¹⁸It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.

¹Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth. ²For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built. ³Therefore a strong people will glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you. ⁴For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall. ⁵As the heat in a dry place you will bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the dreaded ones will be brought low.

⁶In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat, ⁷He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations. ⁸He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.

⁹It shall be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is Yahweh! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!” ¹⁰For Yahweh’s hand will rest in this mountain.

¹¹He will spread out his hands in the middle of it, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands. ¹²He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.

¹In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

²Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter:

³You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace,

⁴Trust in Yahweh forever;

⁵For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city.

⁶The foot shall tread it down,

⁷The way of the just is uprightness.

⁸Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, we have waited for you.

⁹With my soul I have desired you in the night.

¹⁰Let favor be shown to the wicked,

¹¹Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don’t see;

¹²Yahweh, you will ordain peace for us,

¹³Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us,

¹⁴The dead shall not live.

¹⁵You have increased the nation, O Yahweh.

¹⁶Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you.

¹⁷Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery,

¹In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan, the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

²In that day, sing to her, “A pleasant vineyard! ³I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day. ⁴Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together. ⁵Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me.”

⁶In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit. ⁷Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed? ⁸In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind. ⁹Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more. ¹⁰For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches. ¹¹When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

¹²It will happen in that day that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.

¹³It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

¹Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine! ²Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand. ³The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot. ⁴The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer, which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it. ⁵In that day, Yahweh of Armies will become a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the residue of his people, ⁶and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. ⁸For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.

⁹Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts? ¹⁰For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.

¹¹But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and in another language, ¹²to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to the weary,” and “This is the refreshing;” yet they would not hear. ¹³Therefore Yahweh’s word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.

¹⁴Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: ¹⁵“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’” ¹⁶Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. ¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. ¹⁸Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.

¹Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around; ²then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.29:2 or, Ariel ³I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you. ⁴You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly. ⁶She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire. ⁷The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. ⁸It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

⁹Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. ¹⁰For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. ¹¹All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;” ¹²and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t read.”

¹³The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught; ¹⁴therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”

¹⁵Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?” ¹⁶You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay, that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me;” or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?”

¹⁷Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?

¹“Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; ²who set out to go down into Egypt without asking for my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! ³Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. ⁴For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. ⁵They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.”

⁶The burden of the animals of the South.

⁷For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still. ⁸Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. ⁹For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear Yahweh’s law; ¹⁰who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits. ¹¹Get out of the way. Turn away from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” ¹²Therefore the Holy One of Israel says, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it, ¹³therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. ¹⁴He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

¹⁵For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused, ¹⁶but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses;” therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift;” therefore those who pursue you will be swift. ¹⁷One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,

²Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster,

³Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;

⁴For Yahweh says to me,

⁵As birds hovering, so Yahweh of Armies will protect Jerusalem.

⁶Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel. ⁷For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin which your own hands have made for you.

⁸“The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man;

⁹His rock will pass away by reason of terror,

¹Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness,

²A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind,

³The eyes of those who see will not be dim,

⁴The heart of the rash will understand knowledge,

⁵The fool will no longer be called noble,

⁶For the fool will speak folly,

⁷The ways of the scoundrel are evil.

⁸But the noble devises noble things,

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice!

¹⁰For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women;

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease!

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,

¹³Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land;

¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken.

¹⁵until the Spirit is poured on us from on high,

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness;

¹⁷The work of righteousness will be peace,

¹Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed,

²Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you.

³At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled.

⁴Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers.

⁵Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high.

⁶There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

⁷Behold, their valiant ones cry outside;

⁸The highways are desolate.

⁹The land mourns and languishes.

¹⁰“Now I will arise,” says Yahweh.

¹¹You will conceive chaff.

¹²The peoples will be like the burning of lime,

¹³Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid.

¹⁵He who walks righteously

¹⁶he will dwell on high.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the king in his beauty.

¹Come near, you nations, to hear!

²For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations,

³Their slain will also be cast out,

⁴All of the army of the sky will be dissolved.

⁵For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky.

⁶Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood.

⁷The wild oxen will come down with them,

⁸For Yahweh has a day of vengeance,

⁹Its streams will be turned into pitch,

¹⁰It won’t be quenched night or day.

¹¹But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it.

¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there;

¹³Thorns will come up in its palaces,

¹⁴The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves,

¹⁵The arrow snake will make her nest there,

¹⁶Search in the book of Yahweh, and read:

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them,

¹The wilderness and the dry land will be glad.

²It will blossom abundantly,

³Strengthen the weak hands,

⁴Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong!

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,

⁶Then the lame man will leap like a deer,

⁷The burning sand will become a pool,

⁸A highway will be there, a road,

⁹No lion will be there,

¹⁰Then Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return,

¹Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ²The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. ³Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph the recorder came out to him.

⁴Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust? ⁵I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar?’” ⁸Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ⁹How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ¹⁰Have I come up now without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” ¹³Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you. ¹⁵Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’ ¹⁶Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house. ²He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth. ⁴It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. ⁷Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

⁸So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? ¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and spread it before Yahweh. ¹⁵Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying, ¹⁶“Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God.

¹In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, ³and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then Yahweh’s word came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. ⁷This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. ⁸Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.”’” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.

⁹The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness:

¹⁰I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol.

¹¹I said, “I won’t see Yah,

¹²My dwelling is removed,

¹³I waited patiently until morning.

¹⁴I chattered like a swallow or a crane.

¹⁵What will I say?

¹⁶Lord, men live by these things;

¹⁷Behold, for peace I had great anguish,

¹At that time, Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. ²Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them. ³Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and asked him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?”

⁴Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh of Armies: ⁶‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until today, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh. ⁷‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’”

⁸Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”

¹“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. ²“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.”

³The voice of one who calls out,

⁴Every valley shall be exalted,

⁵Yahweh’s glory shall be revealed,

⁶The voice of one saying, “Cry out!”

⁷The grass withers,

⁸The grass withers,

⁹You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.

¹⁰Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one,

¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

¹³Who has directed Yahweh’s Spirit,

¹⁴Who did he take counsel with,

¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,

¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,

¹⁷All the nations are like nothing before him.

¹⁸To whom then will you liken God?

¹“Keep silent before me, islands,

²Who has raised up one from the east?

³He pursues them

⁴Who has worked and done it,

⁵The islands have seen, and fear.

⁶Everyone helps his neighbor.

⁷So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith.

⁸“But you, Israel, my servant,

⁹you whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth,

¹⁰Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you.

¹¹Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded.

¹²You will seek them, and won’t find them,

¹³For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand,

¹⁴Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob,

¹⁵Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth.

¹⁶You will winnow them,

¹⁷The poor and needy seek water, and there is none.

¹⁸I will open rivers on the bare heights,

¹“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold,

²He will not shout,

³He won’t break a bruised reed.

⁴He will not fail nor be discouraged,

⁵God Yahweh,

⁶“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness.

⁷to open the blind eyes,

⁸“I am Yahweh.

⁹Behold, the former things have happened

¹⁰Sing to Yahweh a new song,

¹¹Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices,

¹²Let them give glory to Yahweh,

¹³Yahweh will go out like a mighty man.

¹⁴“I have been silent a long time.

¹⁵I will destroy mountains and hills,

¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know.

¹⁷“Those who trust in engraved images,

¹But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob,

²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,

³For I am Yahweh your God,

⁴Since you have been precious and honored in my sight,

⁵Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.

⁶I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’

⁷everyone who is called by my name,

⁸Bring out the blind people who have eyes,

⁹Let all the nations be gathered together,

¹⁰“You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh,

¹¹I myself am Yahweh.

¹²I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown,

¹³Yes, since the day was, I am he.

¹⁴Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. ¹⁵I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”

¹⁶Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea,

¹⁷who brings out the chariot and horse,

¹⁸“Don’t remember the former things,

¹Yet listen now, Jacob my servant,

²This is what Yahweh who made you,

³For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,

⁴and they will spring up among the grass,

⁵One will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s.’

⁶This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel,

⁷Who is like me?

⁸Don’t fear,

⁹Everyone who makes a carved image is vain.

¹⁰Who has fashioned a god,

¹¹Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed;

¹²The blacksmith takes an ax,

¹³The carpenter stretches out a line.

¹⁴He cuts down cedars for himself,

¹⁵Then it will be for a man to burn;

¹⁶He burns part of it in the fire.

¹⁷The rest of it he makes into a god,

¹Yahweh says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their armor, to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:

²“I will go before you

³I will give you the treasures of darkness

⁴For Jacob my servant’s sake,

⁵I am Yahweh, and there is no one else.

⁶that they may know from the rising of the sun,

⁷I form the light

⁸Rain, you heavens, from above,

⁹Woe to him who strives with his Maker—

¹⁰Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’

¹¹Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel

¹²I have made the earth, and created man on it.

¹³I have raised him up in righteousness,

¹⁴Yahweh says: “The labor of Egypt,

¹⁵Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself,

¹⁶They will be disappointed,

¹⁷Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation.

¹Bel bows down.

²They stoop and they bow down together.

³“Listen to me, house of Jacob,

⁴Even to old age I am he,

⁵“To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal,

⁶Some pour out gold from the bag,

⁷They bear it on their shoulder.

⁸“Remember this, and show yourselves men.

⁹Remember the former things of old;

¹⁰I declare the end from the beginning,

¹¹I call a ravenous bird from the east,

¹²Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted,

¹³I bring my righteousness near.

¹“Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon.

²Take the millstones and grind flour.

³Your nakedness will be uncovered.

⁴Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name,

⁵“Sit in silence, and go into darkness,

⁶I was angry with my people.

⁷You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’

⁸“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures,

⁹But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day:

¹⁰For you have trusted in your wickedness.

¹¹Therefore disaster will come on you.

¹²“Stand now with your enchantments

¹³You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels.

¹⁴Behold, they are like stubble.

¹⁵The things that you labored in will be like this:

¹“Hear this, house of Jacob,

²for they call themselves citizens of the holy city,

³I have declared the former things from of old.

⁴Because I knew that you are obstinate,

⁵therefore I have declared it to you from of old;

⁶You have heard it.

⁷They are created now, and not from of old.

⁸Yes, you didn’t hear.

⁹For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger,

¹⁰Behold, I have refined you,

¹¹For my own sake,

¹²“Listen to me, O Jacob,

¹³Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth,

¹⁴“Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear!

¹⁵I, even I, have spoken.

¹⁶“Come near to me and hear this:

¹⁷Yahweh,

¹Listen, islands, to me.

²He has made my mouth like a sharp sword.

³He said to me, “You are my servant,

⁴But I said, “I have labored in vain.

⁵Now Yahweh, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,

⁶Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,

⁷Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One,

⁸Yahweh says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time.

⁹saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’;

¹⁰They shall not hunger nor thirst;

¹¹I will make all my mountains a road,

¹²Behold, these shall come from afar,

¹³Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth!

¹⁴But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,

¹⁵“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

¹⁶Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

¹⁷Your children hurry.

¹Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away?

²Why, when I came, was there no one?

³I clothe the heavens with blackness.

⁴The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught,

⁵The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear.

⁶I gave my back to those who beat me,

⁷For the Lord Yahweh will help me.

⁸He who justifies me is near.

⁹Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me!

¹⁰Who among you fears Yahweh

¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire,

¹“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness,

²Look to Abraham your father,

³For Yahweh has comforted Zion.

⁴“Listen to me, my people;

⁵My righteousness is near.

⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens,

⁷“Listen to me, you who know righteousness,

⁸For the moth will eat them up like a garment,

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh!

¹⁰Isn’t it you who dried up the sea,

¹¹Those ransomed by Yahweh will return,

¹²“I, even I, am he who comforts you.

¹³Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker,

¹⁴The captive exile will speedily be freed.

¹⁵For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea

¹⁶I have put my words in your mouth

¹⁷Awake, awake!

¹⁸There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth;

¹Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion.

²Shake yourself from the dust!

³For Yahweh says, “You were sold for nothing;

⁴For the Lord Yahweh says:

⁵“Now therefore, what do I do here,” says Yahweh,

⁶Therefore my people shall know my name.

⁷How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,

⁸Your watchmen lift up their voice.

⁹Break out into joy!

¹⁰Yahweh has made his holy arm bare in the eyes of all the nations.

¹¹Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing!

¹²For you shall not go out in haste,

¹³Behold, my servant will deal wisely.

¹⁴Just as many were astonished at you—

¹⁵so he will cleanse

¹Who has believed our message?

²For he grew up before him as a tender plant,

³He was despised

⁴Surely he has borne our sickness

⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions.

⁶All we like sheep have gone astray.

⁷He was oppressed,

⁸He was taken away by oppression and judgment.

⁹They made his grave with the wicked,

¹⁰Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.

¹¹After the suffering of his soul,

¹²Therefore I will give him a portion with the great.

¹“Sing, barren, you who didn’t give birth!

²“Enlarge the place of your tent,

³For you will spread out on the right hand and on the left;

⁴“Don’t be afraid, for you will not be ashamed.

⁵For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of Armies is his name.

⁶For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,

⁷“For a small moment I have forsaken you,

⁸In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment,

⁹“For this is like the waters of Noah to me;

¹⁰For the mountains may depart,

¹¹“You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted,

¹²I will make your pinnacles of rubies,

¹³All your children will be taught by Yahweh,

¹⁴You will be established in righteousness.

¹⁵Behold, they may gather together, but not by me.

¹⁶“Behold, I have created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame,

¹⁷No weapon that is formed against you will prevail;

¹“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters!

²Why do you spend money for that which is not bread,

³Turn your ear, and come to me.

⁴Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples,

⁵Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know;

⁶Seek Yahweh while he may be found.

⁷Let the wicked forsake his way,

⁸“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

⁹“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

¹⁰For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky,

¹¹so is my word that goes out of my mouth:

¹²For you shall go out with joy,

¹³Instead of the thorn the cypress tree will come up;

¹Yahweh says:

²Blessed is the man who does this,

³Let no foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh speak, saying,

⁴For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,

⁵I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters.

⁶Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh

⁷I will bring these to my holy mountain,

⁸The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,

⁹All you animals of the field,

¹⁰His watchmen are blind.

¹¹Yes, the dogs are greedy.

¹²“Come,” they say, “I will get wine,

¹The righteous perish,

²He enters into peace.

³“But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress,

⁴Whom do you mock?

⁵you who inflame yourselves among the oaks,

⁶Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion.

⁷On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed.

⁸You have set up your memorial behind the doors and the posts,

⁹You went to the king with oil,

¹⁰You were wearied with the length of your ways;

¹¹“Whom have you dreaded and feared,

¹²I will declare your righteousness;

¹³When you cry,

¹⁴He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way!

¹⁵For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity,

¹⁶For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry;

¹⁷I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness and struck him.

¹⁸I have seen his ways, and will heal him.

¹“Cry aloud! Don’t spare!

²Yet they seek me daily,

³‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see?

⁴Behold, you fast for strife and contention,

⁵Is this the fast that I have chosen?

⁶“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:

⁷Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry,

⁸Then your light will break out as the morning,

⁹Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer.

¹⁰and if you pour out your soul to the hungry,

¹¹and Yahweh will guide you continually,

¹²Those who will be of you will build the old waste places.

¹³“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,

¹⁴then you will delight yourself in Yahweh,

¹Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save;

²But your iniquities have separated you and your God,

³For your hands are defiled with blood,

⁴No one sues in righteousness,

⁵They hatch adders’ eggs

⁶Their webs won’t become garments.

⁷Their feet run to evil,

⁸They don’t know the way of peace;

⁹Therefore justice is far from us,

¹⁰We grope for the wall like the blind.

¹¹We all roar like bears

¹²For our transgressions are multiplied before you,

¹³transgressing and denying Yahweh,

¹⁴Justice is turned away backward,

¹⁵Yes, truth is lacking;

¹⁶He saw that there was no man,

¹⁷He put on righteousness as a breastplate,

¹⁸According to their deeds,

¹“Arise, shine; for your light has come,

²For behold, darkness will cover the earth,

³Nations will come to your light,

⁴“Lift up your eyes all around, and see:

⁵Then you shall see and be radiant,

⁶A multitude of camels will cover you,

⁷All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you.

⁸“Who are these who fly as a cloud,

⁹Surely the islands will wait for me,

¹⁰“Foreigners will build up your walls,

¹¹Your gates also shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, and their kings led captive.

¹²For that nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

¹³“The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress tree, the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

¹⁴The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you;

¹⁵“Whereas you have been forsaken and hated,

¹⁶You will also drink the milk of the nations,

¹⁷For bronze I will bring gold;

¹⁸Violence shall no more be heard in your land,

¹The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me,

²to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor

³to provide for those who mourn in Zion,

⁴They will rebuild the old ruins.

⁵Strangers will stand and feed your flocks.

⁶But you will be called Yahweh’s priests.

⁷Instead of your shame you will have double.

⁸“For I, Yahweh, love justice.

⁹Their offspring will be known among the nations,

¹⁰I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh!

¹¹For as the earth produces its bud,

¹For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace,

²The nations will see your righteousness,

³You will also be a crown of beauty in Yahweh’s hand,

⁴You will not be called Forsaken any more,

⁵For as a young man marries a virgin,

⁶I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem.

⁷and give him no rest until he establishes,

⁸Yahweh has sworn by his right hand,

⁹but those who have harvested it will eat it, and praise Yahweh.

¹⁰Go through, go through the gates!

¹¹Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth:

¹²They will call them “The Holy People,

¹Who is this who comes from Edom,

²Why is your clothing red,

³“I have trodden the wine press alone.

⁴For the day of vengeance was in my heart,

⁵I looked, and there was no one to help;

⁶I trod down the peoples in my anger

⁷I will tell of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh

⁸For he said, “Surely, they are my people,

⁹In all their affliction he was afflicted,

¹⁰But they rebelled

¹¹Then he remembered the days of old,

¹²Who caused his glorious arm to be at Moses’ right hand?

¹³Who led them through the depths,

¹⁴As the livestock that go down into the valley,

¹⁵Look down from heaven,

¹⁶For you are our Father,

¹⁷O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways,

¹⁸Your holy people possessed it but a little while.

¹Oh that you would tear the heavens,

²as when fire kindles the brushwood,

³When you did awesome things which we didn’t look for,

⁴For from of old men have not heard,

⁵You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness,

⁶For we have all become like one who is unclean,

⁷There is no one who calls on your name,

⁸But now, Yahweh, you are our Father.

⁹Don’t be furious, Yahweh.

¹⁰Your holy cities have become a wilderness.

¹¹Our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised you

¹²Will you hold yourself back for these things, Yahweh?

¹“I am inquired of by those who didn’t ask.

²I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people,

³a people who provoke me to my face continually,

⁴who sit among the graves,

⁵who say, ‘Stay by yourself,

⁶“Behold, it is written before me:

⁷your own iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together”, says Yahweh,

⁸Yahweh says,

⁹I will bring offspring out of Jacob,

¹⁰Sharon will be a fold of flocks,

¹¹“But you who forsake Yahweh,

¹²I will destine you to the sword,

¹³Therefore the Lord Yahweh says,

¹⁴Behold, my servants will sing for joy of heart,

¹⁵You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen,

¹⁶so that he who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of truth;

¹⁷“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;

¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create;

¹Yahweh says:

²For my hand has made all these things,

³He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man;

⁴I also will choose their delusions,

⁵Hear Yahweh’s word,

⁶A voice of tumult from the city,

⁷“Before she travailed, she gave birth.

⁸Who has heard of such a thing?

⁹Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be delivered?” says Yahweh.

¹⁰“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her.

¹¹that you may nurse and be satisfied at the comforting breasts;

¹²For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,

¹³As one whom his mother comforts,

¹⁴You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice,

¹⁵For, behold, Yahweh will come with fire,

¹⁶For Yahweh will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh;

¹⁷“Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, following one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says Yahweh.

¹⁸“For I know their works and their thoughts. The time comes that I will gather all nations and languages, and they will come, and will see my glory.