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Isaiah
Isa.1
[1] The vision of Isaiah the son of
Amoz, 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.
Isa.2
[1] The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz 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?
Isa.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 scarfs;
[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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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 digged 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 ephah."
[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,
timbrel 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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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 thornbushes, 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.
Isa.8
[1] Then the LORD said to
me, "Take a large tablet and write upon it in common characters, `Belonging to
Ma'her-shal'al-hash-baz.'"
[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'her-shal'al-hash-baz;
[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'u-el."
[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
nought;
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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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'e-ah 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.
Isa.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 dryshod.
[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.
Isa.12
[1] You will say in that day:
"I will give thanks to
thee, O LORD,
for though thou wast angry with me,
thy anger turned away,
and
thou didst 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."
Isa.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.
Isa.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
sepulchre,
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."
Isa.15
[1] An oracle concerning Moab.
Because Ar 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.
Isa.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."
Isa.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 for ever;
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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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."
Isa.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?'"
Isa.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."
Isa.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 shoutings,
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."
Isa.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 siegetowers, 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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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 didst 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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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.
And in an instant, suddenly,
[6] 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 nought 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."
Isa.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
sherd 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, "Begone!"
[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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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 the stammerers 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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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;
[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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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?"
Isa.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."
Isa.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 nought,
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.
Isa.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 smooths 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
nought;
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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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 fulfil all my purpose';
saying of Jerusalem, `She shall be
built,'
and of the temple, `Your foundation shall be laid.'"
Isa.45
[1] Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
and ungird 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 hidest 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."
Isa.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."
Isa.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.
Isa.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."
Isa.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."
Isa.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.
Isa.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 digged.
[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
revilings.
[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 didst cut
Rahab in pieces,
that didst pierce the dragon?
[10] Was it not thou that didst dry
up the sea,
the waters of the great deep;
that didst 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."
Isa.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.
Isa.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 griefs
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.
Isa.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."
Isa.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."
Isa.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."
Isa.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."
Isa.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 seest it not?
Why have
we humbled ourselves, and thou takest 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."
Isa.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."
Isa.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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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.
Isa.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 didst 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.
Isa.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 didst terrible things which we looked not for,
thou
camest 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 meetest him that joyfully works
righteousness,
those that remember thee in thy ways.
Behold, thou wast 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?
Isa.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."
Isa.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
stormwind,
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."