Rebellion of God’s People
1The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth;
For the LORD speaks,
“Sons I have reared and brought up,
But they have revolted against Me.
3“An ox knows its owner,
And a donkey its master’s manger,
But Israel does not know,
My people do not understand.”
4Alas, sinful nation,
People weighed down with iniquity,
Offspring of evildoers,
Sons who act corruptly!
They have abandoned the LORD,
They have despised the Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away from Him.
5Where will you be stricken again,
As you continue in your rebellion?
The whole head is sick
And the whole heart is faint. Life Lessons
6From the sole of the foot even to the head
There is nothing sound in it,
Only bruises, welts and raw wounds,
Not pressed out or bandaged,
Nor softened with oil.
7Your land is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire,
Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your presence;
It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers.
8The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,
Like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.
9Unless the LORD of hosts
Had left us a few survivors,
We would be like Sodom,
We would be like Gomorrah.
God Has Had Enough
10Hear the word of the LORD,
You rulers of Sodom;
Give ear to the instruction of our God,
You people of Gomorrah.
11“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”
Says the LORD.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle;
And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.
12“When you come to appear before Me,
Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?
13“Bring your worthless offerings no longer,
Incense is an abomination to Me.
New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
14“I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts,
They have become a burden to Me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15“So when you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Yes, even though you multiply prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are covered with blood.
16“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
Cease to do evil,
17Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
“Let Us Reason”
18“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool. Life Lessons
*19“If you consent and obey,
You will eat the best of the land;
20“But if you refuse and rebel,
You will be devoured by the sword.”
Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Zion Corrupted, to Be Redeemed
21How the faithful city has become a harlot,
She who was full of justice!
Righteousness once lodged in her,
But now murderers.
22Your silver has become dross,
Your drink diluted with water.
23Your rulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone loves a bribe
And chases after rewards.
They do not defend the orphan,
Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.
24Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts,
The Mighty One of Israel, declares,
“Ah, I will be relieved of My adversaries
And avenge Myself on My foes.
25“I will also turn My hand against you,
And will smelt away your dross as with lye
And will remove all your alloy.
26“Then I will restore your judges as at the first,
And your counselors as at the beginning;
After that you will be called the city of righteousness,
A faithful city.”
27Zion will be redeemed with justice
And her repentant ones with righteousness.
28But transgressors and sinners will be crushed together,
And those who forsake the LORD will come to an end.
29Surely you will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired,
And you will be embarrassed at the gardens which you have chosen.
30For you will be like an oak whose leaf fades away
Or as a garden that has no water.
31The strong man will become tinder,
His work also a spark.
Thus they shall both burn together
And there will be none to quench them.
God’s Universal Reign
1The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2Now it will come about that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
3And many peoples will 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 concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Life Lessons
4And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.
5Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
6For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with influences from the east,
And they are soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they strike bargains with the children of foreigners.
7Their land has also been filled with silver and gold
And there is no end to their treasures;
Their land has also been filled with horses
And there is no end to their chariots.
8Their land has also been filled with idols;
They worship the work of their hands,
That which their fingers have made.
9So the common man has been humbled
And the man of importance has been abased,
But do not forgive them.
10Enter the rock and hide in the dust
From the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty.
11The proud look of man will be abased
And the loftiness of man will be humbled,
And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
A Day of Reckoning Coming
12For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against everyone who is proud and lofty
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be abased.
13And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up,
Against all the oaks of Bashan,
14Against all the lofty mountains,
Against all the hills that are lifted up,
15Against every high tower,
Against every fortified wall,
16Against all the ships of Tarshish
And against all the beautiful craft.
17The pride of man will be humbled
And the loftiness of men will be abased;
And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, Life Lessons
18But the idols will completely vanish.
19Men will go into caves of the rocks
And into holes of the ground
Before the terror of the LORD
And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.
20In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves to worship,
21In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs
Before the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.
22Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;
For why should he be esteemed?
God Will Remove the Leaders
1For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah
Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread
And the whole supply of water;
2The mighty man and the warrior,
The judge and the prophet,
The diviner and the elder,
3The captain of fifty and the honorable man,
The counselor and the expert artisan,
And the skillful enchanter.
4And I will make mere lads their princes,
And capricious children will rule over them,
5And the people will be oppressed,
Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;
The youth will storm against the elder
And the inferior against the honorable.
6When a man lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying,
“You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,
And these ruins will be under your charge,”
7He will protest on that day, saying,
“I will not be your healer,
For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”
8For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,
Because their speech and their actions are against the LORD,
To rebel against His glorious presence. Life Lessons
9The expression of their faces bears witness against them,
And they display their sin like Sodom;
They do not even conceal it.
Woe to them!
For they have brought evil on themselves.
10Say to the righteous that it will go well with them,
For they will eat the fruit of their actions. Life Lessons
11Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,
For what he deserves will be done to him.
12O My people! Their oppressors are children,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray
And confuse the direction of your paths.
God Will Judge
13The LORD arises to contend,
And stands to judge the people.
14The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people,
“It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
15“What do you mean by crushing My people
And grinding the face of the poor?”
Declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
Judah’s Women Denounced
16Moreover, the LORD said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud
And walk with heads held high and seductive eyes,
And go along with mincing steps
And tinkle the bangles on their feet,
17Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs,
And the LORD will make their foreheads bare.”
18In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments,
19dangling earrings, bracelets, veils,
20headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets,
21finger rings, nose rings,
22festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses,
23hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans and veils.
24Now it will come about that instead of sweet perfume there will be putrefaction;
Instead of a belt, a rope;
Instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp;
Instead of fine clothes, a donning of sackcloth;
And branding instead of beauty.
25Your men will fall by the sword
And your mighty ones in battle.
26And her gates will lament and mourn,
And deserted she will sit on the ground.
A Remnant Prepared
1For seven women will 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!”
2In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel. Life Lessons
3It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem.
4When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,
5then the LORD will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy.
6There will be a shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain.
Parable of the Vineyard
1Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.
3“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard.
4“What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
5“So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.
6“I will lay it waste;
It will not be pruned or hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”
7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
Woes for the Wicked
8Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!
9In my ears the LORD of hosts has sworn, “Surely, many houses shall become desolate,
Even great and fine ones, without occupants.
10“For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one abath of wine,
And a homer of seed will yield but an bephah of grain.”
11Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,
Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!
12Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD,
Nor do they consider the work of His hands. Life Lessons
13Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;
And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
15So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,
The eyes of the proud also will be abased.
16But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
17Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.
18Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood,
And sin as if with cart ropes;
19Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near
And come to pass, that we may know it!”
20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Life Lessons
21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!
22Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
And valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!
24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
For they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25On this account the anger of the LORD has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.
And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.
For all this His anger is not spent,
But His hand is still stretched out.
26He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation,
And will whistle for it from the ends of the earth;
And behold, it will come with speed swiftly.
27No one in it is weary or stumbles,
None slumbers or sleeps;
Nor is the belt at its waist undone,
Nor its sandal strap broken.
28Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;
The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;
It growls as it seizes the prey
And carries it off with no one to deliver it.
30And it will growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.
If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;
Even the light is darkened by its clouds.
Isaiah’s Vision
1In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Life Examples: Isaiah Life Lessons
2Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.” Life Lessons
4And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
5Then I said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
7He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
Isaiah’s Commission
8Then 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!” Life Lessons
9He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.’
10“Render the hearts of this people insensitive,
Their ears dull,
And their eyes dim,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts,
And return and be healed.”
11Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,
“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,
12“The LORD has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13“Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,
And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or an oak
Whose stump remains when it is felled.
The holy seed is its stump.”
War against Jerusalem
1Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it.
2When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.
3Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field,
4and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.
5‘Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying,
6“Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”
7thus says the Lord GOD: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.
8“For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people),
9and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.” ’ ” Life Lessons
The Child Immanuel
10Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying,
11“Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
12But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!”
13Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?
14“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name aImmanuel. Life Lessons
15“He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.
16“For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.
Trials to Come for Judah
17“The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria.”
18In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19They will all come and settle on the steep ravines, on the ledges of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes and on all the watering places.
20In that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.
21Now in that day a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep;
22and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat curds and honey.
23And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns.
24People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns.
25As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.
Damascus and Samaria Fall
1Then the LORD said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.
2“And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”
3So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Name him aMaher-shalal-hash-baz;
4for before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”
5Again the LORD spoke to me further, saying,
6“Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
And rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah;
7“Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates,
Even the king of Assyria and all his glory;
And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.
8“Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,
It will reach even to the neck;
And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.
A Believing Remnant
9“Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered;
And give ear, all remote places of the earth.
Gird yourselves, yet be shattered;
Gird yourselves, yet be shattered.
10“Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted;
State a proposal, but it will not stand,
For God is with us.”
11For thus the LORD spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,
12“You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.
13“It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread. Life Lessons
14“Then He shall become a sanctuary;
But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over,
And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15“Many will stumble over them,
Then they will fall and be broken;
They will even be snared and caught.”
16Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17And I will wait for the LORD who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him.
18Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
19When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?
20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. Life Lessons
21They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward.
22Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.
Birth and Reign of the Prince of Peace
1But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. Life Lessons
2The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
3You shall multiply the nation,
You shall increase their gladness;
They will be glad in Your presence
As with the gladness of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
5For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
6For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Life Lessons
*7There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.
God’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance
8The Lord sends a message against Jacob,
And it falls on Israel.
9And all the people know it,
That is, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:
10“The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with smooth stones;
The sycamores have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”
11Therefore the LORD raises against them adversaries from Rezin
And spurs their enemies on,
12The Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west;
And they devour Israel with gaping jaws.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
13Yet the people do not turn back to Him who struck them,
Nor do they seek the LORD of hosts. Life Lessons
14So the LORD cuts off head and tail from Israel,
Both palm branch and bulrush in a single day.
15The head is the elder and honorable man,
And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.
16For those who guide this people are leading them astray;
And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion.
17Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men,
Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows;
For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,
And every mouth is speaking foolishness.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
18For wickedness burns like a fire;
It consumes briars and thorns;
It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame
And they roll upward in a column of smoke.
19By the fury of the LORD of hosts the land is burned up,
And the people are like fuel for the fire;
No man spares his brother.
20They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry,
And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;
Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.
21Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
And together they are against Judah.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
Assyria Is God’s Instrument
1Woe to those who enact evil statutes
And to those who constantly record unjust decisions,
2So as to deprive the needy of justice
And rob the poor of My people of their rights,
So that widows may be their spoil
And that they may plunder the orphans.
3Now what will you do in the day of punishment,
And in the devastation which will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your wealth?
4Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives
Or fall among the slain.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
5Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
And the staff in whose hands is My indignation,
6I send it against a godless nation
And commission it against the people of My fury
To capture booty and to seize plunder,
And to trample them down like mud in the streets.
7Yet it does not so intend,
Nor does it plan so in its heart,
But rather it is its purpose to destroy
And to cut off many nations.
8For it says, “Are not my princes all kings?
9“Is not Calno like Carchemish,
Or Hamath like Arpad,
Or Samaria like Damascus?
10“As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,
Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images
Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”
12So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.”
13For he has said,
“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,
For I have understanding;
And I removed the boundaries of the peoples
And plundered their treasures,
And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants,
14And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest,
And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;
And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”
15Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it?
Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?
That would be like a club wielding those who lift it,
Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood. Life Lessons
16Therefore the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors;
And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.
17And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame,
And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.
18And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body,
And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
19And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number
That a child could write them down.
A Remnant Will Return
20Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
21A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea,
Only a remnant within them will return;
A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
23For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.
24Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did.
25“For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent and My anger will be directed to their destruction.” Life Lessons
26The LORD of hosts will arouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the sea and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt.
27So it will be in that day, that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.
28He has come against Aiath,
He has passed through Migron;
At Michmash he deposited his baggage.
29They have gone through the pass, saying,
“Geba will be our lodging place.”
Ramah is terrified, and Gibeah of Saul has fled away.
30Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Gallim!
Pay attention, Laishah and wretched Anathoth!
31Madmenah has fled.
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.
32Yet today he will halt at Nob;
He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33Behold, the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash;
Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down
And those who are lofty will be abased.
34He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe,
And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
Righteous Reign of the Branch
1Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. Life Lessons
2The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3And He will delight in the fear of the LORD,
And He will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;
4But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.
5Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,
And faithfulness the belt about His waist.
6And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion aand the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
7Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
9They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
As the waters cover the sea. Life Lessons
*10Then in that day
The nations will resort to the root of Jesse,
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;
And His resting place will be glorious.
The Restored Remnant
11Then it will happen on that day that the Lord
Will again recover the second time with His hand
The remnant of His people, who will remain,
From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,
And from the islands of the sea.
12And He will lift up a standard for the nations
And assemble the banished ones of Israel,
And will gather the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
13Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart,
And those who harass Judah will be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
And Judah will not harass Ephraim.
14They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west;
Together they will plunder the sons of the east;
They will possess Edom and Moab,
And the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.
15And the LORD will utterly destroy
The tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
And He will wave His hand over the River
With His scorching wind;
And He will strike it into seven streams
And make men walk over dry-shod.
16And there will be a highway from Assyria
For the remnant of His people who will be left,
Just as there was for Israel
In the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.
Thanksgiving Expressed
1Then you will say on that day,
“I will give thanks to You, O LORD;
For although You were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away,
And You comfort me.
2“Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For the LORD God is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.” Life Lessons
3Therefore you will joyously draw water
From the springs of salvation. Life Lessons
4And in that day you will say,
“Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples;
Make them remember that His name is exalted.”
5Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things;
Let this be known throughout the earth.
6Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Prophecies about Babylon
1The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2Lift up a standard on the abare hill,
Raise your voice to them,
Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.
3I have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have even called My mighty warriors,
My proudly exulting ones,
To execute My anger.
4A sound of tumult on the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A sound of the uproar of kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
The LORD of hosts is mustering the army for battle.
5They are coming from a far country,
From the farthest horizons,
The LORD and His instruments of indignation,
To destroy the whole land.
Judgment on the Day of the LORD
6Wail, for the day of the LORD is near!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7Therefore all hands will fall limp,
And every man’s heart will melt.
8They will be terrified,
Pains and anguish will take hold of them;
They will writhe like a woman in labor,
They will look at one another in astonishment,
Their faces aflame.
9Behold, the day of the LORD is coming,
Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
To make the land a desolation;
And He will exterminate its sinners from it.
10For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash forth their light;
The sun will be dark when it rises
And the moon will not shed its light.
11Thus I will punish the world for its evil
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud
And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. Life Lessons
12I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
And the earth will be shaken from its place
At the fury of the LORD of hosts
In the day of His burning anger.
14And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,
Or like sheep with none to gather them,
They will each turn to his own people,
And each one flee to his own land.
15Anyone who is found will be thrust through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.
Babylon Will Fall to the Medes
17Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold. Life Lessons
18And their bows will mow down the young men,
They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,
Nor will their eye pity children.
19And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
21But desert creatures will lie down there,
And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there.
22Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers
And jackals in their luxurious palaces.
Her fateful time also will soon come
And her days will not be prolonged.
Israel’s Taunt
1When the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
2The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.
3And it will be in the day when the LORD gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved,
4that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,
“How the oppressor has ceased,
And how fury has ceased!
5“The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of rulers
6Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,
Which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.
7“The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
They break forth into shouts of joy.
8“Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’
9“Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come;
It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.
10“They will all respond and say to you,
‘Even you have been made weak as we,
You have become like us.
11‘Your pomp and the music of your harps
Have been brought down to Sheol;
Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you
And worms are your covering.’
12“How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
13“But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north. Life Lessons
14‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15“Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.
16“Those who see you will gaze at you,
They will ponder over you, saying,
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
17Who made the world like a wilderness
And overthrew its cities,
Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?’
18“All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
Each in his own tomb.
19“But you have been cast out of your tomb
Like a rejected branch,
Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit
Like a trampled corpse.
20“You will not be united with them in burial,
Because you have ruined your country,
You have slain your people.
May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever.
21“Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter
Because of the iniquity of their fathers.
They must not arise and take possession of the earth
And fill the face of the world with cities.”
22“I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity,” declares the LORD.
23“I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.
Judgment on Assyria
24The LORD of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand, Life Lessons
25to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder.
26“This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations.
27“For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”
28In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:
Judgment on Philistia
29“Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you,
Because the rod that struck you is broken;
For from the serpent’s root a viper will come out,
And its fruit will be a flying serpent.
30“Those who are most helpless will eat,
And the needy will lie down in security;
I will destroy your root with famine,
And it will kill off your survivors.
31“Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;
For smoke comes from the north,
And there is no straggler in his ranks.
32“How then will one answer the messengers of the nation?
That the LORD has founded Zion,
And the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.”
Judgment on Moab
1The oracle concerning Moab.
Surely in a night Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;
Surely in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.
2They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, even to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;
Everyone’s head is bald and every beard is cut off.
3In their streets they have girded themselves with sackcloth;
On their housetops and in their squares
Everyone is wailing, dissolved in tears.
4Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out,
Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
His soul trembles within him.
5My heart cries out for Moab;
His fugitives are as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,
For they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping;
Surely on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress over their ruin.
6For the waters of Nimrim are desolate.
Surely the grass is withered, the tender grass died out,
There is no green thing.
7Therefore the abundance which they have acquired and stored up
They carry off over the brook of Arabim.
8For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,
Its wail goes as far as Eglaim and its wailing even to Beer-elim.
9For the waters of Dimon are full of blood;
Surely I will bring added woes upon Dimon,
A lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.
Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation
1Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,
From Sela by way of the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
2Then, like fleeing birds or scattered nestlings,
The daughters of Moab will be at the fords of the Arnon.
3“Give us advice, make a decision;
Cast your shadow like night at high noon;
Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.
4“Let the outcasts of Moab stay with you;
Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”
For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,
Oppressors have completely disappeared from the land.
*5A throne will even be established in lovingkindness,
And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David;
Moreover, he will seek justice
And be prompt in righteousness.
6We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;
Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;
His idle boasts are false.
7Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.
You will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth
As those who are utterly stricken.
8For the fields of Heshbon have withered, the vines of Sibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;
Its tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.
9Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;
I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh;
For the shouting over your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.
10Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;
In the vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,
No treader treads out wine in the presses,
For I have made the shouting to cease.
11Therefore my heart intones like a harp for Moab
And my inward feelings for Kir-hareseth.
12So it will come about when Moab presents himself,
When he wearies himself upon his high place
And comes to his sanctuary to pray,
That he will not prevail.
13This is the word which the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab.
14But now the LORD speaks, saying, “Within three years, as a hired man would count them, the glory of Moab will be degraded along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and impotent.”
Prophecy about Damascus
1The oracle concerning Damascus.
“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
2“The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks to lie down in,
And there will be no one to frighten them.
3“The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the LORD of hosts.
4Now in that day the glory of Jacob will fade,
And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5It will be even like the reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the valley of Rephaim.
6Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost bough,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.
7In that day man will have regard for his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. Life Lessons
8He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Even the aAsherim and incense stands.
9In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.
10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
And have not remembered the rock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine slips of a strange god.
11In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will be a heap
In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.
12Alas, the uproar of many peoples
Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like chaff in the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.
14At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning they are no more.
Such will be the portion of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.
Message to Ethiopia
1Alas, oh land of whirring wings
Which lies beyond the rivers of aCush,
2Which sends envoys by the sea,
Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth,
To a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.
3All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,
As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, you will see it,
And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.
4For thus the LORD has told me,
“I will look from My dwelling place quietly
Like dazzling heat in the sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5For before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives
And remove and cut away the spreading branches.
6They will be left together for mountain birds of prey,
And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
7At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the LORD of hosts
From a people tall and smooth,
Even from a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, even Mount Zion.
Message to Egypt
1The oracle concerning Egypt.
Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;
The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,
And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
2“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;
And they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor,
City against city and kingdom against kingdom.
3“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;
And I will confound their strategy,
So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead
And to mediums and spiritists.
4“Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master,
And a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
5The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.
6The canals will emit a stench,
The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;
The reeds and rushes will rot away.
7The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile
And all the sown fields by the Nile
Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.
8And the fishermen will lament,
And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.
9Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax
And the weavers of white cloth will be utterly dejected.
10And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed;
All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.
11The princes of Zoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become stupid.
How can you men say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?
12Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them understand what the LORD of hosts
Has purposed against Egypt.
13The princes of Zoan have acted foolishly,
The princes of Memphis are deluded;
Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes
Have led Egypt astray.
14The LORD has mixed within her a spirit of distortion;
They have led Egypt astray in all that it does,
As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15There will be no work for Egypt
Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.
16In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He is going to wave over them.
17The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the purpose of the LORD of hosts which He is purposing against them.
18In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of aDestruction.
19In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD near its border.
20It will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them. Life Lessons
21Thus the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it.
22The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them.
23In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,
25whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” Life Lessons
Prophecy about Egypt and Ethiopia
1In the year that the commander came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it,
2at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your shoes off your feet.” And he did so, going naked and barefoot. Life Lessons
3And the LORD said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and token against Egypt and Cush,
4so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5“Then they will be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their boast.
6“So the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and we, how shall we escape?’ ”
God Commands That Babylon Be Taken
1The oracle concerning the awilderness of the sea.
As windstorms in the Negev sweep on,
It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land.
2A harsh vision has been shown to me;
The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.
Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;
I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused.
3For this reason my loins are full of anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.
I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.
4My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.
5They set the table, they bspread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;
“Rise up, captains, oil the shields,”
6For thus the Lord says to me,
“Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees.
7“When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
A train of donkeys, a train of camels,
Let him pay close attention, very close attention.”
8Then the lookout called,
“O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,
And I am stationed every night at my guard post.
9“Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”
And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”
10O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor!
What I have heard from the LORD of hosts,
The God of Israel, I make known to you.
Oracles about Edom and Arabia
11The oracle concerning Edom.
One keeps calling to me from Seir,
“Watchman, chow far gone is the night?
Watchman, how far gone is the night?”
12The watchman says,
“Morning comes but also night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
Come back again.”
13The oracle about Arabia.
In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,
O caravans of Dedanites.
14Bring water for the thirsty,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Meet the fugitive with bread.
15For they have fled from the swords,
From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow
And from the press of battle.
16For thus the Lord said to me, “In a year, as a hired man would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will terminate;
17and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken.”
The Valley of Vision
1The oracle concerning the valley of vision.
What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?
2You who were full of noise,
You boisterous town, you exultant city;
Your slain were not slain with the sword,
Nor did they die in battle.
3All your rulers have fled together,
And have been captured without the bow;
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
Though they had fled far away.
4Therefore I say, “Turn your eyes away from me,
Let me weep bitterly,
Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion
In the valley of vision,
A breaking down of walls
And a crying to the mountain.
6Elam took up the quiver
With the chariots, infantry and horsemen;
And Kir uncovered the shield.
7Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate.
8And He removed the defense of Judah.
In that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest,
9And you saw that the breaches
In the wall of the city of David were many;
And you collected the waters of the lower pool.
10Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem
And tore down houses to fortify the wall.
11And you made a reservoir between the two walls
For the waters of the old pool.
But you did not depend on Him who made it,
Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago.
12Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing,
To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth.
13Instead, there is gaiety and gladness,
Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating of meat and drinking of wine:
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”
14But the LORD of hosts revealed Himself to me,
“Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.
15Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts,
“Come, go to this steward,
To Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household,
16‘What right do you have here,
And whom do you have here,
That you have hewn a tomb for yourself here,
You who hew a tomb on the height,
You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?
17‘Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you headlong, O man.
And He is about to grasp you firmly
18And roll you tightly like a ball,
To be cast into a vast country;
There you will die
And there your splendid chariots will be,
You shame of your master’s house.’
19“I will depose you from your office,
And I will pull you down from your station.
20“Then it will come about in that day,
That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
21And I will clothe him with your tunic
And tie your sash securely about him.
I will entrust him with your authority,
And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22“Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder,
When he opens no one will shut,
When he shuts no one will open. Life Lessons
23“I will drive him like a peg in a firm place,
And he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house.
24“So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, offspring and issue, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars.
25“In that day,” declares the LORD of hosts, “the peg driven in a firm place will give way; it will even break off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”
The Fall of Tyre
1The oracle concerning Tyre.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor;
It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus.
2Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon;
Your messengers crossed the sea
3And were on many waters.
The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue;
And she was the market of nations.
4Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have neither travailed nor given birth,
I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.”
5When the report reaches Egypt,
They will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.
6Pass over to Tarshish;
Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.
7Is this your jubilant city,
Whose origin is from antiquity,
Whose feet used to carry her to colonize distant places?
8Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
9The LORD of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty,
To despise all the honored of the earth.
10Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish,
There is no more restraint.
11He has stretched His hand out over the sea,
He has made the kingdoms tremble;
The LORD has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strongholds.
12He has said, “You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”
13Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.
14Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For your stronghold is destroyed.
15Now 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:
16Take your harp, walk about the city,
O forgotten harlot;
Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.
17It will come about at the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
18Her gain and her harlot’s wages will be set apart to the LORD; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who dwell in the presence of the LORD.
Judgment on the Earth
1Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants.
2And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.
3The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the LORD has spoken this word.
4The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away.
5The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Life Lessons
6Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.
7The new wine mourns,
The vine decays,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
8The gaiety of tambourines ceases,
The noise of revelers stops,
The gaiety of the harp ceases.
9They do not drink wine with song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10The city of chaos is broken down;
Every house is shut up so that none may enter.
11There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;
All joy turns to gloom.
The gaiety of the earth is banished.
12Desolation is left in the city
And the gate is battered to ruins.
13For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,
As the shaking of an olive tree,
As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.
14They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of the LORD.
15Therefore glorify the LORD in the east,
The name of the LORD, the God of Israel,
In the coastlands of the sea.
16From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One,”
But I say, “Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”
17Terror and pit and snare
Confront you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit,
And he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare;
For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.
19The earth is broken asunder,
The earth is split through,
The earth is shaken violently.
20The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard
And it totters like a shack,
For its transgression is heavy upon it,
And it will fall, never to rise again. Life Lessons
21So it will happen in that day,
That the LORD will punish the host of heaven on high,
And the kings of the earth on earth.
22They will be gathered together
Like prisoners in the dungeon,
And will be confined in prison;
And after many days they will be punished.
*23Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed,
For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
And His glory will be before His elders.
Song of Praise for God’s Favor
1O LORD, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. Answers to Life’s Questions: When is the appropriate time to praise the Lord?
2For You have made a city into a heap,
A fortified city into a ruin;
A palace of strangers is a city no more,
It will never be rebuilt.
3Therefore a strong people will glorify You;
Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.
4For You have been a defense for the helpless,
A defense for the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;
For the breath of the ruthless
Is like a rain storm against a wall. Life Lessons
5Like heat in drought, You subdue the uproar of aliens;
Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced.
6The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,
And refined, aged wine.
7And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
*8He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
9And it will be said in that day,
“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” Life Lessons
10For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain,
And Moab will be trodden down in his place
As straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.
11And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it
As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
But the Lord will lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.
12The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,
Lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust.
Song of Trust in God’s Protection
1In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
He sets up walls and ramparts for security.
2“Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter,
The one that remains faithful.
*3“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,
Because he trusts in You. Answers to Life’s Questions: How can I have God’s peace?
4“Trust in the LORD forever,
For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.
5“For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the unassailable city;
He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.
6“The foot will trample it,
The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the helpless.”
7The way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.
8Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O LORD,
We have waited for You eagerly;
Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls. Life Lessons
9At night my soul longs for You,
Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
For when the earth experiences Your judgments
The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10Though the wicked is shown favor,
He does not learn righteousness;
He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,
And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD.
11O LORD, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it.
They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
Indeed, fire will devour Your enemies.
12LORD, You will establish peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all our works. Life Lessons
13O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us;
But through You alone we confess Your name.
14The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.
15You have increased the nation, O LORD,
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.
16O LORD, they sought You in distress;
They could only whisper a prayer,
Your chastening was upon them.
17As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains,
Thus were we before You, O LORD.
18We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,
We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were inhabitants of the world born.
*19Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
20Come, my people, enter into your rooms
And close your doors behind you;
Hide for a little while
Until indignation runs its course.
21For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
And the earth will reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain.
The Deliverance of Israel
1In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.
2In that day,
“A vineyard of wine, sing of it!
3“I, the LORD, am its keeper;
I water it every moment.
So that no one will damage it,
I guard it night and day.
4“I have no wrath.
Should someone give Me briars and thorns in battle,
Then I would step on them, I would burn them completely.
5“Or let him rely on My protection,
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him make peace with Me.”
6In the days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the whole world with fruit.
7Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?
8You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away.
With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind.
9Therefore through this Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven;
And this will be the full price of the pardoning of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones;
When Asherim and incense altars will not stand.
10For the fortified city is isolated,
A homestead forlorn and forsaken like the desert;
There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and feed on its branches.
11When its limbs are dry, they are broken off;
Women come and make a fire with them,
For they are not a people of discernment,
Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them.
And their Creator will not be gracious to them.
12In that day the LORD will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel.
13It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Ephraim’s Captivity Predicted
1Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the fertile valley
Of those who are overcome with wine!
2Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent;
As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction,
Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters,
He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.
3The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is trodden under foot.
4And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the fertile valley,
Will be like the first-ripe fig prior to summer,
Which one sees,
And as soon as it is in his hand,
He swallows it.
5In that day the LORD of hosts will become a beautiful crown
And a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people; Life Lessons
6A spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment,
A strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.
7And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:
The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink;
They reel while having visions,
They totter when rendering judgment.
8For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place.
9“To whom would He teach knowledge,
And to whom would He interpret the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?
10“For He says,
‘Order on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there.’ ”
11Indeed, He will speak to this people
Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue,
12He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,”
And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.
13So the word of the LORD to them will be,
“Order on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there,”
That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.
Judah Is Warned
14Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
15Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we have made a pact.
The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by,
For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.”
16Therefore thus says the Lord GOD,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,
A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.
He who believes in it will not be disturbed.
17“I will make justice the measuring line
And righteousness the level;
Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies
And the waters will overflow the secret place.
18“Your covenant with death will be canceled,
And your pact with Sheol will not stand;
When the overwhelming scourge passes through,
Then you become its trampling place.
19“As often as it passes through, it will seize you;
For morning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night,
And it will be sheer terror to understand what it means.”
20The bed is too short on which to stretch out,
And the blanket is too small to wrap oneself in.
21For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He will be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon,
To do His task, His unusual task,
And to work His work, His extraordinary work.
22And now do not carry on as scoffers,
Or your fetters will be made stronger;
For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts
Of decisive destruction on all the earth.
23Give ear and hear my voice,
Listen and hear my words.
24Does the farmer plow continually to plant seed?
Does he continually turn and harrow the ground?
25Does he not level its surface
And sow dill and scatter cummin
And plant wheat in rows,
Barley in its place and rye within its area?
26For his God instructs and teaches him properly.
27For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
Nor is the cartwheel driven over cummin;
But dill is beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a club.
28Grain for bread is crushed,
Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever.
Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it,
He does not thresh it longer.
29This also comes from the LORD of hosts,
Who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great. Life Lessons
Jerusalem Is Warned
1Woe, O Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped!
Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule.
2I will bring distress to Ariel,
And she will be a city of lamenting and mourning;
And she will be like an Ariel to me.
3I will camp against you encircling you,
And I will set siegeworks against you,
And I will raise up battle towers against you.
4Then you will be brought low;
From the earth you will speak,
And from the dust where you are prostrate
Your words will come.
Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the ground,
And your speech will whisper from the dust.
5But the multitude of your enemies will become like fine dust,
And the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away;
And it will happen instantly, suddenly.
6From the LORD of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise,
With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.
7And the multitude of all the nations who wage war against Ariel,
Even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,
Will be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8It will be as when a hungry man dreams—
And behold, he is eating;
But when he awakens, his hunger is not satisfied,
Or as when a thirsty man dreams—
And behold, he is drinking,
But when he awakens, behold, he is faint
And his thirst is not quenched.
Thus the multitude of all the nations will be
Who wage war against Mount Zion.
9Be delayed and wait,
Blind yourselves and be blind;
They become drunk, but not with wine,
They stagger, but not with strong drink.
10For the LORD has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep,
He has shut your eyes, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, the seers.
11The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”
12Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”
13Then the Lord said,
“Because this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, Life Lessons
14Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”
15Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD,
And whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”
16You turn things around!
Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay,
That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Blessing after Discipline
17Is it not yet just a little while
Before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field,
And the fertile field will be considered as a forest?
18On that day the deaf will hear words of a book,
And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
19The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the LORD,
And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20For the ruthless will come to an end and the scorner will be finished,
Indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be cut off;
21Who cause a person to be indicted by a word,
And ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate,
And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.
22Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale;
23But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst,
They will sanctify My name;
Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24“Those who err in mind will know the truth,
And those who criticize will accept instruction. Life Lessons
Judah Warned against Egyptian Alliance
1“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD,
“Who execute a plan, but not Mine,
And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,
In order to add sin to sin; Life Lessons
2Who proceed down to Egypt
Without consulting Me,
To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh
And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3“Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame
And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.
4“For their princes are at Zoan
And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes.
5“Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,
Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”
6The oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev.
Through a land of distress and anguish,
From where come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent,
They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys
And their treasures on camels’ humps,
To a people who cannot profit them;
7Even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty.
Therefore, I have called her
“Rahab who has been exterminated.”
8Now go, write it on a tablet before them
And inscribe it on a scroll,
That it may serve in the time to come
As a witness forever.
9For this is a rebellious people, false sons,
Sons who refuse to listen
To the instruction of the LORD;
10Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”;
And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right,
Speak to us pleasant words,
Prophesy illusions.
11“Get out of the way, turn aside from the path,
Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Since you have rejected this word
And have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them,
13Therefore this iniquity will be to you
Like a breach about to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant,
14Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar,
So ruthlessly shattered
That a sherd will not be found among its pieces
To take fire from a hearth
Or to scoop water from a cistern.”
15For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said,
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”
But you were not willing, Life Lessons
16And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,”
Therefore you shall flee!
“And we will ride on swift horses,”
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
17One thousand will flee at the threat of one man;
You will flee at the threat of five,
Until you are left as a flag on a mountain top
And as a signal on a hill.
God Is Gracious and Just
*18Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
How blessed are all those who long for Him. Life Lessons
19O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.
20Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Life Lessons
21Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. Life Lessons What the Bible Says About: The Adventure of Obedience
22And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, “Be gone!”
23Then He will give you rain for the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plenteous; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture.
24Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
25On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted.
27Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a remote place;
Burning is His anger and dense is His smoke;
His lips are filled with indignation
And His tongue is like a consuming fire;
28His breath is like an overflowing torrent,
Which reaches to the neck,
To shake the nations back and forth in a sieve,
And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin.
29You will have songs as in the night when you keep the festival,
And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute,
To go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
30And the LORD will cause His voice of authority to be heard,
And the descending of His arm to be seen in fierce anger,
And in the flame of a consuming fire
In cloudburst, downpour and hailstones.
31For at the voice of the LORD Assyria will be terrified,
When He strikes with the rod.
32And every blow of the rod of punishment,
Which the LORD will lay on him,
Will be with the music of tambourines and lyres;
And in battles, brandishing weapons, He will fight them.
33For aTopheth has long been ready,
Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.
He has made it deep and large,
A pyre of fire with plenty of wood;
The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.
Help Not in Egypt but in God
1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
And rely on horses,
And trust in chariots because they are many
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD! Life Lessons
2Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster
And does not retract His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers
And against the help of the workers of iniquity.
3Now the Egyptians are men and not God,
And their horses are flesh and not spirit;
So the LORD will stretch out His hand,
And he who helps will stumble
And he who is helped will fall,
And all of them will come to an end together.
4For thus says the LORD to me,
“As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey,
Against which a band of shepherds is called out,
And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise,
So will the LORD of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”
5Like flying birds so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem.
He will protect and deliver it;
He will pass over and rescue it.
6Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.
7For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your sinful hands have made for you as a sin.
8And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of man will devour him.
So he will not escape the sword,
And his young men will become forced laborers.
9“His rock will pass away because of panic,
And his princes will be terrified at the standard,”
Declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
The Glorious Future
1Behold, a king will reign righteously
And princes will rule justly.
2Each will be like a refuge from the wind
And a shelter from the storm,
Like streams of water in a dry country,
Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.
3Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.
4The mind of the hasty will discern the truth,
And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.
5No longer will the fool be called noble,
Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.
6For a fool speaks nonsense,
And his heart inclines toward wickedness:
To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD,
To keep the hungry person unsatisfied
And to withhold drink from the thirsty.
7As for a rogue, his weapons are evil;
He devises wicked schemes
To destroy the afflicted with slander,
Even though the needy one speaks what is right.
8But the noble man devises noble plans;
And by noble plans he stands.
9Rise up, you women who are at ease,
And hear my voice;
Give ear to my word,
You complacent daughters.
10Within a year and a few days
You will be troubled, O complacent daughters;
For the vintage is ended,
And the fruit gathering will not come.
11Tremble, you women who are at ease;
Be troubled, you complacent daughters;
Strip, undress and put sackcloth on your waist,
12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,
13For the land of my people in which thorns and briars shall come up;
Yea, for all the joyful houses and for the jubilant city.
14Because the palace has been abandoned, the populated city forsaken.
Hill and watch-tower have become caves forever,
A delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks;
15Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high,
And the wilderness becomes a fertile field,
And the fertile field is considered as a forest.
16Then justice will dwell in the wilderness
And righteousness will abide in the fertile field.
*17And the work of righteousness will be peace,
And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
18Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation,
And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places;
19And it will hail when the forest comes down,
And the city will be utterly laid low.
20How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters,
Who let out freely the ox and the donkey.
The Judgment of God
1Woe to you, O destroyer,
While you were not destroyed;
And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.
As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed;
As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you.
2O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You.
Be their strength every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of distress. Life Lessons
3At the sound of the tumult peoples flee;
At the lifting up of Yourself nations disperse.
4Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.
5The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
6And He will be the stability of your times,
A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge;
The fear of the LORD is his treasure.
7Behold, their brave men cry in the streets,
The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
8The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased,
He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities,
He has no regard for man.
9The land mourns and pines away,
Lebanon is shamed and withers;
Sharon is like a desert plain,
And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage.
10“Now I will arise,” says the LORD,
“Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.
11“You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble;
My breath will consume you like a fire.
12“The peoples will be burned to lime,
Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.
13“You who are far away, hear what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
14Sinners in Zion are terrified;
Trembling has seized the godless.
“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with continual burning?”
15He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity,
He who rejects unjust gain
And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;
He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed
And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;
16He will dwell on the heights,
His refuge will be the impregnable rock;
His bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.
*17Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;
They will behold a far-distant land.
18Your heart will meditate on terror:
“Where is he who counts?
Where is he who weighs?
Where is he who counts the towers?”
19You will no longer see a fierce people,
A people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends,
Of a stammering tongue which no one understands.
20Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation,
A tent which will not be folded;
Its stakes will never be pulled up,
Nor any of its cords be torn apart.
21But there the majestic One, the LORD, will be for us
A place of rivers and wide canals
On which no boat with oars will go,
And on which no mighty ship will pass—
22For the LORD is our judge,
The LORD is our lawgiver,
The LORD is our king;
He will save us— Life Lessons
23Your tackle hangs slack;
It cannot hold the base of its mast firmly,
Nor spread out the sail.
Then the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided;
The lame will take the plunder.
24And no resident will say, “I am sick”;
The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.
God’s Wrath against Nations
1Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!
Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.
2For the LORD’s indignation is against all the nations,
And His wrath against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to slaughter.
3So their slain will be thrown out,
And their corpses will give off their stench,
And the mountains will be drenched with their blood.
4And all the host of heaven will wear away,
And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;
All their hosts will also wither away
As a leaf withers from the vine,
Or as one withers from the fig tree. Life Lessons
5For My sword is satiated in heaven,
Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom
And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.
6The sword of the LORD is filled with blood,
It is sated 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
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7Wild oxen will also fall with them
And young bulls with strong ones;
Thus their land will be soaked with blood,
And their dust become greasy with fat.
8For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9Its streams will be turned into pitch,
And its loose earth into brimstone,
And its land will become burning pitch.
10It will not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will be desolate;
None will pass through it forever and ever.
11But pelican and hedgehog will possess it,
And owl and raven will dwell in it;
And He will stretch over it the line of desolation
And the plumb line of emptiness.
12Its nobles—there is no one there
Whom they may proclaim king—
And all its princes will be nothing.
13Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,
Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;
It will also be a haunt of jackals
And an abode of ostriches.
14The desert creatures will meet with the wolves,
The hairy goat also will cry to its kind;
Yes, the night monster will settle there
And will find herself a resting place.
15The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,
And it will hatch and gather them under its protection.
Yes, the hawks will be gathered there,
Every one with its kind.
16Seek from the book of the LORD, and read:
Not one of these will be missing;
None will lack its mate.
For His mouth has commanded,
And His Spirit has gathered them.
17He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it to them by line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
Zion’s Happy Future
1The wilderness and the desert will be glad,
And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus
2It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the LORD,
The majesty of our God. Life Lessons
3Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.
*4Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.”
5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6Then the lame will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the Arabah.
7The scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
8A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
9No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
These will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there,
10And the ransomed of the LORD will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will find gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away. Life Lessons
Sennacherib Invades Judah
1Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.
2And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller’s field.
3Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.
4Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you have?
5“I say, ‘Your counsel and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?
6“Behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.
7“But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? Life Lessons
8“Now therefore, come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.
9“How then can you repulse one official of the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
10“Have I now come up without the LORD’s approval against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”
11Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
12But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
13Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
14“Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you;
15nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Life Lessons
16‘Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern,
17until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18‘Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
19‘Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
20‘Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”
21But they were silent and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”
22Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help
1And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD.
2Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver.
4‘Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ” Life Lessons
5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall 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 blasphemed Me.
7“Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
8Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
9When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Life Lessons
11‘Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared?
12‘Did the gods of those nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?
13‘Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’ ”
Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple
14Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
15Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying,
16“O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
17“Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God.
18“Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands,
19and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.
20“Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God.” Life Lessons
God Answers through Isaiah
21Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him:
“She has despised you and mocked you,
The virgin daughter of Zion;
She has shaken her head behind you,
The daughter of Jerusalem!
23“Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice
And haughtily lifted up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24“Through your servants you have reproached the Lord,
And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of Lebanon;
And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.
And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest.
25‘I dug wells and drank waters,
And with the sole of my feet I dried up
All the rivers of Egypt.’
26“Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it,
From ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
27“Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,
They were dismayed and put to shame;
They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb,
As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.
28“But I know your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in
And your raging against Me.
29“Because of your raging against Me
And because your arrogance has come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back by the way which you came.
30“Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31“The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
32“For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” ’
33“Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, or throw up a siege ramp against it.
34‘By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the LORD.
35‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”
Assyrians Destroyed
36Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead.
37So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.
38It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.
Hezekiah Healed
1In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. 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 and not live.’ ”
2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,
3and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,
5“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “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 from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.” ’
7“This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken:
8“Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.
9A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:
10I said, “In the middle of my life
I am to enter the gates of Sheol;
I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.”
11I said, “I will not see the LORD,
The LORD in the land of the living;
I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
12“Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;
As a weaver I rolled up my life.
He cuts me off from the loom;
From day until night You make an end of me.
13“I composed my soul until morning.
Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones,
From day until night You make an end of me.
14“Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter;
I moan like a dove;
My eyes look wistfully to the heights;
O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security. Life Lessons
15“What shall I say?
For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;
I will wander about all my years 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;
O restore me to health and let me live!
17“Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;
It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back. Life Lessons
18“For Sheol cannot thank You,
Death cannot praise You;
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19“It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;
A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.
20“The LORD will surely save me;
So we will play my songs on stringed instruments
All the days of our life at the house of the LORD.”
21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”
22Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”
Hezekiah Shows His Treasures
1At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.
2Hezekiah was pleased, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
3Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.”
4He said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.”
5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts,
6‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the LORD. Life Lessons
7‘And some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”
8Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”
The Greatness of God
1“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. Life Lessons
2“Speak kindly to Jerusalem;
And call out to her, that her warfare has ended,
That her iniquity has been removed,
That she has received of the LORD’s hand
Double for all her sins.”
3A voice is calling,
“Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
4“Let every valley be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
5Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
6A voice says, “Call out.”
Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7The grass withers, the flower fades,
When the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
8The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever. Life Lessons
9Get yourself up on a high mountain,
O Zion, bearer of good news,
Lift up your voice mightily,
O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;
Lift it up, do not fear.
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10Behold, the Lord GOD will come with might,
With His arm ruling for Him.
Behold, His reward is with Him
And His recompense before Him.
11Like a shepherd He will tend His flock,
In His arm He will gather the lambs
And carry them in His bosom;
He will gently lead the nursing ewes. Life Lessons
12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
13Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
Or as His counselor has informed Him?
14With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And informed Him of the way of understanding?
15Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
16Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,
Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17All the nations are as nothing before Him,
They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.
18To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him? Life Lessons
19As for the idol, a craftsman casts it,
A goldsmith plates it with gold,
And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.
20He who is too impoverished for such an offering
Selects a tree that does not rot;
He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman
To prepare an idol that will not totter.
21Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22It is He who asits above the bcircle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23He it is who reduces rulers to nothing,
Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
24cScarcely have they been planted,
Scarcely have they been sown,
Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,
But He merely blows on them, and they wither,
And the storm carries them away like stubble.
25“To whom then will you liken Me
That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing.
27Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?
28Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable. Answers to Life’s Questions: How do I deal with burnout?
29He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power. Life Lessons
30Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
*31Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary. Life Lessons
Israel Encouraged
1“Coastlands, listen to Me in silence,
And let the peoples gain new strength;
Let them come forward, then let them speak;
Let us come together for judgment.
2“Who has aroused one from the east
Whom He calls in righteousness to His feet?
He delivers up nations before him
And subdues kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
As the wind-driven chaff with his bow.
3“He pursues them, passing on in safety,
By a way he had not been traversing with his feet.
4“Who has performed and accomplished it,
Calling forth the generations from the beginning?
‘I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last. I am He.’ ” Life Lessons
5The coastlands have seen and are afraid;
The ends of the earth tremble;
They have drawn near and have come.
6Each one helps his neighbor
And says to his brother, “Be strong!”
7So the craftsman encourages the smelter,
And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil,
Saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
And he fastens it with nails,
So that it will not totter.
8“But you, Israel, My servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
Descendant of Abraham My friend,
9You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its remotest parts
And said to you, ‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and not rejected you.
*10‘Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Life Lessons
11“Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;
Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.
12“You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them,
Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent.
13“For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand,
Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’
14“Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel;
I will help you,” declares the LORD, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15“Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;
You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them,
And will make the hills like chaff.
16“You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,
And the storm will scatter them;
But you will rejoice in the LORD,
You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17“The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none,
And their tongue is parched with thirst;
I, the LORD, will answer them Myself,
As the God of Israel I will not forsake them. Life Lessons
18“I will open rivers on the bare heights
And springs in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water
And the dry land fountains of water.
19“I will put the cedar in the wilderness,
The acacia and the myrtle and the olive tree;
I will place the juniper in the desert
Together with the box tree and the cypress,
20That they may see and recognize,
And consider and gain insight as well,
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
And the Holy One of Israel has created it.
21“Present your case,” the LORD says.
“Bring forward your strong arguments,”
The King of Jacob says.
22Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place;
As for the former events, declare what they were,
That we may consider them and know their outcome.
Or announce to us what is coming;
23Declare the things that are going to come afterward,
That we may know that you are gods;
Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.
24Behold, you are of no account,
And your work amounts to nothing;
He who chooses you is an abomination.
25“I have aroused one from the north, and he has come;
From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;
And he will come upon rulers as upon mortar,
Even as the potter treads clay.”
26Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know?
Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?
Surely there was no one who declared,
Surely there was no one who proclaimed,
Surely there was no one who heard your words.
27“Formerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’
And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a messenger of good news.’
28“But when I look, there is no one,
And there is no counselor among them
Who, if I ask, can give an answer.
29“Behold, all of them are afalse;
Their works are worthless,
Their molten images are wind and emptiness.