Isaiah
Outline of Contents
Chapter 1
	A father and his rebellious sons (1-9)
	Jehovah hates formalistic worship (10-17)
	“Let us set matters straight” (18-20)
	Zion to be restored as a faithful city (21-31)
Chapter 2
	Jehovah’s mountain elevated (1-5)
		Swords into plowshares (4)
	Jehovah’s day humiliates the haughty (6-22)
Chapter 3
	Judah’s leaders mislead the people (1-15)
	Zion’s flirtatious daughters judged (16-26)
Chapter 4
	Seven women to one man (1)
	What Jehovah makes sprout will be glorious (2-6)
Chapter 5
	Song about Jehovah’s vineyard (1-7)
	Woes over Jehovah’s vineyard (8-24)
	God’s anger against his people (25-30)
Chapter 6
	Vision of Jehovah in his temple (1-4)
		“Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah” (3)
	Isaiah’s lips cleansed (5-7)
	Isaiah commissioned (8-10)
		“Here I am! Send me!” (8)
	“How long, O Jehovah?” (11-13)
Chapter 7
	Message to King Ahaz (1-9)
		Shear-jashub (3)
	Sign of Immanuel (10-17)
	Consequences of unfaithfulness (18-25)
Chapter 8
	The coming Assyrian invasion (1-8)
		Maher-shalal-hash-baz (1-4)
	Do not fear—“God is with us!” (9-17)
	Isaiah and his children as signs (18)
	Turn to the law, not to demons (19-22)
Chapter 9
	A great light for the land of Galilee (1-7)
		Birth of the “Prince of Peace” (6, 7)
	God’s hand against Israel (8-21)
Chapter 10
	God’s hand against Israel (1-4)
	Assyria—God’s rod of anger (5-11)
	Punishment on Assyria (12-19)
	A remnant of Jacob to return (20-27)
	God will judge Assyria (28-34)
Chapter 11
	Righteous rule of the twig of Jesse (1-10)
		Wolf and lamb reside together (6)
		Knowledge of Jehovah to fill the earth (9)
	A remnant restored (11-16)
Chapter 12
	Song of thanksgiving (1-6)
		“Jah Jehovah is my strength” (2)
Chapter 13
	Pronouncement against Babylon (1-22)
		The day of Jehovah is near! (6)
		Medes to overthrow Babylon (17)
		Babylon never to be inhabited (20)
Chapter 14
	Israel to dwell in its own land (1, 2)
	Taunt against the king of Babylon (3-23)
		Shining one to fall from heaven (12)
	Jehovah’s hand to crush the Assyrian (24-27)
	Pronouncement against Philistia (28-32)
Chapter 15
	Pronouncement against Moab (1-9)
Chapter 16
	Message against Moab continued (1-14)
Chapter 17
	Pronouncement against Damascus (1-11)
	Nations to be rebuked by Jehovah (12-14)
Chapter 18
	Message against Ethiopia (1-7)
Chapter 19
	Pronouncement against Egypt (1-15)
	Egypt will get to know Jehovah (16-25)
		An altar to Jehovah in Egypt (19)
Chapter 20
	Sign against Egypt and Ethiopia (1-6)
Chapter 21
	Pronouncement against the wilderness of the sea (1-10)
		Keeping watch from the watchtower (8)
		“Babylon has fallen!” (9)
	Pronouncement against Dumah and the desert plain (11-17)
		“Watchman, what of the night?” (11)
Chapter 22
	Pronouncement about the Valley of Vision (1-14)
	Steward Shebna replaced by Eliakim (15-25)
		Symbolic peg (23-25)
Chapter 23
	Pronouncement against Tyre (1-18)
Chapter 24
	Jehovah to empty the land (1-23)
		Jehovah King in Zion (23)
Chapter 25
	Rich blessings on God’s people (1-12)
		Jehovah’s banquet of fine wine (6)
		No more death (8)
Chapter 26
	Song about trust and salvation (1-21)
		Jah Jehovah, the eternal Rock (4)
		Earth’s people to learn righteousness (9)
		“Your dead will live” (19)
		Enter the inner rooms and hide (20)
Chapter 27
	Leviathan killed by Jehovah (1)
	Song about Israel as a vineyard (2-13)
Chapter 28
	Woe to Ephraim’s drunkards! (1-6)
	Judah’s priests and prophets stagger (7-13)
	“A covenant with Death” (14-22)
		Precious cornerstone in Zion (16)
		Jehovah’s unusual work (21)
	Jehovah’s wise discipline illustrated (23-29)
Chapter 29
	Woe to Ariel! (1-16)
		Lip service condemned (13)
	Deaf will hear; and blind will see (17-24)
Chapter 30
	Egypt’s help completely useless (1-7)
	People reject the prophetic message (8-14)
	Strength by showing trust (15-17)
	Jehovah shows his people favor (18-26)
		Jehovah, the Grand Instructor (20)
		“This is the way” (21)
	Jehovah to execute judgment on Assyria (27-33)
Chapter 31
	True help is from God, not from humans (1-9)
		Egypt’s horses are flesh (3)
Chapter 32
	A king and princes will rule for true justice (1-8)
	Complacent women warned (9-14)
	Blessings when spirit poured out (15-20)
Chapter 33
	Judgment and hope for the righteous (1-24)
		Jehovah is Judge, Lawgiver, and King (22)
		No one will say: “I am sick” (24)
Chapter 34
	Jehovah’s vengeance on the nations (1-4)
	Edom to be desolated (5-17)
Chapter 35
	Paradise restored (1-7)
		Blind will see; deaf will hear (5)
	Way of Holiness for redeemed ones (8-10)
Chapter 36
	Sennacherib invades Judah (1-3)
	The Rabshakeh taunts Jehovah (4-22)
Chapter 37
	Hezekiah seeks God’s help through Isaiah (1-7)
	Sennacherib threatens Jerusalem (8-13)
	Hezekiah’s prayer (14-20)
	Isaiah conveys God’s answer (21-35)
	An angel slays 185,000 Assyrians (36-38)
Chapter 38
	Hezekiah’s sickness and recovery (1-22)
		Song of gratitude (10-20)
Chapter 39
	Messengers from Babylon (1-8)
Chapter 40
	Comfort for God’s people (1-11)
		A voice in the wilderness (3-5)
	God’s greatness (12-31)
		Nations like a drop from a bucket (15)
		God dwells above “the circle of the earth” (22)
		All stars called by name (26)
		God never tires out (28)
		Hoping in Jehovah gives new strength (29-31)
Chapter 41
	A conqueror from the sunrise (1-7)
	Israel chosen as God’s servant (8-20)
		“Abraham my friend” (8)
	Other gods challenged (21-29)
Chapter 42
	God’s servant and his mission (1-9)
		‘Jehovah is my name’ (8)
	A new song of praise to Jehovah (10-17)
	Israel is blind and deaf (18-25)
Chapter 43
	Jehovah regathers his people (1-7)
	The gods on trial (8-13)
		“You are my witnesses” (10, 12)
	Release from Babylon (14-21)
	“Let us bring our case against each other” (22-28)
Chapter 44
	Blessings on God’s chosen people (1-5)
	There is no God but Jehovah (6-8)
	Absurdity of man-made idols (9-20)
	Jehovah, Israel’s Repurchaser (21-23)
	Restoration through Cyrus (24-28)
Chapter 45
	Cyrus anointed to capture Babylon (1-8)
	The clay not to contend with the Potter (9-13)
	Other nations recognize Israel (14-17)
	God is reliable in creation and in revelation (18-25)
		Earth created to be inhabited (18)
Chapter 46
	Babylonian idols versus Israel’s God (1-13)
		Jehovah foretells the future (10)
		A bird of prey from the sunrise (11)
Chapter 47
	Fall of Babylon (1-15)
		Astrologers exposed (13-15)
Chapter 48
	Israel rebuked and purified (1-11)
	Jehovah to act against Babylon (12-16a)
	God’s teaching beneficial (16b-19)
	“Go out from Babylon!” (20-22)
Chapter 49
	Assignment of Jehovah’s servant (1-12)
		A light of nations (6)
	Comfort for Israel (13-26)
Chapter 50
	Israel’s sins cause problems (1-3)
	Jehovah’s obedient servant (4-11)
		Tongue and ear of taught ones (4)
Chapter 51
	Zion restored like the garden of Eden (1-8)
	Comfort from Zion’s mighty Maker (9-16)
	Cup of Jehovah’s wrath (17-23)
Chapter 52
	Awake, O Zion! (1-12)
		Beautiful feet of those bringing good news (7)
		Zion’s watchmen shout in unison (8)
		Those carrying Jehovah’s utensils must be clean (11)
	Jehovah’s servant will be exalted (13-15)
		A disfigured appearance (14)
Chapter 53
	The suffering, death, and burial of Jehovah’s servant (1-12)
		Despised and avoided (3)
		Carries sicknesses and pains (4)
		“Like a sheep to the slaughter” (7)
		Sin of many carried by him (12)
Chapter 54
	Barren Zion to have many sons (1-17)
		Jehovah, husband to Zion (5)
		Zion’s sons to be taught by Jehovah (13)
		Weapons against Zion to fail (17)
Chapter 55
	Invitation to eat and drink for free (1-5)
	Search for Jehovah and his reliable word (6-13)
		God’s ways higher than man’s (8, 9)
		God’s word to have sure success (10, 11)
Chapter 56
	Blessings on foreigners and eunuchs (1-8)
		A house of prayer for all (7)
	Blind watchmen, speechless dogs (9-12)
Chapter 57
	Righteous one and loyal ones perish (1, 2)
	Israel’s spiritual prostitution exposed (3-13)
	Comfort for the lowly (14-21)
		The wicked like the restless sea (20)
		No peace for the wicked (21)
Chapter 58
	True and false fasting (1-12)
	Delighting in observing the Sabbath (13, 14)
Chapter 59
	Israel’s sins cause alienation from God (1-8)
	Confession of sins (9-15a)
	Jehovah intervenes for the repentant (15b-21)
Chapter 60
	Jehovah’s glory shines on Zion (1-22)
		Like doves to their dovecotes (8)
		Gold instead of copper (17)
		The little one will become a thousand (22)
Chapter 61
	Anointed to declare good news (1-11)
		“Year of Jehovah’s goodwill” (2)
		“Big trees of righteousness” (3)
		Foreigners to assist (5)
		“Priests of Jehovah” (6)
Chapter 62
	Zion’s new name (1-12)
Chapter 63
	Jehovah’s vengeance on the nations (1-6)
	Jehovah’s loyal love in times past (7-14)
	Prayer of repentance (15-19)
Chapter 64
	Prayer of repentance continued (1-12)
		Jehovah “our Potter” (8)
Chapter 65
	Jehovah’s judgment against idolaters (1-16)
		Gods of Good Luck and of Destiny (11)
		“My servants will eat” (13)
	New heavens and a new earth (17-25)
		Building houses; planting vineyards (21)
		No one will toil for nothing (23)
Chapter 66
	True worship and false (1-6)
	Mother Zion and her sons (7-17)
	People gathered to worship in Jerusalem (18-24)
Chapter 1
1 The vision that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah:
2 Hear, O heavens, and pay attention, O earth,
For Jehovah has spoken:
“Sons I have brought up and raised,
But they have revolted against me.
3 A bull well knows its buyer,
And a donkey the manger of its owner;
But Israel does not know me,
My own people do not behave with understanding.”
4 Woe to the sinful nation,
The people weighed down with error,
A brood of wicked men, corrupt children!
They have abandoned Jehovah;
They have treated the Holy One of Israel with disrespect;
They have turned their backs on him.
5 Where will you be struck next as you add to your rebellion?
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart is diseased.
6 From the sole of the foot to the head, nothing is healthy.
There are wounds and bruises and open sores
—They have not been treated or bound up or softened with oil.
7 Your land is desolate.
Your cities are burned with fire.
Foreigners devour your land right in front of you.
It is like a wasteland overthrown by foreigners.
8 The daughter of Zion has been left like a shelter in a vineyard,
Like a hut in a cucumber field,
Like a city under siege.
9 Unless Jehovah of armies had left us a few survivors,
We should have become just like Sodom,
And we should have resembled Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of Jehovah, you dictators of Sodom.
Pay attention to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
11 “Of what benefit to me are your many sacrifices?” says Jehovah.
“I have had enough of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed animals,
And I have no delight in the blood of young bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
Who has required this from you,
This trampling of my courtyards?
13 Stop bringing in any more worthless grain offerings.
Your incense is detestable to me.
New moons, sabbaths, the calling of conventions
—I cannot put up with the use of magical power along with your solemn assembly.
14 I have hated your new moons and your festivals.
They have become a burden to me;
I am tired of bearing them.
15 And when you spread out your palms,
I hide my eyes from you.
Although you offer many prayers,
I am not listening;
Your hands are filled with blood.
16 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove your evil deeds from my sight;
Stop doing bad.
17 Learn to do good, seek justice,
Correct the oppressor,
Defend the rights of the fatherless child,
And plead the cause of the widow.”
18 “Come, now, and let us set matters straight between us,” says Jehovah.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They will be made as white as snow;
Though they are as red as crimson cloth,
They will become like wool.
19 If you show willingness and listen,
You will eat the good things of the land.
20 But if you refuse and rebel,
You will be devoured by the sword,
For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it.”
21 How the faithful city has become a prostitute!
She was full of justice;
Righteousness used to lodge in her,
But now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross,
And your beer is diluted with water.
23 Your princes are stubborn and partners with thieves.
Every one of them loves a bribe and chases after gifts.
They do not grant justice to the fatherless,
And the legal case of the widow never reaches them.
24 Therefore the true Lord, Jehovah of armies,
The Powerful One of Israel, declares:
“Ah! I will rid myself of my adversaries,
And I will take revenge on my enemies.
25 I will turn my hand against you,
I will smelt away your dross as with lye,
And I will remove all your impurities.
26 I will restore your judges as in the beginning
And your advisers as at the start.
After this you will be called City of Righteousness, Faithful Town.
27 With justice Zion will be redeemed,
And her people who return, with righteousness.
28 The rebels and the sinners will be broken together,
And those leaving Jehovah will come to their finish.
29 For they will be ashamed of the mighty trees that you desired,
And you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you chose.
30 For you will become like a big tree with withering leaves,
And like a garden without water.
31 The strong man will become tow,
And his work a spark;
Both of them will go up in flames together,
With no one to extinguish them.”
Chapter 2
1 This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 In the final part of the days,
The mountain of the house of Jehovah
Will become firmly established above the top of the mountains,
And it will be raised up above the hills,
And to it all the nations will stream.
3 And many peoples will go and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah,
To the house of the God of Jacob.
He will instruct us about his ways,
And we will walk in his paths.”
For law will go out of Zion,
And the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem.
4 He will render judgment among the nations
And set matters straight respecting many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
And their spears into pruning shears.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
Nor will they learn war anymore.
5 O house of Jacob, come,
Let us walk in the light of Jehovah.
6 For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they have become full of things from the East;
They practice magic like the Philistines,
And they abound with the children of foreigners.
7 Their land is filled with silver and gold,
And there is no limit to their treasures.
Their land is filled with horses,
And there is no limit to their chariots.
8 Their land is filled with worthless gods.
They bow down to the work of their own hands,
To what their own fingers have made.
9 So man bows down, he becomes low,
And you cannot possibly pardon them.
10 Enter into the rock and hide yourself in the dust
Because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah
And his majestic splendor.
11 The haughty eyes of man will be brought low,
And the arrogance of men will bow down.
Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day.
12 For it is the day belonging to Jehovah of armies.
It is coming upon everyone who is haughty and lofty,
Upon everyone, whether exalted or lowly,
13 Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and exalted
And upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 Upon all the lofty mountains
And upon all the high hills,
15 Upon every high tower and every fortified wall,
16 Upon all the ships of Tarshish
And upon all desirable boats.
17 Man’s haughtiness will be brought down,
And the arrogance of men will bow low.
Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day.
18 The worthless gods will completely disappear.
19 And people will enter into the caves of the rocks
And into the holes in the ground,
Because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah
And his majestic splendor,
When he arises to make the earth tremble in terror.
20 In that day men will take their worthless gods of silver and of gold
That they had made for themselves to bow down to
And throw them away to the shrewmice and to the bats,
21 In order to enter into the holes in the rocks
And into the clefts of the crags,
Because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah
And his majestic splendor,
When he arises to make the earth tremble in terror.
22 For your own sakes, quit trusting in mere man,
Who is only the breath in his nostrils.
Why should he be taken into account?
Chapter 3
1 For look! the true Lord, Jehovah of armies,
Is removing from Jerusalem and Judah every kind of support and supply,
All support of bread and water,
2 Mighty man and warrior,
Judge and prophet, diviner and elder,
3 Chief of 50, dignitary, and adviser,
The expert magician and the skilled charmer.
4 I will make boys their princes,
And the unstable will rule over them.
5 The people will oppress one another,
Each one his fellow man.
The boy will assault the old man,
And the lightly esteemed one will defy the respected one.
6 Each one will take hold of his brother in his father’s house and say:
“You have a cloak—you be our commander.
Take charge of this overthrown pile of ruins.”
7 But he will protest in that day:
“I will not be your wound dresser;
I have no food or clothing in my house.
Do not make me commander over the people.”
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,
And Judah has fallen,
Because in word and deed they are against Jehovah;
They behave defiantly in his glorious presence.
9 The expression of their faces testifies against them,
And they proclaim their sin like Sodom;
They do not try to hide it.
Woe to them, for they are bringing disaster on themselves!
10 Tell the righteous that it will go well for them;
They will be rewarded for what they do.
11 Woe to the wicked one!
Disaster will befall him,
For what his hands have done will be done to him!
12 As for my people, their taskmasters are abusive,
And women rule over them.
My people, your leaders are causing you to wander,
And they confuse the direction of your paths.
13 Jehovah is taking his position to accuse;
He is standing up to pass sentence on peoples.
14 Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people.
“You have burned down the vineyard,
And what you have stolen from the poor is in your houses.
15 How dare you crush my people
And grind the faces of the poor in the dirt?” declares the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies.
16 Jehovah says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
Walking with their heads high,
Flirting with their eyes, skipping along,
Making a tinkling sound with their anklets,
17 Jehovah will also strike the head of the daughters of Zion with scabs,
And Jehovah will make their forehead bare.
18 In that day Jehovah will take away the beauty of their bangles,
The headbands and the crescent-shaped ornaments,
19 The earrings, the bracelets, and the veils,
20 The headdresses, the ankle chains, and the breastbands,
The perfume receptacles and the charms,
21 The finger rings and the nose rings,
22 The ceremonial robes, the overtunics, the cloaks, and the purses,
23 The hand mirrors and the linen garments,
The turbans and the veils.
24 Instead of balsam oil, there will be a rotten smell;
Instead of a belt, a rope;
Instead of a beautiful hairstyle, baldness;
Instead of a rich garment, a garment of sackcloth;
And a brand mark instead of beauty.
25 By the sword your men will fall,
And your mighty men in battle.
26 Her entrances will mourn and grieve,
And she will sit on the ground desolate.”
Chapter 4
1 And seven women will grab hold of one man in that day, saying:
“We will eat our own bread
And wear our own clothing;
Only let us be called by your name
To take away our disgrace.”
2 In that day what Jehovah makes sprout will be splendid and glorious, and the fruitage of the land will be the pride and beauty of the survivors of Israel. 3 Whoever remains in Zion and is left over in Jerusalem will be called holy, all of those in Jerusalem written down for life.
4 When Jehovah washes away the filth of the daughters of Zion and rinses away the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning, 5 Jehovah will also create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over the place of her conventions a cloud and smoke by day and a bright flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a shelter. 6 And there will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for refuge and protection from storms and the rain.
Chapter 5
1 Let me sing, please, to my beloved
A song about my loved one and his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard on a fruitful hillside.
2 He dug it up and rid it of stones.
He planted it with a choice red vine,
Built a tower in the middle of it,
And hewed out a winepress in it.
Then he kept hoping for it to produce grapes,
But it produced only wild grapes.
3 “And now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Please judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for my vineyard
That I have not already done?
Why, when I hoped for grapes,
Did it produce only wild grapes?
5 Now, please, let me tell you
What I will do to my vineyard:
I will remove its hedge,
And it will be burned down.
I will break down its stone wall,
And it will be trampled on.
6 I will make it a wasteland;
It will not be pruned or hoed.
It will be overgrown with thornbushes and weeds,
And I will command the clouds not to send any rain on it.
7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of armies is the house of Israel;
The men of Judah are the plantation he was fond of.
He kept hoping for justice,
But look! there was injustice;
For righteousness,
But look! a cry of distress.”
8 Woe to those who join one house to another house
And who annex one field to another field
Until there is no more room
And you live by yourselves on the land!
9 Jehovah of armies has sworn in my ears
That many houses, though great and beautiful,
Will become an object of horror,
Without an inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard will produce but one bath measure,
And a homer measure of seed will produce only an ephah.
11 Woe to those who get up early in the morning to drink alcohol,
Who linger late into the evening darkness until wine inflames them!
12 They have harp and stringed instrument,
Tambourine, flute, and wine at their feasts;
But they do not consider the activity of Jehovah,
And they do not see the work of his hands.
13 So my people will go into exile
For lack of knowledge;
Their glorious men will go hungry,
And all their people will be parched with thirst.
14 So the Grave has enlarged itself
And has opened its mouth wide without limit;
And her splendor, her noisy multitudes, and her revelers
Will certainly go down into it.
15 And man will bow down,
Man will be brought low,
And the eyes of the haughty will be brought low.
16 Jehovah of armies will be exalted by his judgment;
The true God, the Holy One, will sanctify himself through righteousness.
17 And the lambs will graze as in their pasture;
Foreign residents will feed on the desolate places of well-fed animals.
18 Woe to those who drag along their guilt with ropes of deception
And their sin with wagon cords;
19 Those who say: “Let Him speed up his work;
Let it come quickly that we may see it.
Let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel take place
That we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who say that good is bad and bad is good,
Those who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness,
Those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those wise in their own eyes
And discreet in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are mighty in drinking wine
And to the men who are masters at mixing alcoholic drinks,
23 Those who acquit the wicked for a bribe
And who deny justice to the righteous!
24 Therefore, just as the tongue of fire consumes the stubble
And dry grass shrivels in the flames,
Their very roots will rot,
And their blossoms will scatter like powder,
Because they rejected the law of Jehovah of armies
And disrespected the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 That is why the anger of Jehovah burns against his people,
And he will stretch out his hand against them and strike them.
The mountains will quake,
And their corpses will be like refuse in the streets.
In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,
But his hand is still stretched out to strike.
26 He has raised up a signal to a distant nation;
He has whistled for them to come from the ends of the earth;
And look! they are coming very swiftly.
27 None among them are tired or stumbling.
No one is drowsy or sleeps.
The belt around their waist is not loosened,
Nor are their sandal laces broken.
28 All their arrows are sharp,
And all their bows are bent.
The hooves of their horses are like flint,
And their wheels like a storm wind.
29 Their roaring is like that of a lion;
They roar like young lions.
They will growl and seize the prey
And carry it off with no one to rescue it.
30 In that day they will growl over it
Like the growling of the sea.
Anyone who gazes at the land will see distressing darkness;
Even the light has grown dark because of the clouds.
Chapter 6
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw Jehovah sitting on a lofty and elevated throne, and the skirts of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs were standing above him; each had six wings. Each covered his face with two and covered his feet with two, and each of them would fly about with two.
3 And one called to the other:
“Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of armies.
The whole earth is filled with his glory.”
4 And the pivots of the thresholds quivered at the sound of the shouting, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said: “Woe to me!
I am as good as dead,
For I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of armies himself!”
6 At that, one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 He touched my mouth and said:
“Look! This has touched your lips.
Your guilt is removed,
And your sin is atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of Jehovah saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said: “Here I am! Send me!”
9 And he replied, “Go, and say to this people:
‘You will hear again and again,
But you will not understand;
You will see again and again,
But you will not get any knowledge.’
10 Make the heart of this people unreceptive,
Make their ears unresponsive,
And paste their eyes together,
So that they may not see with their eyes
And hear with their ears,
So that their heart may not understand
And they may not turn back and be healed.”
11 At this I said: “How long, O Jehovah?” Then he said:
“Until the cities crash in ruins without an inhabitant
And the houses are without people
And the land is ruined and desolate;
12 Until Jehovah removes men far away
And the deserted condition of the land becomes very extensive.
13 “But there will still be a tenth in it, and it will again be burned, like a big tree and like an oak, which after they are cut down leave a stump; a holy seed will be its stump.”
Chapter 7
1 Now in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to wage war against Jerusalem, but he could not capture it. 2 A report was made to the house of David: “Syria has joined forces with Ephraim.”
And the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people began to tremble, like the trees of the forest shaking in the wind.
3 Jehovah then said to Isaiah: “Go out, please, to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool by the highway of the laundryman’s field. 4 You must say to him, ‘Take care to stay calm. Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart because of these two stumps of smoldering logs, because of the hot anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5 For Syria with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah have plotted harm against you, saying: 6 “Let us go up against Judah and tear it apart and conquer it for ourselves, and let us appoint the son of Tabeel as its king.”
7 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says:
“It will not succeed,
Nor will it take place.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
And the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Within just 65 years
Ephraim will be completely shattered and cease to be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
And the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
Unless you have firm faith,
You will not be firmly established.”’”
10 Jehovah continued speaking to Ahaz: 11 “Ask for a sign from Jehovah your God; it may be as deep as the Grave or as high as the sky.” 12 But Ahaz said: “I will not ask, nor will I put Jehovah to the test.”
13 Isaiah then said: “Listen, please, O house of David. Is it not enough that you try the patience of men? Must you also try the patience of God? 14 Therefore, Jehovah himself will give you a sign: Look! The young woman will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel. 15 He will eat butter and honey by the time that he knows how to reject the bad and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to reject the bad and choose the good, the land of the two kings whom you dread will be completely abandoned. 17 Jehovah will bring against you and against your people and against the house of your father a time such as has not come since the day Ephraim broke away from Judah, for He will bring the king of Assyria.
18 “In that day Jehovah will whistle for the flies from the distant streams of the Nile of Egypt and for the bees in the land of Assyria, 19 and they will all come and settle down on the steep valleys, on the rocky clefts, on all the thornbushes, and on all the watering places.
20 “In that day by means of a hired razor from the region of the River, by means of the king of Assyria, Jehovah will shave the head and the hair of the legs, and it will sweep away the beard as well.
21 “In that day a man will keep alive a young cow of the herd and two sheep. 22 And because of the abundance of milk, he will eat butter, for everyone remaining in the land will eat butter and honey.
23 “In that day wherever there used to be 1,000 vines worth 1,000 pieces of silver, there will be only thornbushes and weeds. 24 Men will go there with bow and arrow, because all the land will become thornbushes and weeds. 25 And all the mountains that used to be cleared with a hoe, you will not go near for fear of thornbushes and weeds; they will become a grazing place for bulls and a trampling ground of sheep.”
Chapter 8
1 Jehovah said to me: “Take a large tablet and write on it with an ordinary stylus, ‘Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’ 2 And let me have it confirmed in writing by faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”
3 Then I had relations with the prophetess, and she became pregnant and in time gave birth to a son. Jehovah then said to me: “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 4 for before the boy knows how to call out, ‘My father!’ and ‘My mother!’ the resources of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”
5 Jehovah spoke to me again:
6 “Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of the Shiloah
And they rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
7 Therefore look! Jehovah will bring against them
The mighty and vast waters of the River,
The king of Assyria and all his glory.
He will come up over all his streambeds
And overflow all his banks
8 And sweep through Judah.
He will flood and pass through, reaching to the neck;
His outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land,
O Immanuel!”
9 Cause harm, you peoples, but you will be shattered to pieces.
Listen, all you from distant parts of the earth!
Prepare for battle, but you will be shattered to pieces!
Prepare for battle, but you will be shattered to pieces!
10 Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted!
Say what you like, but it will not succeed,
For God is with us!
11 With his strong hand on me, this is what Jehovah said to me to warn me away from following the course of this people:
12 “You should not call a conspiracy what this people calls a conspiracy!
Do not fear what they fear;
Do not tremble at it.
13 Jehovah of armies—he is the One you should regard as holy,
He is the One you should fear,
And he is the One who should cause you to tremble.”
14 He will become as a sanctuary,
But as a stone to strike against
And as a rock to stumble over
To both houses of Israel,
As a trap and a snare
To the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 Many of them will stumble and fall and be broken;
They will be ensnared and caught.
16 Wrap up the written confirmation;
Seal up the law among my disciples!
17 I will keep in expectation of Jehovah, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.
18 Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are as signs and as miracles in Israel from Jehovah of armies, who resides on Mount Zion.
19 And if they say to you: “Inquire of the spirit mediums or of the fortune-tellers who chirp and mutter,” is it not of their God that a people should inquire? Should they inquire of the dead in behalf of the living? 20 Instead, they should inquire of the law and of the written confirmation!
When they do not speak according to this word, they have no light. 21 And each one will pass through the land afflicted and hungry; and because he is hungry and indignant, he will curse his king and his God as he looks upward. 22 Then he will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness, obscurity and hard times, gloom and no brightness.
Chapter 9
1 However, the gloom will not be as when the land had distress, as in former times when the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali were treated with contempt. But at a later time He will cause it to be honored—the way by the sea, in the region of the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who were walking in the darkness
Have seen a great light.
As for those dwelling in the land of deep shadow,
Light has shone on them.
3 You have made the nation populous;
You have made its rejoicing great.
They rejoice before you
As people rejoice in the harvesttime,
As those who joyfully divide up the spoil.
4 For you have shattered to pieces the yoke of their load,
The rod on their shoulders, the staff of the taskmaster,
As in the day of Midian.
5 Every boot that shakes the earth as it marches
And every garment soaked in blood
Will become fuel for the fire.
6 For a child has been born to us,
A son has been given to us;
And the rulership will rest on his shoulder.
His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 To the increase of his rulership
And to peace, there will be no end,
On the throne of David and on his kingdom
In order to establish it firmly and to sustain it
Through justice and righteousness,
From now on and forever.
The zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.
8 Jehovah sent a word against Jacob,
And it has come against Israel.
9 And all the people will know it
—Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
Who say in their haughtiness and in their insolence of heart:
10 “Bricks have fallen,
But we will build with hewn stone.
Sycamore trees have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”
11 Jehovah will raise up Rezin’s adversaries against him
And will stir his enemies to action,
12 Syria from the east and the Philistines from the west,
They will devour Israel with open mouths.
In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,
But his hand is still stretched out to strike.
13 For the people have not returned to the One who strikes them;
They have not sought Jehovah of armies.
14 Jehovah will cut off from Israel
Head and tail, shoot and rush, in one day.
15 The elder and highly respected one is the head,
And the prophet giving false instruction is the tail.
16 Those leading this people are causing them to wander,
And those who are being led are confused.
17 That is why Jehovah will not rejoice over their young men,
And he will have no mercy on their fatherless children and their widows
Because all of them are apostates and evildoers
And every mouth is speaking senselessness.
In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,
But his hand is still stretched out to strike.
18 For wickedness burns like a fire,
Consuming thornbushes and weeds.
It will set fire to the thickets of the forest,
And they will go up in clouds of smoke.
19 In the fury of Jehovah of armies
The land has been set on fire,
And the people will become fuel for the fire.
No one will spare even his brother.
20 One will cut down on the right
But still be hungry;
And one will eat on the left
But will not be satisfied.
Each will devour the flesh of his own arm,
21 Manasseh will devour Ephraim,
And Ephraim Manasseh.
Together they will be against Judah.
In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,
But his hand is still stretched out to strike.
Chapter 10
1 Woe to those who enact harmful regulations,
Who constantly draft oppressive decrees,
2 To deny the legal claim of the poor,
To deprive the lowly among my people of justice,
Making widows their spoil
And fatherless children their plunder!
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning,
When destruction comes from afar?
To whom will you flee for assistance,
And where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing remains except to crouch among the prisoners
Or to fall among the slain.
In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,
But his hand is still stretched out to strike.
5 “Aha! the Assyrian,
The rod to express my anger
And the staff in their hand for my denunciation!
6 I will send him against an apostate nation,
Against the people who infuriated me;
I will command him to take much spoil and much plunder
And to trample them like mud in the streets.
7 But he will not be inclined this way
And his heart will not scheme this way;
For it is in his heart to annihilate,
To cut off many nations, not a few.
8 For he says,
‘Are not my princes all kings?
9 Is not Calno just like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 My hand has seized the kingdoms of the worthless gods,
Whose graven images were more than those of Jerusalem and Samaria!
11 Will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols
Just as I have done to Samaria and to her worthless gods?’
12 “When Jehovah finishes all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, He will punish the king of Assyria for his insolent heart and his proud, arrogant gaze. 13 For he says,
‘I will do this by the strength of my hand
And with my wisdom, for I am wise.
I will remove the boundaries of peoples
And pillage their treasures,
And I will subdue the inhabitants like a mighty one.
14 Like a man reaching into a nest,
My hand will seize the resources of the peoples;
And like one gathering abandoned eggs,
I will gather the whole earth!
No one will flutter his wings or open his mouth or chirp.’”
15 Will the ax exalt itself over the one who chops with it?
Will the saw exalt itself over the one who saws with it?
Could a staff wave the one who lifts it?
Or could a rod lift up the one who is not made of wood?
16 Therefore the true Lord, Jehovah of armies,
Will inflict emaciation on his fat ones,
And beneath his glory he will kindle a blazing fire.
17 Israel’s Light will become a fire,
And his Holy One a flame;
It will blaze up and consume his weeds and his thornbushes in one day.
18 He will utterly do away with the glory of his forest and his orchard;
It will be as when a sick man wastes away.
19 The rest of the trees of his forest
Will be so few that a boy could list them.
20 In that day those remaining of Israel
And the survivors of the house of Jacob
Will no longer support themselves on the one who struck them;
But they will support themselves on Jehovah,
The Holy One of Israel, with faithfulness.
21 Only a remnant will return,
The remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.
22 For though your people, O Israel,
Are as the grains of sand of the sea,
Only a remnant of them will return.
An extermination has been decided on,
And justice will engulf them.
23 Yes, the extermination decided on by the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,
Will be carried out in the entire land.
24 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, says: “Do not be afraid, my people who are dwelling in Zion, because of the Assyrian, who used to strike you with the rod and to lift up his staff against you as Egypt did. 25 For in a very little while the denunciation will come to an end; my anger will be directed to their destruction. 26 Jehovah of armies will brandish a whip against him, as when he defeated Midian by the rock Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will raise it as he did with Egypt.
27 In that day his load will depart from on your shoulder,
And his yoke from on your neck,
And the yoke will be broken because of the oil.”
28 He has come to Aiath;
He has passed through Migron;
At Michmash he deposits his baggage.
29 They have passed over the ford;
They spend the night at Geba;
Ramah trembles, Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Cry out and scream, O daughter of Gallim!
Pay attention, O Laishah!
O poor Anathoth!
31 Madmenah has run away.
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought shelter.
32 This very day he will halt in Nob.
He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion,
The hill of Jerusalem.
33 Look! The true Lord, Jehovah of armies,
Is chopping off branches with a terrible crash;
The tallest trees are being cut down,
And the lofty are brought low.
34 He strikes down the thickets of the forest with an iron tool,
And Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.
Chapter 11
1 A twig will grow out of the stump of Jesse,
And a sprout from his roots will bear fruit.
2 And the spirit of Jehovah will settle upon him,
The spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
The spirit of counsel and of mightiness,
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah.
3 And he will find delight in the fear of Jehovah.
He will not judge by what appears to his eyes,
Nor reprove simply according to what his ears hear.
4 He will judge the lowly with fairness,
And with uprightness he will give reproof in behalf of the meek ones of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth
And put the wicked to death with the breath of his lips.
5 Righteousness will be the belt around his waist,
And faithfulness the belt of his hips.
6 The wolf will reside for a while with the lamb,
And with the young goat the leopard will lie down,
And the calf and the lion and the fattened animal will all be together;
And a little boy will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will feed together,
And their young will lie down together.
The lion will eat straw like the bull.
8 The nursing child will play over the lair of a cobra,
And a weaned child will put his hand over the den of a poisonous snake.
9 They will not cause any harm
Or any ruin in all my holy mountain,
Because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah
As the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the root of Jesse will stand up as a signal for the peoples.
To him the nations will turn for guidance,
And his resting-place will become glorious.
11 In that day Jehovah will again offer his hand, a second time, to reclaim the remnant of his people who are left from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 He will raise up a signal for the nations and gather the dispersed ones of Israel, and he will gather together the scattered ones of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim will be gone,
And those who show hostility to Judah will be done away with.
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
Nor will Judah show hostility toward Ephraim.
14 And they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west;
Together they will plunder the people of the East.
They will thrust out their hand against Edom and Moab,
And the Ammonites will become their subjects.
15 Jehovah will divide the gulf of the Egyptian sea
And wave his hand over the River.
With his scorching breath he will strike it in its seven torrents,
And he will cause people to walk across in their sandals.
16 And there will be a highway out of Assyria for the remnant of his people who are left,
As there was for Israel in the day he came out of the land of Egypt.
Chapter 12
1 In that day you will certainly say:
“I thank you, O Jehovah,
For although you were angry with me,
Your anger gradually subsided, and you comforted me.
2 Look! God is my salvation.
I will trust and feel no dread;
For Jah Jehovah is my strength and my might,
And he has become my salvation.”
3 With rejoicing you will draw water
From the springs of salvation.
4 And in that day you will say:
“Give thanks to Jehovah, call on his name,
Make his deeds known among the peoples!
Declare that his name is exalted.
5 Sing praises to Jehovah, for he has done magnificent things.
Let this be made known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout for joy, you inhabitant of Zion,
For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
Chapter 13
1 A pronouncement against Babylon that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw in vision:
2 “Raise up a signal on a mountain of bare rocks.
Call out to them, wave your hand,
So that they may come into the entrances of the nobles.
3 I have issued the command to those whom I have appointed.
I have summoned my warriors to express my anger,
My proudly exultant ones.
4 Listen! A crowd in the mountains;
It sounds like a numerous people!
Listen! The uproar of kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
Jehovah of armies is mustering the army for war.
5 They are coming from a distant land,
From the extremity of the heavens,
Jehovah and the weapons of his wrath,
To bring ruin to all the earth.
6 Wail, for the day of Jehovah is near!
It will come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 That is why all hands will go limp,
And every man’s heart will melt with fear.
8 The people are panic-stricken.
They are seized with convulsions and pain,
Like a woman in labor.
They look at one another in horror,
With faces inflamed by anguish.
9 Look! The day of Jehovah is coming,
Cruel both with fury and with burning anger,
To make the land an object of horror,
And to annihilate the land’s sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
Will not give off their light;
The sun will be dark when it rises,
And the moon will not shed its light.
11 I will call the inhabited earth to account for its badness,
And the wicked for their error.
I will put an end to the pride of the presumptuous,
And I will humble the haughtiness of tyrants.
12 I will make mortal man scarcer than refined gold,
And humans scarcer than the gold of Ophir.
13 That is why I will make the heavens tremble,
And the earth will be shaken out of its place
At the fury of Jehovah of armies in the day of his burning anger.
14 Like a hunted gazelle and like a flock with no one to gather them,
Each will return to his own people;
Each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be pierced through,
And whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes,
Their houses will be looted,
And their wives will be raped.
17 Here I am raising up against them the Medes,
Who regard silver as nothing
And who take no delight in gold.
18 Their bows will shatter young men;
They will show no pity on the fruit of the womb
Nor mercy to children.
19 And Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms,
The beauty and the pride of the Chaldeans,
Will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
20 She will never be inhabited,
Nor will she be a place to reside in throughout all generations.
No Arab will pitch his tent there,
And no shepherds will rest their flocks there.
21 The desert creatures will lie down there;
Their houses will be filled with eagle owls.
The ostriches will reside there,
And wild goats will skip about there.
22 Howling creatures will cry out in her towers,
And jackals in her luxurious palaces.
Her time is near, and her days will not be prolonged.”
Chapter 14
1 For Jehovah will show mercy to Jacob, and he will again choose Israel. He will settle them in their land, and the foreign residents will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And peoples will take them and bring them to their own place, and the house of Israel will possess them as male and female servants in Jehovah’s land; and they will be the captors of those who held them captive, and they will have in subjection those who were forcing them to work.
3 In the day when Jehovah gives you rest from your pain and from your turmoil and from the hard slavery imposed on you, 4 you will recite this proverb against the king of Babylon:
“How the one forcing others to work has met his end!
How the oppression has ended!
5 Jehovah has broken the rod of the wicked,
The staff of the rulers,
6 The one furiously striking peoples with unceasing blows,
The one angrily subduing nations with relentless persecution.
7 The whole earth now rests, free of disturbance.
People cry out for joy.
8 Even the juniper trees rejoice over you,
Along with the cedars of Lebanon.
They say, ‘Ever since you have fallen,
No woodcutter comes up against us.’
9 Even the Grave underneath is stirred up
To meet you when you come.
Because of you, it awakens those powerless in death,
All the oppressive leaders of the earth.
It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.
10 All of them speak up and say to you,
‘Have you also become weak like us?
Have you become like us?
11 Down to the Grave your pride has been brought,
The sound of your stringed instruments.
Maggots are spread beneath you as a bed,
And worms are your covering.’
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O shining one, son of the dawn!
How you have been cut down to the earth,
You who vanquished nations!
13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to the heavens.
Above the stars of God I will lift up my throne,
And I will sit down on the mountain of meeting,
In the remotest parts of the north.
14 I will go up above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself resemble the Most High.’
15 Instead, you will be brought down to the Grave,
To the remotest parts of the pit.
16 Those seeing you will stare at you;
They will closely examine you, saying,
‘Is this the man who was shaking the earth,
Who made kingdoms tremble,
17 Who made the inhabited earth like the wilderness
And overthrew its cities,
Who refused to let his prisoners go home?’
18 All other kings of the nations,
Yes, all of them, lie down in glory,
Each one in his own tomb.
19 But you are discarded without a grave,
Like a detested sprout,
Clothed with the slain who were stabbed with the sword,
Who go down to the stones of a pit,
Like a carcass trampled underfoot.
20 You will not join them in a grave,
For you destroyed your own land,
You killed your own people.
The offspring of evildoers will never again be named.
21 Prepare a slaughtering block for his sons
Because of the guilt of their forefathers,
So that they will not rise up and take over the earth
And fill the land with their cities.”
22 “I will rise up against them,” declares Jehovah of armies.
“And I will wipe out from Babylon name and remnant and descendants and posterity,” declares Jehovah.
23 “And I will make her a possession of porcupines and a region of marshes, and I will sweep her with the broom of annihilation,” declares Jehovah of armies.
24 Jehovah of armies has sworn:
“Just as I have intended, so it will occur,
And just as I have decided, that is what will come true.
25 I will crush the Assyrian in my land,
And I will trample him on my mountains.
His yoke will be removed from them,
And his load will be removed from their shoulder.”
26 This is what has been decided against all the earth,
And this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations.
27 For Jehovah of armies has decided,
And who can thwart it?
His hand is stretched out,
And who can turn it back?
28 In the year that King Ahaz died, this pronouncement was made:
29 “Do not rejoice, Philistia, any of you,
Just because the staff of the one striking you has been broken.
For from the root of the serpent will come a poisonous snake,
And its offspring will be a flying fiery snake.
30 While the firstborn of the lowly feed
And the poor lie down in security,
I will put your root to death with famine,
And what is left of you will be killed.
31 Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city!
All of you will lose heart, O Philistia!
For a smoke is coming from the north,
And there are no stragglers in his ranks.”
32 How should they answer the messengers of the nation?
That Jehovah has laid the foundation of Zion,
And that the lowly ones of his people will take refuge in her.
Chapter 15
1 A pronouncement against Moab:
Because it has been devastated in a night,
Ar of Moab has been silenced.
Because it has been devastated in a night,
Kir of Moab has been silenced.
2 He has gone up to the House and to Dibon,
To the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba.
Every head is shaved bald, every beard is clipped.
3 In its streets they have put on sackcloth.
On their roofs and in their public squares they all wail;
They go down weeping.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz.
That is why the armed men of Moab keep shouting.
He is trembling.
5 My heart cries out over Moab.
Its fugitives have fled as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah.
On the ascent of Luhith they weep as they go up;
On the way to Horonaim they cry out over the catastrophe.
6 For the waters of Nimrim are desolate;
The green grass has dried up,
The grass is gone and nothing green is left.
7 That is why they are carrying away what is left of their stores and their riches;
They are crossing the valley of poplars.
8 For the outcry echoes throughout the territory of Moab.
The wailing reaches to Eglaim;
The wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood,
And I have more in store for Dimon:
A lion for those of Moab who escape
And for those remaining in the land.
Chapter 16
1 Send a ram to the ruler of the land,
From Sela through the wilderness
To the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
2 Like a bird chased away from its nest,
So the daughters of Moab will be at the fords of Arnon.
3 “Offer counsel, carry out the decision.
Make your shadow at high noon like the night.
Conceal the dispersed and do not betray those fleeing.
4 May my dispersed ones reside in you, O Moab.
Become a place of concealment to them because of the destroyer.
The oppressor will reach his end,
The destruction will come to an end,
And those trampling others down will perish from the earth.
5 Then a throne will be firmly established in loyal love.
The one who sits on it in the tent of David will be faithful;
He will judge fairly and will swiftly execute righteousness.”
6 We have heard about the pride of Moab—he is very proud—
His haughtiness and his pride and his fury;
But his empty talk will come to nothing.
7 So Moab will wail for Moab;
They will all wail.
Those who are stricken will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.
8 For the terraces of Heshbon have withered,
The vine of Sibmah,
The rulers of the nations have trampled its bright-red branches;
They had reached as far as Jazer;
They had extended into the wilderness.
Its shoots had spread out and gone as far as the sea.
9 That is why I will weep over the vine of Sibmah as I weep for Jazer.
With my tears I will drench you, O Heshbon and Elealeh,
Because the shouting over your summer fruit and your harvest has ended.
10 Rejoicing and joyfulness have been taken away from the orchard,
And there are no songs of joy or shouting in the vineyards.
The treader no longer treads out wine in the presses,
For I have caused the shouting to cease.
11 That is why deep within me I am boisterous over Moab,
Like the strumming of a harp,
And my innermost being over Kir-hareseth.
12 Even when Moab wears himself out on the high place and goes to pray in his sanctuary, he will accomplish nothing.
13 This is the word that Jehovah previously spoke concerning Moab. 14 And now Jehovah says: “Within three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be disgraced with much tumult of every sort, and those who remain will be very few and insignificant.”
Chapter 17
1 A pronouncement against Damascus:
“Look! Damascus will cease to be a city,
And it will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be abandoned;
They will become places for flocks to lie down
With no one to make them afraid.
3 Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus;
And those remaining of Syria
Will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares Jehovah of armies.
4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will diminish,
And his healthy body will grow thin.
5 It will be as when the harvester is gathering the standing grain
And his arm harvests the ears of grain,
Like when one gleans grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Only gleanings will be left,
As when an olive tree is beaten:
Only two or three ripe olives remain on the highest branch,
Only four or five on its fruit-bearing branches,” declares Jehovah the God of Israel.
7 In that day man will look up to his Maker, and his eyes will gaze at the Holy One of Israel. 8 He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands; and he will not gaze at what his fingers have made, either the sacred poles or the incense stands.
9 In that day his fortress cities will become like an abandoned site in the woodland,
Like a branch that was abandoned before the Israelites;
It will become a wasteland.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation;
You have failed to remember the Rock of your fortress.
That is why you plant beautiful plantations
And set it with the shoot of a stranger.
11 In the day you carefully fence in your plantation,
In the morning you make your seed sprout,
But the harvest will vanish in the day of disease and incurable pain.
12 Listen! There is a commotion of many peoples,
Who are as boisterous as the seas!
There is an uproar of nations,
Whose sound is like the roar of mighty waters!
13 The nations will make a sound like the roar of many waters.
He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
Chased like the chaff of the mountains before a wind,
Like a whirling thistle before a storm wind.
14 In the evening there is terror.
Before morning they are no more.
This is the share of those pillaging us
And the lot of those plundering us.
Chapter 18
1 Woe to the land of whirring insect wings
In the region of the rivers of Ethiopia!
2 It sends envoys by sea,
Across the waters in papyrus vessels, saying:
“Go, you swift messengers,
To a tall and smooth-skinned nation,
To a people feared everywhere,
To a strong, conquering nation,
Whose land is washed away by rivers.”
3 All you inhabitants of the land and you residents of the earth,
What you see will be like a signal raised on the mountains,
And you will hear a sound like the blowing of a horn.
4 For this is what Jehovah said to me:
“I will remain undisturbed and look on my established place,
Like the shimmering heat along with the sunlight,
Like the cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5 For before the harvest,
When the blossom is finished and the bloom becomes a ripening grape,
The shoots will be cut off with pruning shears
And the tendrils will be lopped off and removed.
6 They will all be left for the birds of prey of the mountains
And for the beasts of the earth.
The birds of prey will spend the summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend the harvesttime on them.
7 At that time a gift will be brought to Jehovah of armies,
From a tall and smooth-skinned nation,
From a people feared everywhere,
From a strong, conquering nation,
Whose land is washed away by rivers
To the place that bears the name of Jehovah of armies, Mount Zion.”
Chapter 19
1 A pronouncement against Egypt:
Look! Jehovah is riding on a swift cloud and is coming into Egypt.
The worthless gods of Egypt will tremble before him,
And the heart of Egypt will melt within it.
2 “I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians,
And they will fight one another,
Each against his brother and his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt will become bewildered within it,
And I will confuse its plans.
They will resort to the worthless gods,
To the charmers and to the spirit mediums and to the fortune-tellers.
4 I will hand Egypt over to a hard master,
And a harsh king will rule over them,” declares the true Lord, Jehovah of armies.
5 The water of the sea will be dried up,
And the river will become parched and run dry.
6 And the rivers will stink;
The Nile canals of Egypt will become low and parched.
The reeds and the rushes will decay.
7 The plants along the Nile River, at the mouth of the Nile,
And all the land sown with seed along the Nile will dry up.
It will be blown away, and it will be no more.
8 And the fishermen will mourn,
Those casting fishhooks into the Nile will lament,
And those who spread their nets on the water will dwindle.
9 Those who work in combed flax
And those making white fabric on the loom will be put to shame.
10 Her weavers will be crushed;
All the hired workers will grieve.
11 The princes of Zoan are foolish.
The wisest advisers of Pharaoh give unreasonable advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh:
“I am a descendant of wise ones,
A descendant of ancient kings”?
12 Where, then, are your wise men?
Let them tell you if they know what Jehovah of armies has decided concerning Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have acted foolishly;
The princes of Noph have been deceived;
The chiefs of her tribes have led Egypt astray.
14 Jehovah has poured out on her a spirit of confusion;
And they have led Egypt astray in whatever she does,
Like a drunk staggering in his vomit.
15 And Egypt will not have any work to do,
Whether for the head or the tail, the shoot or the rush.
16 In that day Egypt will become like women, trembling and terrified because of the threatening hand that Jehovah of armies raises against it. 17 And the land of Judah will become a cause for terror to Egypt. They will feel dread at the mention of it because of the decision that Jehovah of armies has made against them.
18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing loyalty to Jehovah of armies. One city will be called The City of Tearing Down.
19 In that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the middle of the land of Egypt and a pillar to Jehovah at its boundary. 20 It will be for a sign and for a witness to Jehovah of armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry out to Jehovah because of the oppressors, and he will send them a savior, a grand one, who will save them. 21 And Jehovah will become known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know Jehovah in that day, and they will offer sacrifices and gifts and make a vow to Jehovah and pay it. 22 Jehovah will strike Egypt, striking and healing it; and they will return to Jehovah, and he will respond to their entreaties and heal them.
23 In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria. Then Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and Egypt will serve God together with Assyria. 24 In that day Israel will be the third along with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 for Jehovah of armies will have blessed it, saying: “Blessed be my people, Egypt, and the work of my hands, Assyria, and my inheritance, Israel.”
Chapter 20
1 In the year that King Sargon of Assyria sent the Tartan to Ashdod, he fought against Ashdod and captured it. 2 At that time Jehovah spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying: “Go, remove the sackcloth from your hips, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking about naked and barefoot.
3 Jehovah then said: “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked about naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so the king of Assyria will lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, boys and old men, naked and barefoot and with exposed buttocks, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 And they will be terrified and will be ashamed of Ethiopia their hope and of Egypt their pride. 6 The inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Look at what happened to our hope, to which we fled for help and rescue from the king of Assyria! How will we escape now?’”
Chapter 21
1 A pronouncement against the wilderness of the sea:
It is coming like storm winds that sweep through in the south,
From the wilderness, from a fearsome land.
2 A harsh vision has been told to me:
The treacherous one is acting treacherously,
And the destroyer is destroying.
Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media!
I will put an end to all the sighing she caused.
3 That is why I am in great anguish.
Convulsions have seized me,
Like those of a woman giving birth.
I am too distressed to hear;
I am too disturbed to see.
4 My heart falters; I shudder in terror.
The twilight I longed for makes me tremble.
5 Set the table and arrange the seats!
Eat and drink!
Get up, you princes, anoint the shield!
6 For this is what Jehovah said to me:
“Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.”
7 And he saw a war chariot with a team of horses,
A war chariot of donkeys,
A war chariot of camels.
He watched carefully, with great attentiveness.
8 Then he called out like a lion:
“Upon the watchtower, O Jehovah, I am standing constantly by day,
And I am stationed at my guardpost every night.
9 Look at what is coming:
Men in a war chariot with a team of horses!”
Then he spoke up and said:
“She has fallen! Babylon has fallen!
All the graven images of her gods he has shattered to the ground!”
10 O my people who have been threshed,
The product of my threshing floor,
I have reported to you what I have heard from Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel.
11 A pronouncement against Dumah:
Someone is calling out to me from Seir:
“Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”
12 The watchman said:
“The morning is coming, and also the night.
If you would inquire, inquire.
Come again!”
13 A pronouncement against the desert plain:
In the forest in the desert plain you will spend the night,
O caravans of Dedan.
14 Bring water to meet the thirsty one,
You inhabitants of the land of Tema,
And bring bread for the one fleeing.
15 For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
From the bent bow, and from the cruelty of the war.
16 For this is what Jehovah said to me: “Within one year, like the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 The remaining bowmen of the warriors of Kedar will be few, for Jehovah the God of Israel has spoken.”
Chapter 22
1 A pronouncement about the Valley of Vision:
What is the matter with you that you have all gone up to the roofs?
2 You were full of turmoil,
A boisterous city, an exultant town.
Your slain were not slain with the sword,
Nor did they die in battle.
3 All your dictators have fled together.
They were taken prisoner without need of a bow.
All who were found were taken prisoner,
Even though they had fled far away.
4 That is why I said: “Turn your eyes away from me,
And I will weep bitterly.
Do not insist on comforting me
Over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of confusion and of defeat and of panic,
From the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,
In the Valley of Vision.
There is a demolishing of the wall
And a cry to the mountain.
6 Elam picks up the quiver
With manned chariots and horses,
And Kir uncovers the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys
Will become full of war chariots,
And the horses will take their positions at the gate,
8 And the screen of Judah will be removed.
“In that day you will look toward the armory of the House of the Forest, 9 and you will see the many breaches of the City of David. And you will collect the waters of the lower pool. 10 You will count the houses of Jerusalem, and you will pull down the houses to reinforce the wall. 11 And you will make a basin between the two walls for the water of the old pool, but you will not look to its Grand Maker, and you will not see the One who formed it long ago.
12 In that day the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,
Will call for weeping and mourning,
For shaved heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
13 But instead, there is celebration and rejoicing,
The killing of cattle and the slaughtering of sheep,
The eating of meat and the drinking of wine.
‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.’”
14 Then Jehovah of armies revealed himself in my ears: “‘This error will not be atoned in your behalf until you people die,’ says the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies.”
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, says: “Go in to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the house, and say, 16 ‘What is your interest here, and who is there of interest to you here, that you hewed out a burial place here for yourself?’ He is hewing out his burial place in a high place; he is cutting out a resting-place for himself in a crag. 17 ‘Look! Jehovah will hurl you down violently, O man, and seize you forcibly. 18 He will certainly wrap you up tightly and hurl you like a ball into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will be, a disgrace to your master’s house. 19 And I will depose you from your position and throw you out of your office.
20 “‘In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe and firmly bind your sash around him, and I will give your authority into his hand. And he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open and no one will shut; and he will shut and no one will open. 23 I will drive him in as a peg in a lasting place, and he will become as a throne of glory to the house of his father. 24 And they will hang on him all the glory of the house of his father, the descendants and the offspring, all the small vessels, the bowl-shaped vessels, as well as all the large jars.
25 “‘In that day,’ declares Jehovah of armies, ‘the peg that is driven in a lasting place will be removed, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that it supported will fall to ruin, for Jehovah himself has spoken.’”
Chapter 23
1 A pronouncement about Tyre:
Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For the port has been destroyed; it cannot be entered.
From the land of Kittim it has been revealed to them.
2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland.
The merchants from Sidon who cross the sea have filled you.
3 Over many waters went the grain of Shihor,
The harvest of the Nile, her revenue,
Bringing the profit of the nations.
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, you stronghold of the sea,
Because the sea has said:
“I have not had birth pains, and I have not given birth,
Nor have I brought up young men or raised young women.”
5 As when they heard the report about Egypt,
People will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish!
Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
7 Is this your city that was exultant from long ago, from her early times?
Her feet used to take her to distant lands to reside.
8 Who has decided this against Tyre,
The bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes,
Whose tradesmen were honored in all the earth?
9 Jehovah of armies himself has decided this,
To profane her pride over all her beauty,
To humiliate all those who were honored throughout the earth.
10 Cross over your land like the Nile River, O daughter of Tarshish.
There is no longer any shipyard.
11 He has stretched his hand out over the sea;
He has shaken kingdoms.
Jehovah has ordered the annihilation of Phoenicia’s strongholds.
12 And he says: “You will exult no more,
O oppressed one, the virgin daughter of Sidon.
Get up, cross over to Kittim.
Even there you will find no rest.”
13 Look! The land of the Chaldeans.
This is the people—Assyria was not the one—
They made her a place for those haunting the desert.
They have erected their siege towers;
They have stripped bare her fortified towers,
Reducing her to a crumbling ruin.
14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish,
For your stronghold has been destroyed.
15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years, the same as the lifetime of one king. At the end of 70 years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of a prostitute:
16 “Take a harp, go around the city, O forgotten prostitute.
Play your harp skillfully;
Sing many songs,
So that they will remember you.”
17 At the end of 70 years, Jehovah will turn his attention to Tyre, and she will return to her hire and prostitute herself with all the world’s kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 But her profit and her hire will become something holy to Jehovah. It will not be stored or laid away, because her hire will be for those dwelling before Jehovah, so that they may eat to satisfaction and wear elegant clothing.
Chapter 24
1 Look! Jehovah is emptying the land and making it desolate.
He turns it upside down and scatters its inhabitants.
2 It will be the same for everyone:
The people as well as the priest,
The servant and his master,
The servant and her mistress,
The buyer and the seller,
The lender and the borrower,
The creditor and the debtor.
3 The land will be completely emptied;
It will be completely plundered,
For Jehovah has spoken this word.
4 The land mourns; it is wasting away.
The productive land withers; it is fading away.
The prominent people of the land wither.
5 The land has been polluted by its inhabitants,
For they have bypassed the laws,
Changed the regulation,
And broken the lasting covenant.
6 That is why the curse devours the land,
And those inhabiting it are held guilty.
That is why the inhabitants of the land have dwindled,
And very few men are left.
7 The new wine mourns, the vine withers,
And all those cheerful at heart are sighing.
8 The joy of the tambourines has ceased;
The noise of the revelers has ended;
The happy sound of the harp has ceased.
9 They drink wine without song,
And alcohol tastes bitter to those drinking it.
10 The deserted town is broken down;
Every house is shut up so that no one can enter.
11 They cry out for wine in the streets.
All rejoicing has disappeared;
The joy of the land has gone.
12 The city is left in ruins;
The gate has been crushed to a heap of rubble.
13 For this is how it will be in the land, among the peoples:
As when an olive tree is beaten,
Like the gleaning when the grape harvest comes to an end.
14 They will raise their voice,
They will shout joyfully.
From the sea they will proclaim the majesty of Jehovah.
15 That is why they will glorify Jehovah in the region of light;
In the islands of the sea they will glorify the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.
16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs:
“Glory to the Righteous One!”
But I say: “I am wasting away, I am wasting away!
Woe to me! The treacherous have acted treacherously;
With treachery the treacherous have acted treacherously.”
17 Terror and pits and traps await you, inhabitant of the land.
18 Anyone fleeing from the sound of terror will fall into the pit,
And anyone coming up from the pit will be caught in the trap.
For the floodgates above will be opened,
And the foundations of the land will quake.
19 The land has burst apart;
The land has been shaken up;
The land convulses violently.
20 The land staggers like a drunken man,
And it sways back and forth like a hut in the wind.
Its transgression weighs heavily on it,
And it will fall, so that it will not rise up again.
21 In that day Jehovah will turn his attention to the army of the heights above
And to the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they will be gathered together
Like prisoners gathered into a pit,
And they will be shut up in the dungeon;
After many days they will be given attention.
23 The full moon will be abashed,
And the shining sun will be ashamed,
For Jehovah of armies has become King in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
Glorious before the elders of his people.
Chapter 25
1 O Jehovah, you are my God.
I exalt you, I praise your name,
For you have done wonderful things,
Things purposed from ancient times,
In faithfulness, in trustworthiness.
2 For you have turned a city into a pile of stones,
A fortified town into a crumbling ruin.
The foreigner’s tower is a city no more;
It will never be rebuilt.
3 That is why a strong people will glorify you;
The city of tyrannical nations will fear you.
4 For you have become a stronghold to the lowly,
A stronghold to the poor in his distress,
A refuge from the rainstorm,
And a shade from the heat.
When the blast of the tyrants is like a rainstorm against a wall,
5 As the heat in a parched land,
You subdue the uproar of strangers.
Like heat that is subdued by the shadow of a cloud,
So the song of the tyrants is silenced.
6 In this mountain Jehovah of armies will make for all the peoples
A banquet of rich dishes,
A banquet of fine wine,
Of rich dishes filled with marrow,
Of fine, filtered wine.
7 In this mountain he will do away with the shroud that is enveloping all the peoples
And the covering that is woven over all the nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever,
And the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces.
The reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
For Jehovah himself has spoken it.
9 In that day they will say:
“Look! This is our God!
We have hoped in him,
And he will save us.
This is Jehovah!
We have hoped in him.
Let us be joyful and rejoice in the salvation by him.”
10 For the hand of Jehovah will rest on this mountain,
And Moab will be trampled on in its place
Like straw trampled into a pile of manure.
11 He will slap out his hands into it
Like a swimmer slapping out his hands to swim,
And he will bring down its haughtiness
With the skillful movements of his hands.
12 And the fortified city, with your high walls of security,
He will bring down;
He will knock it down to the ground, to the very dust.
Chapter 26
1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city.
He makes salvation its walls and its ramparts.
2 Open up the gates so that the righteous nation may enter,
A nation that is keeping faithful conduct.
3 You will safeguard those who fully lean on you;
You will give them continuous peace,
Because it is in you that they trust.
4 Trust in Jehovah forever,
For Jah Jehovah is the eternal Rock.
5 For he has brought low those inhabiting the height, the lofty city.
He brings it down,
He brings it down to the earth;
He casts it down to the dust.
6 The foot will trample it,
The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the lowly.”
7 The path of the righteous one is upright.
Because you are upright,
You will smooth out the course of the righteous.
8 As we follow the path of your judgments, O Jehovah,
Our hope is in you.
We long for your name and your memorial.
9 In the night I long for you with my whole being,
Yes, my spirit keeps looking for you;
For when there are judgments from you for the earth,
The inhabitants of the land learn about righteousness.
10 Even if the wicked is shown favor,
He will not learn righteousness.
Even in the land of uprightness he will act wickedly,
And he will not see the majesty of Jehovah.
11 O Jehovah, your hand is raised, but they do not see it.
They will see your zeal for your people and be put to shame.
Yes, the fire for your adversaries will consume them.
12 O Jehovah, you will grant us peace,
Because everything we have done
You have accomplished for us.
13 O Jehovah our God, other masters besides you have ruled over us,
But we make mention of your name alone.
14 They are dead; they will not live.
Powerless in death, they will not rise up.
For you have turned your attention to them
To annihilate them and destroy all mention of them.
15 You have enlarged the nation, O Jehovah,
You have enlarged the nation;
You have glorified yourself.
You have greatly extended all the borders of the land.
16 O Jehovah, during distress they turned to you;
They poured out their prayer in a whisper when you disciplined them.
17 Just as a pregnant woman about to give birth
Has labor pains and cries out in pain,
So we have been because of you, O Jehovah.
18 We became pregnant, we had labor pains,
But it is as if we had given birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the land,
And no one is born to inhabit the land.
19 “Your dead will live.
My corpses will rise up.
Awake and shout joyfully,
You residents in the dust!
For your dew is as the dew of the morning,
And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life.
20 Go, my people, enter your inner rooms,
And shut your doors behind you.
Hide yourself for a brief moment
Until the wrath has passed by.
21 For look! Jehovah is coming from his place
To call the inhabitants of the land to account for their error,
And the land will expose her bloodshed
And will no longer cover over her slain.”
Chapter 27
1 In that day Jehovah, with his harsh and great and strong sword,
Will turn his attention to Leviathan, the gliding serpent,
To Leviathan, the twisting serpent,
And he will kill the monster that is in the sea.
2 In that day sing to her:
“A vineyard of foaming wine!
3 I, Jehovah, am safeguarding her.
Every moment I water her.
I safeguard her night and day,
So that no one may harm her.
4 There is no wrath in me.
Who will confront me with thornbushes and weeds in the battle?
I will trample them and set them on fire all together.
5 Otherwise, let him hold fast to my stronghold.
Let him make peace with me;
Peace let him make with me.”
6 In the coming days Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the land with produce.
7 Must he be struck with the stroke of the one striking him?
Or must he be killed as with the slaughter of his slain?
8 With a startling cry you will contend with her when sending her away.
He will expel her with his fierce blast in the day of the east wind.
9 So in this way the error of Jacob will be atoned for,
And this will be the full fruitage when his sin is taken away:
He will make all the stones of the altar
Like chalkstones that have been pulverized,
And no sacred poles or incense stands will be left.
10 For the fortified city will be deserted;
The pastures will be forsaken and abandoned like a wilderness.
There the calf will graze and lie down
And will consume her branches.
11 When her twigs have dried up,
Women will come and break them off,
Making fires with them.
For this people is without understanding.
That is why their Maker will show them no mercy,
And the One who formed them will show them no favor.
12 In that day Jehovah will beat out the fruit from the flowing stream of the River to the Wadi of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one after the other, O people of Israel. 13 In that day a great horn will be blown, and those who are perishing in the land of Assyria and those dispersed in the land of Egypt will come and bow down to Jehovah in the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
Chapter 28
1 Woe to the showy crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
And the fading blossom of its glorious beauty,
Which is on the head of the fertile valley of those overcome with wine!
2 Look! Jehovah has someone strong and mighty.
Like a thundering hailstorm, a destructive windstorm,
Like a thunderstorm of powerful floodwaters,
He will forcefully hurl it down to the earth.
3 The showy crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim
Will be trampled underfoot.
4 And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is on the head of the fertile valley,
Will become like the early fig before summer.
When someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand.
5 In that day Jehovah of armies will become a glorious crown and a beautiful garland to those left of his people. 6 And he will become a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment and a source of mightiness to those who repel the attack at the gate.
7 And these also go astray because of wine;
Their alcoholic beverages make them stagger.
Priest and prophet go astray because of alcohol;
The wine confuses them,
And they stagger from their alcohol;
Their vision makes them go astray,
And they stumble in judgment.
8 For their tables are full of filthy vomit
—There is no place without it.
9 To whom will one impart knowledge,
And to whom will one explain the message?
To those who have just been weaned from milk,
Those just taken away from the breasts?
10 For it is “command after command, command after command,
Line by line, line by line,
A little here, a little there.”
11 So by means of those with stammering speech and a foreign language, he will speak to this people. 12 He once told them: “This is the resting-place. Let the weary one rest; this is the place of refreshment,” but they refused to listen. 13 So to them the word of Jehovah will be:
“Command after command, command after command,
Line by line, line by line,
A little here, a little there,”
So that when they walk,
They will stumble and fall backward
And be broken and ensnared and caught.
14 So hear the word of Jehovah, you boasters,
You rulers of this people in Jerusalem,
15 For you men say:
“We have made a covenant with Death,
And with the Grave we have made an agreement.
When the raging flash flood passes through,
It will not reach us,
For we have made a lie our refuge
And we have hidden ourselves in falsehood.”
16 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says:
“Here I am laying as a foundation in Zion a tested stone,
The precious cornerstone of a sure foundation.
No one exercising faith will panic.
17 And I will make justice the measuring line
And righteousness the leveling tool.
The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will flood out the hiding place.
18 Your covenant with Death will be dissolved,
And your agreement with the Grave will not stand.
When the raging flash flood passes through,
You will be crushed by it.
19 As often as it passes through,
It will sweep you away;
For it will pass through morning after morning,
During the day and during the night.
Only terror will make them understand what was heard.”
20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
And the woven sheet is too narrow to wrap up in.
21 For Jehovah will rise up as at Mount Perazim;
He will rouse himself as in the valley near Gibeon,
That he may do his deed—his strange deed—
And that he may carry out his work—his unusual work.
22 Now do not scoff,
So that your bonds may not be further tightened,
For I have heard from the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,
That an extermination has been determined for all the land.
23 Give ear and listen to my voice;
Pay attention and listen to what I say.
24 Does the plower keep plowing all day before he sows seed?
Does he continually break up and harrow his ground?
25 When he has smoothed out its surface,
Does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin,
And does he not plant wheat, millet, and barley in their places
And spelt around the edges?
26 For He teaches him the right way;
His God instructs him.
27 For black cumin is not crushed with a threshing sledge,
And a wagon wheel is not driven over cumin.
Rather, black cumin is beaten out with a rod,
And cumin with a staff.
28 Does a person crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it incessantly;
And when he drives the roller of his wagon over it with his horses,
He does not crush it.
29 This also comes from Jehovah of armies,
Whose counsel is wonderful
And whose achievements are great.
Chapter 29
1 “Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped!
Continue year after year;
Let the cycle of festivals continue.
2 But I will bring distress on Ariel,
And there will be mourning and lamentation,
And she will become to me like an altar hearth of God.
3 I will encamp on all sides against you,
And I will besiege you with a palisade
And raise up siegeworks against you.
4 You will be brought low;
From the ground you will speak,
And what you say will be muffled by dust.
Your voice will come from the ground
Like the voice of a spirit medium,
And your words will chirp from the dust.
5 The crowd of your enemies will be like fine powder,
The crowd of the tyrants just like the blowing chaff.
And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.
6 Jehovah of armies will give you his attention
With thunder and earthquake and a great noise,
With storm wind and tempest and the flames of a consuming fire.”
7 Then the crowd of all the nations waging war against Ariel
—All those waging war against her,
The siege towers against her,
And those bringing distress on her—
Will become like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 Yes, it will be just as when someone hungry dreams that he is eating,
But he wakes up hungry,
And as when someone thirsty dreams that he is drinking,
But he wakes up tired and thirsty.
So it will happen with the crowd of all the nations
That wage war against Mount Zion.
9 Be stunned and amazed;
Blind yourselves and be blinded.
They are drunk, but not with wine;
They are staggering, but not from alcohol.
10 For Jehovah has poured a spirit of deep sleep on you;
He has closed your eyes, the prophets,
And he has covered your heads, the visionaries.
11 Every vision becomes for you like the words of a sealed book. When they give it to someone who can read, saying: “Read this out loud, please,” he will say: “I cannot, for it is sealed up.” 12 And when they give the book to someone who cannot read, saying: “Read this, please,” he will say: “I cannot read at all.”
13 Jehovah says: “This people approach me with their mouth
And they honor me with their lips,
But their heart is far removed from me;
And their fear of me is based on commands of men that they have been taught.
14 Therefore, I am the One who will again do wonderful things with this people,
With wonder upon wonder;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the understanding of their discreet men will be hidden.”
15 Woe to those who go to great lengths to conceal their plans from Jehovah.
Their deeds are done in a dark place,
While they say: “Who sees us?
Who knows about us?”
16 How you twist things!
Should the potter be regarded the same as the clay?
Should what is made say about its maker:
“He did not make me”?
And does what is formed say about its former:
“He shows no understanding”?
17 In just a short time, Lebanon will be turned into an orchard,
And the orchard will be regarded as a forest.
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the book,
And out of the gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The meek will rejoice greatly in Jehovah,
And the poor among men will be joyful in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the tyrant will be no more,
The boaster will come to his finish,
And all those keeping alert to do harm will be destroyed,
21 Those who with a false word make others guilty,
Who lay traps for the defender in the city gate,
And who with empty arguments deny justice to the righteous one.
22 So this is what Jehovah, who redeemed Abraham, says to the house of Jacob:
“Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
And no more will his face grow pale.
23 For when he sees his children,
Who are the work of my hands, in his midst,
They will sanctify my name;
Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
And they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who are wayward in spirit will acquire understanding,
And those who complain will accept instruction.”
Chapter 30
1 “Woe to the stubborn sons,” declares Jehovah,
“Who carry out plans that are not mine,
Who make alliances, but not by my spirit,
In order to add sin to sin.
2 They go down to Egypt without consulting me,
To take shelter under Pharaoh’s protection
And to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!
3 But the protection of Pharaoh will become for you a reason for shame,
And refuge in Egypt’s shadow a cause for humiliation.
4 For his princes are in Zoan,
And his envoys have reached Hanes.
5 They will all be put to shame
By a people who can bring no benefit to them,
Who offer no help and no benefit,
Only shame and disgrace.”
6 A pronouncement against the beasts of the south:
Through the land of distress and hardship,
Of the lion, the roaring lion,
Of the viper and the flying fiery snake,
They carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys
And their supplies on the humps of camels.
But these things will not benefit the people.
7 For Egypt’s help is completely useless.
So I have called this one: “Rahab, who sits still.”
8 “Now go, write it on a tablet in their presence,
And inscribe it in a book,
So that it may serve for a future day
As a permanent witness.
9 For they are a rebellious people, deceitful sons,
Sons who are unwilling to hear the law of Jehovah.
10 They say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’
And to the visionaries, ‘Do not tell us truthful visions.
Tell us flattering things; envision deceptive illusions.
11 Turn aside from the way; deviate from the path.
Quit putting before us the Holy One of Israel.’”
12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
“Since you reject this word
And you trust in fraud and deceit
And you rely on these,
13 So this error will be for you like a broken wall,
Like a bulging high wall ready to fall.
It will crash suddenly, in an instant.
14 It will be broken like a large potter’s jar,
So completely smashed that no fragment among its pieces will be left
To rake the fire from the fireplace
Or to scoop water from a puddle.”
15 For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“By returning to me and resting, you will be saved;
Your strength will be in keeping calm and showing trust.”
But you were unwilling.
16 Instead, you said: “No, we will flee on horses!”
So flee you will.
“And on swift horses we will ride!”
So those pursuing you will be swift.
17 A thousand will tremble at the threat of one;
At the threat of five you will flee
Until what is left of you is like a mast on the top of a mountain,
Like a signal pole on a hill.
18 But Jehovah is waiting patiently to show you favor,
And he will rise up to show you mercy.
For Jehovah is a God of justice.
Happy are all those keeping in expectation of him.
19 When the people dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem, you will by no means weep. He will surely show you favor at the sound of your cry for help; he will answer you as soon as he hears it. 20 Though Jehovah will give you bread in the form of distress and water in the form of oppression, your Grand Instructor will no longer hide himself, and you will see your Grand Instructor with your own eyes. 21 And your own ears will hear a word behind you saying, “This is the way. Walk in it,” in case you should go to the right or in case you should go to the left.
22 And you will defile the silver overlay of your graven images and the golden plating of your metal statues. You will cast them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Be gone!” 23 And he will give the rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the bread that the ground produces will be abundant and rich. In that day your livestock will graze in spacious pastures. 24 And the cattle and the donkeys that work the ground will eat fodder seasoned with sorrel, which was winnowed with the shovel and the pitchfork. 25 And on every tall mountain and on every high hill will be streams and watercourses, in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. 26 And the light of the full moon will become like the light of the sun; and the light of the sun will become seven times stronger, like the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah binds up the breakdown of his people and heals the severe wound from the blow he inflicted.
27 Look! The name of Jehovah is coming from far away,
Burning with his anger and with heavy clouds.
His lips are full of indignation,
And his tongue is like a consuming fire.
28 His spirit is like a flooding torrent that reaches clear to the neck,
To shake the nations in a sieve of destruction;
And the peoples will have a bridle in their jaws that leads them astray.
29 But your song will be like the one sung in the night
When you prepare for a festival,
And your heart will rejoice like one
Who walks with a flute
On his way to the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.
30 Jehovah will make his majestic voice heard
And reveal his arm as it descends in the heat of anger,
With the flame of a consuming fire,
A cloudburst and a thunderstorm and hailstones.
31 For because of the voice of Jehovah, Assyria will be struck with terror;
He will strike it with a rod.
32 And every swing of his rod of punishment
That Jehovah will bring down on Assyria
Will be accompanied by tambourines and harps
As he brandishes his arm against them in battle.
33 For his Topheth is already prepared;
It is also made ready for the king.
He has made the woodpile deep and wide,
With an abundance of fire and wood.
The breath of Jehovah, like a torrent of sulfur,
Will set fire to it.
Chapter 31
1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for assistance,
Who rely on horses,
Who trust in war chariots because they are numerous,
And in warhorses because they are mighty.
But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
And they do not search for Jehovah.
2 But he is also wise and will bring calamity,
And he will not take back his words.
He will rise up against the house of evildoers
And against those who help wrongdoers.
3 The Egyptians, though, are mere men and not God;
Their horses are flesh and not spirit.
When Jehovah stretches out his hand,
Whoever offers help will stumble
And whoever is helped will fall;
They will all perish at the same time.
4 For this is what Jehovah has said to me:
“Just as the lion growls, a strong young lion, over its prey,
When a whole group of shepherds is called together against it,
And it is not terrified by their voice
Or daunted by their commotion,
So will Jehovah of armies come down to wage war
Over Mount Zion and over her hill.
5 Like swooping birds, so Jehovah of armies will defend Jerusalem.
He will defend her and save her.
He will spare her and rescue her.”
6 “Return to the One against whom you have blatantly revolted, O people of Israel. 7 For in that day each one will reject his worthless gods of silver and his valueless gods of gold, which your own hands sinfully made.
8 And the Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of a man;
And a sword, not of a human, will devour him.
He will flee because of the sword,
And his young men will be put to forced labor.
9 His crag will pass away because of sheer fright,
And his princes will be terrified because of the signal pole,” declares Jehovah,
Whose light is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Chapter 32
1 Look! A king will reign for righteousness,
And princes will rule for justice.
2 And each one will be like a hiding place from the wind,
A place of concealment from the rainstorm,
Like streams of water in a waterless land,
Like the shadow of a massive crag in a parched land.
3 Then the eyes of those seeing will no longer be pasted shut,
And the ears of those hearing will pay attention.
4 The heart of those who are impetuous will ponder over knowledge,
And the stammering tongue will speak fluently and clearly.
5 The senseless one will no longer be called generous,
And the unprincipled man will not be called noble;
6 For the senseless one will speak nonsense,
And his heart will devise harmful things,
To promote apostasy and to speak what is wayward against Jehovah,
To cause the hungry one to go unfed
And to deprive the thirsty one of something to drink.
7 The devices of the unprincipled man are bad;
He promotes shameful conduct
To ruin the afflicted one with lies,
Even when the poor speaks what is right.
8 But the generous one has generous intentions,
And in generous endeavors he perseveres.
9 “You complacent women, get up and listen to my voice!
You carefree daughters, pay attention to what I say!
10 In a little over a year, you who are carefree will shudder,
Because no fruit will have been gathered when the grape harvest ends.
11 Tremble, you complacent women!
Shudder, you who are carefree!
Strip yourselves bare,
And put sackcloth around your hips.
12 Beat your breasts in lamentation
Over the desirable fields and the fruitful vine.
13 For the ground of my people will be covered with thorns and briars;
They will cover all the houses of rejoicing,
Yes, the city of exultation.
14 For the fortified tower has been forsaken;
The noisy city has been abandoned.
Ophel and the watchtower have become a permanent wasteland,
A delight for wild donkeys,
A pasture for the flocks,
15 Until the spirit is poured out on us from above,
And the wilderness becomes an orchard,
And the orchard is regarded as a forest.
16 Then justice will reside in the wilderness,
And righteousness will dwell in the orchard.
17 The result of true righteousness will be peace,
And the fruitage of true righteousness will be lasting tranquility and security.
18 My people will dwell in a peaceful abiding place,
In secure dwellings and in tranquil resting-places.
19 But the hail will flatten the forest,
And the city will be completely leveled.
20 Happy are you who sow seed alongside all waters,
Who send out the bull and the donkey.”
Chapter 33
1 Woe to you, you destroyer who has not been destroyed;
You betrayer who has not been betrayed!
When you finish destroying, you will be destroyed.
When you finish betraying, you will be betrayed.
2 O Jehovah, show us favor.
Our hope is in you.
Become our arm every morning,
Yes, our salvation in the time of distress.
3 At the sound of turmoil peoples flee.
When you rise up, nations scatter.
4 As the voracious locusts gather, so your spoil will be gathered;
People will rush on it like swarms of locusts.
5 Jehovah will be exalted,
For he resides in the heights above.
He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 He is the stability of your times;
An abundance of salvation, wisdom, knowledge, and the fear of Jehovah
—This is his treasure.
7 Look! Their heroes cry out in the street;
The messengers of peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways are deserted;
There is no one traveling on the pathways.
He has broken the covenant;
He has rejected the cities;
He shows no regard for mortal man.
9 The land mourns and withers away.
Lebanon is ashamed; it has decayed.
Sharon has become like the desert,
And Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10 “Now I will rise up,” says Jehovah,
“Now I will exalt myself;
Now I will magnify myself.
11 You conceive dried grass and give birth to stubble.
Your own spirit will consume you like a fire.
12 And peoples will become as the burnings of lime.
As thorns cut down, they will be set ablaze with fire.
13 You who are far away, listen to what I will do!
And you who are nearby, acknowledge my might!
14 The sinners in Zion are in dread;
Trembling has seized the apostates:
‘Who of us can live where there is a consuming fire?
Who of us can live with unquenchable flames?’
15 The one who walks in continual righteousness,
Who speaks what is upright,
Who rejects dishonest, fraudulent gain,
Whose hands refuse a bribe rather than grabbing it,
Who closes his ear to talk of bloodshed,
And who shuts his eyes to avoid seeing what is bad
16 —He will reside in the heights;
His secure refuge will be in rocky strongholds,
His bread will be provided,
And his water supply will never fail.”
17 Your eyes will behold a king in his splendor;
They will see a land far away.
18 In your heart you will recall the terror:
“Where is the secretary?
Where is the one who weighed out the tribute?
Where is the one who counted the towers?”
19 You will no more see the insolent people,
A people whose language is too obscure to comprehend,
Whose stammering tongue you cannot understand.
20 Behold Zion, the city of our festivals!
Your eyes will see Jerusalem as a tranquil dwelling place,
A tent that will not be moved.
Never will its tent pins be pulled out,
And none of its ropes will be torn apart.
21 But there the Majestic One, Jehovah,
Will be for us a region of rivers, of wide canals,
Where no galley fleet will go
And no majestic ships will pass by.
22 For Jehovah is our Judge,
Jehovah is our Lawgiver,
Jehovah is our King;
He is the One who will save us.
23 Your ropes will hang loose;
They cannot hold up the mast nor spread the sail.
At that time an abundance of spoil will be divided up;
Even the lame will take much plunder.
24 And no resident will say: “I am sick.”
The people dwelling in the land will be pardoned for their error.
Chapter 34
1 Come close to hear, you nations,
And pay attention, you peoples.
Let the earth and that which fills it listen,
The land and all its produce.
2 For Jehovah’s indignation is against all the nations,
And his wrath is against all their army.
He will devote them to destruction;
He will give them to the slaughter.
3 Their slain will be thrown out,
And the stench of their carcasses will ascend;
The mountains will melt because of their blood.
4 All the army of the heavens will rot away,
And the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll.
All their army will wither away,
As a withered leaf falls from the vine
And a shriveled fig from the fig tree.
5 “For in the heavens my sword will be drenched.
It will descend on Edom in judgment,
On the people whom I devoted to destruction.
6 Jehovah has a sword; it will be covered with blood.
It will be covered with the fat,
With the blood of young rams and goats,
With the kidney fat of rams.
For Jehovah has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
A great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 The wild bulls will go down with them,
The young bulls with the powerful ones.
Their land will be drenched in blood,
And their dust will be soaked with fat.”
8 For Jehovah has a day of vengeance,
A year of retribution for the legal case over Zion.
9 Her streams will be changed into pitch,
And her dust into sulfur,
And her land will become like burning pitch.
10 By night or by day it will not be extinguished;
Its smoke will keep ascending forever.
From generation to generation she will remain devastated;
No one will pass through her forever and ever.
11 The pelican and the porcupine will possess her,
And long-eared owls and ravens will reside in her.
He will stretch out over her the measuring line of emptiness
And the plumb line of desolation.
12 None of her nobles will be called to the kingship,
And all her princes will come to nothing.
13 Thorns will grow in her fortified towers,
Nettles and thorny weeds in her fortresses.
She will become a lair of jackals,
An enclosure for ostriches.
14 Desert creatures will meet up with howling animals,
And the wild goat will call to its companion.
Yes, there the nightjar will settle and find a place of rest.
15 There the arrow snake will make its nest and lay eggs,
And it will hatch them and gather them in its shadow.
Yes, there the kites will gather, each one with her mate.
16 Search in the book of Jehovah and read it out loud:
Not one of them will be missing;
None of them will be lacking a mate,
For it is the mouth of Jehovah that has given the order,
And it is his spirit that has gathered them together.
17 He is the One who has cast the lot for them,
And his own hand has measured out their assigned place.
They will possess it for all time;
They will reside in it throughout all generations.
Chapter 35
1 The wilderness and the parched land will exult,
And the desert plain will be joyful and blossom as the saffron.
2 Without fail it will blossom;
It will rejoice and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The splendor of Carmel and of Sharon.
They will see the glory of Jehovah, the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands,
And make firm the knees that are shaking.
4 Say to those who are anxious at heart:
“Be strong. Do not be afraid.
Look! Your own God will come with vengeance,
God will come with retribution.
He will come and save you.”
5 At that time the eyes of the blind will be opened,
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 At that time the lame will leap like the deer,
And the tongue of the speechless will shout for joy.
For waters will burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert plain.
7 The heat-parched ground will become a reedy pool,
And the thirsty ground springs of water.
In the lairs where jackals rested,
There will be green grass and reeds and papyrus.
8 And a highway will be there,
Yes, a way called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean one will not travel on it.
It is reserved for the one walking on the way;
No one foolish will stray onto it.
9 No lion will be there,
And no vicious wild beasts will come on it.
They will not be found there;
Only the repurchased ones will walk there.
10 Those redeemed by Jehovah will return and come to Zion with a joyful cry.
Unending joy will crown their heads.
Exultation and rejoicing will be theirs,
And grief and sighing will flee away.
Chapter 36
1 In the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib the king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 The king of Assyria then sent the Rabshakeh with a vast army from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. They took up a position by the conduit of the upper pool, which is at the highway of the laundryman’s field. 3 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came out to him.
4 So the Rabshakeh said to them: “Please, say to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is the basis for your confidence? 5 You are saying, ‘I have a strategy and the power to wage war,’ but these are empty words. In whom have you put trust, so that you dare to rebel against me? 6 Look! You trust in the support of this crushed reed, Egypt, which if a man should lean on it would enter into his palm and pierce it. That is the way Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all those who trust in him. 7 And if you should say to me, ‘We trust in Jehovah our God,’ is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, while he says to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You should bow down before this altar’?”’ 8 So now make this wager, please, with my lord the king of Assyria: I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able to find enough riders for them. 9 How, then, could you drive back even one governor who is the least of my lord’s servants, while you put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Now is it without authorization from Jehovah that I have come up against this land to destroy it? Jehovah himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”
11 At this Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the Rabshakeh: “Speak to your servants, please, in the Aramaic language, for we can understand it; do not speak to us in the language of the Jews in the hearing of the people on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said: “Is it just to your lord and to you that my lord sent me to speak these words? Is it not also to the men who sit on the wall, those who will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you?”
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in the language of the Jews, saying: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 This is what the king says, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he is not able to rescue you. 15 And do not let Hezekiah cause you to trust in Jehovah by saying: “Jehovah will surely rescue us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and surrender, and each of you will eat from his own vine and from his own fig tree and will drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Do not let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘Jehovah will rescue us.’ Have any of the gods of the nations rescued their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And have they rescued Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their land out of my hand, so that Jehovah should rescue Jerusalem out of my hand?”’”
21 But they kept silent and did not say a word to him in reply, for the order of the king was, “You must not answer him.” 22 But Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their garments ripped apart and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
Chapter 37
1 As soon as King Hezekiah heard this, he ripped his garments apart and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the household, Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him: “This is what Hezekiah says, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; for the children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to give birth. 4 Perhaps Jehovah your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his lord sent to taunt the living God, and he will call him to account for the words that Jehovah your God has heard. So offer up a prayer in behalf of the remnant who have survived.’”
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went in to Isaiah, 6 and Isaiah said to them: “This is what you should say to your lord, ‘This is what Jehovah says: “Do not be afraid because of the words that you heard, the words with which the attendants of the king of Assyria blasphemed me. 7 Here I am putting a thought in his mind, and he will hear a report and return to his own land; and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”
8 After the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had pulled away from Lachish, he returned to him and found him fighting against Libnah. 9 Now the king heard it said about King Tirhakah of Ethiopia: “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard this, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying: 10 “This is what you should say to King Hezekiah of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying: “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 11 Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria did to all the lands by devoting them to destruction. Will you alone be rescued? 12 Did the gods of the nations that my forefathers destroyed rescue them? Where are Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, and of Hena, and of Ivvah?’”
14 Hezekiah took the letters out of the hand of the messengers and read them. Hezekiah then went up to the house of Jehovah and spread them out before Jehovah. 15 And Hezekiah began to pray to Jehovah and say: 16 “O Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, sitting enthroned above the cherubs, you alone are the true God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 17 Incline your ear, O Jehovah, and hear! Open your eyes, O Jehovah, and see! Hear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to taunt the living God. 18 It is a fact, O Jehovah, that the kings of Assyria have devastated all the lands, as well as their own land. 19 And they have thrown their gods into the fire, because they were not gods but the work of human hands, wood and stone. That is why they could destroy them. 20 But now, O Jehovah our God, save us out of his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are God, O Jehovah.”
21 Isaiah son of Amoz then sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says, ‘Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria, 22 this is the word that Jehovah has spoken against him:
“The virgin daughter of Zion despises you, she scoffs at you.
The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you.
23 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
And lifted your arrogant eyes?
It is against the Holy One of Israel!
24 Through your servants you have taunted Jehovah and said,
‘With the multitude of my war chariots
I will ascend the heights of mountains,
The remotest parts of Lebanon.
I will cut down its lofty cedars, its choice juniper trees.
I will enter its highest retreats, its densest forests.
25 I will dig wells and drink waters;
I will dry up the streams of Egypt with the soles of my feet.’
26 Have you not heard? From long ago it was determined.
From days gone by I have prepared it.
Now I will bring it about.
You will turn fortified cities into desolate piles of ruins.
27 Their inhabitants will be helpless;
They will be terrified and put to shame.
They will become as vegetation of the field and green grass,
As grass of the roofs that is scorched by the east wind.
28 But I well know when you sit, when you go out, when you come in,
And when you are enraged against me,
29 Because your rage against me and your roaring have reached my ears.
So I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle between your lips,
And I will lead you back the way you came.”
30 “‘And this will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own; and in the second year, you will eat grain that sprouts from that; but in the third year you will sow seed and reap, and you will plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. 31 Those of the house of Judah who escape, those who are left, will take root downward and produce fruit upward. 32 For a remnant will go out of Jerusalem and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.
33 “‘Therefore this is what Jehovah says about the king of Assyria:
“He will not come into this city
Or shoot an arrow there
Or confront it with a shield
Or cast up a siege rampart against it.”’
34 ‘By the way he came he will return;
He will not come into this city,’ declares Jehovah.
35 ‘I will defend this city and save it for my own sake
And for the sake of my servant David.’”
36 And the angel of Jehovah went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When people rose up early in the morning, they saw all the dead bodies. 37 So King Sennacherib of Assyria departed and returned to Nineveh and stayed there. 38 And as he was bowing down at the house of his god Nisroch, his own sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and then escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon became king in his place.
Chapter 38
1 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what Jehovah says: ‘Give instructions to your household, for you will die; you will not recover.’” 2 At that Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and began to pray to Jehovah: 3 “I beg you, O Jehovah, remember, please, how I have walked before you faithfully and with a complete heart, and I have done what was good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah began to weep profusely.
4 Then the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah, saying: 5 “Go back and say to Hezekiah, ‘This is what Jehovah the God of David your forefather says: “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here I am adding 15 years to your life, 6 and I will rescue you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. 7 This is the sign from Jehovah to show you that Jehovah will carry out the word that he has spoken: 8 Here I will make the declining shadow of the sun on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.”’” So the sun went back ten steps on the stairway that it had already descended.
9 A writing of King Hezekiah of Judah when he became sick and recovered from his sickness.
10 I said: “In the middle of my life
I must go into the gates of the Grave.
I will be deprived of my remaining years.”
11 I said: “I will not see Jah, Jah in the land of the living.
I will look no more on mankind
When I am with the inhabitants of the place where everything ceases.
12 My own dwelling has been pulled out and removed from me
Like the tent of a shepherd.
I have rolled up my life like a loom worker;
He cuts me off like the threads of the warp.
From daylight to nightfall you keep bringing me to an end.
13 I calm myself until the morning.
Like a lion, he keeps breaking all my bones;
From daylight to nightfall you keep bringing me to an end.
14 Like the swift or the thrush, so I keep chirping;
I keep cooing like the dove.
My eyes look wearily to the height:
‘O Jehovah, I am in great distress;
Be my support!’
15 What can I say?
He has spoken to me and acted.
I will walk humbly all my years
Because of my bitter distress.
16 ‘O Jehovah, by these things every man lives,
And in them is the life of my spirit.
You will restore me to health and preserve me alive.
17 Look! Instead of peace, I had great bitterness;
But in your fondness for me,
You preserved me from the pit of destruction.
You have thrown all my sins behind your back.
18 For the Grave cannot glorify you,
Death cannot praise you.
Those who go down into the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living can praise you,
Just as I can this day.
A father can give his sons knowledge about your faithfulness.
20 O Jehovah, save me,
And we will play my songs on stringed instruments
All the days of our life at the house of Jehovah.’”
21 Isaiah then said: “Bring a cake of pressed dried figs and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.” 22 Hezekiah had asked: “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Jehovah?”
Chapter 39
1 At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 Hezekiah gladly welcomed them and showed them his treasure-house—the silver, the gold, the balsam oil and other precious oil, his whole armory, and everything that was to be found in his treasuries. There was nothing that Hezekiah did not show them in his own house and in all his dominion.
3 After that Isaiah the prophet came in to King Hezekiah and asked him: “What did these men say, and where did they come from?” So Hezekiah said: “They came from a distant land, from Babylon.” 4 Next he asked: “What did they see in your house?” Hezekiah replied: “They saw everything in my house. There was nothing that I did not show them in my treasuries.”
5 Isaiah now said to Hezekiah: “Hear the word of Jehovah of armies, 6 ‘Look! Days are coming, and all that is in your house and all that your forefathers have stored up to this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Jehovah. 7 ‘And some of your own sons to whom you will become father will be taken and will become court officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
8 At that Hezekiah said to Isaiah: “The word of Jehovah that you have spoken is good.” Then he added: “Because there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.”
Chapter 40
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
2 “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem,
And proclaim to her that her compulsory service has been fulfilled,
That her guilt has been paid off.
From the hand of Jehovah she has received a full amount for all her sins.”
3 A voice of one calling out in the wilderness:
“Clear up the way of Jehovah!
Make a straight highway through the desert for our God.
4 Let every valley be raised up,
And every mountain and hill be made low.
The rough ground must become level,
And the rugged ground a valley plain.
5 The glory of Jehovah will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together,
For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.”
6 Listen! Someone is saying: “Call out!”
Another asks: “What should I call out?”
“All flesh is green grass.
All their loyal love is like the blossom of the field.
7 The green grass dries up,
The blossom withers,
Because the breath of Jehovah blows upon it.
Surely the people are but green grass.
8 The green grass dries up,
The blossom withers,
But the word of our God endures forever.”
9 Go up onto a high mountain,
You woman bringing good news for Zion.
Raise your voice with power,
You woman bringing good news for Jerusalem.
Raise it, do not be afraid.
Announce to the cities of Judah: “Here is your God.”
10 Look! The Sovereign Lord Jehovah will come with power,
And his arm will rule for him.
Look! His reward is with him,
And the wage he pays is before him.
11 Like a shepherd he will care for his flock.
With his arm he will gather together the lambs,
And in his bosom he will carry them.
He will gently lead those nursing their young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
And taken the measurements of the heavens with a span of his hand?
Who has gathered in a measure the dust of the earth
Or weighed the mountains in the balances
And the hills in the scales?
13 Who has taken the measurements of the spirit of Jehovah,
And who can instruct him as his adviser?
14 With whom did he consult to gain understanding,
Or who teaches him in the path of justice,
Or teaches him knowledge,
Or shows him the way of true understanding?
15 Look! The nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And as the film of dust on the scales they are regarded.
Look! He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
16 Even Lebanon is not sufficient to keep a fire burning,
And its wild animals are not sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as something nonexistent in front of him;
He regards them as nothing, as an unreality.
18 To whom can you compare God?
What likeness can you put next to him?
19 The craftsman casts an idol,
The metalworker overlays it with gold,
And he forges silver chains.
20 He chooses a tree for his contribution,
A tree that will not rot.
He searches for a skilled craftsman
To prepare a carved image that will not topple over.
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 There is One who dwells above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He is stretching out the heavens like a fine gauze,
And he spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23 He reduces high officials to nothing
And makes the judges of the earth an unreality.
24 They are hardly planted,
They are hardly sown,
Their stem has hardly taken root in the earth,
And they are blown on and dry up,
And the wind carries them away like stubble.
25 “To whom can you liken me to make me his equal?” says the Holy One.
26 “Lift up your eyes to heaven and see.
Who has created these things?
It is the One who brings out their army by number;
He calls them all by name.
Because of his vast dynamic energy and his awe-inspiring power,
Not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you declare, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from Jehovah,
And I receive no justice from God’?
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, is a God for all eternity.
He never tires out or grows weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the tired one
And full might to those lacking strength.
30 Boys will tire out and grow weary,
And young men will stumble and fall,
31 But those hoping in Jehovah will regain power.
They will soar on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary;
They will walk and not tire out.”
Chapter 41
1 “Listen to me in silence, you islands;
Let the nations regain their strength.
Let them approach; then let them speak.
Let us come together for judgment.
2 Who has raised up someone from the sunrise,
Calling him in righteousness to His feet,
To hand over nations to him
And to make him subdue kings?
Who reduces them to dust before his sword,
Like windblown stubble before his bow?
3 He pursues them, passing along unhindered
Over paths that his feet have not traveled.
4 Who has acted and done this,
Summoning the generations from the beginning?
I, Jehovah, am the First One;
And with the last ones I am the same.”
5 The islands have seen it and have become afraid.
The ends of the earth began to tremble.
They draw near and come forward.
6 Each one helps his companion
And says to his brother: “Be strong.”
7 So the craftsman strengthens the metalworker;
The one who flattens with the forge hammer
Strengthens the one hammering at the anvil.
He says about the soldering: “It is good.”
Then it is fastened with nails so that it will not topple over.
8 “But you, O Israel, are my servant,
You, O Jacob, whom I have chosen,
The offspring of Abraham my friend,
9 You, whom I took from the ends of the earth,
And you, whom I called from its most distant parts.
I said to you, ‘You are my servant;
I have chosen you; I have not rejected you.
10 Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
Do not be anxious, for I am your God.
I will fortify you, yes, I will help you,
I will really hold on to you with my right hand of righteousness.’
11 Look! All those getting enraged against you will be put to shame and humiliated.
Those who fight with you will be brought to nothing and perish.
12 You will search for men who struggle with you, but you will not find them;
The men at war with you will become as something nonexistent, as nothing at all.
13 For I, Jehovah your God, am grasping your right hand,
The One saying to you, ‘Do not be afraid. I will help you.’
14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob,
You men of Israel, I will help you,” declares Jehovah, your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel.
15 “Look! I have made you a threshing sledge,
A new threshing instrument with double-edged teeth.
You will tread down the mountains and crush them
And make the hills like chaff.
16 You will winnow them,
And the wind will carry them away;
A windstorm will scatter them.
You will be joyful in Jehovah,
And you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.”
17 “The needy and the poor are seeking water, but there is none.
Their tongue is dry from thirst.
I, Jehovah, will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.
18 I will make rivers flow on the bare hills
And springs in the valley plains.
I will turn the wilderness into a reedy pool of water
And the waterless land into springs of water.
19 In the desert I will plant the cedar tree,
The acacia and the myrtle and the pine tree.
In the desert plain I will plant the juniper tree,
Together with the ash and the cypress tree,
20 So that all people may see and know
And pay attention and understand
That the hand of Jehovah has done this,
And the Holy One of Israel has created it.”
21 “Present your case,” says Jehovah.
“Produce your arguments,” says the King of Jacob.
22 “Produce evidence and tell us the things that will happen.
Do tell us about the former things,
So that we may reflect on them and know their outcome.
Or declare to us the things that are coming.
23 Tell us what will happen in the future,
So that we may know that you are gods.
Yes, do something, good or bad,
So that we may be amazed when we see it.
24 Look! You are something nonexistent,
And your achievement is nothing.
Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
25 I have raised up someone from the north, and he will come,
One from the rising of the sun who will call on my name.
He will trample rulers as if they were clay,
Like a potter who treads moist clay.
26 Who told about this from the beginning, so that we could know,
Or from times past, so that we could say, ‘He is right’?
Indeed, no one announced it!
No one declared it!
No one heard anything from you!”
27 I was the first to say to Zion: “Look! Here they are!”
And to Jerusalem I will send a bearer of good news.
28 But I kept looking, and there was no one;
There was not one among them to give advice.
And I kept asking them to reply.
29 Look! All of them are a delusion.
Their works are nothing.
Their metal images are wind and unreality.
Chapter 42
1 Look! My servant, whom I support!
My chosen one, whom I have approved!
I have put my spirit in him;
He will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry out or raise his voice,
And he will not make his voice heard in the street.
3 No crushed reed will he break,
And no smoldering wick will he extinguish.
In faithfulness he will bring justice.
4 He will not grow dim or be crushed until he establishes justice in the earth;
And the islands keep waiting for his law.
5 This is what the true God, Jehovah, says,
The Creator of the heavens and the Grand One who stretched them out,
The One who spread out the earth and its produce,
The One who gives breath to the people on it
And spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “I, Jehovah, have called you in righteousness;
I have taken hold of your hand.
I will safeguard you and give you as a covenant for the people
And as a light of the nations,
7 For you to open the blind eyes,
To bring the prisoner out of the dungeon
And those sitting in darkness out of the prison.
8 I am Jehovah. That is my name;
I give my glory to no one else,
Nor my praise to graven images.
9 See, the first things have come to pass;
Now I am declaring new things.
Before they spring up, I tell you about them.”
10 Sing to Jehovah a new song,
His praise from the ends of the earth,
You who go down to the sea and all that fills it,
You islands and their inhabitants.
11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voice,
The settlements where Kedar dwells.
Let the inhabitants of the crag shout joyfully;
Let them cry out from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them attribute glory to Jehovah
And declare his praise in the islands.
13 Jehovah will go out like a mighty man.
He will awaken his zeal like a warrior.
He will shout, yes, he will let out a war cry;
He will show himself mightier than his enemies.
14 “I have kept quiet for a long time.
I remained silent and restrained myself.
Like a woman giving birth,
I will groan, pant, and gasp all at once.
15 I will devastate mountains and hills
And dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn rivers into islands
And dry up reedy pools of water.
16 I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know
And cause them to tread on unfamiliar paths.
I will turn the darkness before them into light
And turn the rugged terrain into level land.
This is what I will do for them, and I will not abandon them.”
17 They will be turned back and will be utterly put to shame,
Those who trust in carved images,
Those who say to metal statues: “You are our gods.”
18 Listen, you who are deaf;
Look and see, you who are blind.
19 Who is blind except my servant,
So deaf as the messenger I send?
Who is so blind as the one rewarded,
So blind as the servant of Jehovah?
20 You see many things, but you do not keep watch.
You open your ears, but you do not listen.
21 For the sake of his righteousness,
Jehovah has taken pleasure in magnifying the law and making it glorious.
22 But this is a people plundered and pillaged;
All of them are trapped in the holes and hidden in the prisons.
They have been plundered with no one to rescue them,
And pillaged with no one to say: “Bring them back!”
23 Who among you will hear this?
Who will pay attention and listen for the time to come?
24 Who has given Jacob for pillage
And Israel to the plunderers?
Is it not Jehovah, the One against whom we sinned?
In His ways they refused to walk,
And His law they would not obey.
25 So He kept pouring out on him wrath,
His anger and the fury of war.
It consumed everything around him, but he paid no attention.
It blazed up against him, but he would not take it to heart.
Chapter 43
1 Now this is what Jehovah says,
Your Creator, O Jacob, the One who formed you, O Israel:
“Do not be afraid, for I have repurchased you.
I have called you by your name.
You belong to me.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
And through the rivers, they will not flood over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame singe you.
3 For I am Jehovah your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I have given Egypt as a ransom for you,
Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
4 For you became precious in my eyes,
You were honored, and I have loved you.
So I will give people in place of you
And nations in exchange for your life.
5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east
And gather you together from the west.
6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.
Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth,
7 Everyone who is called by my name
And whom I created for my own glory,
Whom I have formed and made.’
8 Bring out a people who are blind, though they have eyes,
And who are deaf, though they have ears.
9 Let all the nations assemble in one place,
And let the peoples be gathered together.
Who among them can tell this?
Or can they cause us to hear the first things?
Let them present their witnesses to prove themselves right,
Or let them hear and say, ‘It is the truth!’”
10 “You are my witnesses,” declares Jehovah,
“Yes, my servant whom I have chosen,
So that you may know and have faith in me
And understand that I am the same One.
Before me no God was formed,
And after me there has been none.
11 I—I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior.”
12 “I am the One who declared and saved and made known
When there was no foreign god among you.
So you are my witnesses,” declares Jehovah, “and I am God.
13 Also, I am always the same One;
And no one can snatch anything out of my hand.
When I act, who can prevent it?”
14 This is what Jehovah says, your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel:
“For your sakes I will send to Babylon and bring down all the bars of the gates,
And the Chaldeans, in their ships, will cry out in distress.
15 I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”
16 This is what Jehovah says,
The One making a way through the sea
And a path even through turbulent waters,
17 The One who draws out the war chariot and the horse,
The army together with the mighty warriors:
“They will lie down and not get up.
They will be extinguished, snuffed out like a burning wick.”
18 “Do not remember the former things,
And do not dwell on the past.
19 Look! I am doing something new;
Even now it is springing up.
Do you not recognize it?
I will make a way through the wilderness
And rivers through the desert.
20 The wild beast of the field will honor me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
For I provide water in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert,
For my people, my chosen one, to drink,
21 The people whom I formed for myself
So that they might declare my praise.
22 But you have not called on me, O Jacob,
Because you grew weary of me, O Israel.
23 You have not brought me sheep for your whole burnt offerings
Or glorified me with your sacrifices.
I have not compelled you to bring me a gift,
Nor have I made you weary by demanding frankincense.
24 You did not buy me sweet cane with your money,
And with the fat of your sacrifices you did not satisfy me.
Instead, you have burdened me with your sins
And made me weary with your errors.
25 I, I am the One who is blotting out your transgressions for my own sake,
And I will not remember your sins.
26 Remind me; let us bring our case against each other;
Tell your side of it to prove you are in the right.
27 Your first forefather sinned,
And your own spokesmen have rebelled against me.
28 So I will profane the princes of the holy place,
And I will give Jacob over to destruction
And subject Israel to insulting words.
Chapter 44
1 “Now listen, O Jacob my servant,
And you, O Israel, whom I have chosen.
2 This is what Jehovah says,
Your Maker and the One who formed you,
Who has helped you from the womb:
‘Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob,
And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour out water on the thirsty one
And flowing streams on the dry ground.
I will pour out my spirit on your offspring
And my blessing on your descendants.
4 And they will spring up as among the green grass,
Like poplars by the streams of water.
5 One will say: “I belong to Jehovah.”
Another will call himself by the name of Jacob,
And yet another will write on his hand: “Belonging to Jehovah.”
And he will adopt the name of Israel.’
6 This is what Jehovah says,
The King of Israel and his Repurchaser, Jehovah of armies:
‘I am the first and I am the last.
There is no God but me.
7 Who is there like me?
Let him call out and tell it and prove it to me!
From the time I established the people of long ago,
Let them tell both the things to come
And what will yet happen.
8 Do not be in dread,
And do not become paralyzed with fear.
Have I not told each of you beforehand and declared it?
You are my witnesses.
Is there any God but me?
No, there is no other Rock; I know of none.’”
9 All who form carved images amount to nothing,
And their cherished objects will be of no benefit.
As their witnesses, they see nothing and know nothing,
So those who made them will be put to shame.
10 Who would form a god or cast a metal image
That can bring no benefit?
11 Look! All his associates will be put to shame!
The craftsmen are mere humans.
Let them all assemble and take their stand.
They will be terrified and be put to shame together.
12 The metalsmith works the iron over the coals with his tool.
He forms it with hammers,
Working it with his powerful arm.
Then he grows hungry and his strength fails;
He drinks no water and grows tired.
13 The wood-carver stretches the measuring line, tracing out the pattern with red chalk.
He works it with a wood scraper and traces it with a compass.
He patterns it after a man,
With the beauty of a man,
To sit in a house.
14 There is one whose work is to cut down cedars.
He selects a certain type of tree, an oak,
And he lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest.
He plants a laurel tree, and the rain makes it grow.
15 Then it becomes fuel for a man to make fires.
He takes part of it to warm himself;
He builds a fire and bakes bread.
But he also makes a god and worships it.
He makes it into a carved image, and he bows down before it.
16 Half of it he burns up in a fire;
With that half he roasts the meat that he eats, and he is satisfied.
He also warms himself and says:
“Ah! I am warm as I watch the fire.”
17 But the rest of it he makes into a god, into his carved image.
He bows down to it and worships it.
He prays to it and says:
“Save me, for you are my god.”
18 They know nothing, they understand nothing,
Because their eyes are sealed shut and they cannot see,
And their heart has no insight.
19 No one reflects in his heart
Or has knowledge or understanding, saying:
“Half of it I burned up in a fire,
And on its coals I baked bread and roasted meat to eat.
Should I, then, make the rest of it into a detestable thing?
Should I worship a block of wood from a tree?”
20 He feeds on ashes.
His own deluded heart has led him astray.
He cannot save himself, nor does he say:
“Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
21 “Remember these things, O Jacob, and you, O Israel,
For you are my servant.
I formed you, and you are my servant.
O Israel, I will not forget you.
22 I will blot out your transgressions as with a cloud
And your sins as with a thick cloud.
Return to me, for I will repurchase you.
23 Shout joyfully, you heavens,
For Jehovah has acted!
Shout in triumph, you depths of the earth!
Shout for joy, you mountains,
You forest, and all your trees!
For Jehovah has repurchased Jacob,
And on Israel he displays his splendor.”
24 This is what Jehovah says, your Repurchaser,
Who formed you since you were in the womb:
“I am Jehovah, who made everything.
I stretched out the heavens by myself,
And I spread out the earth.
Who was with me?
25 I am frustrating the signs of the empty talkers,
And I am the One who makes diviners act like fools;
The One confounding the wise men
And turning their knowledge into foolishness;
26 The One making the word of his servant come true
And completely fulfilling the predictions of his messengers;
The One saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited,’
And of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt,
And I will restore her ruins’;
27 The One saying to the deep waters, ‘Be evaporated,
And I will dry up all your rivers’;
28 The One saying of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
And he will completely carry out all my will’;
The One saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’
And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”
Chapter 45
1 This is what Jehovah says to his anointed one, to Cyrus,
Whose right hand I have taken hold of
To subdue nations before him,
To disarm kings,
To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:
2 “Before you I will go,
And the hills I will level.
The copper doors I will break in pieces,
And the iron bars I will cut down.
3 I will give you the treasures in the darkness
And the hidden treasures in the concealed places,
So that you may know that I am Jehovah,
The God of Israel, who is calling you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob and of Israel my chosen one,
I am calling you by your name.
I am giving you a name of honor, although you did not know me.
5 I am Jehovah, and there is no one else.
There is no God except me.
I will strengthen you, although you did not know me,
6 In order that people may know
From the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides me.
I am Jehovah, and there is no one else.
7 I form light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, Jehovah, am doing all these things.
8 You heavens, rain down from above;
Let the clouds pour down righteousness.
Let the earth open up and be fruitful with salvation,
And let it cause righteousness to spring up at the same time.
I, Jehovah, have created it.”
9 Woe to the one who contends with his Maker,
For he is just an earthenware fragment
Among the other earthenware fragments lying on the ground!
Should the clay say to the Potter: “What are you making?”
Or should your work say: “He has no hands”?
10 Woe to the one who says to a father: “What do you become father to?”
And to a woman: “What are you giving birth to?”
11 This is what Jehovah says, the Holy One of Israel, the One who formed him:
“Would you question me about the things coming
And command me about my sons and the works of my hands?
12 I made the earth and created man on it.
I stretched out the heavens with my own hands,
And I give orders to all their army.”
13 “I have raised up a man in righteousness,
And I will make all his ways straight.
He is the one who will build my city
And set my exiles free without a price or a bribe,” says Jehovah of armies.
14 This is what Jehovah says:
“The profit of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans, tall of stature,
Will come over to you and become yours.
They will walk behind you in chains.
They will come over and bow down to you.
To you they will say in prayer, ‘Surely God is with you,
And there is no one else; there is no other God.’”
15 Truly you are a God who conceals himself,
O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 They will all be put to shame and be humiliated;
The makers of idols will all go off in disgrace.
17 But Israel will be saved by Jehovah with an everlasting salvation.
You will not be put to shame or disgraced for all eternity.
18 For this is what Jehovah says,
The Creator of the heavens, the true God,
The One who formed the earth, its Maker who firmly established it,
Who did not create it simply for nothing, but formed it to be inhabited:
“I am Jehovah, and there is no one else.
19 I did not speak in a concealed place, in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘Seek me simply for nothing.’
I am Jehovah, who speaks what is righteous and declares what is upright.
20 Gather together and come.
Approach together, you escapees from the nations.
They know nothing, those who carry around carved images
And pray to a god that cannot save them.
21 Make your report, present your case.
Let them consult together in unity.
Who foretold this long ago
And declared it from times past?
Is it not I, Jehovah?
There is no other God but me;
A righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides me.
22 Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth,
For I am God, and there is no one else.
23 By myself I have sworn;
The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness,
And it will not return:
To me every knee will bend,
Every tongue will swear loyalty
24 And say, ‘Surely in Jehovah are true righteousness and strength.
All those enraged against him will come before him in shame.
25 In Jehovah all the offspring of Israel will prove to be right,
And in him they will make their boast.’”
Chapter 46
1 Bel bends down, Nebo stoops over.
Their idols are loaded on animals, on beasts of burden,
Like baggage that burdens the weary animals.
2 They stoop and bend down together;
They cannot rescue the loads,
And they themselves go into captivity.
3 “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all you who remain of the house of Israel,
You whom I have supported from birth and carried from the womb.
4 Until you grow old I will be the same;
Until your hair is gray I will keep bearing you.
As I have done, I will carry you and bear you and rescue you.
5 To whom will you liken me or make me equal or compare me,
So that we should resemble each other?
6 There are those who lavish gold from their purse;
They weigh out the silver on the scale.
They hire a metalworker, and he makes it into a god.
Then they prostrate themselves, yes, they worship it.
7 They lift it to their shoulders;
They carry it and put it in its place, and it just stands there.
It does not move from its place.
They cry out to it, but it does not answer;
It cannot rescue anyone from distress.
8 Remember this, and take courage.
Take it to heart, you transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of long ago,
That I am God, and there is no other.
I am God, and there is no one like me.
10 From the beginning I foretell the outcome,
And from long ago the things that have not yet been done.
I say, ‘My decision will stand,
And I will do whatever I please.’
11 I am calling a bird of prey from the sunrise,
From a distant land the man to carry out my decision.
I have spoken, and I will bring it about.
I have purposed it, and I will also carry it out.
12 Listen to me, you who are stubborn of heart,
You who are far away from righteousness.
13 I have brought my righteousness near;
It is not far away,
And my salvation will not delay.
I will grant salvation in Zion, my splendor to Israel.”
Chapter 47
1 Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon.
Sit down on the ground where there is no throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans,
For never again will people call you delicate and pampered.
2 Take a hand mill and grind flour.
Remove your veil.
Strip off your skirt, uncover your legs.
Cross over the rivers.
3 Your nakedness will be uncovered.
Your shame will be exposed.
I will take vengeance, and no man will stand in my way.
4 “The One repurchasing us
—Jehovah of armies is his name—
Is the Holy One of Israel.”
5 Sit there silently and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
No more will they call you Mistress of Kingdoms.
6 I grew indignant at my people.
I profaned my inheritance,
And I gave them into your hand.
But you showed them no mercy.
Even on the elderly you placed a heavy yoke.
7 You said: “I will always be the Mistress, forever.”
You did not take these things to heart;
You did not consider how the matter would end.
8 Now hear this, O lover of pleasure,
Who sits in security, who says in her heart:
“I am the one, and there is no one else.
I will not become a widow.
I will never know the loss of children.”
9 But these two things will come upon you suddenly, in one day:
Loss of children and widowhood.
In full measure they will come upon you
Because of your many sorceries and all your powerful spells.
10 You trusted in your wickedness.
You said: “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and knowledge are what led you astray,
And you say in your heart: “I am the one, and there is no one else.”
11 But calamity will come upon you,
And none of your charms will stop it.
Adversity will befall you; you will not be able to avert it.
Sudden ruin will come upon you like you have never known.
12 Go ahead, then, with your spells and your many sorceries,
With which you have toiled from your youth.
Perhaps you may be able to benefit;
Perhaps you may strike people with awe.
13 You have grown weary with the multitude of your advisers.
Let them stand up now and save you,
Those who worship the heavens, who gaze at the stars,
Those giving out knowledge at the new moons
About the things that will come upon you.
14 Look! They are like stubble.
A fire will burn them up.
They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame.
These are not charcoals for keeping warm,
And this is not a fire to sit in front of.
15 So your charmers will become to you,
Those with whom you toiled from your youth.
They will wander, each one in his own direction.
There will be no one to save you.
Chapter 48
1 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
You who call yourselves by the name of Israel
And who have come from the waters of Judah,
You who swear by the name of Jehovah
And who call on the God of Israel,
Though not in truth and righteousness.
2 For they call themselves after the holy city
And seek the support of the God of Israel,
Whose name is Jehovah of armies.
3 “The former things I told you long ago.
From my own mouth they went out,
And I made them known.
Suddenly I took action, and they came about.
4 Because I knew how stubborn you are
—That your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead is copper—
5 I told you long ago.
Before it came about, I caused you to hear it,
So that you could not say, ‘My idol did this;
My carved image and my metal image commanded this.’
6 You have heard and seen all of this.
Will you not declare it?
From now on I am announcing new things to you,
Guarded secrets that you have not known.
7 Only now are they being created, and not long ago,
Things that you never heard before today,
So that you cannot say, ‘Look! I already know them.’
8 No, you have not heard, you have not known,
And in the past your ears were not opened.
For I know that you are very treacherous,
And you have been called a transgressor from birth.
9 But for the sake of my name I will hold back my anger;
For my own praise I will restrain myself toward you,
And I will not do away with you.
10 Look! I have refined you, but not in the form of silver.
I have tested you in the smelting furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake I will act,
For how could I let myself be profaned?
I give my glory to no one else.
12 Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I have called.
I am the same One. I am the first; I am also the last.
13 My own hand laid the foundation of the earth,
And my right hand spread out the heavens.
When I call to them, they stand up together.
14 Gather together, all of you, and listen.
Who among them has announced these things?
Jehovah has loved him.
He will carry out his delight against Babylon,
And his arm will come against the Chaldeans.
15 I myself have spoken, and I have called him.
I have brought him, and his way will be successful.
16 Come near to me, and hear this.
From the very start I have not spoken in secret.
From the time it happened I was there.”
And now the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has sent me, and his spirit.
17 This is what Jehovah says, your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel:
“I, Jehovah, am your God,
The One teaching you to benefit yourself,
The One guiding you in the way you should walk.
18 If only you would pay attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would become just like a river
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your offspring would be as many as the sand
And your descendants as its grains.
Their name would never be cut off or annihilated from before me.”
20 Go out from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
Announce it with a joyful cry! Proclaim it!
Make it known to the ends of the earth.
Say: “Jehovah has repurchased his servant Jacob.
21 They did not become thirsty when he led them through devastated places.
He caused water to flow out of the rock for them;
He split a rock and made water gush out.”
22 “There is no peace,” says Jehovah, “for the wicked.”
Chapter 49
1 Listen to me, you islands,
And pay attention, you faraway nations.
Jehovah has called me before I was born.
From the time I was in my mother’s womb he has made mention of my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.
He made me a polished arrow;
He concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me: “You are my servant, O Israel,
Through whom I will show my splendor.”
4 But I said: “I have toiled for nothing.
I used up my strength for an unreality, in vain.
But surely my judgment is with Jehovah,
And my wages with my God.”
5 And now Jehovah, the One who formed me from the womb as his servant,
Has said for me to bring Jacob back to him,
So that Israel may be gathered to him.
I will be glorified in the eyes of Jehovah,
And my God will have become my strength.
6 And he said: “It is not enough that you are my servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob
And to bring back those who were preserved of Israel.
I have also given you as a light of nations,
So that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.”
7 This is what Jehovah, the Repurchaser of Israel, his Holy One, says to the one who is despised, to the one who is detested by the nation, to the servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise up,
And princes will bow down
Because of Jehovah, who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8 This is what Jehovah says:
“In a time of favor I answered you,
And in a day of salvation I helped you;
I kept safeguarding you to give you as a covenant for the people,
To rehabilitate the land,
To cause them to possess their desolate inheritances,
9 To say to the prisoners, ‘Come out!’
And to those in the darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’
By the roadways they will feed,
Along all the worn paths will be their pastures.
10 They will not go hungry, nor will they thirst,
Nor will scorching heat or the sun beat down on them.
For the One who has mercy on them will lead them,
And he will guide them by the springs of water.
11 I will make all my mountains into a road,
And my highways will be raised up.
12 Look! These are coming from far away,
And look! these from the north and from the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Shout for joy, you heavens, and rejoice, you earth.
Let the mountains become cheerful with a joyful cry.
For Jehovah has comforted his people,
And he shows mercy to his own afflicted ones.
14 But Zion kept saying:
“Jehovah has abandoned me, and Jehovah has forgotten me.”
15 Can a woman forget her nursing child
Or have no compassion for the son of her womb?
Even if these women forget, I would never forget you.
16 Look! On my palms I have engraved you.
Your walls are always before me.
17 Your sons hurry back.
Those who tore you down and devastated you will depart from you.
18 Raise your eyes and look all around.
They are all gathering together.
They are coming to you.
“As surely as I am living,” declares Jehovah,
“You will clothe yourself with all of them as with ornaments,
And you will fasten them on yourself as a bride does.
19 Although your places were devastated and desolate and your land was in ruins,
Now it will become too cramped for those dwelling there,
And those who swallowed you down will be far away.
20 The sons born when you were bereaved will say in your hearing,
‘This place is too cramped for me.
Make room for me to dwell here.’
21 And you will say in your heart,
‘Who has fathered these for me,
Since I am a woman bereaved of children and barren,
Exiled and taken prisoner?
Who has raised these?
Look! I was left all alone,
So where have these come from?’”
22 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says:
“Look! I will raise up my hand to the nations,
And I will lift up my signal to the peoples.
They will bring your sons in their arms
And carry your daughters on their shoulders.
23 Kings will become caretakers for you,
And their princesses will be your nurses.
They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground
And lick the dust of your feet,
And you will have to know that I am Jehovah;
Those hoping in me will not be put to shame.”
24 Can those already captured be taken from a mighty man,
Or can the captives of the tyrant be rescued?
25 But this is what Jehovah says:
“Even the captives of a mighty man will be taken away,
And those captured by the tyrant will be rescued.
I will oppose those who oppose you,
And I will save your own sons.
26 I will make those who mistreat you eat their own flesh,
And as with sweet wine, they will become drunk with their own blood.
And all people will have to know that I am Jehovah,
Your Savior and your Repurchaser,
The Powerful One of Jacob.”
Chapter 50
1 This is what Jehovah says:
“Where is the divorce certificate of your mother, whom I sent away?
Or to which of my creditors did I sell you?
Look! It was because of your own errors you were sold,
And because of your own transgressions your mother was sent away.
2 Why, then, was no one here when I came?
Why did no one answer when I called?
Is my hand too short to redeem,
Or is there no power in me to rescue?
Look! With my rebuke I dry up the sea;
I make rivers a desert.
Their fish rot for lack of water,
And they die because of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with gloom,
And I make sackcloth their covering.”
4 The Sovereign Lord Jehovah has given me the tongue of those taught,
So that I may know how to answer the tired one with the right word.
He awakens me morning by morning;
He awakens my ear to listen like the taught ones.
5 The Sovereign Lord Jehovah has opened my ear,
And I was not rebellious.
I did not turn in the opposite direction.
6 I offered my back to those striking me
And my cheeks to those who plucked them bare.
I did not hide my face from humiliating things and from spit.
7 But the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will help me.
That is why I will not feel humiliated.
That is why I have set my face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be put to shame.
8 The One who declares me righteous is near.
Who can accuse me?
Let us stand up together.
Who has a case against me?
Let him approach me.
9 Look! The Sovereign Lord Jehovah will help me.
Who will pronounce me guilty?
Look! They will all wear out like a garment.
A moth will eat them up.
10 Who among you fears Jehovah
And listens to the voice of his servant?
Who has walked in deep darkness, without any brightness?
Let him trust in the name of Jehovah and support himself on his God.
11 “Look! All of you who are igniting a fire,
Making sparks fly,
Walk in the light of your fire,
Among the sparks you have set ablaze.
This is what you will have from my hand:
In sheer pain you will lie down.
Chapter 51
1 “Listen to me, you who are pursuing righteousness,
You who are seeking Jehovah.
Look to the rock from which you were hewn
And to the quarry from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father
And to Sarah who gave birth to you.
For he was only one when I called him,
And I blessed him and made him many.
3 For Jehovah will comfort Zion.
He will bring comfort to all her ruins,
And he will make her wilderness like Eden
And her desert plain like the garden of Jehovah.
Exultation and rejoicing will be found in her,
Thanksgiving and melodious song.
4 Pay attention to me, O my people,
And give ear to me, my nation.
For a law will go out from me,
And my justice I will establish as a light to the peoples.
5 My righteousness draws near.
My salvation will go out,
And my arms will judge the peoples.
In me the islands will hope,
And for my arm they will wait.
6 Raise your eyes to the heavens,
And look at the earth below.
For the heavens will disperse in fragments like smoke;
The earth will wear out like a garment,
And its inhabitants will die like gnats.
But my salvation will be eternal,
And my righteousness will never fail.
7 Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
The people with my law in their heart.
Do not be afraid of the taunts of mortal men,
And do not be terrified because of their insults.
8 For a moth will eat them up just like a garment;
The clothes moth will devour them like wool.
But my righteousness will last forever,
And my salvation for all generations.”
9 Awake! Awake! Clothe yourself with strength,
O arm of Jehovah!
Awake as in the days of long ago, as in past generations.
Was it not you who broke Rahab to pieces,
Who pierced the sea monster?
10 Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the vast deep?
The one who made the depths of the sea a roadway for the repurchased ones to cross?
11 The redeemed ones of Jehovah will return.
They will come to Zion with a joyful cry,
And unending joy will crown them.
Exultation and rejoicing will be theirs,
And grief and sighing will flee away.
12 “I myself am the One comforting you.
Why should you be afraid of a mortal man who will die
And of a son of man who will wither like green grass?
13 Why do you forget Jehovah your Maker,
The One who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth?
And all day long you were in constant fear of the rage of the oppressor,
As though he were in a position to bring you to ruin.
Where, now, is the rage of the oppressor?
14 The one bent over in chains will soon be set free;
He will not die and go into the pit,
Nor will his bread be lacking.
15 But I am Jehovah your God,
Who stirs up the sea and makes its waves boisterous
—Jehovah of armies is his name.
16 I will put my words in your mouth,
And with the shadow of my hand I will cover you,
In order to plant the heavens and to lay the foundation of the earth
And to say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’
17 Awake! Awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem,
You who have drunk from the hand of Jehovah his cup of wrath.
You have drunk the goblet;
You have drained out the cup causing staggering.
18 Not one of all the sons whom she bore is there to guide her,
And not one of all the sons whom she raised has taken hold of her hand.
19 These two things have befallen you.
Who will sympathize with you?
Destruction and devastation, hunger and sword!
Who will comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted.
They lie down at every street corner
Like wild sheep in the net.
They are full of the wrath of Jehovah, the rebuke of your God.”
21 So please listen to this,
O woman afflicted and drunk, though not with wine.
22 This is what your Lord Jehovah says, your God who defends his people:
“Look! I will take from your hand the cup causing staggering,
The goblet, my cup of wrath;
You will never drink it again.
23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
Those who said to you, ‘Bow down so that we may walk over you!’
So you made your back like the ground,
Like a street for them to walk on.”
Chapter 52
1 Awake! Awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O Zion!
Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city!
For no more will the uncircumcised and unclean one enter into you.
2 Shake off the dust, rise and take a seat, O Jerusalem.
Loosen the bonds on your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For this is what Jehovah says:
“You were sold for nothing,
And without money you will be repurchased.”
4 For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says:
“At first my people went down to Egypt to live there as foreigners;
Then Assyria oppressed them without cause.”
5 “What, then, should I do here?” declares Jehovah.
“For my people were taken for nothing.
Those ruling over them keep howling in triumph,” declares Jehovah,
“And constantly, all day long, my name is treated with disrespect.
6 For that reason my people will know my name;
For that reason they will know in that day that I am the One speaking.
Look, it is I!”
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the one bringing good news,
The one proclaiming peace,
The one bringing good news of something better,
The one proclaiming salvation,
The one saying to Zion: “Your God has become King!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen raise their voice.
In unison they shout joyfully,
For they will see it clearly when Jehovah gathers back Zion.
9 Become cheerful, shout joyfully in unison, you ruins of Jerusalem,
For Jehovah has comforted his people; he has repurchased Jerusalem.
10 Jehovah has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations;
All the ends of the earth will see the acts of salvation of our God.
11 Turn away, turn away, get out of there, touch nothing unclean!
Get out from the midst of her, keep yourselves clean,
You who are carrying the utensils of Jehovah.
12 For you will not depart in panic,
Nor will you have to flee,
For Jehovah will go ahead of you,
And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
13 Look! My servant will act with insight.
He will be raised up high,
He will be elevated and greatly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who stared at him in amazement
—For his appearance was disfigured more than that of any other man
And his stately form more than that of mankind—
15 So he will startle many nations.
Kings will shut their mouths before him,
Because they will see what they had not been told
And give consideration to what they had not heard.
Chapter 53
1 Who has put faith in the thing heard from us?
And as for the arm of Jehovah, to whom has it been revealed?
2 He will come up like a twig before him, like a root out of parched land.
No stately form does he have, nor any splendor;
And when we see him, his appearance does not draw us to him.
3 He was despised and was avoided by men,
A man who was meant for pains and was familiar with sickness.
It was as if his face were hidden from us.
He was despised, and we held him as of no account.
4 Truly he himself carried our sicknesses,
And he bore our pains.
But we considered him as plagued, stricken by God and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgression;
He was crushed for our errors.
He bore the punishment for our peace,
And because of his wounds we were healed.
6 Like sheep we have all wandered about,
Each has turned his own way,
And Jehovah has caused the error of us all to meet up with him.
7 He was oppressed and he let himself be afflicted,
But he would not open his mouth.
He was brought like a sheep to the slaughter,
Like a ewe that is silent before its shearers,
And he would not open his mouth.
8 Because of restraint and judgment he was taken away;
And who will concern himself with the details of his generation?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
Because of the transgression of my people he received the stroke.
9 And he was given a burial place with the wicked,
And with the rich in his death,
Although he had done no wrong
And there was no deception in his mouth.
10 But it was Jehovah’s will to crush him, and he let him become sick.
If you will present his life as a guilt offering,
He will see his offspring, he will prolong his days,
And through him the delight of Jehovah will have success.
11 Because of his anguish, he will see and be satisfied.
By means of his knowledge the righteous one, my servant,
Will bring a righteous standing to many people,
And their errors he will bear.
12 For that reason I will assign him a portion among the many,
And he will apportion the spoil with the mighty,
Because he poured out his life even to death
And was counted among the transgressors;
He carried the sin of many people,
And he interceded for the transgressors.
Chapter 54
1 “Shout joyfully, you barren woman who has not given birth!
Become cheerful and cry out for joy, you who never had birth pains,
For the sons of the desolate one are more numerous
Than the sons of the woman with a husband,” says Jehovah.
2 “Make the place of your tent more spacious.
Stretch out the tent cloths of your grand tabernacle.
Do not hold back, lengthen your tent cords,
And make your tent pins strong.
3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left.
Your offspring will take possession of nations,
And they will inhabit the desolated cities.
4 Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame;
And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disappointed.
For you will forget the shame of your youth,
And the disgrace of your widowhood you will remember no more.”
5 “For your Grand Maker is as your husband,
Jehovah of armies is his name,
And the Holy One of Israel is your Repurchaser.
He will be called the God of the whole earth.
6 For Jehovah called you as if you were an abandoned wife and grief-stricken,
Like a wife married in youth and then rejected,” says your God.
7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you,
But with great mercy I will gather you back.
8 In a flood of indignation I hid my face from you for a moment,
But with everlasting loyal love I will have mercy on you,” says your Repurchaser, Jehovah.
9 “This is like the days of Noah to me.
Just as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more cover the earth,
So I swear that I will no more become indignant toward you or rebuke you.
10 For the mountains may be removed
And the hills may be shaken,
But my loyal love will not be removed from you,
Nor will my covenant of peace be shaken,” says Jehovah, the One having mercy on you.
11 “O afflicted woman, storm-tossed, uncomforted,
I am laying your stones with hard mortar
And your foundation with sapphires.
12 I will make your battlements of rubies,
Your gates of sparkling stones,
And all your boundaries of precious stones.
13 And all your sons will be taught by Jehovah,
And the peace of your sons will be abundant.
14 You will be firmly established in righteousness.
You will be far removed from oppression,
You will fear nothing and have no cause for terror,
For it will not come near you.
15 If anyone should attack you,
It will not be at my orders.
Whoever makes an attack on you will fall because of you.”
16 “Look! I myself created the craftsman,
Who blows on the charcoal fire,
And his work produces a weapon.
I myself also created the destructive man to bring ruin.
17 No weapon formed against you will have any success,
And you will condemn any tongue that rises up against you in the judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah,
And their righteousness is from me,” declares Jehovah.
Chapter 55
1 Come, all you thirsty ones, come to the water!
You with no money, come, buy and eat!
Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why do you keep paying out money for what is not bread,
And why spend your earnings for what brings no satisfaction?
Listen intently to me, and eat what is good,
And you will find great delight in what is truly rich.
3 Incline your ear and come to me.
Listen, and you will keep alive,
And I will readily make with you an everlasting covenant
In harmony with the expressions of loyal love to David, which are faithful.
4 Look! I made him a witness to the nations,
A leader and commander to the nations.
5 Look! You will call a nation that you do not know,
And those of a nation who have not known you will run to you
For the sake of Jehovah your God, the Holy One of Israel,
Because he will glorify you.
6 Search for Jehovah while he may be found.
Call to him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked man leave his way
And the evil man his thoughts;
Let him return to Jehovah, who will have mercy on him,
To our God, for he will forgive in a large way.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
And your ways are not my ways,” declares Jehovah.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So my ways are higher than your ways
And my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For just as the rain and the snow pour down from heaven
And do not return there until they saturate the earth, making it produce and sprout,
Giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 So my word that goes out of my mouth will be.
It will not return to me without results,
But it will certainly accomplish whatever is my delight,
And it will have sure success in what I send it to do.
12 For you will go out with rejoicing,
And in peace you will be brought back.
The mountains and the hills will become cheerful before you with a joyful cry,
And the trees of the field will all clap their hands.
13 Instead of thornbushes the juniper tree will grow,
And instead of the stinging nettle the myrtle tree will grow.
And it will bring fame to Jehovah,
An everlasting sign that will never perish.”
Chapter 56
1 This is what Jehovah says:
“Uphold justice, and do what is righteous,
For my salvation will soon come
And my righteousness will be revealed.
2 Happy is the man who does this
And the son of man who holds fast to it,
Who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it
And who holds his hand back from any kind of evil.
3 The foreigner who joins himself to Jehovah should not say,
‘Jehovah will surely separate me from his people.’
And the eunuch should not say, ‘Look! I am a dried-up tree.’”
4 For this is what Jehovah says to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths and who choose what I delight in and who hold fast to my covenant:
5 “I will give to them in my house and within my walls a monument and a name,
Something better than sons and daughters.
An everlasting name I will give them,
One that will not perish.
6 As for the foreigners who join themselves to Jehovah to minister to him,
To love the name of Jehovah
And to be his servants,
All those who keep the Sabbath and do not profane it
And who hold fast to my covenant,
7 I will also bring them to my holy mountain
And make them rejoice inside my house of prayer.
Their whole burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar.
For my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”
8 The Sovereign Lord Jehovah, who is gathering the dispersed ones of Israel, declares:
“I will gather to him others besides those already gathered.”
9 All you wild animals of the field, come to eat,
All you wild animals in the forest.
10 His watchmen are blind, none of them have taken note.
All of them are speechless dogs, unable to bark.
They are panting and lying down; they love to slumber.
11 They are dogs with a voracious appetite;
They are never satisfied.
They are shepherds who have no understanding.
They have all gone their own way;
Every last one of them seeks his own dishonest gain and says:
12 “Come, let me take some wine,
And let us drink our fill of alcohol.
And tomorrow will be like today, only far better!”
Chapter 57
1 The righteous one has perished,
But no one takes it to heart.
Loyal men are taken away,
With no one discerning that the righteous one has been taken away
Because of the calamity.
2 He enters into peace.
They rest on their beds, all who walk uprightly.
3 “But as for you, come closer,
You sons of a sorceress,
You children of an adulterer and a prostitute:
4 Whom are you making fun of?
Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue?
Are you not the children of transgression,
The children of deceit,
5 Those who are inflamed with passion among big trees,
Under every luxuriant tree,
Who slaughter the children in the valleys,
Under the clefts of the crags?
6 With the smooth stones of the valley is your portion.
Yes, these are your lot.
Even to them you pour out drink offerings and offer gifts.
Should I be satisfied with these things?
7 On a mountain high and lofty you prepared your bed,
And you went up there to offer sacrifice.
8 Behind the door and the doorpost you set up your memorial.
You left me and uncovered yourself;
You went up and made your bed spacious.
And you made a covenant with them.
You loved sharing their bed,
And you gazed at the male organ.
9 You went down to Melech with oil
And with an abundance of perfume.
You sent your envoys far off,
So that you descended to the Grave.
10 You have toiled in following your many ways,
But you did not say, ‘It is hopeless!’
You found renewed strength.
That is why you do not give up.
11 Whom did you dread and fear
So that you started to lie?
You did not remember me.
You took nothing to heart.
Have I not kept silent and withdrawn?
So you showed no fear of me.
12 I will make known your ‘righteousness’ and your works,
And they will not benefit you.
13 When you cry for help,
Your collection of idols will not rescue you.
A wind will carry all of them away,
A mere breath will blow them away,
But the one who takes refuge in me will inherit the land
And will take possession of my holy mountain.
14 It will be said, ‘Build up, build up a road! Prepare the way!
Remove any obstacle from the way of my people.’”
15 For this is what the High and Lofty One says,
Who lives forever and whose name is holy:
“I reside in the high and holy place,
But also with those crushed and lowly in spirit,
To revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of those being crushed.
16 For I will not oppose them forever
Or always remain indignant;
For a man’s spirit would grow feeble because of me,
Even the breathing creatures that I have made.
17 I was indignant at his sinful pursuit of dishonest gain,
So I struck him, I hid my face, and I was indignant.
But he kept walking as a renegade, following the way of his heart.
18 I have seen his ways,
But I will heal him and lead him
And restore comfort to him and to his mourning ones.”
19 “I am creating the fruit of the lips.
Continuous peace will be given to the one who is far away and the one who is near,” says Jehovah,
“And I will heal him.”
20 “But the wicked are like the restless sea that cannot calm down,
And its waters keep tossing up seaweed and mire.
21 There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
Chapter 58
1 “Call out full-throated; do not hold back!
Raise your voice like a horn.
Proclaim to my people their revolt,
To the house of Jacob their sins.
2 They seek me day after day,
And they express delight to know my ways,
As if they were a nation that had practiced righteousness
And had not abandoned the justice of their God.
They ask me for righteous judgments,
Delighting to draw close to God:
3 ‘Why do you not see when we fast?
And why do you not notice when we afflict ourselves?’
Because on the day of your fast, you pursue your own interests,
And you oppress your laborers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarrels and fights,
And you strike with the fist of wickedness.
You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice heard in heaven.
5 Should the fast that I choose be like this,
As a day for someone to afflict himself,
To bow down his head like a rush,
To make his bed on sackcloth and ashes?
Is this what you call a fast and a day pleasing to Jehovah?
6 No, this is the fast that I choose:
To remove the fetters of wickedness,
To untie the bands of the yoke bar,
To let the oppressed go free,
And to break in half every yoke bar;
7 It is to share your bread with the hungry,
To bring the poor and homeless into your house,
To clothe someone naked when you see him,
And not to turn your back on your own flesh.
8 Then your light will shine through like the dawn,
And your healing will spring up quickly.
Your righteousness will go before you,
And the glory of Jehovah will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and Jehovah will answer;
You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am!’
If you remove from among you the yoke bar
And stop pointing your finger and speaking maliciously,
10 If you grant to the hungry what you yourself desire
And satisfy those who are afflicted,
Then your light will shine even in the darkness,
And your gloom will be like midday.
11 Jehovah will always lead you
And satisfy you even in a parched land;
He will invigorate your bones,
And you will become like a well-watered garden,
Like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 They will rebuild ancient ruins on your account,
And you will restore the foundations of past generations.
You will be called the repairer of the broken walls,
The restorer of roadways by which to dwell.
13 If because of the Sabbath you refrain from pursuing your own interests on my holy day
And you call the Sabbath an exquisite delight, a holy day of Jehovah, a day to be glorified,
And you glorify it rather than pursuing your own interests and speaking idle words,
14 Then you will find your exquisite delight in Jehovah,
And I will make you ride on the high places of the earth.
I will cause you to eat from the inheritance of Jacob your forefather,
For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.”
Chapter 59
1 Look! The hand of Jehovah is not too short to save,
Nor is his ear too dull to hear.
2 No, your own errors have separated you from your God.
Your sins have made him hide his face from you,
And he refuses to hear you.
3 For your palms are polluted with blood
And your fingers with error.
Your lips speak lies, and your tongue mutters unrighteousness.
4 No one calls out for righteousness,
And no one goes to court in truthfulness.
They trust in unreality and speak what is worthless.
They conceive trouble and give birth to what is harmful.
5 They hatch the eggs of a poisonous snake,
And they weave the cobweb of a spider.
Anyone who eats their eggs would die,
And the egg that is crushed hatches a viper.
6 Their cobweb will not serve as a garment,
Nor will they cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are harmful,
And deeds of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to do evil,
And they hurry to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are harmful thoughts;
Ruin and misery are in their ways.
8 They have not known the way of peace,
And there is no justice in their tracks.
They make their roadways crooked;
No one treading on them will know peace.
9 That is why justice is far away from us,
And righteousness does not overtake us.
We keep hoping for light, but look! there is darkness;
For brightness, but we keep walking in gloom.
10 We grope for the wall like blind men;
Like those without eyes we keep groping.
We stumble at high noon as in evening darkness;
Among the strong we are just like the dead.
11 We all keep growling like bears
And cooing mournfully like doves.
We hope for justice, but there is none;
For salvation, but it is far away from us.
12 For our revolts are many before you;
Each of our sins testifies against us.
For our revolts are with us;
We well know our errors.
13 We have transgressed and denied Jehovah;
We have turned our backs on our God.
We have spoken of oppression and revolt;
We have conceived lies and muttered false words from the heart.
14 Justice is driven back,
And righteousness stands far off;
For truth has stumbled in the public square,
And what is upright is unable to enter.
15 Truth has vanished,
And anyone who turns away from bad is plundered.
Jehovah saw this and was displeased,
For there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man,
And he was astonished that no one interceded,
So his own arm brought about salvation,
And his own righteousness supported him.
17 Then he put on righteousness like a coat of mail
And the helmet of salvation on his head.
He put on the garments of vengeance as his clothing
And wrapped himself with zeal like a coat.
18 He will reward them for what they have done:
Wrath to his adversaries, retribution to his enemies.
And to the islands he will repay their due.
19 From the sunset they will fear the name of Jehovah
And from the sunrise his glory,
For he will come in like a rushing river,
Which the spirit of Jehovah drives along.
20 “To Zion the Repurchaser will come,
To those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares Jehovah.
21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Jehovah. “My spirit that is on you and my words that I have placed in your mouth—they will not be removed from your mouth, from the mouth of your children, or from the mouth of your grandchildren,” says Jehovah, “from now on and forever.”
Chapter 60
1 “Arise, O woman, shed light, for your light has come.
The glory of Jehovah shines on you.
2 For look! darkness will cover the earth
And thick gloom the nations;
But on you Jehovah will shine,
And on you his glory will be seen.
3 Nations will go to your light
And kings to your shining splendor.
4 Raise your eyes and look all around you!
They have all been assembled; they are coming to you.
From far away your sons keep coming,
And your daughters being supported on the hip.
5 At that time you will see and become radiant,
And your heart will throb and overflow,
Because the wealth of the sea will be directed to you;
The resources of the nations will come to you.
6 Throngs of camels will cover your land,
Young male camels of Midian and Ephah.
All those from Sheba—they will come;
Gold and frankincense they will carry.
They will proclaim the praises of Jehovah.
7 All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you.
The rams of Nebaioth will serve you.
They will come on my altar with approval,
And I will beautify my glorious house.
8 Who are these that fly along like clouds,
Like doves to their dovecotes?
9 For in me the islands will hope;
The ships of Tarshish are in the lead,
To bring your sons from far away,
Along with their silver and their gold,
To the name of Jehovah your God and to the Holy One of Israel,
For he will glorify you.
10 Foreigners will build your walls,
And their kings will minister to you,
For in my indignation I struck you,
But in my favor I will have mercy on you.
11 Your gates will be kept open constantly;
They will not be closed by day or by night,
To bring to you the resources of the nations,
And their kings will take the lead.
12 For any nation and any kingdom that will not serve you will perish,
And the nations will be utterly devastated.
13 To you the glory of Lebanon will come,
The juniper tree, the ash tree, and the cypress together,
To beautify the place of my sanctuary;
I will glorify the place for my feet.
14 The sons of those who oppressed you will come and bow down before you;
All those treating you disrespectfully must bow down at your feet,
And they will have to call you the city of Jehovah,
Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
15 Instead of your being abandoned and hated, with nobody passing through,
I will make you a source of everlasting pride,
A cause for rejoicing throughout all generations.
16 And you will actually drink the milk of nations,
At the breast of kings you will nurse;
And you will certainly know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior,
And the Powerful One of Jacob is your Repurchaser.
17 Instead of the copper I will bring in gold,
And instead of the iron I will bring in silver,
Instead of the wood, copper,
And instead of the stones, iron;
And I will appoint peace as your overseers
And righteousness as your task assigners.
18 No more will violence be heard in your land
Or destruction and ruin within your boundaries.
And you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.
19 For you the sun will no longer be a light by day,
Nor will the shining of the moon give you light,
For Jehovah will become to you an eternal light,
And your God will be your beauty.
20 No more will your sun set,
Nor will your moon wane,
For Jehovah will become for you an eternal light,
And the days of your mourning will have ended.
21 And all your people will be righteous;
They will possess the land forever.
They are the sprout that I planted,
The work of my hands, for me to be beautified.
22 The little one will become a thousand
And the small one a mighty nation.
I myself, Jehovah, will speed it up in its own time.”
Chapter 61
1 The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me,
Because Jehovah anointed me to declare good news to the meek.
He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And the wide opening of the eyes to the prisoners,
2 To proclaim the year of Jehovah’s goodwill
And the day of vengeance of our God,
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To provide for those mourning over Zion,
To give them a headdress instead of ashes,
The oil of exultation instead of mourning,
The garment of praise instead of a despondent spirit.
And they will be called big trees of righteousness,
The planting of Jehovah, in order to glorify him.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins;
They will raise up the desolated places of the past,
And they will restore the devastated cities,
The places that lay desolate for generation after generation.
5 “Strangers will stand and shepherd your flocks,
And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.
6 As for you, you will be called the priests of Jehovah;
They will call you the ministers of our God.
You will eat the resources of the nations,
And about their glory you will boast.
7 Instead of shame you will have a double portion,
And instead of humiliation they will shout joyfully over their share.
Yes, they will possess a double portion in their land.
Everlasting rejoicing will be theirs.
8 For I, Jehovah, love justice;
I hate robbery and unrighteousness.
I will faithfully give them their wages,
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their offspring will be known among the nations
And their descendants among the peoples.
All who see them will recognize them,
That they are the offspring whom Jehovah has blessed.”
10 I will greatly exult in Jehovah.
My whole being will rejoice in my God.
For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
He has wrapped me with the robe of righteousness,
Just like a bridegroom who wears a turban like that of a priest,
And like a bride who adorns herself with her ornaments.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts
And as the garden makes what is sown in it sprout,
So will the Sovereign Lord Jehovah
Cause righteousness and praise to sprout before all the nations.
Chapter 62
1 For the sake of Zion I will not keep silent,
And for the sake of Jerusalem I will not keep still
Until her righteousness shines like a bright light
And her salvation burns like a torch.
2 “The nations will see your righteousness, O woman,
And all kings your glory.
And you will be called by a new name,
Which Jehovah’s own mouth will designate.
3 You will become a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah,
A royal turban in the palm of your God.
4 No more will you be called an abandoned woman,
And your land will no longer be called desolate.
But you will be called My Delight Is in Her,
And your land will be called the Married One.
For Jehovah will take delight in you,
And your land will be as one married.
5 For just as a young man marries a virgin,
Your sons will marry you.
With the rejoicing of a bridegroom over a bride,
Your God will rejoice over you.
6 Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have commissioned watchmen.
Continuously, all day long and all night long, they should not be silent.
You who make mention of Jehovah,
Do not rest,
7 And do not give him any rest until he firmly establishes Jerusalem,
Yes, until he makes her the praise of the earth.”
8 Jehovah has sworn an oath with his right hand, with his strong arm:
“I will no longer give your grain as food to your enemies,
Nor will foreigners drink your new wine, for which you have toiled.
9 But those gathering it will eat it and they will praise Jehovah;
And those collecting it will drink it in my holy courtyards.”
10 Pass through, pass through the gates.
Clear the way for the people.
Build up, build up the highway.
Rid it of stones.
Raise up a signal for the peoples.
11 Look! Jehovah has proclaimed to the ends of the earth:
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Look! Your salvation is coming.
Look! His reward is with him,
And the wage he pays is before him.’”
12 They will be called the holy people, those repurchased by Jehovah,
And you will be called Sought After, a City Not Abandoned.
Chapter 63
1 Who is this coming from Edom,
From Bozrah with bright-colored garments,
This one with splendid clothing,
Marching in his great power?
“It is I, the One speaking in righteousness,
The One with great power to save.”
2 Why is your clothing red,
And why are your garments like those of one treading the winepress?
3 “I have trodden the wine trough alone.
No one from the peoples was with me.
I kept treading them in my anger,
And I kept trampling them in my wrath.
My garments were spattered with their blood,
And I have stained all my clothing.
4 For the day of vengeance is in my heart,
And the year of my repurchased ones has come.
5 I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was appalled that no one offered support.
So my arm brought me salvation,
And my own wrath supported me.
6 I trampled peoples in my anger,
I made them drunk with my wrath
And poured out their blood on the ground.”
7 I will mention Jehovah’s acts of loyal love,
The praiseworthy acts of Jehovah,
Because of all that Jehovah has done for us,
The many good things he has done for the house of Israel,
According to his mercy and his great loyal love.
8 For he said: “Surely they are my people, sons who will not be disloyal.”
So he became their Savior.
9 During all their distress it was distressing to him.
And his own personal messenger saved them.
In his love and compassion he repurchased them,
And he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit.
He then turned into their enemy,
And he fought against them.
11 And they remembered the days of old,
The days of Moses his servant:
“Where is the One who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock?
Where is the One who put within him His holy spirit,
12 The One who made His glorious arm go with the right hand of Moses,
The One who split the waters before them
To make an everlasting name for himself,
13 The One who made them walk through the surging waters,
So that they walked without stumbling,
Like a horse in the open country?
14 Just like livestock when they go down into the valley plain,
The spirit of Jehovah made them rest.”
This is how you led your people,
To make a majestic name for yourself.
15 Look down from heaven and see
From your lofty abode of holiness and glory.
Where are your zeal and your mightiness,
The stirring of your compassions and your mercy?
They are withheld from me.
16 For you are our Father;
Although Abraham may not know us
And Israel may not recognize us,
You, O Jehovah, are our Father.
Our Repurchaser of long ago is your name.
17 Why do you, O Jehovah, let us wander from your ways?
Why do you let our hearts become hard, so that we do not fear you?
Return, for the sake of your servants,
The tribes of your inheritance.
18 Your holy people possessed it for a short time.
Our adversaries have trampled on your sanctuary.
19 For too long we have become like those you never ruled over,
Like those never called by your name.
Chapter 64
1 If only you had ripped the heavens apart and come down,
So that the mountains would quake because of you,
2 As when a fire ignites the brushwood,
And the fire makes the water boil,
Then your name would be known to your adversaries,
And the nations would tremble before you!
3 When you did awe-inspiring things that we dared not hope for,
You came down, and the mountains quaked before you.
4 From of old no one has heard or given ear,
Nor has any eye seen a God except you,
Who acts in behalf of those who keep in expectation of him.
5 You have met up with those who joyfully do what is right,
Those who remember you and follow your ways.
Look! You became indignant, while we kept sinning,
We did so for a long time.
Should we now be saved?
6 And we have all become like someone unclean,
And all our acts of righteousness are like a menstrual cloth.
We will all wither like a leaf,
And our errors will carry us off like the wind.
7 There is no one calling on your name,
No one who stirs himself to take hold of you,
For you have hidden your face from us,
And you cause us to waste away because of our error.
8 But now, O Jehovah, you are our Father.
We are the clay, and you are our Potter;
We are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not become too indignant, O Jehovah,
And do not remember our error forever.
Look at us, please, for we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness.
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a wasteland.
11 Our house of holiness and glory,
Where our forefathers praised you,
Has been burned with fire,
And all the things we cherished lie in ruins.
12 In view of this, will you still restrain yourself, O Jehovah?
Will you remain silent and let us be afflicted so severely?
Chapter 65
1 “I have let myself be searched for by those who did not ask for me;
I have let myself be found by those who did not look for me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that was not calling on my name.
2 I have spread out my hands all day long to a stubborn people,
To those walking in the way that is not good,
Following their own thoughts;
3 A people who constantly offend me to my face,
Sacrificing in gardens and making sacrificial smoke on bricks.
4 They sit among graves,
And they pass the night in hidden places,
Eating the flesh of pigs,
And the broth of foul things is in their vessels.
5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself; do not approach me,
For I am holier than you.’
These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire burning all day long.
6 Look! It is written before me;
I will not stand still,
But I will repay them,
I will repay them in full measure
7 For their errors and for the errors of their forefathers as well,” says Jehovah.
“Because they have made sacrificial smoke on the mountains
And have reproached me on the hills,
I will first measure out their wages in full.”
8 This is what Jehovah says:
“Just as when new wine is found in a cluster of grapes
And someone says, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is some good in it,’
So I will do for the sake of my servants;
I will not destroy them all.
9 I will bring out of Jacob an offspring
And out of Judah the one to inherit my mountains;
My chosen ones will take possession of it,
And my servants will reside there.
10 Sharon will become a pasture for sheep
And the Valley of Achor a resting-place for cattle,
For my people who search for me.
11 But you are among those forsaking Jehovah,
Those forgetting my holy mountain,
Those setting a table for the god of Good Luck,
And those filling up cups of mixed wine for the god of Destiny.
12 So I will destine you for the sword,
And all of you will bow down to be slaughtered,
Because I called, but you did not answer,
I spoke, but you did not listen;
You kept doing what was bad in my eyes,
And you chose what displeased me.”
13 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says:
“Look! My servants will eat, but you will go hungry.
Look! My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty.
Look! My servants will rejoice, but you will suffer shame.
14 Look! My servants will shout joyfully because of the good condition of the heart,
But you will cry out because of the pain of heart
And you will wail because of a broken spirit.
15 You will leave behind a name that my chosen ones will use as a curse,
And the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will put each of you to death,
But his own servants he will call by another name;
16 So that anyone who seeks a blessing for himself in the earth
Will be blessed by the God of truth,
And anyone who swears an oath in the earth
Will swear by the God of truth.
For the former distresses will be forgotten;
They will be concealed from my eyes.
17 For look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth;
And the former things will not be called to mind,
Nor will they come up into the heart.
18 So exult and be joyful forever in what I am creating.
For look! I am creating Jerusalem a cause for joy
And her people a cause for exultation.
19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people;
No more will there be heard in her the sound of weeping or a cry of distress.”
20 “No more will there be an infant from that place who lives but a few days,
Nor an old man who fails to live out his days.
For anyone who dies at a hundred will be considered a mere boy,
And the sinner will be cursed, even though he is a hundred years of age.
21 They will build houses and live in them,
And they will plant vineyards and eat their fruitage.
22 They will not build for someone else to inhabit,
Nor will they plant for others to eat.
For the days of my people will be like the days of a tree,
And the work of their hands my chosen ones will enjoy to the full.
23 They will not toil for nothing,
Nor will they bear children for distress,
Because they are the offspring made up of those blessed by Jehovah,
And their descendants with them.
24 Even before they call out, I will answer;
While they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
The lion will eat straw just like the bull,
And the serpent’s food will be dust.
They will do no harm nor cause any ruin in all my holy mountain,” says Jehovah.
Chapter 66
1 This is what Jehovah says:
“The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Where, then, is the house that you could build for me,
And where is my resting-place?”
2 “My own hand has made all these things,
And this is how they all came to be,” declares Jehovah.
“To this one, then, I will look,
To the one humble and broken in spirit who trembles at my word.
3 The one slaughtering the bull is like one striking down a man.
The one sacrificing a sheep is like one breaking the neck of a dog.
The one offering a gift—like the blood of a pig!
The one presenting a memorial offering of frankincense is like one saying a blessing with magical words.
They have chosen their own ways,
And they take delight in what is disgusting.
4 So I will choose ways to punish them,
And the very things they dread I will bring upon them.
Because when I called, no one answered;
When I spoke, there were none who listened.
They kept doing what was bad in my eyes,
And they chose to do what displeased me.”
5 Hear the word of Jehovah, you who tremble at his word:
“Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of my name said, ‘May Jehovah be glorified!’
But He will appear and bring you joy,
And they are the ones who will be put to shame.”
6 There is a sound of uproar from the city, a sound from the temple!
It is the sound of Jehovah repaying his enemies what they deserve.
7 Before she went into labor, she gave birth.
Before birth pangs came to her, she delivered a male child.
8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Will a land be brought to birth in one day?
Or will a nation be born all at once?
Yet, as soon as Zion went into labor, she gave birth to her sons.
9 “Will I bring it to the point of birth and then not bring it forth?” says Jehovah.
“Or would I cause the birth and then shut the womb?” says your God.
10 Rejoice with Jerusalem and be joyful with her, all you who love her.
Exult greatly with her, all you who are in mourning over her,
11 For you will nurse and be fully satisfied from her breast of consolation,
And you will drink deeply and find delight in the abundance of her glory.
12 For this is what Jehovah says:
“Here I am extending to her peace just like a river
And the glory of nations like a flooding torrent.
You will nurse and be carried on the hip,
And you will be bounced on the knees.
13 As a mother comforts her son,
So I will keep comforting you;
And over Jerusalem you will be comforted.
14 You will see this, and your heart will rejoice,
Your bones will flourish just like new grass.
And the hand of Jehovah will become known to his servants,
But he will denounce his enemies.”
15 “For Jehovah will come as a fire,
And his chariots are like a storm wind,
To repay in furious anger,
To rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For with fire Jehovah will execute judgment,
Yes, with his sword, against all flesh;
And the slain of Jehovah will be many.
17 “Those sanctifying themselves and cleansing themselves to enter the gardens following one who is in the center, those eating the flesh of pigs and loathsome things and mice, they will all come to their end together,” declares Jehovah. 18 “Since I know about their works and their thoughts, I am coming to gather people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.”
19 “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who escape to the nations—to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, those who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, and to the faraway islands—who have not heard a report about me or seen my glory; and they will proclaim my glory among the nations. 20 They will bring all your brothers out of all the nations as a gift to Jehovah, on horses, in chariots, in covered wagons, on mules, and on swift camels, up to my holy mountain, Jerusalem,” says Jehovah, “just as when the people of Israel bring their gift in a clean vessel into the house of Jehovah.”
21 “I will also take some for the priests and for the Levites,” says Jehovah.
22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making will remain standing before me,” declares Jehovah, “so your offspring and your name will remain.”
23 “And from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath,
All flesh will come in to bow down before me,” says Jehovah.
24 “And they will go out and look on the carcasses of the men who rebelled against me;
For the worms on them will not die,
And their fire will not be extinguished,
And they will become something repulsive to all people.”