Isaiah 1-27
Modern English Version
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
The Wickedness of Judah
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.
For the Lord has spoken:
I have nourished and brought up children,
and they have rebelled against Me;
3 the ox knows his owner,
and the donkey his master’s crib,
but Israel does not know;
My people do not consider.
4 Alas, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
a brood of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord,
they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger,
they are estranged and backward.
5 Why should you be beaten again,
that you revolt more and more?
The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head
there is no soundness in it.
Wounds, bruises,
and open sores;
they have not been closed,
nor bandaged, nor soothed with oil.
7 Your country is desolate,
your cities are burned with fire;
strangers devour your land
in your presence;
and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 The daughter of Zion is left
like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a hut in a field of melons,
like a besieged city.
9 Unless the Lord of Hosts
had left to us a very small remnant,
we would have been as Sodom;
we would have been like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the law of our God,
you people of Gomorrah:
11 For what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices to Me? says the Lord.
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams,
and the fat of fed animals.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of male goats.
12 When you come to appear before Me,
who has required this at your hand,
to trample My courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to Me.
New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations—
I cannot bear with evil assemblies.
14 My soul hates
your New Moons and your appointed feasts;
they are a burden to Me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you reach out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
even when you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
put away the evil from your deeds, from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good; seek justice,
relieve the oppressed;
judge the fatherless,
plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together,
says the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured with the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
The Degenerate City
21 How the faithful city
has become a prostitute!
She was full of justice;
righteousness lodged in her,
but now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross,
your wine mixed with water.
23 Your princes are rebellious
and companions of thieves;
everyone loves a bribe
and follows after rewards.
They do not defend the fatherless,
nor does the cause of the widow come before them.
24 Therefore the Lord, the Lord of Hosts,
the Mighty One of Israel, says:
Ah, I will get relief from My adversaries,
and avenge Myself on My enemies.
25 And I will turn My hand against you,
thoroughly purge away your dross,
and take away all your impurities.
26 I will restore your judges as at the first,
and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called
the city of righteousness,
a faithful town.
27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice
and her converts with righteousness.
28 But the destruction of the transgressors and sinners shall be together,
and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks
which you have desired,
and you shall be humiliated for the gardens
that you have chosen.
30 For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades,
and as a garden that has no water.
31 The strong shall be as tinder,
and his work like a spark;
they will both burn together,
and no one will quench them.
The Mountain of the Lord(A)
2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 In the last days,
the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established
on the top of the mountains,
and shall be exalted above the hills,
and all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall go and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
and He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge among the nations,
and shall rebuke many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
nor shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come,
and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
The Day of the Lord
6 For You have forsaken Your people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are replenished from the east,
and are soothsayers like the Philistines,
and they please themselves with the children of strangers.
7 Their land also is full of silver and gold,
and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is also full of horses,
and there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land also is full of idols;
they worship the work of their own hands,
that which their own fingers have made.
9 And the common man bows down,
and the great man humbles himself;
therefore, do not forgive them.
10 Enter into the rock,
and hide in the dust
from the fear of the Lord
and from the glory of His majesty.
11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be
upon everything that is proud and lofty,
and upon everything that is lifted up,
and it shall be brought low;
13 and it will be upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up,
and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 and upon all the high mountains,
and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15 and upon all the high towers,
and upon every fenced wall,
16 and upon all the ships of Tarshish,
and upon all pleasant sloops.
17 The loftiness of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day;
18 the idols He shall utterly abolish.
19 They shall go into the holes of the rocks,
and into the caves of the earth,
from the fear of the Lord,
and from the glory of His majesty,
when He shall arise to shake the earth mightily.
20 In that day a man shall cast away
his idols of silver and his idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
21 to enter the caverns of the rocks,
and into the clefts of the cliffs,
from the terror of the Lord,
and from the glory of His majesty,
when He arises to shake the earth mightily.
22 Cease regarding man,
whose breath is in his nostrils;
for why should he be esteemed?
Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem
3 For now the Lord,
the Lord of Hosts,
takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah
the stock and the store,
the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water;
2 the mighty man and the man of war,
the judge and the prophet,
and the prudent and the ancient,
3 the captain of fifty and the honorable man,
the counselor and the skillful artisan, and the eloquent orator.
4 I will give youths to be their princes,
and unweaned children shall rule over them.
5 The people shall be oppressed,
every one by another, and every one by his neighbor;
the youth shall behave himself proudly against the elder,
and the inferior against the honorable.
6 When a man shall take hold of his brother
in the house of his father saying,
“You have clothing; be our ruler,
and let this ruin be under your power,”
7 in that day he shall swear saying,
“I will not be a healer.
For in my house is neither bread nor clothing;
do not make me a ruler of the people.”
8 For Jerusalem is ruined,
and Judah is fallen,
because their tongue and their deeds are against the Lord,
to provoke the eyes of His glory.
9 The expression of their countenance witnesses against them,
and they declare their sin as Sodom;
they hide it not.
Woe to them!
For they have brought evil on themselves.
10 Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them,
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
12 As for My people, children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
O My people, those who lead you cause you to err,
and destroy the way of your paths.
13 The Lord stands up to plead
and stands to judge the people.
14 The Lord will enter into judgment
with the elders and the princes of His people:
For you have eaten up the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15 What do you mean that you beat My people to pieces
and grind the faces of the poor?
says the Lord God of Hosts.
16 Moreover the Lord says:
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty
and walk with outstretched necks
and wanton eyes,
walking and mincing as they go,
and making a tinkling with their feet,
17 therefore, the Lord will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,
and the Lord will make their foreheads bare.
18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the ankle ornaments, and the headbands, and the crescent ornaments, 19 the chains, and the bracelets, and the veils, 20 the bonnets, the leg ornaments, the sashes, perfume boxes, amulets, 21 the finger rings, nose rings, 22 festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, purses, 23 hand mirrors, and undergarments, hoods, and veils.
24 Instead of sweet perfume there shall be a stench;
and instead of a belt, a rope;
and instead of well-set hair, baldness;
and instead of fine clothes, a girding of sackcloth;
and branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men shall fall by the sword,
and your mighty in the war.
26 Her gates shall lament and mourn,
and she, being desolate, shall sit on the ground.
4 And in that day seven women
shall take hold of one man, saying,
“We will eat our own bread,
and wear our own apparel,
only let us be called by your name,
to take away our reproach.”
The Branch of the Lord
2 In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for those of Israel who have escaped. 3 He who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem. 4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and has purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst by the spirit of justice and by the spirit of burning, 5 then the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory shall be a covering. 6 There shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and from rain.
The Song of the Vineyard
5 Now I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved
concerning His vineyard:
My well-beloved has a vineyard
in a very fruitful hill.
2 And He fenced it, and removed its stones,
and planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the midst of it,
and also made a winepress in it;
and He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
but it brought forth wild grapes.
3 Now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between My vineyard and Me.
4 What more could have been done to My vineyard
that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
did it bring forth wild grapes?
5 So now I will tell you
what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it shall be consumed;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trodden down.
6 And I will lay it waste:
It shall not be pruned or dug,
but briers and thorns shall come up.
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain on it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
His pleasant plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but saw oppression;
for righteousness, but heard a cry.
Woes and Judgment
8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no more space
where they may live alone in the midst of the land!
9 In my ears the Lord of Hosts said:
Truly, many houses shall be desolate,
even great and beautiful, without inhabitants.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,[a]
and the homer[b] of seed shall yield an ephah.[c]
11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning
that they may pursue strong drink;
who continue late in the evening
until wine inflames them!
12 The lyre and the harp, the tambourine and pipe,
and wine are in their feasts;
but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
or consider the work of His hands.
13 Therefore My people go into captivity
because they have no knowledge;
and their honorable men are famished,
and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself
and opened its mouth without measure;
so their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp,
and he who rejoices shall descend into it.
15 The common man shall be brought down,
and the great man shall be humbled,
and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
16 But the Lord of Hosts shall be exalted in judgment,
and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
17 Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,
and strangers shall eat in the waste places of the wealthy.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood
and sin as if with a cart rope,
19 who say, “Let Him make speed
and hasten His work,
that we may see it;
and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel
draw near and come,
that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good,
and good evil;
who exchange darkness for light,
and light for darkness;
who exchange bitter for sweet,
and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine,
and men of strength to mingle strong drink,
23 who justify the wicked for a reward,
and take away the justice of the righteous from him!
24 Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble
and the flame consumes the chaff,
so their root shall be as rottenness,
and their blossom shall go up as dust;
because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts
and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord burns against His people,
and He has stretched out His hand against them, and has stricken them,
and the hills trembled.
Their corpses were torn in the midst of the streets.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
and His hand is still stretched out.
26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar
and will hiss at them from the ends of the earth;
certainly they shall come
with speed, swiftly.
27 No one shall be weary or stumble among them;
no one shall slumber or sleep;
neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed,
nor the strap of their shoes be broken;
28 their arrows are sharp
and all their bows bent;
their horses’ hooves will seem like flint,
and their wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring shall be like a lion,
they shall roar like young lions;
they shall roar and lay hold of the prey;
and shall carry it away, and no one shall deliver it.
30 In that day they shall roar against them
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks to the land—
only darkness and sorrow,
and the light is darkened by the clouds.
The Commission of Isaiah
6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 One cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts;
the whole earth is full of His glory.”
4 The posts of the door moved at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar in his hand. 7 And he laid it on my mouth, and said, “This has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
Then I said, “Here am I. Send me.”
9 He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”
And He answered:
“Until the cities are laid waste
without inhabitants,
and the houses without man,
and the land is utterly desolate,
12 and the Lord has removed men far away,
and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 But yet in it shall be a tenth,
and it shall return, and shall be burned,
as a terebinth tree or as an oak,
whose stump remains when it is cut down,
so the holy seed is its stump.”
Isaiah Reassures King Ahaz
7 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
2 It was said to the house of David, “Aram is allied with Ephraim.” Then his heart trembled and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood tremble with the wind.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field, 4 and say to him, Take heed, and be quiet. Do not fear nor be fainthearted because of the two tails of these smoking firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin with Aram and of the son of Remaliah, 5 because Aram, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have taken evil counsel against you, saying, 6 Let us go up against Judah, and trouble it, and let us make a breach there for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel. 7 Thus says the Lord God:
It shall not stand,
nor shall it come to pass.
8 For the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Now within sixty-five years
Ephraim shall be broken so that it is not a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you will not believe,
surely you shall not be established.
The Sign of Immanuel
10 Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying: 11 Ask for a sign from the Lord your God. Make it either as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.
12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I tempt the Lord.
13 Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David. Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: The virgin[d] shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.[e] 15 Curds and honey he shall eat at the time that he knows enough to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread shall be forsaken of both her kings. 17 The Lord shall bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon your father’s house, days that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria.”
18 In that day the Lord shall whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 They shall come, and all of them shall rest in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and on all thorns, and on all bushes. 20 In that same day the Lord shall shave with a hired razor, from regions beyond the River,[f] with the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the legs, and it shall also remove the beard. 21 In that day a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he shall eat curds; for everyone who is left in the land shall eat curds and honey. 23 In that day every place where there were a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels[g] of silver, shall become briers and thorns. 24 With arrows and with bows shall men come there because all the land shall become briers and thorns. 25 On all hills that used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns. But it shall be for pasturing oxen and for sheep to tread.
The Coming Assyrian Invasion
8 Moreover the Lord said to me, Take for yourself a large book and write in it with a man’s pen: “Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.”[h] 2 I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberekiah. 3 So I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.[i] 4 For before the child knows how to cry “My father” and “My mother,” the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.
5 The Lord spoke to me again, saying:
6 Because this people refuses
the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
and rejoices in Rezin
and the son of Remaliah,
7 now therefore the Lord certainly is about to bring upon them
the strong and plentiful waters of the River,[j]
even the king of Assyria and all his glory;
and he shall come up over all his channels
and go over all his banks.
8 And he shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over,
he shall reach even to the neck,
and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land,
O Immanuel.
9 Be broken, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces.
And give ear, all you from far countries.
Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces;
gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, but it shall come to nothing;
speak the word, but it shall not stand
for God is with us.
Fear God
11 For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:
12 You should not say, “It is a conspiracy,”
concerning all that this people calls a conspiracy,
neither fear their threats
nor be afraid of them.
13 Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself,
and let Him be your fear,
and let Him be your dread.
14 He shall become a sanctuary,
but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
to both the houses of Israel,
and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 Many among them shall stumble
and fall and be broken
and be snared and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony;
seal the law among My disciples.
17 I will wait on the Lord,
who hides His face from the house of Jacob,
and I will eagerly look for Him.
18 See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts who dwells in Mount Zion.
19 When they say to you, “Seek after the mediums and the wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek after their God? Should they consult the dead for the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony; if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21 They shall pass through the land hard-pressed and hungry; when they are hungry, they shall be furious and curse their king and their God as they look upward. 22 Then they shall look to the earth and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish. And they shall be driven away into darkness.
The Coming King
9 Nevertheless there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time He contemptuously treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them the light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation
and increased the joy;
they rejoice before You
according to the joy of harvest
and as men rejoice
when they divide the spoil.
4 For You have broken the yoke of his burden
and the bar of his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor
as in the day of Midian’s defeat.
5 For all the sandals of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given,
and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there shall be no end,
upon the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to order it and to establish it
with justice and with righteousness,
from now until forever.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
will perform this.
The Message Against Israel
8 The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
and it falls upon Israel.
9 All the people shall know,
even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
who say in the pride
and stoutness of heart,
10 “The bricks are fallen down,
but we will build with hewn stones;
the sycamores are cut down,
but we will replace them with cedars.”
11 Therefore, the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him,
and join his enemies together.
12 The Arameans shall be before and the Philistines behind;
and they shall devour Israel with open jaws.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
and His hand is stretched out still.
13 For the people do not turn to Him who struck them,
nor do they seek the Lord of Hosts.
14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail,
branch and bulrush, in one day.
15 The elder and honorable man, he is the head;
and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.
16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err,
and those who are led by them are destroyed.
17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men,
nor shall He have mercy on their fatherless and widows;
for every one of them is a hypocrite and an evildoer,
and every mouth speaks folly.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
and His hand is stretched out still.
18 For wickedness burns as a fire;
it shall devour the briers and thorns,
and shall ignite in the thickets of the forest,
and they shall mount up like rising smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts
is the land burned up,
and the people shall be as fuel for the fire;
no man shall spare his brother.
20 They shall snatch on the right hand,
but still be hungry;
and they shall eat on the left hand,
and shall not be satisfied;
every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.
21 Manasseh consumes Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh,
and they together shall be against Judah.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
and His hand is stretched out still.
10 Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees
and who write unjust judgments which they have prescribed
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
and to take away the right from the poor of My people,
that widows may be their prey,
and that they may rob the fatherless!
3 And what will you do in the day of punishment
and in the desolation which shall come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing remains but to bow down among the prisoners,
and they shall fall among the slain.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
and His hand is stretched out still.
Judgment on Assyria
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
and the staff in whose hand is My indignation.
6 I will send him against an ungodly nation,
and against the people of My wrath I will give him a command,
to seize the plunder, to take the prey,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 However he does not so intend,
nor does he plan so in his heart;
but his purpose is to destroy
and to cut off many nations.
8 For he says, “Are not my princes altogether kings?
9 Is not Kalno as Carchemish?
Is not Hamath as Arpad?
Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols
whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols,
so do to Jerusalem and her idols?”
12 When the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks.” 13 For he says:
“By the strength of my hand and by my wisdom,
I have done it, for I am prudent;
and I have removed the bounds of the people,
and have robbed their treasures,
and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.
14 And my hand has found as a nest
the riches of the people,
and as one gathers eggs that are left,
I have gathered all the earth
and there was no one who moved the wing
or opened the mouth or peeped.”
15 Shall the axe boast itself against him who hews with it?
Or shall the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
That is as if the rod wields itself against those who lift it up,
or as if the staff should lift itself up as if it were not wood.
16 Therefore the Lord, God of Hosts,
shall send leanness among his stout ones,
and under his glory he shall kindle a burning
like the burning of a fire.
17 The light of Israel shall be a fire,
and his Holy One a flame,
and it shall burn and devour
his thorns and his briers in one day,
18 and shall consume the glory of his forest,
and of his fruitful field, both soul and body;
and it shall be as when a sick man faints.
19 The rest of the trees of his forest shall be so few
that a child may write them down.
The Returning Remnant of Israel
20 In that day the remnant of Israel
and those who have escaped of the house of Jacob
shall never again depend on him
who struck them,
but shall depend on the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob,
to the mighty God.
22 For though your people, O Israel, are as the sand of the sea,
yet a remnant of them shall return;
the destruction is decreed,
overflowing with righteousness.
23 For the Lord God of Hosts shall make a complete destruction,
as decreed, in the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Hosts:
O My people who dwell in Zion,
do not be afraid of the Assyrian.
He shall strike you with a rod
and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.
25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease,
and My anger will be directed to their destruction.
26 The Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him
according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb;
and as His rod was over the sea, so shall He lift it up
after the manner of Egypt.
27 In that day his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder,
and his yoke from off your neck;
and the yoke shall be destroyed
because of the anointing oil.
28 He has come against Aiath,
he has passed through Migron;
at Mikmash he has laid up his carriages.
29 They are gone over the pass,
they have taken up their lodging at Geba.
Ramah is afraid,
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Lift up your voice, O daughter of Gallim.
Listen, Laishah
and poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah has fled,
the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
32 Yet today he shall remain at Nob;
he shakes his fist
against the mount of the daughter of Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.
33 See, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts,
shall lop the bough with terror;
and the tall ones of stature shall be hewn down,
and the haughty shall be humbled.
34 He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,
and Lebanon shall fall by the Mighty One.
The Righteous Branch of Jesse
11 And there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
3 He shall delight in the fear of the Lord,
and he shall not judge by what his eyes see,
nor reprove by what his ears hear;
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and reprove with fairness for the meek of the earth.
He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins,
and faithfulness the belt about his waist.
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young ones shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play by the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
in all My holy mountain,
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the peoples. For him shall the nations seek. And his rest shall be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, who shall be left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 He shall set up a banner for the nations,
and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather together the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,
and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines towards the west;
they shall plunder the sons of the east together;
they shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab,
and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 The Lord shall utterly destroy
the tongue of the Egyptian sea,
and with His mighty wind He shall shake His hand
over the River,[k]
and shall strike it into seven streams,
and make men walk over dry-shod.
16 There shall be a highway for the remnant of His people,
who will be left from Assyria,
as it was for Israel
when he came up from the land of Egypt.
Hymns of Praise
12 And in that day you shall say:
O Lord, I will praise You;
though You were angry with me,
Your anger has turned away,
and You comforted me.
2 Certainly God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song;
He also has become my salvation.
3 Therefore with joy you shall draw water
out of the wells of salvation.
4 In that day you shall say:
Praise the Lord, call upon His name,
declare His deeds among the peoples,
make them remember that His name is exalted.
5 Sing to the Lord, for He has done excellent things;
let this be known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion.
For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst.
A Prophecy Against Babylon
13 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 Lift up a banner on the high mountain,
exalt the voice to them,
shake the hand,
that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My sanctified ones,
I have also called My mighty ones for My anger,
even those who rejoice in My exaltation.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
like as of a great people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms
of nations gathered together!
The Lord of Hosts musters
the army for battle.
5 They come from a far country,
from the end of heaven,
the Lord and the weapons of His indignation,
to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands shall be faint,
and every man’s heart shall melt,
8 and they shall be afraid.
Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them;
they shall be in pain as a woman who travails;
they shall be amazed one at another;
their faces shall be as flames.
9 See, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger,
to lay the land desolate,
and He shall destroy its sinners out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
shall not give their light;
the sun shall be dark when it rises,
and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease,
and will lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.
12 I will make a man more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore, I will shake the heavens,
and the earth shall be shaken out of her place
at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts
and in the day of His fierce anger.
14 It shall be as the chased roe,
and as a sheep that no man takes up;
every man shall turn to his own people
and flee every one into his own land.
15 Every one who is found shall be thrust through,
and every one who is joined to them shall fall by the sword.
16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
their houses shall be devastated and their wives ravished.
17 See, I will stir up the Medes against them,
who shall not regard silver;
and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces,
and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
their eye shall not spare children.
19 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of the Chaldean’s excellency,
shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It shall never be inhabited,
nor shall it be lived in from generation to generation,
nor shall the Arabian pitch a tent there,
nor shall the shepherds make their fold there.
21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie down there,
and their houses shall be full of owls,
ostriches also shall dwell there,
and shaggy goats shall dance there.
22 The wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses
and jackals in their pleasant palaces.
And her time is near to come,
and her days shall not be prolonged.
The Restoration of Judah
14 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob,
and will yet choose Israel,
and set them in their own land.
Then the strangers shall be joined with them,
and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2 The people shall take them
and bring them to their place,
and the house of Israel shall possess them
in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids;
and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were,
and they shall rule over their oppressors.
The Fall of Babylon’s King
3 In the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, 4 you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:
How has the oppressor ceased!
The golden city ceased!
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
and the scepter of the rulers;
6 he who struck the people in wrath with unceasing strokes,
he who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and no one hinders.
7 The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 Indeed, the fir trees rejoice at you,
and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you are laid down,
no tree cutter has come up against us.”
9 Hell from beneath is moved for you
to meet you at your coming;
it stirs up the dead for you,
even all the chief ones of the earth;
it has raised up from their thrones
all the kings of the nations.
10 They all shall speak
and say to you:
“Have you also become as weak as we have?
Have you become like us?”
11 Your pomp is brought down to Hell,
and the noise of your harps;
maggots are spread under you,
and the worms cover you.
12 How are you fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who weaken the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart,
“I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit also on the mount of the congregation,
in the recesses of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.”
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Hell,
to the sides of the pit.
16 Those who see you shall stare at you
and ponder over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth
to tremble and shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world as a wilderness
and destroyed its cities,
who did not open the house of his prisoners?”
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory,
each one in his own tomb;
19 but you are cast out of your grave
like an abominable branch
and clothed with those who are slain,
thrust through with a sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit
as a corpse trodden underfoot.
20 You shall not be joined with them in burial
because you have destroyed your land
and slain your people.
The seed of evildoers
shall never be renowned.
21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his children
for the iniquity of their fathers;
they must not rise nor possess the land,
nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 For I will rise up against them,
says the Lord of Hosts,
and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant,
and son, and nephew,
says the Lord.
23 I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog
and pools of water,
and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,
says the Lord of Hosts.
An Oracle Concerning Assyria
24 The Lord of Hosts has sworn, saying:
Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass,
and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 that I will break the Assyrian in My land,
and on My mountains tread him under foot.
Then shall his yoke depart from off them
and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed on the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations.
27 For the Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it?
And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
An Oracle Concerning Philistia
28 In the year that King Ahaz died was this oracle:
29 Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,
because the rod that struck you is broken;
for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper,
and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
30 The firstborn of the poor shall feed,
and the needy shall lie down in safety:
and I will kill your root with famine,
and he shall slay your remnant.
31 Wail, O gate. Cry, O city.
Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;
for smoke shall come from the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 What shall one then answer
the messengers of the nation?
That the Lord has founded Zion,
and the poor of His people shall trust in it.
A Prophecy Against Moab(B)
15 The oracle of Moab.
Surely in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste
and brought to silence,
surely in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste
and brought to silence,
2 he has gone up to the temple and to Dibon,
the high places, to weep.
Moab shall wail over Nebo and over Medeba;
on all their heads shall be baldness,
and every beard cut off.
3 In their streets they shall clothe themselves with sackcloth;
on the tops of their houses and in their streets,
everyone shall wail,
weeping abundantly.
4 Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh;
their voice shall be heard even to Jahaz;
therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out;
his life shall be grievous to him.
5 My heart shall cry out for Moab;
his fugitives shall flee to Zoar,
like a three-year-old heifer.
For by the Ascent of Luhith
they shall go up with weeping;
for in the way of Horonaim
they shall raise up a cry of destruction,
6 for the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate;
surely the grass is withered away;
the grass fails,
there is no green thing.
7 Therefore the abundance they have gained, and that which they have laid up,
they shall carry away to the Brook of the Willows.
8 For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab;
its wailing to Eglaim,
and its wailing to Beer Elim.
9 For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood;
for I will bring more woes on Dimon,
lions on the fugitives of Moab,
and on the remnant of the land.
16 Send the lamb
to the ruler of the land
from Sela by way of the wilderness,
to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 For it shall be that as a wandering bird
cast out of the nest,
so the daughters of Moab shall be
at the fords of Arnon.
3 “Take counsel,
execute justice,
make your shadow as the night
at the height of noon.
Hide the outcasts,
do not betray the fugitive.
4 Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab;
be a hiding place to them from the face of the destroyer.”
For the extortioner has come to an end;
the destroyer ceases;
the oppressors are consumed out of the land.
5 In mercy the throne shall be established;
and one who judges and seeks justice
and is diligent in righteousness
shall sit on it in truth
in the tabernacle of David, judging.
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab;
he is very proud,
even of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath;
but his lies shall not be so.
7 Therefore Moab shall wail for Moab;
everyone shall wail.
For the loss of raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth you shall mourn;
surely they are destroyed.
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and the vine of Sibmah;
the lords of the nations
have broken down its choice plants;
they have come as far as Jazer
and wandered through the wilderness.
Her branches are stretched out;
they are passed over the sea.
9 Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer,
the vine of Sibmah;
I will water you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh.
For the shouting for your summer fruits
and for your harvest has fallen away.
10 Gladness and joy are taken away out of the plentiful field,
and in the vineyards there shall be no singing,
nor shall there be shouting;
the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses.
I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
11 Therefore my heart shall sound like a harp for Moab,
and my inward parts for Kir Hareseth.
12 When it is seen that Moab
is weary on the high place,
he shall come to his sanctuary to pray;
but he shall not prevail.
13 This is the word that the Lord has spoken earlier concerning Moab. 14 But now the Lord has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all his great population, and his remnant shall be very small and feeble.
An Oracle Concerning Damascus
17 The oracle of Damascus.
See, Damascus will cease from being a city;
it shall be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down,
and no one shall make them afraid.
3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus,
and the remnant of Aram;
they shall be as the glory of the sons of Israel,
says the Lord of Hosts.
4 In that day the glory of Jacob shall decrease,
and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean.
5 It shall be as when the harvestman gathers the corn
and reaps the ears with his arm,
and it shall be as he who gathers ears
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it,
as the shaking of an olive tree,
two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough,
four or five in its outmost fruitful branches,
says the Lord God of Israel.
7 On that day a man shall look to his Maker,
and his eyes shall have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
8 He shall not look to the altars,
the work of his hands,
nor shall he respect what his fingers have made,
either the groves or the images.
9 In that day his strong cities shall be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the sons of Israel; and there shall be a desolation.
10 Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength,
therefore you plant pleasant plants
and set them with vine slips of a strange god;
11 in the day that you plant it, you carefully fence it in,
and in the morning you make your seed to flourish;
but the harvest shall be a heap of ruins
in the day of grief and desperate pain.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people
who make a noise like the noise of the seas,
and the rushing of many peoples
who make a rumble like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13 The nations rumble like the rumbling of many waters;
but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off,
and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
and like rolling dust before the whirlwind.
14 At evening time, sudden terror!
And before the morning, they are no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
and the lot of those who rob us.
An Oracle Concerning Ethiopia
18 Woe to the land vibrating with wings,
which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
2 which sends ambassadors by the sea,
even in vessels of reeds on the waters, saying,
“Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared far and wide,
a nation strong and oppressive,
whose land the rivers have divided.”
3 All you inhabitants of the world,
and dwellers on the earth:
When he lifts up a banner on the mountains,
you will see it;
and when he blows a trumpet,
you will hear it.
4 For so the Lord said to me:
I will look from My dwelling place quietly,
like dazzling heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
and the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
then He shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
and take away and cut down the branches.
6 They shall be left together for the fowl of the mountains
and for the beasts of the earth;
and the fowl shall spend the summer feeding on them,
and all the beasts of the earth shall spend the winter on them.
7 In that time a present shall be brought to the Lord of Hosts
from a people tall and smooth,
and from a people feared far and wide,
a nation strong and oppressive,
whose land the rivers have divided,
to the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts, even Mount Zion.
An Oracle Concerning Egypt
19 The oracle of Egypt.
See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
and shall come into Egypt;
and the idols of Egypt shall tremble at His presence,
and the heart of Egypt shall melt in its midst.
2 I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians,
and they shall fight every one against his brother,
and every one against his neighbor,
city against city,
and kingdom against kingdom.
3 The spirit of Egypt shall be discouraged in their midst,
and I will destroy their counsel;
then they shall seek for the idols and for the charmers
and for the mediums and the sorcerers.
4 The Egyptians I will give over
into the hand of a cruel lord,
and a fierce king shall rule over them,
says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts.
5 The waters from the sea shall dry up,
and the river shall be parched and dry.
6 The canals shall emit a stench;
the streams of Egypt shall diminish and dry up;
the reeds and rushes shall wither.
7 The papyrus reeds by the brooks,
by the mouth of the brooks,
and everything sown by the brooks,
shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishermen also shall mourn,
and all those who cast a line into the brooks shall lament,
and those who spread nets on the waters
shall languish.
9 Moreover those who work with fine flax
and those who weave white cloth shall be humiliated;
10 and the pillars of Egypt shall be crushed.
All the hired workers shall be grieved in soul.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools;
the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise,
a son of ancient kings?”
12 Where are they? Where are your wise men?
Let them tell you now, and let them understand
what the Lord of Hosts
has purposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools;
the princes of Memphis are deceived;
they have also seduced Egypt,
even those who are the cornerstone of her tribes.
14 The Lord has mingled
a perverse spirit in her;
so they have caused Egypt to err in her every work,
as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 Nor shall there be any work for Egypt,
which its head or tail, its branch or bulrush, may do.
16 In that day Egypt shall become like women. And it shall be afraid and be in dread because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of Hosts which He is about to shake over it. 17 The land of Judah shall become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom it is mentioned shall be in dread of it, because of the counsel of the Lord of Hosts which He has determined against it.
18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of Hosts. One shall be called the City of Destruction.
19 In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. 20 It shall be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He shall send them a Savior and a Champion. And He shall deliver them. 21 The Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall worship with sacrifice and offering, they shall make a vow to the Lord and perform it. 22 The Lord shall strike Egypt. He shall strike and heal it. Then they shall return to the Lord, and He shall be entreated by them and shall heal them.
23 In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel shall be the third group with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the Lord of Hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
A Prophecy Against Egypt and Ethiopia
20 In the year that the Tartan[l] came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, 2 at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your waist and take off your shoes from your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
3 The Lord said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so the king of Assyria shall lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed of Ethiopia their hope and Egypt their boast. 6 So the inhabitants of this coastland shall say in that day, ‘Certainly such is our hope, where we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And how shall we escape?’ ”
A Prophecy Against Babylon
21 The oracle of the desert of the sea.
As whirlwinds in the Negev pass through,
so it comes from the desert,
from a terrible land.
2 A grievous vision is declared to me;
the treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.
Go up, O Elam. Lay siege, O Media.
All her sighing I have made to cease.
3 Therefore, my loins are filled with pain;
pangs have taken hold of me as the pangs of a woman who travails.
I am so perplexed at the hearing of it;
I am so dismayed at the seeing of it.
4 My heart panted,
fearfulness overwhelmed me;
the night for which I longed
has turned into trembling for me.
5 Prepare the table,
watch in the watchtower,
eat and drink.
Arise, you princes,
and oil the shields.
6 For thus the Lord has said to me:
“Go, station a watchman;
let him declare what he sees.
7 When he sees chariots
with horsemen in pairs,
a chariot of donkeys,
and a chariot of camels,
then let him pay close attention,
very close attention.”
8 Then the watchman called:
“O Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime,
and I am stationed at my guard post every night.
9 Look, here comes a chariot of men,
horsemen in pairs.”
And he answered and said,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon.
And all the graven images of her gods
lie shattered on the ground.”
10 O my threshed people and my afflicted of the threshing floor!
What I have heard from the Lord of Hosts,
the God of Israel,
I have declared to you.
A Prophecy Against Edom
11 The oracle of Dumah.
He calls to me out of Seir,
“Watchman, how far gone is the night?
Watchman, how far gone is the night?”
12 The watchman says,
“The morning comes and also the night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
return again.”
A Prophecy Against Arabia
13 The oracle about Arabia.
In the forest of Arabia you shall lodge,
O traveling companies of Dedanites.
14 Bring water for the thirsty,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema;
meet the fugitive with bread.
15 For they fled from the swords,
from the drawn sword,
and from the bent bow,
and from the grievousness of war.
16 For thus the Lord has said to me: Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail. 17 And the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished, for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.
An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem
22 The oracle of the Valley of Vision.
What ails you now,
that you all have gone up to the housetops,
2 you who were full of noise,
a tumultuous city, a joyous city?
Your slain are not slain with the sword,
nor did they die in battle.
3 All your rulers have fled together;
they are captured by the archers.
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
although they had fled from afar.
4 Therefore, I say, “Look away from me,
I will weep bitterly;
do not try to comfort me
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 For it is a day of trouble and of treading down and of perplexity
by the Lord God of Hosts
in the Valley of Vision,
a breaking down of the walls
and a crying to the mountains.
6 Elam took up the quiver
with chariots of men and horsemen,
and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots,
and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
8 And He shall remove the protection of Judah.
You shall depend in that day
on the weapons of the house of the forest;
9 you have seen also that the breaches
of the City of David are many;
and you gathered together the waters
of the lower pool.
10 You have numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
and the houses you have broken down to fortify the wall.
11 You also made a reservoir between the two walls
for the water of the old pool.
But you have not looked to its Maker,
nor did you respect Him who fashioned it long ago.
12 In that day the Lord God of Hosts
called you to weeping and mourning,
and to tear your hair and wear sackcloth.
13 Yet, there is joy and gladness,
slaying of oxen and killing of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking wine:
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we may die.”
14 It was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of Hosts: Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord God of Hosts.
15 Thus says the Lord God of Hosts:
Come, go to this treasurer,
even to Shebna, who is over the royal household, and say:
16 What right do you have here? And whom do you have here
that you have dug out for yourself a tomb here,
as he who hews out for himself a tomb on high,
and who cuts a habitation for himself in a rock?
17 Indeed, the Lord is about to hurl you headlong, O man;
He is about to seize you firmly.
18 He will surely violently turn
and toss you like a ball into a large country;
there you shall die,
and there the chariots of your glory shall be
the shame of your lord’s house.
19 I will drive you from your office
and pull you down from your station.
20 In that day I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. 21 And I will clothe him with your robe and tie him securely with your sash. And I will entrust him with your authority, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder. Then he shall open, and no one shall shut. And he shall shut, and no one shall open. 23 I will fasten him as a nail in a firm place, and he shall become a glorious throne to his father’s house. 24 They shall hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the bowls to all the jars.
25 In that day, says the Lord of Hosts, the nail that is fastened in the firm place shall be removed, and be cut down and fall. And the load that was on it shall be cut off, for the Lord has spoken it.
An Oracle Concerning Tyre
23 The oracle of Tyre.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for Tyre is laid waste
so that there is no house or harbor;
from the land of Cyprus
it is reported to them.
2 Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
you merchants of Sidon;
your messengers passed over the sea,
3 and were on many waters;
the grain of the Nile,
the harvest of the River[m] was her revenue;
and she was the market of nations.
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea has spoken,
even the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have not travailed nor brought forth children;
neither have I brought up young men nor raised virgins.”
5 When the report reaches Egypt,
they shall be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
6 Pass over to Tarshish;
wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.
7 Is this your joyous city,
whose origin is from ancient days,
whose feet used to carry her
to sojourn in distant locations?
8 Who has planned this against Tyre,
the crowning city,
whose merchants are princes,
whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?
9 The Lord of Hosts has purposed it,
to stain the pride of all glory
and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
10 Pass through your land as the Nile,
O daughter of Tarshish;
there is no more restraint.
11 He stretched out His hand over the sea,
He shook the kingdoms;
the Lord has given a command against the merchant city,
to destroy its strongholds.
12 He said: You shall rejoice no more,
O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, pass over to Cyprus;
there also you shall have no rest.
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans;
this was a people who was not;
Assyria founded it
for those who dwell in the wilderness.
They set up their siege towers,
they stripped its palaces,
and brought it to ruin.
14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your stronghold is laid waste.
15 In that day Tyre shall be forgotten for seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years Tyre shall sing as a harlot:
16 Take your harp, go about the city,
O forgotten harlot;
make sweet melody, sing many songs,
that you may be remembered.
17 At the end of seventy years, the Lord will punish Tyre. Then she shall turn to her harlot’s wages and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 Her merchandise and her harlot’s wages shall be set apart to the Lord. It shall not be treasured nor stored up, for her merchandise shall be for those who dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for choice clothing.
Judgment on the Earth
24 Now the Lord makes the earth empty,
and makes it waste,
and turns it upside down,
and scatters its inhabitants abroad.
2 It shall be:
as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the servant, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3 The land shall be utterly emptied,
and utterly despoiled,
for the Lord has spoken this word.
4 The earth mourns and fades away,
the world languishes and fades away,
the haughty people of the earth languish.
5 The earth also is defiled by its inhabitants
because they have transgressed the laws,
violated the ordinances,
broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore, the curse devours the earth,
and those who dwell in it are held guilty.
Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
and few men are left.
7 The new wine fails, the vine languishes,
all the merry-hearted sigh.
8 The joy of tambourines ceases,
the noise of those who rejoice ends,
the joy of the harp ceases.
9 They shall not drink wine with song;
strong drink shall be bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down;
every house is shut up so that no one may come in.
11 There is an outcry for wine in the streets,
all joy is turned to gloom,
the joyfulness of the earth is gone.
12 Desolation is left in the city,
and the gate is battered to destruction.
13 For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
among the peoples,
as the shaking of an olive tree,
and as the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.
14 They lift up their voices; they sing for the majesty of the Lord;
they cry aloud from the west.
15 Therefore glorify the Lord in the east,
even the name of the Lord God of Israel
in the coastlands of the sea.
16 From the uttermost part of the earth we hear songs,
that is, “Glory to the Righteous One.”
But I say, Woe to me! Woe to me!
Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously;
indeed, the treacherous deal very treacherously.
17 Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you,
O inhabitant of the earth.
18 He who flees from the report of disaster
shall fall into the pit,
and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit
shall be taken in the snare.
For the windows from on high are open,
and the foundations of the earth shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down,
the earth is split through,
the earth is shaken violently.
20 The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard,
and it totters like a shack,
and its transgression is heavy upon it,
and it shall fall, never to rise again.
21 In that day the Lord shall punish
the host of heaven on high
and the kings of the earth on the earth.
22 They shall be gathered together,
as prisoners are gathered in the dungeon,
and shall be shut up in the prison,
and after many days they shall be punished.
23 Then the moon shall be humiliated and the sun ashamed,
when the Lord of Hosts reigns
in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and His glory shall be before His elders.
Praise to the Lord
25 O Lord, You are my God.
I will exalt You, I will praise Your name,
for You have done wonderful things;
Your plans formed of old
are faithfulness and truth.
2 For You have made a city into a heap,
a fortified city into a ruin;
a palace of strangers is a city no longer;
it shall never be built.
3 Therefore a strong people shall glorify You;
cities of ruthless nations shall fear You.
4 For You have been a defense to the poor,
a defense to the needy in his distress,
a refuge from the storm,
a shadow from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless ones
is as a storm against the wall.
5 You bring down the noise of strangers,
as heat in drought;
as the heat by the shadow of a cloud,
the song of the ruthless ones shall be brought low.
6 In this mountain the Lord of Hosts shall prepare
for all people a lavish feast,
a feast of aged wines,
choice pieces full of marrow, and refined, aged wines.
7 He will destroy in this mountain
the covering which is over all peoples,
even the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death for all time,
and the Lord God will wipe away tears
from all faces;
and the reproach of His people He shall take away
from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken it.
9 It shall be said in that day:
Look, this is our God
for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.
10 For in this mountain the hand of the Lord shall rest,
and Moab shall be trodden down in his place
as straw is trodden down in the water for the manure pile.
11 He shall spread out his hands in the midst of it,
as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
yet the Lord shall bring down his pride
together with the trickery of his hands.
12 The unassailable fortresses of your walls
He shall bring down, lay low,
and bring to the ground,
even to the dust.
A Song of Victory
26 In that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
He appoints walls
and bulwarks for security.
2 Open the gates,
that the righteous nation may enter,
the one who remains faithful.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for in God the Lord we have an everlasting rock.
5 For He brings down those who dwell on high,
the lofty city; He lays it low; He lays it low,
even to the ground;
He brings it even to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down,
even the feet of the poor
and the steps of the needy.
7 The way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.
8 In the way of Your judgments, O Lord,
we have waited for You eagerly;
the desire of our souls is Your name,
even Your memory.
9 With my soul I have desired You in the night;
my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
for when Your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 Though favor is shown to the wicked,
yet he will not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals unjustly
and does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, Your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.
12 Lord, You will ordain peace for us,
for You also have done all our works for us.
13 O Lord our God, other lords besides You have had dominion over us,
but through You alone we confess Your name.
14 The dead shall not live;
the departed spirits shall not rise.
Therefore, You have punished and destroyed them
and made all remembrance of them to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have increased the nation;
You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.
16 Lord, in trouble they have sought You;
they poured out a prayer
when Your chastening was on them.
17 Like a woman with child, who is in pain and cries out in her pangs
when she draws near the time of her delivery,
so have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
18 We have been with child, we have been in pain,
we have, as it were, brought forth wind;
we have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
nor were the inhabitants of the world born.
19 Your dead shall live,
their corpses shall arise.
Awake and sing,
you who dwell in dust,
for your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
and the earth shall give birth to the departed spirits.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide for a little while
until the indignation is over.
21 For the Lord comes out of His place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth also shall disclose her bloodshed
and shall cover her slain no more.
The Deliverance of Israel
27 In that day
the Lord with His fierce and great
and strong sword shall punish
Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day:
Sing of it! A vineyard of red wine.
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
I water it every moment;
lest anyone damage it,
I protect it night and day.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 5:10 About 6 gallons, or 22 liters.
- Isaiah 5:10 Likely about 360 pounds, or 160 kilograms.
- Isaiah 5:10 Likely about 36 pounds, or 16 kilograms.
- Isaiah 7:14 Heb. young woman.
- Isaiah 7:14 Or God with us.
- Isaiah 7:20 Euphrates River.
- Isaiah 7:23 About 25 pounds, or 12 kilograms.
- Isaiah 8:1 See v. 3.
- Isaiah 8:3 See v. 1.
- Isaiah 8:7 Euphrates River.
- Isaiah 11:15 Euphrates River.
- Isaiah 20:1 Possibly Commander-in-Chief.
- Isaiah 23:3 Nile River.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.