Isaiah 1-5

English Standard Version

⁴ Ah, sinful nation,
    a people laden with iniquity,
^(L)offspring of evildoers,
    children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord,
    they have ^(M)despised ^(N)the Holy One of Israel,
    they are utterly ^(O)estranged.

⁵ Why will you still be ^(P)struck down?
    Why will you ^(Q)continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick,
    and the whole heart faint.
^6 (R)From the sole of the foot even to the head,
    there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores
    and raw wounds;
they are ^(S)not pressed out or bound up
    or softened with oil.

^7 (T)Your country lies desolate;
    your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
    foreigners devour your land;
    it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
⁸ And ^(U)the daughter of Zion is left
    like a ^(V)booth in a vineyard,
like a lodge in a cucumber field,
    like a besieged city.

^9 (W)If the Lord of hosts
    had not left us ^(X)a few survivors,
we should have been like ^(Y)Sodom,
    and become like ^(Z)Gomorrah.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of ^(AA)(AB)Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching^[b] of our God,
    you people of ^(AC)Gomorrah!
^11 (AD)“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
    says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
    or of lambs, or of goats.

¹² “When you come to ^(AE)appear before me,
    who has required of you
    this trampling of my courts?
¹³ Bring no more vain offerings;
    incense is an abomination to me.
^(AF)New moon and Sabbath and the ^(AG)calling of convocations—
    I cannot endure ^(AH)iniquity and ^(AI)solemn assembly.
¹⁴ Your ^(AJ)new moons and your appointed feasts
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you ^(AK)spread out your hands,
    I will hide my eyes from you;
^(AL)even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen;
    ^(AM)your hands are full of blood.
^16 (AN)Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
^(AO)cease to do evil,
¹⁷     learn to do good;
^(AP)seek justice,
    correct oppression;
^(AQ)bring justice to the fatherless,
    plead the widow's cause.

¹⁸ “Come now, ^(AR)let us reason^[c] together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as ^(AS)white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
    they shall become like wool.
^19 (AT)If you are willing and obedient,
    you shall eat the good of the land;
²⁰ but if you refuse and rebel,
    you shall be eaten by the sword;
    ^(AU)for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

²⁴ Therefore the ^(BA)Lord declares,
    the Lord of hosts,
    the ^(BB)Mighty One of Israel:
“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies
    ^(BC)and avenge myself on my foes.
^25 (BD)I will turn my hand against you
    and will smelt away your ^(BE)dross as with lye
    and remove all your alloy.
²⁶ And I will restore your judges ^(BF)as at the first,
    and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward ^(BG)you shall be called the city of righteousness,
    the faithful city.”

^27 (BH)Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
    and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
^28 (BI)But rebels and sinners shall be broken together,
    and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
^29 (BJ)For they^[e] shall be ashamed of ^(BK)the oaks
    that you desired;
and you shall blush for ^(BL)the gardens
    that you have chosen.
³⁰ For you shall be ^(BM)like an oak
    whose leaf withers,
    and like a garden without water.
³¹ And the strong shall become ^(BN)tinder,
    and his work a spark,
and both of them shall burn together,
    with ^(BO)none to quench them.

^2 (BP)It shall come to pass in the latter days
    that ^(BQ)the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
    and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and ^(BR)all the nations shall flow to it,
³     and ^(BS)many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
For ^(BT)out of Zion shall go forth the law,^[f]
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
    and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
^(BU)and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
^(BV)nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war anymore.

⁵ O house of Jacob,
    come, let us walk
    in ^(BW)the light of the Lord.

^12 (CK)For the Lord of hosts has a day
    against all that is proud and lofty,
    against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;
¹³ against all the ^(CL)cedars of Lebanon,
    lofty and lifted up;
    and against all the ^(CM)oaks of Bashan;
¹⁴ against all ^(CN)the lofty mountains,
    and against all the uplifted hills;
¹⁵ against every high tower,
    and against every fortified wall;
¹⁶ against all ^(CO)the ships of Tarshish,
    and against all the beautiful craft.
^17 (CP)And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
    and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,
    and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
^18 (CQ)And the idols shall utterly pass away.
^19 (CR)And people shall enter the caves of the rocks
    and the holes of the ground,^[g]
from before the terror of the Lord,
    and from the splendor of his majesty,
    ^(CS)when he rises to terrify the earth.

²⁰ In that day ^(CT)mankind will cast away
    their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
    to the moles and to the ^(CU)bats,
^21 (CV)to enter the caverns of the rocks
    and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of the Lord,
    and from the splendor of his majesty,
    ^(CW)when he rises to terrify the earth.
^22 (CX)Stop regarding man
    ^(CY)in whose nostrils is breath,
    for of what account is he?

⁶ For ^(DE)a man will take hold of his brother
    in the house of his father, saying:
“You have a cloak;
    you shall be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
    shall be under your rule”;
⁷ in that day he will speak out, saying:
“I will not be a ^(DF)healer;^[j]
    in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
you shall not make me
    leader of the people.”
⁸ For Jerusalem has stumbled,
    and Judah has fallen,
because their ^(DG)speech and their deeds are against the Lord,
    ^(DH)defying his glorious presence.^[k]

⁹ For the look on their faces bears witness against them;
    they proclaim their sin ^(DI)like Sodom;
    they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
    ^(DJ)For they have brought evil on themselves.
^10 (DK)Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,
    ^(DL)for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
^11 (DM)Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
    for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
¹² My people—^(DN)infants are their oppressors,
    and women rule over them.
O my people, ^(DO)your guides mislead you
    and they have swallowed up^[l] the course of your paths.

¹³ The Lord ^(DP)has taken his place to contend;
    he stands to judge peoples.
¹⁴ The Lord will enter into judgment
    with the ^(DQ)elders and princes of his people:
“It is you who ^(DR)have devoured^[m] the vineyard,
    ^(DS)the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
¹⁵ What do you mean by ^(DT)crushing my people,
    by grinding the face of the poor?”
declares the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁶ The Lord said:
^(DU)Because ^(DV)the daughters of Zion are haughty
    and walk with outstretched necks,
    glancing wantonly with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,
    ^(DW)tinkling with their feet,
¹⁷ therefore the Lord ^(DX)will strike with a scab
    the heads of ^(DY)the daughters of Zion,
    and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.

²⁴ Instead of ^(EF)perfume there will be rottenness;
    and instead of a ^(EG)belt, a rope;
and instead of ^(EH)well-set hair, ^(EI)baldness;
    and instead of a rich robe, a ^(EJ)skirt of sackcloth;
    and ^(EK)branding instead of beauty.
²⁵ Your men shall fall by the sword
    and your mighty men in battle.
²⁶ And ^(EL)her gates shall lament and mourn;
    empty, she shall ^(EM)sit on the ground.

³ And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
^4 (FH)What more was there to do for my vineyard,
    that I have not done in it?
^(FI)When I looked for it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield wild grapes?

⁵ And now I will tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove ^(FJ)its hedge,
    and it shall be devoured;^[o]
(FK)I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trampled down.
⁶ I will make it a waste;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and ^(FL)briers and thorns shall grow up;
^(FM)I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.

^7 (FN)For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
    are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
    but behold, bloodshed;^[p]
for righteousness,
    but behold, an outcry!^[q]

¹¹ Woe to those who ^(FS)rise early in the morning,
    that they may run after strong drink,
who tarry late into the evening
    as wine inflames them!
^12 (FT)They have lyre and harp,
    tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,
^(FU)but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
    or see the work of his hands.

¹³ Therefore my people go into exile
    ^(FV)for lack of knowledge;^[t]
their ^(FW)honored men go hungry,^[u]
    and their multitude is parched with thirst.
¹⁴ Therefore Sheol has ^(FX)enlarged its appetite
    and opened ^(FY)its mouth beyond measure,
and the nobility of Jerusalem^[v] and her multitude will go down,
    her revelers and he who ^(FZ)exults in her.
^15 (GA)Man is humbled, and each one is brought low,
    and the eyes of the haughty^[w] are brought low.
^16 (GB)But the Lord of hosts is exalted^[x] in justice,
    and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
¹⁷ Then shall the lambs graze ^(GC)as in their pasture,
    and ^(GD)nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.

¹⁸ Woe to those who draw iniquity with ^(GE)cords of falsehood,
    who draw sin as with cart ropes,
¹⁹ who say: ^(GF)“Let him be quick,
    let him speed his work
    that we may see it;
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
    and let it come, that we may know it!”
²⁰ Woe to ^(GG)those who call evil good
    and good evil,
^(GH)who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter!
²¹ Woe to those who are ^(GI)wise in their own eyes,
    and shrewd in their own sight!
²² Woe to those who are ^(GJ)heroes at drinking wine,
    and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
²³ who ^(GK)acquit the guilty for a bribe,
    and deprive the innocent of his right!

²⁴ Therefore, ^(GL)as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
    and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so ^(GM)their root will be ^(GN)as rottenness,
    and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have ^(GO)rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,
    and have ^(GP)despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵ Therefore ^(GQ)the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
    and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,
    and ^(GR)the mountains quaked;
and their corpses were ^(GS)as refuse
    in the midst of the streets.
^(GT)For all this his anger has not turned away,
    and his hand is stretched out still.

²⁶ He will ^(GU)raise a signal for nations far away,
    and ^(GV)whistle for them ^(GW)from the ends of the earth;
and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
^27 (GX)None is weary, none stumbles,
    none slumbers or sleeps,
not a waistband is loose,
    not a sandal strap broken;
^28 (GY)their arrows are sharp,
    all their bows bent,
their horses' hoofs seem like flint,
    and their wheels ^(GZ)like the whirlwind.
²⁹ Their roaring is like a lion,
    like young lions they roar;
they growl and ^(HA)seize their prey;
    they carry it off, and none can rescue.
³⁰ They will growl over it on that day,
    like the growling of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
    behold, ^(HB)darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds.