1 The chazon (vision) of Yeshayah ben Amotz, which he saw concerning Yehudah and Yerushalayim in the yamim of Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz, and Yechizkiyahu, melachim of Yehudah.

² Hear, O Shomayim, and give ear, O Eretz, for Hashem hath spoken; I have nourished and brought up banim, and they have rebelled against Me [i.e., willfully flouted My authority. See Yeshayah 53:5,8].

³ The ox knoweth his owner, and the donkey his master’s manger; but Yisroel doth not know, My people doth not consider.

⁴ Ah, goy choteh (sinful nation), a people weighed down with avon (guilt, iniquity), zera of evildoers, banim of corruption; they forsook Hashem, they have spurned the Kadosh Yisroel (the Holy One of Yisroel), they have turned their back on Him. [T.N. Here we see it is 'My people’ (Ex 6:6-7) who are stricken, whereas in Yeshayah 53:8 it is Moshiach Ben Dovid who is stricken for My people.]

⁵ Why, seeing that ye will be stricken again, will ye rebel stubbornly again? The kol rosh is sick, and the kol levav faint.

⁶ From the sole of the regel even unto the rosh there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither soothed with shemen.

⁷ Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with eish; your land, zarim devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by zarim.

⁸ And the Bat Tziyon (i.e., Yerushalayim) is left as a sukkah in a kerem (vineyard), as a shack in a cucumber field, as an ir (city) under siege.

⁹ Except Hashem Tzva’os had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Amora (Gomorrah).

¹⁰ Hear the Devar Hashem, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the Torat Eloheinu, ye people of Amora (Gomorrah).

¹¹ To what purpose is the multitude of your zevakhim unto Me? saith Hashem; I am fed up of the olot (burnt offerings) of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the dahm of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

¹² When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample khatzerai (My courts)?

¹³ Bring no more futile minchot; ketoret is an abomination unto Me; Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) and Shabbos, the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure aven (wickedness) and atzarah (solemn convocation).

¹⁴ Your Rosh Chodesh and your Mo’adim My Nefesh hateth; they are a burden unto Me; I am weary to bear them.

¹⁵ And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many tefillah, I will not hear; your hands are full of dahmim.

¹⁶ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil;

¹⁷ Learn to do good; seek mishpat, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the almanah.

¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, saith Hashem; 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 ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of ha’aretz;

²⁰ But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the cherev; for the mouth of Hashem hath spoken.

²¹ How is the Kiryah Ne’emanah (Faithful City, i.e., Yerushalayim) become a zonah (harlot)! It was full of mishpat; tzedek lodged in it; but now murderers.

²² Thy kesef is become dross, thy wine mixed with mayim:

²³ Thy sarim (princes) are rebellious, and companions of ganavim: every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards: they give no justice to the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the almanah come unto them.

²⁴ Therefore saith HaAdon, Hashem Tzva’os, Avir Yisroel (the Mighty One of Yisroel), Ah, I will relieve Myself of Mine adversaries, and avenge Me of Mine enemies:

²⁵ And I will turn My hand upon thee, and refine away thy impurities, and take away all thy alloy:

²⁶ And I will restore thy shofetim as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The Ir HaTzedek, the Kiryah Ne’emanah.

²⁷ Tziyon shall be redeemed with mishpat, and those in her who make teshuvah with tzedakah.

²⁸ And the destruction of the poshe’im and of the chote’im shall be together, and they that forsake Hashem shall be consumed.

²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the sacred oaks which ye have delighted in, and ye shall blush for the gannot (gardens) that ye have chosen.

³⁰ For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no mayim. [T.N. The unquenchable fire of the apostate in the first chapter points to the unquenchable fire of Gehinnom in the last verse of the last chapter (66:24) and the loathesomeness of those there—Daniel 12:2].

³¹ And the strong shall be as tinder, and the maker of it [the idol] as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.