New American Standard Bible (en)

Whole Bible

Isaiah

Chapters 1-39

Isaiah, Chapter 1

¹ Rebellion of God’s People, ¹⁰ God Has Had Enough, ¹⁸ “Let Us Reason”, ²¹ Zion Corrupted, to Be Redeemed

¹ The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the^areigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth;
For the LORD speaks,
“Sons I have reared and brought up,
But they have revolted against Me.

“An ox knows its owner,
And a donkey its master’s manger,
But Israel does not know,
My people do not understand.”

⁴

Alas, sinful nation,
People weighed down with iniquity,
^bOffspring of evildoers,
Sons who act corruptly!
They have abandoned the LORD,
They have despised the Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away^cfrom Him.

⁵

Where will you be stricken again,
As you continue in your rebellion?
The whole head is sick
And the whole heart is faint.

⁶

From the sole of the foot even to the head
There is nothing sound in it,
Only bruises, welts and raw wounds,
Not pressed out or bandaged,
Nor softened with oil.

⁷

Your land is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire,
Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your presence;
It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers.

⁸

The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,
Like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

⁹

Unless the LORD of hosts
Had left us a few survivors,
We would be like Sodom,
We would be like Gomorrah.

¹⁰

Hear the word of the LORD,
You rulers of Sodom;
Give ear to the instruction of our God,
You people of Gomorrah.

¹¹

“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”
Says the LORD.
“I^dhave had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle;
And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.

¹²

“When you come to appear before Me,
Who requires^eof you this trampling of My courts?

¹³

“Bring your worthless offerings no longer,
Incense is an abomination to Me.
New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.

¹⁴

“I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts,
They have become a burden to Me;
I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵

“So when you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Yes, even though you multiply prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are^fcovered with blood.

¹⁶

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
Cease to do evil,

¹⁷

Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
^gDefend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.

¹⁸

“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.

¹⁹

“If you consent and obey,
You will eat the best of the land;

²⁰

“But if you refuse and rebel,
You will be devoured by the sword.”
Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

²¹

How the faithful city has become a harlot,
She who was full of justice!
Righteousness once lodged in her,
But now murderers.

²²

Your silver has become dross,
Your drink diluted with water.

²³

Your rulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone loves a bribe
And chases after rewards.
They do not^hdefend theⁱorphan,
Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.

²⁴

Therefore the Lord^jGOD of hosts,
The Mighty One of Israel, declares,
“Ah, I will be relieved of My adversaries
And avenge Myself on My foes.

²⁵

“I will also turn My hand against you,
And will smelt away your dross as with lye
And will remove all your alloy.

²⁶

“Then I will restore your judges as at the first,
And your counselors as at the beginning;
After that you will be called the city of righteousness,
A faithful city.”

²⁷

Zion will be redeemed with justice
And her^krepentant ones with righteousness.

²⁸

But^ltransgressors and sinners will be crushed together,
And those who forsake the LORD will come to an end.

²⁹

Surely^myou will be ashamed of theⁿoaks which you have desired,
And you will be embarrassed at the gardens which you have chosen.

³⁰

For you will be like an^ooak whose leaf fades away
Or as a garden that has no water.

³¹

The strong man will become tinder,
His work also a spark.
Thus they shall both burn together
And there will be none to quench them.

Isaiah, Chapter 2

¹ God’s Universal Reign, ¹² A Day of Reckoning Coming

¹ The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

Now it will come about that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the LORD
Will be established^aas the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.

And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us^bconcerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the^claw will go forth from Zion
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

⁴

And He will judge between the nations,
And will^drender decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.

⁵

Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

⁶

For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with influences from the east,
And they are soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they strike bargains with the children of foreigners.

⁷

Their land has also been filled with silver and gold
And there is no end to their treasures;
Their land has also been filled with horses
And there is no end to their chariots.

⁸

Their land has also been filled with idols;
They worship the work of their hands,
That which their fingers have made.

⁹

So the common man has been humbled
And the man of importance has been abased,
But do not forgive them.

¹⁰

Enter the rock and hide in the dust
From the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty.

¹¹

The^eproud look of man will be abased
And the loftiness of man will be humbled,
And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

¹²

For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against everyone who is proud and lofty
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be abased.

¹³

And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up,
Against all the oaks of Bashan,

¹⁴

Against all the lofty mountains,
Against all the hills that are lifted up,

¹⁵

Against every high tower,
Against every fortified wall,

¹⁶

Against all the ships of Tarshish
And against all the beautiful craft.

¹⁷

The pride of man will be humbled
And the loftiness of men will be abased;
And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

¹⁸

But the idols will completely vanish.

¹⁹

Men will go into caves of the rocks
And into holes of the^fground
Before the terror of the LORD
And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.

²⁰

In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves to worship,

²¹

In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs
Before the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.

²²

^gStop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;
For^hwhy should he be esteemed?

Isaiah, Chapter 3

¹ God Will Remove the Leaders, ¹³ God Will Judge, ¹⁶ Judah’s Women Denounced

For behold, the Lord^aGOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah
Both^bsupply and support, the whole^csupply of bread
And the whole^dsupply of water;

The mighty man and the warrior,
The judge and the prophet,
The diviner and the elder,

The captain of fifty and the honorable man,
The counselor and the expert artisan,
And the skillful enchanter.

⁴

And I will make mere lads their princes,
And^ecapricious children will rule over them,

⁵

And the people will be oppressed,
Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;
The youth will storm against the elder
And the inferior against the honorable.

⁶

When a man lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying,
“You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,
And these ruins will be under your^fcharge,”

⁷

He will^gprotest on that day, saying,
“I will not be your^hhealer,
For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”

⁸

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,
Because theirⁱspeech and their actions are against the LORD,
To rebel against^jHis glorious presence.

⁹

^kThe expression of their faces bears witness against them,
And they display their sin like Sodom;
They do not even conceal it.
Woe to^lthem!
For they have brought evil on themselves.

¹⁰

Say to the righteous that it will go well with them,
For they will eat the fruit of their actions.

¹¹

Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,
For^mwhat he deserves will be done to him.

¹²

O My people! Their oppressorsⁿare children,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray
And confuse the direction of your paths.

¹³

The LORD arises to contend,
And stands to judge the people.

¹⁴

The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people,
“It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

¹⁵

“What do you mean by crushing My people
And grinding the face of the poor?”
Declares the Lord^oGOD of hosts.

¹⁶

Moreover, the LORD said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud
And walk with^pheads held high and seductive eyes,
And go along with mincing steps
And tinkle the bangles on their feet,

¹⁷

Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs,
And the LORD will make their foreheads bare.”

¹⁸ In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments, ¹⁹ dangling earrings, bracelets, veils, ²⁰ headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets, ²¹ ^qfinger rings, nose rings, ²² festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses, ²³ hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans and veils.

²⁴

Now it will come about that instead of^rsweet perfume there will be putrefaction;
Instead of a belt, a rope;
Instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp;
Instead of fine clothes, a donning of sackcloth;
And branding instead of beauty.

²⁵

Your men will fall by the sword
And your^smighty ones in battle.

²⁶

And her^tgates will lament and mourn,
And deserted she will sit on the ground.

Isaiah, Chapter 4

¹ A Remnant Prepared

¹ For seven women will take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach!”

² In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel. ³ It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem. ⁴ When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and^apurged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, ⁵ then the LORD will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. ⁶ There will be a shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and^bprotection from the storm and the rain.

Isaiah, Chapter 5

¹ Parable of the Vineyard, ⁸ Woes for the Wicked

Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on^aa fertile hill.

He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with^bthe choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a^cwine vat in it;
Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only^dworthless ones.

“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard.

⁴

“What more was there to do for My vineyard^ethat I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce^fworthless ones?

⁵

“So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.

⁶

“I will lay it waste;
It will not be pruned or hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”

⁷

For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

⁸

Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!

⁹

In my ears the LORD of hosts has sworn, “Surely, many houses shall become desolate,
Even great and fine ones, without occupants.

¹⁰

“For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one^gbath of wine,
And a homer of seed will yield but an^hephah of grain.”

¹¹

Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,
Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!

¹²

Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD,
Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

¹³

Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
Andⁱtheir honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.

¹⁴

Therefore Sheol has enlarged its^jthroat and opened its mouth without measure;
And^kJerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.

¹⁵

So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,
The eyes of the proud also will be abased.

¹⁶

But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

¹⁷

Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And strangers will eat in the waste places of the^lwealthy.

¹⁸

Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of^mfalsehood,
And sin as if with cart ropes;

¹⁹

Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near
And come to pass, that we may know it!”

²⁰

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Whoⁿsubstitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who^osubstitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

²¹

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!

²²

Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
And valiant men in mixing strong drink,

²³

Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away the^prights of the ones who are in the right!

²⁴

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom^qblow away as dust;
For they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵

On this account the anger of the LORD has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.
And the mountains quaked, and their corpses^rlay like refuse in the middle of the streets.
For all this His anger^sis not spent,
But His hand is still stretched out.

²⁶

He will also lift up a standard to the^tdistant nation,
And will whistle for it from the ends of the earth;
And behold, it will come with speed swiftly.

²⁷

No one in it is weary or stumbles,
None slumbers or sleeps;
Nor is the belt at its waist undone,
Nor its sandal strap broken.

²⁸

^uIts arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;
The hoofs of its horses^vseem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

²⁹

Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;
It growls as it seizes the prey
And carries it off with no one to deliver it.

³⁰

And it will growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.
If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;
Even the light is darkened by its clouds.

Isaiah, Chapter 6

¹ Isaiah’s Vision, ⁸ Isaiah’s Commission

¹ In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said,“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,
The^awhole earth is full of His glory.”

⁴ And the^bfoundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the^ctemple was filling with smoke. ⁵ Then I said,“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷ He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is^dforgiven.”

⁸ Then 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 listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.’

¹⁰“Render the hearts of this people^einsensitive,
Their ears^fdull,
And their eyes^gdim,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts,
And return and be healed.”

¹¹ Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,

¹²“The LORD has removed men far away,
And the^hforsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

¹³“Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,
And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or an oak
Whose stump remains when it is felled.
The holy seed is its stump.”

Isaiah, Chapter 7

¹ War against Jerusalem, ¹⁰ The Child Immanuel, ¹⁷ Trials to Come for Judah

¹ Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not^aconquer it. ² When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans^bhave camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake^cwith the wind.

³ Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son^dShear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the^efuller’s field, ⁴ and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. ⁵ Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and^fterrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in^gits walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” ⁷ thus says the Lord^hGOD: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. ⁸ For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people), ⁹ and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall notⁱlast.”’”

¹⁰ Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God;^jmake it deep as Sheol or high as^kheaven.” ¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!” ¹³ Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a^lvirgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name^mImmanuel. ¹⁵ He will eat curds and honeyⁿat the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. ¹⁶ For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

¹⁷ The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria.”

¹⁸ In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the^oremotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹ They will all come and settle on the steep^pravines, on the ledges of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes and on all the^qwatering places.

²⁰ In that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the^rEuphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

²¹ Now in that day a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep; ²² and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat curds and honey.

²³ And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns. ²⁴ People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns. ²⁵ As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for^spasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

Isaiah, Chapter 8

¹ Damascus and Samaria Fall, ⁹ A Believing Remnant

¹ Then the LORD said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it^ain ordinary letters:^bSwift is the booty, speedy is the prey. ² And^cI will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” ³ So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Name him^dMaher-shalal-hash-baz; ⁴ for before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵ Again the LORD spoke to me further, saying,

⁶

“Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
And rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah;

⁷

“Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the^eEuphrates,
Even the king of Assyria and all his glory;
And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.

⁸

“Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,
It will reach even to the neck;
And the spread of its wings will^ffill the breadth of^gyour land, O Immanuel.

⁹

“Be broken, O peoples, and be^hshattered;
And give ear, all remote places of the earth.
Gird yourselves, yet beⁱshattered;
Gird yourselves, yet be^jshattered.

¹⁰

“Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted;
State a^kproposal, but it will not stand,
For^lGod is with us.”

¹¹ For thus the LORD spoke to me^mwith mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

¹²

“You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fearⁿwhat they fear or be in dread of it.

¹³

“It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread.

¹⁴

“Then He shall become a sanctuary;
But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over,
And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵

“Many will stumble over them,
Then they will fall and be broken;
They will even be snared and caught.”

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony, seal the^olaw among my disciples. ¹⁷ And I will wait for the LORD who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him. ¹⁸ Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹ When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ To the^plaw and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. ²¹ They will pass through^qthe land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse^rtheir king and their God as they face upward. ²² Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.

Isaiah, Chapter 9

¹ Birth and Reign of the Prince of Peace, ⁸ God’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance

¹ ^aBut there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the^bGentiles.

^cThe people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.

You shall multiply the nation,
You shall^dincrease^etheir gladness;
They will be glad in Your presence
As with the gladness^fof harvest,
As^gmen rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴

For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as^hat the battle of Midian.

⁵

For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.

⁶

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government willⁱrest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷

There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

⁸

The Lord sends a^jmessage against Jacob,
And it falls on Israel.

⁹

And all the people know it,
That is, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:

¹⁰

“The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with smooth stones;
The sycamores have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹

Therefore the LORD raises against them adversaries from Rezin
And spurs their enemies on,

¹²

The Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west;
And they devour Israel with^kgaping jaws.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.

¹³

Yet the people do not turn back to Him who struck them,
Nor do they seek the LORD of hosts.

¹⁴

So the LORD cuts off head and tail from Israel,
Both palm branch and bulrush in a single day.

¹⁵

The head is the elder and honorable man,
And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.

¹⁶

For those who guide this people are leading them astray;
And those who are guided by them are^lbrought to confusion.

¹⁷

Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men,
Nor does He have pity on their^morphans or their widows;
For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,
And every mouth is speaking foolishness.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.

¹⁸

For wickedness burns like a fire;
It consumes briars and thorns;
It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame
And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

¹⁹

By the fury of the LORD of hosts the land is burned up,
And the people are like fuel for the fire;
No man spares his brother.

²⁰

ⁿThey slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry,
And^othey eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;
Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.

²¹

Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
And together they are against Judah.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.

Isaiah, Chapter 10

¹ Assyria Is God’s Instrument, ²⁰ A Remnant Will Return

Woe to those who enact evil statutes
And to those who constantly record^aunjust decisions,

So as to^bdeprive the needy of justice
And rob the poor of My people of their rights,
So that widows may be their spoil
And that they may plunder the^corphans.

Now what will you do in the day of punishment,
And in the devastation which will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your^dwealth?

⁴

Nothing remains but to crouch^eamong the captives
Or fall^famong the slain.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.

⁵

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
And the staff in whose hands is My indignation,

⁶

I send it against a godless nation
And commission it against the people of My fury
To capture booty and to seize plunder,
And to^gtrample them down like mud in the streets.

⁷

Yet it does not so intend,
Nor does^hit plan so in its heart,
But rather it isⁱits purpose to destroy
And to cut off^jmany nations.

⁸

For it says, “Are not my princes^kall kings?

⁹

“Is not Calno like Carchemish,
Or Hamath like Arpad,
Or Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰

“As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,
Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

¹¹

Shall I not^ldo to Jerusalem and her images
Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”

¹² So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will^mpunish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp ofⁿhis haughtiness.” ¹³ For he has said,“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,
For I have understanding;
And I removed the boundaries of the peoples
And plundered their treasures,
And like a mighty man I brought down^otheir inhabitants,

¹⁴And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest,
And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;
And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”

¹⁵

Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it?
Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?
That would be like a^pclub wielding those who lift it,
Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood.

¹⁶

Therefore the Lord, the^qGOD of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors;
And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.

¹⁷

And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame,
And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.

¹⁸

And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body,
And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

¹⁹

And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number
That a child could write them down.

²⁰ Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

²¹

A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

²²

For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea,
Only a remnant within them will return;
A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

²³ For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord^rGOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.

²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord^sGOD of hosts, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian^twho strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did. ²⁵ For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent and My anger will be directed to their destruction.” ²⁶ The LORD of hosts will arouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the sea and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt. ²⁷ So it will be in that day, that^uhis burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.

²⁸

He has come against Aiath,
He has passed through Migron;
At Michmash he deposited his baggage.

²⁹

They have gone through the pass, saying,
“Geba will be our lodging place.”
Ramah is terrified, and Gibeah of Saul has fled away.

³⁰

Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Gallim!
Pay attention, Laishah and^vwretched Anathoth!

³¹

Madmenah has fled.
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.

³²

Yet today he will halt at Nob;
He shakes his fist at the mountain of the^wdaughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³

Behold, the Lord, the^xGOD of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash;
Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down
And those who are lofty will be abased.

³⁴

He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe,
And Lebanon will fall^yby the Mighty One.

Isaiah, Chapter 11

¹ Righteous Reign of the Branch, ¹¹ The Restored Remnant

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

And He will delight in the fear of the LORD,
And He will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

⁴

But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

⁵

Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,
And faithfulness the belt about His waist.

⁶

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion^aand the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.

⁷

Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

⁸

The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

⁹

They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰

Then in that day
The nations will resort to the root of Jesse,
Who will stand as a^bsignal for the peoples;
And His resting place will be^cglorious.

¹¹

Then it will happen on that day that the Lord
Will again recover the second time with His hand
The remnant of His people, who will remain,
From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,
And from the^dislands of the sea.

¹²

And He will lift up a standard for the nations
And assemble the banished ones of Israel,
And will gather the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.

¹³

Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart,
And those who harass Judah will be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
And Judah will not harass Ephraim.

¹⁴

They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west;
Together they will plunder the sons of the east;
^eThey will possess Edom and Moab,
And the sons of Ammon will be^fsubject to them.

¹⁵

And the LORD will^gutterly destroy
The tongue of the^hSea of Egypt;
And He will wave His hand over theⁱRiver
With His scorching wind;
And He will strike it into seven streams
And make men walk over^jdry-shod.

¹⁶

And there will be a highway from Assyria
For the remnant of His people who will be left,
Just as there was for Israel
In the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

Isaiah, Chapter 12

¹ Thanksgiving Expressed

Then you will say on that day,
“I will give thanks to You, O LORD;
For although You were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away,
And You comfort me.

“Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For the LORD GOD is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.”

Therefore you will joyously draw water
From the springs of salvation.

⁴

And in that day you will say,
“Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples;
^aMake them remember that His name is exalted.”

⁵

Praise the LORD in song, for He has done^bexcellent things;
Let this be known throughout the earth.

⁶

Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah, Chapter 13

¹ Prophecies about Babylon, ⁶ Judgment on the Day of the Lord, ¹⁷ Babylon Will Fall to the Medes

¹ The^aoracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

Lift up a standard on the^bbare hill,
Raise your voice to them,
Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.

I have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have even called My mighty warriors,
My proudly exulting ones,
To execute My anger.

⁴

A sound of tumult on the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A sound of the uproar of kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
The LORD of hosts is mustering the army for battle.

⁵

They are coming from a far country,
From the^cfarthest horizons,
The LORD and His instruments of indignation,
To destroy the whole land.

⁶

Wail, for the day of the LORD is near!
It will come as destruction from^dthe Almighty.

⁷

Therefore all hands will fall limp,
And every man’s heart will melt.

⁸

They will be terrified,
Pains and anguish will take hold of them;
They will writhe like a woman in labor,
They will look at one another in astonishment,
Their faces aflame.

⁹

Behold, the day of the LORD is coming,
Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
To make the land a desolation;
And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

¹⁰

For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash forth their light;
The sun will be dark when it rises
And the moon will not shed its light.

¹¹

Thus I will punish the world for its evil
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud
And abase the haughtiness of the^eruthless.

¹²

I will make mortal man^fscarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

¹³

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
And the earth will be shaken from its place
At the fury of the LORD of hosts
In the day of His burning anger.

¹⁴

And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,
Or like sheep with none to gather them,
They will each turn to his own people,
And each one flee to his own land.

¹⁵

Anyone who is found will be thrust through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

¹⁶

Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.

¹⁷

Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold.

¹⁸

And their bows will^gmow down the young men,
They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,
Nor will their eye pity^hchildren.

¹⁹

And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁰

It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.

²¹

But desert creatures will lie down there,
And their houses will be full ofⁱowls;
Ostriches also will live there, and^jshaggy goats will frolic there.

²²

^kHyenas will howl in their fortified towers
And jackals in their luxurious palaces.
Her fateful time also^lwill soon come
And her days will not be prolonged.

Isaiah, Chapter 14

¹ Israel’s Taunt, ²⁴ Judgment on Assyria, ²⁹ Judgment on Philistia

¹ When the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. ² The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; and^athey will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

³ And it will be in the day when the LORD gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved, ⁴ that you will take up this^btaunt against the king of Babylon, and say,“How the oppressor has ceased,
And how^cfury has ceased!

⁵“The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of rulers

⁶Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,
Which^dsubdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

⁷“The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
They break forth into shouts of joy.

⁸“Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’

⁹“Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come;
It arouses for you the^espirits of the dead, all the^fleaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

¹⁰“They will all respond and say to you,
‘Even you have been made weak as we,
You have become like us.

¹¹‘Your pomp and the music of your harps
Have been brought down to Sheol;
Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you
And worms are your covering.’

¹²“How you have fallen from heaven,
O^gstar of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!

¹³“But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.

¹⁴‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’

¹⁵“Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.

¹⁶“Those who see you will gaze at you,
They will^hponder over you, saying,
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,

¹⁷Who made the world like a wilderness
And overthrew its cities,
Who did notⁱallow his prisoners to go home?’

¹⁸“All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
Each in his own^jtomb.

¹⁹“But you have been cast out of your tomb
Like^ka rejected branch,
^lClothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit
Like a trampled corpse.

²⁰“You will not be united with them in burial,
Because you have ruined your country,
You have slain your people.
May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever.

²¹“Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter
Because of the iniquity of their fathers.
They must not arise and take possession of the earth
And fill the face of the world with cities.”

²² “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity,” declares the LORD. ²³ “I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.

²⁴ The LORD of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand, ²⁵ to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. ²⁶ This is the plan^mdevised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. ²⁷ For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

²⁸ In the year that King Ahaz died thisⁿoracle came:

²⁹

“Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you,
Because the rod that struck you is broken;
For from the serpent’s root a viper will come out,
And its fruit will be a flying serpent.

³⁰

“^oThose who are most helpless will eat,
And the needy will lie down in security;
I will^pdestroy your root with famine,
And it will kill off your survivors.

³¹

“Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
^qMelt away, O Philistia, all of you;
For smoke comes from the north,
And there is no straggler in his ranks.

³²

“How then will one answer the messengers of the nation?
That the LORD has founded Zion,
And the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.”

Isaiah, Chapter 15

¹ Judgment on Moab

¹ The^aoracle concerning Moab.Surely in a night Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;
Surely in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.

²They have gone up to the^btemple and to Dibon, even to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;
Everyone’s head is bald and every beard is cut off.

³In their streets they have girded themselves with sackcloth;
On their housetops and in their squares
Everyone is wailing,^cdissolved in tears.

⁴Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out,
Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;
Therefore the^darmed men of Moab cry aloud;
His soul trembles within him.

⁵My heart cries out for Moab;
His fugitives are as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,
For they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping;
Surely on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress over their ruin.

⁶For the waters of Nimrim are^edesolate.
Surely the grass is withered, the tender grass^fdied out,
There is no green thing.

⁷Therefore the abundance which they have acquired and stored up
They carry off over the brook of^gArabim.

⁸For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,
Its wail goes as far as Eglaim and its wailing even to Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of^hblood;
Surely I will bring added woes upon Dimon,
A lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.

Isaiah, Chapter 16

¹ Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation

Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,
From^aSela by way of the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

Then, like^bfleeing birds or scattered^cnestlings,
The daughters of Moab will be at the fords of the Arnon.

“^dGive us advice, make a decision;
^eCast your shadow like night^fat high noon;
Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.

⁴

“Let the^goutcasts of Moab stay with you;
Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”
For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,
Oppressors have completely disappeared from the land.

⁵

A throne will even be established in lovingkindness,
And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David;
Moreover, he will seek justice
And be prompt in righteousness.

⁶

We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;
Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;
His idle boasts are^hfalse.

⁷

Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.
You will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth
As those who are utterly stricken.

⁸

For the fields of Heshbon haveⁱwithered, the vines of Sibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;
Its tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.

⁹

Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;
I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh;
For the shouting over your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.

¹⁰

Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;
In the vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,
No treader treads out wine in the presses,
For I have made the shouting to cease.

¹¹

Therefore my^jheart intones like a harp for Moab
And my^kinward feelings for Kir-hareseth.

¹²

So it will come about when Moab presents himself,
When he wearies himself upon his high place
And comes to his sanctuary to pray,
That he will not prevail.

¹³ This is the word which the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab. ¹⁴ But now the LORD speaks, saying, “Within three years, as^la hired man would count them, the glory of Moab will be degraded along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and^mimpotent.”

Isaiah, Chapter 17

¹ Prophecy about Damascus

¹ The^aoracle concerning Damascus.“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city
And will become a fallen ruin.

²“The cities^bof Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks^cto lie down in,
And there will be no one to frighten them.

³“The^dfortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And^esovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the LORD of hosts.

⁴

Now in that day the glory of Jacob will^ffade,
And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

⁵

It will be even like the^greaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the valley of Rephaim.

⁶

Yet gleanings will be left in it like the^hshaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost bough,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁷

In that day man will have regard for his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸

He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Even theⁱAsherim and^jincense stands.

⁹

In that day^ktheir strong cities will be like^lforsaken places in the forest,
Or like^mbranches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
Andⁿthe land will be a desolation.

¹⁰

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
And have not remembered the rock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine slips of a strange god.

¹¹

In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will be a heap
In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.

¹²

Alas, the uproar of many peoples
Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!

¹³

The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like chaff in the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.

¹⁴

At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning they are no more.
^oSuch will be the portion of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.

Isaiah, Chapter 18

¹ Message to Ethiopia

Alas, oh land of whirring wings
Which lies beyond the rivers of^aCush,

Which sends envoys by the sea,
Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation^btall and smooth,
To a people feared^cfar and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.

All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,
As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, you will see it,
And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

⁴ For thus the LORD has told me,“I will look^dfrom My dwelling place quietly
Like dazzling heat in the^esunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For before the harvest, as soon as the bud^fblossoms
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives
And remove and cut away the spreading branches.

⁶They will be left together for mountain birds of prey,
And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.

⁷At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the LORD of hosts
^gFrom a people^htall and smooth,
Even from a people fearedⁱfar and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, even Mount Zion.

Isaiah, Chapter 19

¹ Message to Egypt

¹ The^aoracle concerning Egypt.Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;
The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,
And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;
And they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor,
City against city and kingdom against kingdom.

³“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;
And I will confound their strategy,
So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead
And to^bmediums and spiritists.

⁴“Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master,
And a^cmighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord^dGOD of hosts.

⁵

The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.

⁶

The^ecanals will emit a stench,
The^fstreams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;
The reeds and rushes will rot away.

⁷

The bulrushes by the Nile, by the^gedge of the Nile
And all the sown fields by the Nile
Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸

And the fishermen will lament,
And all those who cast a^hline into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets on the waters willⁱpine away.

⁹

Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax
And the weavers of white cloth will be^jutterly dejected.

¹⁰

And^kthe pillars of Egypt will be crushed;
All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

¹¹

The princes of^lZoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become^mstupid.
How can you men say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?

¹²

Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let themⁿunderstand what the LORD of hosts
Has purposed against Egypt.

¹³

The princes of^oZoan have acted foolishly,
The princes of Memphis are deluded;
Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes
Have^pled Egypt astray.

¹⁴

The LORD has mixed within her a spirit of distortion;
They have led Egypt astray in all^qthat it does,
As a drunken man^rstaggers in his vomit.

¹⁵

There will be no work for Egypt
Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

¹⁶ In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. ¹⁷ The land of Judah will become a^sterror to Egypt; everyone^tto whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the purpose of the LORD of hosts which He is purposing against them.

¹⁸ In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of^uDestruction.

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD near its border. ²⁰ It will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a^vChampion, and He will deliver them. ²¹ Thus the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it. ²² The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them.

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, 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.”

Isaiah, Chapter 20

¹ Prophecy about Egypt and Ethiopia

¹ In the year that the^acommander came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it, ² at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your shoes off your feet.” And he did so, going naked and barefoot. ³ And the LORD said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a^bsign and token against Egypt and^cCush, ⁴ so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the^dshame of Egypt. ⁵ Then they will be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their boast. ⁶ So the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and we, how shall we escape?’”

Isaiah, Chapter 21

¹ God Commands That Babylon Be Taken, ¹¹ Oracles about Edom and Arabia

¹ The^aoracle concerning the^bwilderness of the sea.As windstorms in the^cNegev sweep on,
It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land.

²A harsh vision has been shown to me;
The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.
Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;
I have made an end of all^dthe groaning she has caused.

³For this reason my loins are full of anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.
I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.

⁴My^emind reels,^fhorror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

⁵They set the table, they^gspread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;
“Rise up, captains, oil the shields,”

⁶ For thus the Lord says to me,“Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees.

⁷“When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
A train of donkeys, a train of camels,
Let him pay close attention, very close attention.”

⁸ Then^hthe lookout called,“O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower,
And I am stationed every night at my guard post.

⁹“Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”
And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
And all the images of her godsⁱare shattered on the ground.”

¹⁰O my threshed people, and my^jafflicted of the threshing floor!
What I have heard from the LORD of hosts,
The God of Israel, I make known to you.

¹¹ The^koracle concerning^lEdom.One keeps calling to me from Seir,
“Watchman,^mhow far gone is the night?
Watchman,ⁿhow far gone is the night?”

¹²The watchman says,
“Morning comes but also night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
Come back again.”

¹³ The^ooracle about Arabia.In the thickets of Arabia you^pmust spend the night,
O caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴Bring water^qfor the thirsty,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Meet the fugitive with bread.

¹⁵For they have fled from the swords,
From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow
And from the press of battle.

¹⁶ For thus the Lord said to me, “In a year, as^ra hired man would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will terminate; ¹⁷ and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken.”

Isaiah, Chapter 22

¹ The Valley of Vision

¹ The^aoracle concerning the valley of vision.What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

²You who were full of noise,
You boisterous town, you exultant city;
Your slain were not slain with the sword,
Nor^bdid they die in battle.

³All your rulers have fled together,
And have been captured^cwithout the bow;
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
^dThough they had fled far away.

⁴Therefore I say, “Turn your eyes away from me,
Let me weep bitterly,
Do not^etry to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵For the Lord^fGOD of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion
In the valley of vision,
A breaking down of walls
And a crying^gto the mountain.

⁶Elam took up the quiver
With the chariots,^hinfantry and horsemen;
And Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate.

⁸And He removed theⁱdefense of Judah.
In that day you^jdepended on the weapons of the house of the forest,

⁹And you saw that the breaches
In the wall of the city of David were many;
And you collected the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem
And tore down houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹And you made a reservoir between the two walls
For the waters of the old pool.
But you did not^kdepend on Him who made it,
Nor did you^ltake into consideration Him who planned it long ago.

¹²

Therefore in that day the Lord^mGOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing,
To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth.

¹³

Instead, there is gaiety and gladness,
Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,
Eating of meat and drinking of wine:
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”

¹⁴

But the LORD of hosts revealed Himselfⁿto me,
“Surely this iniquity shall not be^oforgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord^pGOD of hosts.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord^qGOD of hosts,“Come, go to this steward,
To Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household,

¹⁶‘What right do you have here,
And whom do you have here,
That you have hewn a tomb for yourself here,
You who hew a tomb on the height,
You who carve a resting place for^ryourself in the rock?

¹⁷‘Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you headlong, O man.
And He is about to grasp you firmly

¹⁸And roll you tightly like a ball,
To be cast into a vast country;
There you will die
And there your splendid chariots will be,
You shame of your master’s house.’

¹⁹“I will depose you from your office,
And^sI will pull you down from your station.

²⁰“Then it will come about in that day,
That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

²¹And I will clothe him with your tunic
And tie your sash securely about him.
I will entrust him with your^tauthority,
And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

²²“Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder,
When he opens no one will shut,
When he shuts no one will open.

²³“I will drive him like a peg in a firm place,
And he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house.

²⁴ So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, offspring and^uissue, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars. ²⁵ In that day,” declares the LORD of hosts, “the peg driven in a firm place will give way; it will even break off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”

Isaiah, Chapter 23

¹ The Fall of Tyre

¹ The^aoracle concerning Tyre.Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house or^bharbor;
It is reported to them from the land of^cCyprus.

²Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon;
^dYour messengers crossed the sea

³And were on many waters.
The grain of the^eNile, the harvest of the River was her revenue;
And she was the market of nations.

⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have neither travailed nor given birth,
I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.”

⁵When the report reaches Egypt,
They will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.

⁶Pass over to Tarshish;
Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.

⁷Is this your jubilant city,
Whose origin is from antiquity,
Whose feet used to carry her to^fcolonize distant places?

⁸

Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

⁹

The LORD of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty,
To despise all the honored of the earth.

¹⁰

^gOverflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish,
There is no more^hrestraint.

¹¹

He has stretched His hand out over the sea,
He has made the kingdoms tremble;
The LORD has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strongholds.

¹²

He has said, “You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, pass over toⁱCyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

¹³ Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.

¹⁴

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For your stronghold is destroyed.

¹⁵ Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

¹⁶

Take your harp, walk about the city,
O forgotten harlot;
Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.

¹⁷ It will come about at the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms^jon the face of the earth. ¹⁸ Her gain and her harlot’s wages will be set apart to the LORD; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who dwell in the presence of the LORD.

Isaiah, Chapter 24

¹ Judgment on the Earth

¹ Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. ² And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. ³ The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the LORD has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. ⁵ The earth is also polluted^aby its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.

⁷

The new wine mourns,
The vine decays,
All the merry-hearted sigh.

⁸

The gaiety of tambourines ceases,
The noise of revelers stops,
The gaiety of the harp ceases.

⁹

They do not drink wine with song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰

The city of chaos is broken down;
Every house is shut up so that none may enter.

¹¹

There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;
All joy^bturns to gloom.
The gaiety of the earth is banished.

¹²

Desolation is left in the city
And the gate is battered to ruins.

¹³

For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,
As the^cshaking of an olive tree,
As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.

¹⁴

They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
They cry out from the^dwest concerning the majesty of the LORD.

¹⁵

Therefore glorify the LORD in the^eeast,
The name of the LORD, the God of Israel,
In the^fcoastlands of the sea.

¹⁶

From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One,”
But I say, “^gWoe to me!^hWoe to me! Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”

¹⁷

Terror and pit and snare
ⁱConfront you, O inhabitant of the earth.

¹⁸

Then it will be that he who flees the^jreport of disaster will fall into the pit,
And he who^kclimbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare;
For the windows^labove are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.

¹⁹

The earth is broken asunder,
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^mshack,
For its transgression is heavy upon it,
And it will fall, never to rise again.

²¹

So it will happen in that day,
That the LORD will punish the host ofⁿheaven on high,
And the kings of the earth on earth.

²²

They will be gathered together
Like prisoners in the^odungeon,
And will be confined in prison;
And after many days they will be punished.

²³

Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed,
For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
And His glory will be before His elders.

Isaiah, Chapter 25

¹ Song of Praise for God’s Favor

O LORD, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.

For You have made a city into a heap,
A fortified city into a ruin;
A palace of strangers is a city no more,
It will never be rebuilt.

Therefore a strong people will glorify You;
Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.

⁴

For You have been a defense for the helpless,
A defense for the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;
For the breath of the ruthless
Is like a rain storm against a wall.

⁵

Like heat in drought, You subdue the uproar of aliens;
Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is^asilenced.

⁶

The LORD of hosts will prepare a^blavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of^caged wine,^dchoice pieces with marrow,
And^erefined, aged wine.

⁷

And on this mountain He will swallow up the^fcovering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is^gstretched over all nations.

⁸

He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord^hGOD will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.

⁹

And it will be said in that day,
“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

¹⁰

For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain,
And Moab will be trodden down in his place
As straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.

¹¹

And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it
As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
But the Lord will lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.

¹²

The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,
Lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust.

Isaiah, Chapter 26

¹ Song of Trust in God’s Protection

¹ In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:“We have a strong city;
He sets up walls and ramparts for^asecurity.

²“Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter,
The one that^bremains faithful.

³“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,
Because he trusts in You.

⁴“Trust in the LORD forever,
For in^cGOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.

⁵“For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the unassailable city;
He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.

⁶“The foot will trample it,
The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the helpless.”

⁷

The way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.

⁸

Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O LORD,
We have waited for You eagerly;
Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls.

⁹

At night^dmy soul longs for You,
Indeed,^emy spirit within me seeks You diligently;
For when the earth^fexperiences Your judgments
The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰

Though the wicked is shown favor,
He does not learn righteousness;
He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,
And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD.

¹¹

O LORD, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it.
^gThey see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
Indeed,^hfire will devour Your enemies.

¹²

LORD, You will establish peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all our works.

¹³

O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us;
But through You alone weⁱconfess Your name.

¹⁴

The dead will not live, the^jdeparted spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.

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

O LORD, they sought You in distress;
They^kcould only whisper a prayer,
Your chastening was upon them.

¹⁷

As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains,
Thus were we before You, O LORD.

¹⁸

We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,
We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were inhabitants of the world^lborn.

¹⁹

Your dead will live;
^mTheir corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of theⁿdawn,
And the earth will^ogive birth to the^pdeparted spirits.

²⁰

Come, my people, enter into your rooms
And close your doors behind you;
Hide for a little^qwhile
Until indignation^rruns its course.

²¹

For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
And the earth will reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain.

Isaiah, Chapter 27

¹ The Deliverance of Israel

In that day the LORD will punish^aLeviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even^bLeviathan the twisted serpent;
And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

In that day,
“A^cvineyard of wine, sing of it!

“I, the LORD, am its keeper;
I water it every moment.
So that no one will^ddamage it,
I guard it night and day.

⁴

“I have no wrath.
Should^esomeone give Me briars and thorns in battle,
Then I would step on them, I would burn them^fcompletely.

⁵

“Or let him^grely on My protection,
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him make peace with Me.”

⁶

^hIn the days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill theⁱwhole world with fruit.

⁷

Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain,^jhave they been slain?

⁸

You contended with them^kby banishing them, by driving them away.
With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind.

⁹

Therefore through this Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven;
And this will be^lthe full price of the^mpardoning of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones;
WhenⁿAsherim and incense altars will not stand.

¹⁰

For the fortified city is isolated,
A^ohomestead forlorn and forsaken like the desert;
There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and^pfeed on its branches.

¹¹

When its limbs are dry, they are broken off;
Women come and make a fire with them,
For they are not a people of discernment,
Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them.
And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

¹² In that day the LORD will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. ¹³ It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Isaiah, Chapter 28

¹ Ephraim’s Captivity Predicted, ¹⁴ Judah Is Warned

Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the^afertile valley
Of those who are^bovercome with wine!

Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent;
As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction,
Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters,
He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.

The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is trodden under foot.

⁴

And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the^cfertile valley,
Will be like the first-ripe fig prior to summer,
Which^done sees,
And^eas soon as it is in his^fhand,
He swallows it.

⁵

In that day the LORD of hosts will become a beautiful crown
And a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people;

⁶

A spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment,
A strength to those who repel the^gonslaught at the gate.

⁷

And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:
The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink;
They reel while^hhaving visions,
They totter when rendering judgment.

⁸

For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place.

⁹

“To whom would He teach knowledge,
And to whom would He interpret the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?

¹⁰

“For He says,
‘ⁱOrder on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there.’”

¹¹

Indeed, He will speak to this people
Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue,

¹²

He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,”
And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.

¹³

So the word of the LORD to them will be,
“^jOrder on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there,”
That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.

¹⁴

Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,

¹⁵

Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with^kSheol we have made a^lpact.
The overwhelming^mscourge will not reach us when it passes by,
For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.”

¹⁶ Therefore thus says the LordⁿGOD,“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,
A costly cornerstone for the foundation,^ofirmly placed.
He who believes in it will not be^pdisturbed.

¹⁷“I will make justice the measuring line
And righteousness the level;
Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies
And the waters will overflow the secret place.

¹⁸“Your covenant with death will be^qcanceled,
And your pact with Sheol will not stand;
When the overwhelming scourge passes through,
Then you become its trampling place.

¹⁹“As often as it passes through, it will^rseize you;
For morning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night,
And it will be^ssheer terror to understand^twhat it means.”

²⁰The bed is too short on which to stretch out,
And the blanket is too^usmall to wrap oneself in.

²¹For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He will be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon,
To do His task, His^vunusual task,
And to work His work, His^wextraordinary work.

²²And now do not carry on as scoffers,
Or your fetters will be made stronger;
For I have heard from the Lord^xGOD of hosts
Of decisive destruction on all the earth.

²³

Give ear and hear my voice,
Listen and hear my words.

²⁴

Does the^yfarmer plow^zcontinually to plant seed?
Does he continually^aaturn and harrow the ground?

²⁵

Does he not level its surface
And sow dill and scatter cummin
And^abplant wheat in rows,
Barley in its place and rye within its^acarea?

²⁶

For his God instructs and teaches him properly.

²⁷

For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
Nor is the cartwheel^addriven over cummin;
But dill is beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a club.

²⁸

Grain for bread is crushed,
Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever.
Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually^aedamage it,
He does not thresh it longer.

²⁹

This also comes from the LORD of hosts,
Who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great.

Isaiah, Chapter 29

¹ Jerusalem Is Warned, ¹⁷ Blessing after Discipline

Woe, O^aAriel,^bAriel the city where David once camped!
Add year to year,^cobserve your feasts on schedule.

I will bring distress to Ariel,
And she will be a city of lamenting and mourning;
And she will be like an Ariel to me.

I will camp against you^dencircling you,
And I will set siegeworks against you,
And I will raise up battle towers against you.

⁴

Then you will be brought low;
From the earth you will speak,
And from the dust where you are prostrate
Your words will come.
Your voice will also be like that of a^espirit from the ground,
And your speech will whisper from the dust.

⁵

But the multitude of your^fenemies will become like fine dust,
And the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which^gblows away;
And it will happen instantly, suddenly.

⁶

From the LORD of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise,
With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.

⁷

And the multitude of all the nations who wage war against^hAriel,
Even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,
Will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

⁸

It will be as when a hungry man dreams—
And behold, he is eating;
But when he awakens, hisⁱhunger is not satisfied,
Or as when a thirsty man dreams—
And behold, he is drinking,
But when he awakens, behold, he is faint
And his^jthirst is not quenched.
Thus the multitude of all the nations will be
Who wage war against Mount Zion.

⁹

Be delayed and wait,
Blind yourselves and be blind;
They become drunk, but not with wine,
They stagger, but not with strong drink.

¹⁰

For the LORD has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep,
He has shut your eyes, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, the seers.

¹¹ The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed^kbook, which when they give it to the one who^lis literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” ¹² Then the^mbook will be given to the one whoⁿis illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I^ocannot read.”

¹³ Then the Lord said,“Because this people draw near with their^pwords
And honor Me with their^qlip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their^rreverence for Me^sconsists of^ttradition learned by rote,

¹⁴Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”

¹⁵

Woe to those who deeply hide their^uplans from the LORD,
And whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

¹⁶

You turn things around!
Shall the potter be considered^vas equal with the clay,
That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

¹⁷

Is it not yet just a little while
^wBefore Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field,
And the fertile field will be considered as a forest?

¹⁸

On that day the deaf will hear words of a book,
And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

¹⁹

The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the LORD,
And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰

For the ruthless will come to an end and the scorner will be finished,
Indeed all who^xare intent on doing evil will be cut off;

²¹

Who^ycause a person to be indicted by a word,
And ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate,
And^zdefraud the one in the right with^aameaningless arguments.

²² Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:“Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale;

²³But when^abhe sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst,
They will sanctify My name;
Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴“Those who err in^acmind will know^adthe truth,
And those who^aecriticize will^afaccept instruction.

Isaiah, Chapter 30

¹ Judah Warned against Egyptian Alliance, ¹⁸ God Is Gracious and Just

“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD,
“Who execute a plan, but not Mine,
And^amake an alliance, but not of My Spirit,
In order to add sin to sin;

Who proceed down to Egypt
Without consulting^bMe,
To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh
And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

“Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame
And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.

⁴

“For their princes are at Zoan
And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes.

⁵

“Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,
Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”

⁶ The^coracle concerning the beasts of the Negev.Through a land of distress and anguish,
From^dwhere come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent,
They carry their riches on the^ebacks of young donkeys
And their treasures on camels’ humps,
To a people who cannot profit them;

⁷Even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty.
Therefore, I have called^fher
“^gRahab who has been exterminated.”

⁸Now go, write it on a tablet before them
And inscribe it on a scroll,
That it may^hserve in the time to come
ⁱAs a witness forever.

⁹For this is a rebellious people, false sons,
Sons who^jrefuse to listen
To the^kinstruction of the LORD;

¹⁰Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”;
And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right,
Speak to us^lpleasant words,
Prophesy illusions.

¹¹“Get out of the way, turn aside from the path,
^mLet us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

¹² Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,“Since you have rejected this word
And have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them,

¹³Therefore this iniquity will be to you
Like a breach about to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant,

¹⁴Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar,
ⁿSo ruthlessly shattered
That a sherd will not be found among its pieces
To^otake fire from a hearth
Or to scoop water from a cistern.”

¹⁵ For thus the Lord^pGOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said,“In^qrepentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”
But you were not willing,

¹⁶And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,”
Therefore you shall flee!
“And we will ride on swift horses,”
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

¹⁷One thousand will flee at the threat of one man;
You will flee at the threat of five,
Until you are left as a^rflag on a mountain top
And as a signal on a hill.

¹⁸

Therefore the LORD^slongs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He^twaits on high to have compassion on you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
How blessed are all those who^ulong for Him.

¹⁹ ^vO people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. ²⁰ Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. ²¹ Your ears will hear a word behind you, “^wThis is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. ²² And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to^xthem, “Be gone!”

²³ Then He will give you rain for^ythe seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be^zrich and^aaplenteous; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. ²⁴ Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which^abhas been winnowed with shovel and fork. ²⁵ On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be^acstreams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. ²⁶ The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise^adHe has inflicted.

²⁷

Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a^aeremote place;
Burning is His anger and^afdense is His^agsmoke;
His lips are filled with indignation
And His tongue is like a consuming fire;

²⁸

His breath is like an overflowing torrent,
Which reaches to the neck,
To shake the nations back and forth in a^ahsieve,
And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which^aileads to ruin.

²⁹

You will have^ajsongs as in the night when you keep the festival,
And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute,
To go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.

³⁰

And the LORD will cause^akHis voice of authority to be heard,
And the^aldescending of His arm to be seen in fierce anger,
And in the flame of a consuming fire
In cloudburst, downpour and hailstones.

³¹

For at the voice of the LORD Assyria will be terrified,
When He strikes with the rod.

³²

And every^amblow of the^anrod of punishment,
Which the LORD will lay on him,
Will be with the music of tambourines and lyres;
And in battles, brandishing weapons, He will fight them.

³³

For^aoTopheth has long been ready,
Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.
He has made it deep and large,
^apA pyre of fire with plenty of wood;
The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.

Isaiah, Chapter 31

¹ Help Not in Egypt but in God

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
And rely on horses,
And trust in chariots because they are many
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!

Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster
And does not retract His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers
And against the help of the workers of iniquity.

Now the Egyptians are men and not God,
And their horses are flesh and not spirit;
So the LORD will stretch out His hand,
And he who helps will stumble
And he who is helped will fall,
And all of them will come to an end together.

⁴ For thus says the LORD to me,“As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey,
Against which a band of shepherds is called out,
And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise,
So will the LORD of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

⁵Like^aflying birds so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem.
He will protect and deliver it;
He will pass over and rescue it.

⁶ Return to Him from whom^byou have deeply defected, O sons of Israel. ⁷ For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your sinful hands have made for you as a sin.

⁸

And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of man will devour him.
So he will^cnot escape the sword,
And his young men will become forced laborers.

⁹

“His rock will pass away because of panic,
And his princes will be terrified at the standard,”
Declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Isaiah, Chapter 32

¹ The Glorious Future

Behold, a king will reign righteously
And princes will rule justly.

Each will be like a refuge from the wind
And a shelter from the storm,
Like^astreams of water in a dry country,
Like the shade of a^bhuge rock in^ca parched land.

Then the eyes of those who see will not be^dblinded,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴

The^emind of the hasty will discern the^ftruth,
And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.

⁵

No longer will the fool be called noble,
Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.

⁶

For a fool speaks nonsense,
And his heart^ginclines toward wickedness:
To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD,
To^hkeep the hungry person unsatisfied
Andⁱto withhold drink from the thirsty.

⁷

As for a rogue, his weapons are evil;
He devises wicked schemes
To destroy the afflicted with^jslander,
Even though the needy one speaks^kwhat is right.

⁸

But the noble man devises noble plans;
And by noble plans he stands.

⁹

Rise up, you women who are at ease,
And hear my voice;
Give ear to my word,
You complacent daughters.

¹⁰

Within a year and a few days
You will be troubled, O complacent daughters;
For the vintage is ended,
And the fruit gathering will not come.

¹¹

Tremble, you women who are at ease;
Be troubled, you complacent daughters;
Strip, undress and put sackcloth on your waist,

¹²

Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

¹³

For the land of my people in which thorns and briars shall come up;
Yea, for all the joyful houses and for the jubilant city.

¹⁴

Because the palace has been abandoned, the^lpopulated city forsaken.
^mHill and watch-tower have become caves forever,
A delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks;

¹⁵

Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high,
And the wilderness becomes a fertile field,
And the fertile field is considered as a forest.

¹⁶

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness
And righteousness will abide in the fertile field.

¹⁷

And the work of righteousness will be peace,
And the service of righteousness, quietness andⁿconfidence forever.

¹⁸

Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation,
And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places;

¹⁹

And it will hail when the forest comes down,
And the city will be utterly laid low.

²⁰

How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters,
Who^olet out freely the ox and the donkey.

Isaiah, Chapter 33

¹ The Judgment of God

Woe to you, O destroyer,
While you were not destroyed;
And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.
As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed;
As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you.

O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You.
Be^atheir^bstrength every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of distress.

At the sound of the tumult peoples flee;
At the lifting up of Yourself nations disperse.

⁴

Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.

⁵

The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶

And He will be the^cstability of your times,
A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge;
The fear of the LORD is his treasure.

⁷

Behold, their brave men cry in^dthe streets,
The^eambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

⁸

The highways are desolate,^fthe traveler has ceased,
He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities,
He has no regard for man.

⁹

The land mourns and pines away,
Lebanon is shamed and withers;
Sharon is like a desert plain,
And Bashan and Carmel^glose their foliage.

¹⁰

“Now I will arise,” says the LORD,
“Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.

¹¹

“You have conceived^hchaff, you will give birth to stubble;
ⁱMy breath will consume you like a fire.

¹²

“The peoples will be burned to lime,
Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.

¹³

“You who are far away, hear what I have done;
And you who are near,^jacknowledge My might.”

¹⁴

Sinners in Zion are terrified;
Trembling has seized the godless.
“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with^kcontinual burning?”

¹⁵

He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity,
He who rejects^lunjust gain
And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;
He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed
And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;

¹⁶

He will dwell on the heights,
His refuge will be the^mimpregnable rock;
His bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.

¹⁷

Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;
They will behold a far-distant land.

¹⁸

Your heart will meditate on terror:
“Where is he who counts?
Where is he who weighs?
Where is he who counts the towers?”

¹⁹

You will no longer see a fierce people,
A people ofⁿunintelligible speech^owhich no one comprehends,
Of a stammering tongue^pwhich no one understands.

²⁰

Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation,
A tent which will not be folded;
Its stakes will never be pulled up,
Nor any of its cords be torn apart.

²¹

But there the majestic One, the LORD, will be for us
A place of rivers and wide canals
On which no boat with oars will go,
And on which no mighty ship will pass—

²²

For the LORD is our judge,
The LORD is our lawgiver,
The LORD is our king;
He will save us—

²³

Your tackle hangs slack;
It cannot hold the base of its mast firmly,
Nor spread out the sail.
Then the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided;
The lame will take the plunder.

²⁴

And no resident will say, “I am sick”;
The people who dwell^qthere will be forgiven their iniquity.

Isaiah, Chapter 34

¹ God’s Wrath against Nations

Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!
Let the earth and^aall it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.

For the LORD’S indignation is against all the nations,
And His wrath against all their armies;
He has^butterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to slaughter.

So their slain will be thrown out,
And their corpses^cwill give off their stench,
And the mountains will^dbe drenched with their blood.

⁴

And all the host of heaven will^ewear away,
And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;
All their hosts will also wither away
As a leaf withers from the vine,
Or as one withers from the fig tree.

⁵

For My sword is satiated in heaven,
Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom
And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.

⁶

The sword of the LORD is filled with blood,
It is^fsated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷

Wild oxen will also^gfall with them
And young bulls with strong ones;
Thus their land will be soaked with blood,
And their dust^hbecome greasy with fat.

⁸

For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
A year of recompense for theⁱcause of Zion.

⁹

^jIts streams will be turned into pitch,
And its loose earth into brimstone,
And its land will become burning pitch.

¹⁰

It will not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will be desolate;
None will pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹

But^kpelican and hedgehog will possess it,
And^lowl and raven will dwell in it;
And He will stretch over it the line of^mdesolation
And theⁿplumb line of emptiness.

¹²

Its nobles—there is no one there
Whom they may proclaim king—
And all its princes will be nothing.

¹³

Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,
Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;
It will also be a haunt of jackals
And an abode of ostriches.

¹⁴

The desert creatures will meet with the^owolves,
The^phairy goat also will cry to its kind;
Yes, the^qnight monster will settle there
And will find herself a resting place.

¹⁵

The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,
And it will hatch and gather them under its^rprotection.
Yes, the^shawks will be gathered there,
Every one with its kind.

¹⁶ Seek from the book of the LORD, and read:Not one of these will be missing;
None will lack its mate.
For^tHis mouth has commanded,
And His Spirit has gathered them.

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it to them by line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

Isaiah, Chapter 35

¹ Zion’s Happy Future

The wilderness and the desert will be glad,
And the^aArabah will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus

It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the LORD,
The majesty of our God.

Encourage the^bexhausted, and strengthen the^cfeeble.

⁴

Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.”

⁵

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

⁶

Then the lame will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the^dArabah.

⁷

The^escorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

⁸

A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.

⁹

No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
^fThese will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there,

¹⁰

And the ransomed of the LORD will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will^gfind gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Isaiah, Chapter 36

¹ Sennacherib Invades Judah

¹ Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. ² And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the^afuller’s field. ³ Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

⁴ Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you^bhave? ⁵ I say, ‘Your counsel and strength for the war are only^cempty words.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶ Behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his^dhand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. ⁷ But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? ⁸ Now therefore,^ecome make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ⁹ How then can you^frepulse one^gofficial of the least of my master’s servants and^hrely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ¹⁰ Have I now come upⁱwithout the LORD’S approval against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”’”

¹¹ Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we^junderstand it; and do not speak with us in^kJudean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ¹² But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

¹³ Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. ¹⁴ Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; ¹⁵ nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹⁶ Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘^lMake your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, ¹⁷ until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸ Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰ Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”

²¹ But they were silent and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” ²² Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Isaiah, Chapter 37

¹ Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help, ¹⁴ Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple, ²¹ God Answers through Isaiah, ³⁶ Assyrians Destroyed

¹ And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD. ² Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for children have come to birth, and there is no strength to^adeliver. ⁴ Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷ Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

⁸ Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that^bthe king had left Lachish. ⁹ When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of^cCush, “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of^dJudah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹ Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be^espared? ¹² Did the gods of^fthose nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

¹⁴ Then Hezekiah took the^gletter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and^hspread it out before the LORD. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying, ¹⁶ “O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. ¹⁸ Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, ¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ²⁰ Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD,ⁱare God.”

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²² this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him:“She has despised you and mocked you,
The virgin daughter of Zion;
She has shaken her head behind you,
The daughter of Jerusalem!

²³“Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice
And^jhaughtily lifted up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴“Through your servants you have reproached the Lord,
And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of Lebanon;
And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.
And I will go to its^khighest peak, its thickest forest.

²⁵‘I dug wells and drank waters,
And with the sole of my feet I dried up
All the rivers of^lEgypt.’

²⁶“Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it,
From ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

²⁷“Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,
They were dismayed and put to shame;
They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb,
As grass on the housetops^mis scorched before it is grown up.

²⁸“But I know your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in
And your raging against Me.

²⁹“Because of your raging against Me
And because yourⁿarrogance has come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back by the way which you came.

³⁰ “Then this shall be the sign for you:^oyou will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ³¹ The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³² For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion^psurvivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”’

³³ “Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, or throw up a siege ramp against it. ³⁴ By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the LORD. ³⁵ ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

³⁶ Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when^qmen arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were^rdead. ³⁷ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and^sreturned home and lived at Nineveh. ³⁸ It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Isaiah, Chapter 38

¹ Hezekiah Healed

¹ In those days Hezekiah became^amortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” ² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, ³ and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept^bbitterly.

⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵ “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your^clife. ⁶ I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.”’

⁷ “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken: ⁸ Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

⁹ A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and^drecovery:

¹⁰

I said, “In the middle of my^elife
I am to enter the gates of Sheol;
I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.”

¹¹

I said, “I will not see the LORD,
The LORD in the land of the living;
I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

¹²

“Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;
As a weaver I rolled up my life.
He cuts me off from the loom;
From day until night You make an end of me.

¹³

“I composed my soul until morning.
Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones,
From day until night You make an end of me.

¹⁴

“Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter;
I moan like a dove;
My eyes look wistfully to the heights;
O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.

¹⁵

“What shall I say?
^fFor He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;
I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶

“O Lord, by these things men live,
And in all these is the life of my spirit;
^gO restore me to health and let me live!

¹⁷

“Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;
It is You who has^hkept my soul from the pit ofⁱnothingness,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

¹⁸

“For Sheol cannot thank You,
Death cannot praise You;
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

¹⁹

“It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;
A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.

²⁰

“The LORD will surely save me;
So we will play my songs on stringed instruments
All the days of our life at the house of the LORD.”

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” ²² Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”

Isaiah, Chapter 39

¹ Hezekiah Shows His Treasures

¹ At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. ² Hezekiah^awas pleased, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. ³ Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” ⁴ He said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah^banswered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.”

⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts, ⁶ ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the LORD. ⁷ ‘And some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” ⁸ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he^cthought, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”


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