Isaiah — Legacy Standard Bible

Judah, a Sinful Nation

1The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning ^aJudah and Jerusalem, which he beheld in the days of ^bUzziah, ^cJotham, ^dAhaz, and ^eHezekiah, kings of Judah.

²^aHear, O heavens, and give ear, O ^bearth;For ¹Yahweh speaks,“^cSons I have reared and raised up,But they have ^dtransgressed against Me.³“An ox knows its owner,And a donkey its master’s manger,But Israel ^adoes not know;My people ^bdo not perceive.”⁴Alas, sinful nation,People heavy with iniquity,^aSeed of evildoers,Sons who ^bact corruptly!They have ^cforsaken Yahweh;They have ^dspurned the Holy One of Israel;They have ¹become estranged ²from Him.⁵Where will you be stricken again,As you ^acontinue in your rebellion?The whole head is ^bsick,And the whole heart is faint.⁶^aFrom the sole of the foot even to the headThere is ^bnothing sound in it,Only bruises, wounds, and raw wounds,^cNot pressed out, not bandaged,Not softened with oil.⁷Your ^aland is desolate;Your cities are burned with fire;Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your presence;It is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.⁸The 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^aUnless Yahweh of hostsHad left us a few ^bsurvivors,We would be like ^cSodom,We would be like Gomorrah.¹⁰Hear ^athe word of Yahweh,You rulers of ^bSodom;Give ear to the law of our God,You people of Gomorrah.¹¹“^aWhat are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”Says Yahweh.“I ¹have had enough of burnt offerings of ramsAnd the fat of fed cattle;And in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats ²I take no pleasure.¹²“When you come ^ato appear before Me,Who requires ¹of you this trampling of My courts?¹³“Bring your worthless offerings no longer,^aIncense is an abomination to Me.^bNew moon and sabbath, the ^ccalling of convocation—I cannot ^dendure wickedness and the solemn assembly.¹⁴“My soul hates your new moon festivals and your ^aappointed times,They have become a burden to Me;I am ^bweary of bearing them.¹⁵“So when you ^aspread out your hands in prayer,^bI will hide My eyes from you;Indeed, even though you ^cmultiply prayers,I will not listen.^dYour hands are full of blood.¹⁶“^aWash yourselves, ^bpurify yourselves;^cRemove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes.^dCease to do evil,¹⁷Learn to do good;^aSeek justice,Reprove the ruthless,^bExecute justice for the ¹orphan,Plead for the widow.¹⁸“Come now, and ^alet us reason together,”Says Yahweh,“^bThough your sins are as scarlet,They will be as white as snow;Though they are red like crimson,They will be like wool.¹⁹“^aIf you are willing and obey,You will ^beat the best of the land;²⁰But if you refuse and rebel,You will be ^aeaten by the sword.”For ^bthe mouth of Yahweh has spoken.

Zion Will Be Redeemed with Justice

²¹How the faithful city has become a ^aharlot,She who was full of justice!Righteousness once lodged in her,But now murderers.²²Your silver has become dross,Your drink diluted with water.²³Your ^arulers are rebelsAnd companions of thieves;Everyone ^bloves a bribeAnd pursues rewards.They ^cdo not execute justice for the ¹orphan,Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.²⁴Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts,The ^aMighty One of Israel, declares,“Ah, I will be comforted concerning My adversaries,And I will ^bavenge Myself on My enemies.²⁵“I will also turn My hand against you,And will ^asmelt away your dross as with lyeAnd will remove all your alloy.²⁶“Then I will have your ^ajudges return as at the first,And your counselors as at the beginning;Afterwards you will be called the ^bcity of righteousness,A faithful town.”²⁷Zion will be ^aredeemed with justiceAnd her ¹repentant ones with righteousness.²⁸But ¹transgressors and sinners will be ^abroken together,And those who forsake Yahweh will come to an end.²⁹For ¹you will be ashamed of the ²^,^aoaks which you have desired,And you will be humiliated because of the ^bgardens which you have chosen.³⁰For you will be like ¹an oak whose ^aleaf withers awayOr as a garden that has no water.³¹And the strong man will become tinder,His work also a spark.Thus they shall both ^aburn together,And there will be ^bnone to quench them.

Yahweh Will Judge the Nations

2The word which ^aIsaiah the son of Amoz beheld concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²Now it will be that^aIn the last daysThe ^bmountain of the house of YahwehWill be established ¹as the head of the mountains,And will be lifted up above the hills;And ^call the nations will stream to it.³And many peoples will come and say,“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh,To the house of the God of Jacob,That He may instruct us ¹from His waysAnd that we may walk in His paths.”For ^afrom Zion the ²law will go forthAnd the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.⁴And He will judge between the nations,And will ¹render decisions for many peoples;And ^athey will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.^bNation will not lift up sword against nation,And never again will they learn war.

Yahweh Will Have a Day of Reckoning

⁵Come, ^ahouse of Jacob, and let us walk in the ^blight of Yahweh.⁶For You have ^aabandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,Because they are filled with influences from the east,And they are soothsayers ^blike the Philistines,And they ^cstrike bargains with the children of foreigners.⁷Their land has also been filled with silver and gold,And there is no end to their treasures;Their land has also been filled with ^ahorses,And there is no end to their chariots.⁸Their land has also been ^afilled with idols;They worship the ^bwork of their hands,That which their fingers have made.⁹So ^athe common man has been bowed down,And the man of importance has been made low,But ^bdo not forgive them.¹⁰^aEnter the rock and hide in the dust^bFrom the dread of Yahweh and from the splendor of His majesty.¹¹The ¹^,^alofty look of ²man will be made low,And the ³^,^bmen made high will be bowed down,And Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.¹²For Yahweh of hosts will have a day of reckoningAgainst ^aeveryone who is proud and highAnd against everyone who is lifted up,That he may be made low.¹³And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up,Against all the ^aoaks of Bashan,¹⁴Against all the ^ahigh mountains,Against all the hills that are lifted up,¹⁵Against every ^alofty tower,Against every fortified wall,¹⁶Against all the ^aships of TarshishAnd against all the desirable craft.¹⁷The loftiness of ¹man will be bowed down,And the ²men who are high will be made low;And Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day,¹⁸But the ^aidols will completely vanish.¹⁹Men will ^ago into caves of the rocksAnd into holes of the ¹groundBefore the dread of YahwehAnd the splendor of His majesty,When He arises ^bto make the earth tremble.²⁰In that day men will ^acast away to the moles and the ^bbatsTheir idols of silver and their idols of gold,Which they made for themselves to worship,²¹In order to ^ago into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffsBefore the dread of Yahweh and the splendor of His majesty,When He arises to make the earth tremble.²²¹^,^aStop regarding ²man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;For ³^,^bwhy should he be esteemed?

Yahweh Will Judge Judah’s Leaders

3For behold, the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, ^ais going to remove from Jerusalem and JudahBoth ¹supply and support, the whole ²supply of breadAnd the whole ³supply of water,²^aThe mighty man and the man of war,The judge and the prophet,The diviner and the elder,³The commander of fifty and the ¹highly respected man,The counselor and the wise craftsman,And the experienced enchanter.⁴And I will make ^ayoung men their princes,And ¹capricious children will rule over them,⁵And the people will be ^aoppressed,Each one by another, and each one by his ^bneighbor;The youth will overwhelm the elderAnd the dishonorable, the honorable.⁶When a man ^agrasps his brother in his father’s house, saying,“You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,And these ruins will be under your hand,”⁷He will ¹protest on that day, saying,“I will not be your ²^,^ahealer,For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”⁸For ^aJerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,Because their ^btongue and their deeds are against Yahweh,To ^crebel against ¹His glorious presence.⁹¹The expression of their faces answers against them,And they declare their sin like ^aSodom;They do not even conceal it.Woe to their soul!For they have ^bdealt out evil on themselves.¹⁰Say to the ^arighteous that it will go well with them,For they will eat the fruit of their deeds.¹¹Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,For ¹^,^awhat he has dealt out will be done to him.¹²O My people! Their taskmasters ¹are ^ainfants,And women rule over them.O My people! ^bThose who guide you lead you astrayAnd swallow up the way of your paths.¹³^aYahweh takes His stand to contend,And stands to judge the peoples.¹⁴Yahweh ^aenters into judgment with the elders of His people and His princes,“It is you who have ^bconsumed the vineyard;The ^cplunder robbed of the afflicted is in your houses.¹⁵“What do you mean by ^acrushing My peopleAnd grinding the face of the afflicted?”Declares Lord Yahweh of hosts.

Yahweh Will Judge Zion’s Daughters

¹⁶Moreover, Yahweh said, “Because the ^adaughters of Zion are haughty And walk with outstretched necks and seductive eyes,And go along with mincing stepsAnd tinkle the bangles on their feet,

¹⁷Therefore the Lord will smite the skull of the daughters of Zion with scabs,And Yahweh will make their foreheads bare.”

¹⁸In that day the Lord will remove the beauty of their anklets, headbands, ^acrescent ornaments, ¹⁹dangling earrings, bracelets, veils, ²⁰^aheaddresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, enchanted charms, ²¹¹finger rings, ^anose rings, ²²festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses, ²³hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans, and shawls.

²⁴Now it will be that instead of ¹sweet ^aperfume there will be the smell of rot;Instead of a belt, a rope;Instead of ^bwell-set hair, a ^cplucked-out scalp;Instead of fine clothes, a ^ddonning of sackcloth;And branding instead of beauty.²⁵Your men will ^afall by the swordAnd your ¹mighty ones in battle.²⁶And her ¹^,^agates will lament and mourn,And deserted she will ^bsit on the ground.

4And seven women will take hold of ^aone man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; ^btake away our reproach!”

The Branch of Yahweh Glorified

²In that day the ^aBranch of Yahweh will be beautiful and glorious, and the ^bfruit of the earth will be the pride and the ¹honor of ^cthose of Israel who escape. ³It will be that he who ^aremains in Zion and is left in Jerusalem will be called ^bholy—everyone who is ^cwritten down for life in Jerusalem. ⁴When the Lord has washed away the filth of the ^adaughters of Zion and rinsed away the ^bbloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the ^cspirit of judgment and the ^dspirit of burning, ⁵then Yahweh will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her convocation ^aa cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the ^bglory will be a canopy. ⁶And there will be a ^abooth to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and a hiding place from the storm and the rain.

The Song of the Vineyard

5Let me sing now for my well-belovedA song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.My well-beloved had a ^avineyard on ¹a fertile hill.²He dug it all around, removed its stones,And planted it with ¹the ^achoicest vine.And He built a tower in the middle of itAnd also hewed out a ²wine vat in it;Then He ^bhoped for it to produce good grapes,But it produced only ³worthless ones.³“So now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,^aPlease judge between Me and My vineyard.⁴“^aWhat more was there to do for My vineyard ¹that I have not done in it?Why, when I hoped for it to produce good grapes did it produce ²worthless ones?⁵“So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:I will ^aremove its hedge, and it will be consumed;I will ^bbreak down its wall, and it will become ^ctrampled ground.⁶“I will ^alay it waste;It will not be pruned or hoed,But briars and thorns will come up.I will also command the clouds to ^brain no rain on it.”⁷For the ^avineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of IsraelAnd the men of Judah His delightful plant.Thus He hoped for justice, but behold, ^bbloodshed;For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

Woes to Those Who Call Evil Good

⁸Woe to those who ^aadd 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!⁹In my ears Yahweh of hosts has sworn, “Surely, ^amany houses shall become ^bdesolate,Even great and good ones, without inhabitants.¹⁰“For ^aten ¹acres of vineyard will yield only one ²bath of wine,And a ³^,^bhomer of seed will yield but an ⁴ephah of grain.”¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue ^astrong drink,Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!¹²And their banquets are accompanied by lyre and ^aharp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;But they ^bdo not look upon the deeds of Yahweh,Nor do they see the work of His hands.¹³Therefore My people go into exile for their ^alack of knowledge;And ¹their ^bhonorable men are famished,And their multitude is parched with thirst.¹⁴Therefore ^aSheol has enlarged its ¹throat and opened its mouth without limit;And ²Jerusalem’s majesty, her multitude, her rumbling, and the exultant within her, descend into it.¹⁵So the common man will be bowed down and the man of importance will be made low,^aThe eyes of the lofty also will be made low.¹⁶But ^aYahweh of hosts will be ^blofty in judgment,And the holy God will show Himself ^choly in righteousness.¹⁷^aThen the lambs will graze as in their pasture,And sojourners will eat in the waste places of the ¹wealthy.¹⁸Woe to those who drag ^ainiquity with the cords of worthlessness,And sin as if with cart ropes,¹⁹^aWho say, “Let Him hurry, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nearAnd come to pass, that we may know it!”²⁰Woe to those who ^acall evil good and good evil,Who ¹^,^bsubstitute darkness for light and light for darkness,Who ²substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!²¹Woe to those who are ^awise in their own eyesAnd understanding in their own ¹sight!²²^aWoe to those who are mighty men in drinking wineAnd valiant men in mixing strong drink,²³^aWho ¹declare the wicked righteous for a bribe,And ^bremove the ²righteous standing of the ones who are ³righteous!²⁴Therefore, ^aas a tongue of fire consumes stubbleAnd dry grass collapses into the flame,So their ^broot will become ^clike rot and their blossom ¹blow away as dust;For they have ^drejected the law of Yahweh of hostsAnd the word of the Holy One of Israel they have spurned.²⁵On this account, the ^aanger of Yahweh has burned against His people,And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.And the ^bmountains trembled, and their ^ccorpses ¹lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.^dFor all this His anger is not turned back,But His ^ehand is still stretched out.²⁶He will also lift up a ^astandard to the ¹distant nations,And will ^bwhistle for it ^cfrom the ends of the earth;And behold, it will ^dcome with speed swiftly.²⁷^aNo one in it is weary or stumbles,None slumbers or sleeps;Nor is the ^bbelt at its waist undone,Nor its sandal strap broken.²⁸¹^,^aIts arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;The hoofs of its horses ²seem like flint and its chariot ^bwheels like a whirlwind.²⁹Its ^aroaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;It growls and ^bseizes the preyAnd carries it off with ^cno one to deliver it.³⁰And it will ^agrowl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.If one ^blooks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;Even the light is darkened by its clouds.

Isaiah’s Vision of Yahweh

6In the year of ^aKing Uzziah’s death ^bI saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ²Seraphim stood above Him, ^aeach having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³And one called out to another and said, “^aHoly, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts;The ¹^,^bwhole earth is full of His glory.”

⁴And the ¹foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called out, while the ^ahouse of God was filling with smoke. ⁵Then I said, “^aWoe is me, for I am ruined!For I am a man of ^bunclean lips,And I live among a ^cpeople of unclean lips;For my eyes have seen the ^dKing, Yahweh of hosts.”

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

Yahweh Sends Isaiah

⁸Then I heard the ^avoice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then ^bI said, “Here am I. Send me!” ⁹He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on ^ahearing, but do not understand;Keep on seeing, but do not know.’

¹⁰“^aRender the hearts of this people ¹^,^binsensitive,Their ears ²dull,And their eyes ³dim,^cLest they see with their eyes,And hear with their ears,And understand with their hearts,And return and be healed.”

¹¹Then I said, “Lord, ^ahow long?” And He said, “Until ^bcities are devastated and without inhabitant,Houses are without people,And the land is devastated to desolation,

¹²And Yahweh has ^aremoved men far away,And the ¹^,^bforsaken 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 like an ^aoakWhose stump remains when it is felled.The ^bholy seed is its stump.”

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

7Now it happened in the days of ^aAhaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that ^bRezin the king of Aram and ^cPekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but ^dcould not ¹conquer it. ²When it was told to the ^ahouse of David, saying, “¹The Arameans ^bhave camped in ^cEphraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

³Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son ¹Shear-jashub, at the end of the ^aconduit of the upper pool, to the highway of the ²fuller’s field, ⁴and say to him, ‘Take care and stay ^aquiet, have no ^bfear and ^cdo not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering ^dfirebrands, on account of the burning anger of Rezin and Aram and the ^eson of Remaliah. ⁵‘Because ^aAram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has counseled evil against you, saying, ⁶“Let us go up against Judah and ¹terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in ²its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” ⁷thus says Lord Yahweh: “^aIt shall not stand, nor shall it happen. ⁸“For the head of Aram is ^aDamascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people), ⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. ^aIf you do not ¹establish your faith in Yahweh, you surely shall not ²be established.”’”

The Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰Then Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹“Ask a ^asign for yourself from Yahweh your God; ¹make it deep as Sheol or high as ²heaven.” ¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not test Yahweh!” ¹³Then he said, “¹Listen now, O ^ahouse of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will ^btry the patience of ^cmy God as well? ¹⁴“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, ^athe ¹virgin ²will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name ³^,^bImmanuel. ¹⁵“He will eat ^acurds and honey ¹in order that He will know to refuse evil and choose good. ¹⁶“^aFor before the boy will know to refuse evil and choose good, ^bthe land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. ¹⁷“Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house days which have never come since the day that ^aEphraim separated from Judah—the ^bking of Assyria!”

Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁸And it will be in that day, that Yahweh will ^awhistle for the fly that is in the ¹^,^bremotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹And they will all come and rest upon the steep ¹ravines, on the ^acrevices of the cliffs, ^bon all the thorn bushes, and on all the ²watering places.

²⁰In that day, the Lord will ^ashave with a ^brazor—one ^chired from regions beyond ^dthe ¹River (that is, the king of Assyria)—the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

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

²³And it will be in that day, ^athat every place where there used to be one thousand vines, valued at ¹one thousand shekels of silver, will become ^bbriars and thorns. ²⁴People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns. ²⁵As 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 ¹^,^apasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

8Then Yahweh said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and ^awrite on it ¹in ordinary letters: ^bConcerning ²Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ²“And ¹I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, ^aUriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” ³Then I drew near to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then Yahweh said to me, “Call his name ¹^,^aMaher-shalal-hash-baz, ⁴for ^abefore the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of ^bDamascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵Again Yahweh spoke to me further, saying,

⁶“Inasmuch as these people have ^arejected the gently flowing waters of ShiloahAnd rejoice in ^bRezin and the son of Remaliah;⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the ^amighty and abundant waters of the ¹^,^bRiver—The ^cking of Assyria and all his glory;And it will ^drise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.⁸“Then ^ait will sweep on into Judah; it will overflow and pass through;It will ^breach even to the neck;And the spread of its wings will ¹fill the breadth of ²Your land, O ^cImmanuel.

Yahweh, a Sanctuary and a Stumbling Stone

⁹“^aBe broken, O peoples, and be ¹^,^bshattered;And give ear, all remote places of the earth.Gird yourselves, yet be ²shattered;Gird yourselves, yet be ³shattered.¹⁰“^aDevise counsel, but it will be thwarted;Speak a word, but ^bit will not stand,For ¹^,^cGod is with us.”

¹¹For thus Yahweh spoke to me with a ^astrong hand and disciplined me ^bnot to walk in the way of this people, saying,

¹²“You are not to say, ‘It is a ^aconspiracy!’In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy;And ^byou are not to fear ¹what they fear, and you shall not tremble.¹³“It is ^aYahweh of hosts ^bwhom you should regard as holy.And He shall be your fear,And He shall be your cause of trembling.¹⁴“Then He shall become a ^asanctuary;But to both the houses of Israel, a ^bstone to strike and a rock to stumble over,And a snare and a ^ctrap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.¹⁵“And many ^awill stumble over them;Then they will fall and be broken;They will even be snared and caught.”

¹⁶^aBind up the testimony, ^bseal the ¹law among ^cmy disciples. ¹⁷And I will ^await for Yahweh ^bwho is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope for Him. ¹⁸^aBehold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for ^bsigns and wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, who ^cdwells on Mount Zion.

Darkness to Light Through the Prince of Peace

¹⁹Now when they say to you, “^aInquire of the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people ^binquire of their God? Should they ^cinquire of the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰To the ¹^,^alaw and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because ^bthey have no dawn. ²¹And they will pass through ¹the land ^ahard-pressed and hungry, and it will be that when they are hungry, they will be angry and curse ²their king and their God as they face upward. ²²Then they will ^alook to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be ^bbanished into thick darkness.

9¹But there will be no more ^agloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He ^btreated the ^cland 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 ²Gentiles.

²¹^,^aThe people who walk in darknessWill see a great light;Those who live in the land of the shadow of death,The light will shine on them.³^aYou shall multiply the nation,You ^bshall ¹make great ²their gladness;They will be glad in Your presenceAs with the gladness ³of harvest,As ⁴^,^cmen rejoice when they divide the spoil.⁴For ^aYou shall shatter the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,The rod of their ^btaskmaster, as ¹at the battle of ^cMidian.⁵For every boot of the booted warrior in the rumbling of battle,And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.⁶For a ^achild will be born to us, a ^bson will be given to us;And the ^cgovernment will ¹rest ^don His shoulders;And His name will be called ^eWonderful Counselor, ^fMighty God,Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.⁷There will be ^ano end to the increase of His government or of peace,On the ^bthrone of David and over his kingdom,To establish it and to uphold it with ^cjustice and righteousnessFrom then on and forevermore.^dThe zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

Yahweh’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance

⁸The Lord sends a ¹message against Jacob,And it falls on Israel.⁹And all the people know it,That is, ^aEphraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,Saying in lofty pride and in ^barrogance of heart:¹⁰“The bricks have fallen down,But we will ^arebuild with cut stones;The sycamores have been cut in pieces,But we will replace them with cedars.”¹¹Therefore Yahweh exalts against them adversaries from ^aRezinAnd incites their enemies,¹²The Arameans on the east and the ^aPhilistines on the west;And they ^bdevour Israel with ¹gaping jaws.^cIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back,And His hand is still stretched out.¹³Yet the people ^ado not turn back to Him who struck them,Nor do they ^bseek Yahweh of hosts.¹⁴So Yahweh cuts off ^ahead and tail from Israel,Both palm branch and bulrush ^bin a single day.¹⁵The head is ^athe elder and the ¹highly respected man,And the prophet who teaches ^bfalsehood is the tail.¹⁶^aFor those who guide this people are leading them astray;And those who are guided by them are ¹brought to confusion.¹⁷Therefore the Lord ^ais not glad in their choice men,^bNor does He have compassion on their ¹orphans or their widows;For every one of them is ^cgodless and an ^devildoer,And every ^emouth is speaking wicked foolishness.^fIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back,And His hand is still stretched out.¹⁸^aFor 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.¹⁹By the ^afury of Yahweh of hosts the ^bland is burned up,And the ^cpeople are like fuel for the fire;No ^dman spares his brother.²⁰¹They slice off what is on the right hand but still are ^ahungry,And ²they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;Each of them eats the ^bflesh of his own arm.²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,^aAnd together they are against Judah.^bIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back,And His hand is still stretched out.10Woe to those who ^aenact evil statutesAnd to those who constantly record ¹mischief,²So as ^ato turn the poor away from their causeAnd rob the afflicted of My people of their justice,So ^bthat widows may be their spoilAnd that they may plunder the ¹orphans.³Now ^awhat will you do in the ^bday of visitation,And in the devastation which will come ^cfrom afar?^dTo whom will you flee for help?And where will you leave your ¹glory?⁴Nothing remains but to crouch ¹among the ^acaptivesOr fall ²among those ^bkilled.^cIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn backAnd His hand is still stretched out.

Yahweh’s Anger with Assyria’s Arrogance

⁵Woe to ^aAssyria, the ^brod of My angerAnd the staff in whose hands is ^cMy indignation,⁶I send it against a ^agodless nationAnd command it against the ^bpeople of My furyTo capture spoil and ^cto seize plunder,And to ¹trample them down like ^dmud in the streets.⁷But it ^adoes not intend to act in this way,And it does not think in its heart in this way,Rather, what is in its heart is to destroyAnd to cut off ¹many nations.⁸For it says, “Are not my princes ¹all kings?⁹“Is not ^aCalno like ^bCarchemish,Or ^cHamath like Arpad,Or ^dSamaria like ^eDamascus?¹⁰“As my hand has reached to the ^akingdoms of the idols,Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,¹¹Shall I not ¹do to Jerusalem and her imagesJust as I have done to Samaria and ^aher idols?”

¹²So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His ^awork on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will ¹punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and ^bthe pomp of his eyes which are raised high.” ¹³For ^ahe has said, “By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,For I have understanding;And I ^bremoved the boundaries of the peoplesAnd plundered their treasures,And like a mighty man I brought down ¹their inhabitants,

¹⁴And my hand reached for the wealth of the peoples like a ^anest,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.”¹⁵Is the ^aaxe to ^bboast itself over the one who chops with it?Is the saw to magnify itself over the one who wields it?That would be like ^ca rod wielding those who lift it,Or like ^da staff lifting him who is not wood.¹⁶Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send a ^awasting disease among his ^bstout warriors;And under his ^cglory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.¹⁷And the ^alight of Israel will become a fire and his ^bHoly One a flame,And it will ^cburn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.¹⁸And He will ^abring to an end the glory of his forest and of his fruitful orchard, both soul and body,And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.¹⁹And the ^arest of the trees of his forest will be so small in numberThat a child could write them down.

A Remnant Will Return

²⁰Now it will be in that day, that the ^aremnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob ^bwho have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly ^crely on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

²¹A ^aremnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the ^bmighty God.²²For ^athough your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea,Only a remnant within them will return;A ^bdestructive end is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

²³For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, ^aLord Yahweh of hosts will do in the midst of the whole land.

²⁴Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh of hosts, “O My people who inhabit ^aZion, ^bdo not fear the Assyrian ¹who ^cstrikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did. ²⁵“For in a very ^alittle while ^bMy indignation against you will end and My anger will be directed to their destruction.” ²⁶And Yahweh of hosts will ^awaken a scourge against him like the slaughter of ^bMidian at the rock of Oreb; and His ^cstaff will be over the sea and He will lift it up ^dthe way He did in Egypt. ²⁷So it will be in that day, that ¹his ^aburden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because ^bof fatness.

²⁸He has come against Aiath,He has passed through ^aMigron;At ^bMichmash he deposited his ^cbaggage.²⁹They have gone through ^athe pass, saying,“^bGeba will be our lodging place.”^cRamah trembles, and ^dGibeah of Saul has fled away.³⁰Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of ^aGallim!Pay attention, Laishah and ¹afflicted ^bAnathoth!³¹Madmenah has fled.The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.³²Yet today he will stand at ^aNob;He ^bshakes his fist at the mountain of the ¹^,^cdaughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.³³Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash;Those also who are ^ahigh in stature will be cut in piecesAnd those who are lofty will be made low.³⁴He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe,And ^aLebanon will fall ¹by the Mighty One.

The Judgments of the Branch

11Then a ^ashoot will spring from the ^bstem of Jesse,And a ^cbranch from ^dhis roots will bear fruit.²The ^aSpirit of Yahweh will rest on Him,The spirit of ^bwisdom and understanding,The spirit of counsel and ^cmight,The spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.³And He will delight in the fear of Yahweh,And He will not judge by what His eyes ^asee,Nor render a decision by what His ears hear;⁴But with ^arighteousness He will judge the ^bpoor,And decide with uprightness for the ^cafflicted of the earth;And He will strike the earth with the ^drod of His mouth,And with the ^ebreath of His lips He will put the wicked to death.⁵Also ^arighteousness will be the belt about His loins,And ^bfaithfulness the belt about His waist.⁶And the ^awolf will ¹dwell with the lamb,And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,And the calf and the young lion ²and the fatling together;And a young boy will lead them.⁷Also the cow and the bear will graze,Their young will lie down together,And the ^alion will eat straw like the ox.⁸And the nursing baby will play by the hole of the cobra,And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.⁹They will ^ado no evil nor act corruptly in all My holy mountain,For the ^bearth will be full of the knowledge of YahwehAs the waters cover the sea.

A Remnant Remains

¹⁰Then it will be in that day,That the ^anations will seek the ^broot of Jesse,Who will stand as a ¹^,^cstandard for the peoples;And His ^dresting place will be ²glorious.¹¹Then it will be in that day, that the LordWill again acquire the second time with His handThe ^aremnant of His people, who will remain,From ^bAssyria, ^cEgypt, Pathros, ¹Ethiopia, ^dElam, Shinar, Hamath,And from the ^ecoastlands of the sea.¹²And He will lift up a ^astandard for the nationsAnd ^bassemble the banished ones of Israel,And will gather the scattered of JudahFrom the four corners of the earth.¹³Then the ^ajealousy of Ephraim will depart,And those who assail Judah will be cut off;Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,And Judah will not assail Ephraim.¹⁴And they will ^aswoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the ^bwest;Together they will ^cplunder the sons of the east;¹They will stretch out their hands over ^dEdom and ^eMoab,And the sons of Ammon ²will obey them.¹⁵And Yahweh will ^adevote to destructionThe tongue of the ¹Sea of Egypt;And He will ^bwave His hand over the ²^,^cRiverWith His scorching wind;And He will strike it into seven streamsAnd make men walk over ³dry-shod.¹⁶And there will be a ^ahighway from AssyriaFor the ^bremnant of His people who will remain,Just as there was for IsraelIn ^cthe day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

Yahweh Is My Strength and My Song

12Then you will say in that day,“^aI will give thanks to You, O Yahweh;For ^balthough You were angry with me,Your anger is turned away,And You comfort me.²“Behold, ^aGod is my salvation,I will ^btrust and not dread;For ¹^,^cYah—Yahweh Himself—is my strength and song,And He has become my salvation.”³Therefore you will joyously ^adraw waterFrom the ^bsprings of salvation.⁴And in that day you will ^asay,“^bGive thanks to Yahweh, call on His name.^cMake known His deeds among the peoples;¹Make them remember that His name is exalted.”⁵^aPraise Yahweh in song, for He has done ¹majestic things;Let this be known throughout the earth.⁶^aCry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,For ^bgreat in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

An Oracle Concerning Babylon

13The ¹^,^aoracle concerning ^bBabylon which ^cIsaiah the son of Amoz beheld.

²^aLift up a standard on the ¹^,^bbare hill,Heighten your voice at them,^cWave the hand that they may ^denter the doors of the nobles.³I have commanded My set apart ones,I have even called My ^amighty warriors,My ¹proudly exulting ones,To execute My anger.⁴A ^asound of tumult on the mountains,Like that of many people!A sound of the rumbling of kingdoms,Of nations gathered together!Yahweh of hosts is mustering the host for battle.⁵They are coming from a far country,From the ^aend of the sky,Yahweh and His instruments of ^bindignation,To ^cwreak destruction on the whole land.⁶Wail, for the ^aday of Yahweh is near!It will come as ^bdestruction from ¹the Almighty.⁷Therefore ^aall hands will fall limp,And every man’s ^bheart will melt.⁸They will be ^aterrified,Pains and labor pangs will take hold of them;They will ^bwrithe like a woman in labor,They will look at one another in astonishment,Their faces aflame.⁹Behold, ^athe day of Yahweh is coming,Cruel, with fury and burning anger,To make the land a desolation;And He will exterminate its sinners from it.¹⁰For the ^astars of heaven and their constellationsWill not flash forth their light;The ^bsun will be dark when it risesAnd the moon will not shed its light.¹¹Thus I will ^apunish the world for its evilAnd the ^bwicked for their iniquity;I will also put an end to the ^cpride of the arrogantAnd bring low the ^dlofty pride of the ¹^,^eruthless.¹²I will make mortal man ¹^,^ascarcer than fine goldAnd mankind than the ^bgold of Ophir.¹³Therefore I will make the ^aheavens tremble,And ^bthe earth will be shaken from its placeAt the fury of Yahweh of hostsIn ^cthe day of His burning anger.¹⁴And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,Or like ^asheep with none to gather them,They will each turn to his own people,And each one flee to his own land.¹⁵Anyone who is found will be ^apierced through,And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.¹⁶Their ^ainfants also will be dashed to piecesBefore their eyes;Their houses will be plunderedAnd their wives ravished.¹⁷Behold, I am going to ^aawaken the Medes against them,Who will not think about silver or ^btake pleasure in gold.¹⁸And their bows will dash the ^ayoung men to pieces,They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,Nor will their ^beye pity ¹children.¹⁹And it will be that ^aBabylon, the ^bbeauty of kingdoms, the ¹honor of the Chaldeans’ pride,Will be as when God ^coverthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.²⁰It will ^anever be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation;Nor will the ¹^,^bArab pitch his tent there,Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.²¹But ^adesert creatures will lie down there,And their houses will be full of ¹owls;Ostriches also will dwell there, and ²shaggy goats will leap there.²²¹And hyenas will howl in their fortified towersAnd jackals in their luxurious ^apalaces.Her fateful time also ²will soon comeAnd her days will not be prolonged.

Israel’s Restoration and Dominion

14When Yahweh will ^ahave compassion on Jacob and again ^bchoose Israel, and ¹put them in their own land, then ^csojourners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. ²And the peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the ^ahouse of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of Yahweh ^bfor their male and female slaves; and ¹they will take their captors captive and will have dominion over their taskmasters.

³And it will be in the day when Yahweh gives you ^arest from your pain and turmoil and harsh slavery in which you have been enslaved, ⁴that you will ^atake up this ¹taunt against the king of Babylon, and say, “How ^bthe taskmaster has ceased,And how ²fury has ceased!

⁵“Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked,The scepter of rulers⁶^aWhich used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,Which had dominion over the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.⁷“The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;They ^abreak forth into shouts of joy.⁸“Even the ^acypress trees are glad over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’⁹“^aSheol from beneath trembles excitedly over you to meet you when you come;It wakens for you the ¹spirits of the dead, all the ²leaders of the earth;It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.¹⁰“^aThey will all answer and say to you,‘Even you have been made weak as we,You have become like us.¹¹‘Your ^apride and the music of your harpsHave been brought down to Sheol;Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath youAnd worms are your covering.’¹²“How you have ^afallen from heaven,O ¹^,^bstar 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 ^aascend to heaven;I will ^braise my throne above the stars of God,And I will sit on the mount of assemblyIn the recesses of the north.¹⁴‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;^aI will make myself like the Most High.’¹⁵“Nevertheless you ^awill be brought down to Sheol,To the recesses of the pit.¹⁶“Those who see you will gaze at you,They will ¹carefully consider you, saying,‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,Who caused kingdoms to quake,¹⁷Who made the world like a ^awildernessAnd pulled down its cities,Who ^bdid not ¹allow his prisoners to go home?’¹⁸“All the kings of the nations lie in glory,Each in his own ¹place.¹⁹“But you have been ^acast out of your graveLike an abhorred branch,¹Clothed with those killed who are pierced with a sword,Who go down to the stones of the ^bpitLike a ^ctrampled corpse.²⁰“You will not be united with them in burial,Because you have ruined your country,You have killed your people.May the ^aseed of evildoers not be called upon forever.²¹“Prepare for his sons a place of slaughterBecause of the ^ainiquity of their fathers.They must not arise and take possession of the earthAnd fill the face of the world with cities.”

²²“I will rise up against them,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon ^aname and remnant, ^boffspring and posterity,” declares Yahweh. ²³“I will also make it a possession for the ^ahedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of ¹^,^bdestruction,” declares Yahweh of hosts.

Yahweh’s Plan to Break Assyrian Rule

²⁴Yahweh of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, ^ajust as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have counseled so it will stand, ²⁵to ^abreak Assyria in My land, and I will trod him down on My mountains. Then his ^byoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. ²⁶“This is the ^acounsel that is counseled against the whole earth; and this is the ^bhand that is stretched out against all the nations. ²⁷“For ^aYahweh of hosts has counseled, and who can thwart it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

An Oracle Concerning Philistia

²⁸In the ^ayear that King Ahaz died this ¹^,^boracle came:

²⁹“Do not be glad, O ^aPhilistia, all of you,Because the rod that ^bstruck you is broken;For from the serpent’s root a ^cviper will come out,And its fruit will be a ^dflying fiery serpent.³⁰“¹And the foremost ^aof the poor will eat,And the needy will lie down in security;I will put to death your root with ^bfamine,And it will kill off your remnant.³¹“Wail, O ^agate; cry, O city;¹Melt away, O ^bPhilistia, all of you;For smoke comes from the ^cnorth,And ^dthere is no straggler in his ranks.³²“How then will one answer the ^amessengers of the nation?That ^bYahweh has founded Zion,And ^cthe afflicted of His people will take refuge in it.”

An Oracle Concerning Moab

15The ¹oracle concerning ^aMoab. Surely in a night ^bAr of Moab is destroyed and ruined;Surely in a night Kir of Moab is destroyed and ruined.

²They have gone up to the ¹temple and to ^aDibon, even to the high places to weep.Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;Everyone’s head is ^bbald and every beard is cut off.³In their streets they have girded themselves with ^asackcloth;^bOn their rooftops and in their squaresEveryone is wailing, ¹^,^cdissolved in weeping.⁴^aHeshbon and Elealeh also cry out,Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;Therefore ¹the armed men of Moab make a loud shout;His soul trembles within him.⁵My heart cries out for Moab;Those who flee from her are as far as ^aZoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,For they go up the ^bascent of Luhith weeping;Surely on the road to Horonaim they keep awake with crying in distress ^cover their destruction.⁶For the ^awaters of Nimrim are ¹desolate.Surely the grass is dried up, the tender grass has ²completely ceased,There is ^bno green thing.⁷Therefore the ^aabundance they have made and stored upThey carry off over the brook of ¹Arabim.⁸For the cry has gone around the territory of Moab,Its wailing goes as far as Eglaim and its wailing even to Beer-elim.⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of ¹blood;Surely I will put added woes upon Dimon,A ^alion upon those of Moab who have escaped and upon the remnant of the land.16^aSend the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,From ¹^,^bSela by way of the wilderness to the ^cmountain of the daughter of Zion.²Then, like ¹^,^afleeing birds or scattered ²nestlings,The daughters of ^bMoab will be at the fords of the ^cArnon.³“Bring us counsel, make a decision;¹Cast your ^ashadow like night ²at high noon;^bHide those banished, do not reveal the one who flees.⁴“Let the ¹banished of Moab sojourn with you;Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,^aOppressors have completely disappeared from the land.⁵And a ^athrone will be established in lovingkindness,And a judge will sit on it in truth in the tent of ^bDavid;Moreover, he will seek justiceAnd be prompt in righteousness.⁶^aWe have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;Even of his lofty pride, pride, and fury;^bHis idle boasts are ¹false.⁷Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.You will moan for the ^araisin cakes of ^bKir-haresethAs those who are utterly stricken.⁸For the fields of ^aHeshbon have languished, the vines of ^bSibmah as well;The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clustersWhich reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;^cIts tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.⁹Therefore I will ^aweep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;I will drench you with my tears, O ^bHeshbon and Elealeh;For the shouting over your ^csummer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.¹⁰^aGladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful orchard;In the ^bvineyards also there will be no cries of joy or shouts of jubilation,No ^ctreader treads out wine in the presses,For I have made the shouting to cease.¹¹Therefore my ¹^,^ainner being moans like a harp for MoabAnd my ²inward feelings for Kir-hareseth.¹²So it will be when Moab ^aappears,When he ^bwearies himself upon his ^chigh placeAnd comes to his sanctuary to pray,That he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word which Yahweh spoke earlier concerning Moab. ¹⁴But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “Within three years, as ¹^,^aa hired man would count them, the glory of ^bMoab will be dishonored along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and not mighty.”

An Oracle Concerning Damascus

17The ¹^,^aoracle concerning ^bDamascus. “Behold, Damascus is about to be ^cremoved from being a cityAnd will become a ^dfallen ruin.

²“The cities ¹of ^aAroer are forsaken;They will be for ^bflocks, and they will lie down in them;And there will be ^cno one to cause them to tremble.³“And the ¹^,^afortified city will cease from Ephraim,And ²sovereignty from DamascusAnd the remnant of Aram;They will be like the ^bglory of the sons of Israel,”Declares Yahweh of hosts.⁴Now it will be in that day, that the ^aglory of Jacob will ¹wane,And ^bthe fatness of his flesh will become lean.⁵And it will be ^aeven like the ¹reaper gathering the standing grain,As his arm harvests the ears of grain,Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grainIn the ^bvalley of Rephaim.⁶Yet ^agleanings will remain in it like the ¹shaking of an olive tree,Two or three olives on the topmost branch,Four or five on the twigs of a fruitful tree,Declares Yahweh, the God of Israel.⁷In that day man will ^ahave regard for his MakerAnd his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.⁸He will not have regard for the ^aaltars, the work of his hands,Nor will he look to that which his ^bfingers have made,Even the ¹^,^cAsherim and ²incense stands.⁹In that day ¹their strong cities will be like ²forsaken places in the forest,Or like ³branches which they forsook before the sons of Israel;And ⁴the land will be a desolation.¹⁰For ^ayou have forgotten the ^bGod of your salvationAnd have not remembered the ^crock of your strong defense.Therefore you plant delightful plantsAnd set them with vine branches of a strange god.¹¹In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,And in the ^amorning you cause your seed to flourish;But the harvest will ^bbe a heapIn a day of sickliness and incurable pain.¹²Alas, the uproar of many peoples^aWho roar like the roaring of the seas,And the rumbling of nationsWho rumble on like the ^brumbling of mighty waters!¹³The ^anations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,But He will ^brebuke them, and they will flee far away,And be pursued ^clike chaff in the mountains before the wind,Or like whirling dust before a whirlwind.¹⁴At evening time, behold, there is terror!Before morning ^athey are no more.¹Such will be the portion of those who pillage usAnd the lot of those who plunder us.

A Message to Ethiopia

18Alas, O land of whirring wingsWhich lies beyond the rivers of ¹^,^aEthiopia,²Which sends envoys by the sea,Even in ^apapyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.Go, swift messengers, to a nation ¹^,^btall and smooth,To a people ^cfeared ²far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nationWhose land the rivers divide.³^aAll you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, ^byou will see it,And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

⁴For thus Yahweh has told me, “I will look ¹from My ^adwelling place quietlyLike dazzling heat in the ²^,^bsunshine,Like a cloud of ^cdew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For ^abefore the harvest, as soon as the bud ¹blossomsAnd the flower becomes a ripening grape,Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knivesAnd remove and cut away the spreading branches.⁶They will be left together for mountain birds ^aof 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 Yahweh of hosts¹From a ^apeople ²tall and smooth,Even from a people feared ³far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nation,Whose land the rivers divide—To the ^bplace of the name of Yahweh of hosts, even Mount Zion.

An Oracle Concerning Egypt

19The ¹^,^aoracle concerning ^bEgypt. Behold, Yahweh is ^criding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;The ^didols of Egypt will shake at His presence,And the ^eheart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;And they will ^aeach 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 emptied to destruction within them;And I will confuse their counsel,So that ^athey will seek idols and ghosts of the deadAnd to ¹mediums and spiritists.⁴“Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a ^acruel master,And a ¹strong king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.⁵^aThe waters from the sea will dry up,And the river will be parched and dry.⁶The ^arivers will emit a stench,The ¹^,^bstreams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;^cThe reeds and rushes will rot away.⁷The bulrushes by the ^aNile, by the ¹edge of the NileAnd all the sown fields by the NileWill become dry, be driven away, and be no more.⁸And the ^afishermen will lament,And all those who cast a ¹line into the Nile will mourn,And those who spread nets on the waters will ²languish.⁹Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flaxAnd the weavers of white ^acloth will be ashamed.¹⁰And ¹the ^apillars of Egypt will be crushed;All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.¹¹The princes of ¹^,^aZoan are merely ignorant fools;The counsel of Pharaoh’s wisest counselors has become ²senseless.How can you men say to Pharaoh,“I am a son of the ^bwise, a son of the kings of old”?¹²Well then, where are your wise men?Please let them tell you,And let them ¹understand what Yahweh of hostsHas ^acounseled against Egypt.¹³The princes of ¹Zoan have acted as ignorant fools,The princes of ^aMemphis are deluded;Those who are the ^bcornerstone of her tribes²Have led Egypt astray.¹⁴Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of ^adistortion;^bThey have led Egypt astray in all ¹that it does,As a ^cdrunken man ²strays into his vomit.¹⁵There will be no work for Egypt^aWhich its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

Yahweh Will Bless Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in ^adread because of the ^bwaving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. ¹⁷And the land of Judah will become a ¹terror to Egypt; everyone ²to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the ^acounsel of Yahweh of hosts which He is counseling against them.

¹⁸In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and ^aswearing allegiance to Yahweh of hosts; one will be called the City of ¹Destruction.

¹⁹In that day there will be an ^aaltar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a ^bpillar to Yahweh near its border. ²⁰And it will become a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and He will send them a ^aSavior and a ¹^,^bChampion, and He will deliver them. ²¹Thus Yahweh will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. They will even worship with ^asacrifice and offering, and they will make a vow to Yahweh and pay it. ²²And Yahweh will smite Egypt, smiting but ^ahealing; so they will ^breturn to Yahweh, and He will be moved by their entreaty and will heal them.

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

²⁴In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵whom Yahweh of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is ^aEgypt My people, and Assyria ^bthe work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

A Prophecy About Egypt and Ethiopia

20In the year that the ¹^,^acommander came to ^bAshdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it, ²at that time Yahweh spoke by the hand of ^aIsaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the ^bsackcloth from your hips and take your ^cshoes off your feet.” And he did so, going ^dnaked and barefoot. ³And Yahweh said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a ^asign and wonder against Egypt and ¹^,^bEthiopia, ⁴so the ^aking of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, ^byoung and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the ¹shame of Egypt. ⁵“Then they will be ^adismayed and ashamed because of Ethiopia their hope and Egypt their ^bboast. ⁶“So the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled ^afor help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and we, ^bhow shall we escape?’”

Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon

21The ¹^,^aoracle concerning the ²^,^bwilderness of the sea. As ^cwhirlwinds in the ³Negev sweep on,It comes from the wilderness, from a fearsome land.

²A ^aharsh vision has been declared to me;The ^btreacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.Go up, ^cElam, lay siege, Media;I have made an end of all ¹the groaning she has caused.³For this reason my ^aloins are full of anguish;Pains have seized me like the pains of a ^bwoman in labor.I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.⁴My heart ¹reels; ²horror terrorizes me;The twilight I longed for has been ^aturned for me into trembling.⁵They ^aset the table, they ¹spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;“Rise up, commanders, oil the shields,”

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

⁷“Indeed, he shall see ^ariders, horsemen in pairs,Riders of donkeys, riders of camels,So let him pay close attention, very close attention.”

⁸Then ¹the lookout called, “^aO 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 answered and said, “^aFallen, fallen is Babylon;And all the ^bgraven images of her gods ¹are shattered on the ground.”¹⁰O my ^atrampled people and my ¹afflicted of the threshing floor!What I have heard from Yahweh of hosts,The God of Israel, I have declared to you.

Oracles Concerning Dumah and Arabia

¹¹The ¹oracle concerning ²^,^aDumah. One keeps calling to me from ^bSeir,“Watchman, ³how far gone is the night?Watchman, ⁴how far gone is the night?”

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

¹³The ¹oracle about ²^,^aArabia. In the thickets of ³Arabia you ⁴must spend the night,O caravans of ^bDedanites.

¹⁴Bring water to meet the thirsty,O inhabitants of the land of ^aTema,Meet with bread the one who has fled.¹⁵For they have ^afled from the swords,From the drawn sword, and from the bent bowAnd from the heaviness of battle.

¹⁶For thus the Lord said to me, “In a ^ayear, as ¹a hired man would count it, all the glory of ^bKedar will end; ¹⁷and the ^aremainder of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^bhas spoken.”

An Oracle Concerning the Valley of Vision

22The ¹oracle concerning the ^avalley of vision. What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the ^bhousetops?

²You who were full of noise,You roaring city, you ^aexultant town;Your slain were ^bnot slain with the sword,Nor ¹did they die in battle.³^aAll your rulers have fled together,And have been captured ¹without the bow;All of you who were found were captured together,²Though they had fled far away.⁴Therefore I say, “Turn your gaze away from me,Let me ^aweep bitterly,Do not insist on comforting me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”⁵^aFor Lord Yahweh of hosts has a ^bday of confusion, ^coppression, and panic^dIn the valley of vision,A breaking down of wallsAnd a crying ¹to the mountain.⁶^aNow Elam took up the quiverWith the chariots, ¹infantry, and horsemen;And ^bKir uncovered the shield.⁷Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots,And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate.⁸And He revealed the ¹defense of Judah.In that day you looked to the weapons of the ^ahouse of the forest,⁹And you saw that the breachesIn the wall of the city of David were many;And you ^acollected the waters of the lower pool.¹⁰Then you counted the houses of JerusalemAnd tore down houses to fortify the wall.¹¹And you made a reservoir ^abetween the two wallsFor the waters of the ^bold pool.But you did not look to Him who made it,Nor did you see Him who formed it long ago.¹²Therefore in that day Lord Yahweh of hosts called you to ^aweeping, to wailing,To ^bshaving the head, and to wearing sackcloth.¹³Instead, behold, there is ^ajoy and gladness,Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,Eating of meat and drinking of wine:“^bLet us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”¹⁴But Yahweh of hosts revealed Himself in my ears,“Surely this ^ainiquity ^bshall not be atoned for you^cUntil you die,” says Lord Yahweh of hosts.

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

¹⁶‘What right do you have here,And whom do you have here,That you have ^ahewn a tomb for yourself here,You who hew a tomb on the height,You who carve a dwelling place for ¹yourself in the cliff?¹⁷‘Behold, Yahweh is about to hurl you headlong, O man.And He is about to grasp you firmly¹⁸And He will surely roll you tightly like a ball,To be ^acast into a vast country;There you will die,And there your glorious chariots will be,You disgrace of your master’s house.’¹⁹“I will ^apush you out of your office,And ¹I will pull you down from your station.²⁰“Then it will be in that day,That I will summon My servant ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah,²¹And I will clothe him with your tunicAnd tie your sash securely about him.I will give your ¹authority into his hand,And he will become a ^afather to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.²²“Then I will set ^athe key of the ^bhouse of David on his shoulder,When he opens no one will shut,When he shuts no one will ^copen.²³“I will drive him like a ^apeg in a firm place,And he will become a ^bthrone of glory to his father’s house.

²⁴“So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, offspring and ¹issue, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars. ²⁵“In that day,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “the ^apeg driven in a firm place will give way; it will even ^bbreak off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off, for ^cYahweh has spoken.”

An Oracle Concerning Tyre

23The ¹oracle concerning ^aTyre. Wail, O ^bships of ^cTarshish,For Tyre is destroyed, without house or ²^,^dharbor;It is revealed to them from the land of ³^,^eCyprus.

²^aBe silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,You merchants of Sidon;¹Your messengers crossed the sea³And were on many waters.^aThe ¹grain of ²^,^bShihor, the harvest of the Nile was her revenue;And she was the nations’ ^cgain.⁴Be ashamed, O ^aSidon;For the sea speaks, the strong defense of the sea, saying,“I have neither travailed nor given birth;I have neither brought up choice men nor reared virgins.”⁵When the report reaches Egypt,They will be in ^atravail at the report of Tyre.⁶Pass over to ^aTarshish;Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.⁷Is this your ^aexultant city,Whose origin is from days of old,Whose feet used to lead her to sojourn in distant places?⁸Who has counseled this against Tyre, ^athe bestower of crowns,Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?⁹^aYahweh of hosts has counseled it, to ^bdefile the pride of all beauty,To make contemptuous all the ^chonored of the earth.¹⁰¹Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish;There is no more ²restraint.¹¹He has ^astretched His hand out ^bover the sea;He has ^cmade the kingdoms tremble;Yahweh has given a command concerning Canaan to ^ddemolish its strong defenses.¹²So He said, “^aYou shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.Arise, pass over to ¹^,^bCyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; ^aAssyria established it for ^bdesert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, ^cthey made it a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, O ^aships of Tarshish,For your strong defense is destroyed.

¹⁵Now it will be in that day, that Tyre will be forgotten for ^aseventy 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:

¹⁶Take your harp, walk about the city,O forgotten harlot;Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,That you may be remembered.

¹⁷And it will be at ^athe end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will ^bplay the harlot with all the kingdoms ¹on the face of the earth. ¹⁸And her ^again and her harlot’s wages will be ^bset apart to Yahweh; it will not be treasured up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who inhabit the presence of Yahweh.

Yahweh Will Empty the Earth

24Behold, Yahweh ^aempties the earth to destruction, eviscerates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants. ²And the people will be like the priest, the male slave like his master, the female slave like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the ^acreditor like the debtor. ³The earth will be completely emptied to destruction and completely plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴The ^aearth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the ^bexalted of the people of the earth languish. ⁵The earth is also ^apolluted ¹by its inhabitants, for they trespassed laws, violated statutes, ^bbroke the everlasting covenant. ⁶Therefore, a ^acurse devours the earth, and those who inhabit it are held guilty. Therefore, the ^binhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men remain.

⁷The ^anew wine mourns;The vine languishes;All the glad of heart sigh.⁸The ^ajoy of tambourines ceases;The rumbling of those exulting stops;The joy of the harp ceases.⁹They do not drink wine with song;^aStrong drink is ^bbitter to those who drink it.¹⁰The ^acity of chaos is broken down;^bEvery house is shut up so that none may enter.¹¹There is an ^aoutcry in the streets concerning the wine;^bAll gladness ¹turns to gloom.The joy of the earth is taken away into exile.¹²Desolation remains in the city,And the ^agate is struck down to ruins.¹³For ^athus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,As the ¹shaking of an olive tree,As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.¹⁴^aThey lift up their voices, they shout for joy;They cry out from the ¹west concerning the majesty of Yahweh.¹⁵Therefore ^aglorify Yahweh in the ¹east,The ^bname of Yahweh, the God of Israel,In the ²^,^ccoastlands of the sea.¹⁶From the ^aends of the earth we hear songs, “^bGlory to the Righteous One,”But I say, “¹^,^cI waste away! ²I waste away! Woe is me!The ^dtreacherous deal treacherously,And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”¹⁷^aPanic and pit and pitfallAre upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.¹⁸Then it will be that he who flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit,And he who ¹climbs out of the pit will be caught in the pitfall;For the ^awindows ²above are opened, and the ^bfoundations of the earth quake.¹⁹^aThe earth is broken asunder;The earth is ^bsplit through;The earth is shaken violently.²⁰The earth ^areels to and fro like a drunkardAnd it totters like a ¹shack,For its ^btransgression is heavy upon it,And it will fall, ^cnever to rise again.²¹So it will be in that day,That Yahweh will ^apunish the host of heights on high,And the ^bkings of the earth on earth.²²They will be gathered togetherLike ^aprisoners in the ¹pit,And will be confined in prison;And after many days they will ^bbe punished.²³Then the ^amoon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed,For ^bYahweh of hosts will reign on ^cMount Zion and in Jerusalem,And His glory will be before His elders.

Yahweh Will Swallow Up Death

25O Yahweh, You are ^amy God;I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;For You have ^bworked wonders,^cCounsels formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.²For You have made a city into a ^aheap,A ^bfortified town into a ruin;A ^cpalace of strangers is a city no more,It will never be rebuilt.³Therefore a strong people will ^aglorify You;^bTowns of ruthless nations will fear You.⁴For You have been a ^astrong defense for the poor,A strong defense for the needy in his distress,A ^brefuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;For the breath of the ^cruthlessIs like a rain storm against a wall.⁵Like heat in a dry land, You subdue the ^arumbling of strangers;Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is ¹silenced.⁶^aAnd Yahweh of hosts will prepare a ¹lavish banquet for ^ball peoples on this mountain;A banquet of ²aged wine, ³choice pieces with marrow,And ⁴refined, aged wine.⁷And on this mountain He will swallow up the ¹^,^acovering which is over all peoples,Even the veil which is ²stretched over all nations.⁸He will ^aswallow up death for all time,And Lord Yahweh will ^bwipe tears away from all faces,And He will remove the ^creproach of His people from all the earth;For Yahweh has spoken.⁹And it will be said in that day,“Behold, ^athis is our God in whom we have ^bhoped that ^cHe would save us.This is Yahweh in whom we have hoped;^dLet us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”¹⁰For the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain,And ^aMoab will be trodden down in his placeAs straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.¹¹And he will ^aspread out his hands in the middle of itAs a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,But Yahweh will ^blay low his lofty pride together with the trickery of his hands.¹²The ^aunassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,Lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.

Yahweh Will Establish Peace

26^aIn that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a ^bstrong city;He sets up walls and ramparts for ^csalvation.

²“Open the ^agates, that the ^brighteous nation may enter,The one that keeps faithfulness.³“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect ^apeaceBecause he trusts in You.⁴“^aTrust in Yahweh forever,For in Yah—Yahweh Himself—we have an everlasting ^bRock.⁵“For He has laid low those who settle on high, the ¹^,^aexalted city;^bHe brings it low, He brings it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.⁶“^aThe foot will trample it,The feet of the ^bafflicted, the steps of the poor.”⁷The ^away of the righteous is upright;O Upright One, ^bmake the path of the righteous level.⁸Indeed, while following the way of ^aYour judgments, O Yahweh,We have hoped for You eagerly;^bYour name—the ^cmemory of You—is the desire of our souls.⁹^aAt night ¹my soul longs for You,Indeed, ²my spirit within me ^bseeks You earnestly;For when the earth ³experiences Your judgments,The inhabitants of the world ^clearn righteousness.¹⁰Though the wicked is shown favor,He does not ^alearn righteousness;He ^bdeals unjustly in the land of uprightness,And does not perceive the majesty of Yahweh.¹¹O Yahweh, Your hand is raised up high, yet they ^ado not behold it.¹They behold ^bYour zeal for the people and are put to shame;Indeed, ²^,^cfire will devour Your adversaries.¹²Yahweh, You will establish ^apeace for us,Since You have also performed for us all our works.¹³O Yahweh our God, ^aother masters besides You have ruled us;But through You alone we ^bbring Your name to remembrance.¹⁴^aThe dead will not live; the ¹departed spirits will not rise;Therefore You have ^bvisited and destroyed them,And You have made all remembrance of them perish.¹⁵^aYou have increased the nation, O Yahweh;You have increased the nation, You are glorified;You have ^bextended all the borders of the land.¹⁶O Yahweh, they visited You ^ain distress;They ¹could only whisper a prayer;Your chastening was upon them.¹⁷^aAs the ¹woman with child draws near to the time to give birth,She writhes and cries out in her pangs of labor,Thus were we before You, O Yahweh.¹⁸We were ¹with child, we writhed in labor;We ^agave birth, as it seems, only to wind.We could not accomplish salvation for the earth,And the ^binhabitants of the world ²were not born.¹⁹Your ^adead will live;¹Their corpses will rise.You who dwell in the dust, ^bawake and shout for joy,For your dew is as the dew of the ²dawn,And the earth will ³give birth to the ⁴departed spirits.²⁰Come, my people, ^aenter into your roomsAnd close your doors behind you;Hide for a little ¹^,^bwhileUntil ^cindignation passes by.²¹For behold, Yahweh is about to ^acome out from His placeTo ^bvisit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth;And the earth will ^creveal her bloodshedAnd will no longer cover those of hers who were killed.

Yahweh Will Deliver Israel

27In that day ^aYahweh will ¹punish ²^,^bLeviathan the fleeing serpent,With His fierce and great and ³mighty sword,Even ⁴Leviathan the twisted serpent;And ^cHe will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.²In that day,“A ¹^,^avineyard of delight, sing of it!³“I, Yahweh, am its keeper;^aI water it every moment.Lest anyone ¹damage it,I ^bkeep it night and day.⁴“I have no wrath.Who would ever give Me ^abriars and thorns in the battle?I would step on them, ^bI would burn them ¹completely.⁵“Or let him ¹^,^arely on My strong defense,Let him make peace with Me,Let him ^bmake peace with Me.”⁶¹In the days to come Jacob ^awill take root,Israel will ^bblossom and bud,And they will fill the ²whole world with ^cproduce.⁷Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has ^aHe struck them?Or like the slaughter of those of His who were killed, ¹have they been killed?⁸You contended with them ¹by driving them away, by ^amaking them forlorn.With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the ^beast wind.⁹Therefore through this, Jacob’s iniquity will be ^aatoned for;And this will be the whole fruit of the ^bturning away of his sin:When he makes all the ^caltar stones like pulverized chalk stones,When ¹Asherim and incense altars will not stand.¹⁰For the fortified city is ^aisolated,A ¹haunt ²forlorn and forsaken like the desert;^bThere the calf will graze,And there it will lie down and ³feed on its twigs.¹¹When its ^alimbs are dry, they are broken off;Women come and light a fire with them,For they are not a people of ^bdiscernment,Therefore ^ctheir Maker ^dwill not have compassion on them.And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

¹²And it will be in that day, that Yahweh ^awill start His threshing from the flowing stream of the ¹^,^bRiver to the brook of Egypt, and you will be ^cgathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. ¹³And it will be in that day, that a great ^atrumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of ^bAssyria and who were banished in the land of Egypt will come and ^cworship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Woe to Ephraim

28Woe to the proud crown of the ^adrunkards of ^bEphraim,And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,Which is at the head of the ¹fertile valleyOf those who are ²overcome with wine!²Behold, the Lord has a strong and ^acourageous agent;As a storm of ^bhail, a tempest of destruction,Like a storm of ^cmighty overflowing waters,He has set it down to the earth with His hand.³The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is ^atrodden under foot.⁴And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,Which is at the head of the ¹fertile valley,Will be like the ^afirst-ripe fig prior to summer,Which ²one sees,And ³as soon as it is in his ⁴hand,He swallows it.⁵In that day ^aYahweh of hosts will become a beautiful ^bcrownAnd a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people;⁶A ^aspirit of just judgment for him who sits in judgment,A ^bmight to those who turn back the ¹onslaught at the gate.⁷And these also ^areel with wine and stagger from strong drink:^bThe priest and ^cthe prophet reel with strong drink;They are swallowed up by wine, they stagger from ^dstrong drink;They reel while ¹having ^evisions;They totter when rendering a verdict.⁸For all the tables are full of filthy ^avomit, without a single clean place.⁹“^aWhom would He instruct in knowledge,And whom would He provide understanding about the report?Those just ^bweaned from milk?Those just taken from the breast?¹⁰“For He says,‘¹^,^aOrder on order, order on order,Line on line, line on line,A little here, a little there.’”¹¹Indeed, He will speak to this peopleThrough ^astammering lips and a foreign tongue,¹²He who said to them, “Here is ^arest, give rest to the weary,”And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.¹³So the word of Yahweh to them will be,“¹Order on order, order on order,Line on line, line on line,A little here, a little there,”That they may go and ^astumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive.

A Cornerstone in Zion

¹⁴Therefore, ^ahear the word of Yahweh, O ^bscoffers,Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,¹⁵Because you have said, “We have cut a ^acovenant with death,And with Sheol we have made a ¹pact.^bThe overflowing ²scourge will not reach us when it passes by,For we have made ^cfalsehood our refuge and we have ^dhidden ourselves with lying.”

¹⁶Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “^aBehold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested ^bstone,A costly cornerstone for the foundation, ¹firmly placed.He who believes in it will not be ²disturbed.

¹⁷“I will make ^ajustice the measuring lineAnd righteousness the level;Then ^bhail will sweep away the refuge of falsehood,And the waters will overflow the secret place.¹⁸“Your ^acovenant with death will be ¹^,^bcanceled,And your pact with Sheol will not stand;When the ^coverflowing scourge passes through,Then you will become its ^dtrampling place.¹⁹“As ^aoften as it passes through, it will take you;For ^bmorning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night,And it will be ¹sheer ^cterror to understand the report.”²⁰The bed is too short on which to stretch out,And the ^ablanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in.²¹For Yahweh will rise up as at Mount ^aPerazim;He will be stirred up as in the valley of ^bGibeon,To work His ^cwork, His ¹^,^dunusual work,And to labor in His labor, His ²exceptional labor.²²So now do not carry on as ^ascoffers,Lest your fetters be made stronger;For I have heard from Lord Yahweh of hostsOf complete ^bdestruction, one that is decreed, on all the earth.²³Give ear and hear my voice,Pay attention and hear my words.²⁴Does the ¹farmer plow ²continually to plant seed?Does he continually ³turn and harrow his ground?²⁵Does he not level its surfaceAnd sow dill and scatter ^acuminAnd ¹plant ^bwheat in rows,Barley in its place and rye within its ²area?²⁶For his God disciplines and teaches him proper judgment.²⁷For dill is not threshed with a ^athreshing sledge,Nor is the wheel of a cart ¹driven over cumin;But dill is beaten out with a staff, and cumin with a rod.²⁸Grain for bread is crushed,But he does not continue to thresh it forever.Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually ¹disturb it,He does not crush it longer.²⁹This also comes from Yahweh of hosts,Who has made His counsel ^awonderful and His wisdom ^bgreat.

Woe to Ariel

29Woe, O ¹Ariel, ²Ariel the city where David once ^acamped!Add year to year, ³^,^bobserve your feasts on schedule.²I will bring distress to ¹Ariel,And she will be a city of mourning and ^amoaning;And she will be like an Ariel to me.³And I will ^acamp against you ¹encircling you,And I will fortify siegeworks against you,And I will raise up fortifications against you.⁴Then you will ^abe brought low;From the earth you will speak,And from the dust where you are prostrateYour words will come.Your voice will also be like that of a ¹spirit from the ground,And your speech will whisper from the dust.⁵But it will be that the multitude of your ¹enemies will become like fine ^adust,And the multitude of the ^bruthless ones like the chaff which ²blows away;And it will happen ^cinstantly, suddenly.⁶From Yahweh of hosts you will be ^apunished with ^bthunder and earthquake and loud noise,With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.⁷And it will be that the ^amultitude of all the nations who wage war against ¹Ariel,Even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,Will be like a dream, a ^bvision of the night.⁸And it will be as when a hungry man dreams—And behold, he is eating;But he awakens, and his soul is empty,Or as when a thirsty man dreams—And behold, he is drinking,But he awakens, and behold, he is faint,And his soul is not quenched.^aThus the multitude of all the nations will beWho wage war against Mount Zion.⁹^aAstonish yourselves and be astonished,Blind yourselves and be blind;They ^bbecome drunk, but not with wine;They stagger, but not with strong drink.¹⁰For Yahweh has poured over you a spirit of deep ^asleep;He has ^bshut your eyes, the prophets;And He has covered your heads, the seers.

¹¹The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed ¹^,^abook, which when they give it to the one who ²is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” ¹²Then the ¹book will be given to the one who ²does not know how to read a book, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I ³do not know how to read a book.”

¹³Then the Lord said, “Because ^athis people draw near with their mouthAnd honor Me with their lips,But they remove their hearts far from Me,And their fear of Me is in the command of men learned by rote,

¹⁴Therefore behold, I will once again deal ^amarvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;And ^bthe wisdom of their wise men will perish,And the discernment of their discerning men will be hidden.”¹⁵Woe to those who deeply ^ahide their counsel from Yahweh,And whose ^bdeeds are done in a dark place,And they say, “^cWho sees us?” or “Who knows us?”¹⁶You turn things around!Shall the potter be considered ¹as equal with the clay,That ^awhat 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”?

The Afflicted Will Rejoice

¹⁷Is it not yet just a little while¹Before Lebanon will be turned into a ^afruitful orchard,And the fruitful orchard will be counted as a forest?¹⁸On that day the ^adeaf will hear ^bwords of a book,And out of ¹darkness and thick darkness the ^ceyes of the blind will see.¹⁹The ^aafflicted also will increase their gladness in Yahweh,And the ^bneedy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.²⁰For the ^aruthless will come to an end and the ^bscoffer will be finished,Indeed ^call who are watching out to do evil will be cut off;²¹Who ¹cause a person to sin by a word,And ^aensnare him who reproves at the gate,And ²^,^bdefraud the one in the right with ³meaningless arguments.

²²Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed ^aAbraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob ^bshall not now be ashamed, and now his face shall not turn pale;

²³But when ¹he sees his ^achildren, the ^bwork of My hands, in his midst,They will sanctify My name;Indeed, they will ^csanctify the Holy One of JacobAnd will stand trembling before the God of Israel.²⁴“Those who ^aerr in spirit will ^bknow discernment,And those who ¹criticize will ²^,^cgain learning.

Alliance with Egypt Condemned

30“Woe to the ^arebellious children,” declares Yahweh,“Who ^bexecute counsel, but not Mine,And ¹^,^cmake an alliance, but not of My Spirit,In order to add sin to sin,²Who ^ago down to Egypt—But did not ^bask ¹Me—^cTo find strength in the strong defense of PharaohAnd to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!³“Therefore the strong defense of Pharaoh will be ^ayour shameAnd the refuge in the shadow of Egypt, your dishonor.⁴“For ^atheir princes are at ZoanAnd their messengers reach Hanes.⁵“Everyone will be ^aashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,Who are ^bnot for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”

⁶The ¹oracle concerning the ^abeasts of the ^bNegev. Through a land of ^cdistress and anguish,From ²where come lioness and lion, viper and ^dflying fiery serpent,They ^ecarry their wealth on the ³backs of young donkeysAnd their treasures on ^fcamels’ humps,To a people who cannot profit them;

⁷Even Egypt, whose ^ahelp is vain and empty.Therefore, I have called ¹her“²^,^bRahab who has ceased.”⁸Now go, ^awrite it on a tablet before themAnd inscribe it on a scroll,That it may be in the time to come¹As a witness forever.⁹For this is a ^arebellious people, ^bfalse sons,Sons who are not willing to ^clistenTo the law of Yahweh,¹⁰Who say to the ^aseers, “You must not see,”And to those who have visions, “You must not ^bbehold visions for us of what is right,^cSpeak to us ¹pleasant words,Behold visions of illusions.¹¹“Get out of the way, ^aturn aside from the path,¹^,^bCease speaking before us about the Holy One of Israel.”

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “^aSince you have rejected this wordAnd have put your trust in ^boppression and deviousness and have relied on them,

¹³Therefore this ^ainiquity will be to youLike a ^bbreach about to fall,A bulge in a high wall,Whose breaking comes ^csuddenly in an instant,¹⁴Whose breaking is like the breaking of a ^apotter’s jar,¹So ruthlessly shatteredThat a potsherd will not be found among its piecesTo ²take fire from a hearthOr to scoop water from a cistern.”

¹⁵For thus Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In ¹repentance and ^arest you will be saved,In ^bquietness and trust is your might.”But you were not willing,

¹⁶And you said, “No, for we will flee on ^ahorses,”Therefore you shall flee!“And we will ride on swift horses,”Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.¹⁷^aOne thousand will flee at the threat of one man;You will flee at the threat of five,Until you are left as a ¹flag on a mountain topAnd as a ²standard on a hill.

Yahweh Is Gracious and Just

¹⁸Therefore Yahweh ^awaits with longing to be gracious to you,And therefore He is on ^bhigh to have compassion on you.For Yahweh is a ^cGod of justice;How blessed are all those who ^dwait for Him.

¹⁹¹O people in Zion, ^ainhabitant in Jerusalem, you will ^bweep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will ^canswer you. ²⁰The Lord has given you ^abread of distress and water of oppression; He, your Teacher will no longer ^bhide Himself, but your eyes will see your Teacher. ²¹And your ears will hear a word behind you, “¹This is the ^away, walk in it,” whenever you ^bturn to the right or to the left. ²²And you will defile your graven ^aimages overlaid with your silver, and your molten ^bimages plated with your gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing and say to ¹them, “^cBe gone!”

²³Then He will ^agive you rain for ¹the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the produce of the ground, and it will be ²rich and fat; on that day ^byour livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. ²⁴Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which ¹has been ^awinnowed with shovel and fork. ²⁵And it will be that on every lofty mountain and on ^aevery lifted up hill there will be ¹streams running with water on the day of the great ^bslaughter, when the towers fall. ²⁶^aAnd 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 ^bYahweh binds up the ^cfracture of His people and ^dheals the bruise ¹He has inflicted.

²⁷Behold, ^athe name of Yahweh comes from afar;^bBurning is His anger and heavy is His ¹smoke;His lips are filled with ^cindignationAnd His tongue is like a ^dconsuming fire;²⁸His ^abreath is like an overflowing torrent,Which ^breaches to the neck,To ^cshake the nations back and forth in a ¹sieve of worthlessness,And to put in the jaws of the peoples ^dthe bridle which staggers one to ruin.²⁹You will have ¹songs as in the night when you set yourself apart as holy for the festival,And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute,To go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel.³⁰And Yahweh will cause ¹His splendid voice to be heard,And the ²descending of His arm to be seen in raging anger,And in the flame of a consuming fireIn cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones.³¹For ^aat the voice of Yahweh ^bAssyria will be dismayed,When He strikes with the ^crod.³²And every ¹blow of the ²^,^aappointed staff,Which Yahweh will cause to rest upon him,Will be with the music of ^btambourines and lyres;And in battles, ^cwaving weapons He will fight them.³³For ¹^,^aTopheth has long been ready,Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.He has made it deep and large,²A pyre of fire with plenty of wood;The ^bbreath of Yahweh, like a torrent of ^cbrimstone, sets it afire.

Woe to Those Who Go down to Egypt

31Woe to those who go down to ^aEgypt for helpAnd ^brely on horses,And trust in chariots because they are manyAnd in horsemen because they are very mighty,But they do not have ^cregard for the ^dHoly One of Israel, nor seek Yahweh!²Yet He also is ^awise and will ^bbring about an evil demiseAnd does ^cnot turn His words aside,But will arise against the house of ^devildoersAnd against the help of the ^eworkers of iniquity.³Now the Egyptians are ^amen and not God,And their ^bhorses are flesh and not spirit;So Yahweh will ^cstretch out His hand,And ^dhe who helps will stumble,And he who is helped will fall,And all of them will come to an end together.

⁴For thus says Yahweh to me, “As the ^alion or the young lion growls over its prey,Against which a multitude of shepherds is called out,And it will not be dismayed at their voice nor afflicted at their noise,So will Yahweh of hosts come down to wage ^bwar on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

⁵Like ¹flying ^abirds so Yahweh of hosts will defend Jerusalem.He will ^bdefend and deliver it;He will pass over and provide a way of escape.

⁶^aReturn to Him against whom ¹you have ^bdeeply rebelled, O sons of Israel. ⁷For in that day every man will ^areject his silver idols and his gold idols, which your ^bhands have made for you as ^ca sin.

⁸And the ^aAssyrian will fall by a sword not of man,And a ^bsword not of man will devour him.So he will ¹^,^cflee from the sword,And his choice men will become ^dforced laborers.⁹“His ^arock will pass away because of terror,And his princes will be dismayed at the ^bstandard,”Declares Yahweh, whose ^cfire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

A King Will Reign Righteously

32Behold, a ^aking will reign righteouslyAnd princes will rule justly.²Each will be like a ^arefuge from the windAnd a shelter from the storm,Like ¹^,^bstreams of water in a dry country,Like the ^cshade of a ²huge rock in ³a weary land.³Then ^athe eyes of those who see will not be ¹blinded,And the ears of those who hear will pay attention.⁴And the heart of the ^ahasty will discern knowledge,And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.⁵No longer will the ^awicked fool be called noble,Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.⁶For a wicked fool speaks wicked folly,And his heart ^adoes wickedness:To do ^bungodliness and to speak error against Yahweh,In order to ^cmake the hungry person empty;He even causes the thirsty to lack a drink.⁷As for a rogue, his weapons are evil;He ^acounsels wicked schemesTo ^bwreak destruction on the afflicted with lying words,^cEven though the needy one speaks justly.⁸But ^athe noble man counsels noble plans;And by noble plans he rises up.⁹Rise up, you ^awomen who are at ease,And hear my voice;^bGive ear to my word,You complacent daughters.¹⁰Within a year and a few daysYou will quake, O complacent daughters;^aFor the grape harvest is ended,And the fruit gathering will not come.¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease;^aQuake, you complacent daughters;^bStrip, undress, and put sackcloth on your waist,¹²^aBeat your breasts for the desirable fields, for the fruitful vine,¹³^aFor the land of my people in which thorns and briars shall come up,Indeed, against all the joyful houses and the ^bexultant city.¹⁴Because ^athe palace has been abandoned, the ¹populated ^bcity forsaken.²Hill and watchtower have become ^ccaves forever,A joy for ^dwild donkeys, a pasture for flocks,¹⁵Until the ^aSpirit is poured out upon us from on high,And the wilderness becomes a ^bfruitful orchard,And the fruitful orchard is counted as a forest.¹⁶Then ^ajustice will dwell in the wilderness,And righteousness will live in the fruitful orchard.¹⁷And the ^awork of righteousness will be peace,And the service of righteousness, ^bquietness and security forever.¹⁸Then my people will live in a ^apeaceful abode,And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed ^bresting places;¹⁹And it will ^ahail when the ^bforest comes down,And ^cthe city will be utterly laid low.²⁰How ^ablessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters,Who ¹let out freely the ox and the donkey.

The King in His Beauty

33Woe ^ato you, O destroyer,While you were not destroyed;And he ^bwho is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.As soon as you finish destroying, ^cyou will be destroyed;As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will ^ddeal treacherously with you.²O Yahweh, ^abe gracious to us; we have ^bhoped in You.Be ¹their ²^,^cstrength every morning,Our salvation also in the ^dtime of distress.³At the sound of the tumult ^apeoples flee;At the ^blifting up of Yourself nations scatter.⁴Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.⁵Yahweh is ^aexalted, for He dwells on high;He has ^bfilled Zion with justice and righteousness.⁶And He will be the ¹^,^astability of your times,A ^bwealth of salvation, wisdom, and ^cknowledge;The ^dfear of Yahweh is his treasure.⁷Behold, their brave men cry in ¹the streets;The ^amessengers of peace weep bitterly.⁸The highways are desolate, ¹the ^atraveler has ceased;He has ^bbroken the covenant, he has rejected the cities;He has no regard for man.⁹^aThe land mourns and languishes,^bLebanon is humiliated and withers;^cSharon is like a desert plain,And Bashan and Carmel ¹lose their foliage.¹⁰“Now ^aI will be on high,” says Yahweh,“Now I will be lifted up, now I will be lifted up.¹¹“You have ^aconceived ¹chaff, you will give birth to stubble;²My ^bbreath will consume you like a fire.¹²“The peoples will be burned to lime,^aLike cut thorns which are burned in the fire.¹³“You who are far away, ^ahear what I have done;And you who are near, ¹acknowledge My might.”¹⁴^aSinners in Zion are in dread;^bTrembling has seized the godless.“Who among us can sojourn with ^cthe consuming fire?Who among us can sojourn with ¹continual ^dburning?”¹⁵He who ^awalks righteously and speaks uprightly;He who rejects greedy gain of ¹oppression,And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshedAnd ^bshuts his eyes from looking upon evil;¹⁶He will dwell on the heights,^aHis refuge will be the strongholds of the cliffs;^bHis bread will be given him,His water will be sure.¹⁷Your eyes will behold ^athe King in His beauty;They will see ^ba far-distant land.¹⁸Your heart will meditate on ^aterror:“Where is ^bhe who counts?Where is he who weighs?Where is he who counts the towers?”¹⁹You will no longer see a fierce people,A people of ¹^,^aunintelligible speech ²which no one comprehends,Of a stammering tongue ³which no one understands.²⁰^aBehold Zion, the city of our appointed times;Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an ^babode at ease,^cA tent which will not be folded;Its stakes will never be pulled up,Nor any of its cords ever be torn apart.²¹But there the Mighty One, Yahweh, will be for usA place of ^arivers and wide canalsOn which no boat with oars will go,And on which no mighty ship will pass—²²For Yahweh is our ^ajudge,Yahweh is ^bour lawgiver,Yahweh is ^cour king;^dHe will save us—²³Your cords hang slack;They cannot hold the base of their mast firmly,Nor spread out the sail.Then the ^aprey of an abundant spoil will be divided;^bThe lame will take the plunder.²⁴And no one who dwells there will say, “I am ^asick”;The people who inhabit ¹there will be ^bforgiven their iniquity.

Yahweh’s Wrath Against the Nations

34Draw near, ^aO nations, to hear; and pay attention, O peoples!^bLet the earth hear, as well as its fullness, the world and all that springs from it.²For the ^aindignation of Yahweh is against all the nations,And His wrath against all their ¹hosts;He has ²^,^bdevoted them to destruction;He has given them over to ^cslaughter.³So their slain will be ^acast out,And their corpses ¹will give off their ^bstench,And the mountains will ²be drenched with their ^cblood.⁴And ^aall the host of heaven will rot away,And the ^bsky will be rolled up like a scroll;All their hosts will also wither awayAs a leaf withers from the vine,Or as one withers from the fig tree.⁵For ^aMy sword is satiated in heaven;Behold, it shall descend for judgment upon ^bEdomAnd upon the people whom I have ^cdevoted to destruction.⁶The sword of Yahweh is filled with blood;It is ¹sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,With the fat of the kidneys of rams.For Yahweh has a sacrifice in ^aBozrahAnd a great slaughter in the land of ^bEdom.⁷^aAnd wild oxen will also ¹fall with them,And ^byoung bulls with strong ones;Thus their land will be ^csoaked with blood,And their dust ²become greasy with fat.⁸For Yahweh has a day of ^avengeance,A year of recompense for the ¹cause of Zion.⁹¹And its streams will be turned into pitch,And its dust into ^abrimstone,And its land will become burning pitch.¹⁰It will ^anot be quenched night or day;Its ^bsmoke will go up forever.From ^cgeneration to generation it will be laid waste;^dNone will pass through it forever and ever.¹¹But ¹^,^apelican and hedgehog will possess it,And ²owl and raven will dwell in it;And He will stretch over it the ^bline of utter formlessnessAnd the ³plumb line of utter void.¹²Its nobles—there is ^ano one thereWhom they may proclaim king—And all its princes will be ^bnon-existent.¹³And thorns will come up in its ^afortified towers,Weeds and thistles in its fortified cities;It will also be a haunt of ^bjackalsAnd an abode of ostriches.¹⁴And the desert ^acreatures will meet with the ¹wolves;The ²^,^bhairy goat also will cry to its kind;Surely, the ³night creature will obtain relief thereAnd will find itself a resting place.¹⁵The ¹owl will make its nest and find its escape there,And it will hatch its eggs and gather them in its shade.Surely, ^athe ²falcons will be gathered there,Every one with its kind.

¹⁶Seek from the ^abook of Yahweh, and read: Not one of these will be missing;None will lack its mate.For ¹^,^bHis mouth has commanded,And His Spirit has gathered them.

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

The Joy of the Redeemed

35The ^awilderness and the desert will be delighted,And the ¹^,^bArabah will rejoice and flourish;Like the crocus²It will ^aflourish profuselyAnd ^brejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.The ^cglory of Lebanon will be given to it,The majesty of ^dCarmel and Sharon.They will see the ^eglory of Yahweh,The majesty of our God.³^aStrengthen limp hands, and give courage to the knees of the stumbling.⁴Say to those with an ^aanxious heart,“Be strong, fear not.Behold, your God will come with ^bvengeance;The ^crecompense of God will come,But He will ^dsave you.”⁵Then the ^aeyes of the blind will be opened,And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.⁶Then the ^alame will leap like a deer,And the ^btongue of the mute will shout for joy.For waters will break forth in the ^cwildernessAnd streams in the ¹Arabah.⁷Then the ¹scorched land will become a poolAnd the thirsty ground ^asprings of water;In the ^bhaunt of jackals, its resting place,Grass becomes reeds and rushes.⁸^aAnd a ¹roadway will be there, ^ba highway,And it will be called the Highway of ^cHoliness.The unclean will not pass by on it,But it will be for him who walks in that way,And ^dignorant fools will not wander on it.⁹No ^alion will be there,Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;¹These will not be found there.But ^bthe redeemed will walk there,¹⁰And ^athe ransomed of Yahweh will returnAnd come with joyful shouting to Zion,With everlasting gladness upon their heads.They will ¹attain delight and gladness,And ^bsorrow and sighing will flee away.

Sennacherib Invades Judah

36^aNow it happened in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that ^bSennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. ²And the ^aking of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a heavy military force. And he stood by the ^bconduit of the upper pool on the highway of the ¹fuller’s field. ³Then ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^bShebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

⁴Then ^aRabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this trust that you have? ⁵“I say, ‘Your counsel and might for the war are only ¹empty words.’ Now in whom do you trust, that ^ayou have rebelled against me? ⁶“Behold, you trust in the ^astaff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his ¹hand and pierce it. ^bSo is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷“But if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ is it not He ^awhose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? ⁸“So now, ¹come 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 give riders for them. ⁹“How then can you ¹turn away one ²official of the least of my master’s servants and ^atrust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ¹⁰“So now, have I come up ¹without the approval of Yahweh against this land to make it a ruin? ^aYahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land and make it a ruin.’”’”

¹¹Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in ^aAramaic, for we ¹understand it; and do not speak with us in ²^,^bJudean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ¹²But 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?”

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood and ^acried 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 ^adeceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; ¹⁵and do not let Hezekiah make you ^atrust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh 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, ‘¹Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his ^avine and each of his fig tree, and drink each of the ^bwaters of his own cistern, ¹⁷until 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 lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, “^aYahweh 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 ^aHamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of ^bSepharvaim? And when have they ^cdelivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰‘Who among all the ^agods of these lands ¹have delivered their land from my hand, that ^bYahweh would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”

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

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

37Now it happened that ^awhen King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh. ²Then he sent ^aEliakim, who was over the household with ^bShebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to ^cIsaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a ^aday of distress, reproof, and rejection; for ^bchildren have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth. ⁴‘Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ¹^,^areproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for ^bthe remnant that is left.’”

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

⁸Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^aLibnah, for he had heard that ¹the king had set out from ^bLachish. ⁹Then he ^aheard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ¹^,^bEthiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” So he heard it and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of ¹Judah, ‘^aDo 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‘^aBehold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? ¹²‘Did the gods of ¹those nations, which my fathers have brought to ruin, deliver them, even ^aGozan and ^bHaran 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?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple

¹⁴Then Hezekiah took the ¹letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and ²spread it out before Yahweh. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh saying, ¹⁶“O Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ^awho is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the ^bGod, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. ^cYou have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷“^aIncline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and ^blisten to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to ¹^,^creproach the living God. ¹⁸“Truly, O Yahweh, the ^akings of Assyria have laid waste to all the countries and their lands ¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the ^awork of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have ^bdestroyed them. ²⁰“But now, O Yahweh our God, ^asave us from his hand that ^ball the kingdoms of the earth may know that ¹You are Yahweh, You alone.”

Yahweh’s Answer Through Isaiah

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

²³“Whom have you ¹^,^areproached and blasphemed?And against whom have you heightened your voiceAnd ²haughtily ^blifted up your eyes?Against the ^cHoly One of Israel!²⁴“Through your servants you have ¹reproached the Lord,And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,To the remotest parts of ^aLebanon;And I cut down its tall ^bcedars and its choice cypresses.And I will go to its ²highest peak, its thickest ^cforest.²⁵‘I dug wells and drank waters,And ^awith the sole of my feet I dried upAll the rivers of ¹Egypt.’²⁶“^aHave you not heard?Long ago I did it;From days of old I ^bformed it.Now ^cI have brought it to pass,That ^dyou should devastate fortified cities into ^eruinous heaps.²⁷“So their inhabitants were short of power;They were dismayed and put to shame;They were as the ^aplant of the field and as the green herb,As ^bgrass on the rooftops ¹is scorched before it rises.²⁸“But I ^aknow your sitting downAnd your going out and your coming inAnd your raging against Me.²⁹“Because of your raging against MeAnd because your ¹^,^apresumptuousness has come up to My ears,Therefore I will put My ^bhook in your noseAnd My ^cbridle in your lips,And I will turn you back ^dby the way which you came.

³⁰“Then this shall be the sign for you: ¹you will eat this year what ^agrows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹“And the ^asurviving ^bremnant of the house of Judah will again ^ctake root downward and bear fruit upward. ³²“For out of Jerusalem will go forth a ^aremnant and out of Mount Zion ¹survivors. The ^bzeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.”’

³³“Therefore, thus says Yahweh 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 ^asiege ramp against it. ³⁴‘^aBy the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares Yahweh. ³⁵‘Indeed I will ^adefend this city to save it ^bfor My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

The Defeat and Death of Sennacherib

³⁶Then the ^aangel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And ¹the men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead bodies. ³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and ¹returned home and lived at ^aNineveh. ³⁸Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of ^aArarat. And ^bEsarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

38^aIn those days Hezekiah became ill to the point of death. And ^bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘^cSet your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh ³and said, “^aRemember now, O Yahweh, I beseech You, how I have ^bwalked before You in truth and with a ^cwhole heart and ^dhave done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah ^ewept ¹greatly.

⁴Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; behold, I will add ^afifteen years to your ¹life. ⁶“And I will ^adeliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.”’

⁷“Now this shall be the ^asign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this word that He has spoken: ⁸“Behold, I will ^acause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the ^bsun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and ¹recovery:

¹⁰I said, “^aIn the middle of my ¹lifeI am to enter the ^bgates of Sheol;I am to be ^cdeprived of the rest of my years.”¹¹I said, “I will not see Yah,Yah ^ain the land of the living;I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.¹²“Like a shepherd’s ^atent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;As a ^bweaver I ^crolled up my life.He ^dcuts me off from the loom;From ^eday until night You make an end of me.¹³“I soothed my soul until morning.^aLike a lion—so He ^bshatters all my bones;From ^cday until night You make an end of me.¹⁴“^aLike a swallow, like a crane, so I chirped;I ^bmoan like a dove;My ^ceyes look wistfully to the heights;O Lord, I am oppressed, be my ^dsecurity.¹⁵“^aWhat shall I say?¹Indeed, He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;I will ^bwander about all my years because of the ^cbitterness of my soul.¹⁶“O Lord, ^aby these things men live,And in all these is the life of my spirit;¹^,^bO restore me to health and ^clet me live!¹⁷“Behold, for my own well-being I had great bitterness;But it is You who has ¹^,^aheld back my soul from the pit of ²nothingness,For You have ^bcast all my sins behind Your back.¹⁸“For ^aSheol cannot thank You;Death cannot praise You;Those who go down ^bto the pit cannot keep watch for Your truth.¹⁹“It is the ^aliving, the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;A ^bfather makes known to his sons about Your truth.²⁰“Yahweh is here to save me;So we will ^aplay my songs on stringed instruments^bAll the days of our life ^cat the house of Yahweh.”

²¹Now ^aIsaiah had said, “Let them take up a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may live.” ²²Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the ^asign that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh?”

Hezekiah Shows His Treasures to Babylon

39^aAt 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 was growing stronger. ²And Hezekiah was ^aglad about these things and showed them all his treasure house, the ^bsilver and the gold and the spices and the good 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. ³Then Isaiah the ^aprophet 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 ^bcountry, from Babylon.” ⁴And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah said, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.”

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

The Glory of Yahweh Will Be Revealed

40“^aComfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.²“^aSpeak to the heart of Jerusalem;And call out to her, that her ¹^,^bwarfare has been fulfilled,That her ²^,^ciniquity has been removed,That she has received from the hand of Yahweh^dDouble for all her sins.”³^aA voice ¹is calling,“^bPrepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness;Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.⁴“Let every valley be lifted up,And every mountain and hill be made low;And let the rough ground become a plain,And the rugged terrain a broad valley;⁵¹Then the ^aglory of Yahweh will be revealed,And ^ball flesh will see it together;For the ^cmouth of Yahweh has spoken.”⁶A voice says, “Call out.”Then ¹he answered, “What shall I call out?”^aAll flesh is grass, and all its lovingkindness is like the flower of the field.⁷The ^agrass ¹withers, the flower fades,²When the ^bbreath of Yahweh blows upon it;Surely the people are grass.⁸The grass ¹withers, the flower fades,But ^athe word of our God stands forever.⁹Get yourself up on a ^ahigh mountain,O Zion, bearer of ^bgood news,Raise up your voice powerfully,O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;Raise it up, do not fear.Say to the ^ccities of Judah,“^dBehold your God!”¹⁰Behold, Lord Yahweh will come ^awith strength,With His ^barm ruling for Him.Behold, His ^creward is with HimAnd His recompense before Him.¹¹Like a shepherd He will ^ashepherd His flock;In His arm He will gather the lambsAnd carry them in His bosom;He will gently lead the nursing ewes.¹²Who has ^ameasured the ¹waters in the hollow of His hand,And ²encompassed the heavens by the ³span,And ⁴calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,And weighed the mountains in a balanceAnd the hills in a pair of scales?¹³^aWho has ¹encompassed the Spirit of Yahweh,Or as His ^bcounselor has informed Him?¹⁴^aWith whom did He take counsel and who ^bgave Him understanding?And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledgeAnd made Him know the way of understanding?¹⁵Behold, the ^anations are like a drop from a bucket,And are counted as a speck of ^bdust on the scales;Behold, He lifts up the coastlands like fine dust.¹⁶Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,Nor its ^abeasts enough for a burnt offering.¹⁷^aAll the nations are as nothing before Him;They are counted by Him as non-existent and utterly formless.¹⁸^aTo whom then will you liken God?Or what likeness will you compare with Him?¹⁹As for the ^agraven images, a craftsman casts it,A goldsmith ^bplates it with gold,And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.²⁰He who is too impoverished to make such a contributionChooses a ^atree that does not rot;He seeks out for himself a wise craftsmanTo ¹prepare a graven image that ^bwill not be shaken.²¹^aDo you not know? Have you not heard?Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?Have you not understood ^bfrom the foundations of the earth?²²It is He who ¹inhabits above the ²^,^acircle of the earth,And its inhabitants are like ^bgrasshoppers;It is He who ^cstretches out the heavens like a ^dcurtainAnd spreads them out like a ^etent to inhabit.²³It is He who reduces ^arulers to nothing,Who ^bmakes the ¹judges of the earth utterly formless.²⁴¹Scarcely have they been planted;²Scarcely have they been sown;³Scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,But He merely blows on them, and they ⁴wither,And the ^astorm carries them away like stubble.²⁵“^aTo whom then will you liken MeThat I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.²⁶^aLift up your eyes on highAnd see ^bwho has created these stars,The ^cOne who leads forth their host by number,He calls them all by name;Because of the ^dgreatness of His vigor and the ¹strength of His power,^eNot one of them is missing.²⁷^aWhy do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,“My way is ^bhidden from Yahweh,And the ^cjustice due me passes by ^dmy God”?²⁸^aDo you not know? Have you not heard?The ^bEverlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth,Does not become weary or tired.His understanding is ^cunsearchable.²⁹He gives power to the ^aweary,And to him who lacks vigor He ^bincreases might.³⁰Though ^ayouths grow weary and tired,And choice ^byoung men stumble badly,³¹Yet those who hope in YahwehWill ^again new power;They will ¹^,^bmount up with ²wings like eagles;They will run and not get tired;They will walk and not become weary.

Do Not Fear, for I Am with You

41“^aCoastlands, listen to Me ^bin silence,And let the peoples ^cgain new power;^dLet them come forward, then let them speak;^eLet us draw near together for judgment.²“^aWho has awakened one from the eastWhom He ^bcalls in righteousness to His ¹feet?He ^cgives up nations before himAnd ²has dominion over kings.He makes them like ^ddust with his sword,As the wind-driven ^echaff with his bow.³“He pursues them, passing on in peace,By a way he had not ¹come with his feet.⁴“^aWho has worked and done it,Calling forth the generations from the beginning?‘^bI, Yahweh, am the first; and with the last, ^cI am He.’”⁵The ^acoastlands have seen and are afraid;The ^bends of the earth tremble;They have drawn near and have come.⁶Each one helps his neighborAnd says to his brother, “Be strong!”⁷So the ^acraftsman strengthens the ^bsmelter,And he who smooths metal with the hammer strengthens him who beats the anvil,Saying of the soldering, “It is good”;And he strengthens it with nails,^cSo that it will not be shaken.⁸“But you, Israel, ^aMy servant,Jacob whom I have chosen,Seed of ^bAbraham My ^cfriend,⁹You whom I have ¹^,^astrongly taken hold of from the ends of the earth,And called from its ^bremotest partsAnd said to you, ‘You are ^cMy servant,I have ^dchosen you and not rejected you.¹⁰‘Do not ^afear, for I am with you;Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.I will make you mighty, surely ^bI will help you;Surely I will uphold you with My righteous ^cright hand.’¹¹“Behold, ^aall those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;^bThose who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.¹²“^aYou will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them,Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent.¹³“For I am Yahweh your God, ^awho ¹strongly takes hold of your right hand,Who says to you, ‘^bDo not fear, I will help you.’¹⁴“Do not fear, you ^aworm Jacob, you men of Israel;I will help you,” declares Yahweh, “¹and ^byour Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.¹⁵“Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;^aYou will thresh the ^bmountains and pulverize them,And will make the hills like chaff.¹⁶“You will ^awinnow them, and the wind will carry them away,And the storm will scatter them;But you will ^brejoice in Yahweh;You will boast in the Holy One of Israel.¹⁷“The ¹afflicted and needy are seeking ^awater, but there is none,And their tongue is parched with thirst;I, Yahweh, ^bwill answer them Myself,As the God of Israel I ^cwill not forsake them.¹⁸“I will open ^arivers on the bare heightsAnd springs in the midst of the valleys;I will make ^bthe wilderness a pool of waterAnd the dry land fountains of water.¹⁹“I will put the cedar in the wilderness,The acacia and the ^amyrtle and the ¹olive tree;I will place the ^bjuniper in the desertTogether with the box tree and the cypress,²⁰That ^athey may see and know,And establish and gain insight as well,That the ^bhand of Yahweh has done this,And the Holy One of Israel has created it.²¹“Bring near your case,” Yahweh says.“Bring forward your mighty arguments,”The ^aKing of Jacob says.²²^aLet them bring it forth and declare to us what is going to take place;As for the ^bformer events, declare what they were,That we may establish our heart on them and know their outcome.Or cause us to hear of what is coming;²³^aDeclare the things that are to come afterward,That we may know that you are gods;Indeed, ^bdo good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.²⁴Behold, ^ayou are nothing,And ^byour work is non-existent;He who chooses you is an ^cabomination.²⁵“I have awakened ^aone from the north, and he has come;From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;And he will come upon officials as upon ^bmortar,Even as the potter treads clay.”²⁶Who has ^adeclared this from the beginning, that we might know?Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?Surely there was ^bno one who declared;Surely there was no one who caused those words to be heard;Surely there was no one who heard your words.²⁷“^aFormerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a ^bmessenger of good news.’²⁸“But ^aI look, and there is no one,And there is no ^bcounselor ¹among themWho, if I ask, can ^crespond with a word.²⁹“Behold, all of them are ¹false;Their ^aworks are ^bnon-existent;Their molten images are ^cwind and utter formlessness.

Yahweh’s Chosen Servant

42“^aBehold, My ^bServant, whom I ¹uphold;My ^cchosen one in whom My ^dsoul is well-pleased.I have put My ^eSpirit upon Him;He will bring forth ^fjustice to the ²nations.²“He will not cry out or raise His voice,Nor make His voice heard in the street.³“A crushed reed He will not breakAnd a faintly burning wick He will not extinguish;He will bring forth ^ajustice in truth.⁴“He will not be ^afaint or crushedUntil He has established justice in the earth;And the ^bcoastlands will wait expectantly for His ¹law.”

⁵Thus says the God, Yahweh, Who ^acreated the heavens and ^bstretched them out,Who spread out the ^cearth and its ¹offspring,Who ^dgives breath to the people on itAnd spirit to those who walk in it,

⁶“I am Yahweh, I have ^acalled You in righteousness;I will also ^btake hold of You by the hand and ^cguard You,And I will give You as a ^dcovenant to the people,As a ^elight to the nations,⁷To ^aopen blind eyes,To ^bbring out prisoners from the dungeonAnd those who inhabit darkness from the prison.⁸“^aI am Yahweh, that is ^bMy name;I will not give My ^cglory to another,Nor My praise to ¹graven images.⁹“Behold, the ^aformer things have come to pass;Now I declare ^bnew things;Before they spring forth I cause you to hear them.”¹⁰Sing to Yahweh a ^anew song,Sing His praise from the ^bend of the earth!^cYou who go down to the sea, ^das well as its fullness.You ^ecoastlands, and those who inhabit them.¹¹Let the ^awilderness and its cities lift up their voices,The villages where ^bKedar inhabits.Let the inhabitants of ^cSela sing aloud,Let them shout for joy from the tops of the ^dmountains.¹²Let them ^agive glory to YahwehAnd declare His praise in the ^bcoastlands.¹³^aYahweh will go forth like a warrior;He will awaken His ^bzeal like a man of war.He will make a loud shout, indeed, He will raise a war cry.He will ^cprevail against His enemies.

Israel’s Blindness and Deafness

¹⁴“^aI have kept silent for a long time;I have kept still and restrained Myself.Now like a woman in labor I will groan;I will both gasp and pant.¹⁵“I will ^alay waste the mountains and hillsAnd dry up all their vegetation;I will ^bmake the rivers into coastlandsAnd dry up the pools of waters.¹⁶“I will ^alead the blind by a way they do not know,In paths they do not know I will guide them.I will ^bmake darkness into light before themAnd ^crugged places into plains.These are the things I will do,And I will ^dnot forsake them.”¹⁷They will be turned back and be ^autterly put to shame,Who trust in graven images,Who say to molten images,“You are our gods.”¹⁸^aHear, you deaf!And look, you blind, that you may see.¹⁹Who is blind but My ^aservant,Or so deaf as My ^bmessenger whom I send?Who is so blind as he that is ¹^,^cat peace with Me,Or so blind as the servant of Yahweh?²⁰^aYou have seen many things, but you do not keep them;Your ears are open, but none hears.²¹Yahweh was pleased for His righteousness’ sakeThat He make the law ^agreat and majestic.²²But this is a people plundered and pillaged as spoil;All of them are ^atrapped in ¹caves,Or are ^bhidden away in prisons;They have become a plunder with none to deliver them,And a spoil, with none to say, “Have them return!”²³Who among you will give ear to this?Who will give heed and hear hereafter?²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned,And in whose ways they ^awere not willing to walk,And whose law they did not ^bobey?²⁵So He poured out on him the heat of His angerAnd the ^afierceness of battle;And it set him aflame all around,Yet he did not know it;And it burned him, but he did not ^bset it upon his heart.

The Redemption of Israel

43But now, thus says Yahweh, your ^aCreator, O Jacob,And He who ^bformed you, O Israel,“Do not ^cfear, for I have ^dredeemed you;I have ^ecalled you by name; you are ^fMine!²“When you ^apass through the waters, ^bI will be with you;And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.When you ^cwalk through the fire, you will not be scorched,Nor will the flame burn you.³“For ^aI am Yahweh your God,The Holy One of Israel, your ^bSavior;I have given Egypt as your ransom,¹^,^cEthiopia and Seba in your place.⁴“Since you are ^aprecious in My sight,Since you are ^bhonored and I ^clove you,I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.⁵“Do not fear, for ^aI am with you;I will bring ^byour seed from the east,And ^cgather you from the west.⁶“I will say to the ^anorth, ‘Give them up!’And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’Bring My ^bsons from afarAnd My daughters from the ^cends of the earth,⁷Everyone who is ^acalled by My name,And whom I have ^bcreated for My ^cglory,^dWhom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

Israel Is Yahweh’s Witness

⁸Bring out the people who are ^ablind, even though they have eyes,And the deaf, even though they have ears.⁹All the nations have ^agathered togetherSo that the peoples may be assembled.Who among them can ^bdeclare thisAnd make us hear the former things?Let them present ^ctheir witnesses ^dthat they may be justified,Or let them hear and say, “It is true.”¹⁰“You are ^aMy witnesses,” declares Yahweh,“And ^bMy servant whom I have chosen,So that you may know and believe MeAnd understand that ^cI am He.^dBefore Me there was no god formed,And there will be none after Me.¹¹“I, even I, am Yahweh,And there is no ^asavior ^bbesides Me.¹²“It is I who have declared and saved and caused it to be heard,And there was no ^astrange god among you;So you are My witnesses,” declares Yahweh,“And I am God.¹³“Even ¹^,^afrom eternity ^bI am He,And there is ^cnone who can deliver out of My hand;^dI act and who can reverse it?”

Rivers in the Wasteland

¹⁴Thus says Yahweh your ^aRedeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “For your sake I have sent to Babylon,And will bring down those who fled—all of them,¹Even the ^bChaldeans—into the ^cships ²in which they shouted for joy.

¹⁵“I am Yahweh, your Holy One,^aThe Creator of Israel, your ^bKing.”

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh, Who ^amakes a way through the seaAnd a path through the mighty waters,

¹⁷Who brings forth the ^achariot and the horse,The military force and the mighty man;They will lie down together and not rise again;They have been ^bextinguished and quenched like a wick:¹⁸“^aDo not remember the former things,Nor carefully consider things of the past.¹⁹“Behold, I will do something ^anew;Now it will spring forth;Will you not know it?I will even ^bmake a roadway in the wilderness,Rivers in the wasteland.²⁰“The beasts of the field will glorify Me,The ^ajackals and the ostriches,Because I have ^bgiven waters in the wildernessAnd rivers in the wasteland,To give drink to My chosen people.²¹“The people whom ^aI formed for Myself^bWill recount My praise.²²“Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob;But you have become ^aweary of Me, O Israel.²³“You have ^anot brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings,Nor have you ^bglorified Me with your sacrifices.I have not ^cburdened you with ¹offerings,Nor wearied you with ^dfrankincense.²⁴“You have not bought Me ¹^,^asweet cane with money,Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices;Rather you have burdened Me with your sins;You have ^bwearied Me with your iniquities.²⁵“I, even I, am the one who ^awipes out your transgressions ^bfor My own sake,And I will ^cnot remember your sins.²⁶“¹Bring Me to remembrance, ^alet us enter into judgment together;Recount your cause, ^bthat you may be proved right.²⁷“Your ^afirst father sinned,And your ¹^,^bspokesmen have ²transgressed against Me.²⁸“So I will ¹profane the ²princes of the sanctuary,And I will give Jacob to be ^adevoted to destruction and Israel to ^brevilement.

No God Besides Yahweh

44“But now hear, O Jacob, My ^aservant,And Israel, whom I have chosen:²Thus says Yahweh who made youAnd ^aformed you from the womb, who ^bwill help you,‘^cDo not fear, O Jacob My servant,And you ^dJeshurun whom I have chosen.³‘For ^aI will pour out water on ¹the thirsty groundAnd streams on the dry land;I will ^bpour out My Spirit on your ^cseedAnd My blessing on your offspring;⁴And they will spring up ¹among the grassLike ^apoplars by streams of water.’⁵“This one will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s’;And this one ¹will call on the name of Jacob;And this one will ^awrite ²on his hand, ‘Belonging to Yahweh,’And will name Israel’s name with honor.

⁶“Thus says Yahweh, the ^aKing of Israel and his ^bRedeemer, Yahweh of hosts: ‘I am the ^cfirst, and I am the last,And there is no God ^dbesides Me.

⁷‘Who is like Me? ^aLet him call out and declare it;And let him tell it to Me in order,¹From the time that I established the ancient ²people.And let them declare to them the things that are to comeAnd the events that are going to take place.⁸‘Do not be in dread and do not be afraid;^aHave I not long since caused it to be heard to you and declared it?And ^byou are My witnesses.Is there any God ^cbesides Me,Or is there any other ^dRock?I know of none.’”

The Futility of Idolatry

⁹Those who form ¹a graven image are all of them ²futile, and their desirable things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be ^aput to shame. ¹⁰Who has formed a god or cast a graven image to ^ano profit? ¹¹Behold, all his companions will be ^aput to shame. The craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them be in dread, let them together be put to shame.

¹²The ^aman crafts iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, ¹forming it with hammers and working it with his powerful arm. He also gets hungry and has no power; he drinks no water and becomes weary. ¹³^aAnother crafts wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with ¹a stylus. He makes it with planes and outlines it with a compass and makes it like the form of a man, like the glory of ^bman, so that it may sit in a ^chouse. ¹⁴In order to cut cedars for himself, he takes a ¹cypress or an oak and ²raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. ¹⁵Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also kindles a fire to bake bread. He also ^aworks to produce a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and ^bfalls down before it. ¹⁶Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm; I have seen the fire.” ¹⁷But the rest of it he ^amakes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also ^bprays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”

¹⁸They do not ^aknow, nor do they understand, for He has ^bsmeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they will have no insight. ¹⁹No one causes this to return to his heart, nor is there ^aknowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then ¹I make the rest of it into an ^babomination; ²I fall down before a block of wood!” ²⁰He ¹^,^afeeds on ashes; a ^bdeceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver his soul, and he cannot say, “^cIs there not a lie in my right hand?”

Yahweh Forgives and Redeems

²¹“^aRemember these things, O Jacob,And Israel, for you are ^bMy servant;I have formed you, you are My servant;O Israel, you will ^cnot be forgotten by Me.²²“I have ^awiped out your transgressions like a thick cloudAnd your sins like a cloud.^bReturn to Me, for I have ^credeemed you.”²³^aShout for joy, O heavens, for Yahweh has done it!Make a loud shout, you lower parts of the earth;^bBreak forth into a shout of joy, you mountains,O forest, and every tree in it;For ^cYahweh has redeemed JacobAnd in Israel He ^dshows forth His beautiful glory.

²⁴Thus says Yahweh, your ^aRedeemer, and the one who ^bformed you from the womb, “I, Yahweh, am the maker of all things,^cStretching out the heavens by MyselfAnd spreading out the earth ¹all alone,

²⁵^aCausing the ¹omens of boasters to be annulled,And ²making fools out of diviners,^bCausing wise men to turn back,And ³making foolishness out of their knowledge,²⁶^aConfirming the word of His servant—And the counsel of His messengers He will complete—And being the One who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’And of the ^bcities of Judah, ‘^cThey shall be built.’And I will raise up her waste places again.²⁷“It is I who says to the depth of the sea, ‘Be dried up!’And I will make your rivers ^adry.²⁸“It is I who says of ^aCyrus, ‘He is My shepherd!And all My good pleasure he will complete.’And saying of Jerusalem, ‘^bShe will be built,’And of the temple, ‘¹Your foundation will be laid.’”

Cyrus, Yahweh’s Anointed

45Thus says Yahweh to ^aCyrus His anointed,Whom I have taken hold of by his right ^bhand,To ^csubdue nations before himAnd ¹to ^dloose the loins of kings,To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:²“I will go before you and ^amake the ¹rough places smooth;I will ^bshatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron ^cbars.³“I will give you the ¹^,^atreasures of darknessAnd hidden wealth of secret places,So that you may know that it is I,Yahweh, the God of Israel, who ^bcalls you by your name.⁴“For the sake of ^aJacob My servant,And Israel My chosen one,I have also ^bcalled you by your name;I have given you a title of honorThough you have ^cnot known Me.⁵“I am Yahweh, and ^athere is no other;^bBesides Me there is no God.I will ¹^,^cgird you, though you have not known Me,⁶That ^athey may know from the rising to the setting of the sunThat there is ^bno one besides Me.I am Yahweh, and there is no other,⁷The One ^aforming light and ^bcreating darkness,Producing peace and ^ccreating calamity;I am Yahweh who does all these.

Yahweh the Maker

⁸“^aDrip down, O heavens, from above,And let the skies pour down righteousness;Let the ^bearth open up and salvation bear fruit,^cAnd righteousness ¹spring up with it.I, Yahweh, have created it.⁹“Woe to the one who ^acontends with his ¹Maker—An earthenware vessel ²among the vessels of earth!Will the ^bclay say to the ³potter, ‘What are you doing?’Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?¹⁰“Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’Or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor pains?’”

¹¹Thus says ^aYahweh, the Holy One of Israel, and his ¹^,^bMaker: “²^,^cAsk Me about the things that are to come ³concerning My ^dsons,And you shall ⁴commit to Me ^ethe work of My hands.

¹²“It is I who ^amade the earth and created man upon it.I ^bstretched out the heavens with My hands,And I commanded ^call their host.¹³“I have awakened him in ^arighteousness,And I will ^bmake all his ways smooth;He will ^cbuild My city and will ^dlet My exiles go,Without any payment or reward,” says Yahweh of hosts.

¹⁴Thus says Yahweh, “The fruit of the labor of ^aEgypt and the profit of ¹^,^bEthiopiaAnd the Sabeans, men of stature,Will ^ccome over to you and will be yours;They will walk behind you; they will come over in ^dchainsAnd will ^ebow down to you;They will make supplication to you:‘²Surely, ^fGod is ³with you, and there is none else,No other God.’”

¹⁵Truly, You are a God who ^ahides Himself,O God of Israel, ^bSavior!¹⁶They will be ^aput to shame and even dishonored, all of them;The ^bcraftsmen of idols will go away together in dishonor.¹⁷Israel has been saved by YahwehWith an ^aeverlasting salvation;You ^bwill not be put to shame or dishonoredTo all eternity.

¹⁸For thus says Yahweh, who ^acreated the heavens (He is the God who ^bformed the earth and made it; He established it and did not create it ¹a ^cformless place, but formed it to be ^dinhabited), “I am Yahweh, and ^ethere is none else.

¹⁹“^aI have not spoken in secret,In ¹some dark land;I did not say to the ^bseed of Jacob,‘^cSeek Me in ²a formless place’;I, Yahweh, ^dspeak righteousness,^eDeclaring things that are upright.²⁰“^aGather yourselves and come;Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations;^bThey do not know,Who ^ccarry about their graven image of woodAnd ^dpray to a god who cannot save.²¹“^aDeclare and draw near with your case;Indeed, let them consult together.^bWho has made this heard from of old?Who has long since declared it?Is it not I, Yahweh?And there is ^cno other God besides Me,A righteous God and a ^dSavior;There is none except Me.²²“^aTurn to Me and ^bbe saved, all the ends of the earth;For I am God, and there is no other.²³“^aI have sworn by Myself,The ^bword has gone forth from My mouth in righteousnessAnd will not turn back,That to Me ^cevery knee will bow, every tongue will ^dswear allegiance.²⁴“They will say of Me, ‘Only ^ain Yahweh are righteousness and strength.’Men will come to Him,And ^ball who were angry at Him will be put to shame.²⁵“In Yahweh all the seed of IsraelWill be ^ajustified and will ^bboast.”

Babylon’s Idols and the True God

46^aBel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over;Their images are on the beasts and the cattle.The things ¹that you carry are burdensome,A load for the weary beast.²They stooped over, they have bowed down together;They could not rescue the load,But ¹have themselves ^agone into captivity.³“^aHear Me, O house of Jacob,And all ^bthe remnant of the house of Israel,You who have been ^cburdening Me from ¹birthAnd have been carried from the womb;⁴Even to your old age ¹^,^aI will be the same,And even to your ²^,^bgraying years I will bear you!I have ³done it, and I will carry you;And I will bear you, and I will rescue you.⁵“^aTo whom would you liken MeAnd make Me equal and compare Me,That we would be alike?⁶“Those who ^alavish gold from the purseAnd weigh silver on the scale,They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;They ^bfall down, indeed they worship it.⁷“They ^acarry it upon the shoulder and bear it;They set it in its place, and it stands there.^bIt does not move from its place.Though one may cry to it, it ^ccannot answer;It ^dcannot save him from his distress.⁸“^aRemember this, and be ¹assured;^bCause it to return to your heart, you ^ctransgressors.⁹“Remember the ^aformer things long past,For I am God, and there is ^bno other;I am God, and there is ^cno one like Me,¹⁰Declaring the end from the beginning,And from ancient times things which have not been done,Saying, ‘^aMy counsel will be established,And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’,¹¹Calling a ^abird of prey from the ^beast,The man of ¹My counsel from a far country.Truly I have ^cspoken; truly I will bring it to pass.I have formed it, surely I will do it.¹²“^aHear Me, you ^bstubborn of heart,Who are ^cfar from righteousness.¹³“I ^abring near My righteousness, it is not far off;And My salvation will not delay.And I will grant ^bsalvation in Zion,And My ^cglory for Israel.

Lament for Babylon

47“^aCome down and sit in the dust,O ^bvirgin ^cdaughter of Babylon;Sit on the ground without a throne,O daughter of the Chaldeans!For you shall no longer be called ^dtender and delicate.²“Take the ^amillstones and ^bgrind flour.Uncover your ^cveil, ^dstrip off the skirt,Uncover the leg, cross the rivers.³“Your ^anakedness will be uncovered;Your reproach also will be seen;I will ^btake vengeance and will not ¹spare a man.”⁴Our ^aRedeemer, Yahweh of hosts is His name,The Holy One of Israel.⁵“^aSit silently, and go into ^bdarkness,O daughter of the Chaldeans,For you will no longer be calledThe ^cqueen of ^dkingdoms.⁶“I was furious with My people;I profaned My inheritanceAnd gave them into your hand.You did not show compassion to them,On the ^aaged you made your yoke very heavy.⁷“Yet you said, ‘I will be a ^aqueen forever.’These things you did not ^bput on your heartNor remember the ^coutcome of ¹them.⁸“So now, hear this, you ^asensual one,Who ^bsits securely,Who says in ¹your heart,‘^cI am, and there is no one besides me.I will ^dnot sit as a widow,Nor know loss of children.’⁹“But these ^atwo things will come on you ^bsuddenly in one day:Loss of children and widowhood.They will come on you in full measureIn spite of your many ^csorceries,In spite of the great might of your spells.¹⁰“You felt ^asecure in your evil and said,‘^bNo one sees me,’Your ^cwisdom and your knowledge ¹have turned you astray;So you have said in your heart,‘^dI am, and there is no one besides me.’¹¹“But ^aevil will come on youWhich you will not know how to charm away;And disaster will fall on youFor which you cannot atone;And ^bdestruction about which you do not knowWill come on you ^csuddenly.¹²“Stand fast now in your ^aspellsAnd in your many sorceriesWith which you have labored from your youth;Perhaps you will be able to profit;Perhaps you may cause trembling.¹³“You are ^awearied with your many counsels;Let now the ^bastrologers,Those who behold visions by the stars,Those who predict by the new moons,Stand up and ^csave you from what will come upon you.¹⁴“Behold, they have become ^alike stubble,^bFire burns them;They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame;There will be ^cno coal to warm byNor a fire to sit before!¹⁵“Thus they have become for you, those among whom you have labored,Who have ^atraded with you from your youth;Each has wandered in his own ¹way;There is ^bnone to save you.

My Glory I Will Not Give to Another

48“^aHear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name IsraelAnd who came forth from the ¹^,^bloins of Judah,Who ^cswear by the name of YahwehAnd bring to remembrance the God of Israel,But not in truth or in ^drighteousness.²“For they call themselves after the ^aholy cityAnd ^bare supported by the God of Israel;Yahweh of hosts is His name.³“I ^adeclared the former things long ago,And they went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to be heard.^bSuddenly I acted, and they ^ccame to pass.⁴“Because I know that you are ¹^,^astiff,And your ^bneck is an iron sinewAnd your ^cforehead bronze,⁵Therefore I declared them to you long ago,Before ¹they happened I caused them to be heard by you,Lest you say, ‘My ^aidol has done them,And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’⁶“You have heard; look at all this.And you, will you not declare it?I caused you to hear ^anew things from this time,Even hidden things which you have not known.⁷“They are created now and not long ago;And before today you have not heard them,Lest you say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’⁸“Indeed, you have not ^aheard; indeed, you have not known.Indeed, even from long ago your ear has not been openBecause I knew that you would deal very treacherously;And you have been called a ¹^,^btransgressor from the ²womb.⁹“^aFor the sake of My name I ^bdelay My anger,And for My praise I restrain it for you,In order not to cut you off.¹⁰“Behold, I have refined you, but ^anot as silver;I have tested you in the ^bfurnace of affliction.¹¹“^aFor My own sake, for My own sake, I will act;For how can My name be profaned?And My ^bglory I will not give to another.

Yahweh Redeems Jacob

¹²“Hear Me, O Jacob, even Israel ¹whom I called;^aI am He, ^bI am the first, I am also the last.¹³“Also, My hand ^afounded the earth,And My right hand spread out the heavens;When I ^bcall to them, they stand together.¹⁴“^aAssemble, all of you, and hear!^bWho among them has declared these things?Yahweh loves him; he will ^ccarry out His good pleasure on ^dBabylon,And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.¹⁵“I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have ^acalled him,I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.¹⁶“^aDraw near to Me, hear this:From the first I have ^bnot spoken in secret,^cFrom the time it took place, I was there.So now ^dLord Yahweh has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

¹⁷Thus says Yahweh, your ^aRedeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit,Who ^bleads you in the way you should go.

¹⁸“If only you had ^apaid attention to My commandments!Then your ^bpeace would have been like a river,And your ^crighteousness like the waves of the sea.¹⁹“Your ^aseed would have been like the sand,And the offspring from your loins like its grains;^bTheir name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”²⁰^aGo forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!Declare with the sound of ^bjoyful shouting, cause this to be heard,^cBring it forth to the end of the earth;Say, “^dYahweh has redeemed His servant Jacob.”²¹And they did not ^athirst when He led them through the waste places.He ^bmade the water flow out of the rock for them;He split the rock, and ^cthe water gushed forth.²²“^aThere is no peace for the wicked,” says Yahweh.

I Will Give You as a Light of the Nations

49Listen to Me, O ^acoastlands,And pay attention, you peoples from afar.^bYahweh called Me from the womb;From the ¹body of My mother He made My name to be remembered.²He has set My ^amouth like a sharp sword;In the ^bshadow of His hand He has concealed Me;And He has also set Me as a ¹select ^carrow;He has hidden Me in His quiver.³He said to Me, “^aYou are My Servant, Israel,^bIn Whom I will ¹show forth My beautiful glory.”⁴But I said, “I have ^atoiled in vain;I have spent My might for ¹nothing and vanity;Yet surely the justice due to Me is with Yahweh,And My ^breward with My God.”⁵So now says ^aYahweh, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,To return Jacob back to Him, so that ^bIsrael might be gathered to Him(For I am ^cglorified in the sight of Yahweh,And My God is My ^dstrength),⁶He says, “It is too ¹small a thing that You should be My ServantTo raise up the tribes of Jacob and to cause the ^apreserved ones of Israel to return;I will also give You as a ^blight ²of the nationsSo that My salvation may ³reach to the ^cend of the earth.”⁷Thus says Yahweh, the ^aRedeemer of Israel and its Holy One,To the ^bdespised One,To the One abhorred by the nation,To the Servant of rulers,“^cKings will see and arise,Princes will also ^dbow down,Because of Yahweh who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

⁸Thus says Yahweh, “In an ^aacceptable time I have answered You,And in a day of salvation I have helped You;And I will ^bguard You and ^cgive You for a covenant of the people,To ^destablish the land, to make them inherit the desolate ¹inheritance;

⁹Saying to those who are ^abound, ‘Go forth,’To those who are in darkness, ‘¹Show yourselves.’Along the roads they will ²feed,And their pasture will be on all ^bbare heights.¹⁰“They will ^anot hunger or thirst,Nor will the scorching ^bheat or sun strike them down;For ^cHe who has compassion on them will ^dguide themAnd will lead them to ^esprings of water.¹¹“I will set all ^aMy mountains as a road,And My ^bhighways will be raised up.¹²“Behold, these will come ^afrom afar;And behold, these will come from the ^bnorth and from the west,And these from the land of Sinim.”¹³^aShout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth!Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains!For ^bYahweh has comforted His peopleAnd will ^chave compassion on His afflicted.

Promise to Zion

¹⁴But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,And the Lord has forgotten me.”¹⁵“Can a woman forget her infantAnd have no compassion on the son of her womb?Even these may forget, but ^aI will not forget you.¹⁶“Behold, I have ^ainscribed you on the palms of My hands;Your ^bwalls are continually before Me.¹⁷“Your ¹builders hurry;Your ^adestroyers and devastatorsWill depart from you.¹⁸“^aLift up your eyes and look around;^bAll of them gather together; ^cthey come to you.^dAs I live,” declares Yahweh,“You will surely ^eput on all of them as ¹jewels and bind them on as a bride.¹⁹“For ^ayour ¹devastated and desolate places and your destroyed land—Surely now you will be ^btoo cramped for the inhabitants,And those who ^cswallowed you will be far away.²⁰“The ^achildren of ¹whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears,‘The place is too cramped for me;Make room for me that I may live here.’²¹“Then you will ^asay in your heart,‘Who has borne these for me?Indeed, I have been bereaved of my childrenAnd am ^bbarren, an ^cexile and a wanderer.And who has reared these?Behold, I ^dremained alone;¹^,^eFrom where did these come?’”

²²Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nationsAnd make high My ^astandard to the peoples;And they will ^bbring your sons in their bosom,And your daughters will be lifted up on their shoulders.

²³“^aKings will be your guardians,And their princesses your nurses.They will ^bbow down to you with their ¹faces to the earthAnd ^click the dust of your feet;And you will ^dknow that I am Yahweh;Those who ^ehope in Me will ^fnot be put to shame.²⁴“^aCan the prey be taken from the mighty man,Or the captives of the ¹righteous be granted escape?”

²⁵Surely, thus says Yahweh, “Even the ^acaptives of the mighty man will be taken away,And the prey of the tyrant will be granted escape;For I will contend with the one who contends with you,And I will ^bsave your sons.

²⁶“I will feed ^athose who mistreat you with their ^bown flesh,And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;And ^call flesh will know that I, Yahweh, am your ^dSaviorAnd your ^eRedeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Yahweh Helps His Servant

50Thus says Yahweh, “Where is the ^acertificate of divorceBy which I have ^bsent your mother away?Or to which of My creditors did I ^csell you?Behold, you were sold for your ^diniquities,And for your ^etransgressions your mother ^fwas sent away.

²“Why was there ^ano man when I came?When I called, why was there none to answer?Is My ^bhand so short that it cannot ransom?Or have I no power to deliver?Behold, I ^cdry up the sea with My rebuke;I ^dmake the rivers a wilderness;Their fish stink for lack of waterAnd die of thirst.³“I ^aclothe the heavens with blacknessAnd make sackcloth their covering.”⁴Lord Yahweh has given Me the tongue of ^adisciples,That I may know how to ^bsustain the weary one with a word.He awakens Me ^cmorning by morning;He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.⁵Lord Yahweh has ^aopened My ear;And I did ^bnot rebelNor did I turn back.⁶I ^agave My back to those who strike Me,And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;I did not hide My face from dishonor and spitting.⁷Even now Lord Yahweh ^ahelps Me,Therefore, I am ^bnot dishonored;Therefore, I have set My face like ^cflint,And I know that I will not be ashamed.⁸He who ¹^,^avindicates Me is near;Who will contend with Me?Let us ^bstand up to each other;Who has a judgment against Me?Let him approach Me.⁹Behold, ^aLord Yahweh helps Me;^bWho is he who condemns Me?Behold, ^cthey will all wear out like a garment;The moth will eat them.¹⁰Who is among you that fears Yahweh,That listens to the voice of His ^aServant,That ^bwalks in darkness and has no light?Let him ^ctrust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God.¹¹Behold, all you who ^akindle a fire,Who gird yourselves with firebrands,Walk in the light of your fireAnd among the brands you have set ablaze.This you will have from My hand:You will ^blie down in torment.

Yahweh’s Righteousness Is Forever

51“^aListen to Me, you who ^bpursue righteousness,Who seek Yahweh:Look to the ^crock from which you were hewnAnd to the ¹quarry from which you were dug.²“Look to ^aAbraham your fatherAnd to Sarah who brought you forth through labor pains;When he ^bwas but one I called him,Then I blessed him and multiplied him.”³Indeed, ^aYahweh will comfort Zion;He will comfort all her ^bwaste places.And her ^cwilderness He will make like ^dEden,And her desert like the ^egarden of Yahweh;^fJoy and gladness will be found in her,Thanksgiving and sound of a melody.⁴“^aPay attention to Me, O My people,And give ear to Me, O My ¹nation;For a ^blaw will go forth from Me,And I will ²set My ^cjustice for a ^dlight of the peoples.⁵“My ^arighteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth,And My ^barms will judge the peoples;The ^ccoastlands will hope in Me,And for My ^darm they will wait expectantly.⁶“^aLift up your eyes to the sky,Then look to the earth beneath;For the ^bsky will vanish like smoke,And the ^cearth will wear out like a garment,And its inhabitants will die ¹in like manner;But My ^dsalvation will be forever,And My righteousness will not be dismayed.⁷“^aListen to Me, you who know righteousness,A people in whose ^bheart is My law;Do not fear the ^creproach of man,Nor be dismayed at their revilings.⁸“For the ^amoth will eat them like a garment,And the ^bgrub will eat them like wool.But My ^crighteousness will be forever,And My salvation to all generations.”⁹^aAwake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Yahweh;Awake as in the ^bdays of old, the generations of long ago.^cWas it not You who chopped Rahab in pieces,Who pierced the ^ddragon?¹⁰Was it not You who ^adried up the sea,The waters of the great deep,Who made the depths of the sea a pathwayFor the ^bredeemed to cross over?¹¹So the ^aransomed of Yahweh will returnAnd come with joyful shouting to Zion,And ^beverlasting gladness will be on their heads.They will obtain joy and gladness,And ^csorrow and sighing will flee away.¹²“I, even I, am He who ^acomforts you.Who are you that you are afraid of ^bman who diesAnd of the son of man who is made ^clike grass,¹³That you have ^aforgotten Yahweh your Maker,Who ^bstretched out the heavensAnd laid the foundations of the earth,That you ^ctremble in dread continually all day long because of the wrath of the one who brings distress,As he makes ready to bring ruin?But where is the wrath of the ^done who brings distress?

¹⁴“The ^aone in chains will soon be set free and will not die in the pit, ^bnor will his bread be lacking. ¹⁵“For I am Yahweh your God, who ^astirs up the sea, and its waves roar—Yahweh of hosts is His name. ¹⁶“I have ^aput My words in your mouth and have ^bcovered you with the shadow of My hand, to ¹^,^cestablish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

¹⁷^aAwaken yourself! Awaken yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem,You who have ^bdrunk from the hand of Yahweh the cup of His wrath;The ¹chalice of reeling you have ²drained to the dregs.¹⁸There is ^anone to guide her among all the sons she has borne,Nor is there one to take hold of her by the hand among all the sons she has reared.¹⁹These two things have befallen you;Who will console you?The ^adevastation and destruction, famine and sword;How shall I comfort you?²⁰Your sons have fainted;They ^alie helpless at the head of every street,Like an ^bantelope in a net,Full of the wrath of Yahweh,The ^crebuke of your God.²¹Therefore, now, listen to this, you ^aafflicted,Who are ^bdrunk, but not with wine:²²Thus says your Lord, Yahweh, even your GodWho ^acontends for His people,“Behold, I have taken out of your hand the ^bcup of reeling,The ¹chalice of My wrath;You will never drink it again.²³“I will ^aset it into the hand of those who cause you grief,Who have said to ¹you, ‘^bLie down that we may walk over you.’You have even set your back down like the groundAnd like the street for those who walk over it.”

Hope for Captive Zion

52^aAwake, awake,Clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion;Clothe yourself in your ^bglorious garments,O Jerusalem, the ^choly city;For the uncircumcised and the ^duncleanWill no longer come into you.²Shake yourself ^afrom the dust, ^brise up,O captive Jerusalem;^cLoose yourself from the chains around your neck,O captive daughter of Zion.

³For thus says Yahweh, “You were ^asold for nothing, and you will be ^bredeemed ^cwithout money.” ⁴For thus says Lord Yahweh, “My people ^awent down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. ⁵“So now, what do I have here,” declares Yahweh, “since My people have been taken away for nothing?” Yahweh declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My ^aname is continually blasphemed all day long. ⁶“Therefore My people shall ^aknow My name; therefore in that day I am the one who is speaking, ‘Here I am.’”

⁷How lovely on the mountainsAre the feet of him who proclaims ^agood news,Who ¹announces ²peaceAnd proclaims good news of good things,Who ³announces salvation,And says to Zion, “Your ^bGod ⁴reigns!”⁸The voice of Your watchmen! They lift up their ^avoices;They shout joyfully together;For they will see ¹with their own eyesWhen Yahweh returns to Zion.⁹^aBreak forth, shout joyfully together,You ^bwaste places of Jerusalem;For Yahweh has comforted His people;He has ^credeemed Jerusalem.¹⁰Yahweh has bared His holy ^aarmIn the sight of all the nations,¹That ^ball the ends of the earth may seeThe salvation of our God.¹¹^aDepart, depart, go out from there,^bTouch nothing unclean;Go out of the midst of her, ^cpurify yourselves,You who carry the vessels of Yahweh.¹²But you will not go out in ^ahaste,Nor will you go as those who flee;For ^bYahweh will go before you,And ^cthe God of Israel will be your rear guard.

The Exalted Servant

¹³Behold, My ^aServant will prosper;He will be high and lifted up and ¹greatly ^bexalted.¹⁴Just as many were appalled at you, My people,So His ^aappearance was marred more than any manAnd His form more than the sons of men.¹⁵Thus He will ^asprinkle many nations,Kings will ^bshut their mouths on account of Him;For ^cwhat had not been told them they will see,And what they had not heard they will understand.

The Suffering Servant

53^aWho has believed our report?And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?²For He grew up before Him like a ^atender ¹shoot,And like a root out of parched ground;He has ^bno stately form or majestyThat we should look upon Him,Nor appearance that we should desire Him.³He was ^adespised and forsaken of men,A man of ¹sorrows and ^bacquainted with ²grief;And like one from whom men hide their faceHe was ^cdespised, and we did not ^desteem Him.⁴Surely our ¹griefs He Himself ²^,^abore,And our ³sorrows He ⁴carried;Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,⁵Smitten of ^bGod, and afflicted.⁵But He was ¹pierced through for ^aour transgressions,He was crushed for ^bour iniquities;The ^cchastening for our peace fell upon Him,And by ^dHis ²wounds we are healed.⁶All of us like sheep have gone astray,Each of us has turned to his own way;But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us allTo ¹fall on Him.⁷He was oppressed and He was afflicted,Yet He did not ^aopen His mouth;^bLike a lamb that is led to slaughter,And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,So He did not open His mouth.⁸By oppression and judgment He was taken away;And as for His generation, who consideredThat He was cut off out of the land of ¹the living,^aThat for the transgression of my people, striking was due to Him?⁹So His grave was assigned with wicked men,Yet He was with a ^arich man in His death,^bBecause He had ^cdone no violence,Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.¹⁰But ¹Yahweh was pleasedTo ^acrush Him, ²^,^bputting Him to grief;If You would place His soul as a guilt ^coffering,He will see ^dHis seed,He will prolong His days,And the ³good ^epleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand.¹¹As a result of the ¹anguish of His soul,He will ^asee ²it and be satisfied;By His ^bknowledge the Righteous One,My Servant, will ³justify the many,As He will ^cbear their iniquities.¹²Therefore, I will divide for Him a ^aportion with the many,And He will divide the spoil with the strong;Because He poured out ^bHis soul to death,And was ^cnumbered with the transgressors;Yet He Himself ¹^,^dbore the sin of many,And interceded for the transgressors.

The Inheritance of the Slaves of Yahweh

54“^aShout for joy, O barren woman, who has not given birth;Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not been in ¹labor;For ^bmore numerous are the sons of the ^cdesolate oneThan the sons of the married woman,” says Yahweh.²“^aEnlarge the place of your tent;¹Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not hold back;Lengthen your ^bcordsAnd strengthen your ^cpegs.³“For you will ^aspread abroad to the right and to the left.And your seed will ^bpossess nationsAnd will ^cresettle the desolate cities.⁴“Do not be afraid, for you will ^anot be put to shame;And do not feel dishonored, for you will not be humiliated;But you will forget the ^bshame of your virginity,And the ^creproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.⁵“For your ^ahusband is your Maker,Whose name is Yahweh of hosts;And your ^bRedeemer is the Holy One of Israel,Who is called the ^cGod of all the earth.⁶“For Yahweh has called you,Like a wife ^aforsaken and grieved in spirit,Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,”Says your God.⁷“¹For a ^abrief moment I forsook you,But with great compassion I will ^bgather you.⁸“In ¹a ^aflood of furyI hid My face from you for a moment,But with everlasting ^blovingkindness I will ^chave compassion on you,”Says Yahweh your ^dRedeemer.⁹“For ¹this is like the days of Noah to Me,When I swore that the waters of NoahWould ^anot ²overflow the earth again;So I have sworn that I will ^bnot be furious with youNor will I rebuke you.¹⁰“For the ^amountains may be removed and the hills may shake,But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you,And My ^bcovenant of peace will not be shaken,”Says ^cYahweh who has compassion on you.¹¹“O ^aafflicted one, storm-tossed, and ^bnot comforted,Behold, I will lay your stones in antimony,And your foundations I will ^cset in ¹^,^dsapphires.¹²“Moreover, I will make your battlements of ¹rubies,And your gates of ²crystal,And your entire ³wall of ⁴precious stones.¹³“^aAll your sons will be ¹taught of Yahweh;And the peace of your sons will be ^bgreat.¹⁴“In ^arighteousness you will be established;You will be far from ^boppression, for you will ^cnot fear,And from ^dterror, for it will not come near you.¹⁵“If anyone fiercely attacks you it will not be from Me.^aWhoever attacks you will fall because of you.¹⁶“Behold, I Myself have created the craftsman who blows the fire of coalsAnd brings out a weapon for its work;And I have created the bringer of ruin to wreak destruction.¹⁷“^aNo weapon that is formed against you will succeed;And ^bevery tongue that ¹accuses you in judgment you will condemn.This is the inheritance of the ²slaves of Yahweh,And their ^crighteousness is from Me,” declares Yahweh.

Seek Yahweh While He May Be Found

55“Ho! Every one who ^athirsts, come to the waters;And you who have ^bno ¹money come, buy and eat.Come, buy ^cwine and milk^dWithout money and without cost.²“Why do you ¹spend money for what is ^anot bread,And your wages for what does not satisfy?Listen carefully to Me, and ^beat what is good,And ^cdelight your soul in richness.³“^aIncline your ear and come to Me.Listen, that your soul may ^blive;And I will cut ^can everlasting covenant with you,According to the ^dfaithful lovingkindnesses of David.⁴“Behold, I have given ^ahim as a witness to the peoples,A ^bruler and commander for the peoples.⁵“Behold, you will call a ^anation you do not know,And a nation which knows you not will ^brun to you,Because of Yahweh your God, even the Holy One of Israel;For He has ^cadorned you with beautiful glory.”⁶^aSeek Yahweh while He may be found;^bCall upon Him while He is near.⁷^aLet the wicked forsake his wayAnd the unrighteous man his ^bthoughts;And let him ^creturn to Yahweh,And He will have ^dcompassion on him,And to our God,For He will ^eabundantly pardon.⁸“For My thoughts are not ^ayour thoughts,Nor are ^byour ways My ways,” declares Yahweh.⁹“For ^aas the heavens are higher than the earth,So are My ways higher than your waysAnd My thoughts than your thoughts.¹⁰“For as the ^arain and the snow come down from heaven,And do not return there without watering the earthAnd making it bear and sprout,And giving ^bseed to the sower and bread to the eater,¹¹So will My ^aword be which goes forth from My mouth;It will ^bnot return to Me empty,Without ^caccomplishing what pleases Me,And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.¹²“For you will go out with ^agladnessAnd be led forth with ^bpeace;The ^cmountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,And all the ^dtrees of the field will clap their hands.¹³“Instead of the ^athorn bush the ^bcypress will come up,And instead of the ^cnettle the myrtle will come up,And ¹it will be to Yahweh for His ²^,^drenown,For an everlasting ^esign which ^fwill not be cut off.”

Salvation for the Foreigner

56Thus says Yahweh, “^aKeep justice and do righteousness,For My ^bsalvation is about to comeAnd My righteousness to be revealed.

²“How ^ablessed is the man who does this,And the son of man who ^btakes hold of it,Who ^ckeeps from profaning the sabbath,And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”³Let not the ^aforeigner who has joined himself to Yahweh say,“Yahweh will surely separate me from His people.”Nor let the ^beunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”⁴For thus says Yahweh,“To the eunuchs who ^akeep My sabbaths,And choose what pleases Me,And ^bhold fast My covenant,⁵To them I will give in My ^ahouse and within My ^bwalls a ¹memorial,And a name better than that of sons and daughters;I will give ²them an everlasting ^cname which ^dwill not be cut off.⁶“Also the ^aforeigners who join themselves to Yahweh,To minister to Him, and to love the name of Yahweh,To be His ¹slaves, every one who ^bkeeps from profaning the sabbathAnd takes hold of My covenant,⁷Even ^athose I will bring to My ^bholy mountainAnd ^cmake them glad in My house of prayer.Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on ^dMy altar;For ^eMy house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”⁸Lord Yahweh, who ^agathers the banished of Israel, declares,“Yet ^bothers I will gather to ¹them, to those already gathered.”⁹All you ^abeasts of the field,All you beasts in the forest,Come to eat.¹⁰His ^awatchmen are ^bblind;All of them know nothing.All of them are mute dogs unable to bark,¹Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber;¹¹And the dogs have a ^astrong ¹appetite; they do not know satisfaction.And they are shepherds who ^bdo not know understanding;They have all ^cturned to their own way,Each one to his greedy gain, to the last one.¹²“Come,” they say, “let ¹us take ^awine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink;And ^btomorrow will be like today—²beyond exceedingly great.”

Evil Leaders Rebuked

57The righteous man perishes, and no man ^aputs it upon his heart;And men of lovingkindness are gathered away, while no one understands.For the righteous man is gathered away from ^bevil,²He enters into peace;They rest in their ¹beds,Each one who ^awalked in his upright way.³“But draw near, you sons of a ^asoothsayer,^bSeed of an adulterer and ¹a ^cprostitute.⁴“Against whom do you jest?Against whom do you open wide your mouthAnd stick out your tongue?Are you not children of ^atransgression,Seed of lying,⁵Who inflame yourselves among the ¹^,^aoaks,^bUnder every green tree,Who ^cslaughter the children in the ²ravines,Under the clefts of the cliffs?⁶“Among the ¹^,^asmooth stones of the ²ravineIs your portion, ³they are your lot;Even to them you have ^bpoured out a drink offering;You have made a grain offering.Shall I ⁴^,^crelent concerning these things?⁷“Upon a mountain ^alofty and lifted upYou have ^bmade your bed.You also went up there to offer sacrifice.⁸“Behind the door and the doorpostYou have set up your memorial;Indeed, far removed from Me, you have ^auncovered yourself,And have gone up and made your bed wide,And you have cut a covenant for yourself with them;You have loved their ¹bed;You have looked on their ²manhood.⁹“You have journeyed to the king with oilAnd increased your perfumes;You have ^asent your envoys a great distanceAnd made them go down to Sheol.¹⁰“You were tired out by the length of your road,Yet you did not say, ‘^aIt is hopeless.’You found ¹renewed strength;Therefore you did not ²faint.¹¹“Of ^awhom were you anxious and fearfulWhen you lied and did ^bnot remember Me,Nor even ^cput Me upon your heart?Was I not silent even for a long timeSo you do not fear Me?¹²“I will ^adeclare your righteousness and your ^bdeeds,But they will not profit you.¹³“When you cry out, ^alet your collection of idols deliver you.But the wind will lift all of them up,And a breath will take them away.But he who ^btakes refuge in Me will ^cinherit the landAnd will ^dpossess My holy mountain.”

Yahweh Revives the Spirit of the Lowly

¹⁴And it will be said,“^aBuild up, build up, prepare the way,¹Remove every stumbling block out of the way of My people.”¹⁵For thus says the One ^ahigh and lifted upWho ^bdwells forever, whose name is Holy,“I ^cdwell on a high and holy place,And also with the ^dcrushed and lowly of spiritIn order to ^erevive the spirit of the lowlyAnd to revive the heart of the crushed.¹⁶“For I will ^anot contend forever,^bNor will I always be angry;For the spirit would grow faint before Me,And the ^cbreath of those whom I have made.¹⁷“Because of the iniquity of his ^agreedy gain I was angry and struck him;I hid My face and was angry,And he went on ^bturning away, in the way of his heart.¹⁸“I have seen his ways, but I will ^aheal him;I will ^blead him and ^cpay him and his mourners in full with comfort,¹⁹Creating the ¹^,^apraise of the lips.^bPeace, peace to him who is ^cfar and to him who is near,”Says Yahweh, “and I will heal him.”²⁰But the ^awicked are like the tossing sea,For it cannot be quiet,And its waters toss up refuse and mud.²¹“^aThere is no peace,” says ^bmy God, “for the wicked.”

Fasting as Yahweh Chooses

58“^aCall out from your throat, do not hold back;Raise your voice like a trumpet,And declare to My people their ^btransgressionAnd to the house of Jacob their sins.²“Yet they ^aseek Me day by day and find pleasure in knowing My ways,As a nation that has done ^brighteousnessAnd ^chas not forsaken the judgment of their God.They ask Me for righteous judgments;They find pleasure in ^dthe nearness of God.³‘Why have we ^afasted and You do not see?Why have we afflicted our souls and You do not know?’Behold, on the ^bday of your fast you find your desire,And oppress all your workers.⁴“Behold, you fast for contention and ^aquarreling and to strike with a wicked fist.You do not fast like you do today to ^bmake your voice heard on high.⁵“Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to afflict himself?Is it for bowing ¹one’s head like a reedAnd for spreading out ^asackcloth and ashes as a bed?Will you call this a fast, even an ^bacceptable day to Yahweh?⁶“Is this not the fast which I choose,To ^aloosen the bonds of wickedness,To release the bands of ¹the yoke,And to ^blet the oppressed go freeAnd ^cbreak every ²yoke?⁷“Is it not to ^adivide your bread ¹with the hungryAnd ^bbring the afflicted homeless into the house;When you see the ^cnaked, you cover him;And not to ^dhide yourself from your own flesh?⁸“Then your ^alight will break out like the dawn,And your ^brecovery will speedily spring forth;And your ^crighteousness will go before you;The glory of ^dYahweh will be your rear guard.⁹“Then you will ^acall, and Yahweh will answer;You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’If you ^bremove the ¹yoke from your midst,The ²^,^cpointing of the finger and ^dspeaking wickedness,¹⁰And if you ¹^,^aoffer your soul to the hungryAnd satisfy the soul of the afflicted,Then your ^blight will rise in darknessAnd your thick darkness will become like midday.¹¹“And ^aYahweh will continually guide you,And ^bsatisfy your soul in scorched places,And ^cfortify your bones;And you will be like a ^dwatered garden,And like a ^espring of water whose waters do not ¹fail.¹²“Those from among you will ^arebuild the ancient waste places;You will ^braise up the foundations of past generation upon generation;And you will be called the repairer of the ^cbreach,The restorer of the paths for one to inhabit.

Keeping the Sabbath

¹³“If because of the sabbath, you ^aturn your footFrom doing your own desire on My holy day,And call the sabbath a ^bdelight, the holy day of Yahweh honorable,And honor it, by not doing your ^cown ways,By not finding your own desireAnd ^dspeaking your own word,¹⁴Then you will take ^adelight in Yahweh,And I will make you ride ^bon the heights of the earth;And I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father,For the ^cmouth of Yahweh has spoken.”

Separation from Yahweh

59Behold, ^athe hand of Yahweh is not so shortThat it cannot save;^bNor is His ear so ¹dullThat it cannot hear.²But your ^ainiquities have made a separation between you and your God,And your sins have hidden His ¹face from you so that He does ^bnot hear.³For your ^ahands are defiled with bloodAnd your fingers with iniquity;Your lips have spoken a ^blie;Your tongue mutters unrighteousness.⁴^aNo one calls in righteousness, and ^bno one seeks justice in truth.They ^ctrust in ¹confusion and speak worthlessness;They ^dconceive trouble and give birth to wickedness.⁵They break open vipers’ eggs and ^aweave the spider’s web;He who eats of their eggs dies,And from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth.⁶Their webs will not become a garment,Nor will they ^acover themselves with their works;Their ^bworks are works of wickedness,And a ^cdeed of violence is in their ¹hands.⁷^aTheir feet run to evil,And they are quick to shed innocent blood;^bTheir thoughts are thoughts of wickedness;Devastation and destruction are in their highways.⁸They do not know the ^away of peace,And there is ^bno justice in their tracks;They have made their paths crooked,^cWhoever treads on ¹them does not know peace.

Transgressing and Denying Yahweh

⁹Therefore ^ajustice is far from us,And righteousness does not overtake us;We ^bhope for light, but behold, darkness,For brightness, but we walk in thick darkness.¹⁰We ^agrope along the wall like blind men;We grope like those who have no eyes;We ^bstumble at midday as in the twilight,Among those who are vigorous we are ^clike dead men.¹¹All of us growl like bears,And ^amoan sadly like doves;We hope for ^bjustice, but there is none,For salvation, but it is far from us.¹²For our ^atransgressions are multiplied before You,And our ^bsins answer against us;For our transgressions are with us,And ¹we know our iniquities:¹³Transgressing and ^adenying Yahweh,And turning back from our God,Speaking ^boppression and revolt,Conceiving in and ^cuttering from the heart lying words.¹⁴^aJustice is turned back,And ^brighteousness stands far away;For truth has stumbled in the street,And rightness cannot enter.¹⁵So it is that truth is missing;And he who turns aside from evil ^amakes himself plunder.Then Yahweh saw,And it was evil in His eyes ^bthat there was no justice.¹⁶And He saw that there was ^ano man,And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;Then His ^bown arm brought salvation to Him,And His righteousness upheld Him.¹⁷He put on ^arighteousness like a breastplate,And a ^bhelmet of salvation on His head;And He put on ^cgarments of vengeance for clothingAnd wrapped Himself with ^dzeal as a mantle.¹⁸^aAccording to ¹what they deserve, ²so He will pay in full,Wrath to His adversaries, ³what is deserved to His enemies;To the coastlands He will ⁴pay what they deserve.¹⁹So they will fear the name of Yahweh from the ^awestAnd His glory from the ^brising of the sun,For He will ^ccome like a ¹rushing streamWhich the wind of Yahweh makes flee.²⁰“A ^aRedeemer will come to Zion,And to those who ^bturn from transgression in Jacob,” declares Yahweh.

²¹“As for Me, this is My ^acovenant with them,” says Yahweh: “My ^bSpirit which is upon you, and My ^cwords which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed’s seed,” says Yahweh, “from now and forever.”

A Glorified Zion

60“^aArise, shine, for your ^blight has come,And the ^cglory of Yahweh has risen upon you.²“For behold, ^adarkness will cover the earthAnd dense gloom the peoples;But Yahweh will rise upon you,And His ^bglory will appear upon you.³“^aNations will come to your light,And kings to the brightness of your rising.⁴“^aLift up your eyes round about and see;They all gather together; they ^bcome to you.Your sons will come from afar,And your ^cdaughters will be ¹carried on the nurses’ hip.⁵“Then you will see and be ^aradiant,And your heart will tremble and be large with joy;Because the ^babundance of the sea will be turned to you,The ^cwealth of the nations will come to you.⁶“A multitude of camels will cover you,The young camels of Midian and ^aEphah;All those from ^bSheba will come;They will bring ^cgold and frankincense,And will ^dbear good news of the praises of Yahweh.⁷“All the flocks of ^aKedar will be gathered together to you;The rams of Nebaioth will minister to you;They will go up with acceptance on My ^baltar,And I shall ¹^,^cadorn My ²glorious house with beautiful glory.⁸“^aWho are these who fly like a cloudAnd like the doves to their ¹lattices?⁹“Surely the ^acoastlands will hope in Me;And the ^bships of Tarshish will come first,To ^cbring your sons from afar,Their silver and their gold with them,For the name of Yahweh your God,And for the Holy One of Israel because He has ¹^,^dadorned you with beautiful glory.¹⁰“^aForeigners will build up your walls,And their ^bkings will minister to you;For in My ^cwrath I struck you,And in My favor I have had compassion on you.¹¹“Your ^agates will be open continually;They will not be closed day or night,So that men may ^bbring to you the wealth of the nations,With ^ctheir kings led in procession.¹²“For the ^anation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish,And the nations will surely be laid waste.¹³“The ^aglory of Lebanon will come to you,The ^bjuniper, the box tree, and the cypress together,To adorn the place of My sanctuary with beautiful glory;And I shall make the ^cplace of My feet glorious.¹⁴“The ^asons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you,And all those who spurned you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet;And they will call you the ^bCity of Yahweh,The ^cZion of the Holy One of Israel.¹⁵“Instead of being ^aforsaken and ^bhatedWith no one passing through,I will make you an everlasting ^cpride,A joy from generation to generation.¹⁶“You will also ^asuck the milk of nationsAnd suck the breast of kings;Then you will know that I, Yahweh, am your ^bSaviorAnd your ^cRedeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.¹⁷“Instead of bronze I will bring gold,And instead of iron I will bring silver,And instead of wood, bronze,And instead of stones, iron.And I will make peace your overseersAnd righteousness your taskmasters.¹⁸“^aViolence will not be heard again in your land,Nor ^bdevastation or destruction within your borders;But you will call your ^cwalls salvation, and your ^dgates praise.¹⁹“No longer will you have the ^asun for light by day,Nor for brightness will the moon give you light;But you will have ^bYahweh for an everlasting light,And your ^cGod for your ¹glory.²⁰“Your ^asun will no longer set,Nor will your moon wane;For you will have Yahweh for an everlasting light,And the days of your ^bmourning will be finished.²¹“Then all your ^apeople will be righteous;They will ^bpossess the land forever,The branch of ¹My planting,The ^cwork of My hands,That I may show forth My ^dbeautiful glory.²²“The ^asmallest one will become a ¹clan,And the miniscule one a mighty nation.I, Yahweh, will hasten it in its time.”

Exaltation of the Afflicted

61The ^aSpirit of Lord Yahweh is upon meBecause Yahweh has anointed meTo ^bbring good news to the ¹^,^cafflicted;He has sent me to ^dbind up the brokenhearted,To ^eproclaim release to captivesAnd ²freedom to prisoners,²To ^aproclaim the favorable year of YahwehAnd the ^bday of vengeance of our God,To ^ccomfort all who mourn,³To ^agrant those who mourn in Zion,Giving them a headdress instead of ashes,The ^boil of rejoicing instead of mourning,The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.So they will be called ¹^,^coaks of righteousness,The planting of Yahweh, that He may show forth His beautiful glory.⁴Then they will ^arebuild the ancient waste places;They will raise up the former desolations;And they will make new the ruined cities,The desolations from generation to generation.⁵^aStrangers will stand and pasture your flocks,And ¹foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.⁶But you will be called the ^apriests of Yahweh;You will be spoken of as ^bministers of our God.You will eat the ^cwealth of nations,And in their glories you will boast.⁷Instead of your ^ashame you will have a ^bdouble portion,And instead of dishonor they will shout for joy over their portion.Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land;^cEverlasting gladness will be theirs.⁸For I, Yahweh, ^alove justice,I hate robbery ¹in the burnt offering;And in truth I will give them their recompenseAnd cut an ^beverlasting covenant with them.⁹Then their seed will be known among the nations,And their offspring in the midst of the peoples.All who see them will recognize themBecause they are the ^aseed whom Yahweh has blessed.¹⁰I will ^arejoice greatly in Yahweh;My soul will rejoice in ^bmy God,For He has ^cclothed me with garments of salvation,He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,As a bridegroom decks himself with a headdress,And ^das a bride adorns herself with her jewels.¹¹For as the ^aearth brings forth its branches,And as a garden causes the things sown in it to branch out,So Lord Yahweh will ^bcause ^crighteousness and praiseTo branch out before all the nations.

Zion’s Glory and New Name

62For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet,Until her ^arighteousness goes forth like brightness,And her ^bsalvation like a torch that is burning.²The ^anations will see your righteousness,And all kings your glory;And you will be called by a new ^bnameWhich the mouth of Yahweh will designate.³You will also be a ^acrown of glory in the hand of Yahweh,And a turban of royalty in the hand of your God.⁴It will no longer be said to you, “¹^,^aForsaken,”Nor to your land will it any longer be said, “²Desolate”;But you will be called, “³My delight is in her,”And your land, “⁴^,^bMarried”;For ^cYahweh takes pleasure in you,And to Him your land will be married.⁵For as a young man marries a virgin,So your sons will marry you;And as the ¹bridegroom rejoices over the bride,So your ^aGod will rejoice over you.⁶On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed ^awatchmen;All day and all night they will never keep silent.You who ^bremind Yahweh, take no rest for yourselves;⁷And ^agive Him no rest until He establishesAnd sets ^bJerusalem as a praise in the earth.⁸^aYahweh has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm,“I will ^bnever again give your grain as food for your enemies;Nor will ¹foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.”⁹But those who ^acollect it will eat it and praise Yahweh;And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary.¹⁰Go through, ^ago through the gates,Clear the way ¹for the people;^bBuild up, build up the ^chighway,Remove the stones, raise up a ^dstandard over the peoples.¹¹Behold, Yahweh has ¹announced to the ^aend of the earth,^bSay to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your ^csalvation comes;^dBehold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.”¹²And they will call them, “^aThe holy people,The ^bredeemed of Yahweh”;And you will be called, “Sought out, a city ^cnot forsaken.”

Vengeance of Yahweh

63Who is this who comes from ^aEdom,With ^bgarments of ¹glowing colors from ^cBozrah,This One who is majestic in His clothing,²Marching in the greatness of His power?“It is I who speak in righteousness, ^dmighty to save.”²Why is Your clothing red,And Your garments like the one who ^atreads in the wine press?³“^aI have trodden the wine trough alone,And from the peoples there was no man with Me.I also ^btrod them in My angerAnd ^ctrampled them in My wrath;And ^dtheir ¹lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments,And I ²stained all My clothes.⁴“For the ^aday of vengeance was in My heart,And My year of redemption has come.⁵“I looked, and there was ^ano one to help,And I was astonished, and there was no one to uphold;So My ^bown arm brought salvation to Me,And My wrath upheld Me.⁶“I ^atrod down the peoples in My angerAnd made them ^bdrunk in My wrath,And I brought down their lifeblood to the earth.”

Remember the Lovingkindness of Yahweh

⁷I shall bring to remembrance the ^alovingkindnesses of Yahweh, the praises of Yahweh,According to all the ways that Yahweh has dealt bountifully with us,And the abundant ^bgoodness toward the house of Israel,Which He has dealt bountifully to them according to His ^ccompassionAnd according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.⁸And He said, “Surely, they are ^aMy people,Sons who will not deal falsely.”So He became their ^bSavior.⁹In all their distress ¹^,^aHe was distressed,And the ^bangel of His presence saved them;In His ^clove and in His mercy He ^dredeemed them,And He ^elifted them and carried them all the ancient days.¹⁰But they ^arebelledAnd grieved His ^bHoly Spirit;Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy;He fought against them.¹¹Then ^aHis people remembered the ancient days, of Moses.Where is ^bHe who brought them up out of the sea with the ¹shepherds of His flock?Where is He who ^cput His Holy Spirit in the midst of ²them,¹²Who caused His ^aglorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,Who ^bsplit the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name,¹³Who led them through the depths?Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not ^astumble;¹⁴As the cattle which go down into the valley,The Spirit of ^aYahweh gave ¹them rest.So You ^bled Your people,To make for Yourself a glorious name.

Prayer for Mercy and Help

¹⁵^aLook down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious ^bhabitation;Where are Your ^czeal and Your mighty deeds?The ^dtumults within You and Your compassion are restrained toward me.¹⁶For You are our ^aFather, though ^bAbraham does not know usAnd Israel does not recognize us.You, O Yahweh, are our Father,Our ^cRedeemer from everlasting is Your name.¹⁷Why, O Yahweh, do You ^acause us to stray from Your waysAnd ^bstiffen our heart from fearing You?^cReturn for the sake of Your slaves, the tribes of Your inheritance.¹⁸Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while;Our adversaries have ^atrodden it down.¹⁹We have become like those over whom You have never ruled,Like those who were not called by Your name.64¹Oh, that You would rend the heavens and ^acome down,That the mountains might ^bquake at Your presence—²¹As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—To make Your name known to Your adversaries,That the ^anations may tremble at Your presence!³When You did ^aawesome things for which we did not hope,You came down; the mountains quaked at Your presence.⁴For from ancient times ^athey have not heard or given ear,Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,Who acts in behalf of the one who ^bwaits for Him.⁵You ^ameet him who rejoices and ^bdoes righteousness,Who ^cremembers You in Your ways.Behold, ^dYou were angry; indeed we have sinned—We continued in them a long time—And shall we be saved?⁶For all of us have become like one who is ^aunclean,And all our ^brighteous deeds are like a filthy garment;And all of us ^cwither like a leaf,And our ^diniquities, like the wind, carry us away.⁷There is ^ano one who calls on Your name,Who awakens himself to take hold of You,For You have ^bhidden Your face from usAnd have ¹melted us into the hand of our iniquities.⁸But now, O Yahweh, ^aYou are our Father;We are the ^bclay, and You our potter;And all of us are the ^cwork of Your hand.⁹Do not be ^aangry beyond measure, O Yahweh,^bNor remember iniquity forever;Behold, look now, all of us are ^cYour people.¹⁰Your ^aholy cities have become a ^bwilderness;Zion has become a wilderness,Jerusalem a desolation.¹¹Our holy and glorious ^ahouse,Where our fathers praised You,Has been burned by fire;And ^ball our precious things have become a waste place.¹²Will You ^arestrain Yourself at these things, O Yahweh?Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

Judgment and Salvation

65“I permitted Myself to be sought by ^athose who did not ask for Me;I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me.I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’To a nation which ^bdid not call on My name.²“^aI have spread out My hands all day long to a ^brebellious people,Who walk in the way which is not good, ¹following their own ^cthoughts,³A people who continually ^aprovoke Me to My face,Offering sacrifices in ^bgardens and ^cburning incense on bricks,⁴Who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places,Who ^aeat swine’s flesh,And the broth of offensive meat is in their pots,⁵Who say, ‘^aKeep to yourself, do not come near me,For I am holier than you!’These are smoke in My ¹nostrils,A fire that burns all the day.⁶“Behold, it is written before Me:I will ^anot keep silent, but ^bI will repay;I will even repay into their bosom,⁷Both ¹their own ^ainiquities and the iniquities of their fathers together,” says Yahweh.“Because they have ^bburned incense on the mountainsAnd ^creproached Me on the hills,Therefore I will ^dmeasure their former work into their bosom.”

⁸Thus says Yahweh, “As the new wine is found in the cluster,And one says, ‘Do not make it a ruin, for there is ¹benefit in it,’So I will act on behalf of My slavesIn order ^anot to make ²all of them a ruin.

⁹“I will bring forth a ^aseed from Jacob,And a ^bpossessor of My mountains from Judah;Even ^cMy chosen ones shall possess it,And ^dMy slaves will dwell there.¹⁰“^aSharon will be a pasture land for flocks,And the ^bvalley of Achor a resting place for herds,For My people who ^cseek Me.¹¹“But you who ^aforsake Yahweh,Who forget My ^bholy mountain,Who set a table for ¹Fortune,And who fill cups with mixed wine for ²Destiny,¹²I will destine you for the ^asword,And all of you will bow down to the ^bslaughter,Because I called, but you ^cdid not answer;I spoke, but you did not hear.And you did what was evil in My eyesAnd chose that in which I was not pleased.”

¹³Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, My slaves will ^aeat, but you will be ^bhungry.Behold, My slaves will ^cdrink, but you will be ^dthirsty.Behold, My slaves will ^ebe glad, but you will be ^fput to shame.

¹⁴“Behold, My slaves will ^ashout joyfully with a merry heart,But you will ^bcry out with a pained heart,And you will wail with a broken spirit.¹⁵“You will leave your name for a ¹^,^acurse to My chosen ones,And Lord Yahweh will put you to death.But ²My slaves will be called by ^banother name,¹⁶Because he who ¹is blessed in the earthWill ²be blessed by the ^aGod of truth,And he who swears in the earthWill ^bswear by the God of truth;Because the former distresses are forgotten,And because they are hidden from My sight!

New Heavens and a New Earth

¹⁷“For behold, I am creating a ^anew heavens and a new earth;And the ^bformer things will not be remembered or come upon the heart.¹⁸“But be ^ajoyful and rejoice forever in what I create;For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicingAnd her people for joy.¹⁹“I will also ^arejoice in Jerusalem and be joyful in My people;And there will no longer be heard in herThe voice of ^bweeping and the voice of crying.²⁰“No longer will there be ¹in it an infant who lives but a few days,Or an old man who does ^anot fulfill his days;For the youth will die at the age of one hundred,And the ²^,^bone who does not reach the age of one hundredWill be thought accursed.²¹“They will ^abuild houses and inhabit them;They will also ^bplant vineyards and eat their fruit.²²“They will not build and ^aanother inhabit;They will not plant and another eat;For ^bas the ¹lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people,And My chosen ones will ^cwear out the work of their hands.²³“They will ^anot labor in vain,Or bear children for terror;For they are the ^bseed of those blessed by Yahweh,And their offspring with them.

²⁴“And it will be that before they call, I will ^aanswer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear. ²⁵“The ^awolf and the lamb will graze together, and the ^blion will eat straw like the ox; and ^cdust will be the serpent’s food. They will ^ddo no evil nor act corruptly in all My ^eholy mountain,” says Yahweh.

Heaven Is Yahweh’s Throne

66Thus says Yahweh, “^aHeaven is My throne, and the earth is the footstool of My feet.Where then is a ^bhouse you could build for Me?And where is a place that ¹I may rest?

²“For ^aMy hand made all these things,Thus all these things came into being,” declares Yahweh.“But to this one I will look,To him who is humble and ^bcontrite of spirit, and who ^ctrembles at My word.³“But he who slaughters an ox is the one who strikes down a man;He who sacrifices a lamb is the one who breaks a dog’s neck;He who offers a grain offering is the one who offers ^aswine’s blood;He who ^boffers a memorial offering of frankincense is the one who blesses wickedness.As they have chosen their ^cown ways,And their soul takes pleasure in their ^ddetestable things,⁴So I will ^achoose their ¹punishmentsAnd will ^bbring on them what they dread,Because I called, but ^cno one answered;I spoke, but they did not listen.And they did what was ^devil in My eyesAnd chose that in which I did not take pleasure.”⁵Hear the word of Yahweh, you who ^atremble at His word:“Your brothers who ^bhate you, who ^cexclude you for My name’s sake,Have said, ‘Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your gladness.’But ^dthey will be put to shame.⁶“A voice of rumbling from the city, a voice from the temple,The voice of Yahweh who is ^apaying recompense to His enemies.⁷“Before she was in labor pains, ^ashe gave birth;Before her pangs came, ^bshe delivered a male child.⁸“^aWho has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?Can a land be ¹brought forth through labor pains in one day?Can a nation be born all at once?As soon as Zion was in labor pains, she also gave birth to her sons.⁹“Shall I bring to the point of breaking forth and ^anot cause birth?” says Yahweh.“Or shall I who causes birth shut the womb?” says your God.

Joy in Jerusalem’s Future

¹⁰“Be ^aglad with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who ^blove her;Be exceedingly ^cjoyful with her, all you who mourn over her,¹¹That you may nurse and ^abe satisfied with her comforting breasts,That you may suck and be delighted with her ^bbountiful bosom.”¹²For thus says Yahweh, “Behold, I stretch out ^apeace to her like a river,And the ^bglory of the nations like an overflowing stream;And you will ¹be nursed; you will be ^ccarried on the ²hip and played with on the knees.¹³“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will ^acomfort you;And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.”¹⁴Then you will ^asee this, and your ^bheart will be joyful,And your ^cbones will flourish like the new grass;And the ^dhand of Yahweh will be made known to His slaves,But He will be ^eindignant toward His enemies.¹⁵For behold, Yahweh will come in ^afireAnd His ^bchariots like the whirlwind,To return His anger with wrath,And His rebuke with flames of fire.¹⁶For Yahweh will execute judgment by ^afireAnd by His ^bsword on all flesh,And those slain by Yahweh will be many.¹⁷“Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the ^agardens,¹Following one in the center,Who eat ^bswine’s flesh, detestable things, and mice,Will ^ccome to an end altogether,” declares Yahweh.

¹⁸“And I ¹know their works and their ^athoughts; ²the time is coming to ^bgather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory. ¹⁹“I will set a ^asign among them and will send those who have escaped from them to the nations: ^bTarshish, ¹Put, ^cLud, ²Meshech, ^dTubal, and ³Javan, to the distant ^ecoastlands that have neither heard My report nor seen My glory. And they will ^fdeclare My glory among the nations. ²⁰“Then they shall ^abring all your brothers from all the nations as a grain offering to Yahweh, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to My ^bholy mountain Jerusalem,” says Yahweh, “just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a ^cclean vessel to the house of Yahweh. ²¹“I will also take some of them for ^apriests and for Levites,” says Yahweh.

²²“For just as the ^anew heavens and the new earthWhich I make will endure before Me,” declares Yahweh,“So your ^bseed and your ^cname will endure.²³“And it shall be from ^anew moon to new moonAnd from sabbath to sabbath,All ¹mankind will come to ^bworship before Me,” says Yahweh.²⁴“Then they will go forth and lookOn the ^acorpses of the menWho have ¹^,^btransgressed against Me.For their ^cworm will not die^dAnd their fire will not be quenched;And they will be an object of ^econtempt to all ²mankind.”