ESV: Straight through the Bible

Jeremiah 14–17 Jeremiah 14–17 (Listen) Famine, Sword, and Pestilence 14 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: 2   “Judah mourns,    and her gates languish;  her people lament on the ground,    and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.3   Her nobles send their servants for water;    they come to the cisterns;  they find no water;    they return with their vessels empty;  they are ashamed and confounded    and cover their heads.4   Because of the ground that is dismayed,    since there is no rain on the land,  the farmers are ashamed;    they cover their heads.5   Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn    because there is no grass.6   The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;    they pant for air like jackals;  their eyes fail    because there is no vegetation. 7   “Though our iniquities testify against us,    act, O LORD, for your name's sake;  for our backslidings are many;    we have sinned against you.8   O you hope of Israel,    its savior in time of trouble,  why should you be like a stranger in the land,    like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?9   Why should you be like a man confused,    like a mighty warrior who cannot save?  Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us,    and we are called by your name;    do not leave us.” 10   Thus says the LORD concerning this people:  “They have loved to wander thus;    they have not restrained their feet;  therefore the LORD does not accept them;    now he will remember their iniquity    and punish their sins.” 11 The LORD said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12 Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.” Lying Prophets 13 Then I said: “Ah, Lord GOD, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.'” 14 And the LORD said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. 15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land': By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. 16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their evil upon them. 17   “You shall say to them this word:  ‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day,    and let them not cease,  for the virgin daughter of my people is shattered with a great wound,    with a very grievous blow.18   If I go out into the field,    behold, those pierced by the sword!  And if I enter the city,    behold, the diseases of famine!  For both prophet and priest ply their trade through the land    and have no knowledge.'” 19   Have you utterly rejected Judah?    Does your soul loathe Zion?  Why have you struck us down    so that there is no healing for us?  We looked for peace, but no good came;    for a time of healing, but behold, terror.20   We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD,    and the iniquity of our fathers,    for we have sinned against you.21   Do not spurn us, for your name's sake;    do not dishonor your glorious throne;    remember and do not break your covenant with us.22   Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain?    Or can the heavens give showers?  Are you not he, O LORD our God?    We set our hope on you,    for you do all these things. The Lord Will Not Relent 15 Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! 2 And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?' you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD:   “‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,    and those who are for the sword, to the sword;  those who are for famine, to famine,    and those who are for captivity, to captivity.' 3 I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem. 5   “Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,    or who will grieve for you?  Who will turn aside    to ask about your welfare?6   You have rejected me, declares the LORD;    you keep going backward,  so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—    I am weary of relenting.7   I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork    in the gates of the land;  I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;    they did not turn from their ways.8   I have made their widows more in number    than the sand of the seas;  I have brought against the mothers of young men    a destroyer at noonday;  I have made anguish and terror    fall upon them suddenly.9   She who bore seven has grown feeble;    she has fainted away;  her sun went down while it was yet day;    she has been shamed and disgraced.  And the rest of them I will give to the sword    before their enemies,      declares the LORD.” Jeremiah's Complaint 10 Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. 11 The LORD said, “Have I not1 set you free for their good? Have I not pleaded for you before the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress? 12 Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze? 13 “Your wealth and your treasures I will give as spoil, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. 14 I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.” 15   O LORD, you know;    remember me and visit me,    and take vengeance for me on my persecutors.  In your forbearance take me not away;    know that for your sake I bear reproach.16   Your words were found, and I ate them,    and your words became to me a joy    and the delight of my heart,  for I am called by your name,    O LORD, God of hosts.17   I did not sit in the company of revelers,    nor did I rejoice;  I sat alone, because your hand was upon me,    for you had filled me with indignation.18   Why is my pain unceasing,    my wound incurable,    refusing to be healed?  Will you be to me like a deceitful brook,    like waters that fail? 19   Therefore thus says the LORD:  “If you return, I will restore you,    and you shall stand before me.  If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,    you shall be as my mouth.  They shall turn to you,    but you shall not turn to them.20   And I will make you to this people    a fortified wall of bronze;  they will fight against you,    but they shall not prevail over you,  for I am with you    to save you and deliver you,      declares the LORD.21   I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,    and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.” Famine, Sword, and Death 16 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: 4 They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. 5 “For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the LORD. 6 Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them. 7 No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. 8 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. 9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. 10 “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' 11 then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12 and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.' The Lord Will Restore Israel 14 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' 15 but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. 16 “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. 18 But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.” 19   O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,    my refuge in the day of trouble,  to you shall the nations come    from the ends of the earth and say:  “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,    worthless things in which there is no profit.20   Can man make for himself gods?    Such are not gods!” 21 “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.” The Sin of Judah 17 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, 2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, 3 on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. 4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.” 5   Thus says the LORD:  “Cursed is the man who trusts in man    and makes flesh his strength,2    whose heart turns away from the LORD.6   He is like a shrub in the desert,    and shall not see any good come.  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,    in an uninhabited salt land. 7   “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,    whose trust is the LORD.8   He is like a tree planted by water,    that sends out its roots by the stream,  and does not fear when heat comes,    for its leaves remain green,  and is not anxious in the year of drought,    for it does not cease to bear fruit.” 9   The heart is deceitful above all things,    and desperately sick;    who can understand it?10   “I the LORD search the heart    and test the mind,3  to give every man according to his ways,    according to the fruit of his deeds.” 11   Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,    so is he who gets riches but not by justice;  in the midst of his days they will leave him,    and at his end he will be a fool. 12   A glorious throne set on high from the beginning    is the place of our sanctuary.13   O LORD, the hope of Israel,    all who forsake you shall be put to shame;  those who turn away from you4 shall be written in the earth,    for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water. Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance 14   Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;    save me, and I shall be saved,    for you are my praise.15   Behold, they say to me,    “Where is the word of the LORD?    Let it come!”16   I have not run away from being your shepherd,    nor have I desired the day of sickness.  You know what came out of my lips;    it was before your face.17   Be not a terror to me;    you are my refuge in the day of disaster.18   Let those be put to shame who persecute me,    but let me not be put to shame;  let them be dismayed,    but let me not be dismayed;  bring upon them the day of disaster;    destroy them with double destruction! Keep the Sabbath Holy 19 Thus said the LORD to me: “Go and stand in the People's Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction. 24 “‘But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25 then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. 26 And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD. 27 But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.'” Footnotes [1] 15:11 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [2] 17:5 Hebrew arm [3] 17:10 Hebrew kidneys [4] 17:13 Hebrew me (ESV)

Jeremiah 10–13 Jeremiah 10–13 (Listen) Idols and the Living God 10 Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the LORD:   “Learn not the way of the nations,    nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens    because the nations are dismayed at them,3   for the customs of the peoples are vanity.1  A tree from the forest is cut down    and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.4   They decorate it with silver and gold;    they fasten it with hammer and nails    so that it cannot move.5   Their idols2 are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,    and they cannot speak;  they have to be carried,    for they cannot walk.  Do not be afraid of them,    for they cannot do evil,    neither is it in them to do good.” 6   There is none like you, O LORD;    you are great, and your name is great in might.7   Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?    For this is your due;  for among all the wise ones of the nations    and in all their kingdoms    there is none like you.8   They are both stupid and foolish;    the instruction of idols is but wood!9   Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,    and gold from Uphaz.  They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;    their clothing is violet and purple;    they are all the work of skilled men.10   But the LORD is the true God;    he is the living God and the everlasting King.  At his wrath the earth quakes,    and the nations cannot endure his indignation. 11 Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”3 12   It is he who made the earth by his power,    who established the world by his wisdom,    and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.13   When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,    and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.  He makes lightning for the rain,    and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.14   Every man is stupid and without knowledge;    every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,  for his images are false,    and there is no breath in them.15   They are worthless, a work of delusion;    at the time of their punishment they shall perish.16   Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob,    for he is the one who formed all things,  and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;    the LORD of hosts is his name. 17   Gather up your bundle from the ground,    O you who dwell under siege!18   For thus says the LORD:  “Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land    at this time,  and I will bring distress on them,    that they may feel it.” 19   Woe is me because of my hurt!    My wound is grievous.  But I said, “Truly this is an affliction,    and I must bear it.”20   My tent is destroyed,    and all my cords are broken;  my children have gone from me,    and they are not;  there is no one to spread my tent again    and to set up my curtains.21   For the shepherds are stupid    and do not inquire of the LORD;  therefore they have not prospered,    and all their flock is scattered. 22   A voice, a rumor! Behold, it comes!—    a great commotion out of the north country  to make the cities of Judah a desolation,    a lair of jackals. 23   I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself,    that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.24   Correct me, O LORD, but in justice;    not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. 25   Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not,    and on the peoples that call not on your name,  for they have devoured Jacob;    they have devoured him and consumed him,    and have laid waste his habitation. The Broken Covenant 11 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 3 You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant 4 that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, 5 that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.” Then I answered, “So be it, LORD.” 6 And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. 7 For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. 8 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.” 9 Again the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. 11 Therefore, thus says the LORD, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them. 12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble. 13 For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal. 14 “Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. 15 What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done many vile deeds? Can even sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? 16 The LORD once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.' But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. 17 The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.” 18   The LORD made it known to me and I knew;    then you showed me their deeds.19   But I was like a gentle lamb    led to the slaughter.  I did not know it was against me    they devised schemes, saying,  “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,    let us cut him off from the land of the living,    that his name be remembered no more.”20   But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously,    who tests the heart and the mind,  let me see your vengeance upon them,    for to you have I committed my cause. 21 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, and say, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand”—22 therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, 23 and none of them shall be left. For I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.” Jeremiah's Complaint 12   Righteous are you, O LORD,    when I complain to you;    yet I would plead my case before you.  Why does the way of the wicked prosper?    Why do all who are treacherous thrive?2   You plant them, and they take root;    they grow and produce fruit;  you are near in their mouth    and far from their heart.3   But you, O LORD, know me;    you see me, and test my heart toward you.  Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,    and set them apart for the day of slaughter.4   How long will the land mourn    and the grass of every field wither?  For the evil of those who dwell in it    the beasts and the birds are swept away,    because they said, “He will not see our latter end.” The Lord Answers Jeremiah 5   “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,    how will you compete with horses?  And if in a safe land you are so trusting,    what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?6   For even your brothers and the house of your father,    even they have dealt treacherously with you;    they are in full cry after you;  do not believe them,    though they speak friendly words to you.” 7   “I have forsaken my house;    I have abandoned my heritage;  I have given the beloved of my soul    into the hands of her enemies.8   My heritage has become to me    like a lion in the forest;  she has lifted up her voice against me;    therefore I hate her.9   Is my heritage to me like a hyena's lair?    Are the birds of prey against her all around?  Go, assemble all the wild beasts;    bring them to devour.10   Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;    they have trampled down my portion;  they have made my pleasant portion    a desolate wilderness.11   They have made it a desolation;    desolate, it mourns to me.  The whole land is made desolate,    but no man lays it to heart.12   Upon all the bare heights in the desert    destroyers have come,  for the sword of the LORD devours    from one end of the land to the other;    no flesh has peace.13   They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns;    they have tired themselves out but profit nothing.  They shall be ashamed of their4 harvests    because of the fierce anger of the LORD.” 14 Thus says the LORD concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: “Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. 15 And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land. 16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the LORD lives,' even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people. 17 But if any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up and destroy it, declares the LORD.” The Ruined Loincloth 13 Thus says the LORD to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water.” 2 So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist. 3 And the word of the LORD came to me a second time, 4 “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me. 6 And after many days the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9 “Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. 11 For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen. The Jars Filled with Wine 12 “You shall speak to them this word: ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Every jar shall be filled with wine.”' And they will say to you, ‘Do we not indeed know that every jar will be filled with wine?' 13 Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land: the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 14 And I will dash them one against another, fathers and sons together, declares the LORD. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.'” Exile Threatened 15   Hear and give ear; be not proud,    for the LORD has spoken.16   Give glory to the LORD your God    before he brings darkness,  before your feet stumble    on the twilight mountains,  and while you look for light    he turns it into gloom    and makes it deep darkness.17   But if you will not listen,    my soul will weep in secret for your pride;  my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears,    because the LORD's flock has been taken captive. 18   Say to the king and the queen mother:    “Take a lowly seat,  for your beautiful crown    has come down from your head.”19   The cities of the Negeb are shut up,    with none to open them;  all Judah is taken into exile,    wholly taken into exile. 20   “Lift up your eyes and see    those who come from the north.  Where is the flock that was given you,    your beautiful flock?21   What will you say when they set as head over you    those whom you yourself have taught to be friends to you?  Will not pangs take hold of you    like those of a woman in labor?22   And if you say in your heart,    ‘Why have these things come upon me?'  it is for the greatness of your iniquity    that your skirts are lifted up    and you suffer violence.23   Can the Ethiopian change his skin    or the leopard his spots?  Then also you can do good    who are accustomed to do evil.24   I will scatter you5 like chaff    driven by the wind from the desert.25   This is your lot,    the portion I have measured out to you, declares the LORD,  because you have forgotten me    and trusted in lies.26   I myself will lift up your skirts over your face,    and your shame will be seen.27   I have seen your abominations,    your adulteries and neighings, your lewd whorings,    on the hills in the field.  Woe to you, O Jerusalem!    How long will it be before you are made clean?” Footnotes [1] 10:3 Or vapor, or mist [2] 10:5 Hebrew They [3] 10:11 This verse is in Aramaic [4] 12:13 Hebrew your [5] 13:24 Hebrew them (ESV)

Jeremiah 7–9 Jeremiah 7–9 (Listen) Evil in the Land 7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD. 3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.' 5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. 8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!'—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD. 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. 16 “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 19 Is it I whom they provoke? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.” 21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.' 24 But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. 27 “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips. 29   “‘Cut off your hair and cast it away;    raise a lamentation on the bare heights,  for the LORD has rejected and forsaken    the generation of his wrath.' The Valley of Slaughter 30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. 31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. 32 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. 33 And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away. 34 And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste. 8 “At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. 2 And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 3 Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the LORD of hosts. Sin and Treachery 4   “You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD:  When men fall, do they not rise again?    If one turns away, does he not return?5   Why then has this people turned away    in perpetual backsliding?  They hold fast to deceit;    they refuse to return.6   I have paid attention and listened,    but they have not spoken rightly;  no man relents of his evil,    saying, ‘What have I done?'  Everyone turns to his own course,    like a horse plunging headlong into battle.7   Even the stork in the heavens    knows her times,  and the turtledove, swallow, and crane1    keep the time of their coming,  but my people know not    the rules2 of the LORD. 8   “How can you say, ‘We are wise,    and the law of the LORD is with us'?  But behold, the lying pen of the scribes    has made it into a lie.9   The wise men shall be put to shame;    they shall be dismayed and taken;  behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD,    so what wisdom is in them?10   Therefore I will give their wives to others    and their fields to conquerors,  because from the least to the greatest    everyone is greedy for unjust gain;  from prophet to priest,    everyone deals falsely.11   They have healed the wound of my people lightly,    saying, ‘Peace, peace,'    when there is no peace.12   Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?    No, they were not at all ashamed;    they did not know how to blush.  Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;    when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,      says the LORD.13   When I would gather them, declares the LORD,    there are no grapes on the vine,    nor figs on the fig tree;  even the leaves are withered,    and what I gave them has passed away from them.”3 14   Why do we sit still?  Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities    and perish there,  for the LORD our God has doomed us to perish    and has given us poisoned water to drink,    because we have sinned against the LORD.15   We looked for peace, but no good came;    for a time of healing, but behold, terror. 16   “The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;    at the sound of the neighing of their stallions    the whole land quakes.  They come and devour the land and all that fills it,    the city and those who dwell in it.17   For behold, I am sending among you serpents,    adders that cannot be charmed,    and they shall bite you,”      declares the LORD. Jeremiah Grieves for His People 18   My joy is gone; grief is upon me;4    my heart is sick within me.19   Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people    from the length and breadth of the land:  “Is the LORD not in Zion?    Is her King not in her?”  “Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images    and with their foreign idols?”20   “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,    and we are not saved.”21   For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;    I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. 22   Is there no balm in Gilead?    Is there no physician there?  Why then has the health of the daughter of my people    not been restored?9   5 Oh that my head were waters,    and my eyes a fountain of tears,  that I might weep day and night    for the slain of the daughter of my people!2   6 Oh that I had in the desert    a travelers' lodging place,  that I might leave my people    and go away from them!  For they are all adulterers,    a company of treacherous men.3   They bend their tongue like a bow;    falsehood and not truth has grown strong7 in the land;  for they proceed from evil to evil,    and they do not know me, declares the LORD. 4   Let everyone beware of his neighbor,    and put no trust in any brother,  for every brother is a deceiver,    and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.5   Everyone deceives his neighbor,    and no one speaks the truth;  they have taught their tongue to speak lies;    they weary themselves committing iniquity.6   Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,    they refuse to know me, declares the LORD. 7   Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts:  “Behold, I will refine them and test them,    for what else can I do, because of my people?8   Their tongue is a deadly arrow;    it speaks deceitfully;  with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor,    but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.9   Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD,    and shall I not avenge myself    on a nation such as this? 10   “I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,    and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness,  because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,    and the lowing of cattle is not heard;  both the birds of the air and the beasts    have fled and are gone.11   I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,    a lair of jackals,  and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,    without inhabitant.” 12 Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? 13 And the LORD says: “Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, 14 but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. 15 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink. 16 I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.” 17   Thus says the LORD of hosts:  “Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;    send for the skillful women to come;18   let them make haste and raise a wailing over us,    that our eyes may run down with tears    and our eyelids flow with water.19   For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:    ‘How we are ruined!    We are utterly shamed,  because we have left the land,    because they have cast down our dwellings.'” 20   Hear, O women, the word of the LORD,    and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;  teach to your daughters a lament,    and each to her neighbor a dirge.21   For death has come up into our windows;    it has entered our palaces,  cutting off the children from the streets    and the young men from the squares.22   Speak: “Thus declares the LORD,  ‘The dead bodies of men shall fall    like dung upon the open field,  like sheaves after the reaper,    and none shall gather them.'” 23 Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” 25 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh—26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.” Footnotes [1] 8:7 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [2] 8:7 Or just decrees [3] 8:13 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [4] 8:18 Compare Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [5] 9:1 Ch 8:23 in Hebrew [6] 9:2 Ch 9:1 in Hebrew [7] 9:3 Septuagint; Hebrew and not for truth they have grown strong (ESV)

Jeremiah 4–6 Jeremiah 4–6 (Listen) 4   “If you return, O Israel,      declares the LORD,    to me you should return.  If you remove your detestable things from my presence,    and do not waver,2   and if you swear, ‘As the LORD lives,'    in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,  then nations shall bless themselves in him,    and in him shall they glory.” 3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:   “Break up your fallow ground,    and sow not among thorns.4   Circumcise yourselves to the LORD;    remove the foreskin of your hearts,    O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;  lest my wrath go forth like fire,    and burn with none to quench it,    because of the evil of your deeds.” Disaster from the North 5 Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,   “Blow the trumpet through the land;    cry aloud and say,  ‘Assemble, and let us go    into the fortified cities!'6   Raise a standard toward Zion,    flee for safety, stay not,  for I bring disaster from the north,    and great destruction.7   A lion has gone up from his thicket,    a destroyer of nations has set out;    he has gone out from his place  to make your land a waste;    your cities will be ruins    without inhabitant.8   For this put on sackcloth,    lament and wail,  for the fierce anger of the LORD    has not turned back from us.” 9 “In that day, declares the LORD, courage shall fail both king and officials. The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded.” 10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It shall be well with you,' whereas the sword has reached their very life.” 11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, 12 a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them.” 13   Behold, he comes up like clouds;    his chariots like the whirlwind;  his horses are swifter than eagles—    woe to us, for we are ruined!14   O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil,    that you may be saved.  How long shall your wicked thoughts    lodge within you?15   For a voice declares from Dan    and proclaims trouble from Mount Ephraim.16   Warn the nations that he is coming;    announce to Jerusalem,  “Besiegers come from a distant land;    they shout against the cities of Judah.17   Like keepers of a field are they against her all around,    because she has rebelled against me,      declares the LORD.18   Your ways and your deeds    have brought this upon you.  This is your doom, and it is bitter;    it has reached your very heart.” Anguish over Judah's Desolation 19   My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!    Oh the walls of my heart!  My heart is beating wildly;    I cannot keep silent,  for I hear the sound of the trumpet,    the alarm of war.20   Crash follows hard on crash;    the whole land is laid waste.  Suddenly my tents are laid waste,    my curtains in a moment.21   How long must I see the standard    and hear the sound of the trumpet? 22   “For my people are foolish;    they know me not;  they are stupid children;    they have no understanding.  They are ‘wise'—in doing evil!    But how to do good they know not.” 23   I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void;    and to the heavens, and they had no light.24   I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,    and all the hills moved to and fro.25   I looked, and behold, there was no man,    and all the birds of the air had fled.26   I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert,    and all its cities were laid in ruins    before the LORD, before his fierce anger. 27 For thus says the LORD, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. 28   “For this the earth shall mourn,    and the heavens above be dark;  for I have spoken; I have purposed;    I have not relented, nor will I turn back.” 29   At the noise of horseman and archer    every city takes to flight;  they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;    all the cities are forsaken,    and no man dwells in them.30   And you, O desolate one,  what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,    that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,    that you enlarge your eyes with paint?  In vain you beautify yourself.    Your lovers despise you;    they seek your life.31   For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor,    anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,  the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,    stretching out her hands,  “Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.” Jerusalem Refused to Repent 5   Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,    look and take note!  Search her squares to see    if you can find a man,  one who does justice    and seeks truth,  that I may pardon her.2   Though they say, “As the LORD lives,”    yet they swear falsely.3   O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?  You have struck them down,    but they felt no anguish;  you have consumed them,    but they refused to take correction.  They have made their faces harder than rock;    they have refused to repent. 4   Then I said, “These are only the poor;    they have no sense;  for they do not know the way of the LORD,    the justice of their God.5   I will go to the great    and will speak to them,  for they know the way of the LORD,    the justice of their God.”  But they all alike had broken the yoke;    they had burst the bonds. 6   Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down;    a wolf from the desert shall devastate them.  A leopard is watching their cities;    everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,  because their transgressions are many,    their apostasies are great. 7   “How can I pardon you?    Your children have forsaken me    and have sworn by those who are no gods.  When I fed them to the full,    they committed adultery    and trooped to the houses of whores.8   They were well-fed, lusty stallions,    each neighing for his neighbor's wife.9   Shall I not punish them for these things?      declares the LORD;    and shall I not avenge myself    on a nation such as this? 10   “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,    but make not a full end;  strip away her branches,    for they are not the LORD's.11   For the house of Israel and the house of Judah    have been utterly treacherous to me,      declares the LORD.12   They have spoken falsely of the LORD    and have said, ‘He will do nothing;  no disaster will come upon us,    nor shall we see sword or famine.13   The prophets will become wind;    the word is not in them.  Thus shall it be done to them!'” The Lord Proclaims Judgment 14   Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts:  “Because you have spoken this word,  behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,    and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.15   Behold, I am bringing against you    a nation from afar, O house of Israel,      declares the LORD.  It is an enduring nation;    it is an ancient nation,  a nation whose language you do not know,    nor can you understand what they say.16   Their quiver is like an open tomb;    they are all mighty warriors.17   They shall eat up your harvest and your food;    they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;  they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;    they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;  your fortified cities in which you trust    they shall beat down with the sword.” 18 “But even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.'” 20   Declare this in the house of Jacob;    proclaim it in Judah:21   “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,    who have eyes, but see not,    who have ears, but hear not.22   Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.    Do you not tremble before me?  I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;  though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;    though they roar, they cannot pass over it.23   But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;    they have turned aside and gone away.24   They do not say in their hearts,    ‘Let us fear the LORD our God,  who gives the rain in its season,    the autumn rain and the spring rain,  and keeps for us    the weeks appointed for the harvest.'25   Your iniquities have turned these away,    and your sins have kept good from you.26   For wicked men are found among my people;    they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.1  They set a trap;    they catch men.27   Like a cage full of birds,    their houses are full of deceit;  therefore they have become great and rich;28     they have grown fat and sleek.  They know no bounds in deeds of evil;    they judge not with justice  the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.29   Shall I not punish them for these things?      declares the LORD,    and shall I not avenge myself    on a nation such as this?” 30   An appalling and horrible thing    has happened in the land:31   the prophets prophesy falsely,    and the priests rule at their direction;  my people love to have it so,    but what will you do when the end comes? Impending Disaster for Jerusalem 6   Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin,    from the midst of Jerusalem!  Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,    and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem,  for disaster looms out of the north,    and great destruction.2   The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy,    the daughter of Zion.23   Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her;    they shall pitch their tents around her;    they shall pasture, each in his place.4   “Prepare war against her;    arise, and let us attack at noon!  Woe to us, for the day declines,    for the shadows of evening lengthen!5   Arise, and let us attack by night    and destroy her palaces!” 6   For thus says the LORD of hosts:  “Cut down her trees;    cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.  This is the city that must be punished;    there is nothing but oppression within her.7   As a well keeps its water fresh,    so she keeps fresh her evil;  violence and destruction are heard within her;    sickness and wounds are ever before me.8   Be warned, O Jerusalem,    lest I turn from you in disgust,  lest I make you a desolation,    an uninhabited land.” 9   Thus says the LORD of hosts:  “They shall glean thoroughly as a vine    the remnant of Israel;  like a grape gatherer pass your hand again    over its branches.”10   To whom shall I speak and give warning,    that they may hear?  Behold, their ears are uncircumcised,    they cannot listen;  behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn;    they take no pleasure in it.11   Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD;    I am weary of holding it in.  “Pour it out upon the children in the street,    and upon the gatherings of young men, also;  both husband and wife shall be taken,    the elderly and the very aged.12 

Jeremiah 1–3 Jeremiah 1–3 (Listen) 1 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. The Call of Jeremiah 4 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5   “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,  and before you were born I consecrated you;  I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the LORD said to me,   “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth';  for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,  and whatever I command you, you shall speak.8   Do not be afraid of them,  for I am with you to deliver you,      declares the LORD.” 9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,   “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.10   See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,  to pluck up and to break down,  to destroy and to overthrow,  to build and to plant.” 11 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond1 branch.” 12 Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.” 13 The word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.” 14 Then the LORD said to me, “Out of the north disaster2 shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15 For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the LORD, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah. 16 And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands. 17 But you, dress yourself for work;3 arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. 18 And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you.” Israel Forsakes the Lord 2 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD,   “I remember the devotion of your youth,    your love as a bride,  how you followed me in the wilderness,    in a land not sown.3   Israel was holy to the LORD,    the firstfruits of his harvest.  All who ate of it incurred guilt;    disaster came upon them,      declares the LORD.” 4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the LORD:   “What wrong did your fathers find in me    that they went far from me,  and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?6   They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD    who brought us up from the land of Egypt,  who led us in the wilderness,    in a land of deserts and pits,  in a land of drought and deep darkness,    in a land that none passes through,    where no man dwells?'7   And I brought you into a plentiful land    to enjoy its fruits and its good things.  But when you came in, you defiled my land    and made my heritage an abomination.8   The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?'    Those who handle the law did not know me;  the shepherds4 transgressed against me;    the prophets prophesied by Baal    and went after things that do not profit. 9   “Therefore I still contend with you,      declares the LORD,    and with your children's children I will contend.10   For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see,    or send to Kedar and examine with care;    see if there has been such a thing.11   Has a nation changed its gods,    even though they are no gods?  But my people have changed their glory    for that which does not profit.12   Be appalled, O heavens, at this;    be shocked, be utterly desolate,      declares the LORD,13   for my people have committed two evils:  they have forsaken me,    the fountain of living waters,  and hewed out cisterns for themselves,    broken cisterns that can hold no water. 14   “Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant?    Why then has he become a prey?15   The lions have roared against him;    they have roared loudly.  They have made his land a waste;    his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant.16   Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes    have shaved5 the crown of your head.17   Have you not brought this upon yourself    by forsaking the LORD your God,    when he led you in the way?18   And now what do you gain by going to Egypt    to drink the waters of the Nile?  Or what do you gain by going to Assyria    to drink the waters of the Euphrates?619   Your evil will chastise you,    and your apostasy will reprove you.  Know and see that it is evil and bitter    for you to forsake the LORD your God;    the fear of me is not in you,      declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 20   “For long ago I broke your yoke    and burst your bonds;    but you said, ‘I will not serve.'  Yes, on every high hill    and under every green tree    you bowed down like a whore.21   Yet I planted you a choice vine,    wholly of pure seed.  How then have you turned degenerate    and become a wild vine?22   Though you wash yourself with lye    and use much soap,    the stain of your guilt is still before me,      declares the Lord GOD.23   How can you say, ‘I am not unclean,    I have not gone after the Baals'?  Look at your way in the valley;    know what you have done—  a restless young camel running here and there,24     a wild donkey used to the wilderness,  in her heat sniffing the wind!    Who can restrain her lust?  None who seek her need weary themselves;    in her month they will find her.25   Keep your feet from going unshod    and your throat from thirst.  But you said, ‘It is hopeless,    for I have loved foreigners,    and after them I will go.' 26   “As a thief is shamed when caught,    so the house of Israel shall be shamed:  they, their kings, their officials,    their priests, and their prophets,27   who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,'    and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.'  For they have turned their back to me,    and not their face.  But in the time of their trouble they say,    ‘Arise and save us!'28   But where are your gods    that you made for yourself?  Let them arise, if they can save you,    in your time of trouble;  for as many as your cities    are your gods, O Judah. 29   “Why do you contend with me?    You have all transgressed against me,      declares the LORD.30   In vain have I struck your children;    they took no correction;  your own sword devoured your prophets    like a ravening lion.31   And you, O generation, behold the word of the LORD.  Have I been a wilderness to Israel,    or a land of thick darkness?  Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,    we will come no more to you'?32   Can a virgin forget her ornaments,    or a bride her attire?  Yet my people have forgotten me    days without number. 33   “How well you direct your course    to seek love!  So that even to wicked women    you have taught your ways.34   Also on your skirts is found    the lifeblood of the guiltless poor;  you did not find them breaking in.    Yet in spite of all these things35   you say, ‘I am innocent;    surely his anger has turned from me.'  Behold, I will bring you to judgment    for saying, ‘I have not sinned.'36   How much you go about,    changing your way!  You shall be put to shame by Egypt    as you were put to shame by Assyria.37   From it too you will come away    with your hands on your head,  for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust,    and you will not prosper by them. 3   “If7 a man divorces his wife    and she goes from him  and becomes another man's wife,    will he return to her?  Would not that land be greatly polluted?  You have played the whore with many lovers;    and would you return to me?      declares the LORD.2   Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see!    Where have you not been ravished?  By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers    like an Arab in the wilderness.  You have polluted the land    with your vile whoredom.3   Therefore the showers have been withheld,    and the spring rain has not come;  yet you have the forehead of a whore;    you refuse to be ashamed.4   Have you not just now called to me,    ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—5   will he be angry forever,    will he be indignant to the end?'  Behold, you have spoken,    but you have done all the evil that you could.” Faithless Israel Called to Repentance 6 The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,' but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD.” 11 And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,   “‘Return, faithless Israel,      declares the LORD.  I will not look on you in anger,    for I am merciful,      declares the LORD;  I will not be angry forever.13   Only acknowledge your guilt,    that you rebelled against the LORD your God  and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree,    and that you have not obeyed my voice,      declares the LORD.14   Return, O faithless children,      declares the LORD;    for I am your master;  I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,    and I will bring you to Zion. 15 “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage. 19   “‘I said,    How I would set you among my sons,  and give you a pleasant land,    a heritage most beautiful of all nations.  And I thought you would call me, My Father,    and would not turn from following me.20   Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,    so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,      declares the LORD.'” 21   A voice on the bare heights is heard,    the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons  because they have perverted their way;    they have forgotten the LORD their God.22   “Return, O faithless sons;    I will heal your faithlessness.”  “Behold, we come to you,    for you are the LORD our God.23   Truly the hills are a delusion,    the orgies8 on the mountains.  Truly in the LORD our God    is the salvation of Israel. 24 “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.” Footnotes [1] 1:11 Almond sounds like the Hebrew for watching (compare verse 12) [2] 1:14 The Hebrew word can mean evil, harm, or disaster, depending on the context; so throughout Jeremiah [3] 1:17 Hebrew gird up your loins [4] 2:8 Or rulers [5] 2:16 Hebrew grazed [6] 2:18 Hebrew the River [7] 3:1 Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew Saying, “If [8] 3:23 Hebrew commotion (ESV)

Isaiah 63–66 Isaiah 63–66 (Listen) The Lord's Day of Vengeance 63   Who is this who comes from Edom,    in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,  he who is splendid in his apparel,    marching in the greatness of his strength?  “It is I, speaking in righteousness,    mighty to save.” 2   Why is your apparel red,    and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? 3   “I have trodden the winepress alone,    and from the peoples no one was with me;  I trod them in my anger    and trampled them in my wrath;  their lifeblood1 spattered on my garments,    and stained all my apparel.4   For the day of vengeance was in my heart,    and my year of redemption2 had come.5   I looked, but there was no one to help;    I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;  so my own arm brought me salvation,    and my wrath upheld me.6   I trampled down the peoples in my anger;    I made them drunk in my wrath,    and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.” The Lord's Mercy Remembered 7   I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD,    the praises of the LORD,  according to all that the LORD has granted us,    and the great goodness to the house of Israel  that he has granted them according to his compassion,    according to the abundance of his steadfast love.8   For he said, “Surely they are my people,    children who will not deal falsely.”    And he became their Savior.9   In all their affliction he was afflicted,3    and the angel of his presence saved them;  in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;    he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. 10   But they rebelled    and grieved his Holy Spirit;  therefore he turned to be their enemy,    and himself fought against them.11   Then he remembered the days of old,    of Moses and his people.4  Where is he who brought them up out of the sea    with the shepherds of his flock?  Where is he who put in the midst of them    his Holy Spirit,12   who caused his glorious arm    to go at the right hand of Moses,  who divided the waters before them    to make for himself an everlasting name,13     who led them through the depths?  Like a horse in the desert,    they did not stumble.14   Like livestock that go down into the valley,    the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest.  So you led your people,    to make for yourself a glorious name. Prayer for Mercy 15   Look down from heaven and see,    from your holy and beautiful5 habitation.  Where are your zeal and your might?    The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion    are held back from me.16   For you are our Father,    though Abraham does not know us,    and Israel does not acknowledge us;  you, O LORD, are our Father,    our Redeemer from of old is your name.17   O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways    and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?  Return for the sake of your servants,    the tribes of your heritage.18   Your holy people held possession for a little while;6    our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.19   We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,    like those who are not called by your name. 64   Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,    that the mountains might quake at your presence—2   7 as when fire kindles brushwood    and the fire causes water to boil—  to make your name known to your adversaries,    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!3   When you did awesome things that we did not look for,    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.4   From of old no one has heard    or perceived by the ear,  no eye has seen a God besides you,    who acts for those who wait for him.5   You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,    those who remember you in your ways.  Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?86   We have all become like one who is unclean,    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.  We all fade like a leaf,    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.7   There is no one who calls upon your name,    who rouses himself to take hold of you;  for you have hidden your face from us,    and have made us melt in9 the hand of our iniquities. 8   But now, O LORD, you are our Father;    we are the clay, and you are our potter;    we are all the work of your hand.9   Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,    and remember not iniquity forever.    Behold, please look, we are all your people.10   Your holy cities have become a wilderness;    Zion has become a wilderness,    Jerusalem a desolation.11   Our holy and beautiful10 house,    where our fathers praised you,  has been burned by fire,    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.12   Will you restrain yourself at these things, O LORD?    Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly? Judgment and Salvation 65   I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;    I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.  I said, “Here I am, here I am,”    to a nation that was not called by11 my name.2   I spread out my hands all the day    to a rebellious people,  who walk in a way that is not good,    following their own devices;3   a people who provoke me    to my face continually,  sacrificing in gardens    and making offerings on bricks;4   who sit in tombs,    and spend the night in secret places;  who eat pig's flesh,    and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;5   who say, “Keep to yourself,    do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”  These are a smoke in my nostrils,    a fire that burns all the day.6   Behold, it is written before me:    “I will not keep silent, but I will repay;  I will indeed repay into their lap7     both your iniquities and your fathers' iniquities together,      says the LORD;  because they made offerings on the mountains    and insulted me on the hills,  I will measure into their lap    payment for their former deeds.”12 8   Thus says the LORD:  “As the new wine is found in the cluster,    and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,    for there is a blessing in it,'  so I will do for my servants' sake,    and not destroy them all.9   I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,    and from Judah possessors of my mountains;  my chosen shall possess it,    and my servants shall dwell there.10   Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,    and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,    for my people who have sought me.11   But you who forsake the LORD,    who forget my holy mountain,  who set a table for Fortune    and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,12   I will destine you to the sword,    and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,  because, when I called, you did not answer;    when I spoke, you did not listen,  but you did what was evil in my eyes    and chose what I did not delight in.” 13   Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:  “Behold, my servants shall eat,    but you shall be hungry;  behold, my servants shall drink,    but you shall be thirsty;  behold, my servants shall rejoice,    but you shall be put to shame;14   behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,    but you shall cry out for pain of heart    and shall wail for breaking of spirit.15   You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse,    and the Lord GOD will put you to death,    but his servants he will call by another name,16   so that he who blesses himself in the land    shall bless himself by the God of truth,  and he who takes an oath in the land    shall swear by the God of truth;  because the former troubles are forgotten    and are hidden from my eyes. New Heavens and a New Earth 17   “For behold, I create new heavens    and a new earth,  and the former things shall not be remembered    or come into mind.18   But be glad and rejoice forever    in that which I create;  for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,    and her people to be a gladness.19   I will rejoice in Jerusalem    and be glad in my people;  no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping    and the cry of distress.20   No more shall there be in it    an infant who lives but a few days,    or an old man who does not fill out his days,  for the young man shall die a hundred years old,    and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.21   They shall build houses and inhabit them;    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.22   They shall not build and another inhabit;    they shall not plant and another eat;  for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,    and my chosen shall long enjoy13 the work of their hands.23   They shall not labor in vain    or bear children for calamity,14  for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD,    and their descendants with them.24   Before they call I will answer;    while they are yet speaking I will hear.25   The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,    and dust shall be the serpent's food.  They shall not hurt or destroy    in all my holy mountain,”      says the LORD. The Humble and Contrite in Spirit 66   Thus says the LORD:  “Heaven is my throne,    and the earth is my footstool;  what is the house that you would build for me,    and what is the place of my rest?2   All these things my hand has made,    and so all these things came to be,      declares the LORD.  But this is the one to whom I will look:    he who is humble and contrite in spirit    and trembles at my word. 3   “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man;    he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck;  he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig's blood;    he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol.  These have chosen their own ways,    and their soul delights in their abominations;4   I also will choose harsh treatment for them    and bring their fears upon them,  because when I called, no one answered,    when I spoke, they did not listen;  but they did what was evil in my eyes    and chose that in which I did not delight.” 5   Hear the word of the LORD,    you who tremble at his word:  “Your brothers who hate you    and cast you out for my name's sake  have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified,    that we may see your joy';    but it is they who shall be put to shame. 6   “The sound of an uproar from the city!    A sound from the temple!  The sound of the LORD,    rendering recompense to his enemies! Rejoice with Jerusalem 7   “Before she was in labor    she gave birth;  before her pain came upon her    she delivered a son.8   Who has heard such a thing?    Who has seen such things?  Shall a land be born in one day?    Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?  For as soon as Zion was in labor    she brought forth her children.9   Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?”

Isaiah 59–62 Isaiah 59–62 (Listen) Evil and Oppression 59   Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;2   but your iniquities have made a separation    between you and your God,  and your sins have hidden his face from you    so that he does not hear.3   For your hands are defiled with blood    and your fingers with iniquity;  your lips have spoken lies;    your tongue mutters wickedness.4   No one enters suit justly;    no one goes to law honestly;  they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,    they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.5   They hatch adders' eggs;    they weave the spider's web;  he who eats their eggs dies,    and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.6   Their webs will not serve as clothing;    men will not cover themselves with what they make.  Their works are works of iniquity,    and deeds of violence are in their hands.7   Their feet run to evil,    and they are swift to shed innocent blood;  their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;    desolation and destruction are in their highways.8   The way of peace they do not know,    and there is no justice in their paths;  they have made their roads crooked;    no one who treads on them knows peace. 9   Therefore justice is far from us,    and righteousness does not overtake us;  we hope for light, and behold, darkness,    and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.10   We grope for the wall like the blind;    we grope like those who have no eyes;  we stumble at noon as in the twilight,    among those in full vigor we are like dead men.11   We all growl like bears;    we moan and moan like doves;  we hope for justice, but there is none;    for salvation, but it is far from us.12   For our transgressions are multiplied before you,    and our sins testify against us;  for our transgressions are with us,    and we know our iniquities:13   transgressing, and denying the LORD,    and turning back from following our God,  speaking oppression and revolt,    conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Judgment and Redemption 14   Justice is turned back,    and righteousness stands far away;  for truth has stumbled in the public squares,    and uprightness cannot enter.15   Truth is lacking,    and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.   The LORD saw it, and it displeased him1    that there was no justice.16   He saw that there was no man,    and wondered that there was no one to intercede;  then his own arm brought him salvation,    and his righteousness upheld him.17   He put on righteousness as a breastplate,    and a helmet of salvation on his head;  he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,    and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.18   According to their deeds, so will he repay,    wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies;    to the coastlands he will render repayment.19   So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west,    and his glory from the rising of the sun;  for he will come like a rushing stream,2    which the wind of the LORD drives. 20   “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,    to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD. 21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring,” says the LORD, “from this time forth and forevermore.” The Future Glory of Israel 60   Arise, shine, for your light has come,    and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.2   For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,    and thick darkness the peoples;  but the LORD will arise upon you,    and his glory will be seen upon you.3   And nations shall come to your light,    and kings to the brightness of your rising. 4   Lift up your eyes all around, and see;    they all gather together, they come to you;  your sons shall come from afar,    and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.5   Then you shall see and be radiant;    your heart shall thrill and exult,3  because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,    the wealth of the nations shall come to you.6   A multitude of camels shall cover you,    the young camels of Midian and Ephah;    all those from Sheba shall come.  They shall bring gold and frankincense,    and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.7   All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you;    the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;  they shall come up with acceptance on my altar,    and I will beautify my beautiful house. 8   Who are these that fly like a cloud,    and like doves to their windows?9   For the coastlands shall hope for me,    the ships of Tarshish first,  to bring your children from afar,    their silver and gold with them,  for the name of the LORD your God,    and for the Holy One of Israel,    because he has made you beautiful. 10   Foreigners shall build up your walls,    and their kings shall minister to you;  for in my wrath I struck you,    but in my favor I have had mercy on you.11   Your gates shall be open continually;    day and night they shall not be shut,  that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations,    with their kings led in procession.12   For the nation and kingdom    that will not serve you shall perish;    those nations shall be utterly laid waste.13   The glory of Lebanon shall come to you,    the cypress, the plane, and the pine,  to beautify the place of my sanctuary,    and I will make the place of my feet glorious.14   The sons of those who afflicted you    shall come bending low to you,  and all who despised you    shall bow down at your feet;  they shall call you the City of the LORD,    the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. 15   Whereas you have been forsaken and hated,    with no one passing through,  I will make you majestic forever,    a joy from age to age.16   You shall suck the milk of nations;    you shall nurse at the breast of kings;  and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. 17   Instead of bronze I will bring gold,    and instead of iron I will bring silver;  instead of wood, bronze,    instead of stones, iron.  I will make your overseers peace    and your taskmasters righteousness.18   Violence shall no more be heard in your land,    devastation or destruction within your borders;  you shall call your walls Salvation,    and your gates Praise. 19   The sun shall be no more    your light by day,  nor for brightness shall the moon    give you light;4  but the LORD will be your everlasting light,    and your God will be your glory.520   Your sun shall no more go down,    nor your moon withdraw itself;  for the LORD will be your everlasting light,    and your days of mourning shall be ended.21   Your people shall all be righteous;    they shall possess the land forever,  the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,    that I might be glorified.622   The least one shall become a clan,    and the smallest one a mighty nation;  I am the LORD;    in its time I will hasten it. The Year of the Lord's Favor 61   The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,    because the LORD has anointed me  to bring good news to the poor;7    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,  to proclaim liberty to the captives,    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;82   to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,    and the day of vengeance of our God;    to comfort all who mourn;3   to grant to those who mourn in Zion—    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,  the oil of gladness instead of mourning,    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;  that they may be called oaks of righteousness,    the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.94   They shall build up the ancient ruins;    they shall raise up the former devastations;  they shall repair the ruined cities,    the devastations of many generations. 5   Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;    foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;6   but you shall be called the priests of the LORD;    they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;  you shall eat the wealth of the nations,    and in their glory you shall boast.7   Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;    instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;  therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;    they shall have everlasting joy. 8   For I the LORD love justice;    I hate robbery and wrong;10  I will faithfully give them their recompense,    and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.9   Their offspring shall be known among the nations,    and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;  all who see them shall acknowledge them,    that they are an offspring the LORD has blessed. 10   I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;    my soul shall exult in my God,  for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,  as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.11   For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,  so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise    to sprout up before all the nations. Zion's Coming Salvation 62   For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,    and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,  until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,    and her salvation as a burning torch.2   The nations shall see your righteousness,    and all the kings your glory,  and you shall be called by a new name    that the mouth of the LORD will give.3   You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,    and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.4   You shall no more be termed Forsaken,11    and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,12  but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,13    and your land Married;14  for the LORD delights in you,    and your land shall be married.5   For as a young man marries a young woman,    so shall your sons marry you,  and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,    so shall your God rejoice over you. 6   On your walls, O Jerusalem,    I have set watchmen;  all the day and all the night    they shall never be silent.  You who put the LORD in remembrance,    take no rest,7   and give him no rest    until he establishes Jerusalem    and makes it a praise in the earth.8   The LORD has sworn by his right hand    and by his mighty arm:  “I will not again give your grain    to be food for your enemies,  and foreigners shall not drink your wine    for which you have labored;9   but those who garner it shall eat it    and praise the LORD,  and those who gather it shall drink it    in the courts of my sanctuary.”15 10   Go through, go through the gates;    prepare the way for the people;  build up, build up the highway;    clear it of stones;    lift up a signal over the peoples.11   Behold, the LORD has proclaimed    to the end of the earth:  Say to the daughter of Zion,    “Behold, your salvation comes; 

Isaiah 54–58 Isaiah 54–58 (Listen) The Eternal Covenant of Peace 54   “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;    break forth into singing and cry aloud,    you who have not been in labor!  For the children of the desolate one will be more    than the children of her who is married,” says the LORD.2   “Enlarge the place of your tent,    and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;  do not hold back; lengthen your cords    and strengthen your stakes.3   For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,    and your offspring will possess the nations    and will people the desolate cities. 4   “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed;    be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;  for you will forget the shame of your youth,    and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.5   For your Maker is your husband,    the LORD of hosts is his name;  and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,    the God of the whole earth he is called.6   For the LORD has called you    like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit,  like a wife of youth when she is cast off,    says your God.7   For a brief moment I deserted you,    but with great compassion I will gather you.8   In overflowing anger for a moment    I hid my face from you,  but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,”    says the LORD, your Redeemer. 9   “This is like the days of Noah1 to me:    as I swore that the waters of Noah    should no more go over the earth,  so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you,    and will not rebuke you.10   For the mountains may depart    and the hills be removed,  but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,    and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”    says the LORD, who has compassion on you. 11   “O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,    behold, I will set your stones in antimony,    and lay your foundations with sapphires.212   I will make your pinnacles of agate,3    your gates of carbuncles,4    and all your wall of precious stones.13   All your children shall be taught by the LORD,    and great shall be the peace of your children.14   In righteousness you shall be established;    you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;    and from terror, for it shall not come near you.15   If anyone stirs up strife,    it is not from me;  whoever stirs up strife with you    shall fall because of you.16   Behold, I have created the smith    who blows the fire of coals    and produces a weapon for its purpose.  I have also created the ravager to destroy;17     no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,    and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.  This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD    and their vindication5 from me, declares the LORD.” The Compassion of the Lord 55   “Come, everyone who thirsts,    come to the waters;  and he who has no money,    come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk    without money and without price.2   Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?  Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,    and delight yourselves in rich food.3   Incline your ear, and come to me;    hear, that your soul may live;  and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,    my steadfast, sure love for David.4   Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,    a leader and commander for the peoples.5   Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,    and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,  because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,    for he has glorified you. 6   “Seek the LORD while he may be found;    call upon him while he is near;7   let the wicked forsake his way,    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;  let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.8   For my thoughts are not your thoughts,    neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.9   For as the heavens are higher than the earth,    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10   “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven    and do not return there but water the earth,  making it bring forth and sprout,    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,11   so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;    it shall not return to me empty,  but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12   “For you shall go out in joy    and be led forth in peace;  the mountains and the hills before you    shall break forth into singing,    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.13   Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;  and it shall make a name for the LORD,    an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Salvation for Foreigners 56   Thus says the LORD:  “Keep justice, and do righteousness,  for soon my salvation will come,    and my righteousness be revealed.2   Blessed is the man who does this,    and the son of man who holds it fast,  who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,    and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” 3   Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say,    “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”;  and let not the eunuch say,    “Behold, I am a dry tree.”4   For thus says the LORD:  “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,    who choose the things that please me    and hold fast my covenant,5   I will give in my house and within my walls    a monument and a name    better than sons and daughters;  I will give them an everlasting name    that shall not be cut off. 6   “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,    to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,    and to be his servants,  everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,    and holds fast my covenant—7   these I will bring to my holy mountain,    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;  their burnt offerings and their sacrifices    will be accepted on my altar;  for my house shall be called a house of prayer    for all peoples.”8   The Lord GOD,    who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,  “I will gather yet others to him    besides those already gathered.” Israel's Irresponsible Leaders 9   All you beasts of the field, come to devour—    all you beasts in the forest.10   His watchmen are blind;    they are all without knowledge;  they are all silent dogs;    they cannot bark,  dreaming, lying down,    loving to slumber.11   The dogs have a mighty appetite;    they never have enough.  But they are shepherds who have no understanding;    they have all turned to their own way,    each to his own gain, one and all.12   “Come,” they say, “let me get wine;    let us fill ourselves with strong drink;  and tomorrow will be like this day,    great beyond measure.” Israel's Futile Idolatry 57   The righteous man perishes,    and no one lays it to heart;  devout men are taken away,    while no one understands.  For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;2     he enters into peace;  they rest in their beds    who walk in their uprightness.3   But you, draw near,    sons of the sorceress,    offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman.4   Whom are you mocking?    Against whom do you open your mouth wide    and stick out your tongue?  Are you not children of transgression,    the offspring of deceit,5   you who burn with lust among the oaks,6    under every green tree,  who slaughter your children in the valleys,    under the clefts of the rocks?6   Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion;    they, they, are your lot;  to them you have poured out a drink offering,    you have brought a grain offering.    Shall I relent for these things?7   On a high and lofty mountain    you have set your bed,    and there you went up to offer sacrifice.8   Behind the door and the doorpost    you have set up your memorial;  for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed,    you have gone up to it,    you have made it wide;  and you have made a covenant for yourself with them,    you have loved their bed,    you have looked on nakedness.79   You journeyed to the king with oil    and multiplied your perfumes;  you sent your envoys far off,    and sent down even to Sheol.10   You were wearied with the length of your way,    but you did not say, “It is hopeless”;  you found new life for your strength,    and so you were not faint.8 11   Whom did you dread and fear,    so that you lied,  and did not remember me,    did not lay it to heart?  Have I not held my peace, even for a long time,    and you do not fear me?12   I will declare your righteousness and your deeds,    but they will not profit you.13   When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!    The wind will carry them all off,    a breath will take them away.  But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land    and shall inherit my holy mountain. Comfort for the Contrite 14   And it shall be said,  “Build up, build up, prepare the way,    remove every obstruction from my people's way.”15   For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,    who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:  “I dwell in the high and holy place,    and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,  to revive the spirit of the lowly,    and to revive the heart of the contrite.16   For I will not contend forever,    nor will I always be angry;  for the spirit would grow faint before me,    and the breath of life that I made.17   Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry,    I struck him; I hid my face and was angry,    but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.18   I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;    I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,19     creating the fruit of the lips.  Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD,    “and I will heal him.20   But the wicked are like the tossing sea;    for it cannot be quiet,    and its waters toss up mire and dirt.21   There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” True and False Fasting 58   “Cry aloud; do not hold back;    lift up your voice like a trumpet;  declare to my people their transgression,    to the house of Jacob their sins.2   Yet they seek me daily    and delight to know my ways,  as if they were a nation that did righteousness    and did not forsake the judgment of their God;  they ask of me righteous judgments;    they delight to draw near to God.3   ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?    Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'  Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,9    and oppress all your workers.4   Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight    and to hit with a wicked fist.  Fasting like yours this day    will not make your voice to be heard on high.5   Is such the fast that I choose,    a day for a person to humble himself?  Is it to bow down his head like a reed,    and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?  Will you call this a fast,    and a day acceptable to the LORD? 6   “Is not this the fast that I choose:    to loose the bonds of wickedness,  &

Isaiah 49–53 Isaiah 49–53 (Listen) The Servant of the Lord 49   Listen to me, O coastlands,    and give attention, you peoples from afar.  The LORD called me from the womb,    from the body of my mother he named my name.2   He made my mouth like a sharp sword;    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;  he made me a polished arrow;    in his quiver he hid me away.3   And he said to me, “You are my servant,    Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”14   But I said, “I have labored in vain;    I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;  yet surely my right is with the LORD,    and my recompense with my God.” 5   And now the LORD says,    he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,  to bring Jacob back to him;    and that Israel might be gathered to him—  for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD,    and my God has become my strength—6   he says:  “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant    to raise up the tribes of Jacob    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;  I will make you as a light for the nations,    that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” 7   Thus says the LORD,    the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,  to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,    the servant of rulers:  “Kings shall see and arise;    princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;  because of the LORD, who is faithful,    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” The Restoration of Israel 8   Thus says the LORD:  “In a time of favor I have answered you;    in a day of salvation I have helped you;  I will keep you and give you    as a covenant to the people,  to establish the land,    to apportion the desolate heritages,9   saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,'    to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.'  They shall feed along the ways;    on all bare heights shall be their pasture;10   they shall not hunger or thirst,    neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them,  for he who has pity on them will lead them,    and by springs of water will guide them.11   And I will make all my mountains a road,    and my highways shall be raised up.12   Behold, these shall come from afar,    and behold, these from the north and from the west,2    and these from the land of Syene.”3 13   Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;    break forth, O mountains, into singing!  For the LORD has comforted his people    and will have compassion on his afflicted. 14   But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;    my Lord has forgotten me.” 15   “Can a woman forget her nursing child,    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget,    yet I will not forget you.16   Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;    your walls are continually before me.17   Your builders make haste;4    your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.18   Lift up your eyes around and see;    they all gather, they come to you.  As I live, declares the LORD,    you shall put them all on as an ornament;    you shall bind them on as a bride does. 19   “Surely your waste and your desolate places    and your devastated land—  surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.20   The children of your bereavement    will yet say in your ears:  ‘The place is too narrow for me;    make room for me to dwell in.'21   Then you will say in your heart:    ‘Who has borne me these?  I was bereaved and barren,    exiled and put away,    but who has brought up these?  Behold, I was left alone;    from where have these come?'” 22   Thus says the Lord GOD:  “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,    and raise my signal to the peoples;  and they shall bring your sons in their arms,5    and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.23   Kings shall be your foster fathers,    and their queens your nursing mothers.  With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,    and lick the dust of your feet.  Then you will know that I am the LORD;    those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” 24   Can the prey be taken from the mighty,    or the captives of a tyrant6 be rescued?25   For thus says the LORD:  “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,    and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,  for I will contend with those who contend with you,    and I will save your children.26   I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,    and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.  Then all flesh shall know    that I am the LORD your Savior,    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” Israel's Sin and the Servant's Obedience 50   Thus says the LORD:  “Where is your mother's certificate of divorce,    with which I sent her away?  Or which of my creditors is it    to whom I have sold you?  Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,    and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.2   Why, when I came, was there no man;    why, when I called, was there no one to answer?  Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?    Or have I no power to deliver?  Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea,    I make the rivers a desert;  their fish stink for lack of water    and die of thirst.3   I clothe the heavens with blackness    and make sackcloth their covering.” 4   The Lord GOD has given me    the tongue of those who are taught,  that I may know how to sustain with a word    him who is weary.  Morning by morning he awakens;    he awakens my ear    to hear as those who are taught.5   The Lord GOD has opened my ear,    and I was not rebellious;    I turned not backward.6   I gave my back to those who strike,    and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;  I hid not my face    from disgrace and spitting. 7   But the Lord GOD helps me;    therefore I have not been disgraced;  therefore I have set my face like a flint,    and I know that I shall not be put to shame.8     He who vindicates me is near.  Who will contend with me?    Let us stand up together.  Who is my adversary?    Let him come near to me.9   Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;    who will declare me guilty?  Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;    the moth will eat them up. 10   Who among you fears the LORD    and obeys the voice of his servant?  Let him who walks in darkness    and has no light  trust in the name of the LORD    and rely on his God.11   Behold, all you who kindle a fire,    who equip yourselves with burning torches!  Walk by the light of your fire,    and by the torches that you have kindled!  This you have from my hand:    you shall lie down in torment. The Lord's Comfort for Zion 51   “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,    you who seek the LORD:  look to the rock from which you were hewn,    and to the quarry from which you were dug.2   Look to Abraham your father    and to Sarah who bore you;  for he was but one when I called him,    that I might bless him and multiply him.3   For the LORD comforts Zion;    he comforts all her waste places  and makes her wilderness like Eden,    her desert like the garden of the LORD;  joy and gladness will be found in her,    thanksgiving and the voice of song. 4   “Give attention to me, my people,    and give ear to me, my nation;  for a law7 will go out from me,    and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.5   My righteousness draws near,    my salvation has gone out,    and my arms will judge the peoples;  the coastlands hope for me,    and for my arm they wait.6   Lift up your eyes to the heavens,    and look at the earth beneath;  for the heavens vanish like smoke,    the earth will wear out like a garment,    and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;8  but my salvation will be forever,    and my righteousness will never be dismayed. 7   “Listen to me, you who know righteousness,    the people in whose heart is my law;  fear not the reproach of man,    nor be dismayed at their revilings.8   For the moth will eat them up like a garment,    and the worm will eat them like wool,  but my righteousness will be forever,    and my salvation to all generations.” 9   Awake, awake, put on strength,    O arm of the LORD;  awake, as in days of old,    the generations of long ago.  Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,    who pierced the dragon?10   Was it not you who dried up the sea,    the waters of the great deep,  who made the depths of the sea a way    for the redeemed to pass over?11   And the ransomed of the LORD shall return    and come to Zion with singing;  everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;    they shall obtain gladness and joy,    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 12   “I, I am he who comforts you;    who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,    of the son of man who is made like grass,13   and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker,    who stretched out the heavens    and laid the foundations of the earth,  and you fear continually all the day    because of the wrath of the oppressor,  when he sets himself to destroy?    And where is the wrath of the oppressor?14   He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;    he shall not die and go down to the pit,    neither shall his bread be lacking.15   I am the LORD your God,    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—    the LORD of hosts is his name.16   And I have put my words in your mouth    and covered you in the shadow of my hand,  establishing9 the heavens    and laying the foundations of the earth,    and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.'” 17   Wake yourself, wake yourself,    stand up, O Jerusalem,  you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD    the cup of his wrath,  who have drunk to the dregs    the bowl, the cup of staggering.18   There is none to guide her    among all the sons she has borne;  there is none to take her by the hand    among all the sons she has brought up.19   These two things have happened to you—    who will console you?—  devastation and destruction, famine and sword;    who will comfort you?1020   Your sons have fainted;    they lie at the head of every street    like an antelope in a net;  they are full of the wrath of the LORD,    the rebuke of your God. 21   Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted,    who are drunk, but not with wine:22   Thus says your Lord, the LORD,    your God who pleads the cause of his people:  “Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;  the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;23   and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,    who have said to you,    ‘Bow down, that we may pass over';  and you have made your back like the ground    and like the street for them to pass over.” The Lord's Coming Salvation 52   Awake, awake,    put on your strength, O Zion;  put on your beautiful garments,    

Isaiah 44–48 Isaiah 44–48 (Listen) Israel the Lord's Chosen 44   “But now hear, O Jacob my servant,    Israel whom I have chosen!2   Thus says the LORD who made you,    who formed you from the womb and will help you:  Fear not, O Jacob my servant,    Jeshurun whom I have chosen.3   For I will pour water on the thirsty land,    and streams on the dry ground;  I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,    and my blessing on your descendants.4   They shall spring up among the grass    like willows by flowing streams.5   This one will say, ‘I am the LORD's,'    another will call on the name of Jacob,  and another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD's,'    and name himself by the name of Israel.” Besides Me There Is No God 6   Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel    and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:  “I am the first and I am the last;    besides me there is no god.7   Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.1    Let him declare and set it before me,  since I appointed an ancient people.    Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.8   Fear not, nor be afraid;    have I not told you from of old and declared it?    And you are my witnesses!  Is there a God besides me?    There is no Rock; I know not any.” The Folly of Idolatry 9 All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. 10 Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? 11 Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together. 12 The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil.2 He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. 14 He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!” 18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” The Lord Redeems Israel 21   Remember these things, O Jacob,    and Israel, for you are my servant;  I formed you; you are my servant;    O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.22   I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud    and your sins like mist;  return to me, for I have redeemed you. 23   Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it;    shout, O depths of the earth;  break forth into singing, O mountains,    O forest, and every tree in it!  For the LORD has redeemed Jacob,    and will be glorified3 in Israel. 24   Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer,    who formed you from the womb:  “I am the LORD, who made all things,    who alone stretched out the heavens,    who spread out the earth by myself,25   who frustrates the signs of liars    and makes fools of diviners,  who turns wise men back    and makes their knowledge foolish,26   who confirms the word of his servant    and fulfills the counsel of his messengers,  who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,'    and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built,    and I will raise up their ruins';27   who says to the deep, ‘Be dry;    I will dry up your rivers';28   who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,    and he shall fulfill all my purpose';  saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,'    and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.'” Cyrus, God's Instrument 45   Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus,    whose right hand I have grasped,  to subdue nations before him    and to loose the belts of kings,  to open doors before him    that gates may not be closed:2   “I will go before you    and level the exalted places,4  I will break in pieces the doors of bronze    and cut through the bars of iron,3   I will give you the treasures of darkness    and the hoards in secret places,  that you may know that it is I, the LORD,    the God of Israel, who call you by your name.4   For the sake of my servant Jacob,    and Israel my chosen,  I call you by your name,    I name you, though you do not know me.5   I am the LORD, and there is no other,    besides me there is no God;    I equip you, though you do not know me,6   that people may know, from the rising of the sun    and from the west, that there is none besides me;    I am the LORD, and there is no other.7   I form light and create darkness;    I make well-being and create calamity;    I am the LORD, who does all these things. 8   “Shower, O heavens, from above,    and let the clouds rain down righteousness;  let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;    let the earth cause them both to sprout;    I the LORD have created it. 9   “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,    a pot among earthen pots!  Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?'    or ‘Your work has no handles'?10   Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?'    or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?'” 11   Thus says the LORD,    the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:  “Ask me of things to come;    will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?512   I made the earth    and created man on it;  it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,    and I commanded all their host.13   I have stirred him up in righteousness,    and I will make all his ways level;  he shall build my city    and set my exiles free,  not for price or reward,”    says the LORD of hosts. The Lord, the Only Savior 14   Thus says the LORD:  “The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,    and the Sabeans, men of stature,  shall come over to you and be yours;    they shall follow you;    they shall come over in chains and bow down to you.  They will plead with you, saying:    ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other,    no god besides him.'” 15   Truly, you are a God who hides himself,    O God of Israel, the Savior.16   All of them are put to shame and confounded;    the makers of idols go in confusion together.17   But Israel is saved by the LORD    with everlasting salvation;  you shall not be put to shame or confounded    to all eternity. 18   For thus says the LORD,  who created the heavens    (he is God!),  who formed the earth and made it    (he established it;  he did not create it empty,    he formed it to be inhabited!):  “I am the LORD, and there is no other.19   I did not speak in secret,    in a land of darkness;  I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,    ‘Seek me in vain.'6  I the LORD speak the truth;    I declare what is right. 20   “Assemble yourselves and come;    draw near together,    you survivors of the nations!  They have no knowledge    who carry about their wooden idols,  and keep on praying to a god    that cannot save.21   Declare and present your case;    let them take counsel together!  Who told this long ago?    Who declared it of old?  Was it not I, the LORD?    And there is no other god besides me,  a righteous God and a Savior;    there is none besides me. 22   “Turn to me and be saved,    all the ends of the earth!    For I am God, and there is no other.23   By myself I have sworn;    from my mouth has gone out in righteousness    a word that shall not return:  ‘To me every knee shall bow,    every tongue shall swear allegiance.'7 24   “Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me,    are righteousness and strength;  to him shall come and be ashamed    all who were incensed against him.25   In the LORD all the offspring of Israel    shall be justified and shall glory.” The Idols of Babylon and the One True God 46   Bel bows down; Nebo stoops;    their idols are on beasts and livestock;  these things you carry are borne    as burdens on weary beasts.2   They stoop; they bow down together;    they cannot save the burden,    but themselves go into captivity. 3   “Listen to me, O house of Jacob,    all the remnant of the house of Israel,  who have been borne by me from before your birth,    carried from the womb;4   even to your old age I am he,    and to gray hairs I will carry you.  I have made, and I will bear;    I will carry and will save. 5   “To whom will you liken me and make me equal,    and compare me, that we may be alike?6   Those who lavish gold from the purse,    and weigh out silver in the scales,  hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;    then they fall down and worship!7   They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it,    they set it in its place, and it stands there;    it cannot move from its place.  If one cries to it, it does not answer    or save him from his trouble. 8   “Remember this and stand firm,    recall it to mind, you transgressors,9     remember the former things of old;  for I am God, and there is no other;    I am God, and there is none like me,10   declaring the end from the beginning    and from ancient times things not yet done,  saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,    and I will accomplish all my purpose,'11   calling a bird of prey from the east,    the man of my counsel from a far country.  I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;    I have purposed, and I will do it. 12   “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart,    you who are far from righteousness:13   I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off,    and my salvation will not delay;  I will put salvation in Zion,    for Israel my glory.” The Humiliation of Babylon 47   Come down and sit in the dust,    O virgin daughter of Babylon;  sit on the ground without a throne,    O daughter of the Chaldeans!  For you shall no more be called    tender and delicate.2   Take the millstones and grind flour,    put off your veil,  strip off your robe, uncover your legs,    pass through the rivers.3   Your nakedness shall be uncovered,    and your disgrace shall be seen.  I will take vengeance,    and I will spare no one.4   Our Redeemer—the LORD of hosts is his name—    is the Holy One of Israel. 5   Sit in silence, and go into darkness,    O daughter of the Chaldeans;  for you shall no more be called    the mistress of kingdoms.6   I was angry with my people;    I profaned my heritage;  I gave them into your hand;    you showed them no mercy;  on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.7   You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”    so that you did not lay these things to heart    or remember their end. 8   Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,    who sit securely,  who say in your heart,    “I am, and there is no one besides me;  I shall not sit as a widow    or know the loss of children”:9   These two things shall come to you    in a moment, in one day;  the loss of children and widowhood

Isaiah 40–43 Isaiah 40–43 (Listen) Comfort for God's People 40   Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.2   Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,    and cry to her  that her warfare1 is ended,    that her iniquity is pardoned,  that she has received from the LORD's hand    double for all her sins. 3   A voice cries:2  “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.4   Every valley shall be lifted up,    and every mountain and hill be made low;  the uneven ground shall become level,    and the rough places a plain.5   And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,    and all flesh shall see it together,    for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” The Word of God Stands Forever 6   A voice says, “Cry!”    And I said,3 “What shall I cry?”  All flesh is grass,    and all its beauty4 is like the flower of the field.7   The grass withers, the flower fades    when the breath of the LORD blows on it;    surely the people are grass.8   The grass withers, the flower fades,    but the word of our God will stand forever. The Greatness of God 9   Go on up to a high mountain,    O Zion, herald of good news;5  lift up your voice with strength,    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;6    lift it up, fear not;  say to the cities of Judah,    “Behold your God!”10   Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,    and his arm rules for him;  behold, his reward is with him,    and his recompense before him.11   He will tend his flock like a shepherd;    he will gather the lambs in his arms;  he will carry them in his bosom,    and gently lead those that are with young. 12   Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand    and marked off the heavens with a span,  enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure    and weighed the mountains in scales    and the hills in a balance?13   Who has measured7 the Spirit of the LORD,    or what man shows him his counsel?14   Whom did he consult,    and who made him understand?  Who taught him the path of justice,    and taught him knowledge,    and showed him the way of understanding?15   Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,    and are accounted as the dust on the scales;    behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.16   Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,    nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.17   All the nations are as nothing before him,    they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. 18   To whom then will you liken God,    or what likeness compare with him?19   An idol! A craftsman casts it,    and a goldsmith overlays it with gold    and casts for it silver chains.20   He who is too impoverished for an offering    chooses wood8 that will not rot;  he seeks out a skillful craftsman    to set up an idol that will not move. 21   Do you not know? Do you not hear?    Has it not been told you from the beginning?    Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?22   It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;  who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,    and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;23   who brings princes to nothing,    and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. 24   Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,    scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,  when he blows on them, and they wither,    and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25   To whom then will you compare me,    that I should be like him? says the Holy One.26   Lift up your eyes on high and see:    who created these?  He who brings out their host by number,    calling them all by name;  by the greatness of his might    and because he is strong in power,    not one is missing. 27   Why do you say, O Jacob,    and speak, O Israel,  “My way is hidden from the LORD,    and my right is disregarded by my God”?28   Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God,    the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary;    his understanding is unsearchable.29   He gives power to the faint,    and to him who has no might he increases strength.30   Even youths shall faint and be weary,    and young men shall fall exhausted;31   but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;  they shall run and not be weary;    they shall walk and not faint. Fear Not, for I Am with You 41   Listen to me in silence, O coastlands;    let the peoples renew their strength;  let them approach, then let them speak;    let us together draw near for judgment. 2   Who stirred up one from the east    whom victory meets at every step?9  He gives up nations before him,    so that he tramples kings underfoot;  he makes them like dust with his sword,    like driven stubble with his bow.3   He pursues them and passes on safely,    by paths his feet have not trod.4   Who has performed and done this,    calling the generations from the beginning?  I, the LORD, the first,    and with the last; I am he. 5   The coastlands have seen and are afraid;    the ends of the earth tremble;    they have drawn near and come.6   Everyone helps his neighbor    and says to his brother, “Be strong!”7   The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith,    and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,  saying of the soldering, “It is good”;    and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved. 8   But you, Israel, my servant,    Jacob, whom I have chosen,    the offspring of Abraham, my friend;9   you whom I took from the ends of the earth,    and called from its farthest corners,  saying to you, “You are my servant,    I have chosen you and not cast you off”;10   fear not, for I am with you;    be not dismayed, for I am your God;  I will strengthen you, I will help you,    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 11   Behold, all who are incensed against you    shall be put to shame and confounded;  those who strive against you    shall be as nothing and shall perish.12   You shall seek those who contend with you,    but you shall not find them;  those who war against you    shall be as nothing at all.13   For I, the LORD your God,    hold your right hand;  it is I who say to you, “Fear not,    I am the one who helps you.” 14   Fear not, you worm Jacob,    you men of Israel!  I am the one who helps you, declares the LORD;    your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.15   Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge,    new, sharp, and having teeth;  you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,    and you shall make the hills like chaff;16   you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away,    and the tempest shall scatter them.  And you shall rejoice in the LORD;    in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory. 17   When the poor and needy seek water,    and there is none,    and their tongue is parched with thirst,  I the LORD will answer them;    I the God of Israel will not forsake them.18   I will open rivers on the bare heights,    and fountains in the midst of the valleys.  I will make the wilderness a pool of water,    and the dry land springs of water.19   I will put in the wilderness the cedar,    the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.  I will set in the desert the cypress,    the plane and the pine together,20   that they may see and know,    may consider and understand together,  that the hand of the LORD has done this,    the Holy One of Israel has created it. The Futility of Idols 21   Set forth your case, says the LORD;    bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.22   Let them bring them, and tell us    what is to happen.  Tell us the former things, what they are,    that we may consider them,  that we may know their outcome;    or declare to us the things to come.23   Tell us what is to come hereafter,    that we may know that you are gods;  do good, or do harm,    that we may be dismayed and terrified.1024   Behold, you are nothing,    and your work is less than nothing;    an abomination is he who chooses you. 25   I stirred up one from the north, and he has come,    from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name;  he shall trample on rulers as on mortar,    as the potter treads clay.26   Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know,    and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”?  There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed,    none who heard your words.27   I was the first to say11 to Zion, “Behold, here they are!”    and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news.28   But when I look, there is no one;    among these there is no counselor    who, when I ask, gives an answer.29   Behold, they are all a delusion;    their works are nothing;    their metal images are empty wind. The Lord's Chosen Servant 42   Behold my servant, whom I uphold,    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;  I have put my Spirit upon him;    he will bring forth justice to the nations.2   He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,    or make it heard in the street;3   a bruised reed he will not break,    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;    he will faithfully bring forth justice.4   He will not grow faint or be discouraged12    till he has established justice in the earth;    and the coastlands wait for his law. 5   Thus says God, the LORD,    who created the heavens and stretched them out,    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,  who gives breath to the people on it    and spirit to those who walk in it:6   “I am the LORD; I have called you13 in righteousness;    I will take you by the hand and keep you;  I will give you as a covenant for the people,    a light for the nations,7     to open the eyes that are blind,  to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,    from the prison those who sit in darkness.8   I am the LORD; that is my name;    my glory I give to no other,    nor my praise to carved idols.9   Behold, the former things have come to pass,    and new things I now declare;  before they spring forth    I tell you of them.” Sing to the Lord a New Song 10   Sing to the LORD a new song,    his praise from the end of the earth,  you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,    the coastlands and their inhabitants.11   Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,    the villages that Kedar inhabits;  let the habitants of Sela sing for joy,    let them shout from the top of the mountains.12   Let them give glory to the LORD,    and declare his praise in the coastlands.13   The LORD goes out like a mighty man,    like a man of war he stirs up his zeal;  he cries out, he shouts aloud,    he shows himself mighty against his foes. 14   For a long time I have held my pe

Isaiah 36–39 Isaiah 36–39 (Listen) Sennacherib Invades Judah 36 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh1 from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. 3 And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder. 4 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? 5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me, “We trust in the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? 8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”'” 11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?” 13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me2 and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'” 21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh. Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah's Help 37 As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'” 5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'” 8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. 9 Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush,3 “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?'” Hezekiah's Prayer for Deliverance 14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: 16 “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 18 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 20 So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD.” Sennacherib's Fall 21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:   “‘She despises you, she scorns you—    the virgin daughter of Zion;  she wags her head behind you—    the daughter of Jerusalem. 23   “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?    Against whom have you raised your voice  and lifted your eyes to the heights?    Against the Holy One of Israel!24   By your servants you have mocked the Lord,    and you have said, With my many chariots  I have gone up the heights of the mountains,    to the far recesses of Lebanon,  to cut down its tallest cedars,    its choicest cypresses,  to come to its remotest height,    its most fruitful forest.25   I dug wells    and drank waters,  to dry up with the sole of my foot    all the streams of Egypt. 26   “‘Have you not heard    that I determined it long ago?  I planned from days of old    what now I bring to pass,  that you should make fortified cities    crash into heaps of ruins,27   while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,    are dismayed and confounded,  and have become like plants of the field    and like tender grass,  like grass on the housetops,    blighted4 before it is grown. 28   “‘I know your sitting down    and your going out and coming in,    and your raging against me.29   Because you have raged against me    and your complacency has come to my ears,  I will put my hook in your nose    and my bit in your mouth,  and I will turn you back on the way    by which you came.' 30 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. 33 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. 35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” 36 And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery 38 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”5 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.6 6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city. 7 “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised: 8 Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.7 9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness: 10   I said, In the middle8 of my days    I must depart;  I am consigned to the gates of Sheol    for the rest of my years.11   I said, I shall not see the LORD,    the LORD in the land of the living;  I shall look on man no more    among the inhabitants of the world.12   My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me    like a shepherd's tent;  like a weaver I have rolled up my life;    he cuts me off from the loom;  from day to night you bring me to an end;13     I calmed myself9 until morning;  like a lion he breaks all my bones;    from day to night you bring me to an end. 14   Like a swallow or a crane I chirp;    I moan like a dove.  My eyes are weary with looking upward.    O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!15   What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,    and he himself has done it.  I walk slowly all my years    because of the bitterness of my soul. 16   O Lord, by these things men live,    and in all these is the life of my spirit.    Oh restore me to health and make me live!17   Behold, it was for my welfare    that I had great bitterness;  but in love you have delivered my life    from the pit of destruction,  for you have cast all my sins    behind your back.18   For Sheol does not thank you;    death does not praise you;  those who go down to the pit do not hope    for your faithfulness.19   The living, the living, he thanks you,    as I do this day;  the father makes known to the children    your faithfulness. 20   The LORD will save me,    and we will play my music on stringed instruments  all the days of our lives,    at the house of the LORD. 21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” 22 Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?” Envoys from Babylon 39 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. 3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” 4 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.” 5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: 6 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. 7 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.” Footnotes [1] 36:2 Rabshakeh is the title of a high-ranking Assyrian military officer [2] 36:16 Hebrew Make a blessing with me [3] 37:9 Probably Nubia [4] 37:27 Some Hebrew manuscripts and 2 Kings 19:26; most Hebrew manuscripts a field [5] 38:1 Or live; also verses 9, 21 [6] 38:5 Hebrew to your days [7] 38:8 The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain [8] 38:10 Or In the quiet [9] 38:13 Or (with Targum) I cried for help (ESV)

Isaiah 31–35 Isaiah 31–35 (Listen) Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt 31   Woe1 to those who go down to Egypt for help    and rely on horses,  who trust in chariots because they are many    and in horsemen because they are very strong,  but do not look to the Holy One of Israel    or consult the LORD!2   And yet he is wise and brings disaster;    he does not call back his words,  but will arise against the house of the evildoers    and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.3   The Egyptians are man, and not God,    and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.  When the LORD stretches out his hand,    the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,    and they will all perish together. 4   For thus the LORD said to me,  “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,    and when a band of shepherds is called out against him  he is not terrified by their shouting    or daunted at their noise,  so the LORD of hosts will come down    to fight2 on Mount Zion and on its hill.5   Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts    will protect Jerusalem;  he will protect and deliver it;    he will spare and rescue it.” 6 Turn to him from whom people3 have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. 8   “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;    and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;  and he shall flee from the sword,    and his young men shall be put to forced labor.9   His rock shall pass away in terror,    and his officers desert the standard in panic,”  declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion,    and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. A King Will Reign in Righteousness 32   Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,    and princes will rule in justice.2   Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,    a shelter from the storm,  like streams of water in a dry place,    like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.3   Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,    and the ears of those who hear will give attention.4   The heart of the hasty will understand and know,    and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.5   The fool will no more be called noble,    nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.6   For the fool speaks folly,    and his heart is busy with iniquity,  to practice ungodliness,    to utter error concerning the LORD,  to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,    and to deprive the thirsty of drink.7   As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil;    he plans wicked schemes  to ruin the poor with lying words,    even when the plea of the needy is right.8   But he who is noble plans noble things,    and on noble things he stands. Complacent Women Warned of Disaster 9   Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;    you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.10   In little more than a year    you will shudder, you complacent women;  for the grape harvest fails,    the fruit harvest will not come.11   Tremble, you women who are at ease,    shudder, you complacent ones;  strip, and make yourselves bare,    and tie sackcloth around your waist.12   Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,    for the fruitful vine,13   for the soil of my people    growing up in thorns and briers,  yes, for all the joyous houses    in the exultant city.14   For the palace is forsaken,    the populous city deserted;  the hill and the watchtower    will become dens forever,  a joy of wild donkeys,    a pasture of flocks;15   until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,    and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,    and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.16   Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,    and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.17   And the effect of righteousness will be peace,    and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust4 forever.18   My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,    in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.19   And it will hail when the forest falls down,    and the city will be utterly laid low.20   Happy are you who sow beside all waters,    who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free. O Lord, Be Gracious to Us 33   Ah, you destroyer,    who yourself have not been destroyed,  you traitor,    whom none has betrayed!  When you have ceased to destroy,    you will be destroyed;  and when you have finished betraying,    they will betray you. 2   O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you.    Be our arm every morning,    our salvation in the time of trouble.3   At the tumultuous noise peoples flee;    when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,4   and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;    as locusts leap, it is leapt upon. 5   The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;    he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,6   and he will be the stability of your times,    abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;    the fear of the LORD is Zion's5 treasure. 7   Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;    the envoys of peace weep bitterly.8   The highways lie waste;    the traveler ceases.  Covenants are broken;    cities6 are despised;    there is no regard for man.9   The land mourns and languishes;    Lebanon is confounded and withers away;  Sharon is like a desert,    and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves. 10   “Now I will arise,” says the LORD,    “now I will lift myself up;    now I will be exalted.11   You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;    your breath is a fire that will consume you.12   And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,    like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.” 13   Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;    and you who are near, acknowledge my might.14   The sinners in Zion are afraid;    trembling has seized the godless:  “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?    Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”15   He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,    who despises the gain of oppressions,  who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,    who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed    and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,16   he will dwell on the heights;    his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;    his bread will be given him; his water will be sure. 17   Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;    they will see a land that stretches afar.18   Your heart will muse on the terror:    “Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute?    Where is he who counted the towers?”19   You will see no more the insolent people,    the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,    stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.20   Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!    Your eyes will see Jerusalem,    an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent,  whose stakes will never be plucked up,    nor will any of its cords be broken.21   But there the LORD in majesty will be for us    a place of broad rivers and streams,  where no galley with oars can go,    nor majestic ship can pass.22   For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver;    the LORD is our king; he will save us. 23   Your cords hang loose;    they cannot hold the mast firm in its place    or keep the sail spread out.  Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;    even the lame will take the prey.24   And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;    the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity. Judgment on the Nations 34   Draw near, O nations, to hear,    and give attention, O peoples!  Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;    the world, and all that comes from it.2   For the LORD is enraged against all the nations,    and furious against all their host;    he has devoted them to destruction,7 has given them over for slaughter.3   Their slain shall be cast out,    and the stench of their corpses shall rise;    the mountains shall flow with their blood.4   All the host of heaven shall rot away,    and the skies roll up like a scroll.  All their host shall fall,    as leaves fall from the vine,    like leaves falling from the fig tree. 5   For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;    behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,    upon the people I have devoted to destruction.6   The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood;    it is gorged with fat,    with the blood of lambs and goats,    with the fat of the kidneys of rams.  For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah,    a great slaughter in the land of Edom.7   Wild oxen shall fall with them,    and young steers with the mighty bulls.  Their land shall drink its fill of blood,    and their soil shall be gorged with fat. 8   For the LORD has a day of vengeance,    a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.9   And the streams of Edom8 shall be turned into pitch,    and her soil into sulfur;    her land shall become burning pitch.10   Night and day it shall not be quenched;    its smoke shall go up forever.  From generation to generation it shall lie waste;    none shall pass through it forever and ever.11   But the hawk and the porcupine9 shall possess it,    the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.  He shall stretch the line of confusion10 over it,    and the plumb line of emptiness.12   Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,    and all its princes shall be nothing. 13   Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,    nettles and thistles in its fortresses.  It shall be the haunt of jackals,    an abode for ostriches.1114   And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;    the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;  indeed, there the night bird12 settles    and finds for herself a resting place. 15   There the owl nests and lays    and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;  indeed, there the hawks are gathered,    each one with her mate.16   Seek and read from the book of the LORD:    Not one of these shall be missing;    none shall be without her mate.  For the mouth of the LORD has commanded,    and his Spirit has gathered them.17   He has cast the lot for them;    his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;  they shall possess it forever;    from generation to generation they shall dwell in it. The Ransomed Shall Return 35   The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;    the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;2   it shall blossom abundantly    and rejoice with joy and singing.  The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,    the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.  They shall see the glory of the LORD,    the majesty of our God. 3   Strengthen the weak hands,    and make firm the feeble knees.4   Say to those who have an anxious heart,    “Be strong; fear not!  Behold, your God    will come with vengeance,  with the recompense of God.    He will come and save you.” 5   Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,    and the ears of the deaf unstopped;6   then shall the lame man leap like a deer,    and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.  For waters break forth in the wilderness,    and streams in the desert;7   the burning sand shall become a pool,    and the thirsty ground springs of water;  in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,

Isaiah 28–30 Isaiah 28–30 (Listen) Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem 28   Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,    and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,    which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!2   Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong;    like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,  like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters,    he casts down to the earth with his hand.3   The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim    will be trodden underfoot;4   and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,    which is on the head of the rich valley,  will be like a first-ripe fig1 before the summer:    when someone sees it, he swallows it    as soon as it is in his hand. 5   In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory,2    and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,6   and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,    and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. 7   These also reel with wine    and stagger with strong drink;  the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,    they are swallowed by3 wine,    they stagger with strong drink,  they reel in vision,    they stumble in giving judgment.8   For all tables are full of filthy vomit,    with no space left. 9   “To whom will he teach knowledge,    and to whom will he explain the message?  Those who are weaned from the milk,    those taken from the breast?10   For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,    line upon line, line upon line,    here a little, there a little.” 11   For by people of strange lips    and with a foreign tongue  the LORD will speak to this people,12     to whom he has said,  “This is rest;    give rest to the weary;  and this is repose”;    yet they would not hear.13   And the word of the LORD will be to them  precept upon precept, precept upon precept,    line upon line, line upon line,    here a little, there a little,  that they may go, and fall backward,    and be broken, and snared, and taken. A Cornerstone in Zion 14   Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers,    who rule this people in Jerusalem!15   Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,    and with Sheol we have an agreement,  when the overwhelming whip passes through    it will not come to us,  for we have made lies our refuge,    and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;16   therefore thus says the Lord GOD,  “Behold, I am the one who has laid4 as a foundation in Zion,    a stone, a tested stone,  a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:    ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.'17   And I will make justice the line,    and righteousness the plumb line;  and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,    and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”18   Then your covenant with death will be annulled,    and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;  when the overwhelming scourge passes through,    you will be beaten down by it.19   As often as it passes through it will take you;    for morning by morning it will pass through,    by day and by night;  and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.20   For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,    and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.21   For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim;    as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused;  to do his deed—strange is his deed!    and to work his work—alien is his work!22   Now therefore do not scoff,    lest your bonds be made strong;  for I have heard a decree of destruction    from the Lord GOD of hosts against the whole land. 23   Give ear, and hear my voice;    give attention, and hear my speech.24   Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?    Does he continually open and harrow his ground?25   When he has leveled its surface,    does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,  and put in wheat in rows    and barley in its proper place,    and emmer5 as the border?26   For he is rightly instructed;    his God teaches him. 27   Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,    nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,  but dill is beaten out with a stick,    and cumin with a rod.28   Does one crush grain for bread?    No, he does not thresh it forever;6  when he drives his cart wheel over it    with his horses, he does not crush it.29   This also comes from the LORD of hosts;    he is wonderful in counsel    and excellent in wisdom. The Siege of Jerusalem 29   Ah, Ariel, Ariel,    the city where David encamped!  Add year to year;    let the feasts run their round.2   Yet I will distress Ariel,    and there shall be moaning and lamentation,    and she shall be to me like an Ariel.73   And I will encamp against you all around,    and will besiege you with towers    and I will raise siegeworks against you.4   And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,    and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;  your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,    and from the dust your speech shall whisper. 5   But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust,    and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.  And in an instant, suddenly,6     you will be visited by the LORD of hosts  with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,    with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.7   And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,    all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,    shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.8   As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,    and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,  or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking,    and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,  so shall the multitude of all the nations be    that fight against Mount Zion. 9   Astonish yourselves8 and be astonished;    blind yourselves and be blind!  Be drunk,9 but not with wine;    stagger,10 but not with strong drink!10   For the LORD has poured out upon you    a spirit of deep sleep,  and has closed your eyes (the prophets),    and covered your heads (the seers). 11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.” 13   And the Lord said:  “Because this people draw near with their mouth    and honor me with their lips,    while their hearts are far from me,  and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,14   therefore, behold, I will again    do wonderful things with this people,    with wonder upon wonder;  and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,    and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” 15   Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel,    whose deeds are in the dark,    and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”16   You turn things upside down!  Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,  that the thing made should say of its maker,    “He did not make me”;  or the thing formed say of him who formed it,    “He has no understanding”? 17   Is it not yet a very little while    until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,    and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?18   In that day the deaf shall hear    the words of a book,  and out of their gloom and darkness    the eyes of the blind shall see.19   The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD,    and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.20   For the ruthless shall come to nothing    and the scoffer cease,    and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,21   who by a word make a man out to be an offender,    and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,    and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right. 22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:   “Jacob shall no more be ashamed,    no more shall his face grow pale.23   For when he sees his children,    the work of my hands, in his midst,    they will sanctify my name;  they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob    and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.24   And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,    and those who murmur will accept instruction.” Do Not Go Down to Egypt 30   “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD,  “who carry out a plan, but not mine,  and who make an alliance,11 but not of my Spirit,    that they may add sin to sin;2   who set out to go down to Egypt,    without asking for my direction,  to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh    and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!3   Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,    and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.4   For though his officials are at Zoan    and his envoys reach Hanes,5   everyone comes to shame    through a people that cannot profit them,  that brings neither help nor profit,    but shame and disgrace.” 6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.   Through a land of trouble and anguish,    from where come the lioness and the lion,    the adder and the flying fiery serpent,  they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,    and their treasures on the humps of camels,    to a people that cannot profit them.7   Egypt's help is worthless and empty;    therefore I have called her    “Rahab who sits still.” A Rebellious People 8   And now, go, write it before them on a tablet    and inscribe it in a book,  that it may be for the time to come    as a witness forever.129   For they are a rebellious people,    lying children,  children unwilling to hear    the instruction of the LORD;10   who say to the seers, “Do not see,”    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;  speak to us smooth things,    prophesy illusions,11   leave the way, turn aside from the path,    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”12   Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,  “Because you despise this word    and trust in oppression and perverseness    and rely on them,13   therefore this iniquity shall be to you    like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,    whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;14   and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel    that is smashed so ruthlessly  that among its fragments not a shard is found    with which to take fire from the hearth,    or to dip up water out of the cistern.” 15   For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel,  “In returning13 and rest you shall be saved;    in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”  But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,  “No! We will flee upon horses”;    therefore you shall flee away;  and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;    therefore your pursuers shall be swift.17   A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;    at the threat of five you shall flee,  till you are left    like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,    like a signal on a hill. The Lord Will Be Gracious 18   Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you,    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.  For the LORD is a God of justice;    blessed are all those who wait for him. 19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 

Isaiah 23–27 Isaiah 23–27 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Tyre and Sidon 23 The oracle concerning Tyre.   Wail, O ships of Tarshish,    for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor!  From the land of Cyprus1    it is revealed to them.2   Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;    the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.3   And on many waters  your revenue was the grain of Shihor,    the harvest of the Nile;    you were the merchant of the nations.4   Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,    the stronghold of the sea, saying:  “I have neither labored nor given birth,    I have neither reared young men    nor brought up young women.”5   When the report comes to Egypt,    they will be in anguish2 over the report about Tyre.6   Cross over to Tarshish;    wail, O inhabitants of the coast!7   Is this your exultant city    whose origin is from days of old,  whose feet carried her    to settle far away?8   Who has purposed this    against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,  whose merchants were princes,    whose traders were the honored of the earth?9   The LORD of hosts has purposed it,    to defile the pompous pride of all glory,3    to dishonor all the honored of the earth.10   Cross over your land like the Nile,    O daughter of Tarshish;    there is no restraint anymore.11   He has stretched out his hand over the sea;    he has shaken the kingdoms;  the LORD has given command concerning Canaan    to destroy its strongholds.12   And he said:  “You will no more exult,    O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon;  arise, cross over to Cyprus,    even there you will have no rest.” 13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not;4 Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin. 14   Wail, O ships of Tarshish,    for your stronghold is laid waste. 15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days5 of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: 16   “Take a harp;    go about the city,    O forgotten prostitute!  Make sweet melody;    sing many songs,    that you may be remembered.” 17 At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18 Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the LORD. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the LORD. Judgment on the Whole Earth 24   Behold, the LORD will empty the earth6 and make it desolate,    and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.2   And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;    as with the slave, so with his master;    as with the maid, so with her mistress;  as with the buyer, so with the seller;    as with the lender, so with the borrower;    as with the creditor, so with the debtor.3   The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered;    for the LORD has spoken this word. 4   The earth mourns and withers;    the world languishes and withers;    the highest people of the earth languish.5   The earth lies defiled    under its inhabitants;  for they have transgressed the laws,    violated the statutes,    broken the everlasting covenant.6   Therefore a curse devours the earth,    and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;  therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,    and few men are left.7   The wine mourns,    the vine languishes,    all the merry-hearted sigh.8   The mirth of the tambourines is stilled,    the noise of the jubilant has ceased,    the mirth of the lyre is stilled.9   No more do they drink wine with singing;    strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.10   The wasted city is broken down;    every house is shut up so that none can enter.11   There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;    all joy has grown dark;    the gladness of the earth is banished.12   Desolation is left in the city;    the gates are battered into ruins.13   For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth    among the nations,  as when an olive tree is beaten,    as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done. 14   They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;    over the majesty of the LORD they shout from the west.715   Therefore in the east8 give glory to the LORD;    in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.16   From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,    of glory to the Righteous One.  But I say, “I waste away,    I waste away. Woe is me!  For the traitors have betrayed,    with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” 17   Terror and the pit and the snare9    are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!18   He who flees at the sound of the terror    shall fall into the pit,  and he who climbs out of the pit    shall be caught in the snare.  For the windows of heaven are opened,    and the foundations of the earth tremble.19   The earth is utterly broken,    the earth is split apart,    the earth is violently shaken.20   The earth staggers like a drunken man;    it sways like a hut;  its transgression lies heavy upon it,    and it falls, and will not rise again. 21   On that day the LORD will punish    the host of heaven, in heaven,    and the kings of the earth, on the earth.22   They will be gathered together    as prisoners in a pit;  they will be shut up in a prison,    and after many days they will be punished.23   Then the moon will be confounded    and the sun ashamed,  for the LORD of hosts reigns    on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,  and his glory will be before his elders. God Will Swallow Up Death Forever 25   O LORD, you are my God;    I will exalt you; I will praise your name,  for you have done wonderful things,    plans formed of old, faithful and sure.2   For you have made the city a heap,    the fortified city a ruin;  the foreigners' palace is a city no more;    it will never be rebuilt.3   Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;    cities of ruthless nations will fear you.4   For you have been a stronghold to the poor,    a stronghold to the needy in his distress,    a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;  for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,5     like heat in a dry place.  You subdue the noise of the foreigners;    as heat by the shade of a cloud,    so the song of the ruthless is put down. 6   On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.7   And he will swallow up on this mountain    the covering that is cast over all peoples,    the veil that is spread over all nations.8     He will swallow up death forever;  and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,    for the LORD has spoken.9   It will be said on that day,    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.    This is the LORD; we have waited for him;    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”10   For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain,    and Moab shall be trampled down in his place,    as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.1011   And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it    as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim,    but the LORD will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill11 of his hands.12   And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down,    lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust. You Keep Him in Perfect Peace 26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:   “We have a strong city;    he sets up salvation    as walls and bulwarks.2   Open the gates,    that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.3   You keep him in perfect peace    whose mind is stayed on you,    because he trusts in you.4   Trust in the LORD forever,    for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.5   For he has humbled    the inhabitants of the height,    the lofty city.  He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,    casts it to the dust.6   The foot tramples it,    the feet of the poor,    the steps of the needy.” 7   The path of the righteous is level;    you make level the way of the righteous.8   In the path of your judgments,    O LORD, we wait for you;  your name and remembrance    are the desire of our soul.9   My soul yearns for you in the night;    my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.  For when your judgments are in the earth,    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.10   If favor is shown to the wicked,    he does not learn righteousness;  in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly    and does not see the majesty of the LORD.11   O LORD, your hand is lifted up,    but they do not see it.  Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.    Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.12   O LORD, you will ordain peace for us,    for you have indeed done for us all our works.13   O LORD our God,    other lords besides you have ruled over us,    but your name alone we bring to remembrance.14   They are dead, they will not live;    they are shades, they will not arise;  to that end you have visited them with destruction    and wiped out all remembrance of them.15   But you have increased the nation, O LORD,    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;    you have enlarged all the borders of the land. 16   O LORD, in distress they sought you;    they poured out a whispered prayer    when your discipline was upon them.17   Like a pregnant woman    who writhes and cries out in her pangs    when she is near to giving birth,  so were we because of you, O LORD;18     we were pregnant, we writhed,    but we have given birth to wind.  We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,    and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.19   Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.    You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!  For your dew is a dew of light,    and the earth will give birth to the dead. 20   Come, my people, enter your chambers,    and shut your doors behind you;  hide yourselves for a little while    until the fury has passed by.21   For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place    to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,  and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,    and will no more cover its slain. The Redemption of Israel 27 In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. 2   In that day,  “A pleasant vineyard,12 sing of it!3     I, the LORD, am its keeper;    every moment I water it.    Lest anyone punish it,  I keep it night and day;4     I have no wrath.  Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!    I would march against them,    I would burn them up together.5   Or let them lay hold of my protection,    let them make peace with me,    let them make peace with me.”

Isaiah 18–22 Isaiah 18–22 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Cush 18   Ah, land of whirring wings    that is beyond the rivers of Cush,12   which sends ambassadors by the sea,    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!  Go, you swift messengers,    to a nation tall and smooth,  to a people feared near and far,    a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide. 3   All you inhabitants of the world,    you who dwell on the earth,  when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!    When a trumpet is blown, hear!4   For thus the LORD said to me:  “I will quietly look from my dwelling    like clear heat in sunshine,    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”5   For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,  he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,    and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.6   They shall all of them be left    to the birds of prey of the mountains    and to the beasts of the earth.  And the birds of prey will summer on them,    and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them. 7 At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts   from a people tall and smooth,    from a people feared near and far,  a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts. An Oracle Concerning Egypt 19 An oracle concerning Egypt.   Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud    and comes to Egypt;  and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2   And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,    and they will fight, each against another    and each against his neighbor,    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3   and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,    and I will confound2 their counsel;  and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,    and the mediums and the necromancers;4   and I will give over the Egyptians    into the hand of a hard master,  and a fierce king will rule over them,    declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 5   And the waters of the sea will be dried up,    and the river will be dry and parched,6   and its canals will become foul,    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,    reeds and rushes will rot away.7   There will be bare places by the Nile,    on the brink of the Nile,  and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,    will be driven away, and will be no more.8   The fishermen will mourn and lament,    all who cast a hook in the Nile;  and they will languish    who spread nets on the water.9   The workers in combed flax will be in despair,    and the weavers of white cotton.10   Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,    and all who work for pay will be grieved. 11   The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.  How can you say to Pharaoh,    “I am a son of the wise,    a son of ancient kings”?12   Where then are your wise men?    Let them tell you    that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13   The princes of Zoan have become fools,    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;  those who are the cornerstones of her tribes    have made Egypt stagger.14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,  and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15   And there will be nothing for Egypt    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.3 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,4 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,5    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:6  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 18:1 Probably Nubia [2] 19:3 Or I will swallow up [3] 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun [4] 20:3 Probably Nubia [5] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [6] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV)

Isaiah 13–17 Isaiah 13–17 (Listen) The Judgment of Babylon 13 The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. 2   On a bare hill raise a signal;    cry aloud to them;  wave the hand for them to enter    the gates of the nobles.3   I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,    and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,    my proudly exulting ones.1 4   The sound of a tumult is on the mountains    as of a great multitude!  The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,    of nations gathering together!  The LORD of hosts is mustering    a host for battle.5   They come from a distant land,    from the end of the heavens,  the LORD and the weapons of his indignation,    to destroy the whole land.2 6   Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;    as destruction from the Almighty3 it will come!7   Therefore all hands will be feeble,    and every human heart will melt.8   They will be dismayed:    pangs and agony will seize them;    they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.  They will look aghast at one another;    their faces will be aflame. 9   Behold, the day of the LORD comes,    cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,  to make the land a desolation    and to destroy its sinners from it.10   For the stars of the heavens and their constellations    will not give their light;  the sun will be dark at its rising,    and the moon will not shed its light.11   I will punish the world for its evil,    and the wicked for their iniquity;  I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,    and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.12   I will make people more rare than fine gold,    and mankind than the gold of Ophir.13   Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,    and the earth will be shaken out of its place,  at the wrath of the LORD of hosts    in the day of his fierce anger.14   And like a hunted gazelle,    or like sheep with none to gather them,  each will turn to his own people,    and each will flee to his own land.15   Whoever is found will be thrust through,    and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.16   Their infants will be dashed in pieces    before their eyes;  their houses will be plundered    and their wives ravished. 17   Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,    who have no regard for silver    and do not delight in gold.18   Their bows will slaughter4 the young men;    they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;    their eyes will not pity children.19   And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,    the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,  will be like Sodom and Gomorrah    when God overthrew them.20   It will never be inhabited    or lived in for all generations;  no Arab will pitch his tent there;    no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.21   But wild animals will lie down there,    and their houses will be full of howling creatures;  there ostriches5 will dwell,    and there wild goats will dance.22   Hyenas6 will cry in its towers,    and jackals in the pleasant palaces;  its time is close at hand    and its days will not be prolonged. The Restoration of Jacob 14 For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the LORD's land as male and female slaves.7 They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them. Israel's Remnant Taunts Babylon 3 When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:   “How the oppressor has ceased,    the insolent fury8 ceased!5   The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,    the scepter of rulers,6   that struck the peoples in wrath    with unceasing blows,  that ruled the nations in anger    with unrelenting persecution.7   The whole earth is at rest and quiet;    they break forth into singing.8   The cypresses rejoice at you,    the cedars of Lebanon, saying,  ‘Since you were laid low,    no woodcutter comes up against us.'9   Sheol beneath is stirred up    to meet you when you come;  it rouses the shades to greet you,    all who were leaders of the earth;  it raises from their thrones    all who were kings of the nations.10   All of them will answer    and say to you:  ‘You too have become as weak as we!    You have become like us!'11   Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,    the sound of your harps;  maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,    and worms are your covers. 12   “How you are fallen from heaven,    O Day Star, son of Dawn!  How you are cut down to the ground,    you who laid the nations low!13   You said in your heart,    ‘I will ascend to heaven;  above the stars of God    I will set my throne on high;  I will sit on the mount of assembly    in the far reaches of the north;914   I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;    I will make myself like the Most High.'15   But you are brought down to Sheol,    to the far reaches of the pit.16   Those who see you will stare at you    and ponder over you:  ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,    who shook kingdoms,17   who made the world like a desert    and overthrew its cities,    who did not let his prisoners go home?'18   All the kings of the nations lie in glory,    each in his own tomb;1019   but you are cast out, away from your grave,    like a loathed branch,  clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,    who go down to the stones of the pit,    like a dead body trampled underfoot.20   You will not be joined with them in burial,    because you have destroyed your land,    you have slain your people.   “May the offspring of evildoers    nevermore be named!21   Prepare slaughter for his sons    because of the guilt of their fathers,  lest they rise and possess the earth,    and fill the face of the world with cities.” 22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity,” declares the LORD. 23 “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog,11 and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts. An Oracle Concerning Assyria 24   The LORD of hosts has sworn:  “As I have planned,    so shall it be,  and as I have purposed,    so shall it stand,25   that I will break the Assyrian in my land,    and on my mountains trample him underfoot;  and his yoke shall depart from them,    and his burden from their shoulder.” 26   This is the purpose that is purposed    concerning the whole earth,  and this is the hand that is stretched out    over all the nations.27   For the LORD of hosts has purposed,    and who will annul it?  His hand is stretched out,    and who will turn it back? An Oracle Concerning Philistia 28 In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle: 29   Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,    that the rod that struck you is broken,  for from the serpent's root will come forth an adder,    and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.30   And the firstborn of the poor will graze,    and the needy lie down in safety;  but I will kill your root with famine,    and your remnant it will slay.31   Wail, O gate; cry out, O city;    melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!  For smoke comes out of the north,    and there is no straggler in his ranks. 32   What will one answer the messengers of the nation?  “The LORD has founded Zion,    and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.” An Oracle Concerning Moab 15 An oracle concerning Moab.   Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,    Moab is undone;  because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,    Moab is undone.2   He has gone up to the temple,12 and to Dibon,    to the high places13 to weep;  over Nebo and over Medeba    Moab wails.  On every head is baldness;    every beard is shorn;3   in the streets they wear sackcloth;    on the housetops and in the squares    everyone wails and melts in tears.4   Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;    their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;  therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;    his soul trembles.5   My heart cries out for Moab;    her fugitives flee to Zoar,    to Eglath-shelishiyah.  For at the ascent of Luhith    they go up weeping;  on the road to Horonaim    they raise a cry of destruction;6   the waters of Nimrim    are a desolation;  the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,    the greenery is no more.7   Therefore the abundance they have gained    and what they have laid up  they carry away    over the Brook of the Willows.8   For a cry has gone    around the land of Moab;  her wailing reaches to Eglaim;    her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.9   For the waters of Dibon14 are full of blood;    for I will bring upon Dibon even more,  a lion for those of Moab who escape,    for the remnant of the land.16   Send the lamb to the ruler of the land,  from Sela, by way of the desert,    to the mount of the daughter of Zion.2   Like fleeing birds,    like a scattered nest,  so are the daughters of Moab    at the fords of the Arnon. 3   “Give counsel;    grant justice;  make your shade like night    at the height of noon;  shelter the outcasts;    do not reveal the fugitive;4   let the outcasts of Moab    sojourn among you;  be a shelter to them15    from the destroyer.  When the oppressor is no more,    and destruction has ceased,  and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,5   then a throne will be established in steadfast love,    and on it will sit in faithfulness    in the tent of David  one who judges and seeks justice    and is swift to do righteousness.” 6   We have heard of the pride of Moab—    how proud he is!—  of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;    in his idle boasting he is not right.7   Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,    let everyone wail.  Mourn, utterly stricken,    for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth. 8   For the fields of Heshbon languish,    and the vine of Sibmah;  the lords of the nations    have struck down its branches,  which reached to Jazer    and strayed to the desert;  its shoots spread abroad    and passed over the sea.9   Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer    for the vine of Sibmah;  I drench you with my tears,    O Heshbon and Elealeh;

Isaiah 9–12 Isaiah 9–12 (Listen) For to Us a Child Is Born 9 1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.2 2   3 The people who walked in darkness    have seen a great light;  those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,    on them has light shone.3   You have multiplied the nation;    you have increased its joy;  they rejoice before you    as with joy at the harvest,    as they are glad when they divide the spoil.4   For the yoke of his burden,    and the staff for his shoulder,    the rod of his oppressor,    you have broken as on the day of Midian.5   For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult    and every garment rolled in blood    will be burned as fuel for the fire.6   For to us a child is born,    to us a son is given;  and the government shall be upon4 his shoulder,    and his name shall be called5  Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.7   Of the increase of his government and of peace    there will be no end,  on the throne of David and over his kingdom,    to establish it and to uphold it  with justice and with righteousness    from this time forth and forevermore.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression 8   The Lord has sent a word against Jacob,    and it will fall on Israel;9   and all the people will know,    Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,    who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:10   “The bricks have fallen,    but we will build with dressed stones;  the sycamores have been cut down,    but we will put cedars in their place.”11   But the LORD raises the adversaries of Rezin against him,    and stirs up his enemies.12   The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west    devour Israel with open mouth.  For all this his anger has not turned away,    and his hand is stretched out still. 13   The people did not turn to him who struck them,    nor inquire of the LORD of hosts.14   So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail,    palm branch and reed in one day—15   the elder and honored man is the head,    and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;16   for those who guide this people have been leading them astray,    and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.17   Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men,    and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows;  for everyone is godless and an evildoer,    and every mouth speaks folly.6  For all this his anger has not turned away,    and his hand is stretched out still. 18   For wickedness burns like a fire;    it consumes briers and thorns;  it kindles the thickets of the forest,    and they roll upward in a column of smoke.19   Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts    the land is scorched,  and the people are like fuel for the fire;    no one spares another.20   They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry,    and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied;  each devours the flesh of his own arm,21   Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh;    together they are against Judah.  For all this his anger has not turned away,    and his hand is stretched out still. 10   Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,    and the writers who keep writing oppression,2   to turn aside the needy from justice    and to rob the poor of my people of their right,  that widows may be their spoil,    and that they may make the fatherless their prey!3   What will you do on the day of punishment,    in the ruin that will come from afar?  To whom will you flee for help,    and where will you leave your wealth?4   Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners    or fall among the slain.  For all this his anger has not turned away,    and his hand is stretched out still. Judgment on Arrogant Assyria 5   Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger;    the staff in their hands is my fury!6   Against a godless nation I send him,    and against the people of my wrath I command him,  to take spoil and seize plunder,    and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.7   But he does not so intend,    and his heart does not so think;  but it is in his heart to destroy,    and to cut off nations not a few;8   for he says:  “Are not my commanders all kings?9   Is not Calno like Carchemish?    Is not Hamath like Arpad?    Is not Samaria like Damascus?10   As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,    whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,11   shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols    as I have done to Samaria and her images?” 12 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he7 will punish the speech8 of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. 13 For he says:   “By the strength of my hand I have done it,    and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;  I remove the boundaries of peoples,    and plunder their treasures;    like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.14   My hand has found like a nest    the wealth of the peoples;  and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,    so I have gathered all the earth;  and there was none that moved a wing    or opened the mouth or chirped.” 15   Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it,    or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?  As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,    or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!16   Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts    will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,  and under his glory a burning will be kindled,    like the burning of fire.17   The light of Israel will become a fire,    and his Holy One a flame,  and it will burn and devour    his thorns and briers in one day.18   The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land    the LORD will destroy, both soul and body,    and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.19   The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few    that a child can write them down. The Remnant of Israel Will Return 20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. 23 For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth. 24 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. 25 For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. 26 And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. 27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”9 28   He has come to Aiath;  he has passed through Migron;    at Michmash he stores his baggage;29   they have crossed over the pass;    at Geba they lodge for the night;  Ramah trembles;    Gibeah of Saul has fled.30   Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim!    Give attention, O Laishah!    O poor Anathoth!31   Madmenah is in flight;    the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.32   This very day he will halt at Nob;    he will shake his fist    at the mount of the daughter of Zion,    the hill of Jerusalem. 33   Behold, the Lord GOD of hosts    will lop the boughs with terrifying power;  the great in height will be hewn down,    and the lofty will be brought low.34   He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe,    and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One. The Righteous Reign of the Branch 11   There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,    and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.2   And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,    the Spirit of counsel and might,    the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.3   And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.  He shall not judge by what his eyes see,    or decide disputes by what his ears hear,4   but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;  and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.5   Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,    and faithfulness the belt of his loins. 6   The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,  and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;    and a little child shall lead them.7   The cow and the bear shall graze;    their young shall lie down together;    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.8   The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.9   They shall not hurt or destroy    in all my holy mountain;  for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD    as the waters cover the sea. 10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush,10 from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. 12   He will raise a signal for the nations    and will assemble the banished of Israel,  and gather the dispersed of Judah    from the four corners of the earth.13   The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,    and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;  Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,    and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.14   But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west,    and together they shall plunder the people of the east.  They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab,    and the Ammonites shall obey them.15   And the LORD will utterly destroy11    the tongue of the Sea of Egypt,  and will wave his hand over the River12    with his scorching breath,13  and strike it into seven channels,    and he will lead people across in sandals.16   And there will be a highway from Assyria    for the remnant that remains of his people,  as there was for Israel    when they came up from the land of Egypt. The Lord Is My Strength and My Song 12   You14 will say in that day:  “I will give thanks to you, O LORD,    for though you were angry with me,  your anger turned away,    that you might comfort me. 2   “Behold, God is my salvation;    I will trust, and will not be afraid;  for the LORD GOD15 is my strength and my song,    and he has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you16 will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day:   “Give thanks to the LORD,    call upon his name,  make known his deeds among the peoples,    proclaim that his name is exalted. 5   “Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;    let this be made known17 in all the earth.6   Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,    for great in your18 midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Footnotes [1] 9:1 Ch 8:23 in Hebrew [2] 9:1 Or of the Gentiles [3] 9:2 Ch 9:1 in Hebrew [4] 9:6 Or is upon [5] 9:6 Or is called [6] 9:17 Or speaks disgraceful things [7] 10:12 Hebrew I [8] 10:12 Hebrew fruit [9] 10:27 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [10] 11:11

Isaiah 5–8 Isaiah 5–8 (Listen) The Vineyard of the Lord Destroyed 5   Let me sing for my beloved    my love song concerning his vineyard:  My beloved had a vineyard    on a very fertile hill.2   He dug it and cleared it of stones,    and planted it with choice vines;  he built a watchtower in the midst of it,    and hewed out a wine vat in it;  and he looked for it to yield grapes,    but it yielded wild grapes. 3   And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem    and men of Judah,  judge between me and my vineyard.4   What more was there to do for my vineyard,    that I have not done in it?  When I looked for it to yield grapes,    why did it yield wild grapes? 5   And now I will tell you    what I will do to my vineyard.  I will remove its hedge,    and it shall be devoured;1  I will break down its wall,    and it shall be trampled down.6   I will make it a waste;    it shall not be pruned or hoed,    and briers and thorns shall grow up;  I will also command the clouds    that they rain no rain upon it. 7   For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts    is the house of Israel,  and the men of Judah    are his pleasant planting;  and he looked for justice,    but behold, bloodshed;2  for righteousness,    but behold, an outcry!3 Woe to the Wicked 8   Woe to those who join house to house,    who add field to field,  until there is no more room,    and you are made to dwell alone    in the midst of the land.9   The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:  “Surely many houses shall be desolate,    large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.10   For ten acres4 of vineyard shall yield but one bath,    and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”5 11   Woe to those who rise early in the morning,    that they may run after strong drink,  who tarry late into the evening    as wine inflames them!12   They have lyre and harp,    tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,  but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD,    or see the work of his hands. 13   Therefore my people go into exile    for lack of knowledge;6  their honored men go hungry,7    and their multitude is parched with thirst.14   Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite    and opened its mouth beyond measure,  and the nobility of Jerusalem8 and her multitude will go down,    her revelers and he who exults in her.15   Man is humbled, and each one is brought low,    and the eyes of the haughty9 are brought low.16   But the LORD of hosts is exalted10 in justice,    and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.17   Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,    and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich. 18   Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,    who draw sin as with cart ropes,19   who say: “Let him be quick,    let him speed his work    that we may see it;  let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,    and let it come, that we may know it!”20   Woe to those who call evil good    and good evil,  who put darkness for light    and light for darkness,  who put bitter for sweet    and sweet for bitter!21   Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,    and shrewd in their own sight!22   Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,    and valiant men in mixing strong drink,23   who acquit the guilty for a bribe,    and deprive the innocent of his right! 24   Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,    and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,  so their root will be as rottenness,    and their blossom go up like dust;  for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts,    and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.25   Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people,    and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,    and the mountains quaked;  and their corpses were as refuse    in the midst of the streets.  For all this his anger has not turned away,    and his hand is stretched out still. 26   He will raise a signal for nations far away,    and whistle for them from the ends of the earth;  and behold, quickly, speedily they come!27   None is weary, none stumbles,    none slumbers or sleeps,  not a waistband is loose,    not a sandal strap broken;28   their arrows are sharp,    all their bows bent,  their horses' hoofs seem like flint,    and their wheels like the whirlwind.29   Their roaring is like a lion,    like young lions they roar;  they growl and seize their prey;    they carry it off, and none can rescue.30   They will growl over it on that day,    like the growling of the sea.  And if one looks to the land,    behold, darkness and distress;  and the light is darkened by its clouds. Isaiah's Vision of the Lord 6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train11 of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:   “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;  the whole earth is full of his glory!”12 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah's Commission from the Lord 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:   “‘Keep on hearing,13 but do not understand;  keep on seeing,14 but do not perceive.'10   Make the heart of this people dull,15    and their ears heavy,    and blind their eyes;  lest they see with their eyes,    and hear with their ears,  and understand with their hearts,    and turn and be healed.”11   Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”  And he said:  “Until cities lie waste    without inhabitant,  and houses without people,    and the land is a desolate waste,12   and the LORD removes people far away,    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.13   And though a tenth remain in it,    it will be burned16 again,  like a terebinth or an oak,    whose stump remains    when it is felled.”  The holy seed17 is its stump. Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz 7 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. 2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with18 Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz19 and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. 3 And the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub20 your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. 4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it21 for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7 thus says the Lord GOD:   “‘It shall not stand,    and it shall not come to pass.8   For the head of Syria is Damascus,    and the head of Damascus is Rezin.  And within sixty-five years    Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.9   And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,    and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.  If you22 are not firm in faith,    you will not be firm at all.'” The Sign of Immanuel 10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the LORD your23 God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” 13 And he24 said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.25 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!” 18 In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.26 20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River27—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also. 21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey. 23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels28 of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24 With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread. The Coming Assyrian Invasion 8 Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters,29 ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.'30 2 And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.” 3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father' or ‘My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.” 5 The LORD spoke to me again: 6 “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River,31 mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, 8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.” 9   Be broken,32 you peoples, and be shattered;33    give ear, all you far countries;  strap on your armor and be shattered;    strap on your armor and be shattered.10   Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;    speak a word, but it will not stand,    for God is with us.34 Fear God, Wait for the Lord 11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.” 16 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching35 among my disciples. 17 I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. 21 They will pass through the land,36 greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against37 their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness. Footnotes [1] 5:5 Or grazed over; compare Exodus 22:5 [2] 5:7 The Hebrew words for justice and bloodshed sound alike [3] 5:7 The Hebrew words for righteous and outcry sound alike [4] 5:10 Hebrew ten yoke, the area ten yoke of oxen can plow in a day [5] 5:10 A bath was about 6 gallons or 22 liters; a homer was about 6 bushels or 220 liters; an ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [6] 5:13

Isaiah 1–4 Isaiah 1–4 (Listen) 1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The Wickedness of Judah 2   Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;    for the LORD has spoken:  “Children1 have I reared and brought up,    but they have rebelled against me.3   The ox knows its owner,    and the donkey its master's crib,  but Israel does not know,    my people do not understand.” 4   Ah, sinful nation,    a people laden with iniquity,  offspring of evildoers,    children who deal corruptly!  They have forsaken the LORD,    they have despised the Holy One of Israel,    they are utterly estranged. 5   Why will you still be struck down?    Why will you continue to rebel?  The whole head is sick,    and the whole heart faint.6   From the sole of the foot even to the head,    there is no soundness in it,  but bruises and sores    and raw wounds;  they are not pressed out or bound up    or softened with oil. 7   Your country lies desolate;    your cities are burned with fire;  in your very presence    foreigners devour your land;    it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.8   And the daughter of Zion is left    like a booth in a vineyard,  like a lodge in a cucumber field,    like a besieged city. 9   If the LORD of hosts    had not left us a few survivors,  we should have been like Sodom,    and become like Gomorrah. 10   Hear the word of the LORD,    you rulers of Sodom!  Give ear to the teaching2 of our God,    you people of Gomorrah!11   “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?    says the LORD;  I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams    and the fat of well-fed beasts;  I do not delight in the blood of bulls,    or of lambs, or of goats. 12   “When you come to appear before me,    who has required of you    this trampling of my courts?13   Bring no more vain offerings;    incense is an abomination to me.  New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—    I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.14   Your new moons and your appointed feasts    my soul hates;  they have become a burden to me;    I am weary of bearing them.15   When you spread out your hands,    I will hide my eyes from you;  even though you make many prayers,    I will not listen;    your hands are full of blood.16   Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;  cease to do evil,17     learn to do good;  seek justice,    correct oppression;  bring justice to the fatherless,    plead the widow's cause. 18   “Come now, let us reason3 together, says the LORD:  though your sins are like scarlet,    they shall be as white as snow;  though they are red like crimson,    they shall become like wool.19   If you are willing and obedient,    you shall eat the good of the land;20   but if you refuse and rebel,    you shall be eaten by the sword;    for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” The Unfaithful City 21   How the faithful city    has become a whore,4    she who was full of justice!  Righteousness lodged in her,    but now murderers.22   Your silver has become dross,    your best wine mixed with water.23   Your princes are rebels    and companions of thieves.  Everyone loves a bribe    and runs after gifts.  They do not bring justice to the fatherless,    and the widow's cause does not come to them. 24   Therefore the Lord declares,    the LORD of hosts,    the Mighty One of Israel:  “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies    and avenge myself on my foes.25   I will turn my hand against you    and will smelt away your dross as with lye    and remove all your alloy.26   And I will restore your judges as at the first,    and your counselors as at the beginning.  Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness,    the faithful city.” 27   Zion shall be redeemed by justice,    and those in her who repent, by righteousness.28   But rebels and sinners shall be broken together,    and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.29   For they5 shall be ashamed of the oaks    that you desired;  and you shall blush for the gardens    that you have chosen.30   For you shall be like an oak    whose leaf withers,    and like a garden without water.31   And the strong shall become tinder,    and his work a spark,  and both of them shall burn together,    with none to quench them. The Mountain of the Lord 2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2   It shall come to pass in the latter days    that the mountain of the house of the LORD  shall be established as the highest of the mountains,    and shall be lifted up above the hills;  and all the nations shall flow to it,3     and many peoples shall come, and say:  “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,    to the house of the God of Jacob,  that he may teach us his ways    and that we may walk in his paths.”  For out of Zion shall go forth the law,6    and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.4   He shall judge between the nations,    and shall decide disputes for many peoples;  and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,    and their spears into pruning hooks;  nation shall not lift up sword against nation,    neither shall they learn war anymore. 5   O house of Jacob,    come, let us walk    in the light of the LORD. The Day of the Lord 6   For you have rejected your people,    the house of Jacob,  because they are full of things from the east    and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,    and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.7   Their land is filled with silver and gold,    and there is no end to their treasures;  their land is filled with horses,    and there is no end to their chariots.8   Their land is filled with idols;    they bow down to the work of their hands,    to what their own fingers have made.9   So man is humbled,    and each one is brought low—    do not forgive them!10   Enter into the rock    and hide in the dust  from before the terror of the LORD,    and from the splendor of his majesty.11   The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,    and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,  and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. 12   For the LORD of hosts has a day    against all that is proud and lofty,    against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;13   against all the cedars of Lebanon,    lofty and lifted up;    and against all the oaks of Bashan;14   against all the lofty mountains,    and against all the uplifted hills;15   against every high tower,    and against every fortified wall;16   against all the ships of Tarshish,    and against all the beautiful craft.17   And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,    and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,    and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.18   And the idols shall utterly pass away.19   And people shall enter the caves of the rocks    and the holes of the ground,7  from before the terror of the LORD,    and from the splendor of his majesty,    when he rises to terrify the earth. 20   In that day mankind will cast away    their idols of silver and their idols of gold,  which they made for themselves to worship,    to the moles and to the bats,21   to enter the caverns of the rocks    and the clefts of the cliffs,  from before the terror of the LORD,    and from the splendor of his majesty,    when he rises to terrify the earth.22   Stop regarding man    in whose nostrils is breath,    for of what account is he? Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem 3   For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts    is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah  support and supply,8    all support of bread,    and all support of water;2   the mighty man and the soldier,    the judge and the prophet,    the diviner and the elder,3   the captain of fifty    and the man of rank,  the counselor and the skillful magician    and the expert in charms.4   And I will make boys their princes,    and infants9 shall rule over them.5   And the people will oppress one another,    every one his fellow    and every one his neighbor;  the youth will be insolent to the elder,    and the despised to the honorable. 6   For a man will take hold of his brother    in the house of his father, saying:  “You have a cloak;    you shall be our leader,  and this heap of ruins    shall be under your rule”;7   in that day he will speak out, saying:  “I will not be a healer;10    in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;  you shall not make me    leader of the people.”8   For Jerusalem has stumbled,    and Judah has fallen,  because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD,    defying his glorious presence.11 9   For the look on their faces bears witness against them;    they proclaim their sin like Sodom;    they do not hide it.  Woe to them!    For they have brought evil on themselves.10   Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,    for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.11   Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,    for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.12   My people—infants are their oppressors,    and women rule over them.  O my people, your guides mislead you    and they have swallowed up12 the course of your paths. 13   The LORD has taken his place to contend;    he stands to judge peoples.14   The LORD will enter into judgment    with the elders and princes of his people:  “It is you who have devoured13 the vineyard,    the spoil of the poor is in your houses.15   What do you mean by crushing my people,    by grinding the face of the poor?”      declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 16   The LORD said:  Because the daughters of Zion are haughty    and walk with outstretched necks,    glancing wantonly with their eyes,  mincing along as they go,    tinkling with their feet,17   therefore the Lord will strike with a scab    the heads of the daughters of Zion,    and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts. 18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; 19 the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves;

Song of Solomon 1–8 Song of Solomon 1–8 (Listen) 1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. The Bride Confesses Her Love She1 2   Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!  For your love is better than wine;3     your anointing oils are fragrant;  your name is oil poured out;    therefore virgins love you.4   Draw me after you; let us run.    The king has brought me into his chambers. Others   We will exult and rejoice in you;    we will extol your love more than wine;    rightly do they love you. She 5   I am very dark, but lovely,    O daughters of Jerusalem,  like the tents of Kedar,    like the curtains of Solomon.6   Do not gaze at me because I am dark,    because the sun has looked upon me.  My mother's sons were angry with me;    they made me keeper of the vineyards,    but my own vineyard I have not kept!7   Tell me, you whom my soul loves,    where you pasture your flock,    where you make it lie down at noon;  for why should I be like one who veils herself    beside the flocks of your companions? Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other He 8   If you do not know,    O most beautiful among women,  follow in the tracks of the flock,    and pasture your young goats    beside the shepherds' tents. 9   I compare you, my love,    to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots.10   Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,    your neck with strings of jewels. Others 11   We will make for you2 ornaments of gold,    studded with silver. She 12   While the king was on his couch,    my nard gave forth its fragrance.13   My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh    that lies between my breasts.14   My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms    in the vineyards of Engedi. He 15   Behold, you are beautiful, my love;    behold, you are beautiful;    your eyes are doves. She 16   Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.  Our couch is green;17     the beams of our house are cedar;    our rafters are pine. 2   I am a rose3 of Sharon,    a lily of the valleys. He 2   As a lily among brambles,    so is my love among the young women. She 3   As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,    so is my beloved among the young men.  With great delight I sat in his shadow,    and his fruit was sweet to my taste.4   He brought me to the banqueting house,4    and his banner over me was love.5   Sustain me with raisins;    refresh me with apples,    for I am sick with love.6   His left hand is under my head,    and his right hand embraces me!7   I adjure you,5 O daughters of Jerusalem,    by the gazelles or the does of the field,  that you not stir up or awaken love    until it pleases. The Bride Adores Her Beloved 8   The voice of my beloved!    Behold, he comes,  leaping over the mountains,    bounding over the hills.9   My beloved is like a gazelle    or a young stag.  Behold, there he stands    behind our wall,  gazing through the windows,    looking through the lattice.10   My beloved speaks and says to me:  “Arise, my love, my beautiful one,    and come away,11   for behold, the winter is past;    the rain is over and gone.12   The flowers appear on the earth,    the time of singing6 has come,  and the voice of the turtledove    is heard in our land.13   The fig tree ripens its figs,    and the vines are in blossom;    they give forth fragrance.  Arise, my love, my beautiful one,    and come away.14   O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,    in the crannies of the cliff,  let me see your face,    let me hear your voice,  for your voice is sweet,    and your face is lovely.15   Catch the foxes7 for us,    the little foxes  that spoil the vineyards,    for our vineyards are in blossom.” 16   My beloved is mine, and I am his;    he grazes8 among the lilies.17   Until the day breathes    and the shadows flee,  turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle    or a young stag on cleft mountains.9 The Bride's Dream 3   On my bed by night  I sought him whom my soul loves;    I sought him, but found him not.2   I will rise now and go about the city,    in the streets and in the squares;  I will seek him whom my soul loves.    I sought him, but found him not.3   The watchmen found me    as they went about in the city.  “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”4   Scarcely had I passed them    when I found him whom my soul loves.  I held him, and would not let him go    until I had brought him into my mother's house,    and into the chamber of her who conceived me.5   I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,    by the gazelles or the does of the field,  that you not stir up or awaken love    until it pleases. Solomon Arrives for the Wedding 6   What is that coming up from the wilderness    like columns of smoke,  perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,    with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?7   Behold, it is the litter10 of Solomon!  Around it are sixty mighty men,    some of the mighty men of Israel,8   all of them wearing swords    and expert in war,  each with his sword at his thigh,    against terror by night.9   King Solomon made himself a carriage11    from the wood of Lebanon.10   He made its posts of silver,    its back of gold, its seat of purple;  its interior was inlaid with love    by the daughters of Jerusalem.11   Go out, O daughters of Zion,    and look upon King Solomon,  with the crown with which his mother crowned him    on the day of his wedding,    on the day of the gladness of his heart. Solomon Admires His Bride's Beauty He 4   Behold, you are beautiful, my love,    behold, you are beautiful!  Your eyes are doves    behind your veil.  Your hair is like a flock of goats    leaping down the slopes of Gilead.2   Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes    that have come up from the washing,  all of which bear twins,    and not one among them has lost its young.3   Your lips are like a scarlet thread,    and your mouth is lovely.  Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate    behind your veil.4   Your neck is like the tower of David,    built in rows of stone;12  on it hang a thousand shields,    all of them shields of warriors.5   Your two breasts are like two fawns,    twins of a gazelle,    that graze among the lilies.6   Until the day breathes    and the shadows flee,  I will go away to the mountain of myrrh    and the hill of frankincense.7   You are altogether beautiful, my love;    there is no flaw in you.8   Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;    come with me from Lebanon.  Depart13 from the peak of Amana,    from the peak of Senir and Hermon,  from the dens of lions,    from the mountains of leopards. 9   You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride;    you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes,    with one jewel of your necklace.10   How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!    How much better is your love than wine,    and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!11   Your lips drip nectar, my bride;    honey and milk are under your tongue;    the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.12   A garden locked is my sister, my bride,    a spring locked, a fountain sealed.13   Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates    with all choicest fruits,    henna with nard,14   nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,    with all trees of frankincense,  myrrh and aloes,    with all choice spices—15   a garden fountain, a well of living water,    and flowing streams from Lebanon. 16   Awake, O north wind,    and come, O south wind!  Blow upon my garden,    let its spices flow. Together in the Garden of Love She   Let my beloved come to his garden,    and eat its choicest fruits. He 5   I came to my garden, my sister, my bride,    I gathered my myrrh with my spice,    I ate my honeycomb with my honey,    I drank my wine with my milk. Others   Eat, friends, drink,    and be drunk with love! The Bride Searches for Her Beloved She 2   I slept, but my heart was awake.  A sound! My beloved is knocking.  “Open to me, my sister, my love,    my dove, my perfect one,  for my head is wet with dew,    my locks with the drops of the night.”3   I had put off my garment;    how could I put it on?  I had bathed my feet;    how could I soil them?4   My beloved put his hand to the latch,    and my heart was thrilled within me.5   I arose to open to my beloved,    and my hands dripped with myrrh,  my fingers with liquid myrrh,    on the handles of the bolt.6   I opened to my beloved,    but my beloved had turned and gone.  My soul failed me when he spoke.  I sought him, but found him not;    I called him, but he gave no answer.7   The watchmen found me    as they went about in the city;  they beat me, they bruised me,    they took away my veil,    those watchmen of the walls.8   I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,    if you find my beloved,  that you tell him    I am sick with love. Others 9   What is your beloved more than another beloved,    O most beautiful among women?  What is your beloved more than another beloved,    that you thus adjure us? The Bride Praises Her Beloved She 10   My beloved is radiant and ruddy,    distinguished among ten thousand.11   His head is the finest gold;    his locks are wavy,    black as a raven.12   His eyes are like doves    beside streams of water,  bathed in milk,    sitting beside a full pool.14