AFV2020 - Isaiah

Chapter 1

1:1  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.

1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken, "I have reared and brought up children, but they have rebelled against Me.

1:3  The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib; but Israel does not know Me; My people do not understand."

1:4  Ah, sinful nation, a people burdened with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD; they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger; they have gone away backward.

1:5  Why should you be stricken any more? You will revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

1:6  From the sole of the foot even to the top of the head there is no soundness in it; only wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed, nor bound up, nor soothed with ointment.

1:7  Your country is a desolation, your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land right in your very presence, and it is wasted, as overthrown by strangers.

1:8  And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, like a hut in a garden of cucumbers, like a besieged city.

1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have become like Gomorrah.

1:10  Hear the Word of the LORD, rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah.

1:11  "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" says the LORD; "I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

1:12  When you come to appear before Me, who has required this at your hand, to trample My courts?

1:13  Bring no more vain sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me—new moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies; I cannot endure iniquity along with the solemn assembly!

1:14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me; I am weary to bear them.

1:15  And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.

1:16  Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes; cease to do evil;

1:17  Learn to do good; seek judgment, reprove the oppressor. Judge the orphan, plead for the widow.

1:18  Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.

1:19  If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

1:20  But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword;" for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

1:21  How has the faithful city become a harlot? It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it—but now murderers.

1:22  Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water;

1:23  Your rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves a bribe, and is pursuing rewards; they do not judge the orphan, nor does the cause of the widow come before them.

1:24  And the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel says, "Alas! I Myself will vent My wrath upon My foes, and avenge Myself of My enemies.

1:25  And I will turn back My hand upon you, and purge away your dross as with lye, and take away all your tin alloy.

1:26  And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning; afterwards you shall be called The City of Righteousness, The Faithful City."

1:27  Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and those in her who repent with righteousness.

1:28  And the downfall of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together; and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed,

1:29  For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens which you have chosen,

1:30  For you shall be like an oak whose leaf fades, and like a garden that has no water.

1:31  And the strong shall be like a wick, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall put them out.

Chapter 2

2:1  The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2:2  And it shall come to pass, in the last days the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it.

2:3  And many people shall go and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

2:4  And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; 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 any more.

2:5  O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the LORD,

2:6  For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, because they have become full of divinations from the east, and are fortunetellers like the Philistines. And they shake their hands with the children of strangers.

2:7  And their land is full of silver and gold. There is no end of their treasures and their land is full of horses; neither is there any end of their chariots.

2:8  And their land is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.

2:9  And men will be brought low, and humbled—forgive them not.

2:10  Enter into the rock and hide in the dust for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of His majesty.

2:11  The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the pride of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day,

2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every proud and haughty one, and upon every exalted one; and they shall be brought low,

2:13  And it shall be upon all the high and lifted up cedars of Lebanon, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,

2:14  And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,

2:15  And upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall;

2:16  And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasurable craft.

2:17  And the pride of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

2:18  And the idols He shall utterly abolish.

2:19  And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth for fear of the LORD and for the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake terribly the earth.

2:20  In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

2:21  To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD and for the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake terribly the earth.

2:22  Turn away yourselves from such a man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for in what is he to be esteemed?

Chapter 3

3:1  For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water,

3:2  The man of might and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the ancient,

3:3  The captain of fifty, and the honorable man and the adviser, and the cunning charmer and the skillful enchanter.

3:4  "And I will give young lads to be their princes, and capricious children shall rule over them.

3:5  And the people shall be crushed, every man by another, and every man by his neighbor; the young shall rise up against the old, and the base against the honorable."

3:6  When a man shall take hold of his brother of his father's house, saying, "You have clothing, you be our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand;"

3:7  In that day he shall swear, saying, "I will not be a healer; there is no bread nor a cloak in my house. You shall not make me a ruler of people."

3:8  For Jerusalem is staggering and Judah has fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of His glory.

3:9  The look of their faces witnesses against them; and they declare their sin like Sodom. They do not hide it! Woe to their soul! For they have rewarded evil to themselves.

3:10  "Say to the righteous that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

3:11  Woe to the wicked! For the evil doing of his hand will be given to him.

3:12  As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. Oh, My people, those who lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths."

3:13  The LORD stands up to plead His case, and stands up to judge the people.

3:14  The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders of His people, and their kings: "For you have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

3:15  What do you mean? You crush My people and grind the faces of the poor?" says the Lord, God of hosts.

3:16  And the LORD says, "Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and have walked with stretched out necks and ogling with their eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet;

3:17  Therefore the LORD will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will uncover their secret parts."

3:18  In that day the LORD will take away the beauty of ankle bracelets, and the headbands, and the crescents,

3:19  The pendants, and the bracelets, and the veils;

3:20  The headdresses, and the leg ornaments, and the sashes, and the boxes of perfume, and the earrings;

3:21  The rings and nose jewels;

3:22  The festal apparel and the outer garments; and the mantles, and the purses;

3:23  The mirrors and the fine linen; and the turbans and the veils.

3:24  And there shall be, instead of fragrance, rottenness; and instead of a sash, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a wrapping of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.

3:25  Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war.

3:26  And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall sit deserted upon the ground.

Chapter 4

4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let us be called by your name. Take away our shame."

4:2  In that day shall the Branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely for those who are the survivors of Israel.

4:3  And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written unto life in Jerusalem;

4:4  When the LORD shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

4:5  And the LORD will create over every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be a canopy.

4:6  And there shall be a tabernacle for shade by day from the heat, and for refuge, and for shelter from storm and rain.

Chapter 5

5:1  Now I will sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard. My Beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.

5:2  And He dug it up, and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines, and built a tower in its midst, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and He looked for it to produce grapes. But it produced worthless fruits.

5:3  "And now, O people of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, I ask you to judge between Me and My vineyard.

5:4  What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Who knows? I looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

5:5  And now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard; I will take away its hedge, and it shall be consumed; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down;

5:6  And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor dug; but briers and thorns shall come up. And I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it."

5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant; and He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress!

5:8  Woe to those who join house to house, that lay field to field, until there is no place left, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!

5:9  The LORD of hosts swore in my ears, "Truly, many houses shall be deserted, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

5:10  Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah."

5:11  Woe to those who rise up early in the morning to go after strong drink; who continue late into the night while wine inflames them!

5:12  And the lyre, and the harp, the drum, and pipe, and wine, are at their feasts; but they do not regard the work of the LORD. Yea, they do not see the work of His hands.

5:13  Therefore My people are gone into exile because they have no knowledge, and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude is dried up with thirst.

5:14  Therefore the grave has enlarged its appetite, and opened its mouth without limit; and down goes her glory and multitude and brawlers, and he who rejoices in her, shall go down into it.

5:15  And man is bowed down, and men are brought low, and the eyes of the lofty are humbled.

5:16  But the LORD of hosts is exalted in judgment, and God, the Holy One, is sanctified in righteousness.

5:17  Then shall the lambs feed in their own pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

5:18  Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin with cart ropes;

5:19  Who say, "Let Him hurry and hasten His work, so that we may see it; and let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, so that we may know!"

5:20  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!

5:21  Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

5:22  Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

5:23  Who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

5:24  Therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame burns up the chaff; their root shall be like rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up like dust because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel.

5:25  Therefore, the anger of the LORD is kindled against His people, and He has stretched out His hand against them, and has stricken them; and the hills trembled, and their dead bodies were as filth in the midst of the streets. In all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

5:26  And He will lift up a banner to distant nations, and will whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, they shall come with swift speed.

5:27  None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the waistcoat of their loins be loosened, nor the thong of their sandals be broken;

5:28  Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.

5:29  Their roaring shall be like a lion; they shall roar like young lions; for, they shall roar and lay hold of the prey, and carry it away, and none shall deliver it.

5:30  And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if one looks to the land, behold darkness! Distress! And the light shall be darkened by its clouds.

Chapter 6

6:1  In the year that King Uzziah died, I then saw the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.

6:2  Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

6:3  And one cried to another, and said, "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."

6:4  And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of the one who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

6:5  Then I said, "Woe is me! For I am undone; 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."

6:6  Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth and said, "Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

6:8  And I heard the voice of the LORD, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I; send me!"

6:9  And He said, "Go, and tell this people, 'You hear indeed, but do not understand; and you see indeed, but do not perceive.'

6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and return, and be healed."

6:11  Then I said, "LORD, how long?" And He answered, "Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without a man, and the land is ruined—an utter desolation.

6:12  And until the LORD has removed men far away, and the desolation in the midst of the land is great.

6:13  But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and be consumed like the terebinth and like the oak being felled, yet its stump remains; so the holy seed shall be its stump."

Chapter 7

7:1  And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not overcome it.

7:2  And it was told to the house of David, saying, "Syria is allied with Ephraim." And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the woods are moved by the wind.

7:3  Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear Jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the Fuller's Field.

7:4  And say to him, 'Be careful and keep calm. Do not fear, nor be timid of heart because of the two tails of these smoking firebrands or because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah;

7:5  Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted against you, saying,

7:6  "Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and break her for ourselves, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabel."

7:7  Thus says the Lord GOD, "It shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass,

7:8  For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken so that it shall not be a people.

7:9  And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established."’ ”

7:10  And the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

7:11  "Ask a sign of the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above."

7:12  But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, nor will I tempt the LORD."

7:13  And he said, "Hear now, O house of David; is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?

7:14  Therefore, the LORD Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel.

7:15  Butter and honey He shall eat until He knows to refuse the evil and choose the good,

7:16  For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you are afraid of shall be forsaken.

7:17  The LORD shall bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon your father's house, days that have not come since the days that Ephraim departed from Judah—even the king of Assyria."

7:18  And it shall be, in that day the LORD shall whistle for the fly at the end of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

7:19  And they shall come and all of them shall rest in the steep ravines, and in the crevices of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all the bushes.

7:20  In that day the LORD shall shave with a razor—by those who are hired, namely, by them beyond the River, by the king of Assyria—the head, and the hair of the feet; and it shall also sweep away the beard.

7:21  And it shall come to pass, in that day a man shall keep alive a young cow and two sheep;

7:22  And it shall come to pass, from the plentiful supply of milk they shall give, he shall eat butter; for butter and honey shall everyone eat who is left in the land.

7:23  And it shall come to pass, in that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

7:24  With arrows and with the bow men shall come there because all the land shall become briers and thorns.

7:25  And all hills which were hoed with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending out of the ox, and for the trampling of sheep.

Chapter 8

8:1  And the LORD said to me, "Take a great scroll and write on it in ordinary letters with a man's pen, 'Make haste to plunder! Hasten to the prey!'

8:2  And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah."

8:3  And I went to the prophetess. And she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Call his name Mahershalal- Hash-Baz,

8:4  For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, 'My father' and 'My mother,' the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria."

8:5  The LORD spoke to me again saying,

8:6  "Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;

8:7  Now therefore, behold, the LORD brings upon them the waters of the River, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory. And he shall come up over all his channels and go over all his banks.

8:8  And he shall sweep through Judah, overflowing as he passes through; he shall reach even to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.

8:9  Make an uproar, O people, and be shattered in pieces! And give ear, all of you from the far countries of the earth. Gird yourselves and be broken. Gird yourselves and be broken!

8:10  Take counsel together, and it shall be frustrated. Speak a word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us."

8:11  For thus the LORD spoke to me with a strong hand, and warned me against walking in the way of this people, saying,

8:12  "Do not say, 'A conspiracy!' to everything of which this people says, 'A conspiracy!' And do not fear their fear, nor be afraid.

8:13  The LORD of hosts, Him shall you sanctify, and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.

8:14  And He shall be a sanctuary for you—but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, and for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

8:15  And many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

8:16  Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples."

8:17  And I will wait upon the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; and I will trust in Him.

8:18  Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, Who dwells in Mount Zion.

8:19  And when they shall say to you, "Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and to wizards who peep and mutter"— but should not a people seek unto their God? Should the dead be sought on behalf of the living?

8:20  To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.

8:21  And they shall pass through the land, hard pressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall rave and curse their king and their God, and look upward.

8:22  And they shall look to the land; and behold, trouble and darkness and gloom of anguish! And they shall be driven away into darkness.

Chapter 9

9:1  Yet there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish, as in the former time. He afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He will glorify the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

9:2  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; they who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light has shined.

9:3  You have multiplied the nation. You have increased their joy. They rejoice before You according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil,

9:4  For You have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his taskmaster, as in the day of Midian;

9:5  For every warrior's boot used in battle, and every garment rolled in blood shall be burning fuel for the fire.

9:6  For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

9:7  Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and over His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with righteousness from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

9:8  The LORD sent a word against Jacob, and it has fallen upon Israel.

9:9  And all the people shall know, Ephraim and the people of Samaria, saying in pride and arrogance of heart,

9:10  "The bricks have fallen down, but we will build with cut stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will use cedars instead."

9:11  And the LORD shall set up the foes of Rezin against him, and spur on his enemies;

9:12  The Syrians from the east and the Philistines from the west; and they shall devour Israel with an open mouth. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still,

9:13  For the people do not turn to Him Who strikes them, nor do they seek the LORD of hosts.

9:14  And the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.

9:15  The elder and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail,

9:16  For the leaders of this people led them astray; and those who are led by them are swallowed up.

9:17  Therefore the LORD shall not rejoice over their young men, nor shall He have mercy on their orphans and widows; for everyone is ungodly and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks foolishness. In all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still,

9:18  For wickedness burns like the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall roll upwards like the lifting up of smoke.

9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land scorched, and the people shall be as the fuel for the fire; no man shall spare his brother.

9:20  And they shall snatch on the right hand and still be hungry; and they shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied. Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm;

9:21  Manasseh on Ephraim; and Ephraim on Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. In all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

Chapter 10

10:1  "Woe to those who decree unrighteous edicts, and to those who issue oppressive decrees;

10:2  To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to steal the right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the orphans!

10:3  And what will you do in the day of judgment and destruction, in the day of devastation which shall come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your wealth?

10:4  They can do nothing but to cringe among the captives, or fall among the slain." In all this His hand is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

10:5  "Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger! And the staff in their hand is My fury.

10:6  I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My wrath. I will command him to take the plunder, and to strip off the spoil, and to trample them like mud in the streets.

10:7  Yet he does not plan this, nor does his heart think so, for it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few;

10:8  For he says, 'Are not my commanders all like kings?

10:9  Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

10:10  As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols—and their graven images are greater than Jerusalem's and Samaria's—

10:11  Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her idols?' ”

10:12  Therefore, it shall come to pass, when the LORD has finished all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, "I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and for the haughty look in his eyes."

10:13  For he says, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am wise. And I have removed the bounds of the people, and have plundered their treasures, and I have put down the people like a strong man.

10:14  And my hand has found the riches of the people as a nest; and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth; and there was none who moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped."

10:15  Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it? Shall the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if the rod itself could swing against those who lift it up! As if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were not wood!

10:16  Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones; and under his glory He shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

10:17  And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and His Holy One as a flame; and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.

10:18  And it shall burn up the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a sick one wastes away.

10:19  And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be so few, that a child might write them down.

10:20  And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped of the house of Jacob, shall never again lean upon him who struck them; but lean upon the Lord Who is in truth, the Holy One of Israel.

10:21  A remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God;

10:22  For though Your people Israel are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them shall return; a destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

10:23  For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a full end, as ordained, in the midst of all the earth.

10:24  Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, "O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria. He shall strike you with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did;

10:25  For yet a little while, and the indignation shall cease, and My anger will be to their destruction."

10:26  And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge against him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and as His rod was over the sea, so shall He lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

10:27  And it shall come to pass, in that day his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of fatness.

10:28  He has come to Aiath, he has passed to Migron; at Michmash he has stored his baggage;

10:29  They have gone over the pass; they have bedded down at Geba; Ramah is afraid, Gibeah of Saul has fled.

10:30  Cry with a shrill voice, O daughter of heaps! Hearken O Laish! respond to her O poor Anathoth.

10:31  Madmenah wanders; the people of Gebim take refuge.

10:32  Yet he shall remain in Nob today; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

10:33  Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror; and the lofty ones shall be cut down, and the proud shall be humbled.

10:34  And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

Chapter 11

11:1  And there shall come forth a shoot out from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

11:2  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 of the fear of the LORD.

11:3  And His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. And He shall not judge according to the sight of His eyes, nor after the hearing of His ears.

11:4  But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and shall reprove 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 slay the wicked.

11:5  And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.

11:6  Also the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the cub lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

11:7  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

11:8  And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the viper's den.

11:9  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

11:10  "And in that day there shall be the Root of Jesse standing as a banner for the people; to Him the nations shall seek; and His rest shall be glorious."

11:11  And it shall come to pass in that day, the LORD shall again set His hand, the second time, to recover the remnant of His people that remains, from Assyria and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Ethiopia, and from Persia, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the coasts of the sea.

11:12  And He shall lift up a banner for the nations, and shall gather the outcasts of Israel and gather together the scattered ones of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

11:13  And the envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not trouble Ephraim.

11:14  But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines to the west; they shall spoil the sons of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

11:15  And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His scorching wind He shall shake His hand over the River, and shall strike it into seven streams, so that men can cross over in sandals.

11:16  And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people, those left from Assyria; as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

Chapter 12

12:1  And in that day you shall say, " I will give thanks to You O LORD; though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You do comfort me.

12:2  Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for the LORD God is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation."

12:3  And with joy you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation.

12:4  And in that day you shall say, "Praise the LORD! Call upon His name; declare His doings among the people, make mention that His name is exalted.

12:5  Sing to the LORD; for He has done gloriously; this is known in all the earth.

12:6  Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst."

Chapter 13

13:1  The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:

13:2  "Lift up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice to them, wave the hand, so that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

13:3  I have commanded My holy ones, I have also called My mighty ones for My anger, even those who rejoice in My triumph."

13:4  The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the LORD of hosts gathers an army for the battle.

13:5  They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, the LORD and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole earth.

13:6  Howl! For the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

13:7  Therefore, all hands shall be faint, and every man's heart shall melt;

13:8  And they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. They shall be in pain like a woman who travails. They shall be amazed at one another, their faces are like blazing fire.

13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation; and He shall destroy the sinners out of it,

13:10  For the stars of the heavens and their constellations shall not give light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not reflect its light.

13:11  "And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the tyrants.

13:12  I will make man more scarce than gold; even man more than the fine gold of Ophir.

13:13  Therefore, I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of its place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger.

13:14  And it shall be as a hunted gazelle, and as sheep without a shepherd; each man shall look to his own people, and each one shall flee into his own land.

13:15  Everyone who is found shall be thrust through; and everyone who is captured shall fall by the sword.

13:16  And their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be plundered, and their wives raped.

13:17  Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not value silver; and they shall not delight in gold.

13:18  And their bows shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

13:19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the majestic beauty of the Chaldees, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

13:20  It shall never be inhabited forever, nor shall people dwell in it from generation to generation; nor shall the Arabian pitch his tent there; nor shall the shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.

13:21  But the wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of howling creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and he-goats shall dance there.

13:22  And hyenas shall cry in their towers, and jackals in their luxuriant palaces. Yea, her time is coming near, and her days shall not be prolonged."

Chapter 14

14:1  For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land; and the stranger shall be joined with them, and they shall cling to the house of Jacob.

14:2  And the people shall take them and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids. And they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

14:3  And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage which was imposed on you,

14:4  You shall take up this song against the king of Babylon and say, "How the oppressor has ceased! How his fury has ceased!

14:5  The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers

14:6  Who struck people in wrath, with unceasing blows, ruling the nations in anger, with an unrelenting persecution.

14:7  All the earth is at rest and is quiet; they break out into singing.

14:8  Yea, the fir trees rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, 'Since you have fallen, no woodcutter will come up against us.'

14:9  Hell from below is excited over you, to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the spirits of the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth. It has raised from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

14:10  All of them shall speak and say to you, 'Have you become weak as we? Have you become like us?

14:11  Your pride is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your harps. The maggot is spread under you, and the worms cover you.'

14:12  How you are fallen from the heavens, O shining star, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!

14:13  For you have said in your heart, 'I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.

14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.'

14:15  Yet you shall be brought down to the grave, to the sides of the pit.

14:16  Those who see you shall stare and watch you closely, saying, 'Is this the man who made the earth to tremble; who shook kingdoms;

14:17  Who made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed its cities; who did not allow his prisoners to go free?'

14:18  All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

14:19  But you are cast out of your grave like a hateful branch, and like the clothing of those who are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trampled under foot.

14:20  You shall not be joined with them in burial because you destroyed your land and killed your people; the seed of evildoers shall never be famous.

14:21  Prepare slaughter for his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, so that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities."

14:22  "For I will rise up against them," says the LORD of hosts, "and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and children, and grandchildren," says the LORD.

14:23  "I will also make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says the LORD of hosts.

14:24  The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, "Surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass; and as I have purposed, so it shall stand;

14:25  That I will break Assyria in My land, and upon My mountains, and trample him under foot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulders.

14:26  This is the purpose that is purposed upon all the earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations,

14:27  For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who shall reverse it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?"

14:28  This burden was in the year that king Ahaz died:

14:29  "Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for a viper comes forth from the root of a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

14:30  And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and he shall slay your survivors.

14:31  Howl, O gate! Cry, O city! Melt away O Philistia, all of you; for from the north a smoke comes, and there is no straggler in his ranks."

14:32  What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of His people take refuge.

Chapter 15

15:1  The burden of Moab. Because in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste; it is brought to ruin; because in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste; it is brought to ruin.

15:2  One has gone up to the house, even to Dibon, the high places, to weep. Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba; baldness shall be on all their heads, every beard cut off.

15:3  In the streets they shall clothe themselves with sackcloth; on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, everyone shall howl, weeping bitterly.

15:4  And Heshbon shall cry out, and also Elealeh; their voice shall be heard as far as Jahaz. So the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his soul trembles within him.

15:5  "My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives flee to Zoar, like a heifer of three years. He goes up the ascent to Luhith with weeping; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction,

15:6  For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the grass has withered away and the vegetation fails, there is no green thing.

15:7  Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away over the Brook of the Willows,

15:8  For the cry has gone around the border of Moab, its howling even to Eglaim. Yea, its howling even to Beer Elim,

15:9  For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring still more upon Dimon, a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.

Chapter 16

16:1  Send the lambs to the ruler of the land from the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Zion,

16:2  For it shall be that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of Arnon.

16:3  "Take counsel, do judgment; make your shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; do not betray the fugitive.

16:4  Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab; be a shelter to them from the face of the destroyer; for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.

16:5  And in mercy the throne shall be established; and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice, and speeding the cause of righteousness."

16:6  We have heard of the pride of Moab; very proud; even of his vanity, and his pride, and his rage; but his boasts shall not be so.

16:7  Therefore Moab shall howl; everyone of Moab shall howl. All of it shall howl for the sweet cakes of Kir Hareseth; surely they are stricken,

16:8  For Heshbon's fields and the vine of Sibmah waste away. The lords of the nations have crushed its choice plants, they have come to Jazer, they wander in the wilderness; her branches are stretched out, they have crossed over the sea.

16:9  On account of this I will weep with the weeping of Jazer, the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for the battle shout has fallen on your fruit and on your harvest.

16:10  And gladness and joy are taken away out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there is no singing and no shouting. No one treads out wine in the presses; I have made their shouting to cease.

16:11  Therefore my heart shall mourn like a lyre for Moab, and my bowels for Kir Hareseth.

16:12  And it shall come to pass when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, he shall come to his sacred place to pray; but he shall not prevail.

16:13  This is the word that the LORD has spoken earlier concerning Moab.

16:14  But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be abased with all her great host and the remnant shall be very small and feeble."

Chapter 17

17:1  The burden against Damascus: "Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a heap of ruins.

17:2  The cities of Aroer are forsaken; now they shall be for flocks; they shall lie down, and no one terrifies them.

17:3  And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the rest of Syria. They shall be as the glory of the children of Israel," says the LORD of hosts.

17:4  "And it shall come to pass in that day, the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.

17:5  And it shall be as the reaping of the harvest grain—with his arm one reaps the ears. And it shall be as he who gathers ears in the Valley of the Giants.

17:6  Yet a gleaning of grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three ripe olives in the top of the uppermost branch, four or five in the branches of the fruitful tree," says the LORD, God of Israel.

17:7  In that day a man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

17:8  And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, nor respect that which his fingers have made, neither the groves or the images.

17:9  In that day his strong cities shall be like forsaken places in the forest, or like branches, which they left because of the children of Israel; and it will become a desolation.

17:10  Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your strength, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants and shall sow it a fresh shoot.

17:11  In the day of your planting you fence it in; and in the morning you make your seed sprout. But the harvest shall be a heap of boughs in the day of grief and incurable pain.

17:12  Oh the uproar of many people, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations who rush on like the rushing of mighty waters!

17:13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters; but He shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like whirling dust before a gale.

17:14  At evening time, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are not! This is the lot of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

Chapter 18

18:1  Woe to the land of whirring of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,

18:2  Which sends ambassadors by the sea, even in ships of papyrus upon the waters, saying, "Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a terrifying people from their beginning onwards; a mighty and conquering nation, whose land the rivers have divided!"

18:3  All people of the world and dwellers upon the earth, you will see when a banner is lifted up on the peaks. And you will hear when the ram's horn is blown,

18:4  For thus the LORD said to me, "I will take My rest, and I will look on from My dwelling place, like a clear heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

18:5  For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.

18:6  They shall be left together for the birds of the mountains, and for the beasts of the earth; and the birds shall feed upon them all summer, and all the beasts of the earth all winter.

18:7  In that time shall a present be brought to the LORD of hosts—from a terrifying, tall and smooth people, and from a people terrible from their beginning, a mighty and conquering nation whose land the rivers have divided—to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, Mount Zion.

Chapter 19

19:1  The burden against Egypt: Behold, the LORD rides upon a swift cloud and comes into Egypt. And the idols of Egypt shall tremble at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in its midst.

19:2  "And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians; and they shall fight each man against his brother, and each against his neighbor; city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

19:3  And the spirit of Egypt shall be demoralized in the midst of it, and I will bring his plans to nothing. And they shall seek to idols, and to the enchanters, and to the mediums, and to the familiar spirits.

19:4  And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel lords; and a fierce king shall rule over them," says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

19:5  And the waters from the sea will dry up, and the river shall be parched and dry.

19:6  And rivers shall be fouled; the streams of Egypt will languish and dry up; the reed and the rush shall wither.

19:7  Bare places shall be at the Nile, by the mouth of the Nile, and everything sown by the Nile shall dry up, be driven away, and be no more.

19:8  The fishermen also shall mourn, and all who drop a hook into the Nile shall wail, and those who spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

19:9  And the workers in fine flax, and the weavers of white cloth shall be ashamed.

19:10  And her foundations shall be crushed, and all wage earners shall be grieved in soul.

19:11  Surely the princes of Zoan are utter fools; the advice of Pharaoh's wisest advisors is stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, "I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?"

19:12  Where are they? Where are your wise men? And let them tell you now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

19:13  The rulers of Zoan have become fools, the rulers of Noph are deceived; they that are the chief of her tribes have caused Egypt to go astray.

19:14  The LORD has mixed a perverse spirit in its midst; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all its work, like a drunkard staggers in his vomit.

19:15  And Egypt shall have no work that the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

19:16  In that day Egypt shall be like women; and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He shakes over it.

19:17  And the land of Judah shall be a terror to Egypt; everyone who mentions it shall be afraid toward it because of the purpose of the LORD of hosts, which He has purposed against it.

19:18  In that day five cities in the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called the City of Desolation.

19:19  In that day there shall be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border to the LORD.

19:20  And it shall be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry to the LORD because of the oppressors, and He shall send them a deliverer, and a great one, and will deliver them.

19:21  And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and Egypt shall know the LORD in that day, and shall offer sacrifice and offering; and vow a vow to the LORD, and perform it.

19:22  And the LORD shall strike Egypt; He shall strike and heal; and they shall return to the LORD, and He shall respond to them and shall heal them.

19:23  In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria shall come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and Egypt shall serve with Assyria.

19:24  In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land;

19:25  Whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed be My people Egypt, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance."

Chapter 20

20:1  In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;

20:2  At that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go and take the sackcloth off your loins, and take your shoe off your foot." And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

20:3  And the LORD said, "Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years, for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;

20:4  So shall the king of Assyria lead away Egypt's prisoners, and the Ethiopian exiles, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with uncovered buttocks, to the shame of Egypt.

20:5  And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their hope, and of Egypt their glory.

20:6  And the inhabitants of the coastland shall say in that day, 'Behold, this was our hope to which we fled for help, to be delivered from before the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?' "

Chapter 21

21:1  The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea: As tempests in the south pass, it comes from the desert, from a dreadful land.

21:2  A harsh vision is revealed to me; the deceiver deceives, and the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media! I have caused all her sighing to cease.

21:3  Therefore my loins are filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me like the pangs of a woman who travails; I was bowed down from hearing; I was so frightened that I could not see.

21:4  My heart is bewildered, terror overwhelms me; the twilight of my pleasure has been turned into trembling.

21:5  Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink; arise, rulers. Anoint the shield,

21:6  For thus the LORD has said to me, "Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees."

21:7  And when he sees a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of a donkey, and a chariot of a camel, then let him listen, very attentively.

21:8  And he cried out as a lion, "My LORD, without ceasing, I stand upon the watchtower by day, and I am stationed at my post every night.

21:9  And, behold, here comes a chariot of a man, a pair of horsemen." And he answered and said, "Babylon has fallen, has fallen! And all the graven images of her gods He has smashed to the ground."

21:10  O my threshing, and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

21:11  The burden against Dumah: He calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"

21:12  The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night; if you will inquire, inquire, and come again."

21:13  The burden against Arabia: You shall lodge in the forest of Arabia, O traveling companies of Dedanites.

21:14  Bring water for the thirsty, O inhabitants of Tema, meet the fugitive with bread,

21:15  For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war;

21:16  For so has the LORD said to me, "Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail;

21:17  And the rest of the number of archers, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, shall be cut down; for the LORD, God of Israel, has spoken it."

Chapter 22

22:1  The burden against the Valley of Vision. What ails you now, that you have gone up to the housetops?

22:2  O town full of commotion, O city of tumult and revelry that fills the noisy city, the raucous city. Your slain ones are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.

22:3  All your rulers fled together; they were bound without the bow; all who are found in you are bound together; they have fled afar off.

22:4  Therefore I said, "Look away from me; I will weep bitterly; do not hurry to comfort me because of the destruction of the daughter of my people."

22:5  For it is a day of trouble, and of trampling down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the Valley of Vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountain.

22:6  And Persia carried the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.

22:7  And it came to pass, your choicest valleys were full of chariots; and the horsemen surely shall set themselves in order at the gate.

22:8  And he removed Judah's covering, and you looked in that day to the armor of the house of the forest.

22:9  You have seen also the breaks in the city of David, that they are many; and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.

22:10  And you have counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you have broken down the houses to fortify the wall.

22:11  You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool; but you have not looked to Him Who has done this, neither have you respect unto Him Who formed it long ago.

22:12  And on that day the LORD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, and for baldness, and for girding with sackcloth.

22:13  Then, lo, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, saying, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

22:14  And it was revealed in my ears by the LORD of hosts, "Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until you die," says the Lord GOD of hosts.

22:15  Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, "Go, go up to this treasurer, to Shebna who is over the house. Say,

22:16  'What do you have here? And whom do you have here, that you have carved out a tomb for yourself here, as one who cuts himself out a tomb on high, who cuts out a habitation for himself in a rock?

22:17  Behold, the LORD will carry you away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover you.

22:18  He will roll you up like a ball and throw you into a large country. There the chariots of your glory shall be, the shame of your lord's house.

22:19  And I will drive you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.

22:20  And in that day it shall be, even I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.

22:21  And I will clothe him with your robe, and will fasten your girdle on him, and I will give your government into his hand. And he shall be a father to the people of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

22:22  And the key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

22:23  And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.

22:24  And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the posterity, all small vessels, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of jars.

22:25  In that day,' says the LORD of hosts, 'the nail that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed, and be cut down, and fall. And the burden that was upon it shall be cut off. The LORD has spoken it.' ”

Chapter 23

23:1  The burden against Tyre: Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

23:2  Be still, inhabitants of the coast, you merchants of Sidon, who pass over the sea. They have filled you.

23:3  And by great waters, the seed of Shihor and the harvest of the river Nile was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations.

23:4  Be ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the strength of the sea, saying, "I have not travailed nor brought forth children. I have not nourished young men nor raised up virgins."

23:5  As the report comes to Egypt, so they shall be grieved at the report of Tyre.

23:6  Pass over Tarshish. Howl, inhabitants of the coast!

23:7  Is this your joyous city whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands.

23:8  Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth?

23:9  The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

23:10  Pass through your land like a river, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no more power to restrain.

23:11  He stretched out His hand over the sea; He shook kingdoms. The LORD has made a decree against the merchant city, to destroy its strongholds.

23:12  And He said, "You shall rejoice no more, O oppressed one, virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Chittim; also there you shall have no rest."

23:13  Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people which was not. Assyria destined it for wild beasts who live in the desert. They set up their siege towers; they stripped its palaces. They made it a ruin.

23:14  Howl, ships of Tarshish! For your stronghold is laid waste.

23:15  And it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will be as in the song of a harlot to Tyre.

23:16  "Take a lyre, go about the city, O harlot who has been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs so that you may be remembered."

23:17  And it shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her hire and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

23:18  And her goods and her wages shall be holiness to the LORD. It shall not be treasured nor laid up, for her goods shall be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat enough, and for choice clothing.

Chapter 24

24:1  Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants.

24:2  And as it is with the people, so it shall be with the priest; as with the slave, so with the master; as with the handmaid, so it is 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.

24:3  The earth shall be completely laid waste, and utterly stripped; for the LORD has spoken this word.

24:4  The earth mourns and languishes; the world withers and languishes; the proud people of the earth wither.

24:5  And the earth is defiled under its people; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and have broken the everlasting covenant.

24:6  Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and they who dwell in it are desolate; therefore the people of the earth are burned, and few men are left.

24:7  The new wine mourns, the vine withers, all the merry-hearted sigh.

24:8  The gladness of tambourines ceases, the noise of those who rejoice ends; the joy of the lyre ceases.

24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to those who drink it.

24:10  The city of shame is broken down; every house is shut up so that no one may come in.

24:11  A crying for wine is in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth in the land has gone.

24:12  In the city, it is left a desolation, and the gate is stricken with destruction,

24:13  For so it is in the midst of the earth among the people, it shall be like the shaking of an olive tree and as gleanings when the grape harvest is completed.

24:14  They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

24:15  Therefore glorify the LORD in the east where the light dawns, the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

24:16  From the ends of the earth we have heard songs, "Glory to the righteous." But I said, "Leanness to me! Leanness to me! Woe to me! Deceivers deceive, even treacherously. Deceivers deceive!"

24:17  Dread and the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.

24:18  And it shall be, he who flees from the sound of dread shall fall into the pit. And he who comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare, for the windows from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth quake.

24:19  The earth is broken, yea broken down! The earth is crumbling, yea crumbling to pieces! The earth is tottering, yea tottering!

24:20  Like a drunkard the earth is staggering, yea staggering! And it rocks to and fro like a tree hut! And its transgressions are heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again.

24:21  And it shall come to pass in that day, the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

24:22  And they shall be gathered, as prisoners are gathered in a dungeon. And they shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days they shall be punished.

24:23  Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun shall be ashamed, for the LORD of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, and gloriously before His elders.

Chapter 25

25:1  O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will praise Your name; for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth,

25:2  For You have made a city a heap; a fortified city into a ruin; a citadel of foreigners to be no city; it shall never be rebuilt.

25:3  Therefore the strong people glorify You, the city of the terrible nations shall fear You,

25:4  For You are a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is like a storm against the wall.

25:5  You shall bring down the noise of foreigners, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud. The shouting of the terrifying ones shall be brought low.

25:6  And in this mountain the LORD of hosts shall make a feast of fat things for all the people, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of refined wines on the lees.

25:7  And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering which covers all people, and the veil that is woven over all nations.

25:8  He will destroy death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces. And He shall take away from all the earth the rebuke of His people, for the LORD has spoken it.

25:9  And one shall say in that day, "Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."

25:10  For the hand of the LORD shall rest in this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled under Him, even as straw is trampled in the dung pit.

25:11  And He shall spread out His hands in their midst, as he who swims strokes to swim. But He shall bring down their pride together with the skills of their hands.

25:12  And the fortress of the high fort of your walls He will lay low, bring them down to the ground, even to the dust.

Chapter 26

26:1  In that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city; He sets up salvation as our walls and banks.

26:2  Open the gates, so that the righteous nation shall enter in, one that is faithfully keeping truth.

26:3  You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You; because he trusts in You.

26:4  Trust in the LORD forever; for God the LORD is the everlasting Rock,

26:5  For He brings down those who dwell on high; He lays low the lofty city; He lays it low, even to the ground; He brings it even to the dust.

26:6  The foot shall trample it, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy."

26:7  The way of the just is uprightness; O Upright One, You make the path of the righteous level.

26:8  Yea, in the way of Your judgments, O LORD, we have waited for You; for Your name and for Your remembrance is the desire of our soul.

26:9  With my soul I desired You in the night; yea, with my spirit within me I will seek You earnestly; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the people of the world will learn righteousness.

26:10  Though favor is shown to the wicked, he will not learn righteousness; even in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

26:11  LORD, Your hand is lifted up, but they will not see; let them see the zeal you have for your people and be put to shame. Yea, the fire shall devour Your enemies.

26:12  LORD, You will ordain peace for us; for You also have accomplished all our works in us.

26:13  O LORD our God, other lords besides You have had the rule over us; but by You only will we make mention of Your name.

26:14  The dead, they shall not live; the deceased shall not rise. Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, and made all memory of them to perish.

26:15  You have increased the nation, O LORD, You have increased the nation; You are glorified; You have extended all the borders of the land.

26:16  LORD, in their trouble they have sought You; they poured out a prayer; Your chastening was upon them.

26:17  As a woman with child draws near to bear, she is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so have we been in Your sight, O LORD.

26:18  We conceived; we have been in pain, we gave birth to wind. We have not brought about any salvation in the earth; nor have the people of the world come to life.

26:19  Your dead ones shall live, together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is as the dew of lights, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

26:20  Come, my people, enter into your rooms and shut your doors around you; hide for a little moment, until the fury has passed by,

26:21  For behold, the LORD comes out of His place to punish the people of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall reveal her blood, and shall no more cover her dead.

Chapter 27

27:1  In that day the LORD with His great and fierce and strong sword shall punish the sea monster, the darting serpent, the sea monster, that twisting serpent; and He shall kill the monster in the sea.

27:2  In that day sing to her, "A delightful vineyard.

27:3  I the LORD keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

27:4  Fury is not in Me; who would set the briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would step through it; I would burn it at once.

27:5  Or let them take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me."

27:6  He shall cause those who come from Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

27:7  Has He stricken him, as He struck those who struck him? Is he slain according to the slaughter of those slain by Him?

27:8  By driving her away, You contended with her; by sending her away, You punished her. He removed her by His rough blast, in the day of the east wind.

27:9  By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in pieces, the groves and sun pillars shall not stand up.

27:10  Yet the fortified city is desolate and the dwelling forsaken and left like a wilderness; there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down and eat up its branches.

27:11  When its branches are dried up, they shall be broken off; the women come and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding. Therefore their Maker will not have mercy upon them, and He Who formed them will not favor them.

27:12  And it shall come to pass, in that day the LORD shall thresh from the stream of the river Euphrates to the river of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O children of Israel.

27:13  And it shall come to pass, in that day a great ram's horn shall be blown, and those perishing in the land of Assyria shall come, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt shall come and shall worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Chapter 28

28:1  Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which is on the head of the fat valleys of those who are overcome with wine!

28:2  Behold, the LORD is a mighty and strong one, like a hailstorm, a destroying storm; like a flood of mighty waters overflowing, He casts them down to the earth with the hand.

28:3  The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trampled under foot;

28:4  And the glorious beauty, on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the first ripe fruit before summer; which the beholder of it swallows up while it is yet in his hand.

28:5  In that day the LORD of hosts shall be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, for the remnant of His people,

28:6  And for a spirit of judgment to him who sits in judgment, and for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

28:7  But they also stagger through wine, and reel through strong drink. The priest and the prophet stagger through drink; they are confused by wine; they reel through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment,

28:8  For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness; no place is clean.

28:9  "Whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine? Those who are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts,

28:10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little;"

28:11  For with stammering lips and foreign tongue He will speak to this people.

28:12  To whom He said, "This is the rest He gives to the weary;" and "This is the refreshing," yet they were not willing to hear.

28:13  So then the Word of the LORD was to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken and snared and taken.

28:14  Therefore hear the Word of the LORD, you scornful men who rule this people in Jerusalem.

28:15  Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and we have made an agreement with the grave; when the overwhelming rod shall pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood,"

28:16  Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I place in Zion a Stone for a foundation, a tried Stone, a precious Cornerstone, a sure Foundation; he who believes shall not be ashamed.

28:17  Also I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

28:18  And your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with the grave shall not stand; when the overwhelming scourge shall pass through, then you shall be beaten down."

28:19  As often as it passes through, it shall take you; for morning by morning it shall pass over, by day and by night; and it shall be only sheer terror to understand the message."

28:20  For the bed is shorter than one can stretch himself on, and the cover is narrower than one can wrap himself in;

28:21  For the LORD shall rise up as in Mount Perazim; He shall be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, so that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act.

28:22  Now therefore do not be mockers, lest your bands be made strong; for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts that a full end is decreed upon all the earth.

28:23  Give ear and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.

28:24  Does the plowman plow all day to sow? Does he open and break the clods of his ground?

28:25  When he has made the face of it level, does he not cast out the dill and scatter the cummin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and rye in its field?

28:26  His God teaches and instructs him in the right way;

28:27  For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument, nor is a cart wheel turned upon cummin; but the dill is beaten out with a staff and the cummin with a rod.

28:28  Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing forever. Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it, his wheels do not crush it.

28:29  This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, wonderful is His counsel; and great is His wisdom.

Chapter 29

29:1  "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add year to year; let your cycle of festivals go on.

29:2  Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow; and it shall be to me as Ariel.

29:3  And I will camp against you all around, and will lay siege against you with a mount, and I will set up siege works against you.

29:4  And you shall be brought down; you shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust, and your voice shall be like a spirit, out of the ground, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

29:5  Moreover the multitude of your enemies shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away; yea, it shall be at an instant, suddenly.

29:6  You shall be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake and great noise, with storm and whirlwind, and the flame of devouring fire.

29:7  And the multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, shall be like a dream of a night vision.

29:8  It shall even be as when a hungry one dreams, and behold, he eats, but he awakes and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint and his soul is longing. So shall it be with the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion."

29:9  Be stunned and amazed! Blind your eyes and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink,

29:10  For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes; He has covered the prophets and your rulers, and the seers.

29:11  And the vision of all has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which they give to one who is learned saying, "Please read this," and he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed."

29:12  And the book is delivered to him who is not learned, saying, "Please read this," and he says, "I am not learned."

29:13  And the LORD said, "Because this people draws near Me with their mouth, and with their lips honor Me, but their worship of Me is made up of the traditions of men learned by rote, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandments of men;

29:14  Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do again a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise ones shall perish, and the wisdom of their intelligent ones shall vanish."

29:15  Woe to those who go deep to hide their purpose from the LORD! And their works are in the dark, and they say, "Who sees us? And who knows us?"

29:16  Surely, you have turned things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the potter's clay; for shall the work say of him who made it, "He did not make me?" Or shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, "He had no understanding?"

29:17  Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be counted as a forest?

29:18  And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and darkness.

29:19  And the meek shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel,

29:20  For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and the scorner is destroyed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off;

29:21  Those who make a man a sinner with a word, and lay a trap for the reprover in the gate, and turn aside the just for a worthless thing:

29:22  Therefore thus says the LORD, Who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, "Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now become pale.

29:23  But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, they shall sanctify My name, and sanctify the Holy one of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

29:24  Those who erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and those who murmured shall learn instruction."

Chapter 30

30:1  "Woe to the rebellious children," says the LORD, "who carry out a plan, but not of Me; and who form an alliance, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;

30:2  Those who set out to go down to Egypt and have not asked at My mouth; to take refuge in the stronghold of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

30:3  Therefore the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the shelter "of protection" in the shadow of Egypt shall be your curse,

30:4  For his rulers were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

30:5  They were all ashamed of a people who could not profit them, nor be a help nor gain, but a shame and also a reproach."

30:6  The burden concerning the beasts of the South. Through the land of trouble and woe, the lioness and the lion are from there; the viper, and the fiery flying serpent. They will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit;

30:7  For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore I have called her Rahab, "Their strength is to do nothing."

30:8  Now go, write it before them in a tablet, and note it in a book, so that it may be for the time to come forever and ever,

30:9  That this is a rebellious people, lying children. They are children who will not hear the law of the LORD;

30:10  Who say to the seers, "See not," and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions;

30:11  Go out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."

30:12  Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you have despised this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them;

30:13  Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.

30:14  And He shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is smashed in pieces. He shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit."

30:15  For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; and in quietness and hope shall be your strength." But you were not willing.

30:16  And you said, "No; for we will flee upon horses." Therefore you shall flee. And you said, "We will ride upon the swift;" therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

30:17  One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you shall flee, until you are left as a pole upon the top of a mountain, and as a sign on a hill.

30:18  And therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you. And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you, for the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.

30:19  For, O people who dwell in Zion at Jerusalem, you shall weep no more; He will be very gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When He hears it, He will answer you.

30:20  And though the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers shall not be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers.

30:21  And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.

30:22  You shall also defile the covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away like a menstruous cloth. You shall say to it, "Get away."

30:23  Then He shall give the rain for your seed, with which you sow the ground. And the bread of the produce of the earth also shall be fat and plentiful. In that day your cattle shall feed in large pastures.

30:24  Also the oxen and the young donkeys that plow the ground shall eat clean fodder, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

30:25  And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers, streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

30:26  And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the bruise of His people and heals the stroke of their wound.

30:27  Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with His anger, and in thick uplifting of smoke; His lips are full of fury, and His tongue like a devouring fire.

30:28  And like an overflowing stream, His breath shall reach to the middle of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity. And a bridle will be in the jaws of the people, causing them to go astray.

30:29  You shall have a song, as in the keeping of a holy feast night; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the Mighty One of Israel.

30:30  And the LORD shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and the bringing down of His arm shall be seen with raging anger and the flame of a devouring fire, a cloudburst and storm and hailstones,

30:31  For through the voice of the LORD, the Assyrian shall be dismayed with the rod with which He smote.

30:32  And in every place which the ordained staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tambourines and lyres; in battles of shaking He will fight with them,

30:33  For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large. He makes it great with fire and wood. The breath of the LORD kindles it, like a torrent of brimstone.

Chapter 31

31:1  Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many; and in horsemen because they are so very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor do they seek the LORD!

31:2  Yet He also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back His words, but will arise against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who work lawlessness.

31:3  The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not Spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out His hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall down, and they shall all perish together,

31:4  For thus has the LORD spoken to me, "As the lion roars, even the young lion on his prey, though a multitude of shepherds are gathered against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor fret himself because of their noise. So the LORD of hosts shall come down to fight on Mount Zion, and upon its hill.

31:5  As hovering birds, the LORD of hosts will defend Jerusalem; also defending, He will deliver it; and passing over He will rescue it."

31:6  Turn to Him against Whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted,

31:7  For in that day every man shall reject his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for yourselves— for sin.

31:8  "Then Assyria shall fall with the sword—not of a man; and the sword, not of mankind—and it shall devour him, for he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall become tributary.

31:9  And his stronghold will fall by reason of terror and his rulers shall be afraid of the banner," says the LORD, Whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.

Chapter 32

32:1  Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and rulers shall rule in justice.

32:2  And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the tempestuous storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

32:3  And the eyes of those who see shall not be dim, and the ears of those who hear shall listen.

32:4  And the heart of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of those who stutter shall be ready to speak plainly.

32:5  The vile one shall no more be called liberal, nor the miser said to be bountiful.

32:6  For the vile will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy and to speak error against the LORD, to make the soul of the hungry empty, and he will take away the drink of the thirsty.

32:7  Also the weapons of the vile are evil; he thinks of wicked ways to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.

32:8  But the liberal thinks liberal things; and by liberal things he shall stand.

32:9  Rise up, you women who are at ease; hear my voice, careless daughters; listen to my speech.

32:10  After a year and some days you shall be troubled, complacent women; for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall come as nothing at all.

32:11  Tremble, you women who are at ease; be troubled, careless ones; strip yourselves and make yourselves bare, and bind sackcloth upon your loins.

32:12  They shall smite upon their breasts, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

32:13  For upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, even upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city;

32:14  Because the palace shall be deserted, the multitude of the city shall be forsaken; instead the mound and tower shall be for dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;

32:15  Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is thought to be a forest.

32:16  Then justice shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.

32:17  And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the result of righteousness shall be quietness and confidence forever.

32:18  And my people shall dwell in a peaceable home, and in secure dwellings and quiet resting places.

32:19  The hail shall flatten the forest; the city shall be razed to the ground.

32:20  Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.

Chapter 33

33:1  Woe to the destroyer, and you who have not been destroyed; and to the treacherous one, for they have not dealt treacherously with you. When you stop destroying, you shall be destroyed. When you stop dealing treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with you.

33:2  O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You; be their arm every morning; our salvation also in the time of trouble.

33:3  At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of Yourself the nations were scattered.

33:4  And your spoil shall be gathered as the stripping locust gathers; as the running to and fro of locusts they shall run upon them.

33:5  The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

33:6  And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

33:7  Behold, their mighty ones shall cry outside; the messengers of peace shall weep bitterly.

33:8  The highways lie waste, the traveler ceases. He has broken the covenant. He has despised the cities. He cared for no man.

33:9  The earth mourns and languishes. Lebanon is ashamed; Sharon withers away like a wilderness; Bashan and Carmel are shaking off their leaves.

33:10  "Now I will arise," says the LORD; "Now I will be exalted, now I will lift up Myself.

33:11  You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring out stubble; Your breath is like a fire that shall devour you.

33:12  And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; like thorns cut down, they shall be burned in the fire.

33:13  You who are far off, hear what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge My might."

33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; terror has seized the ungodly. "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"

33:15  He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly; he who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands free from holding bribes, who stops his ear from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;

33:16  He shall dwell on high; his refuge shall be the strongholds of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.

33:17  Your eyes shall see the king in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off.

33:18  Your heart shall muse on the terror. "Where is the scribe? Where is the one who weighed? Where is the one who counted the towers?"

33:19  You shall no longer see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than you can understand; of a foreign tongue that no one understands.

33:20  Look upon Zion, the city of our holy gatherings; your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet home, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of its stakes shall ever be removed, nor shall any of its cords be broken.

33:21  But there the glorious LORD will be to us a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars shall go, nor shall a mighty ship pass by it,

33:22  For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our Lawgiver, the LORD is our King; He will save us.

33:23  Your ropes are loosened, they do not hold the base of the mast; they could not spread the sail. Then the prey of a great spoil shall be divided; the lame take the prey.

33:24  And the inhabitant shall not say, "I am sick;" the people who dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

Chapter 34

34:1  Come near, you nations, to hear; and, you people, hearken; let the earth hear, and its fullness; the world, and its offspring,

34:2  For the anger of the LORD is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies. He has completely destroyed them, He has delivered them to the slaughter.

34:3  Also their dead shall be thrown out, and their stink shall come up out of their dead bodies, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

34:4  And all the host of the heavens shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; and all their host shall fall down, as a leaf falls off from the vine, and as the falling fig from the fig tree,

34:5  "For My sword is bathed in the heavens. Behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of My curse for judgment.

34:6  The sword of the LORD is filled with blood; it is made fat with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

34:7  And the wild oxen shall come down with them, and the young bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust shall be greased with their fat;"

34:8  For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, the year to repay for the fighting against Zion.

34:9  And its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust to brimstone, and its land shall become burning pitch.

34:10  It shall not be put out night or day; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none passes through it forever and forever.

34:11  But the pelican and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also, and the raven, shall dwell in it. And He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.

34:12  As for her nobles, none shall be there to be called to the kingdom, and all her princes shall be nothing.

34:13  And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it shall be a home of jackals and a court for owls.

34:14  The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the howling beasts; and the shaggy goat shall cry to his fellow. The night creature also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.

34:15  There the snake shall nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.

34:16  Seek out of the book of the LORD, and read; not one of these will be missing, none shall lack its mate; for His mouth has commanded, and His Spirit has gathered them.

34:17  And He has cast the lot for them, and His hand has divided it to them by line; they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.

Chapter 35

35:1  The wilderness and the desert shall be glad and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.

35:2  It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD and the majesty of our God.

35:3  Make the weak hands strong and make the feeble knees sure.

35:4  Say to those of a fearful heart, "Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the full recompense of God. He will come and save you."

35:5  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

35:6  Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness waters shall break out, and streams in the desert.

35:7  And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land shall become springs of water in the home of jackals, in its lair, it shall be a place for the reed and rush.

35:8  And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The Way of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. But it will be for him who walks in that way, but fools, shall not err in it.

35:9  No lion shall be there, nor any beast of prey shall go up on it, they shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there.

35:10  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Chapter 36

36:1  And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

36:2  And the king of Assyria sent the chief field commander from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the Fuller's Field.

36:3  Then Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, came out to him.

36:4  And the chief field commander said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "What hope is this in which you trust?

36:5  I say, 'You claim to have counsel and mastery for war, but they are only words.' Now, in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?

36:6  Lo, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; on which, if a man lean on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

36:7  But if you say to me, 'We trust in the LORD our God;' is it not He Whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar'?" '

36:8  Now then, please exchange pledges with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses if you are able on your part to set riders upon them for you.

36:9  How then will you turn away the face of one commander of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

36:10  Have I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it.' ”

36:11  And Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the chief field commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. But do not speak to us in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people on the wall."

36:12  But the chief field commander said, "Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit upon the wall—who will yet eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"

36:13  Then the chief field commander stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

36:14  Thus says the king, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you.

36:15  Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us; this city shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria." '

36:16  Do not hearken to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria, 'Make peace with me and come out to me; and let everyone eat of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern,

36:17  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.

36:18  Let not Hezekiah mislead you, 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?

36:19  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

36:20  Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?' ”

36:21  But they were silent and did not answer him a word, for the king's command was, "Do not answer him."

36:22  Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the chief field commander.

Chapter 37

37:1  And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

37:2  And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

37:3  And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy! For the children have come to the birth, but there is no strength to bring forth.

37:4  It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the chief field commander, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.' ”

37:5  So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

37:6  And Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD, "Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

37:7  Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land." ' ”

37:8  So the chief field commander returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

37:9  And he heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to war against you." And he heard and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

37:10  "Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, 'Do not let your God, in Whom you trust, deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."

37:11  Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by completely destroying them. And shall you be delivered?

37:12  Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed: Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

37:13  Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?' ”

37:14  And Hezekiah received the letter from the courier's hand, and read it. And Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD.

37:15  And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying,

37:16  "O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, Who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth.

37:17  Bow down 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.

37:18  Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their lands,

37:19  And have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; so they have destroyed them.

37:20  And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, You alone."

37:21  And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,

37:22  This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him, "The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

37:23  Whom have you mocked and blasphemed? And against Whom have you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Even against the Holy One of Israel.

37:24  By your servants you have mocked the LORD and have said, 'By my many chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and its choice fir trees; and I will go to its greatest height, the finest of its forests.

37:25  I have dug and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.'

37:26  Have you not heard from long ago how I made it? From ancient times, even how I have formed it? Now I have brought it to pass that you should lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

37:27  And their inhabitants were of little power—dismayed and ashamed. They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, even grain blasted before it has risen.

37:28  But I know your dwelling place, and your going out, and your coming in, and your rage against Me.

37:29  Because of your raging against Me, and your arrogance has come up into My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came." '

37:30  And this shall be the sign to you: You shall eat self-sown grain this year; and the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year you shall sow, and reap, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

37:31  The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward;

37:32  For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and survivors out of Mount Zion; the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall perform this.

37:33  Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, 'He shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

37:34  By the way that he came, by the same way he shall return, and shall not come into this city,' says the LORD,

37:35  'For I will defend this city to save it, for My own sake and for My servant David's sake.' ”

37:36  Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Assyria. And they rose early in the morning, and behold! They were all dead corpses.

37:37  And Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

37:38  And it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword. And they escaped into the land of Ararat; and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Chapter 38

38:1  In those days Hezekiah was sick to 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 and not live.' ”

38:2  Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD,

38:3  And said, "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done that which is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.

38:4  Then came the Word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,

38:5  "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 to your days fifteen years.

38:6  And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. And I will defend this city.

38:7  And this shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken:

38:8  Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the sun dial, which has gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward." ' " So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down.

38:9  The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

38:10  I said in the cutting off of my days, "I shall go to the gates of the grave; I am deprived of the rest of my years."

38:11  I said, "I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look upon man no longer with the people of the world.

38:12  My dwelling is plucked up and carried away from me like a shepherd's tent; I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He will cut me off from the loom; from day even to night You will make an end of me.

38:13  I waited until morning, but, as a lion, so He breaks all my bones; from day even until night You make an end of me.

38:14  Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; be a surety for me.

38:15  What shall I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has acted; I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

38:16  O LORD, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit; so You will recover me, and make me to live.

38:17  Behold, I had great bitterness for peace; but You have in love delivered my soul from the pit of corruption. You have cast all my sins behind Your back;

38:18  For the grave cannot praise You, death cannot rejoice in You; they who go down into the pit cannot hope for Your truth.

38:19  The living, the living, he shall praise You, as I do this day; the father shall make Your truth known to the children,

38:20  For the LORD will save me; and we will sing on the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD."

38:21  And Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs and apply it as a poultice upon the boil, and he shall recover."

38:22  And Hezekiah had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"

Chapter 39

39:1  At that time Merodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that he had been sick, and had recovered.

39:2  And Hezekiah rejoiced over them, and let them see the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not let them see.

39:3  Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And where did they come from to you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country to me, from Babylon."

39:4  Then he said, "What have they seen in your house?" And Hezekiah answered, "All that is in my house they have seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."

39:5  Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the Word of the LORD of hosts.

39:6  'Behold, the days come when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left,' says the LORD.

39:7  'And of your sons which shall issue from you, which you shall beget, they shall take away; and they shall be officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.' ”

39:8  Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "Good is the word of the LORD which you have spoken." And he said, "For at least there shall be peace and truth in my days."

Chapter 40

40:1  "Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people," says your God.

40:2  "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins."

40:3  A voice is calling out in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

40:4  Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places plain;

40:5  And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

40:6  A voice says, "Cry!" And he said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is grass, and all the beauty of it is as the flower of the field.

40:7  The grass withers, the flower fades because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.

40:8  The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God shall stand forever."

40:9  Go up for yourself on the high mountain; O you that bring good tidings to Zion. Lift up your voice with strength, O you who tell good tidings to Jerusalem; lift up, do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"

40:10  Behold, the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.

40:11  He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those with young.

40:12  Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with a span? And who has comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

40:13  Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, and who was His counselor that he might instruct Him?

40:14  With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and made known the way of understanding to Him?

40:15  Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the scales; behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing.

40:16  And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts of it sufficient for a burnt offering.

40:17  All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted by Him as less than nothing, and vanity.

40:18  To whom then will you compare God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?

40:19  The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains.

40:20  He who is too poor for that offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks for a skillful workman for himself to prepare a graven image that will not totter.

40:21  Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

40:22  It is He Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers; It is He Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;

40:23  Who brings the rulers to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth as vanity.

40:24  No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, then He shall blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away like stubble.

40:25  "To whom then will you compare Me, or who is My equal?" says the Holy One.

40:26  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, Who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number? He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for He is strong in power; not one fails.

40:27  Why do you say, O Jacob, and O Israel you speak, "My way is hidden from the LORD and my cause is disregarded by my God?"

40:28  Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow weak nor weary? And His understanding no one can fathom.

40:29  He gives power to the weary; and to him with no might, He increases strength.

40:30  Even the young shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall;

40:31  But those who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Chapter 41

41:1  "Listen to Me in silence, O isles; let the people renew their strength; let them come near; then let them speak; let us come near together for judgment.

41:2  Who raised up the righteous one from the east, at whose steps victory attends? Who gives the nations before him, and made him to rule over kings? His sword makes them as the dust, his bow as windblown stubble.

41:3  He pursued them; he passed on safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.

41:4  Who has planned and done it, calling forth the generations from the beginning? 'I, the LORD, am the first and the last; I am He.' ”

41:5  The isles saw and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, and drew near, and came.

41:6  They helped everyone his neighbor, and said to his brother, "Be of good courage."

41:7  So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smooths with the hammer and him that strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good;" and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

41:8  "But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, My friend;

41:9  Whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called you from its uttermost parts. And I said to you, 'You are My servant; I have chosen you, and have not cast you away.

41:10  Do not fear; for I am with you; be not dismayed; for I am your God. I will strengthen you; yea, I will help you; yea, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.'

41:11  Behold, all those who were angered against you shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing. And those who strive against you shall perish.

41:12  You shall seek them, and shall not find them; men warring against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought,

41:13  For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, 'Do not fear; I will help you.'

41:14  Do not fear, you worm Jacob and men of Israel; I will help you," says the LORD and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

41:15  "Behold, I make you a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills like chaff.

41:16  You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and a tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD and shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.

41:17  The poor and needy seek water, and there is none; their tongue fails for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not leave them.

41:18  I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

41:19  I will plant the cedar in the wilderness, the acacia tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree. I will set the fir tree in the desert, and the pine, and the box tree together;

41:20  So that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it."

41:21  Draw near with your cause," says the LORD; "Bring out your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob.

41:22  "Let them bring them out, and declare to us the things that shall happen; let them reveal the former things, what they are, that we may consider them and know the final end of them; or declare to us things to come.

41:23  Reveal the things that are to come after this, so that we may know that you are gods. Yea, do good, or do evil, so that we may be dismayed and see together.

41:24  Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.

41:25  I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun; he will call upon My name. And he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter tramples clay.

41:26  Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know? And beforetime, that we may say, 'He is right'? Yea, no one declares; yea, no one proclaims; yea, no one hears your words.

41:27  I first said to Zion, 'Behold! Behold them!' And I gave to Jerusalem one who bears good news,

41:28  For I looked, and there was no man; and there was no counselor among them, that I might ask and be given an answer.

41:29  Behold, they are all false; their works are nothing; their images are wind and vanity."

Chapter 42

42:1  "Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold; My Elect, in Whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

42:2  He shall not cry out, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.

42:3  A bruised reed He shall not break, and a smoking wick He shall not quench; in truth He shall bring forth justice.

42:4  He shall not fail nor be discouraged until He has set justice in the earth; and the isles shall wait for His law."

42:5  Thus says the LORD God, He who created the heavens and stretched them out, spreading forth the earth and its offspring; He Who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it.

42:6  "I the LORD have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant of the people, for a Light to the Gentiles;

42:7  To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness out of the prison house.

42:8  I am the LORD; that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.

42:9  Behold, the former things have come to pass. And new things I declare; before they happen, I tell you of them."

42:10  Sing to the LORD a new song; His praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and its fullness; the isles and their people.

42:11  Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages where Kedar dwells. Let the dwellers of the rock sing, let them shout from the mountain tops.

42:12  Give glory to the LORD and declare His praise in the isles.

42:13  The LORD shall go forth as a warrior, He stirs up zeal like a man of war; He shouts, yea, roars; He overcomes His enemies.

42:14  "I have held My peace for a long time; I have been still and refrained Myself. Now I will cry like a woman in pangs of labor, I will pant and gasp at once.

42:15  I will make waste the mountains and hills, and dry up all their plants. And I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

42:16  And I will bring the blind by a way they knew not; I will lead them in paths they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and rugged places plain. I will do these things to them, and not forsake them.

42:17  They are turned back, they are greatly ashamed, those who trust in graven images and who say to the images, 'You are our gods.'

42:18  Hear, you deaf ones; and you blind ones look to see.

42:19  Who is blind but My servant? Or deaf, as My messenger whom I sent? Who is blind as he who is perfect, and blind as the LORD'S servant?

42:20  You see many things, but do not pay attention. Your ears are open, but no one hears."

42:21  The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness sake; He will magnify the Law and make it glorious.

42:22  But this is a people robbed and spoiled; all of them snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; they are for a prey, and none delivers them; for a spoil, and none says, "Give back."

42:23  Who among you will hear this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come?

42:24  Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers? Did not the LORD, against Whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, nor did they obey His law.

42:25  Therefore He has poured upon him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle. And it has set him on fire all around, yet he did not know; and it burned him, yet he did not lay it to heart.

Chapter 43

43:1  But now thus says the LORD Who created you, O Jacob, and He Who formed you, O Israel; "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.

43:2  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; nor shall the flame kindle on you,

43:3  For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for you.

43:4  Since you are precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life.

43:5  Fear not; for I am with you. I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west.

43:6  I will say to the north, 'Give up;' and to the south, 'Do not keep back;' bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth;

43:7  Even everyone who is called by My name; for I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him."

43:8  Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears.

43:9  Let all the nations be brought together, and let the people be gathered; who among them can declare this and show us the former things? Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, "It is truth."

43:10  "You are My witnesses," says the LORD, "and My servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me no God was formed, nor shall there be after Me.

43:11  I, even I, am the LORD; and besides Me there is no savior.

43:12  I have declared, and have saved, and I have shown, when there was no strange god among you; therefore you are My witnesses," says the LORD, "that I am God.

43:13  Yea, before the day was, I am He; and no one delivers out of My hand; I will work, and who can reverse it?"

43:14  Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, "For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all of them as fugitives, and the Chaldeans, who rejoice in their ships.

43:15  I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King."

43:16  Thus says the LORD, Who makes a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters;

43:17  Who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinguished, they are snuffed out like a wick.

43:18  "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.

43:19  Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall sprout; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.

43:20  The beasts of the field shall honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen.

43:21  This people that I formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.

43:22  Yet you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; much less have you troubled yourself about Me, O Israel.

43:23  You have not brought Me the lamb of your burnt offerings; nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with a grain offering, nor wearied you with incense.

43:24  You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have made Me serve with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities.

43:25  I, even I, am He Who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins.

43:26  Put Me in remembrance; let us plead together; declare yourself, that you may be justified.

43:27  Your first father has sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against Me.

43:28  And I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and will give Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches."

Chapter 44

44:1  "Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen;

44:2  Thus says the LORD Who made you, and formed you from the womb, Who will help you, 'Fear not, O Jacob My servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen,

44:3  For I will pour water upon him who is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit upon your seed, and My blessing upon your offspring;

44:4  And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.'

44:5  One shall say, 'I am the LORD'S;' and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall write with his hand, 'For the LORD,' and be named by the name of Israel.

44:6  Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer even the LORD of hosts, 'I am the first, and I am the last; and besides Me there is no God.

44:7  And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people? And the things that are coming, and shall come, let them declare it to us.

44:8  Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from that time; and have declared it? So you are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Yea, there is no other Rock; I know not one.' ”

44:9  Those who make a graven image are all of them vanity; and the things in which they delight shall not help; and they are their own witnesses. They do not see nor know, that they may be ashamed.

44:10  Who has formed a god, or melted a graven image that is profitable for anything?

44:11  Behold, all his companions shall be ashamed; and the craftsmen, they are of men. Let them all come together, let them stand up, they shall dread; they shall be ashamed together.

44:12  The black smith fashions an axe. He works in the coals, and forms it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. Then, he is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is weak.

44:13  The carpenter fashions wood, and stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil; he shapes it with carving tools, and he marks it out with the compass, and makes it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, to sit in the house.

44:14  He cuts down cedars, and takes cypress and oak, which he makes of the trees of the forest strong for himself; he plants a tree, and the rain makes it grow.

44:15  Then it shall be for a man to burn; for he will take some of it and warm himself. Yea, he kindles it and bakes bread; yea, he makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and falls down to worship it.

44:16  He burns part of it in the fire; with part of it he eats flesh; he roasts a roast and is satisfied; yea, he warms himself, and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire."

44:17  And with the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image; he falls down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, "Deliver me! For you are my god!"

44:18  They know not nor understand; for He has shut their eyes so that they cannot see; and their hearts so that they cannot understand.

44:19  And none thinks within his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals of it; I have roasted flesh and eaten; and shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?"

44:20  He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside, so that he cannot deliver his soul. Neither does he say, "Is this not a falsehood in my right hand?"

44:21  "Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for you are My servant; I have formed you; you are My servant; O Israel, you shall not be forgotten by Me.

44:22  I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins; return to Me; for I have redeemed you."

44:23  Sing, O heavens; for the LORD has done it. Shout, O lower parts of the earth. Break out into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel.

44:24  Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, and He Who formed you from the womb, "I am the LORD Who makes all things; Who stretches out the heavens alone; Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;

44:25  Who brings to nothing the signs of the liars, and makes fools of diviners; Who turns the wise backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;

44:26  Who makes the word of His servant sure, and makes good the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, 'She shall have people;' and to the cities of Judah, 'You shall be built,' and I will raise up the waste places of it;

44:27  Who says to the deep, 'Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers;'

44:28  Who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd, and shall do all My pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, "You shall be built;" and to the temple, "Your foundation shall be laid." ’ ”

Chapter 45

45:1  "Thus says the LORD to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have made strong in order to humble nations before him. And I will loosen the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved doors; and the gates shall not be shut.

45:2  'I will go before you, and make hills level. I will break in pieces the bronze gates, and cut the iron bars in two.

45:3  And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I am the LORD, Who calls you by your name, the God of Israel,

45:4  For Jacob My servant's sake and Israel My chosen, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me.

45:5  I am the LORD, and there is none else. There is no God besides Me; I clothed you, though you have not known Me;

45:6  That they 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 none else;

45:7  I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I the LORD do all these things.'

45:8  Drop down from above, O heavens, and let the clouds pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let salvation bear fruit; and let righteousness spring up together. I the LORD have created it.

45:9  Woe to him who fights with the One who formed him, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' Or your work, 'He has no hands'?

45:10  Woe to him who says to his father, 'What are you begetting?' Or to the woman, 'What are you laboring over?' ”

45:11  Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the One who formed him, "Ask Me of things that are to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands.

45:12  I have made the earth and created man upon it; I with My hands have stretched out the heavens; and all their host have I commanded.

45:13  I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways; he shall build My city, and he shall let My captives go, not for price nor reward," says the LORD of hosts.

45:14  Thus says the LORD, "The labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia, and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come to you, and they shall be yours. They shall follow you in chains; and they shall come over and they shall fall down to you. They shall plead to you, saying, 'Surely God is in you; and none else, no other God.' ”

45:15  Truly You are a God Who hides Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

45:16  They shall be ashamed and also confounded, all of them; they who are makers of idols shall go into confusion together.

45:17  But Israel shall be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor disgraced even into the ages of eternity,

45:18  For thus says the LORD the Creator of the heavens, He Himself is God, Who formed the earth and made it; He has established it. He created it not in vain, but formed it to be inhabited. "I am the LORD, and there is no other.

45:19  I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek me in vain.' I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

45:20  Gather yourselves and come; draw near together, you who have escaped of the nations; they have no knowledge who carry the wood of their graven image, and those who pray to a god that cannot save.

45:21  Declare and bring near; yea, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this of old? Who has told it from ancient times? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me; a just God and a Savior; there is none besides Me.

45:22  Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.

45:23  I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not turn back, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear."

45:24  One shall say, "Only in the LORD do I have righteousness and strength; even to Him shall men come. And they are ashamed, all who are angry against Him."

45:25  In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

Chapter 46

46:1  Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle; the things you carried about have become a load, a burden for the weary.

46:2  They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but they themselves have gone into captivity.

46:3  "Hearken to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are borne by Me from the belly, who are lifted from the womb;

46:4  Even to your old age I am He; and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made you, and I will bear you up; even I will carry you, and will deliver you.

46:5  To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be alike?

46:6  They pour gold out of the bag, and weigh silver with the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he makes it a god; they fall down, yea, they bow down to it.

46:7  They carry it upon the shoulder, they carry it and set it in its place, and it stands; it shall not move itself from its place. Yea, one shall cry unto it, yet it cannot answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

46:8  Remember this, and show yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O you transgressors.

46:9  Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none else, I am God, and there is none like Me,

46:10  Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which were not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure;'

46:11  Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

46:12  Hearken to Me, you stubborn-hearted who are far from righteousness;

46:13  I bring near My righteousness. It shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not be delayed; and I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory."

Chapter 47

47:1  "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground. There is no throne for you, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.

47:2  Take the millstones and grind meal. Push back your veil, draw up your skirt, uncover your leg, pass over the rivers.

47:3  Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, your shame shall be seen; I will take vengeance and I will not meet you as a man."

47:4  As for our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel.

47:5  "Sit silent, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the lady of kingdoms.

47:6  I was angry with My people, I have polluted My inheritance, and given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; you have very heavily laid your yoke upon the aged.

47:7  And you said, 'I shall be a lady forever;' so you did not lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the latter end of it.

47:8  Now then hear this, O lover of pleasures, who sits securely; who says in her heart, 'I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children.'

47:9  But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the great abundance of your enchantments,

47:10  For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, 'No one sees me.' Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one else.'

47:11  But evil shall come upon you; you shall not know how to conjure it away. And calamity shall fall upon you; you shall not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, before you know it.

47:12  Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have wearied yourself since your youth. Perhaps you will be able to profit; perhaps you may prevail.

47:13  You are exhausted by the multitude of your counsels; now let the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from these things that shall come upon you.

47:14  Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; there shall not be a coal to warm them; nor fire, to sit before it.

47:15  Thus shall they be to you with whom you have labored, even your merchants from your youth. Each one shall wander to his own quarter; none shall save you."

Chapter 48

48:1  "Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of the LORD and make mention of the God of Israel (but not in truth nor in righteousness);

48:2  For they call themselves after the holy city, and rest themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is His name.

48:3  I have foretold the former things from ages ago; and they went out of My mouth; and I proclaimed them; I acted suddenly; and they came to pass,

48:4  Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your brow bronze.

48:5  And I have even declared it to you ages ago. Before it came to pass I revealed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done these things, and my graven image, and my molten image, has commanded them.'

48:6  You have heard, see all this; and will you not declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them.

48:7  They are created now, and not ages ago; even before today you did not hear them; lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'

48:8  Yea, you did not hear; yea, you did not know; yea, from ages ago your ear was not opened; for I surely knew that you would deal very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.

48:9  For My name's sake I will put off My anger, and for My praise I will hold it back for your sake, that I do not cut you off.

48:10  Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

48:11  For My own sake, for My own sake I will do it; for why should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.

48:12  Hearken to Me, O Jacob and Israel, My called; I am He; I am the first, I also am the last.

48:13  My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens. When I call they stand up together.

48:14  Let all of you be gathered together and hear; who among them has declared these things? The LORD has loved him; He will do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

48:15  I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him; I brought him and he makes his way succeed.

48:16  Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning. From the time that it was, there am I." And now the Lord GOD, and His Spirit, has sent me.

48:17  Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, "I am the LORD your God Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way that you should go.

48:18  Oh, that you had hearkened to My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

48:19  And your seed would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your loins like grains of sand; their name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me."

48:20  Go out of Babylon; flee from the Chaldeans. Tell it with a voice of singing, let this be heard, let it go out to the end of the earth; say, "The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob."

48:21  And they did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; He cut open the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

48:22  "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

Chapter 49

49:1  "Listen, O isles, to Me; and hearken, you people from afar; the LORD has called Me from the womb; He has made mention of My name from My mother's belly.

49:2  And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, and made Me a polished shaft. He has hidden Me in His quiver,

49:3  And said to Me, 'You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'

49:4  Then I said, 'I have labored in vain; I have spent My strength for nothing, and in vain; yet surely justice is with the LORD, and My reward is with My God.'

49:5  And now, says the LORD—Who formed Me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, (though Israel is not gathered, yet I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and My God shall be My strength)—

49:6  He said, 'It is but a little thing that You should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to bring back the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You for a light to the nations, to be My salvation to the end of the earth.' ”

49:7  Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to Him Whom man despises, to Him Whom the nation hates, the Servant of rulers, "Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship because of the LORD Who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, and He shall choose You.”

49:8  Thus says the LORD, "In a favorable time I have answered You, and in a day of salvation I have helped You; and I will preserve You, and give You for a covenant of the people, to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the wasted inheritances;

49:9  That You may say to the prisoners, 'Go out!' To those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves!' They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.

49:10  They shall not hunger nor thirst; nor shall the heat nor sun strike them; for He Who has compassion on them shall lead them; even by the springs of water He shall guide them.

49:11  And I will make all My mountains into roads, and My highways shall be exalted.

49:12  Behold, these shall come from far; and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim."

49:13  Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break out into singing, O mountains; for the LORD has comforted His people, and will have compassion upon His afflicted.

49:14  But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, and my LORD has forgotten me."

49:15  "Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget you.

49:16  Behold, I have carved you upon the palms of My hands; your walls are forever before Me.

49:17  Your children shall make haste; those destroying you and ruining you shall go out from you.

49:18  Lift up your eyes all around and see; they all gather and come to you. As I live," says the LORD, "You shall surely wear them as an ornament, and bind them on as a bride;

49:19  For your wastes and your desolate places, and your land has been destroyed, shall even now be too narrow to dwell there, and they who swallowed you up shall be far away.

49:20  The children of your bereavement shall say again in your ears, 'The place is too strait for me: give a place to me that I may dwell.'

49:21  Then you shall say in your heart, 'Who has begotten these for me, since I have lost my children, and am desolate, turned aside and an exile, and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?' ”

49:22  Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will lift up My hand to the Gentiles, and have set up My banner to the people; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

49:23  And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They shall bow to you, with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am the LORD; for they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me."

49:24  Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?

49:25  But thus says the LORD, "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the fierce ones shall be rescued, for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children.

49:26  And I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunk with their own blood, as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob."

Chapter 50

50:1  Thus says the LORD, "Where is your mother's bill of divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of My creditors have I sold you? Behold, you yourselves were sold for your iniquities, and your mother is put away for your transgressions.

50:2  Therefore, when I came, why was no one there? When I called no one answered. Is My hand shortened at all so that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink because there is no water, and die for thirst.

50:3  I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering."

50:4  "The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, to know to help the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as one being taught.

50:5  The Lord GOD has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious, nor turned away backwards.

50:6  I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting,

50:7  For the Lord GOD will help Me; therefore I have not been disgraced. On account of this I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

50:8  He is near who justifies Me; who will contend with Me? Let us stand together; who is My adversary? Let him come near Me.

50:9  Behold, the Lord GOD will help Me; who is he who shall condemn Me? Lo, they all shall grow old like a garment; the moth shall eat them.

50:10  Who among you fears the LORD, who obeys the voice of His servant, who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely upon his God.

50:11  Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who gird yourselves with firebrands; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks which you have kindled. This you shall have of My hand—you shall lie down in sorrow."

Chapter 51

51:1  "Hearken to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.

51:2  Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him, and made him many."

51:3  For the LORD shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

51:4  "Hearken to Me, My people; and give ear to Me, O My nation; for instruction shall proceed from Me, and I will make My justice as a light to the people.

51:5  My righteousness is near; My salvation has gone out, and My arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon Me, and on My arm they shall trust.

51:6  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall become old like a garment; and its inhabitants shall die in the same way. But My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished.

51:7  Hearken to Me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law; do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their revilings;

51:8  For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation."

51:9  Awake! Awake! Put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Was it not You Who cut Rahab into pieces, piercing the serpent?

51:10  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?

51:11  Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return and come with singing into Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. Gladness and joy shall overtake them; sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

51:12  "I, even I, am He Who comforts you. Who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, or of the son of man who is made as grass?

51:13  And you forget the LORD your Maker, Who has stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. And you dread continually, every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?

51:14  The captive exile will soon be set free, he will not die in the dungeon nor will he lack his bread.

51:15  But I am the LORD your God, Who divided the sea, so that its waves roared (the LORD of hosts is His name).

51:16  And I have put My words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, 'You are My people.' ”

51:17  Awake! Awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, who drank the cup of His fury from the hand of the LORD; you have drunk of the cup of trembling to the dregs, and wrung them out.

51:18  There is no guide for her among all the sons she has borne; and none takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.

51:19  These two things have come to you, who shall be sorry for you? Desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword. By whom shall I comfort you?

51:20  Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets like a wild antelope in a net, filled with the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.

51:21  Therefore now hear this, afflicted one, and drunken, but not with wine.

51:22  Thus says your Lord, the LORD, and your God Who defends His people, "Behold, I have taken the cup of trembling from your hand, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall never drink of it again.

51:23  But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, 'Bow down so that we may walk over you;' and you laid your back like the ground, even like the street to those who walk over."

Chapter 52

52:1  Awake! Awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful robes, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for never again shall come to you the uncircumcised and the unclean ones.

52:2  Shake yourself from the dust; rise up! Sit, Jerusalem! Free yourself from your neckbands, O captive daughter of Zion,

52:3  For thus says the LORD, "You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money."

52:4  For thus says the Lord GOD, "My people went down at first into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

52:5  Now therefore, what have I here," says the LORD, "that My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them howl," says the LORD; "and without ceasing My name is blasphemed every day.

52:6  Therefore My people shall know My name, thus it shall be in that day, for I am He Who speaks; behold, it is I."

52:7  How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace; who brings good news, who publishes salvation; who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

52:8  The voice of Your watchmen shall be lifted up! They lift up the voice together; they sing aloud, for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD returns again to Zion.

52:9  Break out, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.

52:10  The LORD has bared His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

52:11  Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch not the unclean. Go out of her midst; purify yourself, you who bear the vessels of the LORD,

52:12  For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

52:13  Behold, My Servant shall rule well; He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

52:14  Many were astonished at Him—for His body was so disfigured—even His form beyond that of the sons of men.

52:15  So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths because of Him; for they will see that which was not told to them; yea, what they had not heard, shall they consider.

Chapter 53

53:1  Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

53:2  For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor comeliness that we should look upon Him, nor beauty that we should desire Him.

53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

53:4  Surely He has borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

53:5  But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we ourselves are healed.

53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned each one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

53:7  He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

53:8  By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and with His generation who did consider that He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken.

53:9  And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.

53:10  Yet the LORD willed to crush Him and He has put Him to grief: You shall make His life an offering for sin. He shall see His seed; He shall prolong His days, and that the purpose of the LORD might prosper in His hand.

53:11  He shall see of the travail of His soul. He shall be fully satisfied. By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; and He shall bear their iniquities.

53:12  Therefore I will divide to Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out His soul to death; and He was counted among the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for transgressors.

Chapter 54

54:1  "Sing, O barren, you that never bore; break out into singing and shout, you who never travailed, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman," says the LORD.

54:2  "Make the place of your tent larger, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not spare, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes;

54:3  For you shall break out on the right hand and on the left. And your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

54:4  Do not fear; for you shall not be ashamed, nor shall you be disgraced; for you shall not be humiliated; for you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more,

54:5  For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called,

54:6  For the LORD has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were rejected," says your God.

54:7  "For a little moment I forsook you; but with great compassions I will gather you.

54:8  In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer,

54:9  "For this is as the waters of Noah to Me; for as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn from being angry with you and from rebuking you;

54:10  For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall the covenant of My peace be removed," says the LORD Who has mercy on you.

54:11  "O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones among colorful gems, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

54:12  And I will make your high towers of ruby, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones.

54:13  And all your children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of your children.

54:14  In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression; for you shall not fear; and far from terror, for it shall not come near you.

54:15  Behold, they may gather together against you, but not by Me; whoever shall gather against you, he shall fall for your sake.

54:16  Behold, I have created the smith who blows the coals in the fire, and who brings out a weapon for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

54:17  No weapon that is formed against you shall prevail; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the inheritance of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from Me," says the LORD.

Chapter 55

55:1  "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

55:2  Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your labor for what never satisfies? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

55:3  Bow down your ear, and come to Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

55:4  Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a Prince and Commander of people.

55:5  Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know; a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you."

55:6  Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.

55:7  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

55:8  "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways," says the LORD.

55:9  "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

55:10  For as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and does not return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

55:11  So shall My Word be which goes out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall certainly do what I sent it to do.

55:12  For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break out before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

55:13  Instead of the thorn, the fir tree shall come up; and instead of the brier, the myrtle tree shall come up; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off."

Chapter 56

56:1  Thus says the LORD, "Keep justice and do righteousness; for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed.

56:2  Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it; and keeps his hand from doing any evil."

56:3  And do not let the son of the stranger, who has joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, "The LORD has utterly separated me from His people." And do not let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree."

56:4  For thus says the LORD, "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant;

56:5  Even to them will I give within My house and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

56:6  Also the sons of the stranger, who join themselves to the LORD to serve Him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and takes hold of My covenant;

56:7  Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people,"

56:8  The Lord GOD Who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, "Yet I will gather still others of him beside those who are gathered unto him."

56:9  All beasts of the field, yea, all the beasts in the forest come to devour.

56:10  His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant; they are all dumb dogs who cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

56:11  Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough; and they are shepherds who cannot understand. They all look to their own way, every one for his gain, to his own end.

56:12  They say, "Come, let us take wine, and let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be like today, and much more abundant."

Chapter 57

57:1  The righteous perish, and no one lays it to heart, and merciful men are taken away; none considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come.

57:2  He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one who walked in his uprightness.

57:3  "But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, you seed of the adulterer and the harlot.

57:4  Against whom are you making sport? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and draw out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, a lying seed,

57:5  Being inflamed with idols under every green tree, killing the little children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks?

57:6  Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they, even they, are your lot; even to them you have poured a drink offering, you have offered a grain offering. Should I relent over these?

57:7  Upon a lofty and high mountain you have set your bed; even there you went up to offer sacrifice.

57:8  Also behind the doors and the posts you have set up your images; far from Me have you uncovered and ascended and enlarged your bed. You made a covenant with them; you loved their bed; you saw their hand beckoning you.

57:9  And you went to the king with ointment, and increased your perfumes, and sent your messengers far off, and lowered yourself even to the grave.

57:10  You are wearied with the greatness of your way. Did you not say, 'There is no hope'? You have found strength; therefore you were not faint.

57:11  And of whom have you been afraid or feared, that you have lied and have not remembered Me, nor laid it to your heart? Have I not been silent, even of old, and yet you did not fear Me?

57:12  I will declare your kind of righteousness, and your works; for they shall not do you any good.

57:13  When you cry, let them that you have gathered deliver you; but the wind shall carry them all away. The wind will carry them off, a breath will blow them away; but he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit My holy mountain."

57:14  And He shall say, "Cast up! Cast up! Prepare the way! Take the stumbling block out of the way of My people."

57:15  For thus says the high and lofty One Who inhabits eternity; Whose name is Holy; "I dwell in the high and holy place, even with the one who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones,

57:16  For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit of man would then fail before Me, and the souls which I have made.

57:17  For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck him; I hid Myself, and was angry, and he went on backsliding away from Me in the way of his own heart.

57:18  I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I will also lead him, and restore comfort to him and to his mourners.

57:19  I create the fruit of the lips; peace, peace, to him who is afar off, and to him who is near," says the LORD, "and I will heal him."

57:20  But the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.

57:21  "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."

Chapter 58

58:1  "Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a ram's horn, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

58:2  Yet they seek Me daily, and seem eager to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and one that did not forget the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they seem eager to draw near to God.

58:3  They say, 'Why have we fasted, and You do not see? Why have we afflicted our soul and You take no knowledge?' Behold, in the day of your fast you pursue your business and exploit all your workers.

58:4  Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness; you cannot fast as you do this day, and expect to make your voice to be heard on high.

58:5  Is this such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and a day pleasing to the LORD?

58:6  Is not this, rather, the fast that I have chosen—to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed ones go free, and that you break every yoke?

58:7  Is it not to give of your bread to the hungry, and that you should bring home the wandering poor? When will you see the naked and cover him; and not hide yourself from your own flesh?

58:8  Then shall your light break out as the dawn, and your health shall spring out quickly; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

58:9  Then you shall call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, 'Here I am.' If you take the yoke away from among you, the pointing of the finger, and speaking malice;

58:10  And if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in darkness, and your gloom shall be as the noonday.

58:11  And the LORD shall always guide you and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones fat; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

58:12  And those who come of you shall build the old ruins; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Paths to Dwell in.

58:13  If you turn your foot away from the Sabbath, from doing your own desires on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor pursuing your own desires, nor speaking your own words,

58:14  Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it."

Chapter 59

59:1  Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is His ear heavy that it cannot hear.

59:2  But your iniquities have come between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear,

59:3  For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness.

59:4  None calls for justice, nor does anyone plead for truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.

59:5  They hatch adders' eggs and weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.

59:6  Their webs shall not become clothing, nor shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the acts of violence are in their hands.

59:7  Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

59:8  They have not known the way of peace, and there is no justice in their ways. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes therein shall not know peace.

59:9  Therefore justice is far from us; nor does righteousness overtake us. We wait for light, but behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.

59:10  We grope along the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the night; among those who are strong, we are like dead men.

59:11  We all roar like bears, and mourn grievously like doves; we look for justice, but there is none, we look for salvation, yet it is far from us;

59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;

59:13  In rebellion and denial of the LORD, and turning away from our God, talking perversity and revolt, conceiving and speaking from the heart words of falsehood.

59:14  And justice is driven backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter.

59:15  Yea, truth fails; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the LORD saw, and it was evil in His eyes that there was no justice.

59:16  And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no intercessor. Therefore His own arm brought salvation to Him; and His righteousness sustained Him,

59:17  For He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head. And He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was covered with zeal like a cloak.

59:18  According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay; fury to His foes, deed for deed to His enemies. He will repay their deeds to the isles.

59:19  So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall make him flee.

59:20  "The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob," says the LORD.

59:21  "As for Me, this is My covenant with them," says the LORD, "My Spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed," says the LORD, "from now on and forever."

Chapter 60

60:1  Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you,

60:2  For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the LORD shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you.

60:3  And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

60:4  "Lift up your eyes all around, and see. All of them gather themselves together; they come to you. Your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side.

60:5  Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall throb and swell for joy; because the abundance of the sea shall turn to you, the wealth of the Gentiles will come to you.

60:6  A host of camels shall cover you, the camels of Midian and Ephah. All of them from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall proclaim the praises of the LORD.

60:7  All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you; the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you. They shall come up with acceptance on My altar, and I will glorify the house of My glory.

60:8  Who are these who fly like a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

60:9  Surely the isles shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the LORD your God, and to the Holy One of Israel because He has glorified you.

60:10  And the sons of strangers shall build up your walls, and their kings shall serve you; for in My wrath I struck you, but in My grace I had mercy upon you.

60:11  Therefore your gates will always be open; they will not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto you the wealth of the Gentiles, and their kings in procession,

60:12  For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you will perish. Yes, those nations will be completely wasted.

60:13  The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious.

60:14  Also the sons of your afflicters shall come bowing down to you; and all your despisers will bow down at the soles of your feet. And they will call you, 'The city of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.'

60:15  Instead of being forsaken and hated, so that no one passes through, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.

60:16  You will also suck the milk of nations, and suck the breast of kings; and you shall know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

60:17  For bronze I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver; and for wood I will bring bronze, and for stones, iron. I will also make your overseers to be peace, and your rulers to be righteousness.

60:18  Violence will no more be heard in your land, neither wasting nor ruin within your borders; but you will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

60:19  The sun will no more be your light by day; nor the brightness of the moon give light to you; but the LORD will be to you for an everlasting light, and your God your glory.

60:20  Your sun will no more go down, nor your moon withdraw; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.

60:21  Your people also will all be righteous; they will inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, so that I may be glorified.

60:22  A smallest will become a thousand, and the least one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in its time."

Chapter 61

61:1  "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me because the LORD has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

61:2  To preach the acceptable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

61:3  To appoint to those who mourn in Zion, giving to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the mantle of praise for the spirit of heaviness; so that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified."

61:4  And they will build the old wastes, they will raise up the desolations of former times. And they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

61:5  And strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the stranger will be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

61:6  But you shall be called the priests of the LORD; it will be said of you, "The ministers of our God;" you will eat the riches of the Gentiles, and you will boast in their glory.

61:7  For your shame you will have double; instead of dishonor they will rejoice in their portion; therefore in their own land they will possess double; everlasting joy will be theirs.

61:8  "For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

61:9  And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people; all who see them will acknowledge them, that they are the seed the LORD has blessed."

61:10  I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul will be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the robes of salvation, He covered me with the robe of righteousness like a bridegroom adorns himself with ornaments, and like a bride adorns herself with her jewels;

61:11  For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes that which is sown to grow; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to grow before all the nations.

Chapter 62

62:1  For Zion's sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until its righteousness goes out as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.

62:2  And the Gentiles will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you will be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.

62:3  You also will be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

62:4  You will no more be called Forsaken; nor will your land any more be called Desolate; but you will be called My Delight is in Her, and your land, Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married,

62:5  For as a young man marries a virgin, so will your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

62:6  I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, every day and every night. They shall never be silent day or night; you who remember the LORD, do not be silent.

62:7  And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

62:8  The LORD has sworn by His right hand, and by the arm of His strength, "Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and the sons of strangers will not drink your wine for which you have labored.

62:9  But those who have gathered it shall eat it and praise the LORD; and they who collected it shall drink it in My holy courts."

62:10  Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way of the people. Raise up! Raise up the highway; clear away the stones; lift up a banner for the people.

62:11  Behold, the LORD has sent a message to the end of the earth, "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.' ”

62:12  And they will call them, The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD; and you will be called, Sought Out, a city not forsaken.

Chapter 63

63:1  Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, this One robed in glorious splendor, striving forward in the greatness of His strength? "I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save."

63:2  Why is Your clothing red, and Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

63:3  "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was no man with Me; for I will tread them in My anger and trample them in My fury; and their blood will be sprinkled upon My garments, and I stained all My clothing;

63:4  For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redemption has come.

63:5  And I looked, and there was none to help; and I was astonished that there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; and My fury upheld Me.

63:6  And I will tread down the people in My anger, and make them drunk in My fury, and I will pour their lifeblood down to the earth."

63:7  I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great good to the house of Israel by which He bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses,

63:8  For He said, "Surely they are My people, children that will not lie." So He was their Savior.

63:9  In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His compassion He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.

63:10  But they rebelled, and troubled His Holy Spirit; therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them.

63:11  Then He remembered the days of old, Moses and His people, saying, "Where is He Who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He Who set His Holy Spirit among them;

63:12  Who led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name;

63:13  Who led them through the deep, like a horse in the wilderness, so that they would not stumble?"

63:14  As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused them to rest. So You led Your people, to make Yourself a glorious name.

63:15  Look down from heaven, and look down from the place of Your holiness and of Your glory. Where is Your zeal and Your strength, the multitude of Your tender affections and of Your mercies toward me? Are they withheld?

63:16  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; Your name is from everlasting.

63:17  O LORD, why have You made us wander from Your ways, and hardened our heart from fearing You? For Your servants' sake, return the tribes of Your inheritance.

63:18  Your holy people have possessed it but a little while; our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.

63:19  We have become as those over whom You never ruled, as those who were not called by Your name.

Chapter 64

64:1  Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down, that mountains might quake at Your presence,

64:2  As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes water to boil, to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!

64:3  When You did awesome things which we did not look for, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.

64:4  And from ancient times men have not heard, nor did they perceive, neither has the eye seen, a God besides you Who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

64:5  You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remembered You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned. We have continued in our sins a long time. How can we be saved?

64:6  But we are all as the unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

64:7  And there is no one who calls upon Your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of You, for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us away because of our iniquities.

64:8  But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; and we all are the work of Your hand.

64:9  Do not be grievously angry, O LORD, nor remember iniquity forever. Behold! Look, we beseech you, all of us are Your people.

64:10  Your holy cities are a wilderness; Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem is a desolation.

64:11  The house of our holiness and our beauty, where our fathers praised You, is burned up with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste.

64:12  Will You restrain Yourself over these things, O LORD? Will You be silent and sorely afflict us?

Chapter 65

65:1  "I revealed Myself to those who asked not for Me; I am found by those who did not seek Me. I said, 'Behold Me, behold Me,' to a nation not called by My name.

65:2  I have spread out My hands all the day to a rebellious people who walk in the way that is not good, even after their own thoughts;

65:3  A people who without ceasing provoke Me to My face; who sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense upon the bricks;

65:4  A people who sit among the graves, and spend the night in the tombs, who eat swine's flesh, and broth of vile things in their vessels;

65:5  Who say, 'Keep to yourself, do not come near me; for I am holier than you.' These are a smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.

65:6  Behold, it is written before Me; I will not be silent, except I will repay; yea, I will repay into their bosom

65:7  Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together," says the LORD, "they that burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed Me upon the hills. And I will measure their former work into their bosom."

65:8  Thus says the LORD, "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it,' so I will do for My servants, that I may not destroy them all.

65:9  And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah one who inherits My mountains; and My elect will inherit it, and My servants will dwell there.

65:10  And Sharon will be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place of herds for My people who have sought Me.

65:11  But you who forsake the LORD, who forget My holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who furnish the drink offering to Fate,

65:12  Therefore I will destine you to the sword; and you will all bow down to the slaughter; because I called and you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear but did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I did not delight."

65:13  Thus the Lord GOD says, "Behold, My servants will eat, but you will be hungry. Behold, My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Behold, My servants will rejoice, but you will be ashamed.

65:14  Behold, My servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry for sorrow of heart, and will howl for vexation of spirit.

65:15  And you will leave your name for a curse to My elect; for the Lord GOD will slay you, and call His servants by another name.

65:16  He who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself by the God of truth. And he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from My eyes,

65:17  For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. And the former things will not be remembered, nor come to mind.

65:18  But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

65:19  I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and I will joy in My people; and the voice of weeping will no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

65:20  There will not be an infant who lives but a few days, nor an old man that has not filled his days, for the child will die a hundred years old; but the sinner who is a hundred years old shall be accursed.

65:21  And they will build houses and live in them; and they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

65:22  They will not build, and another live in them; they will not plant, and another eat; for like the days of a tree are so will be the days of My people, and My elect will long enjoy the work of their hands.

65:23  They will not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for calamity. For they are the seed of the beloved of the LORD, and their offspring with them.

65:24  And it shall come to pass, before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.

65:25  The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the food of the serpent. They will not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," says the LORD.

Chapter 66

66:1  Thus says the LORD, "The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where, then, is the house that you build for Me? And where is the place of My rest?

66:2  For all these things My hand has made, and these things came to be," says the LORD. "But to this one I will look, to him who is of a poor and contrite spirit and who trembles at My Word.

66:3  He who kills an ox is as if he killed a man; he who sacrifices a lamb is as if he broke a dog's neck; he who offers a grain offering is as if he offered swine's blood; he who burns incense is as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.

66:4  I also will choose their delusions, and I will bring their fears upon them because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they did not hear. But they did evil before My eyes and chose that in which I did not delight."

66:5  Hear the Word of the LORD, you who tremble at His Word, "Your brethren who hated you, who cast you out for My name's sake, said, 'Let the LORD be glorified.' But He will appear to your joy and they will be ashamed."

66:6  A sound of noise from the city, a sound from the temple, the sound of the LORD repaying His enemies.

66:7  "Before she travailed, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a man child.

66:8  Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things like these? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or will a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she also gave birth to her children.

66:9  Will I bring to the birth, and not cause to be born?" says the LORD. "Shall I cause them to be born, and shut the womb?" says your God.

66:10  "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all who love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all who mourn for her;

66:11  That you may suck and be satisfied with her breasts of consolations; that you may milk out and be delighted with the fullness of her glory."

66:12  For thus says the LORD, "Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like a flowing stream. Then you will suck thereof, you will be carried upon her sides and be dandled upon her knees.

66:13  As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem."

66:14  And you will see, and your heart will rejoice, and your bones will flourish like the grass. And the hand of the LORD will be known toward His servants, and His fury toward His enemies,

66:15  For behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with His chariots like a tempest, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire,

66:16  For by fire and by His sword the LORD will execute judgment with all flesh; and the slain of the LORD will be many.

66:17  "Those who sanctify themselves, and purify themselves to go into the gardens, after the rites of Achad, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, will be cut off together," says the LORD.

66:18  "For I know their works and their thoughts; it shall come to pass, that I will gather all the nations and tongues; and they will come and see My glory.

66:19  And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape from them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, drawers of the bow; to Tubal, and Javan, to the far away isles that have not heard My fame, nor have seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations.

66:20  And they will bring all your brethren for an offering to the LORD out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem," says the LORD, "as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.

66:21  And I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites," says the LORD.

66:22  "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me," says the LORD, "so will your seed and your name remain.

66:23  And it shall come to pass, that from one month to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me," says the LORD.

66:24  "And they will go out and see the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be put out; and they will be an object of abhorring unto all flesh."