\v 1 During the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but they could not prevail against it.
\v 2 It was reported to the house of David that Aram was allied with Ephraim. His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest shake in the wind.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa ... that Aram was allied with Ephraim \fqa* , some versions have \fqa ... that Aram had camped in Ephraim. \fqa* \f*
\s5
\p
\v 3 Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, "Go out with your son Shear-Jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to Launderer's Field.
\v 4 Tell him, 'Be careful, remain calm, do not be afraid or intimidated by these two smoldering firebrands, by the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and of Pekah son of Remaliah.
\s5
\v 5 Aram, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have planned evil against you; they have said,
\v 6 "Let us attack Judah and terrify her, and let us break into her and set up our king there, the son of Tabeel."
\s5
\q1
\v 7 The Lord Yahweh says, "It will not take place; it will not happen,
\q1
\v 8 because the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
\q1 Within sixty-five years, Ephraim will be shattered and will no longer be a people.
\q1
\v 9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son.
\q1 If you do not remain firm in faith, surely you will not remain secure."'"
\s5
\p
\v 10 The Lord spoke again to Ahaz,
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa The Lord spoke \fqa* , some versions have \fqa Yahweh spoke. \fqa* \f*
\v 11 "Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask for it in the depths or in the height above."
\v 12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, nor will I test Yahweh."
\s5
\v 13 So Isaiah replied, "Listen, house of David. Is it not enough for you people to test the patience of people? Must you also test the patience of my God?
\v 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you people a sign: See, the young woman will conceive, bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa the young woman \fqa* , some versions have \fqa a young woman \fqa* .\f*
\v 15 He will eat curds and honey when he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good.
\s5
\v 16 For before the child knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be desolate.
\v 17 Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father's house days unlike any since Ephraim seceded from Judah—he will bring on you the king of Assyria."
\s5
\q1
\v 18 At that time
\q1 Yahweh will whistle for a fly from the distant streams of Egypt,
\q1 and for a bee from the land of Assyria.
\q1
\v 19 They will all come and settle down into all the gorges, into the clefts of the rocks,
\q1 on all the thornbushes, and onto all the pastures.
\s5
\p
\v 20 At that time the Lord will shave with a razor that was hired beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—
\q1 the head and the hair of the legs; it will also sweep away the beard.
\q1
\v 21 On that day, a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep,
\q1
\v 22 and because of the abundance of milk which they shall give, he will eat curds,
\q1 for everyone left in the land will eat curds and honey.
\s5
\q1
\v 23 At that time, where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels,
\q1 there will be nothing but briers and thorns.
\q1
\v 24 Men will go there to hunt with bows, because all the land will be briers and thorns.
\q1
\v 25 They will stay away from all the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, for fear of the briers and thorns;
\q1 but it will be a place where cattle and sheep graze.
\v 1 Yahweh said to me, "Take a large tablet and write on it, 'Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.'
\v 2 I will summon faithful witnesses to attest for me, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah."
\s5
\v 3 I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then Yahweh said to me, "Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
\v 4 For before the child knows to cry, 'My father,' and, 'My mother,' the riches of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria."
\s5
\p
\v 5 Yahweh spoke to me again,
\q1
\v 6 "Because this people has refused the gentle waters of Shiloah,
\q1 and is happy over Rezin and Remaliah's son,
\q1
\v 7 therefore the Lord is about to bring up on them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory.
\q1 It will come up over all its channels and overflow its banks.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 The River will sweep onward into Judah, flooding and passing on, until it reaches to your neck.
\q1 Its outstretched wings will fill the breadth of your land, Immanuel."
\s5
\q1
\v 9 You peoples will be broken to pieces. Listen, all you distant countries:
\q1 arm yourselves for war and be broken in pieces; arm yourselves and be broken in pieces.
\q1
\v 10 Form a plan, but it will not be carried out; issue the command, but it will not be carried out,
\q1 for God is with us.
\s5
\v 11 Yahweh spoke to me, with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people.
\q1
\v 12 Do not call conspiracy anything that this people calls conspiracy,
\q1 you will not fear what they fear, and do not be terrified.
\q1
\v 13 It is Yahweh of hosts whom you will honor as holy; he is the one you must fear, and he is the one you must dread.
\s5
\q1
\v 14 He will become a sanctuary;
\q1 but he will be a stone of striking, and a rock of stumbling—
\q2 for both the houses of Israel,
\q2 and he will be a trap and a snare
\q2 to the people of Jerusalem.
\q1
\v 15 Many will stumble over it and fall and be broken, and be ensnared and captured.
\s5
\q1
\v 16 Bind up my testimony, seal the official record, and give it to my disciples.
\q1
\v 17 I will wait for Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob; I will trust in him.
\q1
\v 18 See, I and the sons whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel
\q1 from Yahweh of hosts, who lives on Mount Zion.
\v 19 They will say to you, "Consult with the mediums and spiritists," those who chirp and mutter incantations. But should a people not consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?
\v 1 The gloom will be dispelled from her who was in anguish.
\q1 In an earlier time he humiliated
\q1 the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
\q1 but in the later time he will make it glorious, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
\q1
\v 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
\q1 those who have lived in the land of the shadow of death, the light has shone on them.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa the shadow of death \fqa* , some versions have \fqa darkness \fqa* . \f*
\s5
\q1
\v 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased their joy.
\q1 They rejoice before you like the joy at harvest time,
\q1 as men rejoice when they divide the plunder.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 For the yoke of his burden, the beam across his shoulder,
\q1 the rod of his oppressor, you have shattered as on the day of Midian.
\q1
\v 5 For every boot treading in the tumult
\q1 and the garments rolled in blood
\q1 will be burned, fuel for the fire.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 For to us a child has been born, to us a son has been given;
\q1 and the rule will be on his shoulder;
\q1 and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor,
\q1 Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
\q1 Prince of Peace.
\q1
\v 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,
\q1 as he rules on the throne of David, and over his kingdom,
\q1 to establish it and sustain it
\q1 with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and for evermore.
\q1 The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 The Lord sent a word against Jacob, and it fell on Israel.
\q1
\v 9 All the people will know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and with an arrogant heart,
\q1
\v 10 "The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with chiseled stone; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place."
\s5
\q1
\v 11 Therefore Yahweh will raise up against him Rezin, his adversary, and will stir up his enemies,
\q1
\v 12 the Arameans on the east, and the Philistines on the west. They will devour Israel with open mouth.
\q1 In all these things, his anger does not subside; instead, his hand is still stretched out.
\s5
\q1
\v 13 Yet the people will not turn to him who struck them, nor will they seek Yahweh of hosts.
\q1
\v 14 Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day.
\q1
\v 15 The leader and the noble man are the head; and the prophet that teaches lies is the tail.
\s5
\q1
\v 16 Those who lead this people lead them astray, and those who are led by them are swallowed up.
\q1
\v 17 Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men nor will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows,
\q1 since every one is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks foolish things.
\q1 In all these things, his anger does not subside; instead, his hand is still stretched out.
\s5
\q1
\v 18 Wickedness burns like a fire; it devours the briers and thorns;
\q1 it even burns the thickets of the forest, which rise in a column of smoke.
\q1
\v 19 Through the fury of Yahweh of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire.
\q1 No man spares his brother.
\s5
\q1
\v 20 They will grab food on the right hand but still be hungry; they will eat food on the left hand but will not be satisfied.
\q1 Each will even eat the flesh of his own arm.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa the flesh of his own arm \fqa* , some versions have \fqa the flesh of his own children \fqa* . \f*
\q1
\v 21 Manasseh will devour Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together will attack Judah.
\q1 In all these things, his anger does not subside; instead, his hand is still stretched out.
\s5
\c 10
\m
\q1
\v 1 Woe to those who enact unjust laws and write unfair decrees.
\q1
\v 2 They deprive the needy of justice, rob the poor of my people of their rights,
\q1 plunder widows, and make the fatherless their prey!
\s5
\q1
\v 3 What will you do on judgment day when the destruction comes from far away?
\q1 To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?
\q1
\v 4 Nothing remains, and you crouch among the prisoners or fall among the killed.
\q1 In all these things, his anger does not subside; instead, his hand is still stretched out.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 Woe to the Assyrian, the club of my anger, the rod by whom I wield my fury!
\q1
\v 6 I send him against an arrogant nation and against the people who bear my overflowing wrath.
\q1 I order him to take the spoil, to take the prey, and to trample them like mud in the streets.
\s5
\q1
\v 7 But this is not what he intends, nor does he think this way.
\q1 It is in his heart to destroy and eliminate many nations.
\q1
\v 8 For he says, "Are not all my princes kings?
\q1
\v 9 Is not Kalno like Carchemish?
\q1 Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
\s5
\q1
\v 10 As my hand has overcome idolatrous kingdoms, whose carved figures were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
\q1
\v 11 just as I did to Samaria and her worthless idols,
\q1 will I not also do the same to Jerusalem and to her idols?"
\s5
\p
\v 12 When the Lord has finished his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and his prideful looks.
\v 13 For he says,
\q1 "By my strength and by my wisdom I acted. I have understanding,
\q1 and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples. I have stolen their treasures,
\q1 and like a bull I have brought down the inhabitants.
\s5
\q1
\v 14 My hand has seized, as from a nest, the wealth of nations,
\q1 and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth.
\q1 None fluttered their wings or opened their mouth or chirped."
\s5
\q1
\v 15 Will the ax boast about itself against the one who wields it?
\q1 Will the saw praise itself more than the one who cuts with it?
\q1 It is as if a rod could lift up those who raise it, or as if a wooden club could lift up a person.
\q1
\v 16 Therefore the Lord Yahweh of hosts will send emaciation among his elite warriors;
\q1 and under his glory there will be kindled a burning like fire.
\s5
\q1
\v 17 The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame;
\q1 it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.
\q1
\v 18 Yahweh will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful land, both soul and body;
\q1 it will be like when a sick man's life wastes away.
\q1
\v 19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few, that a child could count them.
\s5
\q1
\v 20 On that day, the remnant of Israel, the family of Jacob that has escaped, will no longer rely on the one who defeated them, but will indeed depend on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.
\q1
\v 21 A remnant of Jacob will return to the mighty God.
\s5
\q1
\v 22 For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the seashore, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, as overflowing righteousness demands.
\q1
\v 23 For the Lord Yahweh of hosts, is about to carry out the destruction determined throughout the land.
\s5
\p
\v 24 Therefore the Lord Yahweh of hosts says, "My people who live in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian. He will strike you with the rod and raise his staff against you, as the Egyptians did.
\v 25 Do not fear him, for in a very short time my anger against you will end, and my anger will lead to his destruction."
\s5
\p
\v 26 Then Yahweh of hosts will wield a whip against them, as when he defeated Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise his rod over the sea and lift it up as he did in Egypt.
\f + \ft The last line of this verse is difficult because it does not seem to fit the context. Some modern versions leave out \fqa because of fatness \fqa* . Other modern versions have \fqa and the yoke will be destroyed from off your neck. He has gone up from Rimmon. \fqa* Here \fqa He \fqa* means the Assyrian king and his army. \f*
\s5
\p
\q1
\v 28 The enemy has come to Aiath
\q1 and has passed through Migron; at Michmash he has stored his provisions.
\q1
\v 29 They have crossed over the pass and they lodge at Geba.
\q1 Ramah trembles and Gibeah of Saul has fled.
\s5
\q1
\v 30 Cry aloud, daughter of Gallim! Give attention, Laishah!
\q1 You poor Anathoth!
\q1
\v 31 Madmenah is fleeing,
\q1 and the inhabitants of Gebim run for safety.
\q1
\v 32 This very day he will halt
\q1 at Nob and shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
\s5
\q1
\v 33 Behold, the Lord Yahweh of hosts will lop off the boughs with a terrifying crash;
\q1 the tallest trees will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.
\q1
\v 34 He will chop down the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon in his majesty will fall.
\s5
\c 11
\p
\v 1 A shoot will sprout from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
\q1
\v 2 The Spirit of Yahweh will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
\v 1 Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob; he will again choose Israel and restore them into their own land. Foreigners will join with them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
\v 2 The nations will bring them to their own place. Then the house of Israel will take them in the land of Yahweh as male and female servants. They will take captive those who had captured them, and they will rule over their oppressors.
\s5
\p
\v 3 On the day that Yahweh gives you rest from your suffering and anguish, and from the hard labor which you were required to perform,
\v 4 you will sing this taunt song against the king of Babylon,
\q1 "How the oppressor has come to an end, the proud fury ended!
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa the proud fury ended \fqa* , some versions have \fqa the golden city ended \fqa* , \fqa the turmoil ended \fqa* , \fqa the hostility ended \fqa* , or \fqa the arrogance ended \fqa* . \f*
\s5
\q1
\v 5 Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of those rulers,
\q1
\v 6 that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows,
\q1 Indeed, in one night Ar of Moab is laid waste and destroyed;
\q1 indeed, in one night Kir of Moab is laid waste and destroyed.
\q1
\v 2 They have gone up to the temple, the people of Dibon went up to the heights to weep;
\q1 Moab laments over Nebo and over Medeba.
\q1 All their heads are shaved bare and all their beards are cut off.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 In their streets they wear sackcloth; on their housetops
\q1 and in the square everyone wails, melting in tears.
\q1
\v 4 Heshbon and Elealeh call out for help; their sound is heard as far as Jahaz.
\q1 So the armed men of Moab call out for help; they tremble within themselves.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 My heart cries out for Moab; her fugitives flee to Zoar and to Eglath Shelishiyah.
\q1 They go up the ascent of Luhith weeping;
\q1 on the road to Horonaim they loudly wail over their destruction.
\q1
\v 6 The waters of Nimrim have dried up;
\q1 the grass is withered away and the new grass dies; nothing is green.
\q1
\v 7 The abundance they have grown and stored
\q1 they carry away over the brook of the poplars.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 The cry has gone around the territory of Moab;
\q1 the wailing as far as Eglaim and Beer Elim.
\q1
\v 9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; but I will bring even more upon Dimon.
\q1 A lion will attack those who escape from Moab and also those remaining in the land.
\s5
\c 16
\m
\q1
\v 1 Send rams to the ruler of the land
\q1 from Selah in the wilderness, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
\q1
\v 2 As wandering birds, as a scattered nest,
\q1 so the women of Moab are at the fords of the Arnon River.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 "Give instruction, execute justice; provide some shade like night in the middle of the day;
\q1 hide the fugitives; do not betray the fugitives.
\q1
\v 4 Let them live among you, the refugees from Moab;
\q1 be a hiding place for them from the destroyer."
\m
\q1 For the oppression will stop, and destruction will cease,
\q1 those who trample will disappear from the land.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 A throne will be established in covenant faithfulness; and one from David's tent will faithfully sit there.
\q1 He will judge as he seeks justice and does righteousness.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 6 We have heard of Moab's pride, his arrogance,
\q1 his boasting, and his anger. But his boastings are empty words.
\q1
\v 7 So Moab wails for Moab—they all wail! Mourn, you who are utterly destroyed, for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 The fields of Heshbon have dried up as well as the vines of Sibmah.
\q1 The rulers of the nations have trampled the choice vines
\q1 that reached to Jazer and spread into the desert.
\q1 Its shoots spread abroad; they went over to the sea.
\s5
\q1
\v 9 Indeed I will weep along with Jazer for the vineyard of Sibmah.
\q1 I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh.
\q1 For on your fields of summer fruits and harvest I have ended the shouts of joy.
\q1
\v 10 Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruit tree groves; and there is no singing, or shouts in the vineyards.
\q1 No one treads out wine in the presses, for I have put an end to the shouts of the one who treads.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 So my heart sighs like a harp for Moab, and my inward being for Kir Hareseth.
\q1
\v 12 When Moab wears himself out on the high place
\q1 and enters his temple to pray, his prayers will accomplish nothing.
\s5
\p
\v 13 This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab previously.
\v 14 Again Yahweh speaks, "Within three years, the glory of Moab will disappear; in spite of his many people, the remnant will be very few and insignificant."
\s5
\c 17
\p
\v 1 A declaration about Damascus.
\q1
\v 2 The cities of Aroer will be abandoned.
\q1 They will be places for flocks to lie down, and no one will frighten them.
\q1
\v 3 Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim, the kingdom from Damascus,
\q1 and the remnant of Aram—they will be like the glory of the people of Israel—this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 It will come about on that day
\q1 that the glory of Jacob will become thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
\q1
\v 5 It will be as when a harvester gathers the standing grain, and his arm reaps the heads of grain.
\q1 It will be as when one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 Gleanings will be left, however, as when the olive tree is shaken:
\q1 two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the highest branches of a fruitful tree—this is the declaration of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
\v 7 On that day men will look toward their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, nor will they look to what their fingers have made, the Asherah poles or the sun images.
\q1
\v 9 On that day their strong cities will be like the abandoned wooded slopes on the hill summits,
\q1 that were forsaken because of the people of Israel and that will become a desolation.
\s5
\q1
\v 10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have ignored the rock of your strength.
\q1 So you plant pleasant plants, and set out vine branches received from a stranger,
\q1
\v 11 on the day you plant and hedge and cultivate. Soon your seed will grow,
\q1 but the harvest will fail on a day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
\s5
\q1
\v 12 Woe! The uproar of many peoples, that roar like the roaring of the seas,
\v 13 The nations will roar like the rushing of many waters,
\q1 but God will rebuke them. They will flee far away
\q1 and will be chased as the dead weeds on the mountains before the wind, and like weeds whirling before a storm.
\q1
\v 14 In the evening, see, terror! Before the morning they will be gone!
\q1 This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who rob us.
\s5
\c 18
\m
\q1
\v 1 Woe to the land of the rustling of wings, which is along the rivers of Cush;
\q1
\v 2 who send ambassadors by the sea, in vessels of papyrus on the waters.
\q1 Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth,
\q1 to a people feared far and near, a nation strong and trampling down, whose land the rivers divide.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 All you inhabitants of the world and you who live on the earth,
\q1 when a signal is lifted up on the mountains, look; and when the trumpet is blown, listen.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 4 This is what Yahweh said to me, "I will quietly observe from my home,
\q1 like the simmering heat in sunshine, like a cloud of mist in the heat of harvest.
\q1
\v 5 Before the harvest, when the blossoming is over, and the flower is ripening into a grape,
\q1 he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 They will be left together for the birds of the mountains and for the animals of the earth.
\q1 The birds will summer on them, and all the animals of the earth will winter on them."
\q1
\v 7 At that time tribute will be brought to Yahweh of hosts from a people tall and smooth,
\q1 from a people feared far and near, a nation strong and trampling down, whose land the rivers divide,
\q1 to the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts, to Mount Zion.
\s5
\c 19
\p
\v 1 A declaration about Egypt.
\q1 See, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt;
\q1 the idols of Egypt quake before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt within themselves.
\q1
\v 2 "I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians: A man will fight against his brother, and a man against his neighbor;
\q1 city will be against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 The spirit of Egypt will be weakened from within. I will destroy his advice,
\q1 though they sought the advice of idols, dead men's spirits, mediums, and spiritualists.
\q1
\v 4 I will give the Egyptians into the hand of a harsh master, and a strong king will rule over them—
\q1 this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh of hosts."
\s5
\q1
\v 5 The waters of the sea will dry up, and the river will dry up and become empty.
\q1
\v 6 The rivers will become foul; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up;
\q1 the reeds and flags will wither away.
\s5
\q1
\v 7 The reeds along the Nile,
\q1 at the mouth of the Nile,
\q1 and every sown field beside the Nile will become parched,
\q1 will be driven away, and will be no more.
\q1
\v 8 The fishermen will wail and mourn, and all who cast a hook into the Nile will mourn,
\q1 and those who spread nets on the waters will grieve.
\s5
\q1
\v 9 The workers in combed flax and those who weave white cloth will turn pale.
\q1
\v 10 The cloth workers of Egypt will be crushed; all who work for hire will be grieved within themselves.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 The princes of Zoan are completely foolish. The advice of the wisest advisors of Pharaoh has become senseless.
\q1 How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am the son of wise men, a son of ancient kings?"
\q1
\v 12 Where then are your wise men?
\q1 Let them tell you and make known what Yahweh of hosts plans concerning Egypt.
\s5
\q1
\v 13 The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; they have made Egypt go astray, who are the cornerstones of her tribes.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa Memphis \fqa* , some versions have \fqa Noph \fqa* , the Hebrew name for the same city in Egypt. \f*
\q1
\v 14 Yahweh has mixed a spirit of distortion into her midst,
\q1 and they have led Egypt astray in all she does, like a drunk staggering in his vomit.
\q1
\v 15 There is nothing anyone can do for Egypt, whether head or tail, palm branch or reed.
\s5
\v 16 In that day, the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the upraised hand of Yahweh of hosts that he raises over them.
\v 17 The land of Judah will become a cause of staggering to Egypt. Whenever anyone reminds them of her, they will be afraid, because of the plan of Yahweh, that he is planning against them.
\v 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to Yahweh of hosts. One of these will be called The City of the Sun.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa The City of the Sun \fqa* , which probably refers to the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, some ancient and modern versions have \fqa The City of Destruction \fqa* . \f*
\s5
\p
\v 19 In that day there will be an altar to Yahweh in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a stone pillar at the border to Yahweh.
\v 20 It will be as a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them.
\s5
\v 21 Yahweh will become known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will acknowledge Yahweh on that day. They will worship with sacrifices and offerings, and will make vows to Yahweh and fulfill them.
\v 22 Yahweh will afflict Egypt, afflicting and healing. They will return to Yahweh; he will hear their prayer and will heal them.
\s5
\p
\v 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come to Egypt, and the Egyptian to Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
\s5
\v 24 In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth;
\v 25 Yahweh of hosts will bless them and say, "Blessed be Egypt, my people; Assyria, the work of my hands; and Israel, my inheritance."
\s5
\c 20
\p
\v 1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, he fought against Ashdod and took it.
\v 2 At that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah son of Amoz and said, "Go and remove the sackcloth from your waist, and take your sandals off your feet." He did so, walking naked and barefoot.
\s5
\v 3 Yahweh said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years, it is a sign and an omen concerning Egypt and concerning Cush—
\v 4 in this way the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
\s5
\v 5 They will be dismayed and ashamed, because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their glory.
\v 6 The inhabitants of these coasts will say on that day, 'Indeed, this was our source of hope, where we fled for help to be rescued from the king of Assyria, and now, how can we escape?'"
\s5
\c 21
\p
\v 1 A declaration about the desert by the sea.
\p
\q1 Like stormwinds sweeping through the Negev it comes
\q1 passing through from the wilderness, from a terrible land.
\q1
\v 2 A distressing vision has been given to me:
\q1 the treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys.
\q1 Go up and attack, Elam; besiege, Media;
\q1 I will stop all her groaning.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 Therefore my loins are filled with pain;
\q1 pains like the pains of a woman in labor have taken hold of me;
\q1 I am bowed down by what I heard; I am disturbed by what I saw.
\q1
\v 4 My heart pounds, I shake with fear.
\q1 Early evening, my favorite time of day, has brought me terror.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 They prepare the table, they spread rugs and eat and drink;
\q1 arise, princes, anoint your shields with oil.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 For this is what the Lord said to me,
\q1 "Go, post a watchman; he must report what he sees.
\q1
\v 7 When he sees a chariot, a pair of horsemen,
\q1 riders on donkeys, and riders on camels,
\q1 then he must pay attention and be very alert."
\s5
\q1
\v 8 The watchman cries out,
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa The watchman cries out \fqa* , some older versions have \fqa A lion cries out \fqa* . \f*
\q1 "Lord, on the watchtower I stand all day, every day,
\q1 and at my post I stand all night long."
\q1
\v 9 Here comes a chariot with a man and a pair of horsemen.
\q1 He calls out, "Babylon has fallen, fallen,
\q1 and all the carved figures of its gods are broken to the ground."
\s5
\q1
\v 10 My threshed and winnowed ones, children of my threshing floor!
\q1 What I have heard from Yahweh of hosts,
\q1 the God of Israel, I have declared to you.
\s5
\p
\q1
\v 11 A declaration about Dumah.
\q1 One calls to me from Seir,
\q1 "Watchman, what is left of the night?
\q1 Watchman, what is left of the night?"
\q1
\v 12 The watchman said, "The morning comes and also the night.
\q1 If you want to ask, then ask; and come back again."
\s5
\q1
\v 13 A declaration about Arabia.
\p
\q1 In the wilderness of Arabia you spend the night, you caravans of Dedanites.
\q1
\v 14 Bring water for the thirsty;
\q1 inhabitants of the land of Tema, meet the fugitives with bread.
\q1
\v 15 For they have fled from the sword, from the drawn sword,
\q1 from the bent bow, and from the weight of war.
\s5
\v 16 For this is what the Lord said to me, "Within a year, as a laborer hired for a year would see it, all the glory of Kedar will end.
\v 17 Only a few of the archers, the warriors of Kedar will remain," for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.
\q1 What is the reason that you have all gone up to the housetops?
\q1
\v 2 Is it so you may hear a city full of noises, a town full of revelry?
\q1 Your dead were not killed with the sword, and they did not die in battle.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 All your rulers fled away together, but they were captured without using a bow;
\q1 all of them were captured together, though they had fled far away.
\q1
\v 4 Therefore I said, "Do not look at me, I will weep bitterly;
\q1 do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people."
\s5
\q1
\v 5 For there is a day of tumult, treading down, and confusion for the Lord Yahweh of hosts,
\q1 in the Valley of Vision, a breaking down of the walls, and people crying out to the mountains.
\q1
\v 6 Elam takes up the quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen,
\q1 and Kir lays the shield bare.
\q1
\v 7 It will come about that your choicest valleys
\q1 will be full of chariots, and the horsemen will take their positions at the gate.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 He took away the protection of Judah;
\q1 and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.
\q1
\v 9 You saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many,
\q1 and you collected the water of the lower pool.
\s5
\q1
\v 10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you tore down the houses to strengthen the wall.
\q1
\v 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool.
\q1 But you did not consider the city's maker, who had planned it long ago.
\s5
\q1
\v 12 The Lord Yahweh of hosts called on that day
\q1 for weeping, for mourning, for shaved heads, and the wearing of sackcloth.
\q1
\v 13 But look, instead, celebration and gladness, killing cattle and slaughtering sheep,
\q1 eating meat and drinking wine; let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.
\q1
\v 14 This was revealed in my ears by Yahweh of hosts:
\q1 "Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you, even when you die," says the Lord Yahweh of hosts.
\s5
\q1
\v 15 The Lord Yahweh of hosts, says this, "Go to this administrator, to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,
\q1
\v 16 'What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a tomb for yourself,
\q1 hewing out a grave on the heights and carving out a resting place in the rock?'"
\s5
\q1
\v 17 See, Yahweh is about to throw you, a mighty man, about to throw you down; he will grasp you tightly.
\q1
\v 18 He will surely wind you round and round, and toss you like a ball into a vast country.
\q1 There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will be; you will be the shame of your master's house!
\q1
\v 19 "I will thrust you from your office and from your station. You will be pulled down.
\s5
\q1
\v 20 It will come about on that day that I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
\q1
\v 21 I will clothe him with your tunic and put on him your sash, and I will transfer your authority into his hand.
\q1 He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
\q1
\v 22 I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder;
\q1 he will open, and none will shut; he will shut, and none will open.
\s5
\q1
\v 23 I will fasten him, a peg in a secure place,
\q1 and he will become a seat of glory for his father's house.
\q1
\v 24 They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and descendants, every small container
\q1 from the cups to all the jugs.
\s5
\v 25 On that day—this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts—the peg driven in a firm place will give way, break off, and fall, and the weight that was on it will be cut off—for Yahweh has spoken.
\q1 Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for there is neither home nor harbor;
\q1 from the land of Cyprus it has been revealed to them.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa Cyprus \fqa* , some modern versions keep \fqa Kittim \fqa* , the Hebrew name for this island. \f*
\q1
\v 2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the coast; the merchant of Sidon,
\q1 who travels over the sea, has filled you.
\f + \ft Some ancient and modern versions have \fqa Be silent, you inhabitants of the coast; the merchants of Sidon, who travel over the sea, have filled you \fqa* or \fqa Be silent, you inhabitants of the coast and you merchants of Sidon, whom those who travel over the sea have filled \fqa* . \f*
\q1
\v 3 Upon the great waters was the grain of Shihor,
\q1 the harvest of the Nile was her produce;
\q1 and it became the commerce of the nations.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the mighty one of the sea. He says,
\q1 "I have not labored nor given birth,
\q1 nor have I raised young men nor brought up young women."
\q1
\v 5 When the report comes to Egypt, they will be grieved concerning Tyre.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coast.
\q1
\v 7 Has this happened to you, the joyful city, whose origin is from ancient times,
\q1 whose feet carried her far away to foreign places to settle?
\s5
\q1
\v 8 Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns,
\q1 whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honored ones of the earth?
\q1
\v 9 Yahweh of hosts has planned it to dishonor her pride
\q1 and all her glory, to shame all her honored ones of the earth.
\s5
\q1
\v 10 Plow your land, as one plows the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no longer a marketplace in Tyre.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa Plow your land \fqa* , some versions have \fqa Pass through your land \fqa* or \fqa Overflow your land \fqa* . \f*
\q1
\v 11 Yahweh has reached out with his hand over the sea, and he has shaken the kingdoms;
\q1 he has given a command concerning Phoenicia, to destroy the strongholds.
\q1
\v 12 He said, "You will not rejoice again, oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon;
\q1 arise, pass over to Cyprus; but neither there you will have rest."
\s5
\q1
\v 13 See the land of the Chaldeans. This people has ceased to be; the Assyrians have made it a wilderness for wild animals.
\q1 They set up their siege towers; they demolished its palaces; they made it a heap of ruins.
\q1
\v 14 Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for your refuge has been destroyed.
\s5
\v 15 In that day, Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of a king. After the end of seventy years there will happen in Tyre something like in the song of the prostitute.
\q1
\v 16 Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten prostitute;
\q1 play it well, sing many songs, so that you may be remembered.
\s5
\v 17 It will come about that after seventy years, Yahweh will help Tyre, and she will start making money again by doing the work of a prostitute, and she will offer her services to all the kingdoms of the earth.
\v 18 Her profits and earnings will be set apart to Yahweh. They will not be stored up or kept in the treasury, for her profits will be given to those who live in Yahweh's presence and will be used to supply them with abundant food and so they can have the best quality clothing.
\s5
\c 24
\m
\q1
\v 1 Look, Yahweh is about to empty the earth, to devastate it, mar its surface, and scatter its inhabitants.
\q1
\v 2 It will come about that, as with the people, so with the priest;
\q1 as with the servant, so with his master;
\q1 as with the maid, so with her mistress;
\q1 as with the buyer, so with the seller;
\q1 as with the creditor, so with the debtor;
\q1 as with the receiver of interest, so with the giver of interest.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 The earth will be completely devastated and completely stripped;
\q1 for Yahweh has spoken this word.
\q1
\v 4 The earth dries up and withers, the world shrivels up and fades away,
\q1 the prominent people of the earth waste away.
\q1
\v 5 The earth is polluted by its inhabitants
\q1 because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes,
\q1 and broken the everlasting covenant.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants are found guilty.
\q1 The inhabitants of the earth burn up, and few people are left.
\q1
\v 7 The new wine dries up, the vine withers, all the merry-hearted groan.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 The happy sound of the tambourines stops, and the revelry of those who rejoice;
\q1 the joy of the lyre ceases.
\q1
\v 9 They no longer drink wine and sing, and the beer is bitter to those who drink it.
\s5
\q1
\v 10 The city of chaos has been broken down; every house is closed up and empty.
\q1
\v 11 There is a crying in the streets because of the wine;
\q1 all joy is darkened, the gladness of the land has disappeared.
\s5
\q1
\v 12 In the city is left a desolation, and the gate is broken into a ruin.
\q1
\v 13 For this is how it will be on the whole earth among the nations,
\q1 as when an olive tree is beaten, as the gleanings when the grape harvest is done.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 14 They will lift up their voices and shout the majesty of Yahweh,
\q1 and will joyfully shout from the sea.
\q1
\v 15 Therefore in the east glorify Yahweh,
\q1 and in the isles of the sea give glory to the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
\s5
\q1
\v 16 From the farthest part of the earth we have heard songs,
\q1 "Glory to the righteous one!"
\q1 But I said, "I have wasted away, I have wasted away, woe is me!
\q1 The treacherous have dealt treacherously;
\q1 yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously."
\s5
\q1
\v 17 Terror, the pit, and the snare are upon you, inhabitants of the earth.
\q1
\v 18 He who flees from the sound of terror will fall into the pit,
\q1 and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be caught in the snare.
\q1 The windows of the heavens will be opened, and the foundations of the earth will shake.
\s5
\q1
\v 19 The earth will be completely broken, the earth ripped apart;
\q1 the earth will be violently shaken.
\q1
\v 20 The earth will stagger like a drunken man and it will sway back and forth like a hut.
\q1 Its sin will be heavy on it and it will fall and never rise again.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 21 On that day Yahweh will punish the host of the heaven in the heavens,
\q1 and the kings of the earth on the earth.
\q1
\v 22 They will be gathered together, prisoners in a pit,
\q1 and will be shut up in a prison;
\q1 and after many days they will be punished.
\q1
\v 23 Then the moon will be ashamed, and the sun disgraced,
\q1 for Yahweh of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
\q1 and before his elders in glory.
\s5
\c 25
\m
\q1
\v 1 Yahweh, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name;
\q1 for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in perfect faithfulness.
\q1
\v 2 For you have made the city a heap, a fortified city, a ruin,
\q1 and a fortress of strangers into no city.
\q1
\v 3 Therefore a strong people will glorify you; a city of ruthless nations will fear you.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 For you have been a place of safety for the one who is poor,
\q1 a shelter for the one who is needy in his distress—
\q1 a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.
\q1 When the breath of the ruthless was like a storm against a wall,
\q1
\v 5 and like heat in a dry land,
\q1 you subdued the noise of foreigners,
\q1 as the heat is subdued by the shade of a cloud,
\q1 so the song of the ruthless ones is answered.
\s5
\p
\q1
\v 6 On this mountain Yahweh of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things,
\q1 of choice wines, of tender meats, a feast on the lees.
\q1
\v 7 He will destroy on this mountain the covering over all peoples,
\q1 the web woven over all the nations.
\q1
\v 8 He will swallow up death forever,
\q1 and the Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces;
\q1 the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 9 It will be said on that day, "Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.
\q1 This is Yahweh; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."
\q1
\v 10 For on this mountain the hand of Yahweh will rest;
\q1 and Moab will be trampled down in his place, even as straw is trampled down in a pit filled with manure.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 They will spread their hands in the midst of it, as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim.
\q1 But Yahweh will bring down their pride in spite of the skill of their hands.
\q1
\v 12 Your high fortress walls he will bring down to the ground, to the dust.
\s5
\c 26
\p
\v 1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
\q1 We have a strong city; God has made salvation its walls and ramparts.
\q1
\v 2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 The mind that is stayed on you, you will keep him in perfect peace, for he trusts in you.
\q1
\v 4 Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting rock.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 For he will bring down those who live proudly; the fortified city
\q1 he will lay low, he will lay low to the ground; he will level it to the dust.
\q1
\v 6 It will be trampled down by the feet of the poor and the treading of the needy.
\s5
\q1
\v 7 The path of the righteous is level, Righteous One; the path of the righteous you make straight.
\q1
\v 8 Yes, in the path of your judgments, Yahweh, we wait for you;
\q1 your name and your reputation are our desire.
\q1
\v 9 I have longed for you in the night; yes, my spirit within me seeks you earnestly.
\q1 For when your judgments come on the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn about righteousness.
\s5
\q1
\v 10 Let favor be shown to the wicked one, but he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he acts wickedly
\q1 and does not see the majesty of Yahweh.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, but they do not notice.
\q1 But they will see your zeal for the people and be put to shame, because fire of your adversaries will devour them.
\q1
\v 12 Yahweh, you will bring about peace for us; for indeed, you have also accomplished all our works for us.
\s5
\q1
\v 13 Yahweh our God, other masters besides you have ruled over us; but we praise your name alone.
\q1
\v 14 They are dead, they will not live; they are deceased, they will not arise.
\q1 Indeed, you came in judgment and destroyed them, and made every memory of them to perish.
\s5
\q1
\v 15 You have increased the nation, Yahweh, you have increased the nation; you are honored;
\q1 you have extended all the borders of the land.
\s5
\q1
\v 16 Yahweh, in trouble have they looked to you; they whispered prayers when your discipline was on them.
\f + \ft This difficult verse has many different translations among modern versions. \f*
\q1
\v 17 As a pregnant woman nears the time for her to give birth,
\q1 when she is in pain and cries out in her labor pains,
\q1 so we have been before you, Lord.
\s5
\q1
\v 18 We have been pregnant, we have been in labor, but it is as if we have only given birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth,
\q1 and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
\s5
\q1
\v 19 Your dead will live; their dead bodies will arise. Awake and sing for joy, you who live in the dust;
\q1 for your dew is the dew of light, and the earth will bring forth its dead.
\s5
\q1
\v 20 Go, my people, enter into your rooms and shut your doors behind you;
\q1 hide for a little while, until the indignation has passed by.
\q1
\v 21 For, look, Yahweh is about to come out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
\v 1 On that day Yahweh with his hard, great and fierce sword
\q1 will punish Leviathan the slithering serpent, Leviathan the squirming serpent,
\q1 and he will kill the monster that is in the sea.
\q1
\v 2 In that day: A vineyard of wine, sing of it.
\q1
\v 3 "I, Yahweh, am its protector; I water it every moment.
\q1 I guard it night and day so no one will hurt it.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 I am not angry, Oh, that there were briers and thorns!
\q1 In battle I would march against them; I would burn them all together;
\q1
\v 5 unless they grasp my protection and make peace with me; let them make peace with me.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 In the coming day, Jacob will take root; Israel will blossom and bud;
\q1 and they will fill the surface of the ground with fruit."
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 7 Has Yahweh attacked Jacob and Israel as he attacked those nations who attacked them? Have Jacob and Israel been killed as in the slaughter of those nations that were killed by them?
\q1
\v 8 In exact measure you have contended, sending Jacob and Israel away; he drove them away with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa In exact measure \fqa* , many modern versions have an idea similar to \fqa By driving them away \fqa* . \f*
\s5
\q1
\v 9 So in this way, the iniquity of Jacob will be atoned for, for this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
\q1 when he will make all the altar stones as chalk and crushed to pieces,
\q1 and no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.
\s5
\q1
\v 10 For the fortified city is desolate, the habitation is deserted and forsaken like the wilderness.
\q1 There a calf feeds, and there he lies down and consumes its branches.
\q1
\v 11 When the boughs are withered, they will be broken off. Women will come and make fires with them,
\q1 for this is not a people of understanding.
\q1 Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them, and he who made them will not be merciful to them.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 12 It will come about on that day
\q1 that Yahweh will thresh from the Euphrates River to the Wadi of Egypt
\q1 and you, the people of Israel, will be gathered together one by one.
\q1
\v 13 On that day a great trumpet will be blown;
\q1 and the perishing ones in the land of Assyria will come, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt,
\q1 they will worship Yahweh on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
\s5
\c 28
\m
\q1
\v 1 Woe to the proud garland crown that is worn by each of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
\q1 the garland that is set on the head of the lush Valley of those who are overcome with wine!
\q1
\v 2 Behold, the Lord sends one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail and a destructive windstorm,
\q1 like a driving rain and overflowing waters;
\q1 and he will throw each garland crown down to the ground.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 The proud garland of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot.
\q1
\v 4 The fading flower of his glorious beauty, that is on the head of the rich valley,
\q1 will be as the first ripe fig before the summer, that, when someone sees it,
\q1 while it is yet in his hand, he gulps it down.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 In that day Yahweh of hosts will become a beautiful crown and a diadem of beauty for the remainder of his people,
\q1
\v 6 a spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment, and strength for those who turn back their enemies at their gates.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 7 But even these reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink.
\q1 The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, and they are swallowed up by wine.
\q1 They stagger with strong drink, staggering in vision and reeling in decision.
\q1
\v 8 Truly, all tables are covered with vomit, so that there is no clean place.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 9 To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message?
\q1 To those who are weaned from milk or to those just taken from the breasts?
\q1
\v 10 For it is command upon command, command upon command; rule upon rule, rule upon rule;
\q1 here a little, there a little.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 11 Indeed, with mocking lips and a foreign tongue he will speak to this people.
\q1
\v 12 In the past he said to them "This is the rest, give rest to him who is weary;
\q1 and this is the refreshing," but they would not listen.
\s5
\q1
\v 13 So the word of Yahweh will be to them
\q1 command upon command, command upon command; rule upon rule, rule upon rule;
\q1 here a little, there a little;
\q1 so that they may go and fall backward, and be broken, ensnared, and captured.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 14 So listen to the word of Yahweh, you who mock,
\q1 you who rule over this people who are in Jerusalem.
\q1
\v 15 This will happen because you said, "We have made a covenant with death,
\q1 and with Sheol we have reached an agreement. So when the overwhelming whip passes through, it will not reach us.
\q1 For we have made a lie our refuge, and taken shelter in falsehood."
\s5
\q1
\v 16 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says,
\q1 "See, I will lay in Zion a foundation stone, a tried stone,
\q1 a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He who believes will not be ashamed.
\s5
\q1
\v 17 I will make justice the measuring stick, and righteousness the plumbline.
\q1 Hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the floodwaters will overwhelm the hiding place.
\s5
\q1
\v 18 Your covenant with death will be dissolved, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand.
\q1 When the raging flood passes through, you will be overwhelmed by it.
\q1
\v 19 Whenever it passes through, it will overwhelm you,
\q1 and morning by morning it will pass through and by day and night it will come.
\q1 When the message is understood, it will cause terror.
\s5
\q1
\v 20 For the bed is too short for a man to stretch out on, and the blanket too narrow for him to wrap himself in."
\q1
\v 21 Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim; he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon
\q1 to do his work, his strange work, and perform his strange deed.
\s5
\q1
\v 22 Now therefore do not mock, or your bonds will be tightened.
\q1 I have heard from the Lord Yahweh of hosts, a decree of destruction on the earth.
\s5
\m
\q1
\v 23 Pay attention and listen to my voice; be attentive and listen to my words.
\q1
\v 24 Does a farmer who plows all day to sow, only plow the ground? Does he continually break up and harrow the field?
\s5
\q1
\v 25 When he has prepared the ground, does he not scatter caraway seed, sow the cumin,
\q1 put in the wheat in rows and the barley in the right place, and the spelt at its edges?
\f + \ft The identification of some of these spices is in doubt, so versions have a variety of translations. In addition, some versions give different interpretations to the expressions translated here as \fqa in rows \fqa* and \fqa in the right place \fqa* , because these expressions are uncertain in Hebrew. \f*
\q1
\v 26 His God instructs him; he teaches him wisely.
\s5
\q1
\v 27 Moreover, the caraway seed is not threshed with a sledge,
\q1 nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cumin;
\q1 but caraway is beaten with a stick, and cumin with a rod.
\q1
\v 28 Grain is ground for bread but not too finely,
\q1 and though the wheels of his cart and his horses scatter it, his horses do not crush it.
\s5
\q1
\v 29 This too comes from Yahweh of hosts,
\q1 who is wonderful in instruction and excellent in wisdom.
\s5
\c 29
\m
\q1
\v 1 Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped!
\q1 Add year to year; let the festivals come round.
\q1
\v 2 But I will besiege Ariel, and she will be mourning and lamenting;
\q1 and she will be to me like Ariel.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 I will encamp against you in a circle
\q1 and will lay siege against you with a palisade, and I will raise siege works against you.
\q1
\v 4 You will be brought down and will speak from the ground; your speech will be low from the dust.
\q1 with thunder, earthquake, great noise, with strong winds and violent storm, and the flames of a devouring fire.
\s5
\q1
\v 7 It will be like a dream, a vision of the night:
\q1 A horde of all the nations will fight against Ariel
\q1 and her stronghold. They will attack her and her fortifications to press upon her.
\q1
\v 8 It will be like when a hungry man dreams he is eating, but when he awakes, his stomach is empty.
\q1 It will be like when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but he when he awakes, he is fainting, with his thirst not quenched.
\q1 Yes, so will be the great number of nations that fights against Mount Zion.
\s5
\q1
\v 9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind!
\q1 Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with beer.
\q1
\v 10 For Yahweh has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep.
\q1 He has closed your eyes, the prophets, and has covered your heads, the seers.
\s5
\v 11 All revelation has become to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men might give to one who is learned, saying, "Read this." He also says, "I cannot, for it is sealed."
\v 12 If the book is given to one who cannot read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I cannot read."
\s5
\q1
\v 13 The Lord said, "This people comes close to me with their mouths
\q1 and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
\q1 Their honor for me is only a commandment of men that has been taught.
\q1
\v 14 Therefore, see, I will proceed to do a marvelous thing among this people, wonder after wonder.
\q1 The wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will disappear."
\s5
\q1
\v 15 Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from Yahweh,
\q1 and whose deeds are in darkness. They say, "Who sees us, and who knows us?"
\s5
\q1
\v 16 You turn things upside down! Should the potter be considered like clay,
\q1 so that the thing that is made should say about him who made it, "He did not make me,"
\q1 or the thing formed say about him who formed it, "He does not understand"?
\s5
\q1
\v 17 In just a little while,
\q1 Lebanon will be turned into a field, and the field will become a forest.
\q1
\v 18 On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book,
\q1 and the eyes of the blind will see out of the deep darkness.
\q1
\v 19 The oppressed will again rejoice in Yahweh,
\q1 and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
\s5
\q1
\v 20 For the ruthless will cease, and the scoffer will vanish. All those who love to do evil will be eliminated,
\q1
\v 21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender. They lay a snare for him
\q1 who seeks justice at the gate and put the righteous down with empty lies.
\s5
\q1
\v 22 Therefore this is what Yahweh says concerning the house of Jacob—Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham,
\q1 "Jacob will no longer be ashamed, nor will his face be pale.
\q1
\v 23 But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, they will make my name holy.
\q1 They will make holy the name of the Holy One of Jacob and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
\v 1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
\v 2 Then the king of Assyria sent the chief commander from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great army. He approached the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the launderers' field, and stood by it.
\v 3 The Israelite officials who went out of the city to talk with them were Hilkiah's son Eliakim, the palace administrator, Shebna the king's secretary, and Asaph's son Joah, who wrote down the government decisions.
\s5
\p
\v 4 The chief commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah that the great king, the king of Assyria, says, 'What is the source of your confidence?
\v 5 You speak only useless words, saying there is counsel and strength for war. Now in whom are you trusting? Who has given you courage to rebel against me?
\s5
\v 6 Look, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed that you use as a walking staff, but if a man leans on it, it will stick into his hand and pierce it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is to anyone who trusts in him.
\v 7 But if you say to me, "We are trusting in Yahweh our God," is not he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem"?
\s5
\v 8 Now therefore, I want to make you a good offer from my master the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to find riders for them.
\s5
\v 9 How could you resist even one captain of the least of my master's servants? You have put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen!
\v 10 Now then, have I traveled up here without Yahweh to fight against this land and destroy it? Yahweh said to me, "Attack this land and destroy it."'"
\s5
\p
\v 11 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah said to the chief commander, "Please speak to your servants in the Aramean language, Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak with us in the language of Judah in the ears of the people who are on the wall."
\v 12 But the chief commander said, "Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall, who will have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"
\s5
\p
\v 13 Then the chief commander stood and shouted in a loud voice in the Jews' language, saying, "Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
\v 14 The king says, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to rescue you.
\v 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, "Yahweh will surely rescue us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."'
\s5
\v 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: 'Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and from his own fig tree, and drink from the water in his own cistern.
\v 17 You will do this until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.'
\s5
\v 18 Do not let Hezekiah mislead you, saying, 'Yahweh will rescue us.' Has any of the gods of the peoples rescued them from the hand of the king of Assyria?
\v 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my power?
\v 20 Among all the gods of these lands, is there any god who has rescued his land from my power, as if Yahweh could save Jerusalem from my power?"
\s5
\p
\v 21 But the people remained silent and did not respond, for the king's order was, "Do not answer him."
\v 22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and reported to him the words of the chief commander.
\s5
\c 37
\p
\v 1 It came about that when King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh.
\v 2 He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, all covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet.
\s5
\v 3 They said to him, "Hezekiah says, 'This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to give birth to her child.
\v 4 It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of the chief commander, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Now lift up your prayer for the remnant that is still here.'"
\s5
\p
\v 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,
\v 6 and Isaiah said to them, "Say to your master: 'Yahweh says, "Do not be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.
\v 7 Look, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear a certain report and go back to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'"
\s5
\p
\v 8 Then the chief commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had gone away from Lachish.
\v 9 Then Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah king of Cush and Egypt had mobilized to fight against him, so he sent messengers again to Hezekiah with a message:
\v 10 "Say to Hezekiah, king of Judah, 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
\s5
\v 11 See, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them completely. So will you be rescued?
\v 12 Have the gods of the nations rescued them, the nations that my fathers destroyed: Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Tel Assar?
\v 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?'"
\s5
\p
\v 14 Hezekiah received this letter from hand of the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the house of Yahweh and spread it before him.
\v 15 Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh:
\v 16 "Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, you who sit above the cherubim, you are God alone over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
\s5
\v 17 Turn your ear, Yahweh, and listen. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.
\v 18 It is true, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations and their lands.
\s5
\v 19 They have put their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, just wood and stone. So the Assyrians have destroyed them.
\v 20 So now, Yahweh our God, save us from his power, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh alone."
\s5
\p
\v 21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah, saying, "Yahweh, the God of Israel says, 'Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
\v 22 this is the word that Yahweh has spoken about him:
\q1 "The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and laughs you to scorn;
\q1 the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you.
\q1
\v 23 Whom have you defied and insulted? Against whom have you exalted your voice
\q1 and lifted up your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel.
\s5
\q1
\v 24 By your servants you have defied the Lord and have said, 'With the multitude of my chariots
\q1 I have gone up to the heights of the mountains, to the highest elevations of Lebanon.
\q1 I will cut down its tall cedars and choice cypress trees there,
\q1 and I will enter into its farthest high places, its most fruitful forest.
\q1
\v 25 I have dug wells and drunk water;
\f + \ft Some ancient and modern versions have \fqa I have dug wells and drunk water in foreign lands \fqa* . \f*
\q1 I dried up all the rivers of Egypt under the soles of my feet.'
\s5
\p
\q1
\v 26 Have you not heard how I determined it long ago
\q1 and worked it out in ancient times? Now I am bringing it to pass.
\q1 You are here to reduce impregnable cities into heaps of ruins.
\q1
\v 27 Their inhabitants, of little strength, are shattered and ashamed.
\q1 They are plants in the field, green grass,
\q1 the grass on the roof or in the field,
\q1 before the east wind.
\s5
\q1
\v 28 But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.
\q1
\v 29 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has reached my ears,
\q1 I will put my hook in your nose, and my bit in your mouth;
\q1 I will turn you back the way you came."
\s5
\q1
\v 30 This will be the sign for you:
\q1 This year you will eat what grows wild, and in the second year what grows from that.
\q1 But in the third year you must plant and harvest, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
\s5
\q1
\v 31 The remnant of the house of Judah that survives will again take root and bear fruit.
\q1
\v 32 For from Jerusalem a remnant will come out; from Mount Zion survivors will come.
\q1 The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.'"
\s5
\q1
\v 33 Therefore Yahweh says this about the king of Assyria:
\q1 "He will not come into this city and he will not shoot an arrow here.
\q1 He will not come before it with shield or build up a siege ramp against it.
\q1
\v 34 The way by which he came will be the same way he will leave; he will not enter this city—this is Yahweh's declaration.
\s5
\q1
\v 35 For I will defend this city and rescue it, for my own sake and for David my servant's sake."
\s5
\v 36 Then the angel of Yahweh went out and attacked the camp of the Assyrians, putting to death 185,000 soldiers. When the men arose early in the morning, dead bodies lay everywhere.
\v 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria left Israel and went home and stayed in Nineveh.
\s5
\v 38 Later, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisrok his god, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword. Then they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
\s5
\c 38
\p
\v 1 In those days Hezekiah was sick to the point of dying. So Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him, and said to him, "Yahweh says, 'Set your house in order; for you will die, not live.'"
\v 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh.
\v 3 He said, "Please, Yahweh, call to mind how I have faithfully walked before you with my whole heart, and how I have done what was good in your sight." Then Hezekiah wept loudly.
\s5
\v 4 Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying,
\v 5 "Go and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what Yahweh, the God of David your ancestor, says: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. See, I am about to add fifteen years to your life.
\v 6 Then I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.
\s5
\v 7 This will be the sign to you from Yahweh, that I will do what I have promised.
\v 8 Look, I will cause the shadow on the stairs of Ahaz to go back ten steps.'" So the shadow went back ten steps of the stairs on which it had advanced.
\s5
\p
\v 9 This was the written prayer of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and then recovered:
\q1
\v 10 "I said that halfway through my life
\q1 I will go through the gates of Sheol; I am sent there for the rest of my years.
\q1
\v 11 I said that I will no longer see Yahweh, Yahweh in the land of the living;
\q1 I will no longer look on mankind or the inhabitants of the world.
\f + \fqa the inhabitants of the world \fqa* : \ft Most modern versions have this meaning. Ancient Hebrew copies have \fqa the inhabitants of the place of non-existence \fqa* (that is, brief existence). \f*
\v 1 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had recovered.
\v 2 Hezekiah was pleased by these things; he showed the messengers his storehouse of valuable things—the silver, the gold, the spices and precious oil, the storehouse of his weapons, and all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his kingdom, that Hezekiah did not show them.
\s5
\v 3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men say to you? Where did they come from?" Hezekiah said, "They came to me from the distant country of Babylon."
\v 4 Isaiah asked, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen everything in my house. There is nothing among my valuable things that I have not shown them."
\s5
\v 5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Listen to the word of Yahweh of hosts:
\v 6 'Look, the days are about to come when everything in your palace, the things that your ancestors stored away until this present day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says Yahweh.
\v 7 The sons born from you, whom you yourself have fathered—they will take them away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"
\v 8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of Yahweh that you have spoken is good." For he thought, "There will be peace and stability in my days."
\v 7 The grass withers and the flower wilts when the breath of Yahweh blows on it; surely humanity is grass.
\q1
\v 8 The grass withers, the flower wilts, but the word of our God will stand forever."
\s5
\q1
\v 9 Go up on a high mountain, Zion, bearer of good news.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa Go up on a high mountain, Zion, bearer of good news \fqa* , some versions have \fqa You who are bearing good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain \fqa* . \f*
\q1 Shout out loud, Jerusalem. You who bring good news, raise your voice, do not be afraid.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa Jerusalem, proclaimer of good news \fqa* , some versions have \fqa proclaim good news to Jerusalem \fqa* . \f*
\q1 Say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!"
\q1
\v 10 Look, the Lord Yahweh comes as a victorious warrior, and his strong arm rules for him.
\q1 See, his reward is with him, and those he has rescued go before him.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather in his arm the lambs,
\q1 and carry them close to his heart,
\q1 and will gently lead the ewes nursing their young.
\s5
\q1
\v 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured the sky with the span of his hand,
\q1 held the dust of the earth in a basket, weighed the mountains in scales,
\q1 or the hills in a balance?
\s5
\q1
\v 13 Who has comprehended the mind of Yahweh, or instructed him as his counselor?
\q1
\v 14 From whom did he ever receive instruction? Who taught him the correct way to do things,
\q1 and taught him knowledge, or showed to him the way of understanding?
\s5
\q1
\v 15 Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded like the dust on the scales;
\q1 see, he weighs the isles as a speck.
\q1
\v 16 Lebanon is not sufficient fuel,
\q1 nor its wild animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
\q1
\v 17 All the nations are insufficient before him; they are regarded by him as nothing.
\s5
\q1
\v 18 To whom then will you compare God? To what idol will you liken him?
\q1
\v 19 An idol! A craftsman casts it: The goldsmith overlays it with gold
\q1 and forges silver chains for it.
\q1
\v 20 To make an offering one chooses a wood that will not rot;
\q1 he seeks a skillful artisan to make an idol that will not fall over.
\s5
\q1
\v 21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
\q1 Now should I make the other part of the wood into something disgusting to worship? Should I bow down to a block of wood?"
\s5
\q1
\v 20 It is as if he were eating ashes; his deceived heart misleads him. He cannot rescue himself, nor does he say, "This thing in my right hand is a false god."
\s5
\q1
\v 21 Think about these things, Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant:
\q1 I have formed you; you are my servant: Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
\q1
\v 22 I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your rebellious deeds, and like a cloud, your sins;
\q1 return to me, for I have redeemed you.
\s5
\q1
\v 23 Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done this; shout, you depths of the earth.
\q1 Break out into singing, you mountains, you forest with every tree in it;
\q1 for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will show his glory in Israel.
\s5
\q1
\v 24 This is what Yahweh says, your Redeemer, he who formed you from the womb:
\q1 "I am Yahweh, who made everything,
\q1 who alone stretched out the heavens, who alone fashioned the earth.
\q1
\v 25 I who frustrate the omens of the empty talkers and who disgrace those who read omens;
\q1 I who overturn the wisdom of the wise and make their advice foolish.
\s5
\q1
\v 26 I, Yahweh, who confirmed the words of his servant and brings to pass the predictions of his messengers,
\q1 who says of Jerusalem, 'She will be inhabited,' and of the towns of Judah, 'They will be built again, and I will raise up their ruins';
\q1
\v 27 who says to the deep sea, 'Be dry, and I will dry up your currents.'
\s5
\q1
\v 28 Yahweh is the one who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, he will do my every wish; he will decree about Jerusalem, 'She will be rebuilt,' and about the temple, 'Let its foundations be laid.'"
\s5
\c 45
\m
\q1
\v 1 This is what Yahweh says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold,
\q1 in order to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings,
\q1 and to open the doors before him, so that gates remain open:
\s5
\q1
\v 2 "I will go before you and level the mountains;
\q1 I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut in pieces their iron bars,
\q1
\v 3 and I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden away,
\q1 that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name, I, the God of Israel.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my chosen,
\q1 I have called you by your name, giving you a title of honor, though you have not known me.
\q1
\v 5 I am Yahweh, and there is no other; there is no God but me.
\q1 I will arm you for battle, though you have not known me;
\q1
\v 6 that people may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no god but me:
\q1 I am Yahweh, and there is no other.
\s5
\q1
\v 7 I form the light and create darkness;
\q1 I bring peace and create disaster; I am Yahweh, who does all these things.
\q1
\v 8 You heavens, rain down from above! Let the skies rain down righteousness.
\q1 Let the earth absorb it, that salvation may sprout up,
\q1 and righteousness spring up together with it. I, Yahweh, have created them both.
\s5
\q1
\v 9 Woe to anyone who argues with the one who formed him, to him who is like any other earthen pot among all the earthen pots in the ground!
\q1 Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles on it'?
\s5
\q1
\v 10 Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you fathering?' or to a woman, 'What are you giving birth to?'
\s5
\q1
\v 11 This is what Yahweh says, the Holy One of Israel, his Maker:
\q1 'Why do you ask questions about what I will do for my children? Do you tell me what to do concerning the work of my hands?'
\s5
\q1
\v 12 'I made the earth and created man on it.
\q1 It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all the stars to appear.
\s5
\q1
\v 13 I stirred Cyrus up in righteousness, and I will smooth out all his paths.
\q1 He will build my city; he will let my exiled people go home, and not for price nor bribe,'" says Yahweh of hosts.
\s5
\q1
\v 14 This is what Yahweh says,
\q1 "The earnings of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush with the Sabeans, men of tall stature,
\q1 will be brought to you. They will be yours. They will follow after you, coming in chains.
\q1 They will bow down to you and plead with you saying,
\q1 'Surely God is with you, and there is no other except him.'"
\q1
\v 15 Truly you are a God who hides yourself, God of Israel, Savior.
\s5
\q1
\v 16 They will all be ashamed and disgraced together; those who carve idols will walk in humiliation.
\q1
\v 17 But Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation;
\q1 you will never again be ashamed or humiliated.
\s5
\q1
\v 18 This is what Yahweh says, who created the heavens, the true God
\q1 who created the earth and made it, who established it.
\q1 He created it, not as a waste, but designed it to be inhabited:
\q1 "I am Yahweh, and there is no other.
\s5
\q1
\v 19 I have not spoken in private, in some hidden place;
\q1 I did not say to Jacob's descendants, 'Seek me in vain!'
\q1 I am Yahweh, who speaks sincerely; I declare the things that are right.
\v 6 You heard about these things; look at all this evidence; and you, will you not admit what I said is true? From now on, I am showing you new things, hidden things that you have not known.
\q1 and you will know that I am Yahweh; those who wait for me will not be put to shame."
\s5
\q1
\v 24 Can the spoils be taken from the warrior, or captives be rescued from the fierce?
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa from the fierce \fqa* , the Hebrew text has \fqa from the righteous \fqa* , but most modern versions correct it to \fqa from the fierce \fqa* . \f*
\q1
\v 25 But this is what Yahweh says,
\q1 "Yes, the captives will be taken away from the warrior, and spoils will be rescued;
\q1 for I will oppose your adversary and save your children.
\s5
\q1
\v 26 I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh; and they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine.
\q1 Then all mankind will know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."
\s5
\c 50
\m
\q1
\v 1 This is what Yahweh says,
\q1 "Where is the certificate of divorce with which I divorced your mother?
\q1 To which of my creditors did I sell you?
\q1 Look, you were sold because of your sins, and because of your rebellion, your mother was sent away.
\s5
\q1
\v 2 Why did I come but there was no one there? Why did I call but no one answered?
\q1 Was my hand too short to ransom you? Was there no power in me to rescue you?
\q1 Look, at my rebuke I dry up the sea; I make the rivers a desert;
\q1 their fish die for lack of water and rot.
\q1
\v 3 I clothe the sky with darkness; I cover it with sackcloth."
\s5
\q1
\v 4 The Lord Yahweh has given me a tongue as one of those who are taught,
\q1 so that I speak a sustaining word to the weary one;
\q1 he wakes me morning by morning; he awakens my ear to hear like those who are taught.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear,
\q1 and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away backward.
\q1
\v 6 I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard;
\q1 I did not hide my face from acts of shame and spitting.
\s5
\q1
\v 7 For the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I am not disgraced;
\q1 so I have made my face like flint, for I know that I will not be put to shame.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 He who will justify me is close by. Who will oppose me? Let us stand and confront one another.
\q1 Who is my accuser? Let him come near to me.
\q1
\v 9 See, the Lord Yahweh will help me. Who will declare me guilty?
\q1 See, they will all wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
\s5
\q1
\v 10 Who among you fears Yahweh? Who obeys the voice of his servant?
\q1 Who walks in deep darkness without light?
\q1 He should trust in the name of Yahweh and lean on his God.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 Look, all you who light fires, who equip yourselves with torches:
\q1 walk in the light of your fire and in the flames that you have ignited.
\q1 This is what you have received from me: You will lie down in a place of pain.
\s5
\c 51
\m
\q1
\v 1 Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek Yahweh:
\q1 look at the rock from which you were chiseled and to the quarry from which you were cut.
\s5
\q1
\v 2 Look at Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who bore you; for when he was a lone individual,
\q1 I called him. I blessed him and made him many.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 Yes, Yahweh will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places;
\q1 her wilderness he made like Eden, and her desert plains beside the Jordan River valley like the garden of Yahweh;
\q1 joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving, and the sound of singing.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 "Be attentive to me, my people; and listen to me, my people!
\q1 For I will issue a decree, and I will make my justice to be a light for the nations.
\q1
\v 5 My righteousness is near; my salvation will go out, and my arm will judge the nations;
\q1 the coastlands will wait for me; for my arm they will eagerly wait.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 Lift up your eyes to the sky, and look at the earth beneath,
\q1 But my salvation will continue forever, and my righteousness will never stop working.
\s5
\q1
\v 7 Listen to me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your heart:
\q1 Do not fear the insults of men, nor be disheartened by their abuse.
\q1
\v 8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool;
\q1 but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations."
\s5
\q1
\v 9 Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength, arm of Yahweh.
\q1 Awake as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times.
\q1 Is it not you who crushed Rahab, you who pierced the monster?
\q1
\v 10 Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep,
\q1 and make the depths of the sea into a way for the redeemed to pass through?
\s5
\q1
\v 11 The ransomed of Yahweh will return and come to Zion with cries of joy
\q1 and with gladness forever on their heads; and gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and mourning will flee away.
\s5
\q1
\v 12 "I, I, am he who comforts you.
\q1 Why are you afraid of men, who will die, the sons of mankind, who are made like grass?
\s5
\q1
\v 13 Why have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens
\q1 and laid the foundations of the earth? You are in constant dread every day
\q1 because of the hot fury of the oppressor when he decides to destroy. Where is the fury of the oppressor?
\s5
\q1
\v 14 The one who is bent down, Yahweh will hurry to release; he will not die and go down to the pit, nor will he lack bread.
\q1
\v 15 For I am Yahweh your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar—Yahweh of hosts is his name.
\s5
\q1
\v 16 I have placed my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
\q1 that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, 'You are my people.'"
\s5
\q1
\v 17 Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem,
\q1 you who have drunk out of the hand of Yahweh from the bowl of his anger;
\q1 you who have drunk out of the bowl, down to the dregs from the cup of staggering.
\q1
\v 18 There is no one among all the sons she has born to guide her;
\q1 there is no one among all the sons that she has raised to take her by the hand.
\s5
\q1
\v 19 These two troubles happened to you—who will grieve with you?—
\q1 desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword. Who will comfort you?
\f + \ft The Hebrew text and some modern versions have \fqa How will I comfort you? \fqa* , most modern versions correct this passage to \fqa Who will comfort you? \f*
\q1
\v 20 Your sons have fainted; they lie at every street corner, like an antelope in a net;
\q1 they are filled with the anger of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God.
\s5
\q1
\v 21 But now hear this, you oppressed one and drunken one, but not drunk with wine:
\q1
\v 22 Your Lord Yahweh, your God, who pleads the cause of his people, says this,
\q1 "See, I have taken the cup of staggering from your hand—
\q1 the bowl, which is the cup of my anger—so that you will not drink it again.
\s5
\q1
\v 23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, those who have said to you, 'Lie down, that we may walk over you';
\q1 you made your back like the ground and like the street for them to walk on."
\s5
\c 52
\m
\q1
\v 1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion;
\q1 put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, holy city;
\q1 for never again will the uncircumcised or the unclean enter you.
\s5
\q1
\v 2 Shake yourself off from the dust; arise and sit, Jerusalem;
\q1 take off the chain from your neck, captive, daughter of Zion.
\q1
\v 3 For this is what Yahweh says, "You were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money."
\s5
\q1
\v 4 For this is what the Lord Yahweh says, "In the beginning my people went down into Egypt to live temporarily;
\q1 Assyria has oppressed them recently.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 Now what do I have here—this is Yahweh's declaration—seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock—this is Yahweh's declaration—and my name is slandered continually all day long.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa mock \fqa* , some versions identify a different Hebrew word meaning \fqa wail \fqa* . \f*
\q1
\v 6 Therefore my people will know my name;
\q1 they will know in that day that I am the one who says, "Yes, it is I!"
\s5
\q1
\v 7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news,
\q1 who announces peace, who bears good tidings, who announces salvation,
\q1 who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
\q1
\v 8 Listen, your watchmen raise their voices, together they shout for joy,
\q1 for they will see, every eye of theirs, Yahweh's return to Zion.
\s5
\q1
\v 9 Break out into joyful singing together, you ruins of Jerusalem;
\q1 for Yahweh has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
\q1
\v 10 Yahweh has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations;
\q1 all the earth will see the salvation of our God.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 Leave, leave, go out from there; touch nothing unclean;
\q1 leave from her midst; purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of Yahweh.
\q1
\v 12 For you will not go out in a rush, nor will you leave in a panic;
\q1 for Yahweh will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearguard.
\s5
\q1
\v 13 Look, my servant will act wisely;
\q1 he will be high and lifted up, and he will be exalted.
\q1
\v 14 As many were horrified at you—
\q1 his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man, and his form no longer looked like anything human.
\s5
\q1
\v 15 Even so, my servant will sprinkle many nations and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
\q1 For that which they had not been told, they will see, and that which they had not heard, they will understand.
\s5
\c 53
\m
\q1
\v 1 Who has believed what they heard from us, and to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
\q1
\v 2 For he grew up before Yahweh like a sapling, and like a sprout out of parched earth;
\q1 he had no remarkable appearance or splendor; when we saw him, there was no beauty to attract us.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 He was despised and rejected by people; a man of sorrows, and one familiar with pain.
\q1 Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised; and we considered him insignificant.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 But surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows;
\v 8 By coercion and judgment he was condemned; who from that generation thought anymore about him?
\q1 But he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the offenses of my people the penalty was put on him.
\q1
\v 9 They placed his grave with the criminals, with a rich man in his death,
\q1 although he had done no violence, nor had there been any deceit in his mouth.
\s5
\q1
\v 10 Yet it was Yahweh's will to crush him and make him ill. When he makes his life an offering for sin,
\q1 he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and Yahweh's purpose will be accomplished through him.
\q1
\v 11 After the suffering of his life, he will see light and be satisfied by his knowledge.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa After the suffering of his life \fqa* , some modern versions have \fqa From the suffering of his life he will see the result \fqa* . \f*
\q1 My righteous servant will justify many; he will bear their iniquities.
\f + \ft Many modern versions supply \fqa light \fqa* . Some modern versions have \fqa By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many \fqa* . \f*
\s5
\q1
\v 12 Therefore will I give him his portion among the multitudes, and he will divide the spoils with the many,
\q1 because he exposed himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
\q1 He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
\s5
\c 54
\m
\q1
\v 1 "Sing, you barren woman, you who have not given birth; break into joyful singing and cry aloud, you who have never been in birth labor.
\q1 For the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married woman," says Yahweh.
\s5
\q1
\v 2 "Make your tent larger and spread your tent curtains farther out, unsparingly;
\q1 lengthen your ropes and strengthen your stakes.
\q1
\v 3 For you will spread out to the right hand and to the left,
\q1 and your descendants will conquer nations and resettle desolate cities.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 Do not fear for you will not be ashamed, nor be discouraged for you will not be disgraced;
\q1 you will forget the shame of your youth and the disgrace of your abandonment.
\s5
\v 5 For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of hosts is his name.
\q1 The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of the whole earth.
\q1
\v 6 For Yahweh has called you back as a wife abandoned and grieved in spirit,
\q1 like a woman married young and rejected," says your God.
\s5
\q1
\v 7 "For a short time I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you.
\q1
\v 8 In a flood of anger I hid my face from you momentarily;
\q1 but with everlasting covenant faithfulness I will have mercy on you—
\q1 says Yahweh, the one who rescues you.
\s5
\q1
\v 9 For this is like the waters of Noah to me:
\q1 as I swore that the waters of Noah would never again pass over the earth,
\q1 so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.
\q1
\v 10 Though the mountains may fall and the hills be shaken,
\q1 yet my steadfast love will not turn away from you, nor will my covenant of peace be shaken—
\q1 says Yahweh, who has mercy on you.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 Afflicted one, storm-driven and uncomforted one,
\q1 look, I will set your pavement in turquoise, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
\q1
\v 12 I will make your pinnacles of rubies and your gates of sparkling stones,
\q1 and your outer wall of beautiful stones.
\s5
\q1
\v 13 Then all your children will be taught by Yahweh;
\q1 and the peace of your children will be great.
\q1
\v 14 In righteousness I will reestablish you.
\q1 You will no longer experience persecution, for you will not be afraid, and nothing frightening will come near you.
\s5
\q1
\v 15 Look, if anyone stirs up trouble, it will not be from me; anyone who stirs up trouble with you will fall in defeat.
\q1
\v 16 See, I have created the craftsman, who blows the burning coals
\q1 and forges weapons as his work, and I have created the destroyer to destroy.
\s5
\q1
\v 17 No weapon that is formed against you will succeed;
\q1 and you will condemn everyone who accuses you.
\q1 This is the heritage of the servants of Yahweh, and their vindication from me—this is Yahweh's declaration."
\s5
\c 55
\m
\q1
\v 1 "Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water,
\q2 and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
\q2 Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
\s5
\q1
\v 2 Why do you weigh out silver for what is not bread, and why do you labor for what does not satisfy?
\q1 Listen carefully to me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in fatness.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 Turn your ears and come to me! Listen, that you may live!
\q1 I will make an everlasting covenant with you—my reliable, faithful love that I promised to David.
\q1
\v 4 Look, I have placed him as a witness to the nations, as a leader and commander to the peoples.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 Look, you will call to a nation that you did not know; and a nation that did not know you will run to you
\q1 because of Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you."
\s5
\q1
\v 6 Seek Yahweh while he may be found; call on him while he is nearby.
\q1
\v 7 Let the wicked leave his path, and the man of sin his thoughts.
\q1 Let him return to Yahweh, and he will pity him, and to our God, who will abundantly forgive him.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways—this is Yahweh's declaration—
\q1
\v 9 for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
\s5
\q1
\v 10 For as the rain and snow come down from heaven
\q1 and do not return there unless they saturate the earth
\q1 and make it produce and sprout and give seed to the farmer who sows and bread to the eater,
\q1
\v 11 so also my word will be that goes from my mouth—it will not return to me empty,
\q1 but it will achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
\s5
\q1
\v 12 For you will go out in joy and be led along peacefully;
\q1 the mountains and the hills will break out in joyful shouts before you, and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
\q1
\v 13 Instead of the thornbushes, the cypress will grow; and instead of the brier, the myrtle tree will grow,
\q1 and it will be for Yahweh, for his name, as an everlasting sign that will not be cut off."
\s5
\c 56
\m
\q1
\v 1 This is what Yahweh says, "Observe what is right, do what is just;
\q1 for my salvation is near, and my righteousness is about to be revealed.
\q1
\v 2 Blessed is the man that does this, and who holds it tightly.
\q1 He observes the Sabbath, not defiling it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil."
\s5
\q1
\v 3 Let no foreigner who has become a follower of Yahweh say,
\q1 "Yahweh will certainly exclude me from his people."
\q1 The eunuch should not say, "See, I am a dry tree."
\s5
\q1
\v 4 For this is what Yahweh says, "To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths
\q1 and choose what pleases me, and hold fast my covenant,
\q1
\v 5 to them I will set up in my house and within my walls a monument that is better than having sons and of daughters.
\q1 I will give them an everlasting monument that will never be cut off.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 Also foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh—
\q1 to serve him, and who love the name of Yahweh, to worship him,
\q1 every one who observes the Sabbath and who keeps from defiling it, and who holds fast my covenant
\q1
\v 7 —I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
\q1 their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar.
\q1 For my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,
\s5
\q1
\v 8 this is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel—
\q1 I will still gather others in addition to them."
\s5
\q1
\v 9 All you wild beasts of the field, come and devour, all you beasts in the forest!
\q1
\v 10 All their watchmen are blind, they do not understand.
\q1 They are all silent dogs who cannot bark.
\q1 They dream, and lying down they love to sleep.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 The dogs have big appetites; they can never get enough;
\q1 they are shepherds without discernment;
\q1 they have all turned to their own way, each one covetous for unjust gain.
\q1
\v 12 "Come," they say, "let us drink wine and liquor.
\q1 Tomorrow will be like today, a day great beyond measure."
\s5
\c 57
\m
\q1
\v 1 The righteous perish, but no one considers it,
\q1 and the people of covenant faithfulness are gathered away, but no one understands
\q1 that the righteous is gathered away from the evil.
\q1
\v 2 He enters into peace;
\q1 they rest in their beds, those who walk in their uprightness.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 But come here, you sons of the sorceress,
\q1 children of the adulterer and the woman who has prostituted herself.
\q1
\v 4 Whom are you merrily mocking?
\q1 Against whom are you opening the mouth and sticking out the tongue?
\q1 Are you not children of rebellion, children of deceit?
\s5
\q1
\v 5 You heat yourselves up sleeping together under the oaks, under every green tree,
\q1 you who kill your children in the dry riverbeds, under the rocky overhangs.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 Among the smooth things of the river valley are the things that have been assigned to you. They are the object of your devotion.
\q1 You pour out your drink offering to them and raise up a grain offering. In these things should I take pleasure?
\s5
\q1
\v 7 You prepared your bed on a high mountain;
\q1 you also went up there to offer sacrifices.
\q1
\v 8 Behind the door and the doorposts you set up your symbols;
\q1 you deserted me, made yourselves naked, and went up; you made your bed wide.
\q1 You made a covenant with them; you loved their beds; you saw their private parts.
\s5
\q1
\v 9 You went to Molech with oil; you multiplied perfumes.
\f + \ft Instead of \fqa to Molech \fqa* , some versions have \fqa to the king \fqa* . \f*
\q1 You send your ambassadors far away; you went down to Sheol.
\q1
\v 10 You were tired from your long journey, but you never said, "It is hopeless."
\q1 You found life in your hand; therefore you did not weaken.
\s5
\q1
\v 11 "Whom are you worried about? Whom do you fear so much that has caused you to act so deceitfully,
\q1 so much that you would not remember me or think about me?
\q1 Because I was silent for so long, you are no longer afraid of me.
\q1
\v 12 I will proclaim all your righteous acts and tell all that you have done,
\q1 but they will not help you.
\s5
\q1
\v 13 When you cry out, let your collection of idols rescue you.
\q1 Instead the wind will carry them all away, a breath will carry them all away.
\q1 Yet he who takes refuge in me will inherit the land and will take possession of my holy mountain.
\s5
\q1
\v 14 He will say,
\q1 'Build, build! Clear a way! Remove all the stumbling blocks from the path of my people!'"
\q1
\v 15 For this is what the high and elevated One says, who lives eternally, whose name is holy,
\v 19 So they will fear the name of Yahweh from the west, and his glory from the sun's rising; for he will come as a rushing stream, driven by the breath of Yahweh.
\v 20 "A redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from their rebellious deeds in Jacob—this is Yahweh's declaration.
\s5
\v 21 As for me, this is my covenant with them—says Yahweh—my spirit who is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, will not leave your mouth, or go out of the mouth of your children, or go out of the mouth of your children's children—says Yahweh—from this time and forever."
\v 1 Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen on you.
\s5
\q1
\v 2 Though darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness the nations;
\q1 yet Yahweh will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen on you.
\q1
\v 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to your bright light that is rising.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 Look all around and see. They all gather themselves together and come to you.
\q1 Your sons will come from far, and your daughters will be carried in their arms.
\q1
\v 5 Then you will look and be radiant, and your heart shall rejoice and overflow,
\q1 because the abundance of the sea will be poured out to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 Camel caravans will cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;
\q1 all of them will come from Sheba;
\q1 they will bring gold and frankincense, and will sing the praises of Yahweh.
\q1
\v 7 All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve your needs; \q1 they will be acceptable offerings on my altar; and I will glorify my glorious house.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 Who are these who fly along like a cloud, and like the doves to their shelters?
\q1
\v 9 The coastlands look for me, and the ships of Tarshish lead,
\q1 because the former troubles will be forgotten, for they will be hidden from my eyes.
\s5
\p
\v 17 For see, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
\q1 and the former things will not be remembered or be brought to mind.
\q1
\v 18 But you will be glad and rejoice forever in what I am about to create. See, I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and her people as a delight.
\q1
\v 19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem and be glad over my people;
\q1 weeping and cries of distress will no longer be heard in her.
\s5
\q1
\v 20 Never again will an infant live there only a few days;
\q1 nor will an old man die before his time.
\q1 One who dies at one hundred years old will be considered a young person.
\q1 Anyone who fails to reach the age of one hundred years old will be considered cursed.
\q1
\v 21 They will build houses and inhabit them, and they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
\s5
\q1
\v 22 No longer will they build a house and another live in it; they will not plant, and another eat;
\q1 for as the days of trees will be the days of my people. My chosen will fully outlive the work of their hands.
\q1
\v 23 They will not labor in vain, nor give birth to dismay.
\q1 For they are the children of those blessed by Yahweh, and their descendants with them.
\s5
\q1
\v 24 Before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.
\q1
\v 25 The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox;
\q1 but dust will be the serpent's food.
\q1 They will no longer hurt nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says Yahweh.
\s5
\c 66
\m
\q1
\v 1 This is what Yahweh says,
\q1 "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where then is the house you will build for me? Where is the place where I may rest?
\s5
\q1
\v 2 My hand has made all these things; that is how these things came to be—this is Yahweh's declaration.
\q1 This is the man of whom I approve, the broken and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word.
\s5
\q1
\v 3 He who slaughters an ox also murders a man; he who sacrifices a lamb also breaks a dog's neck;
\q1 he who offers a grain offering offers swine's blood; he who offers a memorial of incense also blesses wickedness.
\q1 They have chosen their own ways, and they take pleasure in their abominations.
\s5
\q1
\v 4 In the same way I will choose their own punishment; I will bring on them what they fear,
\q1 because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, no one listened.
\q1 They did what was evil in my sight, and chose to do what displeases me."
\s5
\q1
\v 5 Hear the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at his word,
\q1 "Your brothers who hate and exclude you for my name's sake have said,
\q1 'May Yahweh be glorified, then we will see your joy,'
\q1 but they will be put to shame.
\s5
\q1
\v 6 A sound of battle tumult comes from the city, a sound from the temple,
\q1 the sound of Yahweh paying back his enemies.
\s5
\q1
\v 7 Before she goes into labor, she gives birth;
\q1 before pain is upon her, she gave birth to a son.
\q1
\v 8 Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things?
\q1 Will a land be born in one day? Can a nation be established in one moment?
\q1 Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor, she gives birth to her children.
\s5
\v 9 Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and not permit the child to be born?—asks Yahweh.
\q1 Or do I bring a child to moment of delivery and then hold it back?—asks your God."
\s5
\q1
\v 10 Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her;
\q1 You will nurse at her side, be carried in her arms, and be dandled on her knees.
\q1
\v 13 As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem."
\s5
\q1
\v 14 You will see this, and your heart will rejoice, and your bones will sprout like the tender grass.
\q1 The hand of Yahweh will be made known to his servants, but he will show his anger against his enemies.
\s5
\q1
\v 15 For look, Yahweh is coming with fire, and his chariots are coming like the windstorm
\q1 to bring the heat of his anger and his rebuke with flames of fire.
\q1
\v 16 For Yahweh executes judgment on mankind by fire and with his sword. Those killed by Yahweh will be many.
\s5
\q1
\v 17 They consecrate themselves and make themselves pure, so they may enter the gardens, following the one in the middle of those who
\q1 eat the flesh of pig and abominable things like mice.
\f + \ft This verse is very difficult, and modern versions provide various interpretations. \f*
\q1 "They will come to an end—this is Yahweh's declaration.
\s5
\p
\v 18 For I know their deeds and their thoughts. The time is coming when I will gather all nations and languages. They will come and will see my glory.
\f + \ft This verse is very difficult, and modern versions provide various interpretations. \f*
\v 19 I will set a mighty sign among them. Then I will send survivors from them to the nations: To Tarshish, Put, and Lud, archers who draw their bows, to Tubal, Javan, and to the distant coastlands where they have not heard about me nor seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations.
\s5
\v 20 They will bring back all your brothers out of all the nations, as an offering to Yahweh. They will come on horses, and in chariots, in wagons, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem—says Yahweh. For the people of Israel will bring a grain offering in a clean vessel into the house of Yahweh.
\q1
\v 21 Some of these I will even choose as priests and Levites—says Yahweh.
\s5
\q1
\v 22 For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I will make
\q1 will remain before me—this is Yahweh's declaration—so your descendants will remain, and your name will remain.
\q1
\v 23 From one month to the next, and from one Sabbath to the next,
\q1 all people will come to bow down to me—says Yahweh.
\s5
\q1
\v 24 They will go out and see the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me,
\q1 for the worms that eat them will not die, and the fire that consumes them will not be quenched;
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