1 These are the messages that came to Isaiah, son of Amoz, in the visions he saw during the reigns of King Uzziah, King Jotham, King Ahaz, and King Hezekiah--all kings of Judah. In these messages God showed him what was going to happen to Judah and Jerusalem in the days ahead.
2 Listen, O heaven and earth, to what the Lord is saying: "The children I raised and cared for so long and tenderly have turned against me.
3 Even the animals--the donkey and the ox--know their owner and appreciate his care for them, but not my people Israel. No matter what I do for them, they still don't care."
4 Oh, what a sinful nation they are! They walk bent-backed beneath their load of guilt. Their fathers before them were evil too. Born to be bad, they have turned their backs upon the Lord and have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have cut themselves off from his help.
5 Oh, my people, haven't you had enough of punishment? Why will you force me to whip you again and again? Must you forever rebel?
6 From head to foot you are sick and weak and faint, covered with bruises and welts and infected wounds, unanointed and unbound.
7 Your country lies in ruins; your cities are burned; while you watch, foreigners are destroying and plundering everything they see.
8 You stand there helpless and abandoned like a watchman's shanty in the field when the harvesttime is over--or when the crop is stripped and robbed.
9 If the Lord Almighty had not stepped in to save a few of us, we would have been wiped out as Sodom and Gomorrah were.
10 An apt comparison! Listen, you leaders of Israel, you men of Sodom and Gomorrah, as I call you now. Listen to the Lord. Hear what he is telling you!
11 "I am sick of your sacrifices. Don't bring me any more of them. I don't want your fat rams; I don't want to see the blood from your offerings.
12 Who wants your sacrifices when you have no sorrow for your sins? The incense you bring me is a stench in my nostrils. Your holy celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath, and your special days for fasting--even your most pious meetings--all are frauds! I want nothing more to do with them.
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14 I hate them all; I can't stand the sight of them.
15 From now on, when you pray with your hands stretched out to heaven, I won't look or listen. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear, for your hands are those of murderers; they are covered with the blood of your innocent victims.
16 "Oh, wash yourselves! Be clean! Let me no longer see you doing all these wicked things; quit your evil ways.
17 Learn to do good, to be fair and to help the poor, the fatherless, and widows.
18 "Come, let's talk this over!" says the Lord; "no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool!
19 If you will only let me help you, if you will only obey, then I will make you rich!
20 But if you keep on turning your backs and refusing to listen to me, you will be killed by your enemies; I, the Lord, have spoken."
21 Jerusalem, once a faithful wife! And now a prostitute! Running after other gods! Once "The City of Fair Play," but now a gang of murderers.
22 Once like sterling silver; now mixed with worthless alloy! Once so pure, but now diluted like watered-down wine!
23 Your leaders are rebels, companions of thieves; all of them take bribes and won't defend the widows and orphans.
24 Therefore the Lord, the Mighty One of Israel, says: "I will pour out my anger on you, my enemies!
25 I myself will melt you in a smelting pot and skim off your slag.
26 "And afterwards I will give you good judges and wise counselors like those you used to have. Then your city shall again be called 'The City of Justice' and 'The Faithful Town.' "
27 Those who return to the Lord, who are just and good, shall be redeemed.
28 (But all sinners shall utterly perish, for they refuse to come to me.)
29 Shame will cover you, and you will blush to think of all those times you sacrificed to idols in your groves of "sacred" oaks.
30 You will perish like a withered tree or a garden without water.
31 The strongest among you will disappear like burning straw; your evil deeds are the spark that sets the straw on fire, and no one will be able to put it out.
1 This is another message to Isaiah from the Lord concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 In the last days Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord will become the world's greatest attraction, and people from many lands will flow there to worship the Lord.
3 "Come," everyone will say, "let us go up the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Israel; there he will teach us his laws, and we will obey them." For in those days the world will be ruled from Jerusalem.
4 The Lord will settle international disputes; all the nations will convert their weapons of war into implements of peace. Then at the last all wars will stop and all military training will end.
5 O Israel, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord and be obedient to his laws!
6 The Lord has rejected you because you welcome foreigners from the East who practice magic and communicate with evil spirits, as the Philistines do.
7 Israel has vast treasures of silver and gold, and great numbers of horses and chariots
8 and idols--the land is full of them! They are man-made, and yet you worship them!
9 Small and great, all bow before them; God will not forgive you for this sin.
10 Crawl into the caves in the rocks and hide in terror from his glorious majesty,
11 for the day is coming when your proud looks will be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted.
12 On that day the Lord Almighty will move against the proud and haughty and bring them to the dust.
13 All the tall cedars of Lebanon and all the mighty oaks of Bashan shall bend low,
14 and all the high mountains and hills,
15 and every high tower and wall,
16 and all the proud ocean ships and trim harbor craft--all shall be crushed before the Lord that day.
17 All the glory of mankind will bow low; the pride of men will lie in the dust, and the Lord alone will be exalted.
18 And all idols will be utterly abolished and destroyed.
19 When the Lord stands up from his throne to shake up the earth, his enemies will crawl with fear into the holes in the rocks and into the caves because of the glory of his majesty.
20 Then at last they will abandon their gold and silver idols to the moles and bats
21 and crawl into the caverns to hide among the jagged rocks at the tops of the cliffs, to try to get away from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth.
22 Puny man! Frail as his breath! Don't ever put your trust in him!
1 The Lord will cut off Jerusalem's and Judah's food and water supplies
2 and kill her leaders; he will destroy her armies, judges, prophets, elders,
3 army officers, businessmen, lawyers, magicians, and politicians.
4 Israel's kings will be like babies, ruling childishly.
5 And the worst sort of anarchy will prevail--everyone stepping on someone else, neighbors fighting neighbors, youths revolting against authority, criminals sneering at honorable men.
6 In those days a man will say to his brother, "You have some extra clothing, so you be our king and take care of this mess."
7 "No!" he will reply. "I cannot be of any help! I have no extra food or clothes. Don't get me involved!"
8 Israel's civil government will be in utter ruin because the Jews have spoken out against their Lord and will not worship him; they offend his glory.
9 The very look on their faces gives them away and shows their guilt. And they boast that their sin is equal to the sin of Sodom; they are not even ashamed. What a catastrophe! They have doomed themselves.
10 But all is well for the godly man. Tell him, "What a reward you are going to get!"
11 But say to the wicked, "Your doom is sure. You too shall get your just deserts. Your well-earned punishment is on the way."
12 O my people! Can't you see what fools your rulers are? Weak as women! Foolish as little children playing king. True leaders? No, misleaders! Leading you down the garden path to destruction.
13 The Lord stands up! He is the great Prosecuting Attorney presenting his case against his people!
14 First to feel his wrath will be the elders and the princes, for they have defrauded the poor. They have filled their barns with grain extorted from the helpless peasants.
15 "How dare you grind my people in the dust like that?" the Lord Almighty will demand of them.
16 Next he will judge the haughty Jewish women, who mince along, noses in the air, tinkling bracelets on their ankles, with wanton eyes that rove among the crowds to catch the glances of the men.
17 The Lord will send a plague of scabs to ornament their heads! He will expose their nakedness for all to see.
18 No longer shall they tinkle with self-assurance as they walk. For the Lord will strip away their artful beauty and their ornaments,
19 their necklaces and bracelets and veils of shimmering gauze.
20 Gone shall be their scarves and ankle chains, headbands, earrings, and perfumes;
21 their rings, jewels,
22 party clothes, negligees, capes, ornate combs, and purses;
23 their mirrors, lovely lingerie, beautiful dresses, and veils.
24 Instead of smelling of sweet perfume, they'll stink; for sashes they'll use ropes; their well-set hair will all fall out; they'll wear sacks instead of robes. All their beauty will be gone; all that will be left to them is shame and disgrace.
25 Their husbands shall die in battle; the women, ravaged, shall sit crying on the ground.
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1 At that time so few men will be left alive that seven women will fight over each of them and say, "Let us all marry you! We will furnish our own food and clothing; only let us be called by your name so that we won't be mocked as old maids."
2 Those whose names are written down to escape the destruction of Jerusalem will be washed and rinsed of all their moral filth by the horrors and the fire.
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4 They will be God's holy people. And the land will produce for them its lushest bounty and its richest fruit.
5 Then the Lord will provide shade on all Jerusalem--over every home and all its public grounds--a canopy of smoke and cloud throughout the day, and clouds of fire at night, covering the Glorious Land,
6 protecting it from daytime heat and from rains and storms.
1 Now I will sing a song about his vineyard to the one I love. My Beloved has a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2 He plowed it and took out all the rocks and planted his vineyard with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower and cut a winepress in the rocks. Then he waited for the harvest, but the grapes that grew were wild and sour and not at all the sweet ones he expected.
3 Now, men of Jerusalem and Judah, you have heard the case! You be the judges!
4 What more could I have done? Why did my vineyard give me wild grapes instead of sweet?
5 I will tear down the fences and let my vineyard go to pasture to be trampled by cattle and sheep.
6 I won't prune it or hoe it, but let it be overgrown with briars and thorns. I will command the clouds not to rain on it any more.
7 I have given you the story of God's people. They are the vineyard that I spoke about. Israel and Judah are his pleasant acreage! He expected them to yield a crop of justice but found bloodshed instead. He expected righteousness, but the cries of deep oppression met his ears.
8 You buy up property so others have no place to live. Your homes are built on great estates so you can be alone in the midst of the earth!
9 But the Lord Almighty has sworn your awful fate--with my own ears I heard him say, "Many a beautiful home will lie deserted, their owners killed or gone.
10 An acre of vineyard will not produce a gallon of juice! Ten bushels of seed will yield a one-bushel crop!"
11 Woe to you who get up early in the morning to go on long drinking bouts that last till late at night--woe to you drunken bums.
12 You furnish lovely music at your grand parties; the orchestras are superb! But for the Lord you have no thought or care.
13 Therefore I will send you into exile far away because you neither know nor care that I have done so much for you. Your great and honored men will starve, and the common people will die of thirst.
14 Hell is licking its chops in anticipation of this delicious morsel, Jerusalem. Her great and small shall be swallowed up, and all her drunken throngs.
15 In that day the haughty shall be brought down to the dust; the proud shall be humbled;
16 but the Lord Almighty is exalted above all, for he alone is holy, just, and good.
17 In those days flocks will feed among the ruins. Lambs and calves and kids will pasture there!
18 Woe to those who drag their sins behind them like a bullock on a rope.
19 They even mock the Holy One of Israel and dare the Lord to punish them. "Hurry up and punish us, O Lord," they say. "We want to see what you can do!"
20 They say that what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right; that black is white and white is black; bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise and shrewd in their own eyes!
22 Woe to those who are "heroes" when it comes to drinking and boast about the liquor they can hold.
23 They take bribes to pervert justice, letting the wicked go free and putting innocent men in jail.
24 Therefore God will deal with them and burn them. They will disappear like straw on fire. Their roots will rot and their flowers wither, for they have thrown away the laws of God and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 That is why the anger of the Lord is hot against his people; that is why he has reached out his hand to smash them. The hills will tremble, and the rotting bodies of his people will be thrown as refuse in the streets. But even so, his anger is not ended; his hand is heavy on them still.
26 He will send a signal to the nations far away, whistling to those at the ends of the earth, and they will come racing toward Jerusalem.
27 They never weary, never stumble, never stop; their belts are tight, their bootstraps strong; they run without stopping for rest or for sleep.
28 Their arrows are sharp; their bows are bent; sparks fly from their horses' hoofs, and the wheels of their chariots spin like the wind.
29 They roar like lions and pounce upon the prey. They seize my people and carry them off into captivity with none to rescue them.
30 They growl over their victims like the roaring of the sea. Over all Israel lies a pall of darkness and sorrow, and the heavens are black.
1 The year King Uzziah died I saw the Lord! He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the Temple was filled with his glory.
2 Hovering about him were mighty, six-winged angels of fire. With two of their wings they covered their faces with two others they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
3 In a great antiphonal chorus they sang, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is filled with his glory."
4 Such singing it was! It shook the Temple to its foundations, and suddenly the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said, "My doom is sealed, for I am a foul-mouthed sinner, a member of a sinful, foul-mouthed race; and I have looked upon the King, the Lord of heaven's armies."
6 Then one of the mighty angels flew over to the altar and with a pair of tongs picked out a burning coal.
7 He touched my lips with it and said, "Now you are pronounced 'not guilty' because this coal has touched your lips. Your sins are all forgiven."
8 Then I heard the Lord asking, "Whom shall I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go?" And I said, "Lord, I'll go! Send me."
9 And he said, "Yes, go. But tell my people this: 'Though you hear my words repeatedly, you won't understand them. Though you watch and watch as I perform my miracles, still you won't know what they mean.'
10 Dull their understanding, close their ears, and shut their eyes. I don't want them to see or to hear or to understand, or to turn to me to heal them."
11 Then I said, "Lord, how long will it be before they are ready to listen?" And he replied, "Not until their cities are destroyed--without a person left--and the whole country is an utter wasteland,
12 and they are all taken away as slaves to other countries far away, and all the land of Israel lies deserted!
13 Yet a tenth--a remnant--will survive; and though Israel is invaded again and again and destroyed, yet Israel will be like a tree cut down, whose stump still lives to grow again."
1 During the reign of Ahaz (the son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah), Jerusalem was attacked by King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel (the son of Remaliah). But it was not taken; the city stood.
2 However, when the news came to the royal court, "Syria is allied with Israel against us!" the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear as the trees of a forest shake in a storm.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet King Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub, your son. You will find him at the end of the aqueduct that leads from Gihon Spring to the upper reservoir, near the road that leads down to the bleaching field.
4 Tell him to quit worrying. Tell him he needn't be frightened by the fierce anger of those two has-beens, Rezin and Pekah.
5 Yes, the kings of Syria and Israel are coming against you. "They say,
6 'We will invade Judah and throw her people into panic. Then we'll fight our way into Jerusalem and install the son of Tabeel as their king.'
7 "But the Lord God says, 'This plan will not succeed,
8 for Damascus will remain the capital of Syria alone, and King Rezin's kingdom will not increase its boundaries. And within sixty-five years Ephraim, too, will be crushed and broken.
9 Samaria is the capital of Ephraim alone, and King Pekah's power will not increase. You don't believe me? If you want me to protect you, you must learn to believe what I say.'
10 Not long after this, the Lord sent this further message to King Ahaz:
11 "Ask me for a sign, Ahaz, to prove that I will indeed crush your enemies as I have said. Ask anything you like, in heaven or on earth."
12 But the king refused. "No," he said, "I'll not bother the Lord with anything like that."
13 Then Isaiah said, "O House of David, you aren't satisfied to exhaust my patience; you exhaust the Lord's as well!
14 All right then, the Lord himself will choose the sign--a child shall be born to a virgin! And she shall call him Immanuel (meaning, 'God is with us').
15 By the time this child is weaned and knows right from wrong, the two kings you fear so much--the kings of Israel and Syria --will both be dead.
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17 "But later on, the Lord will bring a terrible curse on you and on your nation and your family. There will be terror such as has not been known since the division of Solomon's empire into Israel and Judah--the mighty king of Assyria will come with his great army!"
18 At that time the Lord will whistle for the army of Upper Egypt, and of Assyria too, to swarm down upon you like flies and destroy you, like bees to sting and to kill.
19 They will come in vast hordes, spreading across the whole land, even into the desolate valleys, caves, and thorny parts, as well as to all your fertile acres.
20 In that day the Lord will take this "razor"--these Assyrians you have hired to save you --and use it on you to shave off everything you have: your land, your crops, your people.
21 When they finally stop plundering, the whole nation will be a pastureland; whole flocks and herds will be destroyed, and a farmer will be fortunate to have a cow and two sheep left.
22 But the abundant pastureland will yield plenty of milk, and everyone left will live on curds and wild honey.
23 At that time the lush vineyards will become patches of briars.
24 All the land will be one vast thornfield, a hunting ground overrun by wildlife.
25 No one will go to the fertile hillsides where once the gardens grew, for thorns will cover them; cattle, sheep, and goats will graze there.
1 Again the Lord sent me a message: "Make a large signboard and write on it the birth announcement of the son I am going to give you. Use capital letters! His name will be Maher-shalal-hash-baz, which means 'Your enemies will soon be destroyed.' "
2 I asked Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, both known as honest men, to watch me as I wrote so they could testify that I had written it before the child was even on the way.
3 Then I had sexual intercourse with my wife and she conceived and bore me a son. And the Lord said, "Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
4 This name prophesies that within a couple of years, before this child is even old enough to say 'Daddy' or 'Mommy,' the king of Assyria will invade both Damascus and Samaria and carry away their riches."
5 Then the Lord spoke to me again and said:
6 "Since the people of Jerusalem are planning to refuse my gentle care and are enthusiastic about asking King Rezin and King Pekah to come and aid them,
7 therefore I will overwhelm my people with Euphrates' mighty flood; the king of Assyria and all his mighty armies will rage against them. This flood will overflow all its channels
8 and sweep into your land of Judah, O Immanuel, submerging it from end to end."
9 Do your worst, O Syria and Israel, our enemies, but you will not succeed--you will be shattered. Listen to me, all you enemies of ours: Prepare for war against us--and perish! Yes! Perish!
10 Call your councils of war, develop your strategies, prepare your plans of attacking us, and perish! For God is with us.
11 The Lord has said in strongest terms: "Do not under any circumstances go along with the plans of Judah to surrender to Syria and Israel.
12 Don't let people call you a traitor for staying true to God. Don't you panic as so many of your neighbors are doing when they think of Syria and Israel attacking you.
13 Don't fear anything except the Lord of the armies of heaven! If you fear him, you need fear nothing else.
14 He will be your safety; but Israel and Judah have refused his care and thereby stumbled against the Rock of their salvation and lie fallen and crushed beneath it: God's presence among them has endangered them!
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16 Write down all these things I am going to do," says the Lord, "and seal them up for the future. Entrust them to some godly man to pass on down to godly men of future generations."
17 I will wait for the Lord to help us, though he is hiding now. My only hope is in him.
18 I and the children God has given me have symbolic names that reveal the plans of the Lord of heaven's armies for his people: Isaiah means "Jehovah will save (his people)," Shear-jashub means "A remnant shall return," and Maher-shalal-hash-baz means "Your enemies will soon be destroyed."
19 So why are you trying to find out the future by consulting witches and mediums? Don't listen to their whisperings and mutterings. Can the living find out the future from the dead? Why not ask your God?
20 "Check these witches' words against the Word of God!" he says. "If their messages are different than mine, it is because I have not sent them; for they have no light or truth in them.
21 My people will be led away captive, stumbling, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rave and shake their fists at heaven and curse their King and their God.
22 Wherever they look there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. And they will be thrust out into the darkness."
1 Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair shall not go on forever. Though soon the land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be under God's contempt and judgment, yet in the future these very lands, Galilee and Northern Transjordan, where lies the road to the sea, will be filled with glory.
2 The people who walk in darkness shall see a great Light--a Light that will shine on all those who live in the land of the shadow of death.
3 For Israel will again be great, filled with joy like that of reapers when the harvest time has come, and like that of men dividing up the plunder they have won.
4 For God will break the chains that bind his people and the whip that scourges them, just as he did when he destroyed the vast host of the Midianites by Gideon's little band.
5 In that glorious day of peace there will no longer be the issuing of battle gear; no more the blood-stained uniforms of war; all such will be burned.
6 For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder. These will be his royal titles: "Wonderful," "Counselor," "The Mighty God," "The Everlasting Father," "The Prince of Peace."
7 His ever-expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule with perfect fairness and justice from the throne of his father David. He will bring true justice and peace to all the nations of the world. This is going to happen because the Lord of heaven's armies has dedicated himself to do it!
8 The Lord has spoken out against that braggart Israel who says that though our land lies in ruins now, we will rebuild it better than before. The sycamore trees are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars!
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11 The Lord's reply to your bragging is to bring your enemies against you--
12 the Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west. With bared fangs they will devour Israel. And even then the Lord's anger against you will not be satisfied--his fist will still be poised to smash you.
13 For after all this punishment you will not repent and turn to him, the Lord of heaven's armies.
14 Therefore the Lord, in one day, will destroy the leaders of Israel and the lying prophets.
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16 For the leaders of his people have led them down the paths of ruin.
17 That is why the Lord has no joy in their young men and no mercy upon even the widows and orphans, for they are all filthy-mouthed, wicked liars. That is why his anger is not yet satisfied, but his fist is still poised to smash them all.
18 He will burn up all this wickedness, these thorns and briars; and the flames will consume the forests too, and send a vast cloud of smoke billowing up from their burning.
19 The land is blackened by that fire, by the wrath of the Lord of heaven's armies. The people are fuel for the fire.
20 Each fights against his brother to steal his food but will never have enough. Finally they will even eat their own children!
21 Manasseh against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh--and both against Judah. Yet even after all of this, God's anger is not yet satisfied. His hand is still heavy upon them to crush them.
1 "Woe to unjust judges and to those who issue unfair laws," says the Lord,
2 "so that there is no justice for the poor, the widows, and orphans. Yes, it is true that they even rob the widows and fatherless children.
3 "Oh, what will you do when I visit you in that day when I send desolation upon you from a distant land? To whom will you turn then for your help? Where will your treasures be safe?
4 I will not help you; you will stumble along as prisoners or lie among the slain. And even then my anger will not be satisfied, but my fist will still be poised to strike you.
5 Assyria is the whip of my anger; his military strength is my weapon upon this godless nation, doomed and damned; he will enslave them and plunder them and trample them like dirt beneath his feet.
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7 But the king of Assyria will not know that it is I who sent him. He will merely think he is attacking my people as part of his plan to conquer the world.
8 He will declare that every one of his princes will soon be a king, ruling a conquered land.
9 'We will destroy Calno just as we did Carchemish,' he will say, 'and Hamath will go down before us as Arpad did; and we will destroy Samaria just as we did Damascus.
10 Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom whose idols were far greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 so when we have defeated Samaria and her idols, we will destroy Jerusalem with hers.' "
12 After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purpose, then he will turn upon the Assyrians and punish them too--for they are proud and haughty men.
13 They boast, "We in our own power and wisdom have won these wars. We are great and wise. By our own strength we broke down the walls and destroyed the people and carried off their treasures.
14 In our greatness we have robbed their nests of riches and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs, and no one can move a finger or open his mouth to peep against us!"
15 But the Lord says, "Shall the axe boast greater power than the man who uses it? Is the saw greater than the man who saws? Can a rod strike unless a hand is moving it? Can a cane walk by itself?"
16 Because of all your evil boasting, O king of Assyria, the Lord of Hosts will send a plague among your proud troops and strike them down.
17 God, the Light and Holy One of Israel, will be the fire and flame that will destroy them. In a single night he will burn those thorns and briars, the Assyrians who destroyed the land of Israel.
18 Assyria's vast army is like a glorious forest, yet it will be destroyed. The Lord will destroy them, soul and body, as when a sick man wastes away.
19 Only a few from all that mighty army will be left; so few a child could count them!
20 Then at last those left in Israel and in Judah will trust the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, instead of fearing the Assyrians.
21 A remnant of them will return to the mighty God.
22 But though Israel be now as many as the sands along the shore, yet only a few of them will be left to return at that time; God has rightly decided to destroy his people.
23 Yes, it has already been decided by the Lord God to consume them.
24 Therefore the Lord God says, "O my people in Jerusalem, don't be afraid of the Assyrians when they oppress you just as the Egyptians did long ago.
25 It will not last very long; in a little while my anger against you will end, and then it will rise against them to destroy them."
26 The Lord Almighty will send his angel to slay them in a mighty slaughter like the time when Gideon triumphed over Midian at the rock of Oreb or the time God drowned the Egyptian armies in the sea.
27 On that day God will end the bondage of his people. He will break the slave-yoke off their necks and destroy it as decreed.
28 Look, the mighty armies of Assyria are coming! Now they are at Aiath, now at Migron; they are storing some of their equipment at Michmash
29 and crossing over the pass; they are staying overnight at Geba. Fear strikes the city of Ramah; all the people of Gibeah--the city of Saul--are running for their lives.
30 Well may you scream in terror, O people of Gallim. Shout out a warning to Laish, for the mighty army comes. O poor Anathoth, what a fate is yours!
31 There go the people of Madmenah, all fleeing, and the citizens of Gebim are preparing to run.
32 But the enemy stops at Nob for the remainder of that day. He shakes his fist at Jerusalem on Mount Zion.
33 Then, look, look! The Lord, the Lord of the armies of heaven, is chopping down the mighty tree! He is destroying all of that vast army, great and small alike, both officers and men.
34 He, the Mighty One, will cut down the enemy as a woodsman's axe cuts down the forest trees in Lebanon.
1 The royal line of David will be cut off, chopped down like a tree; but from the stump will grow a Shoot--yes, a new Branch from the old root.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, and might; the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
3 His delight will be obedience to the Lord. He will not judge by appearance, false evidence, or hearsay,
4 but will defend the poor and the exploited. He will rule against the wicked who oppress them.
5 For he will be clothed with fairness and with truth.
6 In that day the wolf and the lamb will lie down together, and the leopard and goats will be at peace. Calves and fat cattle will be safe among lions, and a little child shall lead them all.
7 The cows will graze among bears; cubs and calves will lie down together, and lions will eat grass like the cows.
8 Babies will crawl safely among poisonous snakes, and a little child who puts his hand in a nest of deadly adders will pull it out unharmed.
9 Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so shall the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord.
10 In that day he who created the royal dynasty of David will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to him, for the land where he lives will be a glorious place.
11 At that time the Lord will bring back a remnant of his people for the second time, returning them to the land of Israel from Assyria, Upper and Lower Egypt, Ethiopia, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath, and all the distant coastal lands.
12 He will raise a flag among the nations for them to rally to; he will gather the scattered Israelites from the ends of the earth.
13 Then at last the jealousy between Israel and Judah will end; they will not fight each other any more.
14 Together they will fly against the nations possessing their land on the east and on the west, uniting forces to destroy them, and they will occupy the nations of Edom and Moab and Ammon.
15 The Lord will dry a path through the Red Sea and wave his hand over the Euphrates, sending a mighty wind to divide it into seven streams that can easily be crossed.
16 He will make a highway from Assyria for the remnant there, just as he did for all of Israel long ago when they returned from Egypt.
1 On that day you will say, "Praise the Lord! He was angry with me, but now he comforts me.
2 See, God has come to save me! I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord is my strength and song; he is my salvation.
3 Oh, the joy of drinking deeply from the Fountain of Salvation!"
4 In that wonderful day you will say, "Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the world about his wondrous love. How mighty he is!"
5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things. Make known his praise around the world.
6 Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy. For great and mighty is the Holy One of Israel, who lives among you.
1 This is the vision God showed Isaiah (son of Amoz) concerning Babylon's doom.
2 See the flags waving as their enemy attacks. Shout to them, O Israel, and wave them on as they march against Babylon to destroy the palaces of the rich and mighty.
3 I, the Lord, have set apart these armies for this task; I have called those rejoicing in their strength to do this work, to satisfy my anger.
4 Hear the tumult on the mountains! Listen as the armies march! It is the tumult and the shout of many nations. The Lord Almighty has brought them here,
5 from countries far away. They are his weapons against you, O Babylon. They carry his anger with them and will destroy your whole land.
6 Scream in terror, for the Lord's time has come, the time for the Almighty to crush you.
7 Your arms lie paralyzed with fear; the strongest hearts melt
8 and are afraid. Fear grips you with terrible pangs, like those of a woman in labor. You look at one another, helpless, as the flames of the burning city reflect upon your pallid faces.
9 For see, the day of the Lord is coming, the terrible day of his wrath and fierce anger. The land shall be destroyed and all the sinners with it.
10 The heavens will be black above them. No light will shine from stars or sun or moon.
11 And I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sin; I will crush the arrogance of the proud man and the haughtiness of the rich.
12 Few will live when I have finished up my work. Men will be as scarce as gold--of greater value than the gold of Ophir.
13 For I will shake the heavens in my wrath and fierce anger, and the earth will move from its place in the skies.
14 The armies of Babylon will run until exhausted, fleeing back to their own land like deer chased by dogs, wandering like sheep deserted by their shepherd.
15 Those who don't run will be butchered.
16 Their little children will be dashed to death against the pavement right before their eyes; their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes.
17 For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off.
18 The attacking armies will have no mercy on the young people of Babylon or the babies or the children.
19 And so Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms, the flower of Chaldean culture, will be as utterly destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah were when God sent fire from heaven;
20 Babylon will never rise again. Generation after generation will come and go, but the land will never again be lived in. The nomads will not even camp there. The shepherds won't let their sheep stay overnight.
21 The wild animals of the desert will make it their home. The houses will be haunted by howling creatures. Ostriches will live there, and the demons will come there to dance.
22 Hyenas and jackals will den within the palaces. Babylon's days are numbered; her time of doom will soon be here.
1 But the Lord will have mercy on the Israelis; they are still his special ones. He will bring them back to settle once again in the land of Israel. And many nationalities will come and join them there and be their loyal allies.
2 The nations of the world will help them to return, and those coming to live in their land will serve them. Those enslaving Israel will be enslaved--Israel shall rule her enemies!
3 In that wonderful day when the Lord gives his people rest from sorrow and fear, from slavery and chains,
4 you will jeer at the king of Babylon and say, "You bully, you! At last you have what was coming to you!
5 For the Lord has crushed your wicked power and broken your evil rule."
6 You persecuted my people with unceasing blows of rage and held the nations in your angry grip. You were unrestrained in tyranny.
7 But at last the whole earth is at rest and is quiet! All the world begins to sing!
8 Even the trees of the woods--the fir trees and cedars of Lebanon--sing out this joyous song: "Your power is broken; no one will bother us now; at last we have peace."
9 The denizens of hell crowd to meet you as you enter their domain. World leaders and earth's mightiest kings, long dead, are there to see you.
10 With one voice they all cry out, "Now you are as weak as we are!"
11 Your might and power are gone; they are buried with you. All the pleasant music in your palace has ceased; now maggots are your sheet, worms your blanket!
12 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground--mighty though you were against the nations of the world.
13 For you said to yourself, "I will ascend to heaven and rule the angels. I will take the highest throne. I will preside on the Mount of Assembly far away in the north.
14 I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High."
15 But instead, you will be brought down to the pit of hell, down to its lowest depths.
16 Everyone there will stare at you and ask, "Can this be the one who shook the earth and the kingdoms of the world?
17 Can this be the one who destroyed the world and made it into a shambles, who demolished its greatest cities and had no mercy on his prisoners?"
18 The kings of the nations lie in stately glory in their graves,
19 but your body is thrown out like a broken branch; it lies in an open grave, covered with the dead bodies of those slain in battle. It lies as a carcass in the road, trampled and mangled by horses' hoofs.
20 No monument will be given you, for you have destroyed your nation and slain your people. Your son will not succeed you as the king.
21 Slay the children of this sinner. Do not let them rise and conquer the land nor rebuild the cities of the world.
22 "I, myself, have risen against him," says the Lord of heaven's armies, "and will cut off his children and his children's children from ever sitting on his throne.
23 I will make Babylon into a desolate land of porcupines, full of swamps and marshes. I will sweep the land with the broom of destruction," says the Lord of the armies of heaven.
24 He has taken an oath to do it! For this is his purpose and plan.
25 "I have decided to break the Assyrian army when they are in Israel and to crush them on my mountains; my people shall no longer be their slaves.
26 This is my plan for the whole earth--I will do it by my mighty power that reaches everywhere around the world.
27 The Lord, the God of battle, has spoken--who can change his plans? When his hand moves, who can stop him?"
28 This is the message that came to me the year King Ahaz died:
29 Don't rejoice, Philistines, that the king who smote you is dead. That rod is broken, yes; but his son will be a greater scourge to you than his father ever was! From the snake will be born an adder, a fiery serpent to destroy you!
30 I will shepherd the poor of my people; they shall graze in my pasture! The needy shall lie down in peace. But as for you--I will wipe you out with famine and the sword.
31 Weep, Philistine cities--you are doomed. All your nation is doomed. For a perfectly trained army is coming down from the north against you.
32 What then shall we tell the reporters? Tell them that the Lord has founded Jerusalem and is determined that the poor of his people will find a refuge within her walls.
1 Here is God's message to Moab: In one night your cities of Ar and Kir will be destroyed.
2 Your people in Dibon go mourning to their temples to weep for the fate of Nebo and Medeba; they shave their heads in sorrow and cut off their beards.
3 They wear sackcloth through the streets, and from every home comes the sound of weeping.
4 The cries from the cities of Heshbon and Elealeh are heard far away, even in Jahaz. The bravest warriors of Moab cry in utter terror.
5 My heart weeps for Moab! His people flee to Zoar and Eglath. Weeping, they climb the upward road to Luhith, and their crying will be heard all along the road to Horonaim.
6 Even Nimrim River is desolate! The grassy banks are dried up and the tender plants are gone.
7 The desperate refugees take only the possessions they can carry and flee across the Brook of Willows.
8 The whole land of Moab is a land of weeping from one end to the other.
9 The stream near Dibon will run red with blood, but I am not through with Dibon yet! Lions will hunt down the survivors, both those who escape and those who remain.
1 Moab's refugees at Sela send lambs as a token of alliance with the king of Judah.
2 The women of Moab are left at the fords of the Arnon River like homeless birds.
3 The ambassadors, who accompany the gift to Jerusalem plead for advice and help. "Give us sanctuary. Protect us. Do not turn us over to our foes.
4 Let our outcasts stay among you; hide them from our enemies! God will reward you for your kindness to us.
5 If you let Moab's fugitives settle among you, then when the terror is past, God will establish David's throne forever, and on that throne he will place a just and righteous King."
6 Is this proud Moab, concerning which we heard so much? His arrogance and insolence are all gone now!
7 Therefore all Moab weeps. Yes, Moab, you will mourn for stricken Kir-hareseth,
8 and for the abandoned farms of Heshbon and the vineyards at Sibmah. The enemy warlords have cut down the best of the grapevines; their armies spread out as far as Jazer in the deserts, and even down to the sea.
9 So I wail and lament for Jazer and the vineyards of Sibmah. My tears shall flow for Heshbon and Elealeh, for destruction has come upon their summer fruits and harvests.
10 Gone now is the gladness, gone the joy of harvest. The happy singing in the vineyards will be heard no more; the treading out of the grapes in the wine presses has ceased forever. I have ended all their harvest joys.
11 I will weep, weep, weep, for Moab; and my sorrow for Kir-hareseth will be very great.
12 The people of Moab will pray in anguish to their idols at the tops of the hills, but it will do no good; they will cry to their gods in their idol temples, but none will come to save them.
13 All this concerning Moab has been said before;
14 but now the Lord says that within three years, without fail, the glory of Moab shall be ended, and few of all its people will be left alive.
1 This is God's message to Damascus, capital of Syria: "Look, Damascus is gone! It is no longer a city--it has become a heap of ruins!
2 The cities of Aroer are deserted. Sheep pasture there, lying quiet and unafraid, with no one to chase them away.
3 The strength of Israel and the power of Damascus will end, and the remnant of Syria shall be destroyed. For as Israel's glory departed, so theirs, too, will disappear," declares the Lord Almighty.
4 "Yes, the glory of Israel will be very dim when poverty stalks the land.
5 Israel will be as abandoned as the harvested grain fields in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Oh, a very few of her people will be left, just as a few stray olives are left on the trees when the harvest is ended, two or three in the highest branches, four or five out on the tips of the limbs. That is how it will be in Damascus and Israel--stripped bare of people except for a few of the poor who remain."
7 Then at last they will think of God their Creator and have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will no longer ask their idols for help in that day, neither will they worship what their hands have made! They will no longer have respect for the images of Ashtaroth and the sun-idols.
9 Their largest cities will be as deserted as the distant wooded hills and mountaintops and become like the abandoned cities of the Amorites, deserted when the Israelites approached (so long ago).
10 Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you--the Rock who can hide you; therefore, even though you plant a wonderful, rare crop of greatest value,
11 and though it grows so well that it will blossom on the very morning that you plant it, yet you will never harvest it--your only harvest will be a pile of grief and incurable pain.
12 Look, see the armies thundering toward God's land.
13 But though they roar like breakers rolling upon a beach, God will silence them. They will flee, scattered like chaff by the wind, like whirling dust before a storm.
14 In the evening Israel waits in terror, but by dawn her enemies are dead. This is the just reward of those who plunder and destroy the people of God.
1 Ah, land beyond the upper reaches of the Nile, where winged sailboats glide along the river!
2 Land that sends ambassadors in fast boats down the Nile! Let swift messengers return to you, O strong and supple nation feared far and wide, a conquering, destroying nation whose land the upper Nile divides. And this is the message sent to you:
3 When I raise my battle flag upon the mountain, let all the world take notice! When I blow the trumpet, listen!
4 For the Lord has told me this: "Let your mighty army now advance against the land of Israel. God will watch quietly from his Temple in Jerusalem--serene as on a pleasant summer day or a lovely autumn morning during harvesttime."
5 But before you have begun the attack, and while your plans are ripening like grapes, he will cut you off as though with pruning shears. He will snip the spreading tendrils.
6 Your mighty army will be left dead on the field for the mountain birds and wild animals to eat; the vultures will tear bodies all summer, and the wild animals will gnaw bones all winter.
7 But the time will come when that strong and mighty nation, a terror to all both far and near, that conquering, destroying nation whose land the rivers divide, will bring gifts to the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem, where he has placed his name.
1 This is God's message concerning Egypt: Look, the Lord is coming against Egypt, riding on a swift cloud; the idols of Egypt tremble; the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.
2 "I will set them to fighting against each other--brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, province against province.
3 Her wise counselors are all at their wits' end to know what to do; they plead with their idols for wisdom and call upon mediums, wizards, and witches to show them what to do.
4 I will hand over Egypt to a hard, cruel master, to a vicious king," says the Lord Almighty.
5 And the waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields; the ditches will be parched and dry,
6 their channels fouled with rotting reeds.
7 All green things along the riverbank will wither and blow away. All crops will perish; everything will die.
8 The fishermen will weep for lack of work; those who fish with hooks and those who use the nets will all be unemployed.
9 The weavers will have no flax or cotton, for the crops will fail.
10 Great men and small--all will be crushed and broken.
11 What fools the counselors of Zoan are! Their best counsel to the king of Egypt is utterly stupid and wrong. Will they still boast of their wisdom? Will they dare tell Pharaoh about the long line of wise men they have come from?
12 What has happened to your "wise counselors," O Pharaoh? Where has their wisdom gone? If they are wise, let them tell you what the Lord is going to do to Egypt.
13 The "wise men" from Zoan are also fools, and those from Memphis are utterly deluded. They are the best you can find, but they have ruined Egypt with their foolish counsel.
14 The Lord has sent a spirit of foolishness on them, so that all their suggestions are wrong; they make Egypt stagger like a sick drunkard.
15 Egypt cannot be saved by anything or anybody--no one can show her the way.
16 In that day the Egyptians will be as weak as women, cowering in fear beneath the upraised fist of God.
17 Just to speak the name of Israel will strike deep terror in their hearts, for the Lord Almighty has laid his plans against them.
18 At that time five of the cities of Egypt will follow the Lord Almighty and will begin to speak the Hebrew language. One of these will be Heliopolis, "The City of the Sun."
19 And there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt in those days and a monument to the Lord at its border.
20 This will be for a sign of loyalty to the Lord Almighty; then when they cry to the Lord for help against those who oppress them, he will send them a Savior--and he shall deliver them.
21 In that day the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians. Yes, they will know the Lord and give their sacrifices and offerings to him; they will make promises to God and keep them.
22 The Lord will smite Egypt and then restore her! For the Egyptians will turn to the Lord and he will listen to their plea and heal them.
23 In that day Egypt and Iraq will be connected by a highway, and the Egyptians and the Iraqi will move freely back and forth between their lands, and they shall worship the same God.
24 And Israel will be their ally; the three will be together, and Israel will be a blessing to them.
25 For the Lord will bless Egypt and Iraq because of their friendship with Israel. He will say, "Blessed be Egypt, my people; blessed be Iraq, the land I have made; blessed be Israel, my inheritance!"
1 In the year when Sargon, king of Assyria, sent the commander-in-chief of his army against the Philistine city of Ashdod and captured it,
2 the Lord told Isaiah, the son of Amoz, to take off his clothing, including his shoes, and to walk around naked and barefoot. And Isaiah did as he was told.
3 Then the Lord said, "My servant Isaiah, who has been walking naked and barefoot for the last three years, is a symbol of the terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia.
4 For the king of Assyria will take away the Egyptians and Ethiopians as prisoners, making them walk naked and barefoot, both young and old, their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 Then how dismayed the Philistines will be, who counted on 'Ethiopia's power' and their 'glorious ally,' Egypt! And they will say, 'If this can happen to Egypt, what chance have we?' "
6
1 This is God's message concerning Babylon: Disaster is roaring down upon you from the terrible desert, like a whirlwind sweeping from the Negeb.
2 I see an awesome vision: oh, the horror of it all! God is telling me what he is going to do. I see you plundered and destroyed. Elamites and Medes will take part in the siege. Babylon will fall, and the groaning of all the nations she enslaved will end.
3 My stomach constricts and burns with pain; sharp pangs of horror are upon me, like the pangs of a woman giving birth to a child. I faint when I hear what God is planning; I am terrified, blinded with dismay.
4 My mind reels; my heart races; I am gripped by awful fear. All rest at night--so pleasant once--is gone; I lie awake, trembling.
5 Look! They are preparing a great banquet! They load the tables with food; they pull up their chairs to eat. . . . Quick, quick, grab your shields and prepare for battle! You are being attacked!
6 Meanwhile (in my vision) the Lord had told me, "Put a watchman on the city wall to shout out what he sees.
7 When he sees riders in pairs on donkeys and camels, tell him, 'This is it!' "
8 So I put the watchman on the wall, and at last he shouted, "Sir, day after day and night after night I have been here at my post.
9 Now at last--look! Here come riders in pairs!" Then I heard a Voice shout out, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the idols of Babylon lie broken on the ground."
10 O my people, threshed and winnowed, I have told you all that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has said.
11 This is God's message to Edom: Someone from among you keeps calling, calling to me: "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? How much time is left?"
12 The watchman replies, "Your judgment day is dawning now. Turn again to God, so that I can give you better news. Seek for him, then come and ask again!"
13 This is God's message concerning Arabia: O caravans from Dedan, you will hide in the deserts of Arabia.
14 O people of Tema, bring food and water to these weary fugitives!
15 They have fled from drawn swords and sharp arrows and the terrors of war!
16 "But a long year from now," says the Lord, "the great power of their enemy, the mighty tribe of Kedar, will end.
17 Only a few of its stalwart archers will survive." The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.
1 This is God's message concerning Jerusalem: What is happening? Where is everyone going? Why are they running to the rooftops? What are they looking at?
2 The whole city is in terrible uproar. What's the trouble in this busy, happy city? Bodies! Lying everywhere, slain by plague and not by sword.
3 All your leaders flee; they surrender without resistance. The people slip away but they are captured too.
4 Let me alone to weep. Don't try to comfort me--let me cry for my people as I watch them being destroyed.
5 Oh, what a day of crushing trouble! What a day of confusion and terror from the Lord God of heaven's armies! The walls of Jerusalem are breached, and the cry of death echoes from the mountainsides.
6 Elamites are the archers; Syrians drive the chariots; the men of Kir hold up the shields. They fill your choicest valleys and crowd against your gates.
7
8 God has removed his protecting care. You run to the armory for your weapons!
9 You inspect the walls of Jerusalem to see what needs repair!
10 You check over the houses and tear some down for stone for fixing walls.
11 Between the city walls, you build a reservoir for water from the lower pool! But all your feverish plans will not avail, for you never ask for help from God, who lets this come upon you. He is the one who planned it long ago.
12 The Lord God called you to repent, to weep and mourn, to shave your heads in sorrow for your sins, and to wear clothes made of sackcloth to show your remorse.
13 But instead, you sing and dance and play, and feast and drink. "Let us eat, drink, and be merry," you say: "What's the difference, for tomorrow we die."
14 The Lord Almighty has revealed to me that this sin will never be forgiven you until the day you die.
15 Furthermore, the same Lord God of the armies of heaven has told me this: Go and say to Shebna, the palace administrator:
16 "And who do you think you are, building this beautiful sepulcher in the rock for yourself?
17 For the Lord who allowed you to be clothed so gorgeously will hurl you away, sending you into captivity, O strong man!
18 He will wad you up in his hands like a ball and toss you away into a distant, barren land; there you will die, O glorious one--you who disgrace your nation!
19 "Yes, I will drive you out of office," says the Lord, "and pull you down from your high position.
20 And then I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, to replace you.
21 He shall have your uniform and title and authority, and he will be a father to the people of Jerusalem and all Judah.
22 I will give him responsibility over all my people; whatever he says will be done; none will be able to stop him.
23 I will make of him a strong and steady peg to support my people; they will load him with responsibility, and he will be an honor to his family name."
24
25 But the Lord will pull out that other peg that seems to be so firmly fastened to the wall! It will come out and fall to the ground, and everything it supports will fall with it, for the Lord has spoken.
1 This is God's message to Tyre: Weep, O ships of Tyre, returning home from distant lands! Weep for your harbor, for it is gone! The rumors that you heard in Cyprus are all true.
2 Deathly silence is everywhere. Stillness reigns where once your hustling port was full of ships from Sidon, bringing merchandise from far across the ocean, from Egypt and along the Nile. You were the merchandise mart of the world.
3
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, stronghold of the sea. For you are childless now!
5 When Egypt hears the news, there will be great sorrow.
6 Flee to Tarshish, men of Tyre, weeping as you go.
7 This silent ruin is all that's left of your once joyous land. What a history was yours! Think of all the colonists you sent to distant lands!
8 Who has brought this disaster on Tyre, empire builder and top trader of the world?
9 The Commander of the armies of heaven has done it to destroy your pride and show his contempt for all the greatness of mankind.
10 Sail on, O ships of Tarshish, for your harbor is gone.
11 The Lord holds out his hand over the seas; he shakes the kingdoms of the earth; he has spoken out against this great merchant city, to destroy its strength.
12 He says, "Never again, O dishonored virgin, daughter of Sidon, will you rejoice, will you be strong. Even if you flee to Cyprus, you will find no rest."
13 It will be the Babylonians, not the Assyrians, who consign Tyre to the wild beasts. They will lay siege to it, raze its palaces, and make it a heap of ruins.
14 Wail, you ships that ply the oceans, for your home port is destroyed!
15 For seventy years Tyre will be forgotten. Then, in the days of another king, the city will come back to life again;
16 she will sing sweet songs as a harlot sings who, long absent from her lovers, walks the streets to look for them again and is remembered.
17 Yes, after seventy years, the Lord will revive Tyre, but she will be no different than she was before; she will return again to all her evil ways around the world.
18 Yet the distant time will come when her businesses will give their profits to the Lord! They will not be hoarded but used for good food and fine clothes for the priests of the Lord!
1 Look! The Lord is overturning the land of Judah and making it a vast wasteland of destruction. See how he is emptying out all its people and scattering them over the face of the earth.
2 Priests and people, servants and masters, slave girls and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors--none will be spared.
3 The land will be completely emptied and looted. The Lord has spoken.
4 The land suffers for the sins of its people. The earth languishes, the crops wither, the skies refuse their rain.
5 The land is defiled by crime; the people have twisted the laws of God and broken his everlasting commands.
6 Therefore the curse of God is upon them; they are left desolate, destroyed by the drought. Few will be left alive.
7 All the joys of life will go: the grape harvest will fail, the wine will be gone, the merrymakers will sigh and mourn.
8 The melodious chords of the harp and timbrel are heard no more; the happy days are ended.
9 No more are the joys of wine and song; strong drink turns bitter in the mouth.
10 The city lies in chaos; every home and shop is locked up tight to keep out looters.
11 Mobs form in the streets, crying for wine; joy has reached its lowest ebb; gladness has been banished from the land.
12 The city is left in ruins; its gates are battered down.
13 Throughout the land the story is the same--only a remnant is left.
14 But all who are left will shout and sing for joy; those in the west will praise the majesty of God,
15 and those in the east will respond with praise. Hear them singing to the Lord from the ends of the earth,
16 singing glory to the Righteous One! But my heart is heavy with grief, for evil still prevails and treachery is everywhere.
17 Terror and the captivity of hell are still your lot, O men of the world.
18 When you flee in terror, you will fall into a pit, and if you escape from the pit, you will step into a trap, for destruction falls from the heavens upon you; the world is shaken beneath you.
19 The earth has broken down in utter collapse; everything is lost, abandoned, and confused.
20 The world staggers like a drunkard; it shakes like a tent in a storm. It falls and will not rise again, for the sins of the earth are very great.
21 On that day the Lord will punish the fallen angels in the heavens and the proud rulers of the nations on earth.
22 They will be rounded up like prisoners and imprisoned in a dungeon until they are tried and condemned.
23 Then the Lord of heaven's armies will mount his throne in Zion and rule gloriously in Jerusalem, in the sight of all the elders of his people. Such glory there will be that all the brightness of the sun and moon will seem to fade away.
1 O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God; you do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them, just as you said!
2 You turn mighty cities into heaps of ruins. The strongest forts are turned to rubble. Beautiful palaces in distant lands disappear and will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore strong nations will shake with fear before you; ruthless nations will obey and glorify your name.
4 But to the poor, O Lord, you are a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, a shelter from merciless men who are like a driving rain that melts down an earthen wall.
5 As a hot, dry land is cooled by clouds, you will cool the pride of ruthless nations.
6 Here on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the Lord Almighty will spread a wondrous feast for everyone around the world--a delicious feast of good food, with clear, well-aged wine and choice beef.
7 At that time he will remove the cloud of gloom, the pall of death that hangs over the earth;
8 he will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away all tears and take away forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken--he will surely do it!
9 In that day the people will proclaim, "This is our God in whom we trust, for whom we waited. Now at last he is here." What a day of rejoicing!
10 For the Lord's good hand will rest upon Jerusalem, and Moab will be crushed as straw beneath his feet and left to rot.
11 God will push them down just as a swimmer pushes down the water with his hands. He will end their pride and all their evil works.
12 The high walls of Moab will be demolished and brought to dust.
1 Listen to them singing! In that day the whole land of Judah will sing this song: "Our city is strong! We are surrounded by the walls of his salvation!"
2 Open the gates to everyone, for all may enter in who love the Lord.
3 He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!
4 Trust in the Lord God always, for in the Lord Jehovah is your everlasting strength.
5 He humbles the proud and brings the haughty city to the dust; its walls come crashing down.
6 He presents it to the poor and needy for their use.
7 But for good men the path is not uphill and rough! God does not give them a rough and treacherous path, but smooths the road before them.
8 O Lord, we love to do your will! Our hearts' desire is to glorify your name.
9 All night long I search for you; earnestly I seek for God; for only when you come in judgment on the earth to punish it will people turn away from wickedness and do what is right.
10 Your kindness to the wicked doesn't make them good; they keep on doing wrong and take no notice of your majesty.
11 They do not listen when you threaten; they will not look to see your upraised fist. Show them how much you love your people. Perhaps then they will be ashamed! Yes, let them be burned up by the fire reserved for your enemies.
12 Lord, grant us peace; for all we have and are has come from you.
13 O Lord our God, once we worshiped other gods; but now we worship you alone.
14 Those we served before are dead and gone; never again will they return. You came against them and destroyed them, and they are long forgotten.
15 O praise the Lord! He has made our nation very great. He has widened the boundaries of our land!
16 Lord, in their distress they sought for you. When your punishment was on them, they poured forth a whispered prayer.
17 How we missed your presence, Lord! We suffered as a woman giving birth who cries and writhes in pain.
18 We too have writhed in agony, but all to no avail. No deliverance has come from all our efforts.
19 Yet we have this assurance: Those who belong to God shall live again. Their bodies shall rise again! Those who dwell in the dust shall awake and sing for joy! For God's light of life will fall like dew upon them!
20 Go home, my people, and lock the doors! Hide for a little while until the Lord's wrath against your enemies has passed.
21 Look! The Lord is coming from the heavens to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will no longer hide the murderers. The guilty will be found.
1 In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish leviathan, the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent, the dragon of the sea.
2 In that day of Israel's freedom let this anthem be their song:
3 "Israel is my vineyard; I, the Lord, will tend the fruitful vines; every day I'll water them, and day and night I'll watch to keep all enemies away.
4 My anger against Israel is gone. If I find thorns and briars bothering her, I will burn them up, unless these enemies of mine surrender and beg for peace and my protection."
5
6 The time will come when Israel will take root and bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with her fruit!
7 Has God punished Israel as much as he has punished her enemies? No, for he has devastated her enemies,
8 while he has punished Israel but a little, exiling her far from her own land as though blown away in a storm from the east.
9 And why did God do it? It was to purge away her sins, to rid her of all her idol altars and her idols. They will never be worshiped again.
10 Her walled cities will be silent and empty, houses abandoned, streets grown up with grass, cows grazing through the city munching on twigs and branches.
11 My people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used to burn beneath the pots. They are a foolish nation, a witless, stupid people, for they turn away from God. Therefore, he who made them will not have pity on them or show them his mercy.
12 Yet the time will come when the Lord will gather them together one by one like handpicked grain, selecting them here and there from his great threshing floor that reaches all the way from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian boundary.
13 In that day the great trumpet will be blown, and many about to perish among their enemies, Assyria and Egypt, will be rescued and brought back to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in his holy mountain.
1 Woe to the city of Samaria, surrounded by her rich valley--Samaria, the pride and delight of the drunkards of Israel! Woe to her fading beauty, the crowning glory of a nation of men lying drunk in the streets!
2 For the Lord will send a mighty army (the Assyrians) against you; like a mighty hailstorm he will burst upon you and dash you to the ground.
3 The proud city of Samaria--yes, the joy and delight of the drunkards of Israel--will be hurled to the ground and trampled beneath the enemies' feet.
4 Once glorious, her fading beauty surrounded by a fertile valley will suddenly be gone, greedily snatched away as an early fig is hungrily snatched and gobbled up!
5 Then at last the Lord Almighty himself will be their crowning glory, the diadem of beauty to his people who are left.
6 He will give a longing for justice to your judges and great courage to your soldiers who are battling to the last before your gates.
7 But Jerusalem is now led by drunks! Her priests and prophets reel and stagger, making stupid errors and mistakes.
8 Their tables are covered with vomit; filth is everywhere.
9 "Who does Isaiah think he is," the people say, "to speak to us like this! Are we little children, barely old enough to talk?
10 He tells us everything over and over again, a line at a time and in such simple words!"
11 But they won't listen; the only language they can understand is punishment! So God will punish them by sending against them foreigners who speak strange gibberish! Only then will they listen to him!
12 They could have rest in their own land if they would obey him, if they were kind and good. He told them that, but they wouldn't listen to him.
13 So the Lord will spell it out for them again, repeating it over and over in simple words whenever he can; yet over this simple, straightforward message they will stumble and fall and be broken, trapped and captured.
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffing rulers in Jerusalem:
15 You have struck a bargain with Death, you say, and sold yourselves to the devil in exchange for his protection against the Assyrians. "They can never touch us," you say, "for we are under the care of one who will deceive and fool them."
16 But the Lord God says, "See, I am placing a Foundation Stone in Zion--a firm, tested, precious Cornerstone that is safe to build on. He who believes need never run away again.
17 I will take the line and plummet of justice to check the foundation wall you built; it looks so fine, but it is so weak a storm of hail will knock it down! The enemy will come like a flood and sweep it away, and you will be drowned.
18 I will cancel your agreement of compromise with Death and the devil, so when the terrible enemy floods in, you will be trampled into the ground.
19 Again and again that flood will come and carry you off, until at last the unmixed horror of the truth of my warnings will finally dawn on you."
20 The bed you have made is far too short to lie on; the blankets are too narrow to cover you.
21 The Lord will come suddenly and in anger, as at Mount Perazim and Gibeon, to do a strange, unusual thing--to destroy his own people!
22 So scoff no more, lest your punishment be made even greater, for the Lord God has plainly told me that he is determined to crush you.
23 Listen to me, listen as I plead: Does a farmer always plow and never sow? Is he forever harrowing the soil and never planting it?
24
25 Does he not finally plant his many kinds of grain, each in its own section of his land?
26 He knows just what to do, for God has made him see and understand.
27 He doesn't thresh all grains the same. A sledge is never used on dill, but it is beaten with a stick. A threshing wheel is never rolled on cummin, but it is beaten softly with a flail.
28 Bread grain is easily crushed, so he doesn't keep on pounding it.
29 The Lord Almighty is a wonderful teacher and gives the farmer wisdom.
1 Woe to Jerusalem, the city of David. Year after year you make your many offerings,
2 but I will send heavy judgment upon you, and there will be weeping and sorrow. For Jerusalem shall become as her name "Ariel" means--an altar covered with blood.
3 I will be your enemy. I will surround Jerusalem and lay siege against it, and build forts around it to destroy it.
4 Your voice will whisper like a ghost from the earth where you lie buried.
5 But suddenly your ruthless enemies will be driven away like chaff before the wind.
6 In an instant, I, the Lord of Hosts, will come upon them with thunder, earthquake, whirlwind, and fire.
7 And all the nations fighting Jerusalem will vanish like a dream!
8 As a hungry man dreams of eating but is still hungry, and as a thirsty man dreams of drinking but is still faint from thirst when he wakes up, so your enemies will dream of victorious conquest, but all to no avail.
9 You are amazed, incredulous? You don't believe it? Then go ahead and be blind if you must! You are stupid--and not from drinking, either! Stagger, and not from wine!
10 For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and seers,
11 so all of these future events are a sealed book to them. When you give it to one who can read, he says, "I can't, for it's sealed."
12 When you give it to another, he says, "Sorry, I can't read."
13 And so the Lord says, "Since these people say they are mine but they do not obey me, and since their worship amounts to mere words learned by rote,
14 therefore I will take awesome vengeance on these hypocrites and make their wisest counselors as fools."
15 Woe to those who try to hide their plans from God, who try to keep him in the dark concerning what they do! "God can't see us," they say to themselves. "He doesn't know what is going on!"
16 How stupid can they be! Isn't he, the Potter, greater than you, the jars he makes? Will you say to him, "He didn't make us"? Does a machine call its inventor dumb?
17 Soon--and it will not be very long--the wilderness of Lebanon will be a fruitful field again, a lush and fertile forest.
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the blind will see my plans.
19 The meek will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord, and the poor shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20 Bullies will vanish and scoffers will cease, and all those plotting evil will be killed--
21 the violent man who fights at the drop of a hat, the man who waits in hiding to beat up the judge who sentenced him, and the men who use any excuse to be unfair.
22 That is why the Lord who redeemed Abraham says: "My people will no longer pale with fear or be ashamed.
23 For when they see the surging birth rate and the expanding economy, then they will fear and rejoice in my name; they will praise the Holy One of Israel and stand in awe of him.
24 Those in error will believe the truth, and complainers will be willing to be taught!
1 "Woe to my rebellious children," says the Lord; "you ask advice from everyone but me and decide to do what I don't want you to do. You yoke yourselves with unbelievers, thus piling up your sins.
2 For without consulting me you have gone down to Egypt to find aid and have put your trust in Pharaoh for his protection.
3 But in trusting Pharaoh, you will be disappointed, humiliated and disgraced, for he can't deliver on his promises to save you.
4 For though his power extends to Zoan and Hanes,
5 yet it will all turn out to your shame--he won't help one little bit!"
6 See them moving slowly across the terrible desert to Egypt--donkeys and camels laden down with treasure to pay for Egypt's aid. On through the badlands they go, where lions and swift venomous snakes live--and Egypt will give you nothing in return!
7 For Egypt's promises are worthless! "The Reluctant Dragon," I call her!
8 Now go and write down this word of mine concerning Egypt, so that it will stand until the end of time, forever and forever, as an indictment of Israel's unbelief.
9 For if you don't write it, they will claim I never warned them. "Oh no," they'll say, "you never told us that!" For they are stubborn rebels.
10 They tell my prophets, "Shut up--we don't want any more of your reports!" Or they say, "Don't tell us the truth; tell us nice things; tell us lies.
11 Forget all this gloom; we've heard more than enough about your 'Holy One of Israel' and all he says."
12 This is the reply of the Holy One of Israel: "Because you despise what I tell you and trust instead in frauds and lies and won't repent,
13 therefore calamity will come upon you suddenly, as upon a bulging wall that bursts and falls; in one moment it comes crashing down.
14 God will smash you like a broken dish; he will not act sparingly. Not a piece will be left large enough to use for carrying coals from the hearth, or a little water from the well."
15 For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says: "Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength"; but you'll have none of this.
16 "No," you say. "We will get our help from Egypt; they will give us swift horses for riding to battle." But the only swiftness you are going to see is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you!
17 One of them will chase a thousand of you! Five of them will scatter you until not two of you are left together. You will be like lonely trees on the distant mountaintops.
18 Yet the Lord still waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love; he will conquer you to bless you, just as he said. For the Lord is faithful to his promises. Blessed are all those who wait for him to help them.
19 O my people in Jerusalem, you shall weep no more, for he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. He will answer you.
20 Though he give you the bread of adversity and water of affliction, yet he will be with you to teach you--with your own eyes you will see your Teacher.
21 And if you leave God's paths and go astray, you will hear a Voice behind you say, "No, this is the way; walk here."
22 And you will destroy all your silver idols and gold images and cast them out like filthy things you hate to touch. "Ugh!" you'll say to them. "Be gone!"
23 Then God will bless you with rain at planting time and with wonderful harvests and with ample pastures for your cows.
24 The oxen and young donkeys that till the ground will eat grain, its chaff blown away by the wind.
25 In that day when God steps in to destroy your enemies, he will give you streams of water flowing down each mountain and every hill.
26 The moon will be as bright as the sun, and the sunlight brighter than seven days! So it will be when the Lord begins to heal his people and to cure the wounds he gave them.
27 See, the Lord comes from afar, aflame with wrath, surrounded by thick rising smoke. His lips are filled with fury; his words consume like fire.
28 His wrath pours out like floods upon them all, to sweep them all away. He will sift out the proud nations and bridle them and lead them off to their doom.
29 But the people of God will sing a song of solemn joy, like songs in the night when holy feasts are held; his people will have gladness of heart, as when a flutist leads a pilgrim band to Jerusalem to the Mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel.
30 And the Lord shall cause his majestic voice to be heard and shall crush down his mighty arm upon his enemies with angry indignation and devouring flames, with tornados, terrible storms, and huge hailstones.
31 The voice of the Lord shall punish the Assyrians, who had been his rod of punishment.
32 And when the Lord smites them, his people will rejoice with music and song.
33 The funeral pyre has long been ready, prepared for Molech, the Assyrian god; it is piled high with wood. The breath of the Lord, like fire from a volcano, will set it all on fire.
1 Woe to those who run to Egypt for help, trusting their mighty cavalry and chariots instead of looking to the Holy One of Israel and consulting him.
2 In his wisdom, he will send great evil on his people and will not change his mind. He will rise against them for the evil they have done and crush their allies too.
3 For these Egyptians are mere men, not God! Their horses are puny flesh, not mighty spirits! When the Lord clenches his fist against them, they will stumble and fall among those they are trying to help. All will fail together.
4 But the Lord has told me this: "When a lion, even a young one, kills a sheep, he pays no attention to the shepherd's shouts and noise. He goes right on and eats. In such manner the Lord will come and fight upon Mount Zion. He will not be frightened away!
5 He, the Lord Almighty, will hover over Jerusalem as birds hover round their nests, and he will defend the city and deliver it."
6 Therefore, O my people, though you are such wicked rebels, come, return to God.
7 I know the glorious day will come when every one of you will throw away his gold idols and silver images--which in your sinfulness you have made.
8 "The Assyrians will be destroyed, but not by swords of men. The 'sword of God' will smite them. They will panic and flee, and the strong young Assyrians will be taken away as slaves.
9 Even their generals will quake with terror and flee when they see the battle flags of Israel," says the Lord. For the flame of God burns brightly in Jerusalem.
1 Look, a righteous King is coming, with honest princes!
2 He will shelter Israel from the storm and wind. He will refresh her as a river in the desert and as the cooling shadow of a mighty rock within a hot and weary land.
3 Then at last the eyes of Israel will open wide to God; his people will listen to his voice.
4 Even the hotheads among them will be full of sense and understanding, and those who stammer in uncertainty will speak out plainly.
5 In those days the ungodly, the atheists, will not be heroes! Wealthy cheaters will not be spoken of as generous, outstanding men!
6 Everyone will recognize an evil man when he sees him, and hypocrites will fool no one at all. Their lies about God and their cheating of the hungry will be plain for all to see.
7 The smooth tricks of evil men will be exposed, as will all the lies they use to oppress the poor in the courts.
8 But good men will be generous to others and will be blessed of God for all they do.
9 Listen, you women who loll around in lazy ease; listen to me and I will tell you your reward:
10 In a short time--in just a little more than a year--suddenly you'll care, O careless ones. For the crops of fruit will fail; the harvest will not take place.
11 Tremble, O women of ease; throw off your unconcern. Strip off your pretty clothes--wear sackcloth for your grief.
12 Beat your breasts in sorrow for those bountiful farms of yours that will soon be gone, and for those fruitful vines of other years.
13 For your lands will thrive with thorns and briars; your joyous homes and happy cities will be gone.
14 Palaces and mansions will all be deserted, the crowded cities empty. Wild herds of donkeys and goats will graze upon the mountains where the watchtowers are,
15 until at last the Spirit is poured down on us from heaven. Then once again enormous crops will come.
16 Then justice will rule through all the land,
17 and out of justice, peace. Quietness and confidence will reign forever more.
18 My people will live in safety, quietly at home,
19 but the Assyrians will be destroyed and their cities laid low.
20 And God will greatly bless his people. Wherever they plant, bountiful crops will spring up, and their flocks and herds will graze in green pastures.
1 Woe to you, Assyrians, who have destroyed everything around you but have never felt destruction for yourselves. You expect others to respect their promises to you, while you betray them! Now you, too, will be betrayed and destroyed.
2 But to us, O Lord, be merciful, for we have waited for you. Be our strength each day and our salvation in the time of trouble.
3 The enemy runs at the sound of your voice. When you stand up, the nations flee.
4 Just as locusts strip the fields and vines, so Jerusalem will strip the fallen army of Assyria!
5 The Lord is very great and lives in heaven. He will make Jerusalem the home of justice and goodness and righteousness.
6 An abundance of salvation is stored up for Judah in a safe place, along with wisdom and knowledge and reverence for God.
7 But now your ambassadors weep in bitter disappointment, for Assyria has refused their cry for peace.
8 Your roads lie in ruins; travelers detour on back roads. The Assyrians have broken their peace pact and care nothing for the promises they made in the presence of witnesses--they have no respect for anyone.
9 All the land of Israel is in trouble; Lebanon has been destroyed; Sharon has become a wilderness; Bashan and Carmel are plundered.
10 But the Lord says, "I will stand up and show my power and might.
11 You Assyrians will gain nothing by all your efforts. Your own breath will turn to fire and kill you.
12 Your armies will be burned to lime, like thorns cut down and tossed in the fire.
13 Listen to what I have done, O nations far away! And you that are near, acknowledge my might!"
14 The sinners among my people shake with fear. "Which one of us," they cry, "can live here in the presence of this all-consuming, Everlasting Fire?"
15 I will tell you who can live here: All who are honest and fair, who reject making profit by fraud, who hold back their hands from taking bribes, who refuse to listen to those who plot murder, who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong.
16 Such as these shall dwell on high. The rocks of the mountains will be their fortress of safety; food will be supplied to them, and they will have all the water they need.
17 Your eyes will see the King in his beauty and the highlands of heaven far away.
18 Your mind will think back to this time of terror when the Assyrian officers outside your walls are counting your towers and estimating how much they will get from your fallen city.
19 But soon they will all be gone. These fierce, violent people with a strange, jabbering language you can't understand will disappear.
20 Instead you will see Jerusalem at peace, a place where God is worshiped, a city quiet and unmoved.
21 The glorious Lord will be to us as a wide river of protection, and no enemy can cross.
22 For the Lord is our Judge, our Lawgiver and our King; he will care for us and save us.
23 The enemies' sails hang loose on broken masts with useless tackle. Their treasure will be divided by the people of God; even the lame will win their share.
24 The people of Israel will no longer say, "We are sick and helpless," for the Lord will forgive them their sins and bless them.
1 Come here and listen, O nations of the earth; let the world and everything in it hear my words.
2 For the Lord is enraged against the nations; his fury is against their armies. He will utterly destroy them and deliver them to slaughter.
3 Their dead will be left unburied, and the stench of rotting bodies will fill the land; the mountains will flow with their blood.
4 At that time the heavens above will melt away and disappear just like a rolled-up scroll, and the stars will fall as leaves, as ripe fruit from the trees.
5 And when my sword has finished its work in the heavens, then watch, for it will fall upon Edom, the people I have doomed.
6 The sword of the Lord is sated with blood; it is gorged with flesh as though used for slaying lambs and goats for sacrifice. For the Lord will slay a great sacrifice in Edom and make a mighty slaughter there.
7 The strongest will perish, young boys and veterans too. The land will be soaked with blood, and the soil made rich with fat.
8 For it is the day of vengeance, the year of recompense for what Edom has done to Israel.
9 The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch, and the ground will be covered with fire.
10 This judgment on Edom will never end. Its smoke will rise up forever. The land will lie deserted from generation to generation; no one will live there anymore.
11 There the hawks and porcupines will live, and owls and ravens. For God will observe that land and find it worthy of destruction. He will test its nobles and find them worthy of death.
12 It will be called "The Land of Nothing," and its princes soon will all be gone.
13 Thorns will overrun the palaces, nettles will grow in its forts, and it will become the haunt of jackals and a home for ostriches.
14 The wild animals of the desert will mingle there with wolves and hyenas. Their howls will fill the night. There the night-monsters will scream at each other, and the demons will come there to rest.
15 There the owl will make her nest and lay her eggs; she will hatch her young and nestle them beneath her wings, and the kites will come, each one with its mate.
16 Search the book of the Lord and see all that he will do; not one detail will he miss; not one kite will be there without a mate, for the Lord has said it, and his Spirit will make it all come true.
17 He has surveyed and subdivided the land and deeded it to those doleful creatures; they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation.
1 Even the wilderness and desert will rejoice in those days; the desert will blossom with flowers.
2 Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy! The deserts will become as green as the Lebanon mountains, as lovely as Mount Carmel's pastures and Sharon's meadows; for the Lord will display his glory there, the excellency of our God.
3 With this news bring cheer to all discouraged ones.
4 Encourage those who are afraid. Tell them, "Be strong, fear not, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you."
5 And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unstop the ears of the deaf.
6 The lame man will leap up like a deer, and those who could not speak will shout and sing! Springs will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
7 The parched ground will become a pool, with springs of water in the thirsty land. Where desert jackals lived, there will be reeds and rushes!
8 And a main road will go through that once-deserted land; it will be named "The Holy Highway." No evil-hearted men may walk upon it. God will walk there with you; even the most stupid cannot miss the way.
9 No lion will lurk along its course, nor will there be any other dangers; only the redeemed will travel there.
10 These, the ransomed of the Lord, will go home along that road to Zion, singing the songs of everlasting joy. For them all sorrow and all sighing will be gone forever; only joy and gladness will be there.
1 So in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came to fight against the walled cities of Judah and conquered them.
2 Then he sent his personal representative with a great army from Lachish to confer with King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. He camped near the outlet of the upper pool, along the road going past the field where cloth is bleached.
3 Then Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was the prime minister of Israel, and Shebna, the king's scribe, and Joah, Asaph's son, the royal secretary, formed a truce team and went out of the city to meet with him.
4 The Assyrian ambassador told them to go and say to Hezekiah, "The mighty king of Assyria says you are a fool to think that the king of Egypt will help you.
5 What are the Pharaoh's promises worth? Mere words won't substitute for strength, yet you rely on him for help and have rebelled against me!
6 Egypt is a dangerous ally. She is a sharpened stick that will pierce your hand if you lean on it. That is the experience of everyone who has ever looked to her for help.
7 But perhaps you say, 'We are trusting in the Lord our God!' Oh? Isn't he the one your king insulted, tearing down his temples and altars in the hills and making everyone in Judah worship only at the altars here in Jerusalem?
8 My master, the king of Assyria, wants to make a little bet with you!--that you don't have 2,000 men left in your entire army!
9 If you do, he will give you 2,000 horses for them to ride on! With that tiny army, how can you think of proceeding against even the smallest and worst contingent of my master's troops? For you'll get no help from Egypt.
10 What's more, do you think I have come here without the Lord's telling me to take this land? The Lord said to me, 'Go and destroy it!' "
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to him, "Please talk to us in Aramaic, for we understand it quite well. Don't speak in Hebrew, for the people on the wall will hear."
12 But he replied, "My master wants everyone in Jerusalem to hear this, not just you. He wants them to know that if you don't surrender, this city will be put under siege until everyone is so hungry and thirsty that he will eat his own dung and drink his own urine."
13 Then he shouted in Hebrew to the Jews listening on the wall, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria:
14 "Don't let Hezekiah fool you--nothing he can do will save you.
15 Don't let him talk you into trusting in the Lord by telling you the Lord won't let you be conquered by the king of Assyria.
16 Don't listen to Hezekiah, for here is the king of Assyria's offer to you: Give me a present as a token of surrender; open the gates and come out, and I will let you each have your own farm and garden and water,
17 until I can arrange to take you to a country very similar to this one--a country where there are bountiful harvests of grain and grapes, a land of plenty.
18 Don't let Hezekiah deprive you of all this by saying the Lord will deliver you from my armies. Have any other nation's gods ever gained victory over the armies of the king of Assyria?
19 Don't you remember what I did to Hamath and Arpad? Did their gods save them? And what about Sepharvaim and Samaria? Where are their gods now?
20 Of all the gods of these lands, which one has ever delivered their people from my power? Name just one! And do you think this God of yours can deliver Jerusalem from me? Don't be ridiculous!"
21 But the people were silent and answered not a word, for Hezekiah had told them to say nothing in reply.
22 Then Eliakim (son of Hilkiah), the prime minister, and Shebna, the royal scribe, and Joah (son of Asaph), the royal secretary, went back to Hezekiah with clothes ripped to shreds as a sign of their despair and told him all that had happened.
1 When King Hezekiah heard the results of the meeting, he tore his robes and wound himself in coarse cloth used for making sacks, as a sign of humility and mourning, and went over to the Temple to pray.
2 Meanwhile he sent Eliakim his prime minister, and Shebna his royal scribe, and the older priests--all dressed in sackcloth--to Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz.
3 They brought him this message from Hezekiah: "This is a day of trouble and frustration and blasphemy; it is a serious time, as when a woman is in heavy labor trying to give birth and the child does not come.
4 But perhaps the Lord your God heard the blasphemy of the king of Assyria's representative as he scoffed at the living God. Surely God won't let him get away with this. Surely God will rebuke him for those words. Oh, Isaiah, pray for us who are left!"
5 So they took the king's message to Isaiah.
6 Then Isaiah replied, "Tell King Hezekiah that the Lord says, Don't be disturbed by this speech from the servant of the king of Assyria and his blasphemy.
7 For a report from Assyria will reach the king that he is needed at home at once, and he will return to his own land, where I will have him killed."
8 Now the Assyrian envoy left Jerusalem and went to consult his king, who had left Lachish and was besieging Libnah.
9 But at this point the Assyrian king received word that Tirhakah, crown prince of Ethiopia, was leading an army against him from the south. Upon hearing this, he sent messengers back to Jerusalem to Hezekiah with this message:
10 "Don't let this God you trust in fool you by promising that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria!
11 Just remember what has happened wherever the kings of Assyria have gone, for they have crushed everyone who has opposed them. Do you think you will be any different?
12 Did their gods save the cities of Gozan, Haran, or Rezeph, or the people of Eden in Telassar? No, the Assyrian kings completely destroyed them!
13 And don't forget what happened to the king of Hamath, to the king of Arpad, and to the kings of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah."
14 As soon as King Hezekiah had read this letter, he went over to the Temple and spread it out before the Lord
15 and prayed, saying,
16 "O Lord, Almighty God of Israel enthroned between the Guardian Angels, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone made heaven and earth.
17 Listen as I plead; see me as I pray. Look at this letter from King Sennacherib, for he has mocked the living God.
18 It is true, O Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all those nations, just as the letter says,
19 and thrown their gods into the fire; for they weren't gods at all but merely idols, carved by men from wood and stone. Of course the Assyrians could destroy them.
20 O Lord our God, save us so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you are God, and you alone."
21 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent this message to King Hezekiah: "The Lord God of Israel says, 'This is my answer to your prayer against Sennacherib, Assyria's king.
22 'The Lord says to him: My people--the helpless virgin daughter of Zion--laughs at you and scoffs and shakes her head at you in scorn.
23 Who is it you scoffed against and mocked? Whom did you revile? At whom did you direct your violence and pride? It was against the Holy One of Israel!
24 You have sent your messengers to mock the Lord. You boast, "I came with my mighty army against the nations of the west. I cut down the tallest cedars and choicest cypress trees. I conquered their highest mountains and destroyed their thickest forests."
25 'You boast of wells you've dug in many a conquered land, and Egypt with all its armies is no obstacle to you!
26 But do you not yet know that it was I who decided all this long ago? That it was I who gave you all this power from ancient times? I have caused all this to happen as I planned--that you should crush walled cities into ruined heaps.
27 That's why their people had so little power and were such easy prey for you. They were as helpless as the grass, as tender plants you trample down beneath your feet, as grass upon the housetops, burnt yellow by the sun.
28 But I know you well--your comings and goings and all you do--and the way you have raged against me.
29 Because of your anger against the Lord--and I heard it all!--I have put a hook in your nose and a bit in your mouth and led you back to your own land by the same road you came.' "
30 Then God said to Hezekiah, "Here is the proof that I am the one who is delivering this city from the king of Assyria: This year he will abandon his siege. Although it is too late now to plant your crops, and you will have only volunteer grain this fall, still it will give you enough seed for a small harvest next year, and two years from now you will be living in luxury again.
31 And you who are left in Judah will take root again in your own soil and flourish and multiply.
32 For a remnant shall go out from Jerusalem to repopulate the land; the power of the Lord Almighty will cause all this to come to pass.
33 "As for the king of Assyria, his armies shall not enter Jerusalem, nor shoot their arrows there, nor march outside its gates, nor build up an earthen bank against its walls.
34 He will return to his own country by the road he came on and will not enter this city, says the Lord.
35 For my own honor I will defend it and in memory of my servant David."
36 That night the Angel of the Lord went out to the camp of the Assyrians and killed 185,000 soldiers; when the living wakened the next morning, all these lay dead before them.
37 Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, returned to his own country, to Nineveh.
38 And one day while he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords; then they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esar-haddon his son became king.
1 It was just before all this that Hezekiah became deathly sick, and Isaiah the prophet (Amoz' son) went to visit him and gave him this message from the Lord: "Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die; you will not recover from this illness."
2 When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed:
3 "O Lord, don't you remember how true I've been to you and how I've always tried to obey you in everything you said?" Then he broke down with great sobs.
4 So the Lord sent another message to Isaiah:
5 "Go and tell Hezekiah that the Lord God of your forefather David hears you praying and sees your tears and will let you live fifteen more years.
6 He will deliver you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will defend you, says the Lord,
7 and here is my guarantee:
8 I will send the sun backwards ten degrees as measured on Ahaz' sundial!" So the sun retraced ten degrees that it had gone down!
9 When King Hezekiah was well again, he wrote this poem about his experience:
10 "My life is but half done and I must leave it all. I am robbed of my normal years, and now I must enter the gates of Sheol.
11 Never again will I see the Lord in the land of the living. Never again will I see my friends in this world.
12 My life is blown away like a shepherd's tent; it is cut short as when a weaver stops his working at the loom. In one short day my life hangs by a thread.
13 "All night I moaned; it was like being torn apart by lions.
14 Delirious, I chattered like a swallow and mourned like a dove; my eyes grew weary of looking up for help. 'O God,' I cried, 'I am in trouble--help me.'
15 But what can I say? For he himself has sent this sickness. All my sleep has fled because of my soul's bitterness.
16 O Lord, your discipline is good and leads to life and health. Oh, heal me and make me live!
17 "Yes, now I see it all--it was good for me to undergo this bitterness, for you have lovingly delivered me from death; you have forgiven all my sins.
18 For dead men cannot praise you. They cannot be filled with hope and joy.
19 The living, only the living, can praise you as I do today. One generation makes known your faithfulness to the next.
20 Think of it! The Lord healed me! Every day of my life from now on I will sing my songs of praise in the Temple, accompanied by the orchestra."
21 (For Isaiah had told Hezekiah's servants, "Make an ointment of figs and spread it over the boil, and he will get well again."
22 And then Hezekiah had asked, "What sign will the Lord give me to prove that he will heal me?")
1 Soon afterwards, the king of Babylon (Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan) sent Hezekiah a present and his best wishes, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been very sick and now was well again.
2 Hezekiah appreciated this and took the envoys from Babylon on a tour of the palace, showing them his treasure house full of silver, gold, spices, and perfumes. He took them into his jewel rooms, too, and opened to them all his treasures--everything.
3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to the king and said, "What did they say? Where are they from?" "From far away in Babylon," Hezekiah replied.
4 "How much have they seen?" asked Isaiah. And Hezekiah replied, "I showed them everything I own, all my priceless treasures."
5 Then Isaiah said to him, "Listen to this message from the Lord Almighty:
6 "The time is coming when everything you have--all the treasures stored up by your fathers--will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left.
7 And some of your own sons will become slaves, yes, eunuchs, in the palace of the king of Babylon."
8 "All right," Hezekiah replied. "Whatever the Lord says is good. At least there will be peace during my lifetime!"
1 "Comfort, yes, comfort my people," says your God.
2 "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her that her sad days are gone. Her sins are pardoned, and I have punished her in full for all her sins."
3 Listen! I hear the voice of someone shouting, "Make a road for the Lord through the wilderness; make him a straight, smooth road through the desert.
4 Fill the valleys; level the hills; straighten out the crooked paths, and smooth off the rough spots in the road.
5 The glory of the Lord will be seen by all mankind together." The Lord has spoken--it shall be.
6 The voice says, "Shout!" "What shall I shout?" I asked. "Shout that man is like the grass that dies away, and all his beauty fades like dying flowers.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades beneath the breath of God. And so it is with fragile man.
8 The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God shall stand forever."
9 O Crier of good news, shout to Jerusalem from the mountaintops! Shout louder--don't be afraid--tell the cities of Judah, "Your God is coming!"
10 Yes, the Lord God is coming with mighty power; he will rule with awesome strength. See, his reward is with him, to each as he has done.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will carry the lambs in his arms and gently lead the ewes with young.
12 Who else has held the oceans in his hands and measured off the heavens with his ruler? Who else knows the weight of all the earth and weighs the mountains and the hills?
13 Who can advise the Spirit of the Lord or be his teacher or give him counsel?
14 Has he ever needed anyone's advice? Did he need instruction as to what is right and best?
15 No, for all the peoples of the world are nothing in comparison with him--they are but a drop in the bucket, dust on the scales. He picks up the islands as though they had no weight at all.
16 All of Lebanon's forests do not contain sufficient fuel to consume a sacrifice large enough to honor him, nor are all its animals enough to offer to our God.
17 All the nations are as nothing to him; in his eyes they are less than nothing--mere emptiness and froth.
18 How can we describe God? With what can we compare him?
19 With an idol? An idol made from a mold, overlaid with gold, and with silver chains around its neck?
20 The man too poor to buy expensive gods like that will find a tree free from rot and hire a man to carve a face on it, and that's his god--a god that cannot even move!
21 Are you so ignorant? Are you so deaf to the words of God--the words he gave before the world began? Have you never heard nor understood?
22 It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. (The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers!) He is the one who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them.
23 He dooms the great men of the world and brings them all to naught.
24 They hardly get started, barely take root, when he blows on them and their work withers, and the wind carries them off like straw.
25 "With whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?" asks the Holy One.
26 Look up into the heavens! Who created all these stars? As a shepherd leads his sheep, calling each by its pet name, and counts them to see that none are lost or strayed, so God does with stars and planets!
27 O Jacob, O Israel, how can you say that the Lord doesn't see your troubles and isn't being fair?
28 Don't you yet understand? Don't you know by now that the everlasting God, the Creator of the farthest parts of the earth, never grows faint or weary? No one can fathom the depths of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak.
30 Even the youths shall be exhausted, and the young men will all give up.
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
1 "Listen in silence before me, O lands beyond the sea. Bring your strongest arguments. Come now and speak. The court is ready for your case.
2 "Who has stirred up this one from the east, whom victory meets at every step? Who, indeed, but the Lord? God has given him victory over many nations and permitted him to trample kings underfoot and to put entire armies to the sword.
3 He chases them away and goes on safely, though the paths he treads are new.
4 Who has done such mighty deeds, directing the affairs of generations of mankind as they march by? It is I, the Lord, the First and Last; I alone am he."
5 The lands beyond the sea watch in fear and wait for word of Cyrus' new campaigns. Remote lands tremble and mobilize for war.
6 The craftsmen encourage each other as they rush to make new idols to protect them. The carver hurries the goldsmith, and the molder helps at the anvil. "Good," they say. "It's coming along fine. Now we can solder on the arms." Carefully they join the parts together and then fasten the thing in place so it won't fall over!
7
8 "But as for you, O Israel, you are mine, my chosen ones; for you are Abraham's family, and he was my friend.
9 I have called you back from the ends of the earth and said that you must serve but me alone, for I have chosen you and will not throw you away.
10 Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
11 "See, all your angry enemies lie confused and shattered. Anyone opposing you will die.
12 You will look for them in vain--they will all be gone.
13 I am holding you by your right hand--I, the Lord your God--and I say to you, Don't be afraid; I am here to help you.
14 Despised though you are, fear not, O Israel; for I will help you. I am the Lord, your Redeemer; I am the Holy One of Israel.
15 You shall be a new and sharp-toothed threshing instrument to tear all enemies apart, making chaff of mountains.
16 You shall toss them in the air; the wind shall blow them all away; whirlwinds shall scatter them. And the joy of the Lord shall fill you full; you shall glory in the God of Israel.
17 "When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongues are parched from thirst, then I will answer when they cry to me. I, Israel's God, will not ever forsake them.
18 I will open up rivers for them on high plateaus! I will give them fountains of water in the valleys! In the deserts will be pools of water, and rivers fed by springs shall flow across the dry, parched ground.
19 I will plant trees--cedars, myrtle, olive trees, the cypress, fir and pine--on barren land.
20 Everyone will see this miracle and understand that it is God who did it, Israel's Holy One.
21 "Can your idols make such claims as these? Let them come and show what they can do! says God, the King of Israel.
22 Let them try to tell us what occurred in years gone by or what the future holds.
23 Yes, that's it! If you are gods, tell what will happen in the days ahead! Or do some mighty miracle that makes us stare, amazed.
24 But no! You are less than nothing and can do nothing at all. Anyone who chooses you needs to have his head examined!
25 "But I have stirred up (Cyrus) from the north and east; he will come against the nations and call on my name, and I will give him victory over kings and princes. He will tread them as a potter tramples clay.
26 "Who but I have told you this would happen? Who else predicted this, making you admit that he was right? No one else! None other said one word!
27 I was the first to tell Jerusalem, 'Look! Look! Help is on the way!'
28 Not one of your idols told you this. Not one gave any answer when I asked.
29 See, they are all foolish, worthless things; your idols are all as empty as the wind.
1 "See my servant, whom I uphold; my Chosen One in whom I delight. I have put my Spirit upon him; he will reveal justice to the nations of the world.
2 He will be gentle--he will not shout nor quarrel in the streets.
3 He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the dimly burning flame. He will encourage the fainthearted, those tempted to despair. He will see full justice given to all who have been wronged.
4 He won't be satisfied until truth and righteousness prevail throughout the earth, nor until even distant lands beyond the seas have put their trust in him."
5 The Lord God who created the heavens and stretched them out, who created the earth and everything in it, who gives life and breath and spirit to everyone in all the world, he is the one who says to his Servant, the Messiah,
6 "I the Lord have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will guard and support you, for I have given you to my people as the personal confirmation of my covenant with them. You shall also be a light to guide the nations unto me.
7 You will open the eyes of the blind and release those who sit in prison darkness and despair.
8 I am the Lord! That is my name, and I will not give my glory to anyone else; I will not share my praise with carved idols.
9 Everything I prophesied came true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens."
10 Sing a new song to the Lord; sing his praises, all you who live in earth's remotest corners! Sing, O sea! Sing, all you who live in distant lands beyond the sea!
11 Join in the chorus, you desert cities--Kedar and Sela! And you, too, dwellers in the mountaintops.
12 Let the western coastlands glorify the Lord and sing his mighty power.
13 The Lord will be a mighty warrior, full of fury toward his foes. He will give a great shout and prevail.
14 Long has he been silent; he has restrained himself. But now he will give full vent to his wrath; he will groan and cry like a woman delivering her child.
15 He will level the mountains and hills and blight their greenery. He will dry up the rivers and pools.
16 He will bring blind Israel along a path they have not seen before. He will make the darkness bright before them and smooth and straighten out the road ahead. He will not forsake them.
17 But those who trust in idols and call them gods will be greatly disappointed; they will be turned away.
18 Oh, how blind and deaf you are toward God! Why won't you listen? Why won't you see?
19 Who in all the world is as blind as my own people, who are designed to be my messengers of truth? Who is so blind as my "dedicated one," the "servant of the Lord"?
20 You see and understand what is right but won't heed nor do it; you hear, but you won't listen.
21 The Lord has magnified his law and made it truly glorious. Through it he had planned to show the world that he is righteous.
22 But what a sight his people are--these who were to demonstrate to all the world the glory of his law; for they are robbed, enslaved, imprisoned, trapped, fair game for all, with no one to protect them.
23 Won't even one of you apply these lessons from the past and see the ruin that awaits you up ahead?
24 Who let Israel be robbed and hurt? Did not the Lord? It is the Lord they sinned against, for they would not go where he sent them nor listen to his laws.
25 That is why God poured out such fury and wrath on his people and destroyed them in battle. Yet, though set on fire and burned, they will not understand the reason why--that it is God, wanting them to repent.
1 But now the Lord who created you, O Israel, says, "Don't be afraid, for I have ransomed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up--the flames will not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God, your Savior, the Holy One of Israel. I gave Egypt and Ethiopia and Seba to Cyrus in exchange for your freedom, as your ransom.
4 Others died that you might live; I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me and honored, and I love you.
5 "Don't be afraid, for I am with you. I will gather you from east and west,
6 from north and south. I will bring my sons and daughters back to Israel from the farthest corners of the earth.
7 All who claim me as their God will come, for I have made them for my glory; I created them.
8 Bring them back to me--blind as they are and deaf when I call (although they see and hear!)."
9 Gather the nations together! Which of all their idols ever has foretold such things? Which can predict a single day ahead? Where are the witnesses of anything they said? If there are no witnesses, then they must confess that only God can prophesy.
10 "But I have witnesses, O Israel," says the Lord! "You are my witnesses and my servants, chosen to know and to believe me and to understand that I alone am God. There is no other God; there never was and never will be.
11 I am the Lord, and there is no other Savior.
12 Whenever you have thrown away your idols, I have shown you my power. With one word I have saved you. You have seen me do it; you are my witnesses that it is true.
13 From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do."
14 The Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: "For your sakes I will send an invading army against Babylon that will walk in, almost unscathed. The boasts of the Babylonians will turn to cries of fear.
15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel's Creator and King.
16 I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a path right through the sea.
17 I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses, to lie beneath the waves, dead, their lives snuffed out like candlewicks.
18 "But forget all that--it is nothing compared to what I'm going to do!
19 For I'm going to do a brand new thing. See, I have already begun! Don't you see it? I will make a road through the wilderness of the world for my people to go home, and create rivers for them in the desert!
20 The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and ostriches too, for giving them water in the wilderness, yes, springs in the desert, so that my people, my chosen ones, can be refreshed.
21 I have made Israel for myself, and these my people will some day honor me before the world.
22 "But O my people, you won't ask my help; you have grown tired of me!
23 You have not brought me the lambs for burnt offerings; you have not honored me with sacrifices. Yet my requests for offerings and incense have been very few! I have not treated you as slaves.
24 You have brought me no sweet-smelling incense nor pleased me with the sacrificial fat. No, you have presented me only with sins and wearied me with all your faults.
25 "I, yes, I alone am he who blots away your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.
26 Oh, remind me of this promise of forgiveness, for we must talk about your sins. Plead your case for my forgiving you.
27 From the very first your ancestors sinned against me--all your forebears transgressed my law.
28 That is why I have deposed your priests and destroyed Israel, leaving her to shame.
1 "Listen to me, O my servant Israel, O my chosen ones:
2 "The Lord who made you, who will help you, says, O servant of mine, don't be afraid. O Jerusalem, my chosen ones, don't be afraid.
3 For I will give you abundant water for your thirst and for your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit and my blessings on your children.
4 They shall thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.
5 'I am the Lord's,' they'll proudly say, or, "I am a Jew," and tattoo upon their hands the name of God or the honored name of Israel.
6 "The Lord, the King of Israel, says--yes, it is Israel's Redeemer, the Lord Almighty, who says it--I am the First and Last; there is no other God.
7 Who else can tell you what is going to happen in the days ahead? Let them tell you if they can and prove their power. Let them do as I have done since ancient times.
8 Don't, don't be afraid. Haven't I proclaimed from ages past that I would save you? You are my witnesses--is there any other God? No! None that I know about! There is no other Rock!"
9 What fools they are who manufacture idols for their gods. Their hopes remain unanswered. They themselves are witnesses that this is so, for their idols neither see nor know. No wonder those who worship them are so ashamed.
10 Who but a fool would make his own god--an idol that can help him not one whit!
11 All that worship these will stand before the Lord in shame, along with all these carpenters--mere men--who claim that they have made a god. Together they will stand in terror.
12 The metalsmith stands at his forge to make an axe, pounding on it with all his might. He grows hungry and thirsty, weak and faint.
13 Then the woodcarver takes the axe and uses it to make an idol. He measures and marks out a block of wood and carves the figure of a man. Now he has a wonderful idol that can't so much as move from where it is placed.
14 He cuts down cedars, he selects the cypress and the oak, he plants the ash in the forest to be nourished by the rain.
15 And after his care, he uses part of the wood to make a fire to warm himself and bake his bread, and then--he really does--he takes the rest of it and makes himself a god--a god for men to worship! An idol to fall down before and praise!
16 Part of the tree he burns to roast his meat and to keep him warm and fed and well content,
17 and with what's left he makes his god: a carved idol! He falls down before it and worships it and prays to it. "Deliver me," he says. "You are my god!"
18 Such stupidity and ignorance! God has shut their eyes so that they cannot see and closed their minds from understanding.
19 The man never stops to think or figure out, "Why, it's just a block of wood! I've burned it for heat and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can the rest of it be a god? Should I fall down before a chunk of wood?"
20 The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes; he is trusting what can never give him any help at all. Yet he cannot bring himself to ask, "Is this thing, this idol that I'm holding in my hand, a lie?"
21 "Pay attention, Israel, for you are my servant; I made you, and I will not forget to help you.
22 I've blotted out your sins; they are gone like morning mist at noon! Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free."
23 Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done this wondrous thing. Shout, O earth; break forth into song, O mountains and forests, yes, and every tree; for the Lord redeemed Jacob and is glorified in Israel!
24 The Lord, your Redeemer who made you, says, "All things were made by me; I alone stretched out the heavens. By myself I made the earth and everything in it.
25 "I am the one who shows what liars all false prophets are, by causing something else to happen than the things they say. I make wise men give opposite advice to what they should and make them into fools.
26 But what my prophets say, I do; when they say Jerusalem will be delivered and the cities of Judah lived in once again--it shall be done!
27 When I speak to the rivers and say, 'Be dry!' they shall be dry.
28 When I say of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd,' he will certainly do as I say; and Jerusalem will be rebuilt and the Temple restored, for I have spoken it."
1 This is Jehovah's message to Cyrus, God's anointed, whom he has chosen to conquer many lands. God shall empower his right hand, and he shall crush the strength of mighty kings. God shall open the gates of Babylon to him; the gates shall not be shut against him any more.
2 "I will go before you, Cyrus, and level the mountains and smash down the city gates of brass and iron bars.
3 And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness, secret riches; and you will know that I am doing this--I, the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by your name.
4 "And why have I named you for this work? For the sake of Jacob, my servant--Israel, my chosen. I called you by name when you didn't know me.
5 I am Jehovah; there is no other God. I will strengthen you and send you out to victory even though you don't know me,
6 and all the world from east to west will know there is no other God. I am Jehovah and there is no one else. I alone am God.
7 I form the light and make the dark. I send good times and bad. I, Jehovah, am he who does these things.
8 Open up, O heavens. Let the skies pour out their righteousness. Let salvation and righteousness sprout up together from the earth. I, Jehovah, created them.
9 "Woe to the man who fights with his Creator. Does the pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with him who forms it, saying, 'Stop, you're doing it wrong!' or the pot exclaim, 'How clumsy can you be!'?
10 Woe to the baby just being born who squalls to his father and mother, 'Why have you produced me? Can't you do anything right at all?' "
11 Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, Israel's Creator, says: "What right have you to question what I do? Who are you to command me concerning the work of my hands?
12 I have made the earth and created man upon it. With my hands I have stretched out the heavens and commanded all the vast myriads of stars.
13 I have raised up Cyrus to fulfill my righteous purpose, and I will direct all his paths. He shall restore my city and free my captive people--and not for a reward!"
14 Jehovah says: "The Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Sabeans shall be subject to you. They shall come to you with all their merchandise, and it shall all be yours. They shall follow you as prisoners in chains and fall down on their knees before you and say, 'The only God there is, is your God!' "
15 Truly, O God of Israel, Savior, you work in strange, mysterious ways.
16 All who worship idols shall be disappointed and ashamed.
17 But Israel shall be saved by Jehovah with eternal salvation; they shall never be disappointed in their God through all eternity.
18 For Jehovah created the heavens and earth and put everything in place, and he made the world to be lived in, not to be an empty chaos. "I am Jehovah," he says, "and there is no other!
19 I publicly proclaim bold promises; I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner so that no one can know what I mean. And I didn't tell Israel to ask me for what I didn't plan to give! No, for I, Jehovah, speak only truth and righteousness.
20 "Gather together and come, you nations that escape from Cyrus' hand. What fools they are who carry around the wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save!
21 Consult together, argue your case and state your proofs that idol-worship pays! Who but God has said that these things concerning Cyrus would come true? What idol ever told you they would happen? For there is no other God but me--a just God and a Savior--no, not one!
22 Let all the world look to me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other.
23 I have sworn by myself, and I will never go back on my word, for it is true--that every knee in all the world shall bow to me, and every tongue shall swear allegiance to my name."
24 "In Jehovah is all my righteousness and strength," the people shall declare. And all who were angry with him shall come to him and be ashamed.
25 In Jehovah all the generations of Israel shall be justified, triumphant.
1 The idols of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, are being hauled away on ox carts! But look! The beasts are stumbling!
2 The cart is turning over! The gods are falling out onto the ground! Is that the best that they can do? If they cannot even save themselves from such a fall, how can they save their worshipers from Cyrus?
3 "Listen to me, all Israel who are left; I have created you and cared for you since you were born.
4 I will be your God through all your lifetime, yes, even when your hair is white with age. I made you and I will care for you. I will carry you along and be your Savior.
5 "With what in all of heaven and earth do I compare? Whom can you find who equals me?
6 Will you compare me with an idol made lavishly with silver and with gold? They hire a goldsmith to take your wealth and make a god from it! Then they fall down and worship it!
7 They carry it around on their shoulders, and when they set it down, it stays there, for it cannot move! And when someone prays to it, there is no answer, for it cannot get him out of his trouble.
8 "Don't forget this, O guilty ones.
9 And don't forget the many times I clearly told you what was going to happen in the future. For I am God--I only--and there is no other like me
10 who can tell you what is going to happen. All I say will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.
11 I will call that swift bird of prey from the east--that man Cyrus from far away. And he will come and do my bidding. I have said I would do it and I will.
12 Listen to me, you stubborn, evil men!
13 For I am offering you my deliverance; not in the distant future, but right now! I am ready to save you, and I will restore Jerusalem and Israel, who is my glory.
1 "O Babylon, the unconquered, come sit in the dust; for your days of glory, pomp, and honor are ended. O daughter of Chaldea, never again will you be the lovely princess, tender and delicate.
2 Take heavy millstones and grind the corn; remove your veil; strip off your robe; expose yourself to public view.
3 You shall be in nakedness and shame. I will take vengeance upon you and will not repent."
4 So speaks our Redeemer, who will save Israel from Babylon's mighty power; the Lord Almighty is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5 "Sit in darkness and silence, O Babylon; never again will you be called 'The Queen of Kingdoms.'
6 For I was angry with my people Israel and began to punish them a little by letting them fall into your hands, O Babylon. But you showed them no mercy. You have made even the old folks carry heavy burdens.
7 You thought your reign would never end, Queen Kingdom of the world. You didn't care a whit about my people or think about the fate of those who do them harm.
8 "O pleasure-mad kingdom, living at ease, bragging as the greatest in the world--listen to the sentence of my court upon your sins. You say, 'I alone am God! I'll never be a widow; I'll never lose my children.'
9 Well, those two things shall come upon you in one moment, in full measure in one day: widowhood and the loss of your children, despite all your witchcraft and magic.
10 "You felt secure in all your wickedness. 'No one sees me,' you said. Your 'wisdom' and 'knowledge' have caused you to turn away from me and claim that you yourself are Jehovah.
11 That is why disaster shall overtake you suddenly--so suddenly that you won't know where it comes from. And there will be no atonement then to cleanse away your sins.
12 "Call out the demon hordes you've worshiped all these years. Call on them to help you strike deep terror into many hearts again.
13 You have advisors by the ton--your astrologers and stargazers, who try to tell you what the future holds.
14 But they are as useless as dried grass burning in the fire. They cannot even deliver themselves! You'll get no help from them at all. Theirs is no fire to sit beside to make you warm!
15 And all your friends of childhood days shall slip away and disappear, unable to help.
1 "Hear me, my people: you swear allegiance to the Lord without meaning a word of it when you boast of living in the Holy City and brag about depending on the God of Israel.
2
3 Time and again I told you what was going to happen in the future. My words were scarcely spoken when suddenly I did just what I said.
4 I knew how hard and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron; you are as hardheaded as brass.
5 That is why I told you ahead of time what I was going to do, so that you could never say, 'My idol did it; my carved image commanded it to happen!'
6 You have heard my predictions and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to agree it is so. Now I will tell you new things I haven't mentioned before, secrets you haven't heard.
7 "Then you can't say, 'We knew that all the time!'
8 "Yes, I'll tell you things entirely new, for I know so well what traitors you are, rebels from earliest childhood, rotten through and through.
9 Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out.
10 I refined you in the furnace of affliction, but found no silver there. You are worthless, with nothing good in you at all.
11 Yet for my own sake--yes, for my own sake--I will save you from my anger and not destroy you lest the heathen say their gods have conquered me. I will not let them have my glory.
12 "Listen to me, my people, my chosen ones! I alone am God. I am the First; I am the Last.
13 It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth; the palm of my right hand spread out the heavens above; I spoke and they came into being.
14 "Come, all of you, and listen. Among all your idols, which one has ever told you this: 'The Lord loves Cyrus. He will use him to put an end to the empire of Babylonia. He will utterly rout the armies of the Chaldeans'?
15 But I am saying it. I have called Cyrus; I have sent him on this errand, and I will prosper him.
16 "Come closer and listen. I have always told you plainly what would happen, so that you could clearly understand." And now the Lord God and his Spirit have sent me (with this message):
17 The Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says, "I am the Lord your God, who punishes you for your own good and leads you along the paths that you should follow.
18 "Oh, that you had listened to my laws! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river, and great waves of righteousness.
19 Then you would have become as numerous as the sands along the seashores of the world, too many to count, and there would have been no need for your destruction."
20 Yet even now, be free from your captivity! Leave Babylon, singing as you go; shout to the ends of the earth that the Lord has redeemed his servants, the Jews.
21 They were not thirsty when he led them through the deserts; he divided the rock, and water gushed out for them to drink.
22 "But there is no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked."
1 Listen to me, all of you in far-off lands: The Lord called me before my birth. From within the womb he called me by my name.
2 God will make my words of judgment sharp as swords. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand; I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver.
3 He said to me: "You are my Servant, a Prince of Power with God, and you shall bring me glory."
4 I replied, "But my work for them seems all in vain; I have spent my strength for them without response. Yet I leave it all with God for my reward."
5 "And now," said the Lord--the Lord who formed me from my mother's womb to serve him who commissioned me to restore to him his people Israel, who has given me the strength to perform this task and honored me for doing it!--
6 "you shall do more than restore Israel to me. I will make you a Light to the nations of the world to bring my salvation to them too."
7 The Lord, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, says to the One who is despised, rejected by mankind, and kept beneath the heel of the world's rulers: "Kings shall stand at attention when you pass by; princes shall bow low because the Lord has chosen you; he, the faithful Lord, the Holy One of Israel, chooses you."
8 The Lord says, "Your request has come at a favorable time. I will keep you from harm and give you as a token and pledge to Israel, proof that I will reestablish the land of Israel and reassign it to its own people again.
9 Through you I am saying to the prisoners of darkness, 'Come out! I am giving you your freedom!' They will be my sheep, grazing in green pastures and on the grassy hills.
10 They shall neither hunger nor thirst; the searing sun and scorching desert winds will not reach them any more. For the Lord in his mercy will lead them beside the cool waters.
11 And I will make my mountains into level paths for them; the highways shall be raised above the valleys.
12 See, my people shall return from far away, from north and west and south."
13 Sing for joy, O heavens; shout, O earth. Break forth with song, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion upon them in their sorrow.
14 Yet they say, "My Lord deserted us; he has forgotten us."
15 "Never! Can a mother forget her little child and not have love for her own son? Yet even if that should be, I will not forget you.
16 See, I have tattooed your name upon my palm, and ever before me is a picture of Jerusalem's walls in ruins.
17 Soon your rebuilders shall come and chase away all those destroying you.
18 Look and see, for the Lord has vowed that all your enemies shall come and be your slaves. They will be as jewels to display, as bridal ornaments.
19 "Even the most desolate parts of your abandoned land shall soon be crowded with your people, and your enemies who enslaved you shall be far away.
20 The generations born in exile shall return and say, 'We need more room! It's crowded here!'
21 Then you will think to yourself, 'Who has given me all these? For most of my children were killed, and the rest were carried away into exile, leaving me here alone. Who bore these? Who raised them for me?' "
22 The Lord God says, "See, I will give a signal to the Gentiles, and they shall carry your little sons back to you in their arms, and your daughters on their shoulders.
23 Kings and queens shall serve you; they shall care for all your needs. They shall bow to the earth before you and lick the dust from off your feet; then you shall know I am the Lord. Those who wait for me shall never be ashamed."
24 Who can snatch the prey from the hands of a mighty man? Who can demand that a tyrant let his captives go?
25 But the Lord says, "Even the captives of the most mighty and most terrible shall all be freed; for I will fight those who fight you, and I will save your children.
26 I will feed your enemies with their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with rivers of their own blood. All the world shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel."
1 The Lord asks, "Did I sell you to my creditors? Is that why you aren't here? Is your mother gone because I divorced her and sent her away? No, you went away as captives because of your sins. And your mother, too, was taken in payment for your sins.
2 Was I too weak to save you? Is that why the house is silent and empty when I come home? Have I no longer power to deliver? No, that is not the reason! For I can rebuke the sea and make it dry! I can turn the rivers into deserts, covered with dying fish.
3 I am the one who sends the darkness out across the skies."
4 The Lord God has given me his words of wisdom so that I may know what I should say to all these weary ones. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will.
5 The Lord God has spoken to me, and I have listened; I do not rebel nor turn away.
6 I give my back to the whip, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I do not hide from shame--they spit in my face.
7 Because the Lord God helps me, I will not be dismayed; therefore, I have set my face like flint to do his will, and I know that I will triumph.
8 He who gives me justice is near. Who will dare to fight against me now? Where are my enemies? Let them appear!
9 See, the Lord God is for me! Who shall declare me guilty? All my enemies shall be destroyed like old clothes eaten up by moths!
10 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his Servant? If such men walk in darkness, without one ray of light, let them trust the Lord, let them rely upon their God.
11 But see here, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves from your own fires and not from God's; you will live among sorrows.
1 "Listen to me, all who hope for deliverance, who seek the Lord! Consider the quarry from which you were mined, the rock from which you were cut!
2 Yes, think about your ancestors Abraham and Sarah, from whom you came. You worry at being so small and few, but Abraham was only one when I called him. But when I blessed him, he became a great nation."
3 And the Lord will bless Israel again, and make her deserts blossom; her barren wilderness will become as beautiful as the Garden of Eden. Joy and gladness will be found there, thanksgiving and lovely songs.
4 Listen to me, my people; listen, O Israel, for I will see that right prevails.
5 My mercy and justice are coming soon; your salvation is on the way. I will rule the nations; they shall wait for me and long for me to come.
6 Look high in the skies and watch the earth beneath, for the skies shall disappear like smoke, the earth shall wear out like a garment, and the people of the earth shall die like flies. But my salvation lasts forever; my righteous rule will never die nor end.
7 "Listen to me, you who know the right from wrong and cherish my laws in your hearts: don't be afraid of people's scorn or their slanderous talk.
8 For the moth shall destroy them like garments; the worm shall eat them like wool; but my justice and mercy shall last forever, and my salvation from generation to generation."
9 Awake, O Lord! Rise up and robe yourself with strength. Rouse yourself as in the days of old when you slew Egypt, the dragon of the Nile.
10 Are you not the same today, the mighty God who dried up the sea, making a path right through it for your ransomed ones?
11 The time will come when God's redeemed will all come home again. They shall come with singing to Jerusalem, filled with joy and everlasting gladness; sorrow and mourning will all disappear.
12 "I, even I, am he who comforts you and gives you all this joy. So what right have you to fear mere mortal men, who wither like the grass and disappear?
13 And yet you have no fear of God, your Maker--you have forgotten him, the one who spread the stars throughout the skies and made the earth. Will you be in constant dread of men's oppression, and fear their anger all day long?
14 Soon, soon you slaves shall be released; dungeon, starvation and death are not your fate.
15 For I am the Lord your God, the Lord Almighty, who dried a path for you right through the sea, between the roaring waves.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth and hidden you safe within my hand. I planted the stars in place and molded all the earth. I am the one who says to Israel, 'You are mine.' "
17 Wake up, wake up, Jerusalem! You have drunk enough from the cup of the fury of the Lord. You have drunk to the dregs the cup of terror and squeezed out the last drops.
18 Not one of her sons is left alive to help or tell her what to do.
19 These two things have been your lot: desolation and destruction. Yes, famine and the sword. And who is left to sympathize? Who is left to comfort you?
20 For your sons have fainted and lie in the streets, helpless as wild goats caught in a net. The Lord has poured out his fury and rebuke upon them.
21 But listen now to this, afflicted ones--full of troubles and in a stupor (but not from being drunk)--
22 this is what the Lord says, the Lord your God who cares for his people: "See, I take from your hands the terrible cup; you shall drink no more of my fury; it is gone at last.
23 But I will put that terrible cup into the hands of those who tormented you and trampled your souls to the dust and walked upon your backs."
1 Wake up, wake up, Jerusalem, and clothe yourselves with strength from God. Put on your beautiful clothes, O Zion, Holy City; for sinners--those who turn from God--will no longer enter your gates.
2 Rise from the dust, Jerusalem; take off the slave bands from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For the Lord says, "When I sold you into exile, I asked no fee from your oppressors; now I can take you back again and owe them not a cent!
4 My people were tyrannized without cause by Egypt and Assyria, and I delivered them.
5 "And now, what is this?" asks the Lord. "Why are my people enslaved again and oppressed without excuse? Those who rule them shout in exultation, and my name is constantly blasphemed day by day.
6 Therefore I will reveal my name to my people, and they shall know the power in that name. Then at last they will recognize that it is I, yes, I, who speaks to them."
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring the happy news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns.
8 The watchmen shout and sing with joy, for right before their eyes they see the Lord God bring his people home again.
9 Let the ruins of Jerusalem break into joyous song, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Go now, leave your bonds and slavery. Put Babylon and all it represents far behind you--it is unclean to you. You are the holy people of the Lord; purify yourselves, all you who carry home the vessels of the Lord.
12 You shall not leave in haste, running for your lives; for the Lord will go ahead of you, and he, the God of Israel, will protect you from behind.
13 See, my Servant shall prosper; he shall be highly exalted.
14 Yet many shall be amazed when they see him--yes, even far-off foreign nations and their kings; they shall stand dumbfounded, speechless in his presence. For they shall see and understand what they had not been told before.
15 They shall see my Servant beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know it was a person standing there. So shall he cleanse many nations.
1 But, oh, how few believe it! Who will listen? To whom will God reveal his saving power?
2 In God's eyes he was like a tender green shoot, sprouting from a root in dry and sterile ground. But in our eyes there was no attractiveness at all, nothing to make us want him.
3 We despised him and rejected him--a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we didn't care.
4 Yet it was our grief he bore, our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, for his own sins!
5 But he was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace; he was lashed--and we were healed!
6 We--every one of us--have strayed away like sheep! We, who left God's paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us!
7 He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he never said a word. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he stood silent before the ones condemning him.
8 From prison and trial they led him away to his death. But who among the people of that day realized it was their sins that he was dying for--that he was suffering their punishment?
9 He was buried like a criminal, but in a rich man's grave; but he had done no wrong and had never spoken an evil word.
10 But it was the Lord's good plan to bruise him and fill him with grief. However, when his soul has been made an offering for sin, then he shall have a multitude of children, many heirs. He shall live again, and God's program shall prosper in his hands.
11 And when he sees all that is accomplished by the anguish of his soul, he shall be satisfied; and because of what he has experienced, my righteous Servant shall make many to be counted righteous before God, for he shall bear all their sins.
12 Therefore, I will give him the honors of one who is mighty and great because he has poured out his soul unto death. He was counted as a sinner, and he bore the sins of many, and he pled with God for sinners.
1 "Sing, O childless woman! Break out into loud and joyful song, Jerusalem, for she who was abandoned has more blessings now than she whose husband stayed!
2 Enlarge your house; build on additions; spread out your home!
3 For you will soon be bursting at the seams! And your descendants will possess the cities left behind during the exile and rule the nations that took their lands.
4 Fear not; you will no longer live in shame. The shame of your youth and the sorrows of widowhood will be remembered no more,
5 for your Creator will be your "husband." The Lord Almighty is his name; he is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth.
6 For the Lord has called you back from your grief--a young wife abandoned by her husband.
7 For a brief moment I abandoned you. But with great compassion I will take you back.
8 In a moment of anger I turned my face a little while; but with everlasting love I will have pity on you," says the Lord, your Redeemer.
9 "Just as in the time of Noah I swore that I would never again permit the waters of a flood to cover the earth and destroy its life, so now I swear that I will never again pour out my anger on you.
10 For the mountains may depart and the hills disappear, but my kindness shall not leave you. My promise of peace for you will never be broken," says the Lord who has mercy upon you.
11 "O my afflicted people, tempest-tossed and troubled, I will rebuild you on a foundation of sapphires and make the walls of your houses from precious jewels.
12 I will make your towers of sparkling agate and your gates and walls of shining gems.
13 And all your citizens shall be taught by me, and their prosperity shall be great.
14 You will live under a government that is just and fair. Your enemies will stay far away; you will live in peace. Terror shall not come near.
15 If any nation comes to fight you, it will not be sent by me to punish you. Therefore, it will be routed, for I am on your side.
16 I have created the smith who blows the coals beneath the forge and makes the weapons of destruction. And I have created the armies that destroy.
17 But in that coming day, no weapon turned against you shall succeed, and you will have justice against every courtroom lie. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. This is the blessing I have given you," says the Lord.
1 "Say there! Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink--even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine and milk--it's all free!
2 Why spend your money on food that doesn't give you strength? Why pay for groceries that do you no good? Listen and I'll tell you where to get good food that fattens up the soul!
3 "Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, for the life of your soul is at stake. I am ready to make an everlasting covenant with you, to give you all the unfailing mercies and love that I had for King David.
4 He proved my power by conquering foreign nations.
5 You also will command the nations, and they will come running to obey, not because of your own power or virtue, but because I, the Lord your God, have glorified you."
6 Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call upon him now while he is near.
7 Let men cast off their wicked deeds; let them banish from their minds the very thought of doing wrong! Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy upon them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon!
8 "This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours!
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours.
10 "As the rain and snow come down from heaven and stay upon the ground to water the earth, and cause the grain to grow and to produce seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry,
11 so also is my Word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It shall accomplish all I want it to and prosper everywhere I send it.
12 You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills, the trees of the field--all the world around you--will rejoice.
13 Where once were thorns, fir trees will grow; where briars grew, the myrtle trees will sprout up. This miracle will make the Lord's name very great and be an everlasting sign of God's power and love.
1 "Be just and fair to all," the Lord God says. "Do what's right and good, for I am coming soon to rescue you.
2 Blessed is the man who refuses to work during my Sabbath days of rest, but honors them; and blessed is the man who checks himself from doing wrong.
3 "And my blessings are for Gentiles, too, when they accept the Lord; don't let them think that I will make them second-class citizens. And this is for the eunuchs too. They can be as much mine as anyone.
4 For I say this to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths holy, who choose the things that please me and obey my laws:
5 I will give them--in my house, within my walls--a name far greater than the honor they would receive from having sons and daughters. For the name that I will give them is an everlasting one; it will never disappear.
6 "As for the Gentiles, the outsiders who join the people of the Lord and serve him and love his name, who are his servants and don't desecrate the Sabbath, and have accepted his covenant and promises,
7 I will bring them also to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and make them full of joy within my House of Prayer. "I will accept their sacrifices and offerings, for my Temple shall be called 'A House of Prayer for All People'!"
8 For the Lord God who brings back the outcasts of Israel says, "I will bring others too besides my people Israel."
9 Come, wild animals of the field; come, tear apart the sheep; come, wild animals of the forest, devour my people.
10 For the leaders of my people--the Lord's watchmen, his shepherds--are all blind to every danger. They are featherbrained and give no warning when danger comes. They love to lie there, love to sleep, to dream.
11 And they are as greedy as dogs, never satisfied; they are stupid shepherds who only look after their own interest, each trying to get as much as he can for himself from every possible source.
12 "Come," they say. "We'll get some wine and have a party; let's all get drunk. This is really living; let it go on and on, and tomorrow will be even better!"
1 The good men perish; the godly die before their time, and no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to realize that God is taking them away from evil days ahead.
2 For the godly who die shall rest in peace.
3 "But you--come here, you witches' sons, you offspring of adulterers and harlots!
4 Who is it you mock, making faces and sticking out your tongues? You children of sinners and liars!
5 You worship your idols with great zeal beneath the shade of every tree and slay your children as human sacrifices down in the valleys, under overhanging rocks.
6 Your gods are the smooth stones in the valleys. You worship them, and they, not I, are your inheritance. Does all this make me happy?
7 You have committed adultery on the tops of the mountains, for you worship idols there, deserting me.
8 Behind closed doors you set your idols up and worship someone other than me. This is adultery, for you are giving these idols your love instead of loving me.
9 You have taken pleasant incense and perfume to Molech as your gift. You have traveled far, even to hell itself, to find new gods to love.
10 You grew weary in your search, but you never gave up. You strengthened yourself and went on.
11 Why were you more afraid of them than of me? How is it that you gave not even a second thought to me? Is it because I've been too gentle that you have no fear of me?
12 "And then there is your 'righteousness' and your 'good works'--none of which will save you.
13 Let's see if the whole collection of your idols can help you when you cry to them to save you! They are so weak that the wind can carry them off! A breath can puff them away. But he who trusts in me shall possess the land and inherit my Holy Mountain.
14 I will say, 'Rebuild the road! Clear away the rocks and stones. Prepare a glorious highway for my people's return from captivity.' "
15 "The high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, the Holy One, says this: I live in that high and holy place where those with contrite, humble spirits dwell; and I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts.
16 For I will not fight against you forever, nor always show my wrath; if I did, all mankind would perish--the very souls that I have made.
17 I was angry and smote these greedy men. But they went right on sinning, doing everything their evil hearts desired.
18 I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them and comfort them, helping them to mourn and to confess their sins.
19 Peace, peace to them, both near and far, for I will heal them all.
20 But those who still reject me are like the restless sea, which is never still, but always churns up mire and dirt.
21 There is no peace," says my God, "for them!
1 "Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast; tell my people of their sins!
2 Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and are so delighted to hear the reading of my laws--just as though they would obey them--just as though they don't despise the commandments of their God! How anxious they are to worship correctly; oh, how they love the Temple services!
3 'We have fasted before you,' they say. 'Why aren't you impressed? Why don't you see our sacrifices? Why don't you hear our prayers? We have done much penance, and you don't even notice it!' I'll tell you why! Because you are living in evil pleasure even while you are fasting, and you keep right on oppressing your workers.
4 Look, what good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.
5 Is this what I want--this doing of penance and bowing like reeds in the wind, putting on sackcloth and covering yourselves with ashes? Is this what you call fasting?
6 "No, the kind of fast I want is that you stop oppressing those who work for you and treat them fairly and give them what they earn.
7 I want you to share your food with the hungry and bring right into your own homes those who are helpless, poor, and destitute. Clothe those who are cold, and don't hide from relatives who need your help.
8 "If you do these things, God will shed his own glorious light upon you. He will heal you; your godliness will lead you forward, goodness will be a shield before you, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
9 Then, when you call, the Lord will answer. 'Yes, I am here,' he will quickly reply. All you need to do is to stop oppressing the weak and stop making false accusations and spreading vicious rumors!
10 "Feed the hungry! Help those in trouble! Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you shall be as bright as day.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy you with all good things, and keep you healthy too; and you will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.
12 Your sons will rebuild the long-deserted ruins of your cities, and you will be known as 'The People Who Rebuild Their Walls and Cities.'
13 "If you keep the Sabbath holy, not having your own fun and business on that day, but enjoying the Sabbath, speaking of it with delight as the Lord's holy day, and honoring the Lord in what you do, not following your own desires and pleasure nor talking idly--
14 then the Lord will be your delight, and I will see to it that you ride high and get your full share of the blessings I promised to Jacob, your father." The Lord has spoken.
1 Listen now! The Lord isn't too weak to save you. And he isn't getting deaf! He can hear you when you call!
2 But the trouble is that your sins have cut you off from God. Because of sin he has turned his face away from you and will not listen anymore.
3 For your hands are those of murderers and your fingers are filthy with sin. You lie and grumble and oppose the good.
4 No one cares about being fair and true. Your lawsuits are based on lies; you spend your time plotting evil deeds and doing them.
5 You spend your time and energy in spinning evil plans that end up in deadly actions.
6 You cheat and shortchange everyone. Everything you do is filled with sin; violence is your trademark.
7 Your feet run to do evil and rush to murder; your thoughts are only of sinning, and wherever you go you leave behind a trail of misery and death.
8 You don't know what true peace is, nor what it means to be just and good; you continually do wrong and those who follow you won't experience any peace either.
9 It is because of all this evil that you aren't finding God's blessings; that's why he doesn't punish those who injure you. No wonder you are in darkness when you expected light. No wonder you are walking in the gloom.
10 No wonder you grope like blind men and stumble along in broad daylight, yes, even at brightest noontime, as though it were the darkest night! No wonder you are like corpses when compared with vigorous young men!
11 You roar like hungry bears; you moan with mournful cries like doves. You look for God to keep you, but he doesn't. He has turned away.
12 For your sins keep piling up before the righteous God and testify against you. Yes, we know what sinners we are.
13 We know our disobedience; we have denied the Lord our God. We know what rebels we are and how unfair we are, for we carefully plan our lies.
14 Our courts oppose the righteous man; fairness is unknown. Truth falls dead in the streets, and justice is outlawed.
15 Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who tries a better life is soon attacked. The Lord saw all the evil and was displeased to find no steps taken against sin.
16 He saw no one was helping you and wondered that no one intervened. Therefore he himself stepped in to save you through his mighty power and justice.
17 He put on righteousness as armor and the helmet of salvation on his head. He clothed himself with robes of vengeance and of godly fury.
18 He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds--fury for his foes in distant lands.
19 Then at last they will reverence and glorify the name of God from west to east. For he will come like a flood tide driven by Jehovah's breath.
20 He will come as a Redeemer to those in Zion who have turned away from sin.
21 "As for me, this is my promise to them," says the Lord: "My Holy Spirit shall not leave them, and they shall want the good and hate the wrong--they and their children and their children's children forever.
1 "Arise, my people! Let your light shine for all the nations to see! For the glory of the Lord is streaming from you.
2 Darkness as black as night shall cover all the peoples of the earth, but the glory of the Lord will shine from you.
3 All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see the glory of the Lord upon you.
4 "Lift up your eyes and see! For your sons and daughters are coming home to you from distant lands.
5 Your eyes will shine with joy, your hearts will thrill, for merchants from around the world will flow to you, bringing you the wealth of many lands.
6 Vast droves of camels will converge upon you, dromedaries from Midian and Sheba and Ephah too, bringing gold and incense to add to the praise of God.
7 The flocks of Kedar shall be given you, and the rams of Nabaioth for my altars, and I will glorify my glorious Temple in that day.
8 "And who are these who fly like a cloud to Israel, like doves to their nests?
9 I have reserved the ships of many lands, the very best, to bring the sons of Israel home again from far away, bringing their wealth with them. For the Holy One of Israel, known around the world, has glorified you in the eyes of all.
10 "Foreigners will come and build your cities. Presidents and kings will send you aid. For though I destroyed you in my anger, I will have mercy on you through my grace.
11 Your gates will stay wide open around the clock to receive the wealth of many lands. The kings of the world will cater to you.
12 For the nations refusing to be your allies will perish; they shall be destroyed.
13 The glory of Lebanon will be yours--the forests of firs, pines, and box trees--to beautify my sanctuary. My Temple will be glorious.
14 "The sons of anti-Semites will come and bow before you! They will kiss your feet! They will call Jerusalem 'The City of the Lord' and 'The Glorious Mountain of the Holy One of Israel.'
15 "Though once despised and hated and rebuffed by all, you will be beautiful forever, a joy for all the generations of the world, for I will make you so.
16 Powerful kings and mighty nations shall provide you with the choicest of their goods to satisfy your every need, and you will know at last and really understand that I, the Lord, am your Savior and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel.
17 I will exchange your brass for gold, your iron for silver, your wood for brass, your stones for iron. Peace and righteousness shall be your taskmasters!
18 Violence will disappear out of your land--all war will end. Your walls will be 'Salvation' and your gates 'Praise.'
19 "No longer will you need the sun or moon to give you light, for the Lord your God will be your everlasting light, and he will be your glory.
20 Your sun shall never set; the moon shall not go down--for the Lord will be your everlasting light; your days of mourning all will end.
21 All your people will be good. They will possess their land forever, for I will plant them there with my own hands; this will bring me glory.
22 The smallest family shall multiply into a clan; the tiny group shall be a mighty nation. I, the Lord, will bring it all to pass when it is time."
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the suffering and afflicted. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted, to announce liberty to captives, and to open the eyes of the blind.
2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of God's favor to them has come, and the day of his wrath to their enemies.
3 To all who mourn in Israel he will give: Beauty for ashes; Joy instead of mourning; Praise instead of heaviness. For God has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.
4 And they shall rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities long ago destroyed, reviving them though they have lain there many generations.
5 Foreigners shall be your servants; they shall feed your flocks and plow your fields and tend your vineyards.
6 You shall be called priests of the Lord, ministers of our God. You shall be fed with the treasures of the nations and shall glory in their riches.
7 Instead of shame and dishonor, you shall have a double portion of prosperity and everlasting joy.
8 "For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrong. I will faithfully reward my people for their suffering and make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their descendants shall be known and honored among the nations; all shall realize that they are a people God has blessed."
10 Let me tell you how happy God has made me! For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and draped about me the robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels.
11 The Lord will show the nations of the world his justice; all will praise him. His righteousness shall be like a budding tree, or like a garden in early spring, full of young plants springing up everywhere.
1 Because I love Zion, because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I will not cease to pray for her or to cry out to God on her behalf until she shines forth in his righteousness and is glorious in his salvation.
2 The nations shall see your righteousness. Kings shall be blinded by your glory; and God will confer on you a new name.
3 He will hold you aloft in his hands for all to see--a splendid crown for the King of kings.
4 Never again shall you be called "The God-forsaken Land" or the "Land That God Forgot." Your new name will be "The Land of God's Delight" and "The Bride," for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his own.
5 Your children will care for you, O Jerusalem, with joy like that of a young man who marries a virgin; and God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom with his bride.
6 O Jerusalem, I have set intercessors on your walls who shall cry to God all day and all night for the fulfillment of his promises. Take no rest, all you who pray,
7 and give God no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes her respected and admired throughout the earth.
8 The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem with all his integrity: "I will never again give you to your enemies; never again shall foreign soldiers come and take away your grain and wine.
9 You raised it; you shall keep it, praising God. Within the Temple courts you yourselves shall drink the wine you pressed."
10 Go out! Go out! Prepare the roadway for my people to return! Build the roads, pull out the boulders, raise the flag of Israel.
11 See, the Lord has sent his messengers to every land and said, "Tell my people, I, the Lord your God, am coming to save you and will bring you many gifts."
12 And they shall be called "The Holy People" and "The Lord's Redeemed," and Jerusalem shall be called "The Land of Desire" and "The City God Has Blessed."
1 Who is this who comes from Edom, from the city of Bozrah, with his magnificent garments of crimson? Who is this in royal robes, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, the Lord, announcing your salvation; I, the Lord, the one who is mighty to save!"
2 "Why are your clothes so red, as from treading out the grapes?"
3 "I have trodden the winepress alone. No one was there to help me. In my wrath I have trodden my enemies like grapes. In my fury I trampled my foes. It is their blood you see upon my clothes.
4 For the time has come for me to avenge my people, to redeem them from the hands of their oppressors.
5 I looked but no one came to help them; I was amazed and appalled. So I executed vengeance alone; unaided, I meted out judgment.
6 I crushed the heathen nations in my anger and made them stagger and fall to the ground."
7 I will tell of the loving-kindnesses of God. I will praise him for all he has done; I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel, which he has granted in accordance with his mercy and love.
8 He said, "They are my very own; surely they will not be false again." And he became their Savior.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and he personally saved them. In his love and pity he redeemed them and lifted them up and carried them through all the years.
10 But they rebelled against him and grieved his Holy Spirit. That is why he became their enemy and personally fought against them.
11 Then they remembered those days of old when Moses, God's servant, led his people out of Egypt, and they cried out, "Where is the One who brought Israel through the sea, with Moses as their shepherd? Where is the God who sent his Holy Spirit to be among his people?
12 Where is he whose mighty power divided the sea before them when Moses lifted up his hand, and established his reputation forever?
13 Who led them through the bottom of the sea? Like fine stallions racing through the desert, they never stumbled.
14 Like cattle grazing in the valleys, so the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. Thus he gave himself a magnificent reputation."
15 O Lord, look down from heaven and see us from your holy, glorious home; where is the love for us you used to show--your power, your mercy, and your compassion? Where are they now?
16 Surely you are still our Father! Even if Abraham and Jacob would disown us, still you would be our Father, our Redeemer from ages past.
17 O Lord, why have you hardened our hearts and made us sin and turn against you? Return and help us, for we who belong to you need you so.
18 How briefly we possessed Jerusalem! And now our enemies have destroyed her.
19 O God, why do you treat us as though we weren't your people, as though we were a heathen nation that never called you "Lord"?
1 Oh, that you would burst forth from the skies and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence!
2 The consuming fire of your glory would burn down the forests and boil the oceans dry. The nations would tremble before you; then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame!
3 So it was before when you came down, for you did awesome things beyond our highest expectations, and how the mountains quaked!
4 For since the world began no one has seen or heard of such a God as ours, who works for those who wait for him!
5 You welcome those who cheerfully do good, who follow godly ways. But we are not godly; we are constant sinners and have been all our lives. Therefore your wrath is heavy on us. How can such as we be saved?
6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we put on our prized robes of righteousness, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves we fade, wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away.
7 Yet no one calls upon your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins.
8 And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay and you are the Potter. We are all formed by your hand.
9 Oh, be not so angry with us, Lord, nor forever remember our sins. Oh, look and see that we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities are destroyed; Jerusalem is a desolate wilderness.
11 Our holy, beautiful Temple where our fathers praised you is burned down, and all the things of beauty are destroyed.
12 After all of this, must you still refuse to help us, Lord? Will you stand silent and still punish us?
1 The Lord says, "People who never before inquired about me are now seeking me out. Nations who never before searched for me are finding me.
2 "But my own people--though I have been spreading out my arms to welcome them all day long--have rebelled; they follow their own evil paths and thoughts.
3 All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in many gardens and burning incense on the rooftops of their homes.
4 At night they go out among the graves and caves to worship evil spirits, and they eat pork and other forbidden foods.
5 Yet they say to one another, 'Don't come too close, you'll defile me! For I am holier than you!' They stifle me. Day in and day out they infuriate me.
6 "See, here is my decree all written out before me: I will not stand silent; I will repay. Yes, I will repay them--
7 not only for their own sins but for those of their fathers too,' says the Lord, 'for they also burned incense on the mountains and insulted me upon the hills. I will pay them back in full.
8 "But I will not destroy them all," says the Lord; "for just as good grapes are found among a cluster of bad ones (and someone will say, 'Don't throw them all away--there are some good grapes there!') so I will not destroy all Israel, for I have true servants there.
9 I will preserve a remnant of my people to possess the land of Israel; those I select will inherit it and serve me there.
10 As for my people who have sought me, the plains of Sharon shall again be filled with flocks, and the valley of Achor shall be a place to pasture herds.
11 "But because the rest of you have forsaken the Lord and his Temple and worship gods of 'Fate' and 'Destiny,' "
12 therefore I will 'destine' you to the sword, and your 'fate' shall be a dark one; for when I called, you didn't answer; when I spoke, you wouldn't listen. You deliberately sinned before my very eyes, choosing to do what you know I despise."
13 Therefore, the Lord God says, "You shall starve, but my servants shall eat; you shall be thirsty while they drink; you shall be sad and ashamed, but they shall rejoice.
14 You shall cry in sorrow and vexation and despair, while they sing for joy.
15 Your name shall be a curse word among my people, for the Lord God will slay you and call his true servants by another name.
16 "And yet, the days will come when all who invoke a blessing or take an oath shall swear by the God of Truth; for I will put aside my anger and forget the evil that you did.
17 For see, I am creating new heavens and a new earth--so wonderful that no one will even think about the old ones anymore.
18 Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation. Look! I will recreate Jerusalem as a place of happiness, and her people shall be a joy!
19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and in my people; and the voice of weeping and crying shall not be heard there any more.
20 "No longer will babies die when only a few days old; no longer will men be considered old at 100! Only sinners will die that young!
21 In those days, when a man builds a house, he will keep on living in it--it will not be destroyed by invading armies as in the past. My people will plant vineyards and eat the fruit themselves--
22 their enemies will not confiscate it. For my people will live as long as trees and will long enjoy their hard-won gains.
23 Their harvests will not be eaten by their enemies; their children will not be born to be cannon fodder. For they are the children of those the Lord has blessed; and their children, too, shall be blessed.
24 I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking to me about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!
25 The wolf and lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw as the ox does, and poisonous snakes shall strike no more! In those days nothing and no one shall be hurt or destroyed in all my Holy Mountain," says the Lord.
1 "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool: What Temple can you build for me as good as that?
2 My hand has made both earth and skies, and they are mine. Yet I will look with pity on the man who has a humble and a contrite heart, who trembles at my word.
3 "But those who choose their own ways, delighting in their sins, are cursed. God will not accept their offerings. When such men sacrifice an ox on the altar of God, it is no more acceptable to him than human sacrifice. If they sacrifice a lamb or bring an offering of grain, it is as loathsome to God as putting a dog or the blood of a swine on his altar! When they burn incense to him, he counts it the same as though they blessed an idol.
4 I will send great troubles upon them--all the things they feared, for when I called them, they refused to answer, and when I spoke to them, they would not hear. Instead, they did wrong before my eyes and chose what they knew I despised."
5 Hear the words of God, all you who fear him, and tremble at his words: "Your brethren hate you and cast you out for being loyal to my name. 'Glory to God,' they scoff. 'Be happy in the Lord!' But they shall be put to shame.
6 "What is all the commotion in the city? What is that terrible noise from the Temple? It is the voice of the Lord taking vengeance upon his enemies.
7 "Who has heard or seen anything as strange as this? For in one day, suddenly, a nation, Israel, shall be born, even before the birth pains come.
8 In a moment, just as Israel's anguish starts, the baby is born; the nation begins.
9 Shall I bring to the point of birth and then not deliver?" asks the Lord your God. "No! Never!
10 "Rejoice with Jerusalem; be glad with her, all you who love her, you who mourned for her.
11 Delight in Jerusalem; drink deep of her glory even as an infant at a mother's generous breasts.
12 Prosperity shall overflow Jerusalem like a river," says the Lord, "for I will send it; the riches of the Gentiles will flow to her. Her children shall be nursed at her breasts, carried on her hips and dandled on her knees.
13 I will comfort you there as a little one is comforted by its mother."
14 When you see Jerusalem, your heart will rejoice; vigorous health will be yours. All the world will see the good hand of God upon his people and his wrath upon his enemies.
15 For see, the Lord will come with fire and with swift chariots of doom to pour out the fury of his anger and his hot rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For the Lord will punish the world by fire and by his sword, and the slain of the Lord shall be many!
17 "Those who worship idols that are hidden behind a tree in the garden, feasting there on pork and mouse and all forbidden meat--they will come to an evil end," says Jehovah.
18 "I see full well what they are doing; I know what they are thinking, so I will gather together all nations and people against Jerusalem, where they shall see my glory.
19 I will perform a mighty miracle against them, and I will send those who escape, as missionaries to the nations--to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Rosh, Tubal, Javan, and to the lands beyond the sea that have not heard my fame nor seen my glory. There they shall declare my glory to the Gentiles.
20 And they shall bring back all your brethren from every nation as a gift to the Lord, transporting them gently on horses and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules and camels, to my holy mountain, to Jerusalem," says the Lord. "It will be like offerings flowing into the Temple of the Lord at harvesttime, carried in vessels consecrated to the Lord.
21 And I will appoint some of those returning to be my priests and Levites," says the Lord.
22 "As surely as my new heavens and earth shall remain, so surely shall you always be my people, with a name that shall never disappear.
23 All mankind shall come to worship me from week to week and month to month.
24 And they shall go out and look at the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me, for their worm shall never die; their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be a disgusting sight to all mankind."