Judah, a Sinful Nation
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning aJudah and Jerusalem, which he beheld in the days of bUzziah, cJotham, dAhaz, and eHezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 aHear, O heavens, and give ear, O bearth;
For Yahweh speaks,
“cSons I have reared and raised up,
But they have dtransgressed against Me.
3 An ox knows its owner,
And a donkey its master’s manger,
But Israel adoes not know;
My people bdo not perceive.”
4 Alas, sinful nation,
People heavy with iniquity,
aSeed of evildoers,
Sons who bact corruptly!
They have cforsaken Yahweh;
They have dspurned the Holy One of Israel;
They have become estranged from Him.
5 Where will you be stricken again,
As you acontinue in your rebellion?
The whole head is bsick,
And the whole heart is faint.
6 aFrom the sole of the foot even to the head
There is bnothing sound in it,
Only bruises, wounds, and raw wounds,
cNot pressed out, not bandaged,
Not softened with oil.
7 Your aland is desolate;
Your cities are burned with fire;
Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your presence;
It is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,
Like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.
9 aUnless Yahweh of hosts
Had left us a few bsurvivors,
We would be like cSodom,
We would be like Gomorrah.
10 Hear athe word of Yahweh,
You rulers of bSodom;
Give ear to the law of our God,
You people of Gomorrah.
11 “aWhat are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”
Says Yahweh.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle;
And in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats I take no pleasure.
12 When you come ato appear before Me,
Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?
13 Bring your worthless offerings no longer,
aIncense is an abomination to Me.
bNew moon and sabbath, the ccalling of convocation—
I cannot dendure wickedness and the solemn assembly.
14 My soul hates your new moon festivals and your aappointed times,
They have become a burden to Me;
I am bweary of bearing them.
15 So when you aspread out your hands in prayer,
bI will hide My eyes from you;
Indeed, even though you cmultiply prayers,
I will not listen.
dYour hands are full of blood.
16 “aWash yourselves, bpurify yourselves;
cRemove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes.
dCease to do evil,
17 Learn to do good;
aSeek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
bExecute justice for the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
18 “Come now, and alet us reason together,”
Says Yahweh,
“bThough your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
19 aIf you are willing and obey,
You will beat the best of the land;
20 But if you refuse and rebel,
You will be aeaten by the sword.”
For bthe mouth of Yahweh has spoken.
Zion Will Be Redeemed with Justice
21 How the faithful city has become a aharlot,
She who was full of justice!
Righteousness once lodged in her,
But now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross,
Your drink diluted with water.
23 Your arulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone bloves a bribe
And pursues rewards.
They cdo not execute justice for the orphan,
Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.
24 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts,
The aMighty One of Israel, declares,
“Ah, I will be comforted concerning My adversaries,
And I will bavenge Myself on My enemies.
25 I will also turn My hand against you,
And will asmelt away your dross as with lye
And will remove all your alloy.
26 Then I will have your ajudges return as at the first,
And your counselors as at the beginning;
Afterwards you will be called the bcity of righteousness,
A faithful town.”
27 Zion will be aredeemed with justice
And her repentant ones with righteousness.
28 But transgressors and sinners will be abroken together,
And those who forsake Yahweh will come to an end.
29 For you will be ashamed of the aoaks which you have desired,
And you will be humiliated because of the bgardens which you have chosen.
30 For you will be like an oak whose aleaf withers away
Or as a garden that has no water.
31 And the strong man will become tinder,
His work also a spark.
Thus they shall both aburn together,
And there will be bnone to quench them.
Yahweh Will Judge the Nations
The word which aIsaiah the son of Amoz beheld concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Now it will be that
aIn the last days
The bmountain of the house of Yahweh
Will be established as the head of the mountains,
And will be lifted up above the hills;
And call the nations will stream to it.
3 And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh,
To the house of the God of Jacob,
That He may instruct us from His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For afrom Zion the law will go forth
And the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
4 And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And athey will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
bNation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.
Yahweh Will Have a Day of Reckoning
5 Come, ahouse of Jacob, and let us walk in the blight of Yahweh.
6 For You have aabandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with influences from the east,
And they are soothsayers blike the Philistines,
And they cstrike bargains with the children of foreigners.
7 Their land has also been filled with silver and gold,
And there is no end to their treasures;
Their land has also been filled with ahorses,
And there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land has also been afilled with idols;
They worship the bwork of their hands,
That which their fingers have made.
9 So athe common man has been bowed down,
And the man of importance has been made low,
But bdo not forgive them.
10 aEnter the rock and hide in the dust
bFrom the dread of Yahweh and from the splendor of His majesty.
11 The alofty look of man will be made low,
And the bmen made high will be bowed down,
And Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.
12 For Yahweh of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against aeveryone who is proud and high
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be made low.
13 And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up,
Against all the aoaks of Bashan,
14 Against all the ahigh mountains,
Against all the hills that are lifted up,
15 Against every alofty tower,
Against every fortified wall,
16 Against all the aships of Tarshish
And against all the desirable craft.
17 The loftiness of man will be bowed down,
And the men who are high will be made low;
And Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day,
18 But the aidols will completely vanish.
19 Men will ago into caves of the rocks
And into holes of the ground
Before the dread of Yahweh
And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises bto make the earth tremble.
20 In that day men will acast away to the moles and the bbats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves to worship,
21 In order to ago into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs
Before the dread of Yahweh and the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.
22 aStop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;
For bwhy should he be esteemed?
Yahweh Will Judge Judah’s Leaders
For behold, the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, ais going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah
Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread
And the whole supply of water,
2 aThe mighty man and the man of war,
The judge and the prophet,
The diviner and the elder,
3 The commander of fifty and the highly respected man,
The counselor and the wise craftsman,
And the experienced enchanter.
4 And I will make ayoung men their princes,
And capricious children will rule over them,
5 And the people will be aoppressed,
Each one by another, and each one by his bneighbor;
The youth will overwhelm the elder
And the dishonorable, the honorable.
6 When a man agrasps his brother in his father’s house, saying,
“You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,
And these ruins will be under your hand,”
7 He will protest on that day, saying,
“I will not be your ahealer,
For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”
8 For aJerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,
Because their btongue and their deeds are against Yahweh,
To crebel against His glorious presence.
9 The expression of their faces answers against them,
And they declare their sin like aSodom;
They do not even conceal it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have bdealt out evil on themselves.
10 Say to the arighteous that it will go well with them,
For they will eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,
For awhat he has dealt out will be done to him.
12 O My people! Their taskmasters are ainfants,
And women rule over them.
O My people! bThose who guide you lead you astray
And swallow up the way of your paths.
13 aYahweh takes His stand to contend,
And stands to judge the peoples.
14 Yahweh aenters into judgment with the elders of His people and His princes,
“It is you who have bconsumed the vineyard;
The cplunder robbed of the afflicted is in your houses.
15 What do you mean by acrushing My people
And grinding the face of the afflicted?”
Declares Lord Yahweh of hosts.
Yahweh Will Judge Zion’s Daughters
16 Moreover, Yahweh said, “Because the adaughters of Zion are haughty
And walk with outstretched necks and seductive eyes,
And go along with mincing steps
And tinkle the bangles on their feet,
17 Therefore the Lord will smite the skull of the daughters of Zion with scabs,
And Yahweh will make their foreheads bare.”
18 In that day the Lord will remove the beauty of their anklets, headbands, acrescent ornaments, 19 dangling earrings, bracelets, veils, 20 aheaddresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, enchanted charms, 21 finger rings, anose rings, 22 festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses, 23 hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans, and shawls.
24 Now it will be that instead of sweet aperfume there will be the smell of rot;
Instead of a belt, a rope;
Instead of bwell‑set hair, a cplucked‑out scalp;
Instead of fine clothes, a ddonning of sackcloth;
And branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men will afall by the sword
And your mighty ones in battle.
26 And her agates will lament and mourn,
And deserted she will bsit on the ground.
And seven women will take hold of aone man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; btake away our reproach!”
The Branch of Yahweh Glorified
2 In that day the aBranch of Yahweh will be beautiful and glorious, and the bfruit of the earth will be the pride and the honor of cthose of Israel who escape. 3 It will be that he who aremains in Zion and is left in Jerusalem will be called bholy—everyone who is cwritten down for life in Jerusalem. 4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the adaughters of Zion and rinsed away the bbloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the cspirit of judgment and the dspirit of burning, 5 then Yahweh will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her convocation aa cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the bglory will be a canopy. 6 And there will be a abooth to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and a hiding place from the storm and the rain.
The Song of the Vineyard
Let me sing now for my well‑beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well‑beloved had a avineyard on a fertile hill.
2 He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the achoicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He bhoped for it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.
3 “So now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
aPlease judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 aWhat more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I hoped for it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
5 So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will aremove its hedge, and it will be consumed;
I will bbreak down its wall, and it will become ctrampled ground.
6 I will alay it waste;
It will not be pruned or hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also command the clouds to brain no rain on it.”
7 For the avineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He hoped for justice, but behold, bbloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
Woes to Those Who Call Evil Good
8 Woe to those who aadd house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!
9 In my ears Yahweh of hosts has sworn, “Surely, amany houses shall become bdesolate,
Even great and good ones, without inhabitants.
10 For aten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine,
And a bhomer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue astrong drink,
Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!
12 And their banquets are accompanied by lyre and aharp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
But they bdo not look upon the deeds of Yahweh,
Nor do they see the work of His hands.
13 Therefore My people go into exile for their alack of knowledge;
And their bhonorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore aSheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without limit;
And Jerusalem’s majesty, her multitude, her rumbling, and the exultant within her, descend into it.
15 So the common man will be bowed down and the man of importance will be made low,
aThe eyes of the lofty also will be made low.
16 But aYahweh of hosts will be blofty in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself choly in righteousness.
17 aThen the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And sojourners will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.
18 Woe to those who drag ainiquity with the cords of worthlessness,
And sin as if with cart ropes,
19 aWho say, “Let Him hurry, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near
And come to pass, that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who acall evil good and good evil,
Who bsubstitute darkness for light and light for darkness,
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are awise in their own eyes
And understanding in their own sight!
22 aWoe to those who are mighty men in drinking wine
And valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23 aWho declare the wicked righteous for a bribe,
And bremove the righteous standing of the ones who are righteous!
24 Therefore, aas a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their broot will become clike rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
For they have drejected the law of Yahweh of hosts
And the word of the Holy One of Israel they have spurned.
25 On this account, the aanger of Yahweh has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.
And the bmountains trembled, and their ccorpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.
dFor all this His anger is not turned back,
But His ehand is still stretched out.
26 He will also lift up a astandard to the distant nations,
And will bwhistle for it cfrom the ends of the earth;
And behold, it will dcome with speed swiftly.
27 aNo one in it is weary or stumbles,
None slumbers or sleeps;
Nor is the bbelt at its waist undone,
Nor its sandal strap broken.
28 aIts arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;
The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot bwheels like a whirlwind.
29 Its aroaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;
It growls and bseizes the prey
And carries it off with cno one to deliver it.
30 And it will agrowl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.
If one blooks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;
Even the light is darkened by its clouds.
Isaiah’s Vision of Yahweh
In the year of aKing Uzziah’s death bI saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, aeach having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said,
“aHoly, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts;
The bwhole earth is full of His glory.”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called out, while the ahouse of God was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said,
“aWoe is me, for I am ruined!
For I am a man of bunclean lips,
And I live among a cpeople of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the dKing, Yahweh of hosts.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the aaltar with tongs. 7 And he atouched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and byour iniquity is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.”
Yahweh Sends Isaiah
8 Then I heard the avoice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then bI said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on ahearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not know.’
10 aRender the hearts of this people binsensitive,
Their ears dull,
And their eyes dim,
cLest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their hearts,
And return and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, ahow long?” And He said,
“Until bcities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people,
And the land is devastated to desolation,
12 And Yahweh has aremoved men far away,
And the bforsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,
And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or like an aoak
Whose stump remains when it is felled.
The bholy seed is its stump.”