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The Book of
Isaiah
Isaiah 1
Judah’s Rebellion
(2
Chronicles 28:5–15)
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward.
5 Why should you be stricken any more? you will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9 Except the LORD of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom; we should have been like Gomorrah.
Meaningless Offerings
10 Hear the Word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the LORD: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.
12 When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they will be as wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land:
20 But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
The Corruption of Zion
21 How is the faithful city become a harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
22 Thy silver is become dross, your wine mixed with water:
23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: everyone loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come to them.
24 Therefore says the Lord, the LORD of Armies, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies:
25 And I will turn my hand upon you, and thoroughly purge away your dross, and take away all your tin:
26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning: afterward you will be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.
27 Zion will be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.
28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners will be together, and they that forsake the LORD will be consumed.
29 For they will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you will be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
30 For you will be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that has no water.
31 And the strong will be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they will both burn together, and none will quench them.
The Mountain of the House of
the LORD
(Micah
4:1–5)
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it will come to pass in the last days, that the mount of the LORD’S house will be established on the top of the mountains, and will be exalted above the hills; and all nations will flow to it.
3 And many people will go and say, Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion will go forth the law, and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he will judge among the nations, and will rebuke many people: and they will beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.
The Day of Reckoning
5 O house of Jacob, come you, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
6 Therefore you have forsaken your people the house of Jacob, because they are replenished from the east, and are sooth-sayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:
8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
10 Enter into the rock, and hide you in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
11 The lofty looks of man will be humbled, and the haughtiness of men will be abased, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
12 For the day of the LORD of Armies will be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up; and he will be brought low:
13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15 And upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall,
16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
17 And the loftiness of man will be abased, and the haughtiness of men will be made low: and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
18 And the idols he will utterly abolish.
19 And they will go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
20 In that day a man will cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
22 Cease you from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?
Isaiah 3
Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah
1 For behold, the Lord, the LORD of Armies, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the rod and the staff, the whole support of bread, and the whole support of water,
2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
3 The captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the skillful artificer, and the eloquent orator.
4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes will rule over them.
5 And the people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor: the child will behave himself proudly against the elder, and the base against the honorable.
6 When a man will take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, You have clothing, be you our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand:
7 In that day will he swear, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.
8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
9 The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe to their soul! for they have rewarded evil to themselves.
10 Say you to the righteous, that it will be well with him: for they will eat the fruit of their doings.
11 Woe to the wicked! it will be ill with him: for the reward of his hands will be given him.
12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.
13 The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.
14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and with their princes: for you have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15 What mean you that you beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? says the Lord GOD of hosts.
A Warning to the Daughters of Zion
16 Moreover the LORD says, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with extended necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will uncover their secret parts.
18 In that day the Lord will take away the show of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon. 19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, 20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the head-bands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings, 21 The rings, and nose-jewels, 22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins, 23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.
24 And it will come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there will be an offensive odor; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
25 Thy men will fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war.
26 And her gates will lament and mourn; and she being desolate, will sit upon the ground.
Isaiah 4
A Remnant in Zion
1 And in that day seven women will take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.
2 In that day will the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be excellent and comely for them that have escaped of Israel. 3 And it will come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, will be called holy, even everyone that is written among the living in Jerusalem: 4 When the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and will have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst of it by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. 5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory will be a defense. 6 And there will be a tabernacle for a shade in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
The Song of the Vineyard
(Luke
13:6–9)
1 Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones of it, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein: and he expected that it would bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected that it would bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
5 And now come; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up; and break down the wall of it, and it will be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste: it will not be pruned, nor digged; but there will come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
Woes to the Wicked
8 Woe to them that join house to house, that lay field to field, until there is no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
9 In my ears said the LORD of Armies, Of a truth many houses will be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
10 Yes, ten acres of vineyard will yield one bath, and the seed of a homer will yield an ephah.
11 Woe to them that rise early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, until wine inflameth them!
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, will descend into it.
15 And the mean man will be brought down, and the mighty man will be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty will be abased.
16 But the LORD of Armies will be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy will be sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then will the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones will strangers eat.
18 Woe to them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope:
19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
20 Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe to them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
23 Who justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he has stretched forth his hand against them, and has smitten them: and the hills trembled, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar, and will hiss to them from the end of the earth: and behold, they will come with speed swiftly:
27 None will be weary nor stumble among them; none will slumber nor sleep; neither will the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs will be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
29 Their roaring will be like a lion, they will roar like young lions: yes, they will roar, and lay hold of the prey, and will carry it away safe, and none will deliver it.
30 And in that day they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one looketh to the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in its heavens.
Isaiah’s Commission
(Matthew
13:10–17;
Mark 4:10–12;
Acts 28:16–31)
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and elevated, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3 And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Armies: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies.
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom will I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear you Truly, but understand not; and see you Truly, but perceive not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities will be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate;
12 And the LORD will have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 But yet in it will be a tenth, and it will return, and will be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed will be the substance of it.
Isaiah 7
A Message to Ahaz
1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up towards Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.
3 Then said the LORD to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field; 4 And say to him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking fire-brands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against you, saying, 6 Let us go up against Judah, and harass it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: 7 Thus says the Lord GOD, It will not stand, neither will it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty five years will Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you will not be established.
The Sign of Immanuel
(Matthew
1:18–25)
10 Moreover, the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask you a sign from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the hight above. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. 13 And he said, Hear you now, O house of David? Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; Behold, a virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey will he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before the child will know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that you abhorrest will be forsaken by both her kings.
Judgment to Come
(Micah
1:1–7)
17 The LORD will bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon your father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
18 And it will come to pass in that day, that the LORD will hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will come, and will rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.
20 In the same day will the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it will also consume the beard.
21 And it will come to pass in that day, that a man will nourish a young cow, and two sheep; 22 And it will come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they will give, he will eat butter: for butter and honey will everyone eat that is left in the land.
23 And it will come to pass in that day, that every place will be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand pieces of silver, it will even be for briers and thorns. 24 With arrows and with bows will men come thither; because all the land will become briers and thorns. 25 And on all hills that will be digged with the mattock, there will not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it will be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.
Isaiah 8
Assyrian Invasion Prophesied
1 Moreover, the LORD said to me, Take you a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 2 And I took to me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. 3 And I went to the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 4 For before the child will have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria.
5 The LORD spoke also to me again, saying,
6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;
7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he will come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks:
8 And he will pass through Judah; he will overflow and go over, he will reach even to the neck; and the extension of his wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.
9 Associate yourselves, O you people, and you will be broken in pieces; and give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and you will be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and you will be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, and it will come to naught; speak the word, and it will not stand: for God is with us.
A Call to Fear God
(Ecclesiastes
8:10–13)
11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say you not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people will say, A confederacy; neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the LORD of Armies himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he will be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them will stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be insnared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. 17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of Armies, who dwelleth in mount Zion.
Darkness and Light
19 And when they will say to you, Seek to them that have familiar spirits, and to wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek to their God? for the living to the dead? 20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21 And they will pass through it, distressed and hungry: and it will come to pass, that when they will be hungry, they will fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. 22 And they will look to the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they will be driven to darkness.
Unto Us a Child Is Born
(Matthew
4:12–17;
Mark 1:14–15;
Luke 4:14–15)
1 Nevertheless the dimness will not be such as was in her distress, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shades of death, upon them has the light shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before you according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this will be with burning and fuel of fire.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government will be upon his shoulder: and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of Armies will perform this.
Judgment against Israel’s Pride
8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it has lighted upon Israel.
9 And all the people will know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
10 The bricks have fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
11 Therefore the LORD will set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they will devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Judgment against Israel’s Hypocrisy
13 For the people turn not to him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of Armies.
14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
15 The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led by them are destroyed.
17 Therefore the Lord will have no joy in their young men, neither will have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for everyone is a pretender and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Judgment against Israel’s Unrepentance
18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it will devour the briers and thorns, and will kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they will mount up like the rising of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the LORD of Armies is the land darkened, and the people will be as the fuel of the fire: no man will spare his brother.
20 And he will snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he will eat on the left hand, and they will not be satisfied: they will eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together will be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 10
Woe to Tyrants
1 Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
3 And what will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from far? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your glory?
4 Without me they will bow down under the prisoners, and they will fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Judgment on Assyria
5 O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation.
6 I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
8 For he says, Are not my princes altogether kings?
9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images excelled them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
11 Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 Wherefore it will come to pass, that when the Lord has performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
13 For he says, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
14 And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
15 Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth with it? or will the saw magnify itself against him that moves it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it, or as if the staff should lift itself, as if it were no wood.
16 Therefore will the Lord, the LORD of Armies, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
18 And will consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they will be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.
19 And the rest of the trees of his forest will be few, that a child may write them.
A Remnant Shall Return
20 And it will come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, will no more again lean upon him that smote them; but will lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them will return: the consumption decreed will overflow with righteousness.
23 For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he will smite you with a rod, and will lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt. 25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation will cease, and my anger in their destruction. 26 And the LORD of Armies will raise up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so will he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. 27 And it will come to pass in that day, that his burden will be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing.
28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he has laid up his furniture.
29 They have gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Lift up your voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard to Laish, O poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
32 As yet will he remain at Nob that day: he will shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold, the Lord, the LORD of Armies will lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature will be hewn down, and the haughty will be humbled.
34 And he will cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.
Isaiah 11
The Root of Jesse
1 And there will come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch will grow out of his roots:
2 And the spirit of the LORD will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
3 And will make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he will not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
4 But with righteousness will he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips will he slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness will be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
6 The wolf also will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child will lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear will feed; their young ones will lie down together: and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 And the suckling child will play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child will put his hand on the den of the basilisk.
9 They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
10 And in that day there will be a root of Jesse, which will stand for an ensign of the people; to it will the Nations seek: and his rest will be glorious.
11 And it will come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which will be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the isles of the sea.
12 And he will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and the adversaries of Judah will be cut off: Ephraim will not envy Judah, and Judah will not distress Ephraim.
14 But they will fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines towards the west; they will spoil them of the east together: they will lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon will obey them.
15 And the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind will he shake his hand over the river, and will smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod.
16 And there will be a highway for the remnant of his people, which will be left, from Assyria; as it was to Israel in the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 12
Joyful Thanksgiving
1 And in that day you will say, O LORD, I will praise you: though you were angry with me, your anger is turned away, and you have comforted me.
2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
3 Therefore with joy will you draw water out of the wells of salvation.
4 And in that day will you say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
5 Sing to the LORD; for he has done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.
6 Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of you.
Isaiah 13
The Burden against Babylon
1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 Lift you up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice to them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for my anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations assembled: the LORD of Armies mustereth the host of the battle.
5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl you; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it will come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore will all hands be faint, and every man’s heart will melt:
8 And they will be afraid: pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; they will be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they will be amazed one at another; their faces will be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he will destroy its sinners out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and its constellations will not give their light: the sun will be darkened in his going forth, and the moon will not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of Armies, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And it will be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they will every man turn to his own people, and flee everyone to his own land.
15 Every one that is found will be thrust through; and everyone that is joined to them will fall by the sword.
16 Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not regard silver; and as for gold, they will not delight in it.
18 Their bows also will dash the young men to pieces; and they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye will not spare children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellence, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It will never be inhabited, neither will it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither will the Arabian pitch tent there; neither will the shepherds make their fold there.
21 But wild beasts of the desert will lie there; and their houses will be full of doleful creatures; and owls will dwell there, and satyrs will dance there.
22 And the wild beasts of the isles will cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.
Isaiah 14
Restoration for Israel
1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers will be joined with them, and they will cleave to the house of Jacob. 2 And the people will take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel will possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they will take them captives, whose captives they were; and they will rule over their oppressors.
The Fall of the King of Babylon
3 And it will come to pass in the day that the LORD will give you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage in which you were made to serve,
4 That you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers.
6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
8 Yes, the fir-trees rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you are laid down, no feller is come up against us.
9 Hell from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming: it stirreth up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10 All they will speak and say to you, Art you also become weak as we? Art you become like us?
11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your viols: the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you.
12 How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the hights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.
15 Yet you will be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see you will narrowly look upon you, and consider you, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that shook kingdoms:
17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed its cities; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, everyone in his own house.
19 But you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet.
20 You are not to be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, and slain your people: the seed of evil-doers will never be renowned.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they may not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 For I will arise against them, says the LORD of Armies, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, says the LORD. 23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, says the LORD of Armies.
God’s Purpose against Assyria
24 The LORD of Armies has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so will it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so will it stand. 25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then will his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. 26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched over all the nations. 27 For the LORD of Armies has purposed, and who will disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
Philistia Will Be Destroyed
28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
29 Rejoice not you, all Palestina, because the rod of him that smote you is broken: for out of the serpent’s root will come forth a basilisk, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.
30 And the first-born of the poor will feed, and the needy will lie down in safety: and I will kill your root with famine, and he will slay your remnant.
31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; you, all Palestina, are dissolved: for there will come from the north a smoke, and none will be alone in his appointed times.
32 What will one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and the poor of his people will trust in it.
The Burden against Moab
(Jeremiah
48:1–47)
1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence;
2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab will howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads will be baldness, and every beard shorn.
3 In their streets they will gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, everyone will howl, weeping abundantly.
4 And Heshbon will cry, and Elealeh: their voice will be heard even to Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab will cry out; his life will be grievous to him.
5 My heart will cry out for Moab; his fugitives will flee to Zoar, a heifer of three years old: for they will go up the ascent of Luhith with weeping; for in the way of Horonaim they will raise a cry of destruction.
6 For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate: for the herb is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.
7 Therefore the abundance they have gained, and that which they have laid up, will they carry away to the brook of the willows.
8 For the cry has gone round the borders of Moab, her howling to Eglaim, and her howling to Beer-elim.
9 For the waters of Dimon will be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.
Moab’s Destruction
(Zephaniah
2:8–11)
1 Send you the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 For it will be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab will be at the fords of Arnon.
3 Take counsel, execute judgment; make your shadow as the night in the midst of the noon-day; hide the outcasts; discover not him that wandereth.
4 Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab; be you a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.
5 And in mercy will the throne be established: and he will sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies will not be so.
7 Therefore will Moab howl for Moab, everyone will howl: for the foundations of Kir-hareseth will you mourn; surely they are stricken.
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down her principal plants, they have come even to Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness: her branches are extended, they have gone over the sea.
9 Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for your summer fruits and for your harvest is fallen.
10 And gladness is taken away, and joy from the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither will there be shouting: the treaders will tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage-shouting to cease.
11 Wherefore my bowels will sound like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir-haresh.
12 And it will come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he will come to his sanctuary to pray; but he will not prevail.
13 This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning Moab since that time. 14 But now the LORD has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab will be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble.
The Burden against Damascus
(Jeremiah
49:23–27)
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.
3 The fortress also will cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they will be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of Armies.
4 And in that day it will come to pass, that the glory of Jacob will be diminished, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5 And it will be as when the harvest-man gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it will be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it, as the shaking of an olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches of it, says the LORD God of Israel.
7 At that day will a man look to his Maker, and his eyes will have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
8 And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither will respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.
9 In that day will his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there will be desolation.
10 Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength, therefore you will plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with foreign slips:
11 In the day you will make your plant to grow, and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish: but the harvest will be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, who make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters: but God will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at the time of evening trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that ravage us, and the lot of them that rob us.
Isaiah 18
A Message to Cush
1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush:
2 That sendeth embassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, you swift messengers to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation measured by line and trodden down, whose land the rivers have laid waste.
3 All you inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see you, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear you.
4 For so the LORD said to me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling-place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he will both cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
6 They will be left together to the birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the birds will summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them.
7 In that time will the present be brought to the LORD of Armies of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation measured by line and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of Armies, the mount Zion.
Isaiah 19
The Burden against Egypt
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt will be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt will fail in the midst of her, and I will destroy her counsel: and they will seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the LORD of Armies.
5 And the waters will fail from the sea, and the rivers will be wasted and dried up.
6 And they will turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defense will be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags will wither.
7 The paper-reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and everything sown by the brooks, will wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishers also will mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks will lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters will languish.
9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave net-works will be confounded.
10 And they will be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say you to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
12 Where are they? where are your wise men? and let them tell you now, and let them know what the LORD of Armies has purposed upon Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the support of its tribes.
14 The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in the midst of it: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work of it, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
15 Neither will there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may perform.
A Blessing upon the Earth
16 In that day will Egypt be like women: and it will be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of Armies, which he shaketh over it. 17 And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt, everyone that maketh mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of Armies, which he has determined against it.
18 In that day will five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of Armies; one will be called, The city of destruction.
19 In that day will there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border to the LORD. 20 And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of Armies in the land of Egypt: for they will cry to the LORD because of the oppressors, and he will send them a savior, and a great one, and he will deliver them. 21 And the LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day, and will do sacrifice and oblation; yes, they will vow a vow to the LORD, and perform it. 22 And the LORD will smite Egypt: he will smite and heal it: and they will return even to the LORD, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them.
23 In that day will there be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day will Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: 25 Whom the LORD of Armies will bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.
Isaiah 20
A Sign against Egypt and Cush
1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it; 2 At the same time spoke the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put off your shoe from your foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 And the LORD said, As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Cush; 4 So will the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Cushites captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their hind-parts uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 And they will be afraid and ashamed of Cush their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. 6 And the inhabitant of this isle will say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how will we escape?
Babylon Is Fallen
(Revelation
18:1–8)
1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
2 A grievous vision is declared to me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler plundereth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all her sighing have I made to cease.
3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
4 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure has he turned into fear to me.
5 Prepare the table, watch in the watch-tower, eat, drink: arise, you princes, and anoint the shield.
6 For thus has the Lord said to me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
7 And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he listened diligently with much heed:
8 And he cried, a lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the day time, and I am set in my ward whole nights.
9 And behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he has broken to the ground.
10 O my threshing, and the corn of my floor; that which I have heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, have I declared to you.
The Burden against Edom
(Isaiah
34:5–17)
11 The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
12 The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if you will inquire, inquire you: return, come.
The Burden against Arabia
13 The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia will you lodge, O you traveling companies of Dedanim.
14 The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they met with their bread him that fled.
15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
16 For thus has the Lord said to me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar will fail: 17 And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.
Isaiah 22
The Valley of Vision
1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth you now, that you have wholly gone up to the house-tops?
2 You that are full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
3 All your rulers have fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in you are bound together, who have fled from far.
4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the devastation of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
6 And Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 And it will come to pass, that your choicest valleys will be full of chariots, and the horsemen will set themselves in array at the gate.
8 And he uncovered the coverings of Judah, and you didst look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest.
9 You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you collected the waters of the lower pool.
10 And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall.
11 You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but you have not looked to its maker, neither had respect to him that fashioned it long ago.
12 And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we will die.
14 And it was revealed in my ears by the LORD of Armies, Surely this iniquity will not be purged from you until you die, says the Lord GOD of hosts.
A Message for Shebna
15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, repair to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,
16 What have you here? and whom have you here, that you have hewed you out a sepulcher here, as he that heweth him out a sepulcher on high, and that graveth a habitation for himself in a rock?
17 Behold, the LORD will carry you away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover you.
18 With violence he will surely turn and toss you like a ball into a wide country: there you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be the shame of your lord’s house.
19 And I will drive you from your station, and from your state will he pull you down.
20 And it will come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:
21 And I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit your government into his hand: and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.
22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he will open, and none will shut; and he will shut, and none will open.
23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he will be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24 And they will hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. 25 In that day, says the LORD of Armies, will the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it will be cut off: for the LORD has spoken it.
The Burden against Tyre
(Ezekiel
26:1–21)
1 The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, you inhabitants of the isle; you whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.
3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.
4 Be you ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea has spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish young men, nor bring up virgins.
5 As at the report concerning Egypt, so will they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
6 Pass you over to Tarshish; howl, you inhabitants of the isle.
7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet will carry her far off to sojourn.
8 Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth?
9 The LORD of Armies has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
10 Pass through your land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
11 He stretched his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD has given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy its strong holds.
12 And he said, You shalt no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also you will have no rest.
13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, until the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up its towers, they raised up its palaces; and he brought it to ruin.
14 Howl, you ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.
15 And it will come to pass in that day, that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years will Tyre sing as a harlot.
16 Take a harp, go about the city, you harlot that have been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.
17 And it will come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will turn to her hire, and will commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. 18 And her merchandise and her hire will be holiness to the LORD: it will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for them that dwell before the LORD, for sufficient food, and for durable clothing.
Isaiah 24
God’s Judgment on the Earth
1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad its inhabitants. 2 And it will be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest to him. 3 The land will be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD has spoken this word. 4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. 5 The earth also is defiled under its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell in it are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
7 The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry-hearted do sigh.
8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
9 They will not drink wine with a song; strong drink will be bitter to them that drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may enter.
11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
13 When thus it will be in the midst of the land among the people, there will be as the shaking of an olive-tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.
14 They will lift up their voice, they will sing for the majesty of the LORD, they will cry aloud from the sea.
15 Wherefore glorify you the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe to me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yes, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it will come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit will be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is entirely dissolved, the earth is exceedingly moved.
20 The earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard, and will be removed like a cottage; and the transgression of it will be heavy upon it; and it will fall, and not rise again.
21 And it will come to pass in that day, that the LORD will punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they will be gathered, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison, and after many days will they be visited.
23 Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of Armies will reign on mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
Praise to the Victorious God
(Jeremiah
51:15–19)
1 O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For you have made of a city a heap; of a fortified city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it will never be built.
3 Therefore will the strong people glorify you, the city of the terrible nations will fear you.
4 For you have been a defense to the poor, a defense to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 You wilt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shade of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones will be brought low.
6 And on this mountain will the LORD of Armies make to all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people will he remove from all the earth: for the LORD has spoken it.
9 And it will be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
10 For on this mountain will the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab will be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.
11 And he will spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he will bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
12 And the fortress of the high fort of your walls will he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.
Isaiah 26
A Song of Salvation
1 In that day will this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open you the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
3 You wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusteth in you.
4 Trust you in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
5 For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.
6 The foot will tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
7 The way of the just is uprightness: you, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.
8 Yes, in the way of your judgments, O LORD, have we waited for you; the desire of our soul is to your name, and to the remembrance of you.
9 With my soul have I desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you early: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
11 LORD, when your hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they will see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yes, the fire of your enemies will devour them.
12 LORD, you wilt ordain peace for us: for you also have wrought all our works in us.
13 O LORD our God, other lords beside you have had dominion over us; but by you only will we make mention of your name.
14 They are dead, they will not live; they are deceased, they will not rise: therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation; you are glorified: you hadst removed it far to all the ends of the earth.
16 LORD, in trouble have they visited you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them.
17 As a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and cries out in her pangs; so have we been in your sight, O LORD.
18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance on the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 Thy dead men will live, together with my dead body will they arise. Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you; hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation will be overpast.
21 For behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also will disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain.
The LORD’s Vineyard
(John
15:1–8)
1 In that day the LORD with his keen and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day sing you to her, A vineyard of red wine.
3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he will make peace with me.
6 He will cause them that descend from Jacob to take root: Israel will blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, you wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
9 By this therefore will the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk-stones that are beaten asunder, the groves and images will not stand up.
10 Yet the fortified city will be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there will the calf feed, and there will he lie down, and consume its branches.
11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off: the women come and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.
12 And it will come to pass in that day, that the LORD will gather from the channel of the river to the stream of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. 13 And it will come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet will be blown, and they will come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and will worship the LORD on the holy mount at Jerusalem.
Isaiah 28
The Captivity of Ephraim
1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower; who are on the head of the rich valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, will cast down to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under feet.
4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be a fading flower, and as the early fruit before the summer; which, when he that looketh upon it, seeth while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
5 In that day will the LORD of Armies be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are overwhelmed with wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the Word of the LORD was to them, precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
A Cornerstone in Zion
(1
Corinthians 3:10–15;
Ephesians 2:19–22;
1 Peter 2:1–8)
14 Wherefore hear the Word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement; when the overflowing scourge will pass through, it will not reach us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth will not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding-place.
18 And your covenant with death will be disannulled, and your agreement with hell will not stand; when the overflowing scourge will pass through, then you will be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it will take you: for morning by morning will it pass over, by day and by night: and it will be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD will rise as on mount Perazim, he will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
Listen and Hear
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; listen, and hear my speech.
24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
25 When he has made even the face of it, doth he not cast abroad the vetches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye in their place?
26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
27 For the vetches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the vetches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread-corn is bruised; because he will not always be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in operation.
Woe to David’s City
(Luke
19:41–44)
1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add you year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there will be heaviness and sorrow; and it will be to me as Ariel.
3 And I will encamp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with a mount, and I will raise forts against you.
4 And you will be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and your speech will be low out of the dust, and your voice will be, as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.
5 Moreover, the multitude of your strangers will be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones will be as chaff that passeth away: yes, it will be at an instant suddenly.
6 You shalt be visited by the LORD of Armies with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, will be as a dream of a night-vision.
8 It will even be as when a hungry man dreameth, and behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so will the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry you out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I cannot; for it is sealed: 12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I am not learned.
13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men:
14 Therefore behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even an astonishing work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hid.
15 Woe to them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
16 Surely your turning of things upside down will be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for will the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or will the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
Sanctification for the Godly
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be esteemed as a forest?
18 And in that day will the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
19 The meek also will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scoffer is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
21 That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught.
22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob will not now be ashamed, neither will his face now become pale.
23 But when he seeth his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will fear the God of Israel.
24 They also that erred in spirit will come to understanding, and they that murmured will learn doctrine.
Isaiah 30
The Worthless Treaty with Egypt
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not from me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shade of Egypt!
3 Therefore will the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shade of Egypt your confusion.
4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his embassadors came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and the old lion, the viper and flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that will not profit them.
7 For the Egyptian will help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Withdraw from the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and lean upon it:
13 Therefore this iniquity will be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14 And he will break it as the breaking of the potter’s vessel that is broken in pieces; he will not spare: so that there will not be found in the bursting of it a piece to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit.
15 For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest will you be saved; in quietness and in confidence will be your strength: and you would not.
16 But you said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore will you flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore will they that pursue you be swift.
17 One thousand will flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five will you flee: until you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill.
God Will Be cheerful
18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be cheerful to you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
19 For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: you will weep no more: he will be very cheerful to you at the voice of your cry; when he will hear it, he will answer you. 20 And though the Lord will give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet will not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes will see your teachers: 21 And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left. 22 You will defile also the covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold: you will cast them away as a polluted cloth; you will say to it, Be gone from me.
23 Then will he give the rain of your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it will be fat and plenteous: in that day will your cattle feed in large pastures. 24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that plow the ground will eat clean provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. 25 And there will be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven-fold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden of it is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, will reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there will be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 You will have a song, as in the night, when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come upon the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the LORD will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD will the Assyrian be beaten down, who smote with a rod.
32 And in every place where the grounded staff will pass, which the LORD will lay upon him, it will be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yes, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: the pile of it is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
Isaiah 31
Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt
1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and rely on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
2 Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evil-doers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.
3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD will stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth will fall, and he that is helped will fall down, and they all will fail together.
4 For thus has the LORD spoken to me, As the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so will the LORD of Armies come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.
5 As birds flying, so will the LORD of Armies defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.
6 Turn you to him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. 7 For in that day every man will cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made to you for a sin.
8 Then will the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, will devour him: but he will flee from the sword, and his young men will be discomfited.
9 And he will pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes will be afraid of the ensign, says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 32
A Righteous King
1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in judgment.
2 And a man will be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3 And the eyes of them that see will not be dim, and the ears of them that hear will listen.
4 The heart also of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
5 The vile person will be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6 For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry; and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7 The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
8 But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things will he stand.
The Women of Jerusalem
9 Rise up, you women that are at ease; hear my voice, you careless daughters; give ear to my speech.
10 Many days and years will you be troubled, you careless women: for the vintage will fail, the gathering will not come.
11 Tremble, you women that are at ease; be troubled, you careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
12 They will lament for the breasts, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13 Upon the land of my people will come up thorns and briers; also, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
14 Because the palaces will be forsaken; the multitude of the city will be left; the forts and towers will be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
15 Until the spirit will be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness will be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be counted for a forest.
16 Then judgment will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17 And the work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever.
18 And my people will dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places;
19 When it will hail, coming down on the forest; and the city will be low in a low place.
20 Blessed are you that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.
Isaiah 33
The LORD Is Exalted
1 Woe to you that layest waste, and you were not laid waste; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with you! when you will cease to lay waste, you will be wasted; and when you will make an end to deal treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.
2 O LORD, be cheerful to us; we have waited for you: be you their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
3 At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered.
4 And your spoil will be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running to and fro of locusts will he run upon them.
5 The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.
6 And wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
7 Behold, their valiant ones will cry without: the embassadors of peace will weep bitterly.
8 The highways lie waste, the way-faring man ceaseth: he has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he regardeth no man.
9 The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.
10 Now will I rise, says the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
11 You will conceive chaff, you will bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, will devour you.
12 And the people will be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up will they be burned in the fire.
13 You that are far off, hear what I have done; and you that are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the pretenders. Who among us will dwell with the devouring fire? who among us will dwell with everlasting burnings?
15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
16 He will dwell on high: his place of defense will be the munitions of rocks: bread will be given him; his waters will be sure.
17 Thy eyes will see the king in his beauty: they will behold the land that is very far off.
18 Thy heart will meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 You are not to see a fierce people, a people of deeper speech than you canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that you canst not understand.
20 Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: your eyes will see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that will not be taken down; not one of its stakes will ever be removed, neither will any of its cords be broken.
21 But there the glorious LORD will be to us a place of broad rivers and streams; in which will go no galley with oars, neither will gallant ship pass through it.
22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
23 Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.
24 And the inhabitants will not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.
Isaiah 34
Judgment on the Nations
1 Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you people: let the earth hear, and all that is in it; the world, and all things that spring from it.
2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter.
3 Their slain also will be cast out, and their ill smell will come up from their carcases, and the mountains will be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven will be dissolved, and the heavens will be rolled together as a scroll: and all their hosts will fall down, as the leaf falleth from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.
Judgment on Edom
(Isaiah
21:11–12)
5 For my sword will be bathed in heaven: behold, it will come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 And the unicorns will come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land will be drenched with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
8 For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.
9 And its streams will be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone, and its land will become burning pitch.
10 It will not be quenched night nor day; the smoke of it will ascend for ever: from generation to generation it will lie waste; none will pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the cormorant and the bittern will possess it; the owl also and the raven will dwell in it: and he will stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
12 They will call her nobles to the kingdom, but none will be there, and all her princes will be nothing.
13 And thorns will come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in her fortresses, and it will be a habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
14 The wild beasts of the desert will also meet with the wild beasts of the isle, and the satyr will cry to his fellow; the screech-owl also will rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
15 There will the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there will the vultures also be gathered, everyone with her mate.
16 Seek you out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these will fail, none will want her mate: for my mouth it has commanded, and his spirit it has gathered them.
17 And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them by line: they will possess it for ever, from generation to generation will they dwell therein.
Isaiah 35
The Glory of Zion
1 The wilderness and the solitary place will be glad for them; and the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose.
2 It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice, even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon, they will see the glory of the LORD, and the excellence of our God.
3 Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then will the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb will sing: for in the wilderness will waters break out, and streams in the desert.
7 And the parched ground will become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, will be grass with reeds and rushes.
8 And a highway will be there, and a way, and it will be called, The way of holiness; the unclean will not pass over it; but it will be for those: the way-faring men, though fools, will not err therein.
9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast will go up thereon, it will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there:
10 And the ransomed of the LORD will return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they will obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Sennacherib Threatens
Jerusalem
(2
Kings 18:13–37;
2 Chronicles 32:1–8)
1 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem against king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field. 3 Then came forth to him Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the recorder.
4 And Rabshakeh said to them, Say you now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trustest? 5 I say, sayest you (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost you trust, that you rebellest against me? 6 Lo, you trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; on which if a man lean, it will enter his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him. 7 But if you will say to me, We trust in the LORD our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You will worship before this altar? 8 Now therefore give pledges, I pray you, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you canst on your part set riders upon them. 9 How then wilt you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 And am I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? the LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
11 Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah to Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray you, to your servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jew’s language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall. 12 But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? has he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may devour their vilest excretions with you?
13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jew’s language, and said, Hear you the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 Thus says the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, the LORD will surely deliver us: this city will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. 16 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat you everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig-tree, and drink you everyone the waters of his own cistern; 17 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
21 But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not. 22 Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Isaiah’s Message of
Deliverance
(2
Kings 19:1–7)
1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 4 It may be the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD your God has heard: wherefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus will you say to your master, Thus says the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he will hear a rumor, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter
(2
Kings 19:8–13)
8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9 And he heard it said concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, He is come forth to make war with you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 Thus will you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not your God in whom you trustest, deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and you will be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
Hezekiah’s Prayer
(2
Kings 19:14–19)
14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying, 16 O LORD of Armies, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: you have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to reproach the living God. 18 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries, 19 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. 20 Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the LORD, even you only.
Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied
(2
Kings 19:20–34)
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Whereas you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:
22 This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, and derided you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
23 Whom have you reproached and blasphemed; and against whom have you exalted your voice, and lifted your eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
24 By your servants have you reproached the Lord, and have said, By the multitude of my chariots have I come up to the hight of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir-trees: and I will enter into the hight of its border, and the forest of its Carmel.
25 I have digged, and drank water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.
26 Have you not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that you shouldst be to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
27 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house-tops, and as corn blasted before it is grown up.
28 But I know your abode, and your going out, and your coming in, and your rage against me.
29 Because your rage against me, and your tumult, is come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you camest.
30 And this will be a sign to you, You will eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. 31 And the remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: 32 For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and they that escape from mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of Armies will do this.
33 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He will not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same will he return, and will not come into this city, says the LORD. 35 For I will defend this city, to save it for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians
(2
Kings 19:35–37;
2 Chronicles 32:20–23)
36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 38 And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.
Hezekiah’s Illness and
Recovery
(2
Kings 20:1–11;
2 Chronicles 32:24–31)
1 In those days was Hezekiah sick with a mortal disease. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus says the LORD, Set your house in order: for you will die, and not live. 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed to the LORD, 3 And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then came the Word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, 5 Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold, I will add to your days fifteen years. 6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
7 And this will be a sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken; 8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which has gone down on the sun-dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down.
Hezekiah’s Song of Thanksgiving
9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered from his sickness:
10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I will go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
11 I said, I will not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I will behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
12 My age has departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt you make an end of me.
13 I reckoned until morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt you make an end of me.
14 Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered: I mourned as a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
15 What will I say? he has both spoken to me, and himself has done it: I will go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt you recover me, and make me to live.
17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but you have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
18 For the grave cannot praise you, death can not celebrate you: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth.
19 The living, the living, he will praise you, as I do this day: the father to the children will make known your truth.
20 The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he will recover. 22 Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?
Hezekiah Shows His Treasures
(2
Kings 20:12–19)
1 At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. 2 And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them.
3 Then came Isaiah the prophet to king Hezekiah, and said to him, What said these men? and from whence came they to you? and Hezekiah said, They have come to me from a far country, even from Babylon. 4 Then said he, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them.
5 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the Word of the LORD of Armies: 6 Behold, the days come, that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store until this day, will be carried to Babylon: nothing will be left, says the LORD. 7 And of your sons that will issue from you, which you will beget, will they take away; and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the Word of the LORD which you have spoken. He said moreover, For there will be peace and truth in my days.
Prepare the Way for the LORD
(Matthew
3:1–12;
Mark 1:1–8;
Luke 3:1–20;
John 1:19–28)
1 Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your God.
2 Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received from the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.
3 The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be made low: and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough places plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh together will see it: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
The Enduring Word
(1
Peter 1:22–25)
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What will I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its goodliness is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God will will stand forever.
Here Is Your God!
(Romans
11:33–36)
9 O Zion, that bringest good tidings, go up upon the high mountain: O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm will rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those that are with young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counselor has taught him?
14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts of it sufficient for a burnt-offering.
17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
18 To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare to him?
19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
20 He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh for himself a skillful workman to prepare a graven image that will not be moved.
21 Have you not known? have you not heard? has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 Yes, they will not be planted; yes, they will not be sown: yes, their stock will not take root in the earth: and he will also blow upon them, and they will wither, and the whirlwind will take them away as stubble.
25 To whom then will you liken me, or will I be equaled? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
27 Why sayest you, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over by my God?
28 Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths will faint and be weary, and the young men will utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings as eagles; they will run, and not be weary; they will walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 41
God’s Help to Israel
1 Keep silence before me, O isles; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.
3 He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.
4 Who has wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.
5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
6 They helped everyone his neighbor; and everyone said to his brother, Be of good courage.
7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
8 But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.
9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called you from the chief men thereof, and said to you, You are my servant; I have chosen you, and not cast you away.
10 Fear you not; for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against you will be ashamed and confounded: they will be as nothing; and they that contend with you will perish.
12 You shalt seek them, and are not to find them, even them that contended with you: they that war against you will be as nothing, and as a thing of naught.
13 For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not; I will help you.
14 Fear not, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will help you, says the LORD, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: you will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
16 You shalt fan them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them: and you will rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree, and the myrtle, and the oil-tree; I will set in the desert the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together:
20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Meaningless Idols
21 Produce your cause, says the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them forth, and show us what will happen: let them show the former things, what they are that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come.
23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods: yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
24 Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of naught: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
25 I have raised up one from the north, and he will come: from the rising of the sun will he call upon my name: and he will come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.
26 Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know? and before time, that we may say, He is righteous? verily, there is none that showeth, verily, there is none that declareth, verily, there is none that heareth your words.
27 The first will say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.
28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counselor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.
29 Behold, they are all vanity, their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
Here Is My Servant
(Matthew
12:15–21)
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he will bring forth judgment to the Nations.
2 He will not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed will he not break, and the smoking flax will he not quench: he will bring forth judgment to truth.
4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set judgment in the earth: and the isles will wait for his law.
5 Thus says God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and expanded them; he that spread forth the earth, and that which it produceth; he that giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein.
6 I the LORD have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Nations;
7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.
8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
A New Song of Praise
(Psalm
98:1–9;
Psalm 149:1–9)
10 Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you that go down to the sea, and all that is in it; the isles, and their inhabitants.
11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the isles.
13 The LORD will go forth as a mighty man, he will stir up jealousy like a man of war: he will cry, yes, roar; he will prevail against his enemies.
14 I have long time held my peace; I have been still, and restrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.
15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers to be islands, and I will dry up the pools.
16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do for them, and not forsake them.
17 They will be turned back, they will be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, You are our gods.
Israel Is Deaf and Blind
18 Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see.
19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?
20 Seeing many things, but you observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.
21 The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.
22 But this is a people robbed and pillaged; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses; they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none says, Restore.
23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will listen, and hear for the time to come?
24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient to his law.
25 Therefore he has poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire around, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.
Isaiah 43
Israel’s Only Savior
1 But now thus says the LORD that created you, O Jacob, and he that formed you, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are mine.
2 When you passest through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you: when you walkest through the fire, you are not to be burned; neither will the flame kindle upon you.
3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior: I gave Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba for you.
4 Since you have been precious in my sight, you have been honorable, and I have loved you: therefore will I give men for you, and people for your life.
5 Fear not: for I am with you: I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west;
6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
7 Even everyone that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; verily, I have made him.
8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
9 Let all the nations be collected, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
10 You are my witnesses, says the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no god formed, neither will there be after me.
11 I, even I, am the LORD; and besides me there is no savior.
12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shown, when there was no strange god among you: therefore you are my witnesses, says the LORD, that I am God.
13 Yes, before the day was, I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who will hinder it?
A Way in the Wilderness
14 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
16 Thus says the LORD, who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;
17 Who bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they will lie down together, they will not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
18 Remember you not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it will spring forth; will you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field will honor me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
21 This people have I formed for myself; they will show forth my praise.
Israel’s Unfaithfulness
(Judges
2:10–15;
Jeremiah 2:23–37)
22 But you have not called upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel.
23 You have not brought me the small cattle of your burnt-offerings; neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with an offering, nor wearied you with incense.
24 You have bought me no sweet cane with money, neither have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices: but you have made me to serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities.
25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.
26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare you, that you may be justified.
27 Thy first father has sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me.
28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
Isaiah 44
The LORD Has Chosen Israel
1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:
2 Thus says the LORD that made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you: Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and you, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring:
4 And they will spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.
5 One will say, I am the LORD’S; and another will call himself by the name of Jacob; and another will subscribe with his hand to the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel.
6 Thus says the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of Armies; I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.
7 And who, as I, will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and will come, let them show to them.
8 Fear you not, neither be afraid: have not I told you from that time, and have declared it? you are even my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? verily there is no God; I don't know any.
9 They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things will not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. 10 Who has formed a god, or cast a graven image that is profitable for nothing? 11 Behold, all his fellows will be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be assembled, let them stand up; yet they will fear, and they will be ashamed together.
12 The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yes, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house. 14 He heweth down cedars for himself, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. 15 Then will it be for a man to burn: for he will take of it, and warm himself; Truly he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yes, he maketh a god, and worshipeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down to it. 16 He burneth part of it in the fire; with part of it he eateth flesh; he roasteth meat, and is satisfied: yes, he warmeth himself, and says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: 17 And the residue of it he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down to it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth to it, and says, Deliver me; for you are my god.
18 They have not known nor understood: for he has shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. 19 And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; I have also baked bread upon its coals; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and will I make the residue of it an abomination? will I fall down to the stock of a tree? 20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart has turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
Jerusalem to Be Restored
21 Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant: I have formed you; you are my servant: O Israel, you are not to be forgotten by me.
22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and as a cloud, your sins: return to me; for I have redeemed you.
23 Sing, O you heavens; for the LORD has done it: shout, you lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.
24 Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, and he that formed you from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself:
25 That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;
26 That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that says to Jerusalem, You shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, You will be built, and I will raise up her decayed places:
27 That says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers:
28 That says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and he will perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, You shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation will be laid.
God Calls Cyrus
(2
Chronicles 36:22–23;
Ezra 1:1–4)
1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates will not be shut;
2 I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut asunder the bars of iron:
3 And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.
4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my elect, I have even called you by your name: I have surnamed you, though you have not known me:
5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God besides me: I girded you, though you have not known me:
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
8 Drop down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
9 Woe to him that contendeth with his Maker! Let the potsherd contend with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest you? or your work, He has no hands?
10 Woe to him that says to his father, What begettest you? or to the woman, What have you brought forth?
11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command you me.
12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he will build my city, and he will let go my captives, not for price nor reward, says the LORD of Armies.
14 Thus says the LORD, The labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Cush and of the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, and they will be thine: they will come after you; in chains they will come over, and they will fall down to you, they will make supplication to you, saying, Surely God is in you; and there is none else, there is no God.
15 Verily you are a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 They will be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they will go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
17 But Israel will be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: you will not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
18 For thus says the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he has established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I have not said to the seed of Jacob, Seek you me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you that have escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray to a god that cannot save.
21 Tell you, and bring them near; yes, let them take counsel together: who has declared this from ancient time? who has told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else besides me; a just God and a Savior; there is none besides me.
22 Look to me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not return, That to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear.
24 Surely, will one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him will men come; and all that are incensed against him will be ashamed.
25 In the LORD will all the seed of Israel be justified, and will glory.
Isaiah 46
Babylon’s Idols
1 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your loads were heavy; they were a burden to the weary beast.
2 They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves have gone into captivity.
3 Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the birth, which are carried from the womb:
4 And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoary hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
5 To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?
6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yes, they worship.
7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place will he not remove: yes, one will cry to him, yet he cannot answer, nor save him out of his trouble.
8 Remember this, and show yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O you transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel will stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yes, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also perform it.
12 Hearken to me, you stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness:
13 I bring near my righteousness; it will not be far off, and my salvation will not delay: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.
Isaiah 47
The Humiliation of Babylon
1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you will no more be called tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover your locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
3 Thy nakedness will be uncovered, yes, your shame will be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet you as a man.
4 As for our Redeemer, the LORD of Armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit you silent, and get you into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you will no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and given them into your hand: you didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient have you very heavily laid your yoke.
7 And you saidst, I will be a lady for ever: so that you didst not lay these things to your heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.
8 Therefore hear now this, you that are given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in your heart, I am, and none else besides me; I will not sit as a widow, neither will I know the loss of children:
9 But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they will come upon you in their perfection, for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the great abundance of your enchantments.
10 For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and none else besides me.
11 Therefore will evil come upon you; you are not to know from whence it riseth: and mischief will fall upon you; you are not to be able to put it off: and desolation will come upon you suddenly, which you are not to know.
12 Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; if you will be able to profit, if you may prevail.
13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from these things that will come upon you.
14 Behold, they will be as stubble; the fire will burn them; they will not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there will not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.
15 Thus will they be to you with whom you have labored, even your merchants, from your youth: they will wander everyone to his quarter; none will save you.
Isaiah 48
Israel’s Stubbornness
1 Hear you this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of Armies is his name.
3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth from my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;
5 I have even from the beginning declared it to you; before it came to pass I showed it you: lest you shouldst say, My idol has done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, has commanded them.
6 You have heard, see all this; and will not you declare it? I have showed you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you didst not know them.
7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when you heardst them not; lest you shouldst say, Behold, I knew them.
8 Yes, you heardst not; yes, you knewest not; yes, from that time that your ear was not opened: for I knew that you wouldst deal very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.
9 For my name’s sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I cut you not off.
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, even for my own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be profaned? and I will not give my glory to another.
Deliverance Promised to Israel
12 Hearken to me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
13 My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spanned the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.
14 All you, assemble yourselves and hear; who among them has declared these things? The LORD has loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm will be on the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken, yes, I have called him: I have brought him, and he will make his way prosperous.
16 Come you near to me, hear you this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, has sent me.
17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD your God, who teacheth you to profit, who leadeth you by the way that you shouldst go.
18 O that you hadst listened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your bowels like its gravel; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
20 Go you forth from Babylon, flee you from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare you, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say you, The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.
21 And they thirsted not, when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he cleaved the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
22 There is no peace, says the LORD, to the wicked.
The Servant and Light to the
Nations
(Acts
13:42–52)
1 Listen to me, O Isles; and listen, you people, from far; The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name.
2 And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shade of his hand has he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he hid me;
3 And said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
4 Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
5 And now, says the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet will I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God will be my strength.
6 And he said, It is a light thing that you shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.
7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings will see and arise, princes also will worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he will choose you.
8 Thus says the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you: and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages:
9 That you may say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They will feed in the ways, and their pastures will be in all high places.
10 They will not hunger nor thirst, neither will the heat nor sun smite them: for he that has mercy on them will lead them, even by the springs of water will he guide them.
11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways will be exalted.
12 Behold, these will come from far: and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
13 Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.
15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you.
16 Behold, I have graven you upon the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
17 Thy children will make haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste, will go forth from you.
18 Lift up your eyes around, and behold: all these assemble themselves, and come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you will surely clothe you with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride doeth.
19 For your waste and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction, will even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed you up will be far away.
20 The children which you will have, after you have lost the other, will say again in your ears, The place is too narrow for me: give place to me that I may dwell.
21 Then you will say in your heart, Who has fathered these for me, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where have they been?
22 Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Nations, and set up my standard to the people: and they will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried upon their shoulders.
23 And kings will be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they will bow to you with their face towards the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet; and you will know that I am the LORD: for they will not be ashamed that wait for me.
24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
25 But thus says the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the prey of the terrible will be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with you, and I will save your children.
26 And I will feed them that oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh will know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
Isaiah 50
Israel’s Sin
1 Thus says the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
2 Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish becometh putrid, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
The Servant’s Obedience
(Matthew
27:27–31;
Mark 15:16–20;
Luke 22:63–65;
John 19:1–15)
4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth my ear to hear as the learned.
5 The Lord GOD opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
7 For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore will I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.
8 He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together; who is my adversary? let him come near to me.
9 Behold the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that will condemn me? lo, they all will wax old as a garment; the moth will eat them up.
10 Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and has no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and rely upon his God.
11 Behold, all you that kindle a fire, that encompass yourselves with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that you have kindled. This will you have of my hand; you will lie down in sorrow.
Isaiah 51
Salvation for Zion
1 Hearken to me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the LORD: look to the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you are digged.
2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bore you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3 For the LORD will comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4 Hearken to me, my people; and give ear to me, O my nation: for a law will proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and my arms will judge the people; the isles will wait upon me, and on my arm will they trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will become old like a garment, and its inhabitants will die in like manner: but my salvation will be for ever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.
7 Hearken to me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear you not the reproach of men, neither be you afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth will eat them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool: but my righteousness will be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9 Awake, awake, put on your strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art you not that which has cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
10 Art you not that which has dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be upon their head: they will obtain gladness and joy; sorrow and mourning will flee away.
12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that will die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass;
13 And forgettest the LORD your maker, that has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. 15 But I am the LORD your God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of Armies is his name. 16 And I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shade of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, You are my people.
God’s Fury Removed
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which have drank at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; you have drank the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things have come to you; who will be sorry for you? desolation, and destruction, and famine, and the sword: by whom will I comfort you?
20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus says your Lord Jehovah, and your God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; you will no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you; who have said to your soul, Prostrate thyself, that we may go over: and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
Isaiah 52
Deliverance for Jerusalem
1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there will no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the LORD, You have sold yourselves for naught; and you will be redeemed without money. 4 For thus says the Lord GOD, My people went down formerly into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 5 Now therefore, what have I here, says the LORD, that my people is taken away for naught? they that rule over them make them to howl, says the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed. 6 Therefore my people will know my name: therefore they will know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that says to Zion, Thy God reigneth!
8 Thy watchmen will lift up the voice; with the voice together will they sing: for they will see eye to eye, when the LORD will bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations: and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For you will not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear-ward.
The Servant Exalted
(Philippians
2:5–11)
13 Behold, my servant will deal prudently, he will be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonished at you; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15 So will he sprinkle many nations; the kings will shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them will they see; and that which they had not heard will they consider.
The Suffering Servant
(Acts
8:26–40;
1 Peter 2:21–25)
1 Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he will grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we will see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who will declare his generation? for he was cut off from the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
A Grave Assigned
(Matthew
27:57–61;
Mark 15:42–47;
Luke 23:50–56;
John 19:38–42)
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death: because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you will make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 He will see of the travail of his soul, and will be satisfied: by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many; for he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide to him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul to death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:11 For eons of time GOD has wanted to "Justify the ungodly", but because of His Own Words, He was prevented from fully doing so--Until Jesus could come and remove the Curse of Law from having dominion over us. So before that time those on whom GOD wanted to have mercy were held in a place that in the Book of Enoch was called "Paradise" and that at the time of Jews came to be called "Abraham's Bosom". (---) So when the Father saw "the travail of his soul" the Father was "satisfied" because "by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many; for he will bear their iniquities. " The Father wasn't satisfied because of Jesus' pain and suffering, He was "satisfied [because] by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many." So the Father found "satisfation" in much the same way as Jesus found "Joy" on the Cross; as it is written, "Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, dispising the shame." That JOY came from the LIGHT OF REVELATION the Father reminded Him of on the Cross (verse 53:--), the KNOWLEDGE that His own death, would bring many sons and daughters to Glory! As it is written, "The Secret Plan
Future Blessings for Zion
1 Sing, O barren, you that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says the LORD.
2 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them extend the curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes;
3 For you will break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your seed will inherit the Nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not; for you are not to be ashamed: neither be you confounded; for you are not to be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and are not to remember the reproach of your widowhood any more.
5 For your maker is your husband; the LORD of Armies is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth will he be called.
6 For the LORD has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, says your God.
7 For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says the LORD your Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah to me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more overflow the earth; so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
10 For the mountains will depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness will not depart from you, neither will the covenant of my peace be removed, says the LORD that has mercy on you.
11 Oh you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones.
13 And all your children will be taught from the LORD; and great will be the peace of your children.
14 In righteousness you will be established: you will be far from oppression; for you are not to fear: and from terror; for it will not come near you.
15 Behold, they will surely assemble but not by me: whoever will assemble against you will fall for your sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that will rise against you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from me, says the LORD.
Isaiah 55
Invitation to the Needy
1 Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me: hear, and your soul will live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
5 Behold, you will call a nation that you knowest not, and nations that knew not you will run to you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
6 Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So will my word be that proceedeth from my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
12 For you will go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills will break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn will come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier will come up the myrtle-tree: and it will be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.
Isaiah 56
Salvation for Foreigners
1 Thus says the LORD, Keep you judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that has joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD has utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
4 For thus says the LORD to the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
5 Even to them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that will not be cut off.
6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, everyone that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted upon my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all people.
8 The Lord GOD who gathereth the outcasts of Israel, Yet will I gather others to him, besides those that are gathered to him.
Israel’s Sinful Leaders
9 All you beasts of the field, come to devour, yes, all you beasts in the forest.
10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yes, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, everyone for his gain, from his quarter.
12 Come you, say they, I will bring wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow will be as this day, and much more abundant.
Isaiah 57
The Blessed Death of the Righteous
1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
2 He will enter into peace: they will rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.
God Condemns Idolatry
3 But draw near hither, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the lewd.
4 Against whom do you sport yourselves? against whom make you a wide mouth, and thrust out the tongue? are you not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,
5 Inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the cliffs of the rocks?
6 Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they, they are your lot: even to them have you poured a drink-offering, you have offered a meat-offering. Should I receive comfort in these?
7 Upon a lofty and high mountain have you set your bed: even thither you wentest up to offer sacrifice.
8 Behind the doors also and the posts have you set up your remembrance: for you have uncovered thyself to another than me, and have gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them; you lovedst their bed where you sawest it.
9 And you wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase your perfumes, and didst send your messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even to hell.
10 You are wearied in the greatness of your way; yet saidst you not, There is no hope: you have found the life of your hand; therefore you were not grieved.
11 And of whom have you been afraid or feared, that you have lied, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and you fearest me not?
12 I will declare your righteousness, and your works; for they will not profit you.
13 When you criest, let your companies deliver you; but the wind will carry them all away; vanity will take them: but he that putteth his trust in me will possess the land, and will inherit my holy mountain;
Healing for the Repentant
14 And will say, Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.
15 For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always angry: for the spirit would fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
17 For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, and smote him: I hid me, and was angry, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.
18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.
19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, says the LORD; and I will heal him.
20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21 There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked.
Isaiah 58
True Fasts and Sabbaths
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
3 Why have we fasted, say they, and you seest not? why have we afflicted our soul, and you takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.
4 Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you shouldst bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you seest the naked, that you shouldst cover him; and that you shouldst not hide thyself from your own flesh?
8 Then will your light break forth as the morning, and your health will spring forth speedily: and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the LORD will be your rear-ward.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry, and he will say, Here I am. If you will take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if you will draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then will your light rise in obscurity, and your darkness be as the noon day:
11 And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drouth, and make fat your bones: and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that will be of you will build the old waste places: you will raise up the foundations of many generations; and you will be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 If you will turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
14 Then you will delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
Sin Separates Us from God
(Psalm
14:1–7;
Psalm 53:1–6;
Romans 3:9–20)
1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has uttered perverseness.
4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
6 Their webs will not become garments, neither will they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whoever goeth therein will not know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
11 We all roar like bears, and mourn bitterly like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yes, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breast-plate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
The Covenant of the Redeemer
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the isles he will repay recompense.
19 So will they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy will come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.
20 And the Redeemer will come to Zion, and to them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the LORD.
21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD; My spirit that is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, will not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed, says the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
Isaiah 60
Future Glory for Zion
1 Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.
2 For behold, the darkness will cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
3 And the Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
4 Lift up your eyes around, and see: all they assemble themselves, they come to you: your sons will come from far, and your daughters will be nursed at your side.
5 Then you will see, and flow together, and your heart will fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea will be converted to you, the forces of the Nations will come to you.
6 The multitude of camels will cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba will come: they will bring gold and incense; and they will show forth the praises of the LORD.
7 All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will minister to you: they will come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.
8 Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows?
9 Surely the isles will wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the LORD your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you.
10 And the sons of strangers will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you: for in my wrath I smote you, but in my favor have I had mercy on you.
11 Therefore your gates will be open continually; they will not be shut day nor night; that men may bring to you the forces of the Nations, and that their kings may be brought.
12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you will perish; yes, those nations will be utterly wasted.
13 The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
14 The sons also of them that afflicted you will come bending to you; and all they that despised you will bow themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they will call you, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
15 Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.
16 You shalt also suck the milk of the Nations, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and you will know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob.
17 For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make your officers peace, and your exactors righteousness.
18 Violence will no more be heard in your land, wasting nor destruction within your borders; but you will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
19 The sun will be no more your light by day; neither for brightness will the moon give light to you: but the LORD will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.
20 Thy sun will no more go down; neither will your moon withdraw itself: for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be ended.
21 Thy people also will be all righteous: they will inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
22 A little one will become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in its time.
The Year of the LORD’s Favor
(Luke
4:16–30)
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to publish good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
4 And they will build the old wastes, they will raise up the former desolations, and they will repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
5 And strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien will be your plowmen and your vine-dressers.
6 But you will be named the Priests of the LORD: men will call you the Ministers of our God: you will eat the riches of the Nations, and in their glory will you boast yourselves.
7 For your shame you will have double; and for confusion they will rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they will possess the double: everlasting joy will be to them.
8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt-offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 And their seed will be known among the Nations, and their offspring among the people: all that see them will acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul will be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Isaiah 62
Zion’s Salvation and New Name
1 For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until its righteousness will go forth as brightness, and its salvation as a lamp that burneth.
2 And the Nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory: and you will be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD will name.
3 You shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 You shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither will your land any more be termed Desolate: but you will be called Hephzi-bah, and your land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in you, and your land will be married.
5 For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so will your sons marry you: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
6 I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which will never hold their peace day nor night: you that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,
7 And give him no rest, until he will establish, and until he will make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8 The LORD has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your corn to be food for your enemies; and the sons of the stranger will not drink your wine, for which you have labored:
9 But they that have gathered it will eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have collected it will drink it in the courts of my holiness.
10 Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
11 Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the world, Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation cometh; Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
12 And they will call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and you will be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.
Isaiah 63
God’s Vengeance on the Nations
1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
2 Why are you red in your apparel, and your garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vat.
3 I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood will be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
4 For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
5 And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my fury, it upheld me.
6 And I will tread down the people in my anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.
God’s Mercies Recalled
7 I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.
8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Savior.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
12 That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?
13 That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?
14 As a beast goeth down in the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst you lead your people, to make thyself a glorious name.
A Prayer for Mercy
(Jeremiah
14:19–22)
15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where is your zeal and your strength, the sounding of your bowels and of your mercies towards me? are they restrained?
16 Doubtless you are our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: you, O LORD, are our father, our Redeemer; your name is from everlasting.
17 O LORD, why have you made us to err from your ways, and hardened our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
18 The people of your holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
19 We are thine: you never didst bear rule over them; they were not called by your name.
Isaiah 64
A Prayer for God’s Power
1 Oh that you wouldst rend the heavens, that you wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence,\
2 As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!
3 When you didst terrible things which we looked not for, you camest down, the mountains flowed down at your presence.
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, besides you, what he has prepared for him that waiteth for him.
5 You meetest him that rejoiceth, and worketh righteousness, those that remember you in your ways: behold, you are angry; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we will be saved.
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is none that calleth upon your name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of you: for you have hid your face from us, and have consumed us, because of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.
9 Be not very angry, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech you, we are all your people.
10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
12 Wilt you refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt you hold your peace, and grievously afflict us?
Judgments and Promises
(Romans
10:1–21)
1 I am sought by them that asked not for me; I am found by them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, to a nation that was not called by my name.
2 I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;
3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;
4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the LORD, who have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
8 Thus says the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all.
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and my elect will inherit it, and my servants will dwell there.
10 And Sharon will be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
11 But you are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink-offering to that number.
12 Therefore will I number you to the sword, and you will all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear; but did evil before my eyes, and did choose that in which I delighted not.
13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry: behold, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty: behold, my servants will rejoice, but you will be ashamed:
14 Behold, my servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry for sorrow of heart, and will howl for vexation of spirit.
15 And you will leave your name for a curse to my chosen: for the Lord GOD will slay you, and call his servants by another name:
16 That he who blesseth himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth will swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes.
A New Heaven and a New Earth
(Revelation
21:1–8)
17 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former will not be remembered, nor come into mind.
18 But be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping will be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
20 There will be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child will die a hundred years old: but the sinner being a hundred years old will be accursed.
21 And they will build houses, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22 They will not build, and another inhabit; they will not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and my elect will long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
24 And it will come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the bullock: and dust will be the serpents’ food. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD.
Heaven Is My Throne
1 Thus says the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that you build to me? and where is the place of my rest?
2 For all these things has my hand made, and all these things have been, says the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
3 He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear: but they did evil before my eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
5 Hear the Word of the LORD, you that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he will appear to your joy, and they will be ashamed.
6 A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompense to his enemies.
Rejoice with Jerusalem
7 Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a male child.
8 Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? will the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or will a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? says the LORD: will I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? says your God.
10 Rejoice you with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her:
11 That you may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may draw milk, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
12 For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Nations like a flowing stream: then will you suck, you will be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 And when you see this, your heart will rejoice, and your bones will flourish like an herb: and the hand of the LORD will be known towards his servants, and his indignation towards his enemies.
Final Judgments against the Wicked
15 For behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD will be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, will be consumed together, says the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it will come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they will come, and see my glory. 19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they will declare my glory among the Nations. 20 And they will bring all your brethren for an offering to the LORD out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD. 21 And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, says the LORD.
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will remain before me, says the LORD, so will your seed and your name remain.
23 And it will come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, will all flesh come to worship before me, says the LORD.
24 And
they will go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have
transgressed against me: for their worm will not die, neither will their
fire be quenched; and they will be an abhorring to all flesh.
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