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The Book of Isaiah
- Author: Isaiah
- Place Written: Jerusalem
- When Written: 730 B.C.E.
CHAPTER 1
1 The vision of Isaiah[1] the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
The Wickedness of Judah
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
for Jehovah has spoken:
“Sons I have brought up and raised,
but they have revolted against me.
3 An ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.”
4 Woe to the sinful nation,
a people weighed down with error,[2]
brood of wicked men,
sons who act corruptly!
They have abandoned Jehovah,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they have turned their backs on him.
5 Where will you be stricken again,
as you continue in your rebellion?
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 bruises and sores
and raw wounds;
they are not pressed out or bound up
or softened with oil.
7 Your land is desolate;
your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
foreigners devour your land;
it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
8 And the daughter of Zion is left
like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a hut in a cucumber field,
like a city besieged.
9 Unless Jehovah of armies[3]
had left us a few survivors,[4]
we would be like Sodom,
we would have become like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of Jehovah,
you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the law[5] of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11 “What are your many sacrifices to me?
says Jehovah;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed animals;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
12 “When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you,
this trampling of my courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure magical power[6] and solemn assembly.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
yes, even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full[7] of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct the oppressor;[8]
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead for the widow.
18 “Come now, let us set matters straight, says Jehovah:
“though your sins are like scarlet,
they will be made as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they will become like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the good things of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.
Truly, the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.”
Zion Restored as the faithful City
21 How the faithful city
has become a prostitute,
she who was full of justice!
Righteousness lodged in her,
but now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross,
your beer is mixed with water.
23 Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
They do not grant justice to the fatherless,
and the case of the widow does not come to them.
24 Therefore Jehovah declares,
Jehovah of armies,[9]
the Mighty One of Israel:
“Ah, I will rid myself of my adversaries
and avenge myself on my enemies.
25 I will turn my hand against you
and will smelt away your dross as with lye
and remove all your alloy.
26 And I will restore your judges as at the first,
and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness,
the faithful city.”
27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
28 But rebels and sinners shall be broken together,
and those who forsake Jehovah shall be consumed.
29 For they shall be ashamed[10] of the oaks
that you desired;
you shall be disgraced because of the gardens[11]
that you have chosen.
30 For you shall be like an oak
whose leaf withers away,
and like a garden that has no water.
31 And the strong shall become tinder,[12]
and his work a spark,
so they shall both burn together,
with none to quench them.
CHAPTER 2
The Mountain of Jehovah
2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 It will come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of Jehovah
will be established on the top of the mountains,
and will be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations will stream to it,
3 and many peoples will come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us concerning his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For the law[13] will go forth from Zion,
and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations,
and will correct matters for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
5 O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of Jehovah.
The Day of Jehovah
6 For you have forsaken your people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are full of things from the East
and of diviners like the Philistines,
and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
7 Their land is filled with silver and gold,
and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is filled with horses,
and there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land is filled with idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their own fingers have made.
9 So man bows down,
and each one is brought low,
do not forgive them!
10 Enter into the rock
and hide in the dust
from before the terror of Jehovah,
and from the splendor of his majesty.
11 The haughty eyes of man shall be brought low,
and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,
and Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day.
12 For Jehovah of armies[14] has a day
upon all that is proud and lofty,
upon all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low;
13 upon all the cedars of Lebanon,
lofty and lifted up;
and upon all the oaks of Bashan;
14 upon all the lofty mountains,
and upon all the hills that are lifted up;
15 upon every high tower,
and upon every fortified wall;
16 upon all the ships of Tarshish,
and upon all the beautiful craft.
17 And the haughtiness of man must bow down,
and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,
and Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day.
18 And the idols shall utterly pass away.
19 And men shall enter the caves of the rocks
and the holes of the ground,
from before the terror of Jehovah,
and from the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
20 In that day men will cast away
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
21 in order to enter into the caverns of the rocks
and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of Jehovah,
and from the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
22 Stop trusting in mere man
who is only the breath in his nostrils,
for why should he be taken into account?
CHAPTER 3
Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem
3 For look, the Lord, Jehovah of armies[15]
is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah
supply and support,
all supply of bread,
and all supply of water;
2 the mighty man and the warrior,
the judge and the prophet,
the diviner and the elder,
3 the commander of fifty
and the honorable man,
the counselor and the expert magician
and the skilled charmer.
4 And I will make boys their leaders,
and the unstable shall rule over them.
5 And the people shall be oppressed,
each one his fellow man
and every one his neighbor;
the boy will assault the old man,
and the despised[16] against the honorable.
6 For a man will take hold of his brother
in the house of his father, saying:
“You have a cloak;
you shall be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
shall be under your rule,”
7 in that day he will speak out, saying:
“I will not be a healer;
in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
you shall not make me
leader of the people.”
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,
and Judah has fallen,
because their speech and their deeds are against Jehovah,
to rebel against his glorious presence.
9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them;
they declare their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
For they have brought evil on themselves.
10 Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
for what his hands have done will be done to him!
12 As for my people, their taskmasters are abusive,
and women[17] rule over them.
O my people, your leaders are causing you to wander
and they confuse the direction of your paths.
13 Jehovah has taken his position to contend;
he stands to judge peoples.
14 Jehovah will enter into judgment
with the elders and leaders of his people:
“It is you who have devoured the vineyard,
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15 What do you men mean by crushing my people,
by grinding the face of the poor?”
declares the Lord, Jehovah of armies.[18]
16 Jehovah said:
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty
and walk with outstretched necks,
glancing seductively with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,
tinkling with their feet,
17 therefore Jehovah[19] will strike with a scab
the heads of the daughters of Zion,
and Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts.
18 In that day Jehovah will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; 19 the pendants, the bracelets, and the veils; 20 the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the houses of the soul,[20] and the amulets; 21 the signet rings and nose rings; 22 the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; 23 the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.
24 Instead of perfume there will be rottenness;
and instead of a belt, a rope;
and instead of well-set hair, baldness;
and instead of a rich garment, a garment of sackcloth;
and brand mark instead of beauty.[21]
25 Your men shall fall by the sword
and your mighty men[22] in battle.
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn;
empty, she shall sit on the ground.
CHAPTER 4
4 And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.”
The Branch of Jehovah Glorified
2 In that day the branch of Jehovah shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and beauty of the survivors of Israel. 3 Whoever remains in Zion and is left over in Jerusalem will be called holy, all of those in Jerusalem written down for life, 4 when Jehovah shall have washed away the filth[23] of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodshed of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. 5 Then Jehovah will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. 6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for refuge and protection from storms and the rain.
CHAPTER 5
The Vineyard of Jehovah Destroyed
5 Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it up and rid it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a winepress in it;
and he looked for it to produce grapes,
but it produced wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to produce grapes,
why did it produce wild grapes?
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be consumed;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and briers and thorns shall come up;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of armies[24]
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but look, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but look, a cry of distress!
Woes over Jehovah’s Vineyard
8 Woe to those who join house to house,
and join field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you are made to dwell alone
in the midst of the land.
9 Jehovah of armies[25] has sworn in my ear:
“Surely many houses shall be desolate,
great and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
10 For ten spans[26] of vineyard shall yield but one bath,[27]
and a homer[28] of seed shall yield but an ephah.”[29]
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
that they may chase after strong drink,
who linger late into the evening
as wine inflames them!
12 They have lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,
but they do not regard the deeds of Jehovah,
and they do not see the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people go into exile
for lack of knowledge;
their honorable men go hungry,[30]
and their multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat
and opened its mouth beyond measure,
and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down,
her revelers and he who rejoices in her.
15 Man is bowed down, and man is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
16 But Jehovah of armies[31] is exalted in justice,
and the holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,
and sojourners shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who draw error[32] with cords of falsehood,
who draw sin as with cart ropes,
19 who say: “Let him make haste,
let him quicken his work
that we may see it;
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
and let it come, that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good,
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness;
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and discerning in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23 who acquit the wicked for a bribe,
and who deny justice to the righteous!
24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will be as rottenness,
and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have rejected the law of Jehovah of armies,[33]
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
God’s Anger against His People
25 Therefore the anger of Jehovah was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,
and the mountains quaked;
and their corpses were as refuse
in the midst of the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
26 He will raise a signal pole[34] for distant nations,
and whistle for them from the ends of the earth;
and look, swiftly, speedily they come!
27 None among them are tired or stumbling,
none slumbers or sleeps,
not a belt around their waist is loose,
not a sandal strap broken;
28 their arrows are sharp,
all their bows bent,
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.
29 Their roaring is like a lion,
they roar like young lions;
they growl and seize their prey;
they carry it off, with no one to rescue it.
30 They will growl over it on that day,
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
look, darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds.
CHAPTER 6
Isaiah’s Vision of Jehovah
6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw Jehovah[35] sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of armies;[36]
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I have been brought to silence; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of armies!”[37]
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Look, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Isaiah’s Commission from Jehovah
8 And I heard the voice of Jehovah saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and tell this people:
“‘Keep on listening, but do not understand;
keep on looking but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull,[38]
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 At this I said: “How long, O Jehovah?”
And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is ruined and desolate,
12 and Jehovah removes men far away,
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 And though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a big tree and like an oak,
whose stump remains
when it is felled.”
The holy seed will be its stump.
CHAPTER 7
Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz
7 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to wage war against Jerusalem, but he[39] could not capture it. 2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
3 And Jehovah said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub[40] your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the laundryman’s field. 4 And say to him, ‘Take care, be calm, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted harm against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it[41] for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7 thus says the Sovereign Lord Jehovah:
“‘It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
And within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be shattered and cease to be a people.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you will not believe,
you will not be firmly established.’”
The Sign of Immanuel
10 Then Jehovah spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask a sign of Jehovah your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put Jehovah to the test.” 13 And he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore Jehovah[42] himself will give you a sign. Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.[43] 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be abandoned. 17 Jehovah will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the king of Assyria.”
18 In that day Jehovah will whistle for the fly that is at the distant streams of the Nile of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.
20 “In that day by means of a hired razor from the region of the River,[44] by means of the king of Assyria, Jehovah[45] will shave the head and the hair of the legs, and it will sweep away the beard as well.
21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.
23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become thorns and briers. 24 With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be thorns and briers. 25 And all the mountains that used to be cultivated with the plow, you will not go near for fear of thorns and briers; they will become a grazing place for bulls and a trampling ground for sheep.
CHAPTER 8
The Coming Assyrian Invasion
8 Then Jehovah said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it with the stylus of a man, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’[46] 2 And I will get faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”
3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then Jehovah said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”
5 Jehovah spoke to me again: 6 “Because this people have refused the waters of Shiloah[47] that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 Now, therefore, look, Jehovah[48] is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, 8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, it shall reach even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
9 Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered;
give ear, all you from distant lands;
gird yourselves[49] and be shattered;
gird yourselves and be shattered.
10 Take counsel together, but it will be thwarted;
speak a word, but it will not stand,
for God is with us.
Fear God, Wait for Jehovah
11 For Jehovah spoke to me with his strong hand on me and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people call conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But Jehovah of armies,[50] he is the One you should regard as holy. He is the One you should fear. He is the One you should dread. 14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants[51] of Jerusalem. 15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”
16 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. 17 I will wait for Jehovah, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. 18 Look, I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are signs and wonders in Israel from the Jehovah of armies,[52] who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. 21 And each one will pass through the land dejected and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and their God and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And into thick darkness they shall be driven away.
CHAPTER 9
For to Us a Child Is Born
9 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.[53]
2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in the land of deep shadow,[54]
on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy in the harvesttime,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government[55] will be upon his shoulder,
and his name will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of Jehovah of armies[56] will do this.
Jehovah’s Hand against Israel
8 Jehovah has sent a word against Jacob,
and it will come against Israel;
9 and all the people will know,
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:
10 “The bricks have fallen,
but we will build with hewn stone;
the sycamores have been cut down,
but we will put cedars in their place.”
11 But Jehovah raises the adversaries of Rezin against him,
and stirs up his enemies.
12 The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west
devour Israel with open mouth.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
13 The people did not turn to him who struck them,
nor inquire of the Jehovah of armies.[57]
14 So Jehovah cut off from Israel head and tail,
palm branch and reed in one day.
15 The elder and the honorable man,
and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;
16 for those who guide this people have been leading them astray,[58]
and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.
17 Therefore Jehovah does not rejoice over[59] their young men,
and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows;
for everyone is godless and an evildoer,
and every mouth speaks folly.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
18 For wickedness burns like a fire;
it consumes briers and thorns;
it kindles the thickets of the forest,
and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of Jehovah of armies[60]
the land is burned up,
and the people are like fuel for the fire;
no man spares his brother.
20 They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry,
and they eat on the left, but are not satisfied;
each eats the flesh of his own arm,
21 Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh;
together they are against Judah.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
CHAPTER 10
God’s Hand against Israel
10 Woe to those who enact harmful statutes,
and the writers who keep writing oppression,
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be their spoil,
and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning,[61]
when destruction comes from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
Punishment on Arrogant Assyria
5 Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger;
the staff in their hands is my fury!
6 Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 But he does not so intend,
and his heart does not so think;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
and to cut off nations not a few;
8 for he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?
9 Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,
whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”
12 It shall come to pass that when Jehovah[62] has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish[63] the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. 13 For he says:
“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I remove the boundaries of peoples,
and pillage their treasures;
I will subdue the inhabitants like a mighty man.
14 My hand has found like a nest
the wealth of the peoples;
and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,
so I have gathered all the earth;
and there was none that moved a wing
or opened the mouth or chirped.”
15 Shall the axe boast over him who chops with it,
or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,
or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
16 Therefore Lord, Jehovah of armies[64]
will send emaciation on his fat ones,[65]
and under his glory a burning will be kindled,
like the burning of fire.
17 The light of Israel will become a fire,
and his Holy One a flame,
and it will burn and devour
his thorns and briers in one day.
18 The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land
Jehovah will destroy, from soul to flesh,
and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few
that a child can write them down.
The Remnant of Jacob Will Return
20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob no longer support themselves on the one who struck them, but will lean on Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. 23 For the Lord, Jehovah of armies[66] will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.
24 Therefore thus says the Lord, Jehovah of armies:[67] “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you the way Egypt did. 25 For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. 26 And Jehovah of armies[68] will wield against him a whip, as when he defeated Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. 27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fatness.”[69]
28 He has come to Aiath;
he has passed through Migron;
at Michmash he deposits his baggage;
29 they have passed over the pass;
at Geba they lodge for the night;
Ramah trembles;
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim!
Pay attention, O Laishah!
O poor Anathoth![70]
31 Madmenah has fled;
the inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.
32 This very day he will halt at Nob;
he will shake his fist
at the mount of the daughter of Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Look, Jehovah of armies
will lop the boughs with terrifying power;
the tall in stature will be cut down,
and the lofty will be brought low.
34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe,
and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one.
CHAPTER 11
The Righteous Reign of the Branch
11 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of Jehovah will rest on him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel[71] and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah.
3 And he will delight in the fear of Jehovah,
And he will not judge by what his eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what his ears hear;
4 But with righteousness he will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the meek of the earth;
And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,[72]
And with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be the belt of his waist,
And faithfulness the belt of his loins.
6 The wolf will dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;[73]
and a little boy will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze;
their young will lie down together;
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child will play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child will put his hand on the adder’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah
as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal pole[74] for the peoples, to him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.[75]
11 In that day Jehovah[76] will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush,[77] from Elam, from Shinar,[78] from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 He will raise a signal pole[79] for the nations
and will assemble the dispersed ones of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west,
and together they shall plunder the sons of the east.
They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab,
and the sons of Ammon shall obey them.
15 And Jehovah will utterly destroy[80]
the tongue of the Sea of Egypt,
and will wave his hand over the River
with his scorching breath,
and strike it into seven channels,
and he will lead people across in sandals.
16 And there shall be a highway from Assyria
for the remnant of his people that remains,
as there was for Israel
when it went up from the land of Egypt.
CHAPTER 12
Jehovah Is My Strength and My Song
12 You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Jehovah,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.
2 “Look, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for Jah[81] Jehovah[82] is my strength and my[83] might,[84]
and he has become my salvation.”
3 With rejoicing you will draw water from the springs of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to Jehovah,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
declare that his name is exalted.
5 “Sing praises to Jehovah, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout for joy, O inhabitant[85] of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
CHAPTER 13
The Judgment of Babylon
13 The pronouncement[86] concerning Babylon[87] which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 On a bare mountain raise a signal pole;[88]
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand so that they may come into
the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones,
and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,
my proudly exulting ones.
4 The sound of a tumult is on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
Listen! The uproar of kingdoms,
Of nations gathering together!
Jehovah of armies[89] is mustering
the army for battle.
5 They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
Jehovah and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail, for the day of Jehovah is near;
It will come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every man’s heart will melt.
8 They will be dismayed:
convulsions and pain will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look at one another in horror;
their faces will be aflame.
9 Look, the day of Jehovah is coming,
cruel, with wrath and burning anger,
to make the land a desolation;
and he will destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not flash forth their light;
the sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shed its light.
11 And I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud,
and lay low the haughtiness of tyrants.
12 I will make mortal man scarcer than refined gold,
and mankind scarcer than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of Jehovah of armies[90]
in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And it shall be like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with none to gather them,
each will turn to his own people,
and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be pierced through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives will be raped.
17 Look, I am raising up against them the Medes,
who regard silver as nothing
and who take no delight in gold.
18 Their bows will dash young men to pieces;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
for sons their eye will not pity.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty and the pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20 It will never be inhabited
or dwelt in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there;
no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But desert creatures will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will dwell,
and there wild goats will dance.
22 Hyenas will cry in its towers,
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
her time is near
and her days will not be prolonged.
CHAPTER 14
The Restoration of Israel
14 For Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in Jehovah’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and they will have in subjection those who were their taskmasters.
Taunt against the King of Babylon
3 And it shall be in the day when Jehovah gives you rest from your pain and from your turmoil and from the hard slavery imposed on you, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
“How the oppressor has ceased,
how the oppression has ceased!
5 Jehovah has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
6 that struck the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with relentless persecution.
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 The juniper trees rejoice over you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low,
no woodcutter comes up against us.’
9 Even sheol underneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it awakens those powerless in death,[91]
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
10 All of them will answer
and say to you:
‘You also have become as weak like us.
You have become like us!’
11 Your pride has been brought down to Sheol,
the sound of your harps;
maggots are spread beneath you as a bed,
and worms are your covers.
12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O shining one, son of dawn!
How you have been cut down to the earth,
you who have conquered the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who did not let his prisoners go home?’
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own house.[92]
19 but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like an abhorrent branch,
clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit,
like a dead body trampled underfoot.
20 You will not be united with them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land,
you have slain your people.
“May the offspring of evildoers
never again be named.
21 Prepare slaughter for his sons
because of the guilt of their fathers,
lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with cities.”
22 “I will rise up against them,” declares Jehovah of armies,[93] “and will cut off from Babylon[94] name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” declares Jehovah. 23 “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares Jehovah of armies.[95]
Jehovah’s hand to crush the Assyrian
24 Jehovah of armies[96] has sworn:
“Just as I have intended,
so it will occur,
and as I have purposed,
so shall it stand,
25 that I will break the Assyrian in my land,
and on my mountains trample him underfoot;
and his yoke shall depart from them,
and his burden from their[97] shoulder.”
26 This is the counsel that is counseled
against the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out
against all the nations.
27 For Jehovah of armies[98] has purposed,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?
Pronouncement against Philistia
28 In the year that King Ahaz died this pronouncement was made:
29 Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,
that the rod that struck you is broken,
for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder,
and its fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.
30 And the firstborn of the lowly feed,
and the poor lie down in security;
but I will kill your root with famine,
and your remnant will be slain.
31 Wail, O gate; cry out, O city;
melt away, O Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes out of the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
“Jehovah has founded Zion,
and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”
CHAPTER 15
A Pronouncement against Moab
15 A pronouncement against Moab.
Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone;
because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone.
2 He has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon,
to the high places to weep;
Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba
every head is bald, every beard is cut off
3 in the streets they wear sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
everyone wails and goes down weeping.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the armed men[99] of Moab cry aloud;
his soul trembles.
5 My heart cries out for Moab;
her fugitives flee to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
they raise a cry of destruction.
6 the waters of Nimrim
are desolate;
the grass is withered, the tender grass died out,
the greenery is no more.
7 Therefore the abundance they have gained
and what they have laid up
they carry away
over the Valley of the Willows.
8 For a cry has gone
around the land of Moab;
her wailing reaches to Eglaim;
her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
9 For the waters of Dibon[100] are full of blood;
for I will bring yet more upon Dibon,
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
and upon the remnant of the land.
CHAPTER 16
The Pronouncement against Moab Continued
16 Send a ram to the ruler of the land,
from Sela through the wilderness,
to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 Like fleeing birds,
like a scattered nest,
so are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.
3 “Give counsel; carry out the decision;
make your shadow at high noon like the night
Conceal the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive;
4 let the outcasts of Moab dwell among you;
be a shelter to them from the destroyer.
When the oppressor will reach his end,
and destruction will come to an end,
and oppressors have been removed from the land,
5 then a throne will be established in loyal love,
and the one who sits on it in the tent of David
will be faithful
one who judges and seeks justice
and is swift to do righteousness.”
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab,
he is very proud;
of his haughtiness and his pride and his fury;
but his empty talk will come to nothing.
7 Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,
let everyone wail.
Those who are stricken will moan,
for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and the vine of Sibmah;
the lords of the nations
have struck down its branches,
which reached to Jazer
and wandered to the desert;
its shoots spread abroad
and passed over the sea.
9 Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer
for the vine of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh;
for the shouting over your summer fruit and your harvest
has fallen away.
10 And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field,
and there are no songs of joy,
or shouting in the vineyards;
no treader treads out wine in the presses;
I have caused the shouting to cease.
11 Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab,
and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.
12 So it will come about when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.
13 This is the word that Jehovah spoke concerning Moab in the past. 14 But now Jehovah has spoken, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and insignificant.”
CHAPTER 17
A Pronouncement against Damascus
17 A pronouncement against Damascus.
Look, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer are abandoned;
they will be for flocks,
which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.
3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus;
and the remnant of Syria will be
like the glory of the children of Israel,
declares Jehovah of armies.[101]
4 And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and the fat of his flesh will become lean.
5 And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain
and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleanings will be left in it,
like the shaking of an olive tree,
two or three berries
in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
on the branches of a fruit tree,
declares Jehovah the God of Israel.
7 In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. 8 He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not gaze at what his fingers have made, either the Asherah poles[102] or the altars of incense.
9 In that day their strong cities will be like the abandoned places of the wooded heights and the hilltops,[103] which they abandoned because of the sons of Israel, and there will be desolation.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
and set it with the shoot of a stranger.
11 On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
in the morning you make your seed sprout,
but the harvest will vanish
in a day of grief and incurable pain.
12 Ah, the uproar of many peoples;
who roar like the roaring of the seas!
Ah, the roar of nations;
they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
13 The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
and whirling dust before the storm.
14 At evening time, look, terror!
Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who pillage us,
and the lot of those who plunder us.
CHAPTER 18
A Pronouncement against Cush
18 Ah, land of whirring wings
that is beyond the rivers of Cush,[104]
2 which sends ambassadors by the sea,
in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
a strong, conquering nation,
whose land the rivers divide.
3 All you inhabitants of the world,
you who dwell on the earth,
when a signal pole[105] is raised on the mountains, look,
you will hear a sound like the blowing of a horn.
4 For thus Jehovah said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
like clear heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat[106] of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he cuts off the shoots with pruning shears,
and the spreading branches he lops off and removes.
6 They shall all be left
to the birds of prey of the mountains
and to the beasts of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.
7 At that time a gift will be brought to Jehovah of armies[107]
from a people tall and smooth,
from a people feared near and far,
a strong, conquering nation,
whose land the rivers divide,
to Mount Zion, the place of the name of Jehovah of armies.[108]
CHAPTER 19
A Pronouncement against Egypt
19 A pronouncement against Egypt.
Look, Jehovah is riding on a swift cloud
and comes to Egypt;
and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
2 And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
and they will fight, each against another
and each against his neighbor,
city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
3 and the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of it,
and I will confuse its own counsel;
and they will resort to the idols and the conjurers,
and the spirit mediums and the diviners;
4 and I will give over the Egyptians
into the hand of a cruel master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,
declares the Lord, Jehovah of armies.[109]
5 And the waters of the sea will be dried up,
and the river will be dry and parched,
6 and the rivers shall become foul,
and the Nile canals of Egypt will become low and dried up,
reeds and rushes will wither.
7 The bare places[110] by the Nile River,
at the mouth of the Nile River,
and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
will be driven away, and will be no more.
8 The fishermen will mourn,
all who cast a hook in the Nile will lament;
those who spread nets on the water
they will languish.
9 The workers in combed flax,
and the weavers of white cloth will be put to shame.
10 And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed,
and all the hired workers will be grieved in soul.
11 The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;
the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give senseless counsel.[111]
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise,
a son of ancient kings”?
12 Where then are your wise men?
Let them tell you if they know
what Jehovah of armies[112] has purposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,
and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of her tribes
have led Egypt astray.
14 Jehovah has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,
and they have led Egypt astray in whatever she does,
as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 And there will be nothing for Egypt
that head or the tail, the shoot or the rush, may do.
Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed
16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that Jehovah of armies[113] shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will feel dread because of the purpose that Jehovah of armies[114] has purposed against them.
18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to Jehovah of armies.[115] One of these will be called the City of Destruction.[116]
19 In that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Jehovah at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to Jehovah of armies[117] in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Jehovah because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And Jehovah will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know Jehovah in that day, and they will offer sacrifices and gifts and make a vow to Jehovah and perform it. 22 And Jehovah will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to Jehovah, and he will respond to their entreaties and heal them.
23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom Jehovah of armies[118] has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”
CHAPTER 20
A Sign Against Egypt and Cush
20 In the year that the commander came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and captured it. 2 At that time Jehovah spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your hips, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking about naked[119] and barefoot.
3 Then Jehovah said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,[120] 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.[121] 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Look, such is our hope, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and we, how shall we escape?’”
CHAPTER 21
Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon
21 A pronouncement against the wilderness of the sea.[122]
As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
it comes from the wilderness,
from a terrible land.
2 A harsh vision is told to me;
the treacherous one is acting treacherously,
and the destroyer is destroying.
Go up, O Elam;
lay siege, O Media;
I will put an end
to all the sighing she caused.
3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me,
like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down[123] so that I cannot hear;
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
4 My heart staggers; horror terrifies me.
The twilight I longed for makes me tremble.
5 They prepare the table,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink.
Arise, O princes;
anoint[124] the shield!
6 For thus Jehovah[125] said to me:
“Go, set a watchman;
let him report what he sees.
7 When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
he watched carefully,
with close attention.”
8 Then he called out like a lion:[126]
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Jehovah,[127]
continually by day,
and I am stationed at my guard post
every night.
9 Look at what is coming:
Men in a war chariot with a team of horses!”
And he answered,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
and all the carved images of her gods
he has shattered to the ground.”
10 O my people who have been threshed,
what I have heard from Jehovah of armies,[128]
the God of Israel, I make known to you.
11 A pronouncement against Dumah.[129]
One is calling to me from Seir,
“Watchman, what time of the night?
Watchman, what time of the night?”
12 The watchman says:
“Morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
come back again.”
13 A pronouncement against Arabia.
In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,
O caravans of Dedanites.
14 Bring water for the thirsty;
you inhabitants of the land of Tema,
and bring bread for the fugitive.
15 For they have fled from the swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow,
and from the press of battle.
16 For thus Jehovah[130] said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the bowmen of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for Jehovah, the God of Israel, has spoken.”
CHAPTER 22
A Pronouncement about Jerusalem
22 A pronouncement against the Valley of Vision.[131]
What is the matter with you that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,
2 you who are full of turmoil,
a tumultuous city, an exultant town?
Your slain are not slain with the sword
or dead in battle.
3 All your rulers have fled together;
they were captured without the bow.
All who were found were taken prisoner,
though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
let me weep bitterly;
do not labor to comfort me
concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 For the Lord, Jehovah of armies[132] has a day
of panic and trampling and confusion
in the Valley of Vision,[133]
a battering down of walls
and a crying to the mountain.
6 And Elam picked up the quiver
with chariots and horsemen,
and Kir uncovered the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen took their positions at the gate.
8 He has taken away the covering of Judah.
In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it or see the One who formed it long ago.
12 In that day the Lord, Jehovah of armies[134]
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
13 and look, joy and gladness,
killing of cattle and the slaughtering of sheep,
eating of meat and the drinking of wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
14 Jehovah of armies[135] has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”
says the Lord, Jehovah of armies.[136]
15 Thus says the Lord, Jehovah of armies,[137] “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What is your interest here, and who is there of interest to you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb in a high place and carve a dwelling[138] for yourself in the rock? 17 Look, Jehovah will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize you forcibly. 18 And he will wrap you up tightly and hurl you like a ball into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will be, a disgrace to your master’s house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down[139] from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall 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 on his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 I shall drive him in like a peg in a lasting place, and he shall become a throne of glory to the house of his father. 24 And they shall hang on him all the weight[140] of the house of his father, the descendants and the offshoots,[141] all the small vessels, from the bowls to all the jars. 25 In that day, declares Jehovah of armies, the peg[142] that is driven in a lasting place will give way, and it shall be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it shall be cut off, for Jehovah himself has spoken it.”
CHAPTER 23
A Pronouncement against Tyre and Sidon
23 A pronouncement against Tyre.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor!
From the land of Kittim
it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;
the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea have filled you.[143]
3 And on the great waters
is the seed of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile;
she was the merchant of the nations.
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
the stronghold of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth,
I have neither reared young men
nor brought up virgins.”
5 When the report comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
7 Is this your exultant city
whose origin is from long ago,
whose feet carried her
to distant lands to reside?
8 Who has purposed this
against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?
9 Jehovah of armies[144] has purposed it,
to profane her pride over all her beauty,
to humiliate all the honored of the earth.
10 Cross over your land like the Nile,
O daughter of Tarshish;
there is no longer a harbor.
11 He has stretched out his hand over the sea;
he has shaken the kingdoms;
Jehovah has given command concerning Canaan
to destroy its strongholds.
12 And he said:
“You shall exult no more,
O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon;
arise, cross over to Cyprus,
even there you will have no rest.”
13 Look the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not; Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her fortified towers, they made her a ruin.
14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your stronghold is laid waste.
15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:
16 “Take a harp;
go about the city,
O forgotten prostitute!
Make sweet melody;
sing many songs,
that you may be remembered.”
17 At the end of seventy years, Jehovah will visit Tyre, and she will return to her hire and prostitute herself with all the world’s kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to Jehovah. It shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them who dwell before Jehovah, to eat sufficiently, and for fine clothing.
CHAPTER 24
Judgment on the Earth
24 Look, Jehovah will empty the earth and make it desolate,
and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the slave, 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 creditor, so with the debtor.
3 The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered;
for Jehovah has spoken this word.
4 The earth mourns and withers;
the world languishes and withers;
the exalted people of the earth languish.
5 The earth lies defiled
under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed the laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
and few men are left.
7 The new wine mourns,
the vine languishes,
all the merry-hearted sigh.
8 The mirth of the tambourines have ceased,
the noise of the jubilant has ended,
the mirth of the lyre has ceased.
9 They do not drink wine with song;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The wasted city is broken down;
every house is shut up so that none can enter.
11 There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
all joy has become dark;
the gladness of the earth has gone.
12 Desolation is left in the city;
and the gates are battered into ruins.
13 For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
among the peoples,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.
14 They lift up their voices, they shout for joy;
from the sea[145] they will proclaim the majesty of Jehovah.
15 Therefore they will glorify Jehovah in the east;[146]
in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel.
16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs:
“Glory to the Righteous One!”
But I say, “I waste away,
I waste away. Woe is me!
The treacherous have acted treacherously,
with treachery the treacherous have acted treacherously.”
17 Terror and the pit and the snare
are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
18 He who flees from the sound of terror
shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For the floodgates above are opened,
and the foundations of the earth tremble.
19 The earth is utterly broken,
the earth is split apart,
the earth is violently shaken.
20 The earth staggers like a drunken man;
it sways like a hut;
its transgression is heavy upon it,
and it falls, never to rise again.
21 On that day Jehovah will punish
the army of heaven, in heaven,
and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22 They will be gathered together
as prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days they will be punished.
23 Then the moon will be confounded
and the sun ashamed,
for Jehovah of armies[147] reigns
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and his glory will be before his elders.
CHAPTER 25
Isaiah Praises and Exalts God
25 O Jehovah, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed long ago, faithful and sure.
2 For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners’ tower is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore a strong people will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
4 For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a refuge from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
5 like heat in a dry place.
You subdue the noise of the strangers;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is put down.
6 On this mountain Jehovah of armies[148] will make for all peoples
a banquet of fat things,[149] a banquet of aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
7 And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever;
and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for Jehovah has spoken.
9 And it will be said on that day,
“Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is Jehovah; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
10 For the hand of Jehovah will rest on this mountain,
and Moab shall be trampled down in his place,
as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.[150]
11 And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it
as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim,
but Jehovah will lay low his haughty pride together with the skill of his hands.
12 And the high fortifications of your walls he will bring down,
lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.
CHAPTER 26
Thank God for his Strength and Peace, and Righteous Judgment
26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
he sets up salvation
as walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates,
that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
3 You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in Jehovah forever,
for Jehovah God is an everlasting rock.
5 For he has humbled
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.”
7 The path of the righteous is uprightness;
O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Jehovah, we wait for you;
your name and memory
are the desire of our souls.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
and does not behold the majesty of Jehovah.
11 O Jehovah, your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
12 O Jehovah, you will ordain peace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
13 O Jehovah our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but we remember your name alone.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
powerless in death, they will not rise up;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 You have increased the nation, O Jehovah,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
you have extended all the borders of the land.
16 O Jehovah, in distress they sought you;
they poured out a whispered prayer
when your discipline was upon them.
17 As a pregnant woman
when she is near to giving birth,
she writhes and cries out in her labor pains,
so were we before you, O Jehovah;
18 we were pregnant, we writhed,
but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
19 Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath passes over.
21 For look, Jehovah is coming out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the bloodshed on it,
and will no longer cover its slain.
CHAPTER 27
God Allows Israel’s Suffering
27 In that day Jehovah with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan[151] the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day,
“A fruitful vineyard,[152] sing of it!
3 I, Jehovah, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
4 I have no wrath.
Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would march against them,
I would burn them up together.
5 Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”
6 In days to come Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and sprout
and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them?
Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
8 Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them;
he removed them with his fierce wind in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles[153] or incense altars will remain standing.
10 For the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes;
there it lies down and strips its branches.
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
For this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
he who formed them will show them no favor.
12 In that day Jehovah will beat out the fruit from the flowing stream of the River[154] to the Brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one after the other, O sons of Israel. 13 And in that day a great horn will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and bow down to Jehovah on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
CHAPTER 28
Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem
28 Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the fertile valley[155] of those overcome with wine!
2 Look, Jehovah[156] has one who is mighty and strong;
like a thundering hailstorm, a destructive windstorm,
like a thunderstorm of powerful floodwaters,
he casts down to the earth with his hand.
3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
will be trodden underfoot;
4 and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the fertile valley,[157]
will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer:
when someone sees it, he swallows it
as soon as it is in his hand.
5 In that day Jehovah of armies[158] will be a crown of glory,
and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,
6 and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 These also reel with wine
and stagger with strong drink;
the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
they are swallowed by wine,
they stagger with strong drink,
they reel in vision,
they stumble in giving judgment.
8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit,
with no space left.
9 “To whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
those taken from the breast?
10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.”
11 For by men of strange lips[159]
and with a foreign tongue
Jehovah will speak to this people,
12 to whom he has said,
“This is rest;
give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”;
yet they would not hear.
13 And the word of Jehovah will be to them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little,
that they may go, and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken.
A covenant with Death
14 Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, you boasters,[160]
who rule this people in Jerusalem!
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol we have an agreement,
when the raging flash flood passes through
it will not come to us,
for we have made lies our refuge,
and we have hidden ourselves in falsehood;”
16 therefore thus says the Sovereign Lord Jehovah,
“Look, I am laying as a foundation in Zion,
a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
‘The one who believes will not be in haste.’
17 And I will make justice the line,
and righteousness the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and the waters will flood out the hiding place.”
18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be downtrodden by it.
19 As often as it passes through it will take you;
for morning by morning it will pass through,
by day and by night;
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
20 For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
and the woven sheet is too narrow to wrap up in.
21 For Jehovah will rise up as on Mount Perazim;
he will rouse himself as in the valley near Gibeon;
to do his work, his strange work!
and to do his work, his unusual work!
22 Now therefore do not scoff,
lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard a decree of destruction
from the Lord, Jehovah of armies[161] against the whole land.
23 Give ear, and hear my voice;
pay attention, and hear my words.
24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground?
25 When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill and sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its place,
and spelt around the edges?
26 For he teaches him the right way;
his God instructs him.
27 For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a wagon wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a rod,
and cumin with a staff.
28 Does one crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it forever;
when he drives his wagon wheel over it
with his horses, he does not crush it.
29 This also comes from Jehovah of armies;[162]
he is wonderful in counsel
and whose practical wisdom is great.
CHAPTER 29
The Siege of Jerusalem
29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David encamped!
Add year to year;
let the feasts run their round.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel,
and there shall be mourning and lamentation,
and she shall be to me like an Ariel.
3 And I will encamp on all sides[163] against you,
and will besiege you with towers
and raise up siegeworks against you.
4 You will be brought low; you shall speak from the ground,
and your words shall be low as the dust;
your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a spirit,
and your words shall whisper from the dust.
5 But the multitude of your enemies shall be like small dust,
and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
And in an instant, suddenly,
6 you will be visited by Jehovah of armies[164]
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,
shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 As when a hungry man dreams, and look, he is eating
and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,
or as when a thirsty man dreams, and look, he is drinking
and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
that fight against Mount Zion.
9 Linger, you men, and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blinded!
Be drunk, but not with wine;
stagger, but not with strong drink![165]
10 For Jehovah has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes the prophets,
and covered your heads the seers.
11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a sealed book. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to someone who cannot read, saying, “Read this, please,” he says, “I cannot read.”
13 And Jehovah[166] said,
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far removed from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught,[167]
14 therefore, look, I will again
do wonderful things with this people,
with wonder upon wonder;
and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
15 Ah, you who hide deep from Jehovah your counsel,
whose deeds are in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
17 Is it not yet a very little while
until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
18 In that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see.
19 The meek shall increase their joy in Jehovah,
and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the ruthless one shall be brought to nothing
and the scoffer cease,
and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
21 who by a word make a man an offender,
and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
and with empty arguments turn aside justice to the righteous one.
22 Therefore thus says Jehovah, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,
no more shall his face grow pale.
23 For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will sanctify my name;
they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 And those who err in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
CHAPTER 30
God Will Provide Victory and Protection, Healing and Joy
30 “Woe to the stubborn sons,” declares Jehovah,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
2 who set out to go down to Egypt,
without inquiring of my mouth,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to take refuge in the stronghold of Pharaoh!
3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
4 For their officials are at Zoan
and his envoys have reached Hanes.
5 They shall all be ashamed
because of a people that cannot profit them,
who offer no help and no profit,
only shame and disgrace.”
6 A pronouncement against the beasts of the Negev.[168]
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
of the lioness and the lion,
of the viper and the flying fiery serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
7 For Egypt’s help is completely useless;
therefore I have called her
“Rahab who sits still.”
A Rebellious People
8 Now, go, write it before them on a tablet
and inscribe it in a scroll,
that it may be for the time to come
as a witness forever.
9 For they are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of Jehovah;
10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
11 get you out of the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
and trust in oppression and perverseness
and rely on them,
13 therefore this error shall be to you
like a breach about to fall, a bulge in a high wall,
whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.
14 It will be broken like a large potter’s jar
that is smashed so ruthlessly
that no fragment among its pieces will be left
with which to take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
15 For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, says,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were not willing, 16 and you said,
“No! We will flee on horses!”
Therefore, you shall flee!
“And on swift horses we will ride!”
Therefore, your pursuers shall be swift.
17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal pole[169] on a hill.
Jehovah Shows His People Favor
18 Therefore Jehovah waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For Jehovah is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though Jehovah[170] give you the bread of distress and the water of oppression, yet your Teacher[171] will no longer hide himself, but your eyes shall behold your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”
23 And he will give rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be fat[172] and well-oiled. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork. 25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be streams running with water, 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 sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when Jehovah binds up the breakdown[173] of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
27 Look, the name of Jehovah is coming from far away,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;
his lips are full of fury,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to put on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, like one who walks to the sound of a flute to go to the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And Jehovah will make his majestic voice to be heard and will make the descending of his arm to be seen, in the raging of anger and the flame of a devouring fire, with a cloudburst and rainstorm and hailstones. 31 For because of the voice of Jehovah, Assyria will be struck with terror; he will strike with a rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that Jehovah lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For his Topheth[174] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, he has made it deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of Jehovah, like a torrent of sulfur, kindles it.
CHAPTER 31
Real Help is from God, not from Egypt
31 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult Jehovah!
2 And yet he is wise and brings disaster;
he does not call back his words,
but will arise against the house of the evildoers
and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
3 The Egyptians are man, and not God,
and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When Jehovah stretches out his hand,
he who offers help will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
and they will all of them come to an end.
4 For thus Jehovah said to me,
“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,
when a band of shepherds is called out against it,
and it is not terrified by their voice
or daunted at their noise,
so Jehovah of armies[175] will come down
to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
5 Like birds hovering, so Jehovah of armies[176]
will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
he will pass over and rescue it.”
6 Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O sons of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
8 “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;
and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;
and he shall flee from the sword,
and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
9 His rock shall pass away in terror,
and his officers desert the signal pole[177] in panic,”
declares Jehovah, whose fire is in Zion,
and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
CHAPTER 32
A King Will Reign in Righteousness
32 Look, a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes will rule in justice.
2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,
a shelter from the storm,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be pasted shut,[178]
and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
4 The heart of the hasty will understand and know,
and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.
5 The fool will no more be called noble,
nor the scoundrel said to be noble.
6 For the fool speaks nonsense,
and his heart will devise wicked things,
to practice ungodliness,
to utter error concerning Jehovah,
to cause the soul of the hungry one to go unsatisfied,
and to deprive the thirsty one of something to drink.
7 The devices of the scoundrel are evil;
he devises wicked schemes
to ruin the poor with lying words,
even when the plea of the needy is right.
8 But the noble devises noble things,
and on noble things he stands.
Complacent Women Warned of Disaster
9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
10 In little more than a year
you complacent women will shudder;
for the grape gathering fails,
the fruit gathering will not come.
11 Tremble, you women who are at ease,
shudder, you complacent ones;
strip, and make yourselves bare,
and tie sackcloth around your waist.
12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vine,
13 for the ground of my people
will be covered with thorns and briars,
yes, for all the joyous houses
in the city of exultation.
14 For the palace is forsaken,
the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower
will become dens forever,
a joy of wild donkeys,
a pasture of flocks;
15 until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is regarded a forest.
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
17 And the result of righteousness will be peace,
and the fruitage of righteousness, quietness and security forever.
18 My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation,
in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
19 And it will hail when the forest goes down,
and the city will be utterly laid low.
20 Happy are you who sow beside all waters,
who let loose the feet of the ox and the donkey.
CHAPTER 33
Warnings for the Warriors of Assyria
33 Woe to you, you destroyer who has not been destroyed;
you betrayer who has not been betrayed!
When you finish destroying, you will be destroyed.
When you finish betraying, you will be betrayed.
2 O Jehovah, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
3 At the sound of turmoil peoples flee;
when you rise up, nations are scattered,
4 and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
men will rush on it like swarms of locusts.
5 Jehovah is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
6 and he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of Jehovah is his treasure.
7 Look, their brave men cry in the streets;
the messengers of peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways lie waste;
the traveler ceases.
He[179] has broken the covenant;
he rejects the cities;[180]
there is no regard for man.
9 The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert,
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10 “Now I will arise,” says Jehovah,
“now I will lift myself up;
now I will be exalted.
11 You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;
your breath is a fire that will consume you.
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”
13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?
Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
16 he will dwell on the heights;
his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.
17 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;
they will see a land far away.
18 Your heart will muse on the terror:
“Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute?
Where is he who counted the towers?”
19 You will no more see the insolent people,
a people whose language is too obscure to comprehend,
stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.
20 Look Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
an undisturbed habitation, a tent that is not moved,
whose stakes will never be plucked up,
nor will any of its cords be broken.
21 But there the Majestic One, Jehovah will be for us
a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
nor majestic ship can pass.
22 For Jehovah is our judge; Jehovah is our lawgiver;
Jehovah is our king; he will save us.
23 Your ropes will hang loose;
they cannot hold the base of its mast firmly
or spread out the sail.
Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
even the lame will take much plunder.
24 And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick.”
the people who dwell there will be forgiven their error.
CHAPTER 34
God’s Vengeance on the Nations
34 Draw near, O nations, to hear,
and pay attention, O peoples!
Let the earth listen, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2 For Jehovah’s indignation is against all the nations,
and his wrath against all their armies;
he has utterly destroyed them, has given them over for slaughter.
3 So their slain will be thrown out,
and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
And the mountains will be drenched with their blood
4 [181]All the army of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their armies will also wither away,
as a leaf withers from the vine,
Or as one withers from the fig tree.
5 For my sword is satiated[182] in heaven;
look, it descends for judgment upon Edom,
upon the people I have devoted to destruction.
6 The sword of Jehovah is filled with blood;
It is sated with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For Jehovah has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen shall fall with them,
and young bulls with the mighty bulls.
Thus their land will be soaked with blood,
and their dust become greasy with fat.
8 For Jehovah has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 And her[183] streams shall be changed to pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day it will not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it will lie waste;
none will pass through it forever and ever.
11 But the pelican and the porcupine[184] will possess it,
the owl and the raven will dwell in it.
He will stretch the line of confusion over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles, there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
and all its princes will be nothing.
13 Thorns shall grow in her fortified towers,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
an abode for ostriches.
14 And Desert creatures will meet with howling animals;
the wild goat will call to its companion;
indeed, there the nightjar will settle
and will find for herself a resting place.
15 There the arrow snake will make its nest and lay eggs
and hatch them and gather them in its shadow;
indeed, there the hawks are gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Search and read the book of Jehovah:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be lacking its mate.
For the mouth of Jehovah[185] has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them;
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever;
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
CHAPTER 35
The Ransomed Shall Return
35 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
2 it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of Jehovah,
the majesty of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Look, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
8 And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall be reserved for the one walking on the way;
no one foolish will stray onto it.[186]
9 No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
10 And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
CHAPTER 36
Sennacherib Invades Judah
36 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller’s field. 3 And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
4 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you have trusted? 5 I[187] say, ‘Your counsel and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Look, you trust in the support of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me, “We trust in Jehovah our God,” is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall bow down before this altar”? 8 Now therefore, come make a wager with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you drive back even one official of the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 And have I now come up without the Jehovah’s approval against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”
11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of the Jews in the hearing of the people on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the language of the Jews and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in Jehovah by saying, “Jehovah will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “Jehovah will deliver us.” Has 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? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
21 But they were silent and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
CHAPTER 37
Hezekiah Seeks God’s Help Through Isaiah
37 And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that Jehovah your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that Jehovah your God has heard; therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Jehovah, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Look, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”
8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. 9 When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Cush,[188] “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. And shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”
Hezekiah’s Prayer for Deliverance
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah and spread it before Jehovah. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah, saying, 16 “O Jehovah of armies,[189] God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline your ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open your eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to mock the living God. 18 Truly, O Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 20 Now, O Jehovah our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are Jehovah.”[190]
Isaiah Delivers God’s Answer
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Jehovah, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that Jehovah has spoken concerning him:
“‘The virgin daughter of Zion despises you, she scoffs at you;
the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you.
23 “‘Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your arrogant eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your servants you have taunted Jehovah,
and you have said, With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the remotest parts of Lebanon,
to cut down its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
its most fruitful forest.
25 I dug[191] wells
and drank waters,
I dried up the streams of Egypt
with the soles of my feet.
26 “‘Have you not heard
from long ago it was determined?
From days gone by
I have brought it to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
into ruinous heaps,
27 while their inhabitants, short of strength,
are terrified and put to shame,
and have become like vegetation of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
scorched by the east wind.[192]
28 “‘I know[193] your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
29 Because you have raged against me
and your roaring[194] have reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.’
30 “And this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will do this.
33 “Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come into this city, declares Jehovah. 35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
An angel Slaughters 185,000 Assyrians
36 Then the angel of Jehovah went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, look, all of these were dead. 37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38 It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat.[195] And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.
CHAPTER 38
Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery
38 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says Jehovah, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Jehovah, 3 and said, “Remember now, O Jehovah, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Jehovah, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; look, I will add fifteen years to your days. 6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria and will defend this city.
7 “And this shall be the sign to you from Jehovah, that Jehovah will do this thing that he has spoken: 8 Look, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.
9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
10 I said, In the middle of my days
I must depart;
I shall go to the gates of Sheol[196]
for the rest of my years.
11 I said, I shall not see Jah,[197]
Jah in the land of the living;
I shall look on man no more
among the inhabitants of the world.[198]
12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
like the tent of a shepherd;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;
13 I calmed myself[199] until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones;
from day to night you bring me to an end.
14 Like a swallow or a crane I chirp;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes look wearily to the height.
O Jehovah,[200] I am oppressed; be my support!
15 What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,
and he himself has done it.
I walk slowly all my years
because of the bitterness of my soul.[201]
16 O Jehovah,[202] by these things men live,
and in all these is the life of my spirit.
Oh restore me to health and make me live!
17 Look, it was for my welfare
that I had great bitterness;
but in love you have delivered my soul
from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
behind your back.
18 For Sheol does not glorify you;
death does not praise you;
those who go down to the pit do not hope
for your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living, can praise you,
as I do this day;
the father makes known to the sons
your faithfulness.
20 Jehovah will save me,
and we will play my music on stringed instruments
all the days of our lives,
at the house of Jehovah.
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” 22 Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Jehovah?”
CHAPTER 39
Messengers from Babylon
39 At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon,[203] sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 Hezekiah was pleased, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. 3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” 4 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Jehovah of armies:[204] 6 Look, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says Jehovah. 7 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Good is the word of Jehovah that you have spoken.” Moreover, he said, “for there shall be peace and truth in my days.”
CHAPTER 40
Comfort for God’s People
40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from Jehovah’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling out,
In the wilderness, “prepare the way of Jehovah;
make straight in the desert[205] a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.”
The Word of God Stands Forever
6 A voice says, “Call out!”
And I said,[206] “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its loyal love[207] is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of Jehovah blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
The Greatness of God
9 Go up onto a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with power,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Look your God!”
10 Look, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
look, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are nursing their young.
12 Who has measured the waters[208] in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,[209]
gathered 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 Jehovah,[210]
or as his counselor has informed him?
14 With whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
15 Look, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are counted like dust of the scales;
Look, he lifts up the islands[211] like fine dust.
16 Even Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,[212]
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and nothingness.[213]
18 To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
19 The craftsman casts an idol,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20 He who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood that will not rot;
he searches for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not topple over.
21 Do you not know? 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 who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.
23 He who reduces high officials to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothingness.[214]
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their army by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from Jehovah,
and the justice due me is passed over by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Jehovah is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the tired one,
and full might to those lacking strength.
30 Youths will tire out and grow weary,
And young men will stumble and fall;
31 But those hoping in Jehovah will regain power;
they will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not tire out.
CHAPTER 41
The Conquests of Cyrus
41 Keep silence before me, O islands;
let the peoples renew their strength;
let them approach, then let them speak;
let us come together for judgment.
2 Who has raised up someone from the sunrise[215]
whom he calls in righteousness to his feet?
He gives up nations before him,
so that he tramples kings underfoot;
he reduces them to dust before his sword,
like driven stubble with his bow.
3 He pursues them and passes on safely,
by paths that his feet have not traveled.
4 Who has performed and done this,
calling the generations from the beginning?
I, Jehovah, the first,
and with the last; I am he.
5 The islands have seen and are afraid;
the ends of the earth tremble;
they have drawn near and come.
6 Each one helps his neighbor
and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
7 The craftsman encourages the goldsmith,
and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
and he fastens it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
8 But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its remotest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not anxious, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
11 Look, all who are incensed against you
shall be put to shame and confounded;
those who strive against you
shall be as nothing and shall perish.
12 You shall search for men who contend with you,
but you shall not find them;
those who war against you
shall be as nothing at all.
13 For I, Jehovah your God,
hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
I will help you.”
14 Fear not, you worm Jacob,
you men of[216] Israel!
I will help you, declares Jehovah;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15 Look, I have made you a threshing sledge,
new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you shall make the hills like chaff;
16 you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away,
and the windstorm shall scatter them.
And you shall rejoice in Jehovah;
you shall boast in the Holy One of Israel.
17 When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I Jehovah will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the bare hills,
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 put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive tree.
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
20 that they may see and know,
may consider and understand together,
that the hand of Jehovah has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The Futility of Idols
21 Present your legal case, says Jehovah;
bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them, and tell us
what is to happen.
Tell us the former things, what they are,
that we may apply our heart,[217]
that we may know their outcome;
or declare to us the things to come.
23 Tell us what is to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do harm,
that we may be dismayed and terrified.
24 Look, you are nothing,
and your work is less than nothing;
an abomination is he who chooses you.
25 I raised up one from the north, and he has come,
from the rising of the sun,[218] and he shall call upon my name;[219]
he shall trample on rulers as on mortar,
as the potter treads clay.
26 Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know,
and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”?
There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed,
none who heard your words.
27 I was the first to say to Zion, “Look, here they are!”
And to Jerusalem I will send a bearer of good news.
28 But when I look, there is no one;
among these there is no counselor
who, when I ask, can give an answer.
29 Look, they are all a delusion;[220]
their works are nothing;
their metal images are wind and nothingness.
CHAPTER 42
Jehovah’s Chosen Servant
42 Look my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry out or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow dim or be crushed
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the islands wait for his law.[221]
5 Thus says the God, Jehovah,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and its produce,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 “I am Jehovah; I have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,
7 to open the blind eyes,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.
8 I am Jehovah; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to graven images.
9 Look, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”
Sing to Jehovah a New Song
10 Sing to Jehovah a new song,
his praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,
the islands and their inhabitants.
11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
the villages that Kedar inhabits;
let the habitants of Sela sing for joy,
let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to Jehovah,
and declare his praise in the islands.
13 Jehovah goes out like a mighty man,
he will awaken his zeal like a warrior;
he cries out, he shouts aloud,
he shows himself mighty against his enemies.
14 I have kept quiet for a long time;
I have remained silent and restrained myself;
now I will cry out like a woman giving birth;
I will gasp and pant.
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills,
and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn the rivers into islands,
and dry up the pools.
16 And I will lead the blind
in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
and turn the rugged terrain into level land.
These are the things I do,
and I do not forsake them.
17 They are turned back and utterly put to shame,
who trust in carved images
who say to metal images,
“You are our gods.”
Israel Is Blind and Deaf
18 Hear, you deaf,
and look, you blind, that you may see!
19 Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as he that is at peace with me,
or blind as the servant of Jehovah?
20 He sees many things, but does not observe them;
his ears are open, but he does not hear.
21 Jehovah was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake,
to magnify his law and make it glorious.
22 But this is a people plundered and looted;
they are all of them trapped in holes
and hidden in prisons;
they have become plunder with no one to rescue them,
spoil with none to say, “Restore!”
23 Who among you will give ear to this,
will attend and listen for the time to come?
24 Who gave Jacob up for spoils,
and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not Jehovah, against whom we have sinned,
in whose ways they would not walk,
and whose law they would not obey?
25 So he poured on him the heat of his anger
and the might of battle;
it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand;
it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.
CHAPTER 43
Israel’s Only Savior
43 But now thus says Jehovah,
your Creator, O Jacob,
and he who formed you, O Israel:
“do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned,
nor will the flame burn you.
3 For I am Jehovah your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Cush[222] and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Since you are precious in my eyes,
and honored, and I love you,
I give men in place of you,
nations in exchange for your soul.
5 Fear not, for I am with you;
from the sunrise[223] I shall bring your offspring,
and from the sunset[224] I shall gather you.
6 I will say to the north, Give them up,
and to the south, Do not hold them back;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes,
who are deaf, yet have ears!
9 All the nations gather together,[225]
and the peoples assemble.
Who among them can declare this,
and show us the former things?
Let them bring their witnesses that they may be justified,
and let them hear and say, It is true.
10 “You are my witnesses,” declares Jehovah,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me there was no god formed,
and there will be none after me.
11 I, I am Jehovah,
and besides me there is no savior.
12 I am the One who declared and saved and proclaimed,
when there was no strange god among you;
and you are my witnesses,” declares Jehovah, “and I am God.
13 Also, from this day[226] I am the One;
there is none who can deliver from my hand;
I work, and who can turn it[227] back?”
14 Thus says Jehovah,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“For your sake I send to Babylon
and bring them all down as fugitives,
even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
15 I am Jehovah, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King.”
16 Thus says Jehovah,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings forth chariot and horse,
army and mighty warriors;
they lie down together, they shall not rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18 “Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
19 Look, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers[228] in the desert.
20 The wild beasts will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches,
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my people, my chosen one,
21 the people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.
22 “Yet you have not called on me, O Jacob;
but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
23 You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings,
or honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
or wearied you with frankincense.
24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money,
nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins;
you have wearied me with your errors.
25 “I, I am he
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.
26 Remind me; let us argue our case against each other;
set forth your case, that you may be proved right.
27 Your first forefather sinned,
and your mediators transgressed against me.
28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary,
and I will give Jacob over to destruction
and Israel to reviling.
CHAPTER 44
Israel Jehovah’s Chosen
44 “But now hear, O Jacob my servant,
Israel whom I have chosen!
2 Thus says Jehovah who made you,
who formed you from the womb and will help you:
Fear not, O Jacob my servant,
Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
4 They shall spring up among the grass
like willows by the streams of water.
5 This one will say, ‘I am Jehovah’s,’
another will call on the name of Jacob,
and another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to Jehovah,’
and name himself by the name of Israel.”
Besides Me There Is No God
6 Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, Jehovah of armies:[229]
“I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god.
7 Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.[230]
Let him declare and set it before me,
since I established an ancient people.
And the things that are coming, and that shall come to pass, let them declare.
8 Fear not, nor be afraid;
have I not told you from of old and declared it?
And you are my witnesses!
Is there a God besides me?
There is no Rock; I know not any.”
The Folly of Idolatry
9 All who fashion carved images are nothing, and the things that they delight in shall not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. 10 Who would form a god or cast a metal image that is profitable for nothing? 11 Look, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are mere men. Let them all assemble, let them stand up. They shall fear, they shall be put to shame together.
12 The metalsmith works the iron over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. 14 There is one whose work is to cut down cedars. He selects a certain type of tree, an oak, and he lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel tree, and the rain makes it grow. 15 Then it becomes fuel for a man to make fires. He takes part of it to warm himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also, he makes a god and worships it. He makes it into a carved image, and he bows down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his carved image, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
18 They know not, nor do they understand, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they have no insight. 19 No one reflects in his heart, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
Jehovah Redeems Israel
21 Remember these things, O Jacob,
and Israel, for you are my servant;
I formed you; you are my servant;
O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud
and your sins like mist;
return to me, for I have redeemed you.
23 Sing, O heavens, for Jehovah has done it;
shout, O depths of the earth;
break forth into singing, O mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
For Jehovah has redeemed Jacob,
and will be glorified in Israel.
24 Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer,
who formed you from the womb:
“I am Jehovah, who made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth. Who was with me?
25 who frustrates the signs of liars
and makes fools of diviners,
who turns wise men back
and makes their knowledge foolish,
26 who confirms the word of his servant
and fulfills the counsel of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’
and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built,
and I will raise up their ruins’;
27 who says to the deep, ‘Be dry;
I will dry up your rivers’;
28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;
saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’
and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”
CHAPTER 45
Cyrus, God’s Anointed
45 Thus says Jehovah to his anointed one,[231] to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
and to ungird the loins of kings,
to open doors before him
that gates may not be closed:
2 “I will go before you
and I will level the mountains,[232]
I will break in pieces the doors of copper
and cut through the bars of iron,
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, Jehovah,
the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I name you, though you do not know me.
5 I am Jehovah, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I will gird you, though you have not known,
6 that men may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am Jehovah, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I, Jehovah, am doing all these things.[233]
8 “Shower, O heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit;
and righteousness spring up with it;
I Jehovah have created it.
9 “Woe to the one who contends with his Maker,
an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth!
Shall the clay say to its former, ‘What do you make?’
or ‘Your work has no handles’?
10 Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor pains?’”
11 Thus says Jehovah,
the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
“Ask me of things to come;
will you command me concerning my sons and the work of my hands?
12 I made the earth
and created man upon it;
it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their army.
13 I have stirred him up in righteousness,
and I will make all his ways level;
he shall build my city
and set my exiles free,
not for price or reward,”
says Jehovah of armies.[234]
Jehovah, the Only Savior
14 Thus says Jehovah:
“The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,[235]
and the Sabeans, men of stature,
shall come over to you and be yours;
they shall follow you;
they shall come over in chains and bow down to you.
They will plead with you, saying:
‘Surely God is in you, and there is no one else,
there is no other God.’”
15 Truly you are a God who conceals himself,
O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 All of them are put to shame and be humiliated;
the makers of idols go in confusion together.
17 But Israel is saved by Jehovah
with everlasting salvation;
you shall not be put to shame or confounded
to all eternity.
18 For thus says Jehovah,
the Creator of the heavens
the true God,
the One who formed the earth
its Maker who firmly established it;
who did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited!:
“I am Jehovah, and there is no one else.
19 I have not spoken in secret,
in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘Seek me in vain.’
I Jehovah, speak righteousness;
I declare what is upright.
20 “Assemble yourselves and come;
draw near together,
you survivors of the nations!
They have no knowledge
who carry about their wooden idols,
and pray to a god
who cannot save.
21 Declare and present your case;
let them take counsel together!
Who told this long ago?
Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, Jehovah?
And there is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none besides me.
22 “Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no one else.
23 By myself I have sworn;
from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’[236]
24 “Only in Jehovah, it shall be said of me,
are righteousness and strength.
Men will come to him,
and all who were angry at him will be put to shame.
25 In Jehovah all the offspring of Israel
shall be justified and shall glory.”
CHAPTER 46
The Idols of Babylon Versus the One True God
46 Bel bows down; Nebo stoops;
their idols are on animals and beasts of burden;
these things you carry are made a load,
a burden to the weary beast.
2 They stoop; they bow down together;
they cannot save the burden,[237]
but themselves go into captivity.
3 “Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from before your birth,
carried from the womb;
4 even to your old age I am he,
and to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
I will carry and will save you.
5 “To whom will you liken me and make me equal,
and compare me, that we may be alike?
6 Those who lavish gold from the purse,
and weigh out silver in the scales,
hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
then they fall down, yes, they bow down to it!
7 They lift it on the shoulder, they carry it,
they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it does not move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer
or save him from his trouble.
8 “Remember this and take courage,
take it to heart, you transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 calling a bird of prey from the sunrising,[238]
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.
12 “Listen to me, you powerful of heart,[239]
you who are far from righteousness:
13 I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off,
and my salvation will not delay;
I will put salvation in Zion,
for Israel my glory.”
CHAPTER 47
The Fall of Babylon
47 Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;[240]
sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones and grind flour,
remove your veil,
strip off your skirt, uncover the leg,
pass through the rivers.
3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
and your shame shall be seen.
I will take vengeance,
and I will spare no one.
4 Our Redeemer, Jehovah of armies[241] is his name,
is the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
for you shall no more be called
the mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people;
I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand;
you showed them no mercy;
on the aged man you made your yoke very heavy.
7 You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”
so that you did not lay these things to heart
or remember their end.
8 Now therefore hear this, O lover of pleasures,
who sit in security,
who say in her heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow
or know the loss of children.”
9 These two things shall come to you
in a moment, in one day;
the loss of children and widowhood
shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
and the great power of your enchantments.
10 You felt secure in your wickedness,
you said, “No one sees me”;
your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
“I am the one, and there is no one else”
11 But evil shall come upon you,
which you will not know how to charm away;
disaster shall fall upon you,
for which you shall not be able to atone;
and ruin shall come upon you suddenly,
of which you have not known.
12 Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you shall be able to profit;
perhaps you may inspire terror.
13 You are wearied with your many counsels;
let now the astrologers,
those who prophesy by the stars,
stand up and save you, from what shall come upon you.
14 Look, they are like stubble;
the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver their souls
from the power of the flame.
There will be no coal to warm by,
no fire to sit before!
15 Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
who have done business with you from your youth;
they wander about, each one in his own direction;
there shall be no one to save you.
CHAPTER 48
Israel Refined for God’s Glory
48 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel,
and who came from the waters of Judah,
who swear by the name of Jehovah
and confess the God of Israel,
but not in truth or in righteousness.
2 For they call themselves after the holy city,
and stay themselves on the God of Israel;
Jehovah of armies[242] is his name.
3 “The former[243] things I told you long ago;
they went out from my mouth, and I announced them;
then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
4 Because I know that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew
and your forehead copper,
5 I declared them to you from long ago,
before they came to pass I announced them to you,
lest you should say, ‘My idol did them,
my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’
6 “You have heard; now see all this;
and will you not declare it?
From this time forth I announce to you new things,
hidden things that you have not known.
7 They are created now, not long ago;
before today you have never heard of them,
lest you should say, ‘Look, I knew them.’
8 You have never heard, you have never known,
from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously,
and that from before birth you were called a rebel.
9 “For my name’s sake I defer my anger,
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
that I may not cut you off.
10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?[244]
And my glory I will not give to another.
Jehovah’s Call to Israel
12 “Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; I am the first,
and I am the last.
13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I call to them,
they stand forth together.
14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
Who among them[245] has declared these things?
Jehovah loves him;
he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.[246]
15 I, even I, have spoken and called him;
I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16 Draw near to me, hear this:
from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has sent me, and his Spirit.
17 Thus says Jehovah,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am Jehovah your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
19 your offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.”
20 Go out from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans,
declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
say, “Jehovah has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
he made the water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock and the water gushed out.
22 “There is no peace,” says Jehovah, “for the wicked.”
CHAPTER 49
The Servant of Jehovah
49 Listen to me, O islands,
and give attention, you peoples from afar.
Jehovah called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
he concealed me in his quiver.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with Jehovah,
and my recompense with my God.”
5 And now Jehovah says,
he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the eyes of Jehovah,[247]
and my God has become my strength,
6 he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
7 Thus says Jehovah,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,
the servant of rulers:
“Kings shall see and arise;
princes, and they shall bow down;
because of Jehovah, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
The Restoration of Israel
8 Thus says Jehovah:
“In a favorable time I have answered you;
in a day of salvation I have helped you;
I will keep you and give you
as a covenant to the people,
to raise up the land,
to make them inherit the desolate heritages,
9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
They shall feed along the ways;
on all bare hills shall be their pasture;
10 they shall not hunger or thirst,
nor will scorching heat or the sun strike them,
for he who has mercy on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
11 And I will make all my mountains a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.
12 Look, these shall come from afar,
and look, these from the north and from the west,[248]
and these from the land of Sinim.”[249]
13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For Jehovah has comforted his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, “Jehovah has forsaken me;
my Jehovah has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
16 Look! On my palms I have engraved you;
your walls are continually before me.
17 Your sons make haste;
those who tore you down and devastated you will depart from you.
18 Lift up your eyes around and see;
all of them gather together, they come to you.
As I live, declares Jehovah,
you shall put them all on as an ornament;
you shall bind them on yourself as a bride does.
19 “For your devastated and desolate places
and your ruined land,
Now it will be too cramped for the inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 The sons of your bereavement
will yet say in your ears:
‘The place is too cramped for me;
make room for me to dwell in.’
21 Then you will say in your heart:
‘Who has fathered me these?
I was bereaved of children and barren,
exiled and a wanderer,
but who has brought up these?
Look, I was left alone;
from where have these come?’”
22 Thus says the Sovereign Lord Jehovah:
“Look, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
and raise my signal pole[250] to the peoples;
and they shall bring your sons in their arms,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am Jehovah;
those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”
24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
or the captives of a tyrant[251] be rescued?
25 For thus says Jehovah:
“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
and I will save your sons.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
that I am Jehovah your Savior,
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
CHAPTER 50
Israel’s Sin and the Servant’s Obedience
50 Thus says Jehovah:
“Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce,
with which I sent her away?
Or which of my creditors is it
to whom I have sold you?
Look, for your iniquities you were sold,
and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
2 Why, when I came, was there no man;
why, when I called, was there no one to answer?
Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Look, by my rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a desert;
their fish stink for lack of water
and die of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness
and make sackcloth their covering.”
4 the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
He awakens me morning by morning;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
5 The Sovereign Lord Jehovah has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.
6 I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who plucked the beard;
I did not hide my face
from humiliation and spitting.
7 But the Sovereign Lord Jehovah helps me;
therefore I have not been humiliated;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
8 He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
9 Look, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah helps me;
who is he that shall condemn me?
Look, all of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
10 Who among you fears Jehovah
and obeys the voice of his servant?
Who walks in darkness
and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of Jehovah
and rely on his God.
11 Look, all you who kindle a fire,
who gird yourselves[252] with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
and by the torches that you have kindled!
This you shall have from my hand:
you shall lie down in torment.
CHAPTER 51
Zion Is Restored Like Eden
51 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek Jehovah:
look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
and I might bless him and multiply him.
3 For Jehovah comforts Zion;
he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden[253] of Jehovah;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
4 “Pay attention to me, my people,
and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law will go out from me,
and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
5 My righteousness draws near,
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples;
the islands hope for me,
and for my arm they wait.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will never fail.
7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law;
fear not the reproach of man,
nor be dismayed at their revilings.
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”
9 Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of Jehovah;
awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?
10 Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to pass over?
11 And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12 “I, I myself, am he who comforts you;
who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,
of the son of man who is made like grass,
13 and have forgotten Jehovah, your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
because of the fury of the oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
And where is the wrath of the oppressor?
14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
he shall not die and go down to the pit,
neither shall his bread be lacking.
15 I am Jehovah your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar;
Jehovah of armies[254] is his name.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth
and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
to plant the heavens[255]
and laying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
17 Awake! Awake!
Rise up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of Jehovah
the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk the goblet
the cup of staggering; you have drained it out.
18 There is none to guide her
among all the sons she has borne;
nor is there anyone to take her by the hand
among all the sons she has brought up.
19 These two things have befallen you;
who will sympathize with you?
devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
who will comfort you?[256]
20 Your sons have fainted;
they lie at the head of every street
like an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of Jehovah,
the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted,
who are drunk, but not with wine:
22 This is what your Lord Jehovah says,
your God who pleads the cause of his people:
“Look, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;
23 and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
who have said to your soul,
‘Bow down so that we may walk over you!’
and you have made your back like the ground
Like a street for them to walk over.”
CHAPTER 52
Jehovah’s Coming Salvation
52 Awake, awake,
put on your strength, O Zion;
put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city;
for there shall no more come into you
the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake yourself from the dust and arise;
be seated, O Jerusalem;
loose the bonds from your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says Jehovah, “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” 4 For thus says the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 5 Now therefore, what do I have here,” declares Jehovah, “seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Their rulers wail,”[257] declares Jehovah, “and continually all day long my name is despised.[258] 6 Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore, in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.”
7 How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God has become king!”[259]
8 Listen! your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
when Jehovah returns to Zion.
9 Break forth, sing for joy together,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for Jehovah has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 Jehovah has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
11 Depart, depart, go out from there;
touch no unclean thing;
go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves,
you who bear the vessels of Jehovah.
12 For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for Jehovah will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions
13 Look, my servant[260] shall act with insight;
he shall be exalted,
and he shall be lifted up,
and he shall be very high.
14 Just as many were appalled at you,[261]
his appearance was so disfigured
that he did not look like any man,
and his form beyond the sons of men,
15 so shall he startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.
CHAPTER 53
The Suffering, Death, and Burial of the Servant
53 Who has believed our message?[262]
And to whom has the arm of Jehovah been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him[263] like a young plant,
and like a root out of parched ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected[264] by men;
a man of pains,[265] and acquainted with grief;[266]
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our errors;[267]
upon him was the chastisement for our peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned, every one, to his own way;
and Jehovah has laid on him
the error of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And he made[268] his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of Jehovah to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes a guilt offering,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the trouble of his soul he shall see[269] and be satisfied;
by means of his knowledge the righteous one, my servant,
will bring a righteous standing to many people,
and he shall bear their errors.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
CHAPTER 54
Barren Zion to Have Many Sons
54 “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;
break forth into singing and cry aloud,
you who have not been in labor!
For the sons of the desolate one will be more
than the sons of her who is married,” says Jehovah.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let them stretch out[270] the tent cloths of your habitations;
do not hold back; lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
3 For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,
and your offspring will possess the nations
and they will inhabit the desolated cities.
4 “Do not be afraid, for you will not be ashamed;
do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth,
and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
5 For your Maker is your husband,
Jehovah of armies[271] is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called.
6 For Jehovah has called you
like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of youth when she is cast off,
says your God.
7 For a brief moment[272] I forsook you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.
8 In overflowing anger for a moment
I hid my face from you,
but with everlasting loyal love I will have compassion on you,”
says Jehovah, your Redeemer.
9 “This is like the days of Noah to me:
as I swore that the waters of Noah
should no more go over the earth,
so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you,
and will not rebuke you.
10 For the mountains may depart
and the hills be removed,
but my loyal love shall not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”
says Jehovah, who has compassion on you.
11 “O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,
look, I will set your stones in antimony,
and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12 I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates out of sparkling stones,
and all your wall of precious stones.
13 All your sons shall be taught by Jehovah,
and great shall be the peace of your sons.
14 In righteousness you shall be established;
you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
15 If anyone should attack you,
it is not from me;
whoever makes an attack on you
shall fall because of you.
16 Look, I have created the smith
who blows the fire of coals
and produces a weapon for its work.
I have also created the destructive man to bring ruin;
17 no weapon that is formed against you shall succeed,
and you shall condemn every tongue that rises up against you in the judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah
and their vindication from me, declares Jehovah.”
CHAPTER 55
The Compassion of Jehovah
55 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in fatness.[273]
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
according to my loyal love shown to David.
4 Look, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 Look, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of Jehovah your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
6 “Seek Jehovah while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to Jehovah, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares Jehovah.
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 and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into a joyful cry,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for Jehovah,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
CHAPTER 56
Blessings on Foreigners and Eunuchs
56 Thus says Jehovah:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
for soon my salvation will come,
and my righteousness be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man who does this,
and the son of man who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,
and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to Jehovah say,
“Jehovah will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
“Look, I am a dry tree.”
4 For thus says Jehovah:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
5 I will give in my house and within my walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them[274] an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to Jehovah,
to minister to him, to love the name of Jehovah,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant;
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
8 The Sovereign Lord Jehovah,
who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
“I will gather yet others to him
besides those already gathered.”
Israel’s Irresponsible Leaders
9 All you beasts of the field, come to devour,
all you beasts in the forest.
10 His watchmen are blind;
they are all without knowledge;
they are all mute dogs;
they cannot bark,
panting,[275] lying down,
loving to slumber.
11 The dogs have a strong soulful appetite;[276]
they never have enough.
But they are shepherds who have no understanding;
they have all turned to their own way,
each to his own gain, one and all.
12 “Come,” they say, “let me[277] get wine;
let us fill ourselves with strong drink;
and tomorrow will be like this day,
great beyond measure.”
CHAPTER 57
Israel’s Spiritual Prostitution Exposed
57 The righteous man perishes,
and no one lays it to heart;
devout men are taken away,
while no one understands.
For the righteous man is taken away from evil;
2 he enters into peace;
they rest in their beds
who walk in their uprightness.
3 But you, draw near,
sons of the sorceress,
offspring of the adulterer and the prostitute.
4 Against whom do you mock?
Against whom do you open your mouth wide
and stick out your tongue?
Are you not children of transgression,
the offspring of deceit,
5 you who are inflamed with passion among the oaks,
under every green tree,
who slaughter your children in the valleys,
under the clefts of the rocks?
6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion;
they, they, are your lot;
to them you have poured out a drink offering,
you have offered a grain offering.
Shall I relent for these things?
7 On a high and lofty mountain
you have set your bed,
and there you went up to offer sacrifice.
8 Behind the door and the doorpost
you have set up your memorial;
for, you departed from me, and uncovered yourself,
you have gone up, and made your bed wide;
and you have made a covenant for yourself with them,
you have loved their bed,
you have looked on their male organ.[278]
9 You journeyed to the king with oil
and increased your perfumes;
you sent your envoys far off,
and did descend even to Sheol.
10 You were wearied with the length of your way,
but you did not say, “It is hopeless”;
you found renewed strength,
and so you did not faint.
11 Whom did you dread and fear,
so that you lied,
and have not remember me,
did not lay it to heart?
Have I not held my peace, even for a long time,
and you do not fear me?
12 I will declare your righteousness and your works,
but they will not profit you.
13 When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!
The wind will carry all of them away,
a breath will take them away.
But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land
and shall inherit my holy mountain.
Comfort for the Lowly
14 And it shall be said,
“Build up, build up, prepare the way,
remove every obstacle from the way of my people.”
15 For thus says the high and exalted One,
who dwells in eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
But also with those crushed[279] and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of those being crushed.
16 For I will not contend forever,
nor will I always be angry;
for the spirit would grow faint before me,
and the breath of life[280] that I made.
17 Because of the sinful pursuit of his unjust gain I was angry,
I struck him; I hid my face and was angry,
but he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.
18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
19 creating the fruit of the lips.
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says Jehovah,
“and I will heal him.
20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
for it cannot be quiet,
and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
21 There is no peace,” says my God,[281] “for the wicked.”
CHAPTER 58
True and False Fasting
58 “Cry aloud; do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not abandoned the justice of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why do you not see when we fast?
We afflict our soul,[282] and you do not notice?’
Look, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
4 Look, you fast only for strife and contention
and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You do not fast like you have done today
to make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a man to afflict his soul?[283]
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to Jehovah?
6 “Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break through like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of Jehovah shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and Jehovah will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 if you offer to the hungry what your own soul[284] desires
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And Jehovah will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and strengthen your bones;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12 And on your account men shall[285] rebuild ancient ruins;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.
13 “If you turn your foot back from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of Jehovah honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, and speaking your own word;
14 then you shall take delight in Jehovah,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.”
CHAPTER 59
Evil and Oppression
59 Look Jehovah’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear.
2 But your own errors have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not listen.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one calls out for righteousness;
no one goes to court in truthfulness;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
they conceive trouble and give birth to what is harmful.
5 They hatch adders’ eggs;
they weave the spider’s web;
he who eats their eggs dies,
and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
6 Their webs will not serve as a garment;
men will not cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are harmful works,
and deeds of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil,
and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their paths crooked;
whoever walks on them[286] does not know peace.
9 Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not overtake us;
we hope for light, and look, darkness,
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 We grope for the wall like blind men;
we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among the strong we are just like dead men.
11 We all growl like bears;
we coo mournfully like doves;
we hope for justice, 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 we know our iniquities:
13 transgressing, and denying Jehovah,
and turning back from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.
Judgment and Repentance
14 Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has stumbled in the street,
and uprightness cannot enter.
15 Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
Jehovah saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man,
and he was astonished that no one interceded;
then his own arm brought salvation to him,
and his righteousness upheld him.
17 He put on righteousness like a coat of mail,[287]
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, so he will repay,
wrath to his adversaries, retribution to his enemies;
to the islands he will render repayment.
19 From the sunset they shall fear the name of Jehovah,
and his glory from the rising of the sun;
for he will come like a rushing stream,
which the wind of Jehovah drives.
20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,”[288] declares Jehovah.
21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Jehovah: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s children,” says Jehovah, “from now on and forever.”
CHAPTER 60
Jehovah’s Glory Shines on Zion
60 Arise, O woman,[289] shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of Jehovah has risen upon you.
2 For look, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but Jehovah will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
3 And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from afar,
and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
5 Then you shall see[290] and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and exult,
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of Jehovah.
7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you;
the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;
they shall come up with acceptance on my altar,
and I will glorify the house of my glory.
8 Who are these that fly like a cloud,
and like doves to their windows?
9 For the islands shall hope for me,
the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring your sons from afar,
their silver and gold with them,
for the name of Jehovah your God,
and for the Holy One of Israel,
because he has made you beautiful.
10 Sons of a foreign land shall build up your walls,
and their kings shall minister to you;
for in my wrath I struck you,
but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
11 Your gates shall be open continually;
they shall not be shut day or night,
that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations,
with their kings led in procession.
12 For the nation and kingdom
that will not serve you shall perish;
those nations shall be utterly devastated.
13 The glory of Lebanon shall come to you,
the juniper tree, the ash tree, and the cypress,
to beautify the place of my sanctuary,
and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
14 The sons of those who afflicted you
shall come and bow down before you,
and all who despised you
shall bow down at the soles of your feet;
they shall call you the City of Jehovah,
the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
15 Whereas you have been forsaken and hated,
with no one passing through,
I will make you a source of eternal pride,
a joy throughout all generations.
16 You shall suck the milk of nations;
you shall suck the breast of kings;
and you shall know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
17 Instead of copper I will bring gold,
and instead of iron I will bring silver;
instead of wood, copper,
instead of stones, iron.
I will appoint peace as your overseers
and your taskmasters righteousness.
18 Violence shall no more be heard in your land,
devastation or destruction within your borders;
you shall call your walls Salvation,
and your gates Praise.
19 The sun shall be no more
your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
give you light;[291]
but Jehovah will be your everlasting light,
and your God your glory.
20 Your sun shall no more go down,
nor your moon withdraw itself;
for Jehovah will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended.
21 Your people shall all be righteous;
they shall possess the land forever,
the branch of my[292] planting, the work of my[293] hands,
that I may be glorified.
22 The little one shall become a thousand,
and the smallest one a mighty nation;
I myself, Jehovah;
will speed it up in its own time.
CHAPTER 61
The Year of Jehovah’s Favor
61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me,
because Jehovah has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;[294]
2 to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion,
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of exultation instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a despondent spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of Jehovah, that he may be glorified.
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the desolations of many generations.
5 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks;
foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
6 but you shall be called the priests of Jehovah;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast.
7 Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
everlasting rejoicing shall be theirs.
8 For I Jehovah love justice;
I hate robbery and unrighteousness;[295]
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are an offspring Jehovah has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah;
my soul shall exult 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 who wears a turban like that of a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Sovereign Lord Jehovah[296] will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.
CHAPTER 62
Zion’s Coming Salvation
62 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,
until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
and her salvation like a torch that is burning.
2 The nations shall see your righteousness O woman,[297]
and all the kings your glory,
and you shall be called by a new name,
which the mouth of Jehovah shall name.
3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
and your land Married One;
for Jehovah delights in you,
and your land shall be married.
5 For as a young man marries a virgin,
so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.
6 On your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night
they shall never be silent.
You who make mention of Jehovah,
do not rest,
7 and give him no rest
until he establishes
and until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8 Jehovah has sworn by his right hand
and by his strong arm:
“I will not again give your grain
to be food for your enemies,
and foreigners shall not drink your wine
for which you have labored;
9 but those who garner it shall eat it
and praise Jehovah,
and those who gather it shall drink it
in the courts of my sanctuary.”
10 Go through, go through the gates;
prepare the way for the people;
build up, build up the highway;
clear it of stones;
lift up a signal pole[298] over the peoples.
11 Look, Jehovah has proclaimed
to the end of the earth:
Say to the daughter of Zion,
“Look, your salvation comes;
look, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.”
12 And they shall be called the Holy People,
The Redeemed of Jehovah;
and you shall be called Sought After,
A City Not Forsaken.
CHAPTER 63
Jehovah’s Day of Vengeance
63 Who is this who comes from Edom,
in bright red garments from Bozrah,
he who is splendid in his apparel,
marching in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, the One speaking in righteousness,
the One with great power to save.”
2 Why is your apparel red,
and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?
3 “I have trodden the winepress alone,
and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood spattered on my garments,
and stained all my clothing.
4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and my year of redemption had come.
5 I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me salvation,
and my wrath upheld me.
6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger;
I made them drunk in my wrath,
and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
Jehovah’s Mercy Remembered
7 I will recount the loyal love of Jehovah,
the praises of Jehovah,
according to all that Jehovah has granted us,
and the great goodness to the house of Israel
that he has granted them according to his compassion,
according to the abundance of his loyal love.
8 For he said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely.”
And he became their Savior.
9 In all their distress it was distressing to him,[299]
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
and himself fought against them.
11 Then he remembered the days of old,
of Moses his servant.[300]
Where is he who brought them up out of the sea
with the shepherds[301] of his flock?
Where is he who put his Holy Spirit
in the midst of them,
12 who caused his glorious arm
to go at the right hand of Moses,
who divided the waters before them
to make for himself an everlasting name,
13 who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the wilderness,
they did not stumble.
14 Like livestock that go down into the valley,
the Spirit of Jehovah gave them rest.
So you led your people,
to make for yourself a glorious name.
Prayer of Repentance
15 Look down from heaven and see,
from your holy and glorious lofty habitation.
Where are your zeal and your might?
The stirring of your inward parts and your mercy
are held back from me.
16 For you are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us,
and Israel does not recognize us;
you, O Jehovah, are our Father,
our Redeemer from of old is your name.
17 O Jehovah, why do you make us wander from your ways
and harden our heart,[302] so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your heritage.
18 Your holy people held possession for a little while;
our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
19 We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,
like those who are not called by your name.
CHAPTER 64
Prayer of Repentance Continued
64 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence,
2 as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil,
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awe-inspiring things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 From of old no one has heard
or given ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
5 You meet him who joyfully do what is right,
those who remember you in your ways.
Look, you were angry, and we sinned;
in them a long time, and should we be saved?
6 And we become like someone unclean, all of us,
and all our righteous deeds are like a menstrual cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our errors, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our errors.
8 But now, O Jehovah, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be too angry, O Jehovah,
and do not remember our error forever.
Look, please look, for we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful house,
where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
and all our places we cherished lie in ruins.
12 Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Jehovah?
Will you keep silent, and afflict us so severely?
CHAPTER 65
Judgment and Salvation
65 I have let myself be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I let myself be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, ‘Here I am; here I am!’ to a nation that was not calling on my name.
2 I spread out my hands all the day
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own thoughts;
3 a people who provoke me
to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
and making sacrificial smoke on bricks;
4 who sit among graves,
and spend the night in secret places;
who eat pig’s flesh,
and broth of unclean meat is in their vessels;
5 who say, “Keep to yourself,
do not come near me, for I am holier than you.”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all the day.
6 Look, it is written before me:
“I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their bosom
7 both your[303] errors and your forefathers’ errors together,
says Jehovah;
because they made sacrificial smoke on the mountains
and insulted me on the hills,
I will measure into their lap
payment for their former deeds.”
8 Thus says Jehovah:
“As the new wine is found in the cluster,
and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
for there is a blessing in it,’
so I will do for my servants’ sake,
and not destroy them all.
9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
and an heir of my mountains from Judah;
my chosen shall inherit it,
and my servants shall dwell there.
10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,
and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
for my people who have sought me.
11 But you who forsake Jehovah,
who forget my holy mountain,
who set a table for Fortune
and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,
12 I will destine you to the sword,
and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,
because, when I called, you did not answer;
when I spoke, you did not listen,
but you did what was evil in my eyes
and chose that in which I do not delight.”
13 Therefore thus says the Sovereign Lord Jehovah:
“Look, my servants shall eat,
but you shall be hungry;
look, my servants shall drink,
but you shall be thirsty;
look, my servants shall rejoice,
but you shall be put to shame;
14 look, my servants shall shout for joy of heart,
but you shall cry out for pain of heart
and shall wail because of a broken spirit.
15 You shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen ones,
and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will put you to death,
but his servants he will call by another name.
16 So that he who blesses himself in the land
shall bless himself by the God of truth,
and he who swears an oath in the land
shall swear by the God of truth;
because the former troubles are forgotten
and are hidden from my eyes.
New Heavens and a New Earth
17 “For look, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for look, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people;
no more will there be heard in her the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress.
20 No more shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for the young boy shall die a hundred years old,
and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree will the days of my people be,
and the work of their hands my chosen ones will enjoy to the full.
23 They shall not labor in vain
or bear children for calamity,
for they are the offspring made up of those blessed by Jehovah,
and their descendants with them.
24 And it shall occur that before they call I will answer;
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain,”
says Jehovah.
CHAPTER 66
True Worship and False
66 Thus says Jehovah:
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you could build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
2 All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares Jehovah.
But to this one, then, I will look:
he who is humble and broken in spirit
and trembles at my word.
3 “He who slaughters an ox is like one who strikes down a man;
he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks the neck of a dog;
he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers the blood of a pig;
he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who praises an idol.
These have chosen their own ways,
and their soul delights in their abominations;
4 I also will choose their punishments
and bring their fears upon them,
because when I called, no one answered,
when I spoke, they did not listen;
but they did what was evil in my eyes
and chose that in which I did not delight.”
5 Hear the word of Jehovah,
you who tremble at his word:
“Your brothers who hate you
and cast you out for my name’s sake
have said, ‘Let Jehovah be glorified,
that we may see your joy’;
but it is they who shall be put to shame.
6 “A voice, an uproar from the city!
A voice from the temple!
The sound of Jehovah,
rendering recompense to his enemies!
Jerusalem and Her Sons
7 “Before she was in labor
she gave birth;
before birth pangs came to her
she delivered a male child.
8 Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day?
Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?
For as soon as Zion was in labor
she brought forth her sons.
9 Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?”
says Jehovah;
“shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?”
says your God.
10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
all you who love her;
exult greatly with her,
all you who mourn over her;
11 that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her consoling breast;
and you will drink deeply and find delight
in the abundance of her glory.”
12 For thus says Jehovah:
“Look, I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip,
and bounced upon her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice;
your bones shall flourish like the grass;
and the hand of Jehovah shall be known to his servants,
and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.
Final Judgment and Glory of Jehovah
15 “For look, Jehovah will come in fire,
and his chariots like the whirlwind,
to render his anger in fury,
and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For Jehovah will execute judgment by fire,
and by his sword, with all flesh;
and those slain by Jehovah shall be many.
17 “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating the flesh of pigs and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares Jehovah.
People Gather Together to Worship in Jerusalem
18 “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, 19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the far away islands, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. 20 And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to Jehovah, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says Jehovah, just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of Jehovah. 21 And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says Jehovah.
22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth
that I make
shall remain before me, says Jehovah,
so shall your offspring and your name remain.
23 From new moon to new moon,
and from Sabbath to Sabbath,
all flesh shall come to bow down before me,
declares Jehovah.
24 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
[1] Meaning Salvation of Jehovah
[2] Error: (עָווֹן avon) The Hebrew word avon essentially relates to erring, acting illegally or wrongly. This aspect of sin refers to committing a perverseness, wrongness, lawlessness, law breaking, which can also include the rejection of the sovereignty of God. It also focuses on the liability or guilt of one’s wicked, wrongful act. This error may be deliberate or accidental; either willful deviation of what is right or unknowingly making a mistake. (Lev. 4:13-35; 5:1-6, 14-19; Num. 15:22-29; Ps 19:12, 13) Of course, if it is intentional; then, the consequence is far more serious. (Num. 15:30-31) Error is in opposition to the truth, and those willfully sinning corrupt the truth, a course that only brings forth flagrant sin. (Isa 5:18-23) We can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. – Ex 9:27, 34-35; Heb. 3:13-15.
[3] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[4] LXX “a seed” (See Rom. 9:29) MT “survivors”
[5] Or teaching or instruction
[6] Isaiah’s use of (אָוֶן aven) may designate magic or idolatrous ritual, or evil caused by the misuse of power.
[7] Or covered with
[8] MT “correct the oppressor” MTemendation LXX VG “rescue one who has been wronged”
[9] See 1:9 fn.
[10] DSS LXX VG most Heb. MSS “for they shall be ashamed” MT “For you shall be ashamed”
[11] Obviously, trees and gardens were tied together with idolatrous worship.
[12] A dry, flammable material, such as wood or paper, ropelike fiber, which was used for lighting a fire.
[13] Or instruction or teaching
[14] See 1:9 fn.
[15] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[16] The man of low status in life. The word (קָלָה qalah) properly means the man who is lowly esteemed (despised), vile, shameful. (1Sam. 18:23; Prov. 7:9) Many words could be used to characterize this man: wicked, immoral, sinful, unscrupulous, unprincipled. unseemly unsavory, vulgar, low-minded, debased, degenerate, and depraved.
[17] LXX “those who demand payback”
[18] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[19] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[20] That is, perfume boxes
[21] DSS adds “shame” at the end of the verse
[22] LXX SYR VG “mighty ones”
[23] Lit excrement
[24] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[25] See 5:7 fn.
[26] That is, ten acres
[27] About 22 L (5.81 gal).
[28] About 220 L (200 dry qt).
[29] About 22 L (20 dry qt).
[30] AT SYR two Heb. MSS “those dead from hunger”
[31] See 5:7 fn.
[32] Or guilt
[33] See 5:7 fn.
[34] Signal pole: The Hebrew word (נֵס nes) seems to indicate a fixed pole placed on a high location. It is used both literally and figuratively. Therefore, it does not refer to a signal for transmitting communications, such as “a cloud of smoke” or “a column of smoke” (Jg 20:38, 40) or “a warning signal” of fire (Jer 6:1), as other Hebrew words are used in those cases. Instead, this pole seems to have served as a place where troops would come together again to continue fighting after a defeat or dispersion. – Isa 5:26; 13:2; 18:3; 30:17; 31:9; Jer 4:6, 21; 50:2; 51:12, 27.
[35] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[36] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[37] See 6:3 fn.
[38] That is, dull, unfeeling, or insensitive. Fat is used figuratively to convey the idea of insensibility or dullness of mind and heart.
[39] MT “he” DSS LXX SYR VG 2Ki 16:5 “they”
[40] Meaning only a remnant will return
[41] Lit split it open
[42] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[43] meaning God is with us
[44] That is, the Euphrates
[45] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[46] meaning rushing to the spoil, rushing to the plunder
[47] Shiloah was a water conduit
[48] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[49] To “gird up the loins” or “gird up your hips” is an idiom that means to cause oneself to be in a state of readiness: ‘to get ready,’ ‘to prepare oneself.’ It refers to a person gathering up the ends of the garments between his legs and then tucking them under the sash (כֻּתֹּנֶת kuttoneth) worn around their hips to expedite physical activity. They often wore a sash over the inner or outer garments. This girding up the loins would include any physical labor and getting ready to do battle. It also came to be used as an expression meaning to equip oneself for vigorous mental or spiritual activity. There are times when it also has a sense of strengthening.
[50] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[51] LXX SYR VG seven Heb. MSS “Inhabitants” MT DSS “inhabitant”
[52] See 8:13 fn.
[53] MT LXX end chapter 8 here with this as vs 23.
[54] LXX “a region, a shadow of death” MT “the land of deep shadow” The LXX reading followed by Matt 4:16.
[55] Or rulership
[56] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[57] See 9:7 fn.
[58] The Hebrew (תָּעָה taah) here is referring to misleading by deception.
[59] DSS “spare” MT “rejoice over”
[60] See 9:7 fn.
[61] Or punishment
[62] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[63] LXX “he will punish” MT “I will punish”
[64] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[65] Fat and fatness (דָּשֵׁן dashen / דֶּשֶׁן deshen / חֵלֶב cheleb / שֶׁמֶן shemen) were considered the choicest part at a meal or banquet. One sense can be rich food conceived of in terms of oil, gaining a great deal of weight resulting in a larger size, fat. Having body fat meant that a person was healthy. Conversely, they referred to a physically fit, healthy person as fat. David had experienced God’s love and care. He felt completely satisfied, like the rich food at the banquet. In life, he had received the best, the choicest part. Therefore, he would joyfully praise God Almighty continually from his lips.
[66] See 10:16 fn. LXX lacks “Jehovah of armies”
[67] See 10:16 fn.
[68] See 10:16 fn.
[69] LXX “from your shoulders” MT “because of fatness”
[70] LXX SYR “Anathoth, listen” MT “poor Anathoth”
[71] Counsel: (עֵצָה etsah) This is God’s advice or counsel that gives one direction in order to make a decision or follow a course of action. (2 Sam. 15:34; Hos. 10:6; Ps 13:3; 106:43) It also refers to a plan, scheme, or purpose where one considers a course of action, which often includes consulting a counselor or advisor. – Ps 14:6. (See 2 Sam. 15:31; 16:23; 17:7, 14, 23; Job 12:13; Isa. 11:2; 19:11)
[72] MT “rod of his mouth” LXX “word of his mouth”
[73] LXX “and a little calf and a bull and a lion shall feed together” MT “and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together”
[74] Signal pole: The Hebrew word (נֵס nes) seems to indicate a fixed pole placed on a high location. It is used both literally and figuratively. Therefore, it does not refer to a signal for transmitting communications, such as “a cloud of smoke” or “a column of smoke” (Jg 20:38, 40) or “a warning signal” of fire (Jer 6:1), as other Hebrew words are used in those cases. Instead, this pole seems to have served as a place where troops would come together again to continue fighting after a defeat or dispersion. – Isa 5:26; 13:2; 18:3; 30:17; 31:9; Jer 4:6, 21; 50:2; 51:12, 27.
[75] LXX “And in that day there will be the root of Jesse and the one who rises up to rule nations; nations will put their hope in him, and his repose will be honor.” This is the reading we find in Rom 15:12.
[76] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[77] DSS MT SYR “Cush” LXX VG “Ethiopia” AT “India”
[78] MT VG “Shinar” AT “Babel” SYR “Seir”
[79] See 11:10 fn.
[80] LXX SYR AT “dry up” or “desolate” MTemendation “dry up” MT “destroy” HALOT 354 renders MT “divide” (The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament.)
[81] “Jah” (יָ֔הּ) is a shortened form of the name Jehovah, which is found in the exhortation “Hallelujah!” That is, “Praise Jah!” It occurs 49 times in MT identified by a point (mappiq) in its second letter and once in Ca 8:6 without the mappiq. The mappiq is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It is part of the Masoretes’ system of vowel points. It takes the form of a dot in the middle of a letter (usually הּ, he).
[82] The “Jah Jehovah” combination occurs only here and in 26:4.
[83] DSS LXX SYR VG two Heb. MSS “my”
[84] Or “protection” or “strength” See HALOT 274 s.v. III זִמְרָה zimrah (The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament.)
[85] Lit inhabitress, referring to the people of Zion collectively as a female.
[86] A prophetic utterance (מַשָּׂא massa), pronouncement, or oracle; a serious, lengthy address kind of prophetic message
[87] LXX VG “Babylon” DSS MT AT SYR “Babel”
[88] See 11:10 fn.
[89] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[90] See 13:4 fn.
[91] MT “those powerless in death.” (רְפָאִים rephaim); LXX SYR VG “the giants” Compare Ps 88:10 fn.
[92] That is, tomb
[93] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[94] VG “Babylon” MT AT SYR “Babel”
[95] See 14:22 fn.
[96] See 14:22 fn.
[97] AT VG “their” MT “his”
[98] See 14:22 fn.
[99] MT “armed men” LXX SYR “loins”
[100] MT “Dimon” DSS VG some LXX MSS “Dibon”
[101] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[102] Asherah poles: The Hebrew word (אֲשֵׁרָה Asherah) refers to (1) a sacred wooden pole used in the worship of Asherah, a Canaanite goddess of fertility, or (2) an Asherah image of the goddess. These were upright poles made of wood. – Deut. 16:21; Judges 6:26; 1Ki 15:13.
[103] LXX “like the Amorites and the Hivites” MT “like the abandoned places of the wooded heights and the hilltops”
[104] LXX VG “Ethiopia” MT SYR “Cush”
[105] Signal pole: The Hebrew word (נֵס nes) seems to indicate a fixed pole placed on a high location. It is used both literally and figuratively. Therefore, it does not refer to a signal for transmitting communications, such as “a cloud of smoke” or “a column of smoke” (Jg 20:38, 40) or “a warning signal” of fire (Jer 6:1), as other Hebrew words are used in those cases. Instead, this pole seems to have served as a place where troops would come together again to continue fighting after a defeat or dispersion. – Isa 5:26; 13:2; 18:3; 30:17; 31:9; Jer 4:6, 21; 50:2; 51:12, 27.
[106] LXX SYR VG some Heb. MSS “day” MT “heat”
[107] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[108] See 18:7 fn.
[109] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[110] That is, bulrushes, reeds, papyrus plants
[111] Counsel: (עֵצָה etsah) This is God’s advice or counsel that gives one direction in order to make a decision or follow a course of action. (2 Sam. 15:34; Hos. 10:6; Ps 13:3; 106:43) It also refers to a plan, scheme, or purpose where one considers a course of action, which often includes consulting a counselor or advisor. – Ps 14:6. (See 2 Sam. 15:31; 16:23; 17:7, 14, 23; Job 12:13; Isa. 11:2; 19:11)
[112] See 19:4 fn.
[113] See 19:4 fn.
[114] See 19:4 fn.
[115] See 19:4 fn.
[116] MT most Heb. MSS “City of Destruction” DSS AT VG some Heb. MSS “City of the Sun” LXX “City of Asedek”
[117] See 19:4 fn.
[118] See 19:4 fn.
[119] At times, it does refer to absolute nakedness. (Gen. 2:25; 3:7; Job 1:21; Eccles. 5:15; Amos 2:16; Mic. 1:8) In many cases, naked in the Hebrew (עָרוֹם arom or עָרֹם arom) and Greek (γυμνός gumnos) does not mean absolutely without anything on but more along the lines of ragged, poorly, or lightly clad. (Isa. 58:7; Matt. 25:36) John 21:7 is a perfect example of this, for Peter was not absolutely naked. He had his undergarments only, as the outer garments were cast to the side. Isaiah chapter 20:2, 4 has the prophet walking about naked, which was likely an absolute sense. This case symbolized what was to happen to Egyptian and Ethiopian captives who were defeated in war by the Assyrians (v. 4). When we look at the images of war captives, they are walking naked and barefoot.
[120] VG “Ethiopia” MT SYR “Cush”
[121] Or to the shame
[122] Possibly referring to the region of ancient Babylonia.
[123] The Hebrew (עָוָה avah) here has the sense of being bent over due to emotional distress.
[124] Or oil
[125] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[126] MT “a lion” DSS “the watchman.” The watchman cries out a warning like a lion. The DSS reading “watchman” seems to fit the context better (21:6). However, the MT reading of calling out like a lion is like Jehovah roaring like a lion from Zion to warn his people in Amos 1:2; 3:8, a contemporary of Isaiah. In following the textual principles, the harder reading is preferred. It is highly unlikely that a scribe would confuse the two words. Moreover, it is unlikely that a scribe would go from the reading that seems to fit better, the “watchman” to the more difficult “lion.”
[127] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[128] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[129] LXX has “Idumea” (Edom) instead of “Dumah”
[130] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[131] This is obviously a reference to Jerusalem. MT VG “the vision” LXX “Zion”
[132] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[133] MT VG “the vision” LXX “Zion”
[134] See 22:5 fn.
[135] See 22:5 fn.
[136] See 22:5 fn.
[137] See 22:5 fn.
[138] That is, a resting-place
[139] LXX lacks “you will be pulled down”
[140] That is, glory
[141] That is, offspring
[142] Shebna is the unfaith steward, who is pursuing glory for himself. Shebna will be removed from his stewardship. Faithful Eliakim will replace Shebna. God inspires Isaiah to use symbolic language to depict the transfer of power from Shebna over to Eliakim. In verses 23-25 the first peg is Eliakim. He “shall become a throne of glory to the house of his father,” Hilkiah. Nothing like Shebna, Eliakim will not bring disgrace to the house of his father. In contrast, the second peg refers to Shebna. Even though he is the second most powerful person next to Hezekiah and he believes he is safe, he “shall be cut down and fall.” Anyone who continues to support him will fall as well.
[143] DSS “your messengers crossed the sea” MT “who cross the sea have filled you”
[144] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[145] Or the west
[146] LXX lacks “in the east”
[147] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[148] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[149] Fat and fatness (דָּשֵׁן dashen / דֶּשֶׁן deshen / חֵלֶב cheleb / שֶׁמֶן shemen) were considered the choicest part at a meal or banquet. One sense can be rich food conceived of in terms of oil, gaining a great deal of weight resulting in a larger size, fat. Having body fat meant that a person was healthy. Conversely, they referred to a physically fit, healthy person as fat. David had experienced God’s love and care. He felt completely satisfied, like the rich food at the banquet. In life, he had received the best, the choicest part. Therefore, he would joyfully praise God Almighty continually from his lips.
[150] In Isaiah’s day, straw was trampled by animals into heaps of dung to make fertilizer. Therefore, Isaiah foretells humiliation for Moab, notwithstanding her high walls that may have given the people a false sense of security.
[151] MT SYR VG “Leviathan” LXX “the dragon” A reptile, serpent-like creature of the sea takes on mythological proportions, which is thought to refer to the crocodile or some other large, powerful aquatic animal.
[152] AC CC many Heb. MSS read (כֶּרֶם חֶמֶר kerem khemer) “vineyard of wine”), meaning “a productive vineyard.”
[153] Asherah poles: The Hebrew word (אֲשֵׁרָה Asherah) refers to (1) a sacred wooden pole used in the worship of Asherah, a Canaanite goddess of fertility, or (2) an Asherah image of the goddess. These were upright poles made of wood. – Deut. 16:21; Judges 6:26; 1Ki 15:13.
[154] That is, the Euphrates
[155] Literally the fat valley meaning rich or fertile valley. Fat and fatness (דָּשֵׁן dashen / דֶּשֶׁן deshen / חֵלֶב cheleb / שֶׁמֶן shemen) were considered the choicest part at a meal or banquet. One sense can be rich food conceived of in terms of oil, gaining a great deal of weight resulting in a larger size, fat. Having body fat meant that a person was healthy. Conversely, they referred to a physically fit, healthy person as fat. David had experienced God’s love and care. He felt completely satisfied, like the rich food at the banquet. In life, he had received the best, the choicest part. Therefore, he would joyfully praise God Almighty continually from his lips.
[156] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[157] See 28:1 fn.
[158] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[159] The Hebrew (כִּ֚י בְּלַעֲגֵ֣י שָׂפָ֔ה ki be laag saphah) means stammering speech, a speech disorder involving hesitations and involuntary repetitions of certain words.
[160] Lit you men of bragging talk
[161] See 28:5 fn.
[162] See 28:5 fn.
[163] LXX “like David” MT “on all sides”
[164] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[165] LXX “Be intoxicated, but not from sikera or from wine” AT VG “Be drunk, but not from wine; stagger, but not from strong drink” MT “Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink”
[166] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[167] LXX “And they are pious to me to no avail, teaching human rules and instructions.” This is the reading found in Mark 7:7. MT “and their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught”
[168] Or the south. That is the southern part of the Promised Land. The Negev was an arid region in the southern part of Palestine, and its name came to mean south.
[169] Signal pole: The Hebrew word (נֵס nes) seems to indicate a fixed pole placed on a high location. It is used both literally and figuratively. Therefore, it does not refer to a signal for transmitting communications, such as “a cloud of smoke” or “a column of smoke” (Jg 20:38, 40) or “a warning signal” of fire (Jer 6:1), as other Hebrew words are used in those cases. Instead, this pole seems to have served as a place where troops would come together again to continue fighting after a defeat or dispersion. – Isa 5:26; 13:2; 18:3; 30:17; 31:9; Jer 4:6, 21; 50:2; 51:12, 27.
[170] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[171] Lit your teachers. The Hebrew verb is plural to denote grandeur or excellence.
[172] Fat and fatness (דָּשֵׁן dashen / דֶּשֶׁן deshen / חֵלֶב cheleb / שֶׁמֶן shemen) were considered the choicest part at a meal or banquet. One sense can be rich food conceived of in terms of oil, gaining a great deal of weight resulting in a larger size, fat. Having body fat meant that a person was healthy. Conversely, they referred to a physically fit, healthy person as fat. David had experienced God’s love and care. He felt completely satisfied, like the rich food at the banquet. In life, he had received the best, the choicest part. Therefore, he would joyfully praise God Almighty continually from his lips.
[173] Or fracture
[174] Topheth is used here as a figurative place of burning, depicting destruction.
[175] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[176] See 31:4 fn.
[177] Signal pole: The Hebrew word (נֵס nes) seems to indicate a fixed pole placed on a high location. It is used both literally and figuratively. Therefore, it does not refer to a signal for transmitting communications, such as “a cloud of smoke” or “a column of smoke” (Jg 20:38, 40) or “a warning signal” of fire (Jer 6:1), as other Hebrew words are used in those cases. Instead, this pole seems to have served as a place where troops would come together again to continue fighting after a defeat or dispersion. – Isa 5:26; 13:2; 18:3; 30:17; 31:9; Jer 4:6, 21; 50:2; 51:12, 27.
[178] MTcorrection “will no longer be pasted shut” by a correction of the Masoretic Text in agreement with AT SYR VG; MT “will not look”
[179] Referring to the enemy
[180] DSS “witnesses” MT “cities”
[181] DSS has “and the valleys will be split” at the beginning of the verse.
[182] DSS “will appear” MT “is satiated”
[183] That is, Bozrah, the capital of Edom.
[184] The animals rendered pelican and porcupine are uncertain
[185] Five Heb. MSS “the mouth of Jehovah,” DSS SYR AT “his mouth” LXX “Jehovah” MT VG “my mouth” See BHK and BHS fns.
[186] LXX “There shall be there a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way; and there shall not pass by there any unclean person, neither shall there be there an unclean way; but the dispersed shall walk on it, and they shall not go astray.” SYR “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; and there shall be no road beside it; fools shall not err therein.” VGc “And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be to you a straight way, so that fools shall not err in it.”
[187] DSS about 20 Heb. MSS 2Ki 18:20 “you” MT “I”
[188] VG “Ethiopia” LXX “the Ethiopians” MT SYR “Cush”
[189] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[190] DSS inserts “are God” at the end of the verse to agree with 2Ki 19:19.
[191] DSS has “in foreign lands” after “dug” (cf. 2 Kgs 19:24)
[192] DSS some Heb. and LXX MSS have “and a cultivated field before the standing grain” instead of “scorched by the east wind” (cf. 2 Kgs 19:26)
[193] DSS has “your rising up and” after “I know”
[194] MTemendation “your roaring” by a small alteration of the Masoretic Text “your complacency”
[195] MT VG “land of Ararat” AT SYR “land of Kardo” LXX “Armenia”
[196] Sheol: (שְׁאֹל sheol) Sheol occurs sixty-six times in the UASV. The Greek Septuagint renders Sheol as Hades. It is the grave. It has the underlying meaning of a place of the dead, where they are conscious of nothing, awaiting a resurrection, for both the righteous and the unrighteous. (Gen. 37:35; Psa. 16:10; Ac 2:31; John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15) It corresponds to “Hades” in the NT. It does not involve torment and punishment.
[197] “Jah” (יָ֔הּ) is a shortened form of the name Jehovah, which is found in the exhortation “Hallelujah!” That is, “Praise Jah!” It occurs 49 times in MT identified by a point (mappiq) in its second letter and once in Ca 8:6 without the mappiq. The mappiq is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It is part of the Masoretes’ system of vowel points. It takes the form of a dot in the middle of a letter (usually הּ, he). AT LXX SYR VG “Jehovah”
[198] LXX lacks “among the inhabitants of the world” Most Heb. MSS have “of what is passing away” instead of “of the world”
[199] MTemendation “I cried for help” by a small alteration of the Masoretic Text “I calmed myself” or “I composed myself”
[200] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[201] LXX “removed the sorrow of my soul” MT “because of the bitterness of my soul”
[202] This is one of the 134 scribal changes from יהוה [JHVH] to אדני [Adonai]. The earliest MSS have the Tetragrammaton.
[203] VG “Babylon” LXX “Babylonia” MT SYR “Babel”
[204] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[205] LXX does not have “in the desert”
[206] DSS LXX VG “and I said” MT “and he said”
[207] MT “faithfulness, loyal love, devotion” LXX VG “glory” SYR “beauty”
[208] DSS has “of the sea” AT has “of the world” after “waters”
[209] That is span of his hand, which is the distance between the end of the thumb and the little finger when the hand is spread wide open.
[210] LXX “who has known the mind of Jehovah” (cf. Rom 11:34) MT “who has directed the Spirit of Jehovah”
[211] Or coastlands
[212] Even Lebanon cannot provide sufficient firewood or animals for appropriate burnt offerings for Jehovah.
[213] The sense is nothingness or meaninglessness, having no value or significance, worthless. It can also refer to having deficient or meager status in some contexts.
[214] See 40:17 fn.
[215] Or from the east
[216] SYR “O insect of” MT “men of”
[217] That is, consider them; reflect on them
[218] Or from the east
[219] DSS “his name” MT “my name”
[220] DSS SYR AT “nothing” MT “delusion”
[221] MT “and the islands wait for his law” LXX “and the nations will hope in his name.” The LXX the reading is found in Matt 12:21.
[222] LXX VG “Ethiopia” MT SYR “Cush.”
[223] Or the east
[224] Or the west
[225] AT SYR “all the nations gather together” MT LXX “all the nations have collected themselves together”
[226] LXX VG “from the beginning.”
[227] “It” refers to “hand”
[228] DSS “paths” MT “rivers”
[229] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[230] LXX “let him stand up, let him call out”
[231] LXX “my anointed one” MT “his anointed one”
[232] MT “I will level the exalted” LXX “I will level the mountains” AT “I will level the walls”
[233] See Jeremiah 18:11, Lamentations 3:18, and Amos 3:6
[234] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[235] VG “Ethiopia” LXX “Ethiopians” MT SYR “Cush”
[236] LXX “To me every knee will bend down, and every tongue will make open acknowledgment to God” (cf. Rom. 14:11)
[237] That is, the idols that are on animals and beasts of burden.
[238] That is, the east
[239] Or strong of heart; that is, stubborn of heart
[240] LXX VG “Babylon” MT AT SYR “Babel”
[241] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[242] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[243] Lit first
[244] DSS “how can I be profaned” SYR “that my name may not be polluted” MT “how should my name be profaned” LXX “my name is defiled”
[245] DSS MT AT LXX VG “them” SYR and about 40 Heb. MSS “you”
[246] MT “Jehovah loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.” LXX “Out of love to thee I have fulfilled thy desire on Babylon, to abolish the seed of the Chaldeans.”
[247] MT “to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of Jehovah” LXX “to gather Jacob to him and Israel, I shall be gathered and honored before the Lord”
[248] Lit from the sea that is, the Mediterranean Sea, which is to the west of Judah.
[249] MT “Sinim” SYR “Senyam” DSS “Syene” AT VG “to the south” LXX “the Persians.” Sinim is a land wherein the dispersed Israelites were foretold to come to dwell while restoring their homeland. (Isa 49:12) This verse refers to the north and the west, which would imply that Sinim was south or east of Israel. The Greek Septuagint LXX reads “land of the Persians” that could have included Elam, called Sinim in Old Akkadian. (cf. Isa. 11:11) The Aramaic Targums AT and the Latin Vulgate VG read land “to the south,” Sinim was possibly south of Israel. Some have proposed a connection with Syene (Eze 30:6) in the southern end of Egypt, near modern Aswan. But admittedly, Sinim’s exact location is uncertain.
[250] Signal pole: The Hebrew word (נֵס nes) seems to indicate a fixed pole placed on a high location. It is used both literally and figuratively. Therefore, it does not refer to a signal for transmitting communications, such as “a cloud of smoke” or “a column of smoke” (Jg 20:38, 40) or “a warning signal” of fire (Jer 6:1), as other Hebrew words are used in those cases. Instead, this pole seems to have served as a place where troops would come together again to continue fighting after a defeat or dispersion. – Isa 5:26; 13:2; 18:3; 30:17; 31:9; Jer 4:6, 21; 50:2; 51:12, 27.
[251] DSS SYR VG “tyrant” MT “righteous man”
[252] SYR “who set ablaze” MT “who gird yourselves”
[253] LXX SYR “paradise”
[254] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[255] SYR “stretch out” MT “plant”
[256] DSS LXX SYR VG “how will I comfort you” MT “who will comfort you”
[257] DSS VG “mock” MT “wail”
[258] MT “and continually all day long my name is despised” LXX “because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles.” (vid. Rom. 2:24)
[259] Or “Your God Reigns!”
[260] AT has “the Messiah” after “my servant”
[261] SYR AT some Heb. MSS “him” DSS MT LXX VG “you”
[262] Or report
[263] “Him” could refer to an observer in general or to God.
[264] Deliberately forsaken; abandoned; avoided by others.
[265] One who knows and understands suffering by experience.
[266] One who is familiar with sickness and grief.
[267] Error: (עָווֹן avon) The Hebrew word avon essentially relates to erring, acting illegally or wrongly. This aspect of sin refers to committing a perverseness, wrongness, lawlessness, law breaking, which can also include the rejection of the sovereignty of God. It also focuses on the liability or guilt of one’s wicked, wrongful act. This error may be deliberate or accidental; either willful deviation of what is right or unknowingly making a mistake. (Lev. 4:13-35; 5:1-6, 14-19; Num. 15:22-29; Ps 19:12, 13) Of course, if it is intentional; then, the consequence is far more serious. (Num. 15:30-31) Error is in opposition to the truth, and those willfully sinning corrupt the truth, a course that only brings forth flagrant sin. (Isa 5:18-23) We can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. – Ex 9:27, 34-35; Heb. 3:13-15.
[268] DSS “they made” MT SYR “he made”
[269] MT VG “he shall see” LXX “[he will] show him light”
[270] MT “let them stretch out” DSS “let her stretch out” LXX SYR VG “stretch out”
[271] Jehovah of armies: (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֣וֹת Jehovah tsebaot) literally means an army of soldiers or military forces (Gen. 21:22; Deut. 20:9). The expression is found 285 times, with some deviations, in the Scriptures. The prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, have the most occurrences. It is also used figuratively, “the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of heaven.” (Deut. 4:19) In the plural form, it is also used of the Israelites forces as well. (Ex. 6:26; 7:4; Num. 33:1; Psa. 44:9) However, the “armies” in the expression “Jehovah of armies” is a reference to the angelic forces primarily, if not exclusively. Paul and James, quoting from the Old Testament prophecies, used its equivalent (τὰ κυρίου σαβαὼθ ta kuriou sabaōth; “the Lord of armies”) in their writings. – Rom. 9:29; Jas 5:4; cf. Isa 1:9.
[272] MT LXX VG “for a brief moment” AT SYR “for in a little anger”
[273] Fat and fatness (דָּשֵׁן dashen / דֶּשֶׁן deshen / חֵלֶב cheleb / שֶׁמֶן shemen) were considered the choicest part at a meal or banquet. One sense can be rich food conceived of in terms of oil, gaining a great deal of weight resulting in a larger size, fat. Having body fat meant that a person was healthy. Conversely, they referred to a physically fit, healthy person as fat. David had experienced God’s love and care. He felt completely satisfied, like the rich food at the banquet. In life, he had received the best, the choicest part. Therefore, he would joyfully praise God Almighty continually from his lips.
[274] DSS AT LXX SYR VG “them” MT “him”
[275] DSS LXX “dreamers” SYR “see” MT “panting”
[276] This is a reference to the religious leaders of Judah who profess to worship God, claiming to be “his watchmen.” However, they are spiritually blind, without knowledge, mute, and loving to slumber. If they cannot fulfill their job as watchmen and verbalize the warning when there is danger, what good do they serve? These religious watchmen have no understanding and have no place to give spiritual direction to God’s people. Furthermore, they are corrupt. They have greedy, voracious, selfish appetites. Instead of heeding God’s guidance, they have all turned to their own way, pursuing each his own gain, overindulging in wine. So they are facing God’s coming judgment, all the while telling the people everything will be fine.
[277] SYR AT VG DSS “let us” MT “let me”
[278] Lit hand (יָד yad), possibly referring to idolatrous worship.
[279] A contrite person, who is crushed emotionally, expressing sorrow and pain over their sin.
[280] Human soul = body [dust of the ground] + active life force (“spirit”) [Hebrew, ruach] within the trillions of human cells that make up the human body + breath of life [Hebrew, neshamah] that sustains the life force from God.
[281] DSS MT AT SYR VGc “My God” LXX “Jehovah God” about 50 Heb. MSS “Jehovah”
[282] “You Must Afflict Your Souls” (afflict his soul or afflict our soul) is usually understood to be a reference to fasting. (Leviticus 16:31) Such fasting was an appearance of sorrow and repentance for one’s sins. Or it was carried out when one was under distressing situations. Hence, fasting was not some self-inflicted form of punishment but rather signified a humbling of oneself before God. Ezra 8:21.
[283] “You Must Afflict Your Souls” (afflict his soul or afflict our soul) is usually understood to be a reference to fasting. (Leviticus 16:31) Such fasting was an appearance of sorrow and repentance for one’s sins. Or it was carried out when one was under distressing situations. Hence, fasting was not some self-inflicted form of punishment but rather signified a humbling of oneself before God. Ezra 8:21.
[284] LXX SYR some Heb. MSS “bread” MT “soul”
[285] MTcorrection by a correction of the Masoretic Text,
“and your sons shall”
[286] AT SYR VGc one Heb. MS “them” DSS MT “it”
[287] A coat that was worn for protection during battle. The coat of mail (Heb., שִׁרְיוֹן shiryon or שִׁרְיָן shiryan) was body armor made with a cloth or leather cloak that contained hundreds of small connecting pieces of metal (like fish scales) fastened to its surface. Usually, it covered the breast, back, and shoulders. However, some went down to the knees or even the ankles.
[288] MT VG “and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression” LXX “and he will turn ungodliness back from Jacob” SYR “and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob”
[289] MT “O woman” because “you” and the verbs are fem. sing. AT LXX VGc “O Jerusalem”
[290] DSS MT AT LXX SYR VG “See” about 15 Heb. MSS “fear”
[291] LXX AT VG a DSS MSS have “by night” after “give you light”
[292] AT SYR VG about 14 Heb. MSS “my” DSS “Jehovah’s” MT “his”
[293] DSS LXX “his hands” SYR “my hands”
[294] MT “the opening of the prison to those who are bound” LXX “recovery of sight to those who are blind” The LXX reading followed by Luke in 4:18.
[295] MT VG most Heb. MSS “robbery with a burnt offering” MTemendation by a small alteration of the Masoretic Text LXX five Heb. MSS “robbery and unrighteousness” SYR “and unrighteousness”
[296] DSS AT SYR VG “Jehovah God” LXX “Jehovah” MT “the Sovereign Lord Jehovah”
[297] MT “O woman” because “your” is fem. sing. and refers to “Jerusalem.”
[298] Signal pole: The Hebrew word (נֵס nes) seems to indicate a fixed pole placed on a high location. It is used both literally and figuratively. Therefore, it does not refer to a signal for transmitting communications, such as “a cloud of smoke” or “a column of smoke” (Jg 20:38, 40) or “a warning signal” of fire (Jer 6:1), as other Hebrew words are used in those cases. Instead, this pole seems to have served as a place where troops would come together again to continue fighting after a defeat or dispersion. – Isa 5:26; 13:2; 18:3; 30:17; 31:9; Jer 4:6, 21; 50:2; 51:12, 27.
[299] MTmargin The Masoretic Text marginal notes and 17 Heb. MSS “in all their distress it was distressing to him” MT “in all their affliction he was afflicted”
[300] SYR some Heb. MSS “his servant” DSS MT VG “and his people”
[301] DSS MT VG “Shepherds” AT LXX SYR 11 Heb. MSS “shepherd”
[302] Harden Our Heart: Since God gives the people advance warnings, it could never be his fault, if they choose to become stubborn and rebellious. This is really prophetic, in that God is saying what will happen as the result of his actions. In other words, it is spoken of as though God did something because his actions are what brought about the outcome that he knew would come. God does not harden hearts against people’s free will, but he does tell us what to expect, and if we stubbornly ignore that loving insight, he does harden our hearts indirectly by his actions, but it came about because of our stubbornness. In Hebrew, the occasion or permission of an event is often presented as if it were the cause of the event. For example, God permitted or allowed Pharaoh to harden his own heart. God gave him Pharaoh the chance to exercise the wickedness that was already in him.
[303] LXXAq LXXSym LXXTh SYR “their” MT VG “your”
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