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Isaïe

Chapitres 1-39

Isaiah, Chapter 1

¹ The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

² Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth!
For the LORD has spoken:
"I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.

³ The ox knows his master,
the donkey his owner's manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand."

⁴ Ah, sinful nation,
a people loaded with guilt,
a brood of evildoers,
children given to corruption!
They have forsaken the LORD ;
they have spurned the Holy One of Israel
and turned their backs on him.

⁵ Why should you be beaten anymore?
Why do you persist in rebellion?
Your whole head is injured,
your whole heart afflicted.

⁶ From the sole of your foot to the top of your head
there is no soundness-
only wounds and welts
and open sores,
not cleansed or bandaged
or soothed with oil.

⁷ Your country is desolate,
your cities burned with fire;
your fields are being stripped by foreigners
right before you,
laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

⁸ The Daughter of Zion is left
like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a hut in a field of melons,
like a city under siege.

⁹ Unless the LORD Almighty
had left us some survivors,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD ,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the law of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!

¹¹ "The multitude of your sacrifices-
what are they to me?" says the LORD .
"I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

¹² When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?

¹³ Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

¹⁴ Your New Moon festivals 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 in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;

¹⁶ wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,

¹⁷ learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.¹
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

¹⁸ "Come now, let us reason together,"
says the LORD .
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.

¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land;

²⁰ but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword."
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

²¹ See how the faithful city
has become a harlot!
She once was full of justice;
righteousness used to dwell in her-
but now murderers!

²² Your silver has become dross,
your choice wine is diluted with water.

²³ Your rulers are rebels,
companions of thieves;
they all love bribes
and chase after gifts.
They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;
the widow's case does not come before them.

²⁴ Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty,
the Mighty One of Israel, declares:
"Ah, I will get relief from my foes
and avenge myself on my enemies.

²⁵ I will turn my hand against you;
I will thoroughly purge away your dross
and remove all your impurities.

²⁶ I will restore your judges as in days of old,
your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you will be called
the City of Righteousness,
the Faithful City."

²⁷ Zion will be redeemed with justice,
her penitent ones with righteousness.

²⁸ But rebels and sinners will both be broken,
and those who forsake the LORD will perish.

²⁹ "You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks
in which you have delighted;
you will be disgraced because of the gardens
that you have chosen.

³⁰ You will be like an oak with fading leaves,
like a garden without water.

³¹ The mighty man will become tinder
and his work a spark;
both will burn together,
with no one to quench the fire."

Isaiah, Chapter 2

¹ This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

² In the last days

³ Many peoples will come and say,

⁴ He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.

⁵ Come, O house of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the LORD .

⁶

⁷ Their land is full of silver and gold;
there is no end to their treasures.
Their land is full of horses;
there is no end to their chariots.

⁸ Their land is full of idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their fingers have made.

⁹ So man will be brought low
and mankind humbled-
do not forgive them.¹

¹⁰ Go into the rocks,
hide in the ground
from dread of the LORD
and the splendor of his majesty!

¹¹ The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled
and the pride of men brought low;
the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

¹² The LORD Almighty has a day in store
for all the proud and lofty,
for all that is exalted
(and they will be humbled),

¹³ for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty,
and all the oaks of Bashan,

¹⁴ for all the towering mountains
and all the high hills,

¹⁵ for every lofty tower
and every fortified wall,

¹⁶ for every trading ship²
and every stately vessel.

¹⁷ The arrogance of man will be brought low
and the pride of men humbled;
the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

¹⁸ and the idols will totally disappear.

¹⁹ Men will flee to caves in the rocks
and to holes in the ground
from dread of the LORD
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.

²⁰ In that day men will throw away
to the rodents and bats
their idols of silver and idols of gold,
which they made to worship.

²¹ They will flee to caverns in the rocks
and to the overhanging crags
from dread of the LORD
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.

²² Stop trusting in man,
who has but a breath in his nostrils.
Of what account is he?

Isaiah, Chapter 3

¹ See now, the Lord,
the LORD Almighty,
is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah
both supply and support:
all supplies of food and all supplies of water,

² the hero and warrior,
the judge and prophet,
the soothsayer and elder,

³ the captain of fifty and man of rank,
the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

⁴ I will make boys their officials;
mere children will govern them.

⁵ People will oppress each other-
man against man, neighbor against neighbor.
The young will rise up against the old,
the base against the honorable.

⁶ A man will seize one of his brothers
at his father's home, and say,
"You have a cloak, you be our leader;
take charge of this heap of ruins!"

⁷ But in that day he will cry out,
"I have no remedy.
I have no food or clothing in my house;
do not make me the leader of the people."

⁸ Jerusalem staggers,
Judah is falling;
their words and deeds are against the LORD ,
defying his glorious presence.

⁹ The look on their faces testifies against them;
they parade their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
They have brought disaster upon themselves.

¹⁰ Tell the righteous it will be well with them,
for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.

¹¹ Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them!
They will be paid back for what their hands have done.

¹² Youths oppress my people,
women rule over them.
O my people, your guides lead you astray;
they turn you from the path.

¹³ The LORD takes his place in court;
he rises to judge the people.

¹⁴ The LORD enters into judgment
against the elders and leaders of his people:
"It is you who have ruined my vineyard;
the plunder from the poor is in your houses.

¹⁵ What do you mean by crushing my people
and grinding the faces of the poor?"
declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

¹⁶ The LORD says,
"The women of Zion are haughty,
walking along with outstretched necks,
flirting with their eyes,
tripping along with mincing steps,
with ornaments jingling on their ankles.

¹⁷ Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion;
the LORD will make their scalps bald."

¹⁸ In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces,

¹⁹ the earrings and bracelets and veils,

²⁰ the headdresses and ankle chains and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms,

²¹ the signet rings and nose rings,

²² the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses

²³ and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.

²⁴ Instead of fragrance there will be a stench;
instead of a sash, a rope;
instead of well-dressed hair, baldness;
instead of fine clothing, sackcloth;
instead of beauty, branding.

²⁵ Your men will fall by the sword,
your warriors in battle.

²⁶ The gates of Zion will lament and mourn;
destitute, she will sit on the ground.

Isaiah, Chapter 4

¹ In that day seven women
will take hold of one man
and say, "We will eat our own food
and provide our own clothes;
only let us be called by your name.
Take away our disgrace!"

² In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.

³ Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

⁴ The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit¹ of judgment and a spirit² of fire.

⁵ Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy.

⁶ It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

Isaiah, Chapter 5

¹ I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.

² He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

³ "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴ What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?

⁵ Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.

⁶ I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it."

⁷ The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

⁸ Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field

⁹ The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:

¹⁰ A ten-acre¹ vineyard will produce only a bath² of wine,
a homer³ of seed only an ephah⁴ of grain."

¹¹ Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to run after their drinks,
who stay up late at night
till they are inflamed with wine.

¹² They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
tambourines and flutes and wine,
but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD ,
no respect for the work of his hands.

¹³ Therefore my people will go into exile
for lack of understanding;
their men of rank will die of hunger
and their masses will be parched with thirst.

¹⁴ Therefore the grave⁵ enlarges its appetite
and opens its mouth without limit;
into it will descend their nobles and masses
with all their brawlers and revelers.

¹⁵ So man will be brought low
and mankind humbled,
the eyes of the arrogant humbled.

¹⁶ But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.

¹⁷ Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
lambs will feed⁶ among the ruins of the rich.

¹⁸ Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
and wickedness as with cart ropes,

¹⁹ to those who say, "Let God hurry,
let him hasten his work
so we may see it.
Let it approach,
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come,
so 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 clever in their own sight.

²² Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
and champions at mixing drinks,

²³ who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent.

²⁴ Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay
and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty
and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵ Therefore the LORD's anger burns against his people;
his hand is raised and he strikes them down.
The mountains shake,
and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.

²⁶ He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
Here they come,
swiftly and speedily!

²⁷ Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,
not one slumbers or sleeps;
not a belt is loosened at the waist,
not a sandal thong is broken.

²⁸ Their arrows are sharp,
all their bows are strung;
their horses' hoofs seem like flint,
their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

²⁹ Their roar is like that of the lion,
they roar like young lions;
they growl as they seize their prey
and carry it off with no one to rescue.

³⁰ In that day they will roar over it
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks at the land,
he will see darkness and distress;
even the light will be darkened by the clouds.

Isaiah, Chapter 6

¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

³ And they were calling to one another:

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

⁹ He said, "Go and tell this people:

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.¹
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed."

¹¹ Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?"
And he answered:

¹² until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.

¹³ And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."

Isaiah, Chapter 7

¹ When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.

² Now the house of David was told, "Aram has allied itself with¹ Ephraim"; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

³ Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub,² to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field.

⁴ Say to him, 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood-because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.

⁵ Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah's son have plotted your ruin, saying,

⁶ "Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it."

⁷ Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says:

⁸ for the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.
Within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.

⁹ The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah's son.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
you will not stand at all.' "

¹⁰ Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz,

¹¹ "Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."

¹² But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test."

¹³ Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also?

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you³ a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and⁴ will call him Immanuel.⁵

¹⁵ He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.

¹⁶ But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

¹⁷ The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah-he will bring the king of Assyria."

¹⁸ In that day the LORD will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria.

¹⁹ They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes.

²⁰ In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the River⁶ -the king of Assyria-to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to take off your beards also.

²¹ In that day, a man will keep alive a young cow and two goats.

²² And because of the abundance of the milk they give, he will have curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey.

²³ In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels,⁷ there will be only briers and thorns.

²⁴ Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns.

²⁵ As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.

Isaiah, Chapter 8

¹ The LORD said to me, "Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.¹

² And I will call in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me."

³ Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.

⁴ Before the boy knows how to say 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria."

⁵ The LORD spoke to me again:

⁶ "Because this people has rejected
the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
and rejoices over Rezin
and the son of Remaliah,

⁷ therefore the Lord is about to bring against them
the mighty floodwaters of the River² -
the king of Assyria with all his pomp.
It will overflow all its channels,
run over all its banks

⁸ and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it,
passing through it and reaching up to the neck.
Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land,
O Immanuel³ !"

⁹ Raise the war cry,⁴ you nations, and be shattered!
Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!

¹⁰ Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
propose your plan, but it will not stand,
for God is with us.⁵

¹¹ The LORD spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said:

¹² "Do not call conspiracy
everything that these people call conspiracy⁶ ;
do not fear what they fear,
and do not dread it.

¹³ The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread,

¹⁴ and he will be a sanctuary;
but for both houses of Israel he will be
a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.

¹⁵ Many of them will stumble;
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured."

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony
and seal up the law among my disciples.

¹⁷ I will wait for the LORD ,
who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.
I will put my trust in him.

¹⁸ Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹ When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

²⁰ To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

²¹ Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.

²² Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

Isaiah, Chapter 9

¹ Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-

² The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death¹
a light has dawned.

³ You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.

⁴ For as in the day of Midian's defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.

⁵ Every warrior's boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.

⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor,² Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

⁸ The Lord has sent a message against Jacob;
it will fall on Israel.

⁹ All the people will know it-
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria-
who say with pride
and arrogance of heart,

¹⁰ "The bricks have fallen down,
but we will rebuild with dressed stone;
the fig trees have been felled,
but we will replace them with cedars."

¹¹ But the LORD has strengthened Rezin's foes against them
and has spurred their enemies on.

¹² Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west
have devoured Israel with open mouth.

¹³ But the people have not returned to him who struck them,
nor have they sought the LORD Almighty.

¹⁴ So the LORD will cut off from Israel both head and tail,
both palm branch and reed in a single day;

¹⁵ the elders and prominent men are the head,
the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

¹⁶ Those who guide this people mislead them,
and those who are guided are led astray.

¹⁷ Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men,
nor will he pity the fatherless and widows,
for everyone is ungodly and wicked,
every mouth speaks vileness.

¹⁸ Surely wickedness burns like a fire;
it consumes briers and thorns,
it sets the forest thickets ablaze,
so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.

¹⁹ By the wrath of the LORD Almighty
the land will be scorched
and the people will be fuel for the fire;
no one will spare his brother.

²⁰ On the right they will devour,
but still be hungry;
on the left they will eat,
but not be satisfied.
Each will feed on the flesh of his own offspring³ :

²¹ Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh;
together they will turn against Judah.

Isaiah, Chapter 10

¹ Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,

² to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.

³ What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?

⁴ Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives
or fall among the slain.

⁵ "Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,
in whose hand is the club of my wrath!

⁶ I send him against a godless nation,
I dispatch him against a people who anger me,
to seize loot and snatch plunder,
and to trample them down like mud in the streets.

⁷ But this is not what he intends,
this is not what he has in mind;
his purpose is to destroy,
to put an end to many nations.

⁸ 'Are not my commanders all kings?' he says.

⁹ 'Has not Calno fared like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad,
and Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰ As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols,
kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria-

¹¹ shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images
as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?' "

¹² When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, "I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.

¹³ For he says:

¹⁴ As one reaches into a nest,
so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations;
as men gather abandoned eggs,
so I gathered all the countries;
not one flapped a wing,
or opened its mouth to chirp.' "

¹⁵ Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it,
or the saw boast against him who uses it?
As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up,
or a club brandish him who is not wood!

¹⁶ Therefore, the Lord, the LORD Almighty,
will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors;
under his pomp a fire will be kindled
like a blazing flame.

¹⁷ The Light of Israel will become a fire,
their Holy One a flame;
in a single day it will burn and consume
his thorns and his briers.

¹⁸ The splendor of his forests and fertile fields
it will completely destroy,
as when a sick man wastes away.

¹⁹ And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few
that a child could write them down.

²⁰ In that day the remnant of Israel,
the survivors of the house of Jacob,
will no longer rely on him
who struck them down
but will truly rely on the LORD ,
the Holy One of Israel.

²¹ A remnant will return,¹ a remnant of Jacob
will return to the Mighty God.

²² Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea,
only a remnant will return.
Destruction has been decreed,
overwhelming and righteous.

²³ The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out
the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

²⁴ Therefore, this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says:

²⁵ Very soon my anger against you will end
and my wrath will be directed to their destruction."

²⁶ The LORD Almighty will lash them with a whip,
as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb;
and he will raise his staff over the waters,
as he did in Egypt.

²⁷ In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders,
their yoke from your neck;
the yoke will be broken
because you have grown so fat.²

²⁸ They enter Aiath;
they pass through Migron;
they store supplies at Micmash.

²⁹ They go over the pass, and say,
"We will camp overnight at Geba."
Ramah trembles;
Gibeah of Saul flees.

³⁰ Cry out, O Daughter of Gallim!
Listen, O Laishah!
Poor Anathoth!

³¹ Madmenah is in flight;
the people of Gebim take cover.

³² This day they will halt at Nob;
they will shake their fist
at the mount of the Daughter of Zion,
at the hill of Jerusalem.

³³ See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty,
will lop off the boughs with great power.
The lofty trees will be felled,
the tall ones will be brought low.

³⁴ He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax;
Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

Isaiah, Chapter 11

¹ A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -

³ and he will delight in the fear of the LORD .

⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

⁵ Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling¹ together;
and a little child will lead them.

⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

⁸ The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.

⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰ In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.

¹¹ In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt,² from Cush,³ from Elam, from Babylonia,⁴ from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.

¹² He will raise a banner for the nations
and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
from the four quarters of the earth.

¹³ Ephraim's jealousy will vanish,
and Judah's enemies⁵ will be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.

¹⁴ They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west;
together they will plunder the people to the east.
They will lay hands on Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

¹⁵ The LORD will dry up
the gulf of the Egyptian sea;
with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand
over the Euphrates River.⁶
He will break it up into seven streams
so that men can cross over in sandals.

¹⁶ There will be a highway for the remnant of his people
that is left from Assyria,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from Egypt.

Isaiah, Chapter 12

¹ In that day you will say:

² Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD , the LORD , is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation."

³ With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.

⁴ In that day you will say:

⁵ Sing to the LORD , for he has done glorious things;
let this be known to all the world.

⁶ Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

Isaiah, Chapter 13

¹ An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

² Raise a banner on a bare hilltop,
shout to them;
beckon to them
to enter the gates of the nobles.

³ I have commanded my holy ones;
I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath-
those who rejoice in my triumph.

⁴ Listen, a noise on the mountains,
like that of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations massing together!
The LORD Almighty is mustering
an army for war.

⁵ They come from faraway lands,
from the ends of the heavens-
the LORD and the weapons of his wrath-
to destroy the whole country.

⁶ Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.¹

⁷ Because of this, all hands will go limp,
every man's heart will melt.

⁸ Terror will seize them,
pain and anguish will grip them;
they will writhe like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at each other,
their faces aflame.

⁹ See, the day of the LORD is coming
-a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger-
to make the land desolate
and destroy the sinners within it.

¹⁰ The stars of heaven and their constellations
will not show their light.
The rising sun will be darkened
and the moon will not give its light.

¹¹ I will punish the world for its evil,
the wicked for their sins.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty
and will humble the pride of the ruthless.

¹² I will make man scarcer than pure gold,
more rare than the gold of Ophir.

¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the LORD Almighty,
in the day of his burning anger.

¹⁴ Like a hunted gazelle,
like sheep without a shepherd,
each will return to his own people,
each will flee to his native land.

¹⁵ Whoever is captured will be thrust through;
all who are caught will fall by the sword.

¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
their houses will be looted and their wives ravished.

¹⁷ See, I will stir up against them the Medes,
who do not care for silver
and have no delight in gold.

¹⁸ Their bows will strike down the young men;
they will have no mercy on infants
nor will they look with compassion on children.

¹⁹ Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
the glory of the Babylonians'² pride,
will be overthrown by God
like Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁰ She will never be inhabited
or lived in through all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there,
no shepherd will rest his flocks there.

²¹ But desert creatures will lie there,
jackals will fill her houses;
there the owls will dwell,
and there the wild goats will leap about.

²² Hyenas will howl in her strongholds,
jackals in her luxurious palaces.
Her time is at hand,
and her days will not be prolonged.

Isaiah, Chapter 14

¹ The LORD will have compassion on Jacob;
once again he will choose Israel
and will settle them in their own land.
Aliens will join them
and unite with the house of Jacob.

² Nations will take them
and bring them to their own place.
And the house of Israel will possess the nations
as menservants and maidservants in the LORD's land.
They will make captives of their captors
and rule over their oppressors.

³ On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage,

⁴ you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

⁵ The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,

⁶ which in anger struck down peoples
with unceasing blows,
and in fury subdued nations
with relentless aggression.

⁷ All the lands are at rest and at peace;
they break into singing.

⁸ Even the pine trees and the cedars of Lebanon
exult over you and say,
"Now that you have been laid low,
no woodsman comes to cut us down."

⁹ The grave¹ below is all astir
to meet you at your coming;

¹⁰ They will all respond,
they will say to you,
"You also have become weak, as we are;
you have become like us."

¹¹ All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,
along with the noise of your harps;
maggots are spread out beneath you
and worms cover you.

¹² How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low 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 enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.²

¹⁴ I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High."

¹⁵ But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit.

¹⁶ Those who see you stare at you,
they ponder your fate:
"Is this the man who shook the earth
and made kingdoms tremble,

¹⁷ the man who made the world a desert,
who overthrew its cities
and would not let his captives go home?"

¹⁸ All the kings of the nations lie in state,
each in his own tomb.

¹⁹ But you are cast out of your tomb
like a rejected branch;
you are covered with the slain,
with those pierced by the sword,
those who descend to the stones of the pit.
Like a corpse trampled underfoot,

²⁰ you will not join them in burial,
for you have destroyed your land
and killed your people.

²¹ Prepare a place to slaughter his sons
for the sins of their forefathers;
they are not to rise to inherit the land
and cover the earth with their cities.

²² "I will rise up against them,"
declares the LORD Almighty.
"I will cut off from Babylon her name and survivors,
her offspring and descendants,"
declares the LORD .

²³ "I will turn her into a place for owls
and into swampland;
I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,"
declares the LORD Almighty.

²⁴ The LORD Almighty has sworn,

²⁵ I will crush the Assyrian in my land;
on my mountains I will trample him down.
His yoke will be taken from my people,
and his burden removed from their shoulders."

²⁶ This is the plan determined for the whole world;
this is the hand stretched out over all nations.

²⁷ For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?
His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

²⁸ This oracle came in the year King Ahaz died:

²⁹ Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
that the rod that struck you is broken;
from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,
its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.

³⁰ The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
But your root I will destroy by famine;
it will slay your survivors.

³¹ Wail, O gate! Howl, O city!
Melt away, all you Philistines!
A cloud of smoke comes from the north,
and there is not a straggler in its ranks.

³² What answer shall be given
to the envoys of that nation?
"The LORD has established Zion,
and in her his afflicted people will find refuge."

Isaiah, Chapter 15

¹ An oracle concerning Moab:

² Dibon goes up to its temple,
to its high places to weep;
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.
Every head is shaved
and every beard cut off.

³ In the streets they wear sackcloth;
on the roofs and in the public squares
they all wail,
prostrate with weeping.

⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,
and their hearts are faint.

⁵ My heart cries out over Moab;
her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,
as far as Eglath Shelishiyah.
They go up the way to Luhith,
weeping as they go;
on the road to Horonaim
they lament their destruction.

⁶ The waters of Nimrim are dried up
and the grass is withered;
the vegetation is gone
and nothing green is left.

⁷ So the wealth they have acquired and stored up
they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.

⁸ Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;
their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,
their lamentation as far as Beer Elim.

⁹ Dimon's¹ waters are full of blood,
but I will bring still more upon Dimon² -
a lion upon the fugitives of Moab
and upon those who remain in the land.

Isaiah, Chapter 16

¹ Send lambs as tribute
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, across the desert,
to the mount of the Daughter of Zion.

² Like fluttering birds
pushed from the nest,
so are the women of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.

³ "Give us counsel,
render a decision.
Make your shadow like night-
at high noon.
Hide the fugitives,
do not betray the refugees.

⁴ Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;
be their shelter from the destroyer."

⁵ In love a throne will be established;
in faithfulness a man will sit on it-
one from the house¹ of David-
one who in judging seeks justice
and speeds the cause of righteousness.

⁶ We have heard of Moab's pride-
her overweening pride and conceit,
her pride and her insolence-
but her boasts are empty.

⁷ Therefore the Moabites wail,
they wail together for Moab.
Lament and grieve
for the men² of Kir Hareseth.

⁸ The fields of Heshbon wither,
the vines of Sibmah also.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled down the choicest vines,
which once reached Jazer
and spread toward the desert.
Their shoots spread out
and went as far as the sea.

⁹ So I weep, as Jazer weeps,
for the vines of Sibmah.
O Heshbon, O Elealeh,
I drench you with tears!
The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit
and over your harvests have been stilled.

¹⁰ Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;
no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;
no one treads out wine at the presses,
for I have put an end to the shouting.

¹¹ My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.

¹² When Moab appears at her high place,
she only wears herself out;
when she goes to her shrine to pray,
it is to no avail.

¹³ This is the word the LORD has already spoken concerning Moab.

¹⁴ But now the LORD says: "Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab's splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble."

Isaiah, Chapter 17

¹ An oracle concerning Damascus:

² The cities of Aroer will be deserted
and left to flocks, which will lie down,
with no one to make them afraid.

³ The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of the Israelites,"
declares the LORD Almighty.

⁴ "In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;
the fat of his body will waste away.

⁵ It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain
and harvests the grain with his arm-
as when a man gleans heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.

⁶ Yet some gleanings will remain,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
four or five on the fruitful boughs,"
declares the LORD , the God of Israel.

⁷ In that day men will look to their Maker
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸ They will not look to the altars,
the work of their hands,
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles¹
and the incense altars their fingers have made.

⁹ In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

¹⁰ You have forgotten God your Savior;
you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
and plant imported vines,

¹¹ though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
in the day of disease and incurable pain.

¹² Oh, the raging of many nations-
they rage like the raging sea!
Oh, the uproar of the peoples-
they roar like the roaring of great waters!

¹³ Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.

¹⁴ In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.

Isaiah, Chapter 18

¹ Woe to the land of whirring wings¹
along the rivers of Cush,²

² which sends envoys by sea
in papyrus boats over the water.

³ All you people of the world,
you who live on the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains,
you will see it,
and when a trumpet sounds,
you will hear it.

⁴ This is what the LORD says to me:
"I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

⁵ For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

⁶ They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey
and to the wild animals;
the birds will feed on them all summer,
the wild animals all winter.

⁷ At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD Almighty

Isaiah, Chapter 19

¹ An oracle concerning Egypt:

² "I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian-
brother will fight against brother,
neighbor against neighbor,
city against city,
kingdom against kingdom.

³ The Egyptians will lose heart,
and I will bring their plans to nothing;
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
the mediums and the spiritists.

⁴ I will hand the Egyptians over
to the power of a cruel master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,"
declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

⁵ The waters of the river will dry up,
and the riverbed will be parched and dry.

⁶ The canals will stink;
the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up.
The reeds and rushes will wither,

⁷ also the plants along the Nile,
at the mouth of the river.
Every sown field along the Nile
will become parched, will blow away and be no more.

⁸ The fishermen will groan and lament,
all who cast hooks into the Nile;
those who throw nets on the water
will pine away.

⁹ Those who work with combed flax will despair,
the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.

¹⁰ The workers in cloth will be dejected,
and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.

¹¹ The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools;
the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
"I am one of the wise men,
a disciple of the ancient kings"?

¹² Where are your wise men now?
Let them show you and make known
what the LORD Almighty
has planned against Egypt.

¹³ The officials of Zoan have become fools,
the leaders of Memphis¹ are deceived;
the cornerstones of her peoples
have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴ The LORD has poured into them
a spirit of dizziness;
they make Egypt stagger in all that she does,
as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.

¹⁵ There is nothing Egypt can do-
head or tail, palm branch or reed.

¹⁶ In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them.

¹⁷ And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the LORD Almighty is planning against them.

¹⁸ In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. One of them will be called the City of Destruction.²

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border.

²⁰ It will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them.

²¹ So the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the LORD . They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and keep them.

²² The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD , and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.

²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.

²⁵ The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance."

Isaiah, Chapter 20

¹ In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it-

² at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, "Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet." And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

³ Then the LORD said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush,¹

⁴ so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared-to Egypt's shame.

⁵ Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame.

⁶ In that day the people who live on this coast will say, 'See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?' "

Isaiah, Chapter 21

¹ An oracle concerning the Desert by the Sea:

² A dire vision has been shown to me:
The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

³ At this my body is racked with pain,
pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
I am bewildered by what I see.

⁴ My heart falters,
fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
has become a horror to me.

⁵ They set the tables,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink!
Get up, you officers,
oil the shields!

⁶ This is what the Lord says to me:

⁷ When he sees chariots
with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys
or riders on camels,
let him be alert,
fully alert."

⁸ And the lookout¹ shouted,

⁹ Look, here comes a man in a chariot
with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
'Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods
lie shattered on the ground!' "

¹⁰ O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,
I tell you what I have heard
from the LORD Almighty,
from the God of Israel.

¹¹ An oracle concerning Dumah² :

¹² The watchman replies,
"Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
and come back yet again."

¹³ An oracle concerning Arabia:

¹⁴ bring water for the thirsty;
you who live in Tema,
bring food for the fugitives.

¹⁵ They flee from the sword,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
and from the heat of battle.

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says to me: "Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar will come to an end.

¹⁷ The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few." The LORD , the God of Israel, has spoken.

Isaiah, Chapter 22

¹ An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision:

² O town full of commotion,
O city of tumult and revelry?
Your slain were not killed by the sword,
nor did they die in battle.

³ All your leaders have fled together;
they have been captured without using the bow.
All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,
having fled while the enemy was still far away.

⁴ Therefore I said, "Turn away from me;
let me weep bitterly.
Do not try to console me
over the destruction of my people."

⁵ The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day
of tumult and trampling and terror
in the Valley of Vision,
a day of battering down walls
and of crying out to the mountains.

⁶ Elam takes up the quiver,
with her charioteers and horses;
Kir uncovers the shield.

⁷ Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,
and horsemen are posted at the city gates;

⁸ the defenses of Judah are stripped away.

⁹ you saw that the City of David
had many breaches in its defenses;
you stored up water
in the Lower Pool.

¹⁰ You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.

¹¹ You built a reservoir between the two walls
for the water of the Old Pool,
but you did not look to the One who made it,
or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.

¹² The Lord, the LORD Almighty,
called you on that day
to weep and to wail,
to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.

¹³ But see, there is joy and revelry,
slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking of wine!
"Let us eat and drink," you say,
"for tomorrow we die!"

¹⁴ The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: "Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for," says the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

¹⁵ This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says:

¹⁶ What are you doing here and who gave you permission
to cut out a grave for yourself here,
hewing your grave on the height
and chiseling your resting place in the rock?

¹⁷ "Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you
and hurl you away, O you mighty man.

¹⁸ He will roll you up tightly like a ball
and throw you into a large country.

¹⁹ I will depose you from your office,
and you will be ousted from your position.

²⁰ "In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

²¹ I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

²² I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

²³ I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat¹ of honor for the house of his father.

²⁴ All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots-all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.

²⁵ "In that day," declares the LORD Almighty, "the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down." The LORD has spoken.

Isaiah, Chapter 23

¹ An oracle concerning Tyre:

² Be silent, you people of the island
and you merchants of Sidon,
whom the seafarers have enriched.

³ On the great waters
came the grain of the Shihor;
the harvest of the Nile¹ was the revenue of Tyre,
and she became the marketplace of the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea,
for the sea has spoken:
"I have neither been in labor nor given birth;
I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters."

⁵ When word comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, you people of the island.

⁷ Is this your city of revelry,
the old, old city,
whose feet have taken her
to settle in far-off lands?

⁸ Who planned this against Tyre,
the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants are princes,
whose traders are renowned in the earth?

⁹ The LORD Almighty planned it,
to bring low the pride of all glory
and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

¹⁰ Till² your land as along the Nile,
O Daughter of Tarshish,
for you no longer have a harbor.

¹¹ The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea
and made its kingdoms tremble.
He has given an order concerning Phoenicia³
that her fortresses be destroyed.

¹² He said, "No more of your reveling,
O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed!

¹³ Look at the land of the Babylonians,⁴
this people that is now of no account!
The Assyrians have made it
a place for desert creatures;
they raised up their siege towers,
they stripped its fortresses bare
and turned it into a ruin.

¹⁴ Wail, you ships of Tarshish;
your fortress is destroyed!

¹⁵ At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king's life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶ "Take up a harp, walk through the city,
O prostitute forgotten;
play the harp well, sing many a song,
so that you will be remembered."

¹⁷ At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

¹⁸ Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD ; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD , for abundant food and fine clothes.

Isaiah, Chapter 24

¹
See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth
and devastate it;
he will ruin its face
and scatter its inhabitants-

² it will be the same
for priest as for people,
for master as for servant,
for mistress as for maid,
for seller as for buyer,
for borrower as for lender,
for debtor as for creditor.

³ The earth will be completely laid waste
and totally plundered.
The LORD has spoken this word.

⁴ The earth dries up and withers,
the world languishes and withers,
the exalted of the earth languish.

⁵ The earth is defiled by its people;
they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶ Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left.

⁷ The new wine dries up and the vine withers;
all the merrymakers groan.

⁸ The gaiety of the tambourines is stilled,
the noise of the revelers has stopped,
the joyful harp is silent.

⁹ No longer do they drink wine with a song;
the beer is bitter to its drinkers.

¹⁰ The ruined city lies desolate;
the entrance to every house is barred.

¹¹ In the streets they cry out for wine;
all joy turns to gloom,
all gaiety is banished from the earth.

¹² The city is left in ruins,
its gate is battered to pieces.

¹³ So will it be on the earth
and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.

¹⁴ They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
from the west they acclaim the LORD's majesty.

¹⁵ Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD ;
exalt the name of the LORD , the God of Israel,
in the islands of the sea.

¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear singing:
"Glory to the Righteous One."

¹⁷ Terror and pit and snare await you,
O people of the earth.

¹⁸ Whoever flees at the sound of terror
will fall into a pit;
whoever climbs out of the pit
will be caught in a snare.

¹⁹ The earth is broken up,
the earth is split asunder,
the earth is thoroughly shaken.

²⁰ The earth reels like a drunkard,
it sways like a hut in the wind;
so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion
that it falls-never to rise again.

²¹ In that day the LORD will punish
the powers in the heavens above
and the kings on the earth below.

²² They will be herded together
like prisoners bound in a dungeon;
they will be shut up in prison
and be punished¹ after many days.

²³ The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed;
for the LORD Almighty will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and before its elders, gloriously.

Isaiah, Chapter 25

¹ O LORD , you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done marvelous things,
things planned long ago.

² You have made the city a heap of rubble,
the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners' stronghold a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.

³ Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
cities of ruthless nations will revere you.

⁴ You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm
and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
is like a storm driving against a wall

⁵ and like the heat of the desert.
You silence the uproar of foreigners;
as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

⁶ On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine-
the best of meats and the finest of wines.

⁷ On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;

⁸ he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove the disgrace of his people
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.

⁹ In that day they will say,

¹⁰ The hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain;
but Moab will be trampled under him
as straw is trampled down in the manure.

¹¹ They will spread out their hands in it,
as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim.
God will bring down their pride
despite the cleverness¹ of their hands.

¹² He will bring down your high fortified walls
and lay them low;
he will bring them down to the ground,
to the very dust.

Isaiah, Chapter 26

¹ In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

² Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.

³ You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.

⁴ Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD , the LORD , is the Rock eternal.

⁵ He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.

⁶ Feet trample it down-
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.

⁷ The path of the righteous is level;
O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.

⁸ Yes, LORD , walking in the way of your laws,¹
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.

⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰ Though grace is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and regard not the majesty of the LORD .

¹¹ O LORD , your hand is lifted high,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

¹² LORD , you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

¹³ O LORD , our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone do we honor.

¹⁴ They are now dead, they live no more;
those departed spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
you wiped out all memory of them.

¹⁵ You have enlarged the nation, O LORD ;
you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶ LORD , they came to you in their distress;
when you disciplined them,
they could barely whisper a prayer.²

¹⁷ As a woman with child and about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, O LORD .

¹⁸ We were with child, we writhed in pain,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth;
we have not given birth to people of the world.

¹⁹ But your dead will live;
their bodies will rise.
You who dwell in the dust,
wake up and shout for joy.
Your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.

²⁰ Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until his wrath has passed by.

²¹ See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling
to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her;
she will conceal her slain no longer.

Isaiah, Chapter 27

¹ In that day,

² In that day-

³ I, the LORD , watch over it;
I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
so that no one may harm it.

⁴ I am not angry.
If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!
I would march against them in battle;
I would set them all on fire.

⁵ Or else let them come to me for refuge;
let them make peace with me,
yes, let them make peace with me."

⁶ In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill all the world with fruit.

⁷ Has the LORD struck her
as he struck down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
as those were killed who killed her?

⁸ By warfare¹ and exile you contend with her-
with his fierce blast he drives her out,
as on a day the east wind blows.

⁹ By this, then, will Jacob's guilt be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles² or incense altars
will be left standing.

¹⁰ The fortified city stands desolate,
an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert;
there the calves graze,
there they lie down;
they strip its branches bare.

¹¹ When its twigs are dry, they are broken off
and women come and make fires with them.
For this is a people without understanding;
so their Maker has no compassion on them,
and their Creator shows them no favor.

¹² In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates³ to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one.

¹³ And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Isaiah, Chapter 28

¹
Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim's drunkards,
to the fading flower, his glorious beauty,
set on the head of a fertile valley-
to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!

² See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong.
Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind,
like a driving rain and a flooding downpour,
he will throw it forcefully to the ground.

³ That wreath, the pride of Ephraim's drunkards,
will be trampled underfoot.

⁴ That fading flower, his glorious beauty,
set on the head of a fertile valley,
will be like a fig ripe before harvest-
as soon as someone sees it and takes it in his hand,
he swallows it.

⁵ In that day the LORD Almighty
will be a glorious crown,
a beautiful wreath
for the remnant of his people.

⁶ He will be a spirit of justice
to him who sits in judgment,
a source of strength
to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷ And these also stagger from wine
and reel from beer:
Priests and prophets stagger from beer
and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
they stagger when seeing visions,
they stumble when rendering decisions.

⁸ All the tables are covered with vomit
and there is not a spot without filth.

⁹ "Who is it he is trying to teach?
To whom is he explaining his message?
To children weaned from their milk,
to those just taken from the breast?

¹⁰ For it is:
Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule¹ ;
a little here, a little there."

¹¹ Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
God will speak to this people,

¹² to whom he said,
"This is the resting place, let the weary rest";
and, "This is the place of repose"-
but they would not listen.

¹³ So then, the word of the LORD to them will become:
Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule;
a little here, a little there-
so that they will go and fall backward,
be injured and snared and captured.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the LORD , you scoffers
who rule this people in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ You boast, "We have entered into a covenant with death,
with the grave² we have made an agreement.
When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by,
it cannot touch us,
for we have made a lie our refuge
and falsehood³ our hiding place."

¹⁶ So this is what the Sovereign LORD says:

¹⁷ I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line;
hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie,
and water will overflow your hiding place.

¹⁸ Your covenant with death will be annulled;
your agreement with the grave will not stand.
When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by,
you will be beaten down by it.

¹⁹ As often as it comes it will carry you away;
morning after morning, by day and by night,
it will sweep through."

²⁰ The bed is too short to stretch out on,
the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.

²¹ The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,
he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon-
to do his work, his strange work,
and perform his task, his alien task.

²² Now stop your mocking,
or your chains will become heavier;
the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has told me
of the destruction decreed against the whole land.

²³ Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention and hear what I say.

²⁴ When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?
Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil?

²⁵ When he has leveled the surface,
does he not sow caraway and scatter cummin?
Does he not plant wheat in its place,⁴
barley in its plot,⁵
and spelt in its field?

²⁶ His God instructs him
and teaches him the right way.

²⁷ Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,
and cummin with a stick.

²⁸ Grain must be ground to make bread;
so one does not go on threshing it forever.
Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it,
his horses do not grind it.

²⁹ All this also comes from the LORD Almighty,
wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.

Isaiah, Chapter 29

¹ Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David settled!
Add year to year
and let your cycle of festivals go on.

² Yet I will besiege Ariel;
she will mourn and lament,
she will be to me like an altar hearth.¹

³ I will encamp against you all around;
I will encircle you with towers
and set up my siege works against you.

⁴ Brought low, you will speak from the ground;
your speech will mumble out of the dust.
Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;
out of the dust your speech will whisper.

⁵ But your many enemies will become like fine dust,
the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant,

⁶ the LORD Almighty will come
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.

⁷ Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be as it is with a dream,
with a vision in the night-

⁸ as when a hungry man dreams that he is eating,
but he awakens, and his hunger remains;
as when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking,
but he awakens faint, with his thirst unquenched.
So will it be with the hordes of all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹ Be stunned and amazed,
blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not from wine,
stagger, but not from beer.

¹⁰ The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep:
He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
he has covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹ For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I can't; it is sealed."

¹² Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I don't know how to read."

¹³ The Lord says:

¹⁴ Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

¹⁵ Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the LORD ,
who do their work in darkness and think,
"Who sees us? Who will know?"

¹⁶ You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
"He did not make me"?
Can the pot say of the potter,
"He knows nothing"?

¹⁷ In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field
and the fertile field seem like a forest?

¹⁸ In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.

¹⁹ Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD ;
the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰ The ruthless will vanish,
the mockers will disappear,
and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down-

²¹ those who with a word make a man out to be guilty,
who ensnare the defender in court
and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.

²² Therefore this is what the LORD , who redeemed Abraham, says to the house of Jacob:

²³ When they see among them their children,
the work of my hands,
they will keep my name holy;
they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴ Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;
those who complain will accept instruction."

Isaiah, Chapter 30

¹ "Woe to the obstinate children,"
declares the LORD ,
"to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,
heaping sin upon sin;

² who go down to Egypt
without consulting me;
who look for help to Pharaoh's protection,
to Egypt's shade for refuge.

³ But Pharaoh's protection will be to your shame,
Egypt's shade will bring you disgrace.

⁴ Though they have officials in Zoan
and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

⁵ everyone will be put to shame
because of a people useless to them,
who bring neither help nor advantage,
but only shame and disgrace."

⁶ An oracle concerning the animals of the Negev:

⁷ to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.
Therefore I call her
Rahab the Do-Nothing.

⁸ Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
it may be an everlasting witness.

⁹ These are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to listen to the LORD's instruction.

¹⁰ They say to the seers,
"See no more visions!"
and to the prophets,
"Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things,
prophesy illusions.

¹¹ Leave this way,
get off this path,
and stop confronting us
with the Holy One of Israel!"

¹² Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

¹³ this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

¹⁴ It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found
for taking coals from a hearth
or scooping water out of a cistern."

¹⁵ This is what the Sovereign LORD , the Holy One of Israel, says:

¹⁶ You said, 'No, we will flee on horses.'
Therefore you will flee!
You said, 'We will ride off on swift horses.'
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

¹⁷ A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill."

¹⁸ Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!

¹⁹ O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

²⁰ Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.

²¹ Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

²² Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, "Away with you!"

²³ He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.

²⁴ The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel.

²⁵ In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill.

²⁶ The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

²⁷ See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,
with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath,
and his tongue is a consuming fire.

²⁸ His breath is like a rushing torrent,
rising up to the neck.
He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
he places in the jaws of the peoples
a bit that leads them astray.

²⁹ And you will sing
as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;
your hearts will rejoice
as when people go up with flutes
to the mountain of the LORD ,
to the Rock of Israel.

³⁰ The LORD will cause men to hear his majestic voice
and will make them see his arm coming down
with raging anger and consuming fire,
with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.

³¹ The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria;
with his scepter he will strike them down.

³² Every stroke the LORD lays on them
with his punishing rod
will be to the music of tambourines and harps,
as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.

³³ Topheth has long been prepared;
it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,
with an abundance of fire and wood;
the breath of the LORD ,
like a stream of burning sulfur,
sets it ablaze.

Isaiah, Chapter 31

¹ Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who rely on horses,
who trust in the multitude of their chariots
and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
or seek help from the LORD .

² Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster;
he does not take back his words.
He will rise up against the house of the wicked,
against those who help evildoers.

³ But the Egyptians are men and not God;
their horses are flesh and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out his hand,
he who helps will stumble,
he who is helped will fall;
both will perish together.

⁴ This is what the LORD says to me:

⁵ Like birds hovering overhead,
the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem;
he will shield it and deliver it,
he will 'pass over' it and will rescue it."

⁶ Return to him you have so greatly revolted against, O Israelites.

⁷ For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.

⁸ "Assyria will fall by a sword that is not of man;
a sword, not of mortals, will devour them.
They will flee before the sword
and their young men will be put to forced labor.

⁹ Their stronghold will fall because of terror;
at sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,"
declares the LORD ,
whose fire is in Zion,
whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Isaiah, Chapter 32

¹ See, a king will reign in righteousness
and rulers will rule with justice.

² Each man will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

³ Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴ The mind of the rash will know and understand,
and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.

⁵ No longer will the fool be called noble
nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

⁶ For the fool speaks folly,
his mind is busy with evil:
He practices ungodliness
and spreads error concerning the LORD ;
the hungry he leaves empty
and from the thirsty he withholds water.

⁷ The scoundrel's methods are wicked,
he makes up evil schemes
to destroy the poor with lies,
even when the plea of the needy is just.

⁸ But the noble man makes noble plans,
and by noble deeds he stands.

⁹ You women who are so complacent,
rise up and listen to me;
you daughters who feel secure,
hear what I have to say!

¹⁰ In little more than a year
you who feel secure will tremble;
the grape harvest will fail,
and the harvest of fruit will not come.

¹¹ Tremble, you complacent women;
shudder, you daughters who feel secure!
Strip off your clothes,
put sackcloth around your waists.

¹² Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vines

¹³ and for the land of my people,
a land overgrown with thorns and briers-
yes, mourn for all houses of merriment
and for this city of revelry.

¹⁴ The fortress will be abandoned,
the noisy city deserted;
citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,
the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,

¹⁵ till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
and the desert becomes a fertile field,
and the fertile field seems like a forest.

¹⁶ Justice will dwell in the desert
and righteousness live in the fertile field.

¹⁷ The fruit of righteousness will be peace;
the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

¹⁸ My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,
in secure homes,
in undisturbed places of rest.

¹⁹ Though hail flattens the forest
and the city is leveled completely,

²⁰ how blessed you will be,
sowing your seed by every stream,
and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

Isaiah, Chapter 33

¹ Woe to you, O destroyer,
you who have not been destroyed!
Woe to you, O traitor,
you who have not been betrayed!
When you stop destroying,
you will be destroyed;
when you stop betraying,
you will be betrayed.

² O LORD , be gracious to us;
we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in time of distress.

³ At the thunder of your voice, the peoples flee;
when you rise up, the nations scatter.

⁴ Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts;
like a swarm of locusts men pounce on it.

⁵ The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶ He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.¹

⁷ Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets;
the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

⁸ The highways are deserted,
no travelers are on the roads.
The treaty is broken,
its witnesses² are despised,
no one is respected.

⁹ The land mourns³ and wastes away,
Lebanon is ashamed and withers;
Sharon is like the Arabah,
and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

¹⁰ "Now will I arise," says the LORD .
"Now will I be exalted;
now will I be lifted up.

¹¹ You conceive chaff,
you give birth to straw;
your breath is a fire that consumes you.

¹² The peoples will be burned as if to lime;
like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze."

¹³ You who are far away, hear what I have done;
you who are near, acknowledge my power!

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are terrified;
trembling grips the godless:
"Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?
Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?"

¹⁵ He who walks righteously
and speaks what is right,
who rejects gain from extortion
and keeps his hand from accepting bribes,
who stops his ears against plots of murder
and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil-

¹⁶ this is the man who will dwell on the heights,
whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.
His bread will be supplied,
and water will not fail him.

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the king in his beauty
and view a land that stretches afar.

¹⁸ In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror:
"Where is that chief officer?
Where is the one who took the revenue?
Where is the officer in charge of the towers?"

¹⁹ You will see those arrogant people no more,
those people of an obscure speech,
with their strange, incomprehensible tongue.

²⁰ Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals;
your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved;
its stakes will never be pulled up,
nor any of its ropes broken.

²¹ There the LORD will be our Mighty One.
It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.
No galley with oars will ride them,
no mighty ship will sail them.

²² For the LORD is our judge,
the LORD is our lawgiver,
the LORD is our king;
it is he who will save us.

²³ Your rigging hangs loose:
The mast is not held secure,
the sail is not spread.
Then an abundance of spoils will be divided
and even the lame will carry off plunder.

²⁴ No one living in Zion will say, "I am ill";
and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.

Isaiah, Chapter 34

¹ Come near, you nations, and listen;
pay attention, you peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
the world, and all that comes out of it!

² The LORD is angry with all nations;
his wrath is upon all their armies.
He will totally destroy¹ them,
he will give them over to slaughter.

³ Their slain will be thrown out,
their dead bodies will send up a stench;
the mountains will be soaked with their blood.

⁴ All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved
and the sky rolled up like a scroll;
all the starry host will fall
like withered leaves from the vine,
like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

⁵ My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
see, it descends in judgment on Edom,
the people I have totally destroyed.

⁶ The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood,
it is covered with fat-
the blood of lambs and goats,
fat from the kidneys of rams.
For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah
and a great slaughter in Edom.

⁷ And the wild oxen will fall with them,
the bull calves and the great bulls.
Their land will be drenched with blood,
and the dust will be soaked with fat.

⁸ For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
a year of retribution, to uphold Zion's cause.

⁹ Edom's streams will be turned into pitch,
her dust into burning sulfur;
her land will become blazing pitch!

¹⁰ It will not be quenched night and day;
its smoke will rise forever.
From generation to generation it will lie desolate;
no one will ever pass through it again.

¹¹ The desert owl² and screech owl³ will possess it;
the great owl⁴ and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch out over Edom
the measuring line of chaos
and the plumb line of desolation.

¹² Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom,
all her princes will vanish away.

¹³ Thorns will overrun her citadels,
nettles and brambles her strongholds.
She will become a haunt for jackals,
a home for owls.

¹⁴ Desert creatures will meet with hyenas,
and wild goats will bleat to each other;
there the night creatures will also repose
and find for themselves places of rest.

¹⁵ The owl will nest there and lay eggs,
she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings;
there also the falcons will gather,
each with its mate.

¹⁶ Look in the scroll of the LORD and read:

¹⁷ He allots their portions;
his hand distributes them by measure.
They will possess it forever
and dwell there from generation to generation.

Isaiah, Chapter 35

¹ The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus,

² it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the LORD ,
the splendor of our God.

³ Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;

⁴ say to those with fearful hearts,
"Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you."

⁵ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶ Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.

⁷ The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

⁸ And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on it.¹

⁹ No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,

¹⁰ and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Isaiah, Chapter 36

¹ In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

² Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field,

³ Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.

⁴ The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah,

⁵ You say you have strategy and military strength-but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?

⁶ Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man's hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.

⁷ And if you say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God"-isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar"?

⁸ " 'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses-if you can put riders on them!

⁹ How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

¹⁰ Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD ? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.' "

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall."

¹² But the commander replied, "Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall-who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?"

¹³ Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

¹⁴ This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you!

¹⁵ Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, 'The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'

¹⁶ "Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

¹⁷ until I come and take you to a land like your own-a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸ "Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, 'The LORD will deliver us.' Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

²⁰ Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"

²¹ But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, "Do not answer him."

²² Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.

Isaiah, Chapter 37

¹ When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD .

² He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

³ They told him, "This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.

⁴ It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives."

⁵ When King Hezekiah's officials came to Isaiah,

⁶ Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard-those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷ Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.' "

⁸ When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.

⁹ Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite¹ king of Egypt , was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:

¹⁰ "Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, 'Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.'

¹¹ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?

¹² Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them-the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?

¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?"

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD .

¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD :

¹⁶ "O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

¹⁷ Give ear, O LORD , and hear; open your eyes, O LORD , and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.

¹⁸ "It is true, O LORD , that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.

¹⁹ They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.

²⁰ Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD , are God.² "

²¹ Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD , the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,

²² this is the word the LORD has spoken against him:

²³ Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴ By your messengers
you have heaped insults on the Lord.
And you have said,
'With my many chariots
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its pines.
I have reached its remotest heights,
the finest of its forests.

²⁵ I have dug wells in foreign lands³
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.'

²⁶ "Have you not heard?
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.

²⁷ Their people, drained of power,
are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched⁴ before it grows up.

²⁸ "But I know where you stay
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.

²⁹ Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
by the way you came.

³⁰ "This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah:

³¹ Once more a remnant of the house of Judah
will take root below and bear fruit above.

³² For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

³³ "Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria:

³⁴ By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,"
declares the LORD .

³⁵ "I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!"

³⁶ Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning-there were all the dead bodies!

³⁷ So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

³⁸ One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

Isaiah, Chapter 38

¹ In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover."

² Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD ,

³ "Remember, O LORD , how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:

⁵ "Go and tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the LORD , the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.

⁶ And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

⁷ " 'This is the LORD's sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised:

⁸ I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.' " So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

⁹ A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

¹⁰ I said, "In the prime of my life
must I go through the gates of death¹
and be robbed of the rest of my years?"

¹¹ I said, "I will not again see the LORD ,
the LORD , in the land of the living;
no longer will I look on mankind,
or be with those who now dwell in this world.²

¹² Like a shepherd's tent my house
has been pulled down and taken from me.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,
and he has cut me off from the loom;
day and night you made an end of me.

¹³ I waited patiently till dawn,
but like a lion he broke all my bones;
day and night you made an end of me.

¹⁴ I cried like a swift or thrush,
I moaned like a mourning dove.
My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.
I am troubled; O Lord, come to my aid!"

¹⁵ But what can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.
I will walk humbly all my years
because of this anguish of my soul.

¹⁶ Lord, by such things men live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
and let me live.

¹⁷ Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins
behind your back.

¹⁸ For the grave³ cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.

¹⁹ The living, the living-they praise you,
as I am doing today;
fathers tell their children
about your faithfulness.

²⁰ The LORD will save me,
and we will sing with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the temple of the LORD .

²¹ Isaiah had said, "Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover."

²² Hezekiah had asked, "What will be the sign that I will go up to the temple of the LORD ?"

Isaiah, Chapter 39

¹ At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery.

² Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses-the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

³ Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, "What did those men say, and where did they come from?"
"From a distant land," Hezekiah replied. "They came to me from Babylon."

⁴ The prophet asked, "What did they see in your palace?"
"They saw everything in my palace," Hezekiah said. "There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them."

⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD Almighty:

⁶ The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD .

⁷ And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

⁸ "The word of the LORD you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my lifetime."

Lire la suite:Isaiah, Chapter 40


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