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1 The LORD said to me, "Take a large tablet, and write on it in ordinary letters, For Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

2 Summon trusted people, Uriah the priest and Zechariah, Jeberechiah's son, to witness it."

3 I then had sex with the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

4 Before the boy knows how to say ‘my father' and ‘my mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria."

5 The LORD spoke again to me:

6 Since this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and instead rejoices over Rezin and Remaliah's son—

7 therefore, look, the Lord is raising up against them the powerful floodwaters of the Euphrates, the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will rise up over all its channels, overflowing all its banks,

8 and sweep into Judah, flooding, overflowing, and reaching up to the neck. But God is with us; the span of his wings will cover the width of the land.

9 Unite yourselves, peoples, and be shattered! Listen, all distant places of the earth! Prepare to be shattered! Prepare to be shattered!

10 Create a plan, but be frustrated! Speak a word, but it won't stand, for God is with us.

11 The LORD spoke to me, taking hold of me and warning me not to walk in the way of this people:

12 Don't call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy. Don't fear what they fear, and don't be terrified.

13 It is the LORD of heavenly forces whom you should hold sacred, whom you should fear, and whom you should hold in awe.

14 God will become a sanctuary— but he will be a stone to trip over and a rock to stumble on for the two houses of Israel; a trap and a snare for those living in Jerusalem.

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

16 Bind up the testimony; seal up the teaching among my disciples.

17 I will wait for the LORD, who has hidden his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in God.

18 Look! I and the children the LORD gave me are signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of heavenly forces, who lives on Mount Zion.

19 If they say to you: "Consult the ghosts and the spirits that chirp and mutter. (Shouldn't a people consult its gods?) Consult the dead on behalf of the living

20 for instruction and for testimony"—they will surely say such things, but they will never see the dawn.

21 They will pass through the land, dejected and hungry, and when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and God. They will turn toward heaven

22 and look to the earth, but they will see only distress and darkness, random movement, and the anguish and doom of banishment.

1 Nonetheless, those who were in distress won't be exhausted. At an earlier time, God cursed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but later he glorified the way of the sea, the far side of the Jordan, and the Galilee of the nations.

2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has dawned.

3 You have made the nation great; you have increased its joy. They rejoiced before you as with joy at the harvest, as those who divide plunder rejoice.

4 As on the day of Midian, you've shattered the yoke that burdened them, the staff on their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.

5 Because every boot of the thundering warriors, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned, fuel for the fire.

6 A child is born to us, a son is given to us, and authority will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

7 There will be vast authority and endless peace for David's throne and for his kingdom, establishing and sustaining it with justice and righteousness now and forever. The zeal of the LORD of heavenly forces will do this.

8 The Lord sent a word against Jacob; it fell upon Israel;

9 the people all knew it— Ephraim and the one who rules in Samaria. But with a proud and arrogant heart they said,

10 "Bricks have fallen, but let's rebuild with stones. Sycamores were cut down, but let's replace them with cedars."

11 So the LORD raised up their foes against them, and stirred up their enemies—

12 Aram from the east and the Philistines from the west— and they devoured Israel with an open mouth. Even then God's anger didn't turn away; God's hand was still extended.

13 But the people didn't turn to the one who struck them. They didn't seek the LORD of heavenly forces.

14 So the LORD cut off head and tail, palm branch and reed from Israel in one day.

15 (Elders and celebrities are the head; prophets who teach lies are the tail.)

16 But this people's leaders were misleading, and those being led were confused.

17 So the Lord showed their youth no pity, and showed their orphans and widows no mercy; for everyone was godless and evil; every mouth spoke nonsense. Even then God's anger didn't turn away; God's hand was still extended.

18 Wickedness burned like fire, devouring thorn and thistle. It kindled the thickets of the forest; they swirled in rising smoke.

19 The land was scorched by the rage of the LORD of heavenly forces; the people were like fuel for the fire. Not one person pitied another:

20 they consumed on the right, but remained hungry; devoured on the left, and weren't satisfied. They devoured the flesh of their own children.

21 Manasseh devoured Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turned against Judah. Even then God's anger didn't turn away; God's hand was still extended.

1 Doom to those who pronounce wicked decrees, and keep writing harmful laws

2 to deprive the needy of their rights and to rob the poor among my people of justice; to make widows their loot; to steal from orphans! when disaster comes from far away? To whom will you flee for help; where will you stash your wealth?

3 What will you do on the day of punishment

4 How will you avoid crouching among the prisoners and falling among the slain? Even so, God's anger hasn't turned away; God's hand is still extended.

5 Doom to Assyria, rod of my anger, in whose hand is the staff of my fury!

6 Against a godless nation I send him; against an infuriating people I direct him to seize spoil, to steal plunder, and to trample them like mud in the streets.

7 But he has other plans; he schemes in secret; destruction is on his mind, extermination of nation after nation.

8 He says: Aren't my commanders all kings?

9 Isn't Calno like Carchemish? Isn't Hamath like Arpad? Isn't Samaria like Damascus?

10 Just as I took control of idolatrous kingdoms with more images than Jerusalem and Samaria,

11 just as I did to Samaria and her false gods, won't I also do this to Jerusalem and her idols?

12 But when the Lord has finished all this work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the Assyrian king's arrogant actions and the boasting of his haughty eyes.

13 He said, "By my own strength I have achieved it, and by my wisdom, since I'm so clever. I disregarded national boundaries; I raided their treasures; I knocked down their rulers like a bull.

14 My hand found the wealth of the peoples as if it were in a nest. Just as one gathers abandoned eggs, I have gathered the entire earth; no creature fluttered a wing or opened a mouth to chirp."

15 Will the ax glorify itself over the one who chops with it? Or will the saw magnify itself over its user? As if a rod could wave the one who lifts it! As if a staff could lift up the one not made of wood!

16 Therefore, the LORD God of heavenly forces will make the well-fed people waste away; and among his officials, a blaze will burn like scorching fire.

17 The light of Israel will become a fire, its holy one a flame, which will burn and devour its thorns and thistles in a single day.

18 Its abundant forest and farmland will be finished completely, as when a sick person wastes away;

19 its forest's remaining trees will be no more than a child can count.

20 On that day, what's left of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on the one who beat them. Instead, they will faithfully depend on the LORD, the holy one of Israel.

21 A few will return, what's left of Jacob, to the mighty God.

22 Although your people, Israel, were like the sand of the sea, only a few survivors will return. The end is announced, overflowing with justice.

23 Yes, destruction has been announced; the LORD God of heavenly forces will carry it out against the entire land.

24 Therefore, the LORD God of heavenly forces says: My people who live in Zion, don't fear Assyria, which strikes you with the rod and raises its staff against you as Egypt did.

25 In a very short time my fury will end, and my anger at the world will be finished.

26 Therefore, the LORD of heavenly forces will crack a whip against Assyria, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise a rod over the sea, as he did in Egypt.

27 On that day, God will remove the burden from your shoulder and destroy the yoke on your neck. He has gone up from Samaria,

28 come against Aiath, passed to Migron. At Michmash he stored his equipment.

29 They crossed at the pass: "We'll camp at Geba!" Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

30 Cry aloud, Daughter Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Answer her, Anathoth!

31 Madmenah has flown. Gebim's inhabitants sought refuge.

32 This very day he will stand at Nob and shake his fist at Daughter Zion's mountain, the hill of Jerusalem!

33 Look! The LORD God of heavenly forces is chopping off the branches with terrible power. The loftiest ones are about to be cut down and the exalted laid low.

34 He will strike down the forest thickets with an ax, and mighty Lebanon will fall.

1 A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse; a branch will sprout from his roots.

2 The LORD's spirit will rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of planning and strength, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.

3 He will delight in fearing the LORD. He won't judge by appearances, nor decide by hearsay.

4 He will judge the needy with righteousness, and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land. He will strike the violent with the rod of his mouth; by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.

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

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

7 The cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together, and a lion will eat straw like an ox.

8 A nursing child will play over the snake's hole; toddlers will reach right over the serpent's den.

9 They won't harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain. The earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the LORD, just as the water covers the sea.

10 On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a signal to the peoples. The nations will seek him out, and his dwelling will be glorious.

11 On that day, the Lord will extend his hand a second time to reclaim the survivors of God's people who are left from Assyria and from Egypt, from Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

12 God will raise a signal for the nations and gather the outcast men of Israel. God will collect the dispersed women of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

13 Ephraim's jealousy will cease, and Judah's harassment will be eliminated. Ephraim won't be jealous of Judah, and Judah won't harass Ephraim.

14 But they will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west; together they will plunder the people to the east. Edom and Moab will be under their power, and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

15 The LORD will split the tongue of the Egyptian sea. God will wave a hand over the Euphrates with a powerful wind and break it into seven streams so that it can be crossed in sandals.

16 Then there will be a highway from Assyria for the survivors of God's people who are left from Assyria, just as there was for Israel on the day they went up from the land of Egypt.

1 You will say on that day: "I thank you, LORD. Though you were angry with me, your anger turned away and you comforted me.

2 God is indeed my salvation; I will trust and won't be afraid. Yah, the LORD, is my strength and my shield; he has become my salvation."

3 You will draw water with joy from the springs of salvation.

4 And you will say on that day: "Thank the LORD; call on God's name; proclaim God's deeds among the peoples; declare that God's name is exalted.

5 Sing to the LORD, who has done glorious things; proclaim this throughout all the earth."

6 Shout and sing for joy, city of Zion, because the holy one of Israel is great among you.

1 An oracle about Babylon, which Isaiah, Amoz's son, saw.

2 On a bare mountain raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave a hand; let them enter the officials' gates.

3 I have commanded my holy ones; I have called my warriors, my proud, jubilant ones, to execute my wrath.

4 Listen! A roar on the mountains like that of a great crowd. Listen! An uproar of kingdoms, of nations coming together. The LORD of heavenly forces is mustering an army for battle.

5 They are coming from a distant land, from the faraway heavens, the LORD and the instruments of his fury, to destroy the whole land.

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

7 Then all hands will fall limp; every human heart will melt,

8 and they will be terrified. Like a woman writhing in labor, they will be seized by spasms and agony. They will look at each other aghast, their faces blazing.

9 Look, the day of the LORD is coming with cruel rage and burning anger, making the earth a ruin, and wiping out its sinners.

10 Heaven's stars and constellations won't show their light. The sun will be dark when it rises; the moon will no longer shine.

11 I will bring disaster upon the world for its evil, and bring their own sin upon the wicked. I will end the pride of the insolent, and the conceit of tyrants I will lay low.

12 I will make humans scarcer than fine gold; people rarer than the gold of Ophir.

13 I will rattle the heavens; the earth will shake loose from its place—because of the rage of the LORD of heavenly forces on the day his anger burns.

14 They will be like hunted gazelles, like sheep without a shepherd; all will turn to their own people and flee to their own lands.

15 Whoever is found will be stabbed; whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

16 Their infants will be crushed before their eyes; their houses plundered, their women raped.

17 Look! I'm rousing the Medes against them; the Medes pay no mind to silver, no desire for gold.

18 Their bows will smash youths; they will be merciless to newborns, pitiless to children.

19 So Babylon, a jewel among kingdoms, the Chaldeans' splendor and pride, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by God.

20 No one will ever resettle or live there for generations. No Arab will camp there; no shepherds will rest flocks there.

21 Wildcats will rest there; houses will be filled with owls. Ostriches will live there, and goat demons will dance there.

22 Hyenas will howl in its strongholds, and jackals in its luxurious palaces. Babylon's time is coming soon; its days won't drag on.

1 The LORD will have compassion on Jacob, will again choose Israel, and will give them rest in their own land. Immigrants will join them, and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

2 The peoples will take them and will bring them to their own place. The house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the LORD's land, making captives of their captors and ruling their oppressors.

3 When the LORD has given you rest from pain and trouble and from the hard labor that you perform,

4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased! How the flood has receded!

5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of tyrants

6 that struck peoples in rage with ceaseless blows, that ruled nations with anger, with relentless aggression.

7 All the earth rests quietly, then it breaks into song.

8 Even the cypresses rejoice over you, the cedars of Lebanon: "Since you were laid low, no logger comes up against us!"

9 The underworld beneath becomes restless to greet your arrival. It awakens the ghosts, all the leaders of earth; it makes the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.

10 All of them speak and say to you: "Even you've become weak like we are! You are the same as us!"

11 Your majesty has been brought down to the underworld, along with the sound of your harps. Under you is a bed of maggots, and worms are your blanket.

12 How you've fallen from heaven, morning star, son of dawn! You are cut down to earth, helpless on your back!

13 You said to yourself, I will climb up to heaven; above God's stars, I will raise my throne. I'll sit on the mount of assembly, on the heights of Zaphon.

14 I'll go up to the cloud tops; I'll be like the Most High!

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

16 Those who see you will stare at you; they will examine you closely: "Is this the man who rattled the earth, who shook kingdoms,

17 who made the world a wasteland and tore down its cities, and wouldn't let his prisoners go home?"

18 All the kings of the nations lie down honored, all of them, each in his own tomb.

19 But you are cast away from your own grave like a rejected branch, covered by the dead and those pierced by the sword— who go down to the stony pit— like a trampled corpse.

20 You won't join them in burial, for you destroyed your own land; you killed your own people. Such evil offspring will never be mentioned again!

21 Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their father. Don't let them arise to take over the earth or fill the world with cities.

22 I will arise against them, says the LORD of heavenly forces. I will cut off Babylon's renown and remnant, offshoot and offspring.

23 I will make it the home of herons, a swampland. I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction, says the LORD of heavenly forces.

24 The LORD of heavenly forces has promised: As I intended, so it will be; and as I have planned, so it will happen:

25 I will break Assyria in my land; on my mountains I will trample it and remove its yoke from my people; his burden will be taken from their shoulders.

26 This is the plan that has been made for all the earth; this is the hand extended over all the nations.

27 The LORD of heavenly forces has created a plan; who can stop it? God's hand is extended; who will stop it?

28 This oracle came in the year of King Ahaz's death:

29 Don't rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken, because from the snake's root a viper will grow, and it will produce a winged creature.

30 The oldest offspring of the poor will graze; their needy will lie down secure. But he will starve your offspring to death, and murder all who remain.

31 Wail, gate! Cry out, city! Melt in terror, all you Philistines! Smoke is coming from the north; there is no straggler in its ranks.

32 What will one say to that nation's messengers? The LORD has founded Zion; the oppressed among God's people will find refuge there.

1 An oracle about Moab. Ar was devastated in a night; Moab is ruined! Kir was devastated in a night; Moab is ruined!

2 Dibon has gone up to the temple, to the shrines to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard cut off.

3 In its streets they wear mourning clothes; on its rooftops and in its plazas, everyone wails and falls down weeping.

4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; as far as Jahaz their voice is heard. The armed men of Moab shout, spirits trembling.

5 My heart cries out for Moab. Its fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. At the ascent of Luhith, each will go up with weeping. On the road to Horonaim, they will raise a piercing cry.

6 The waters of Nimrim are used up. Grass has withered; vegetation is dead; greenery is gone.

7 Therefore, they carry what they had stored up, all their provisions to the Valley of the Willows.

8 An outcry sounds within the borders of Moab, as far as Eglaim, a cry of distress, as far as Beer-elim, a cry of distress.

9 The waters of Dibon are full of blood. But I will bring still more upon Dibon: a lion for Moab's survivors, for the remaining few in the land.

1 Send lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela through the desert to the mountain of Daughter Zion.

2 The daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon are like orphaned birds pushed from the nest.

3 Consider carefully, act justly; at high noon provide your shade like night. Hide the outcasts; keep the fugitives hidden.

4 Let the outcasts of Moab live among you. Be a hiding place for them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, when destruction has ceased, when the trampler has vanished from the land,

5 a throne will be established based on goodness, and someone will sit faithfully on it in David's dwelling— a judge who seeks justice and timely righteousness.

6 We have heard of Moab's pride, his great pride, his outrageous pride and arrogance, his empty boasting.

7 Therefore, let Moab wail; let everyone wail for Moab. Let them moan, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

8 The fields of Heshbon languish. The vines of Sibmah, whose honored grapes overpowered masters of nations, had reached as far as Jazer and strayed to the desert. Their tendrils spread out and crossed the sea.

9 Therefore, I will weep with Jazer's weeping for the vines of Sibmah. I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh. Cheers have fallen silent concerning your summer fruit and your grain harvest.

10 Joy and happiness have been harvested from the farmland, and in the vineyards no one sings, no one shouts. No treader crushes grapes in the wine vats; I have brought the cheers to an end.

11 Therefore, my heart plays sadly like a harp for Moab, my inner being for Kir-heres.

12 Even if Moab presents himself, and Moab wears himself out going to the shrine, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, he won't prevail.

13 This is the word that the LORD had spoken concerning Moab long ago.

14 But now the LORD has said: In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab, with all its great multitude, will dwindle. The small remnant will be few and feeble.

1 An oracle about Damascus. Look! Damascus is finished as a city; it will become a fallen ruin.

2 The villages of Aroer are abandoned forever. They will be pastures for flocks, which will lie down undisturbed.

3 Ephraim's security will cease, as will Damascus' rule. What's left of Aram will resemble the glory of the Israelites, says the LORD of heavenly forces.

4 On that day, Jacob's glory will dwindle; his sleek body will waste away.

5 It will be as when harvesters gather grain. God will harvest armfuls at a time, like one who gathers grain in the Rephaim Valley.

6 Only remaining bits are left, like an olive tree that has been shaken: two or three olives on the highest branch; four or five on a fruitful twig, says the LORD God of Israel.

7 On that day, people will have regard for their maker, and their eyes will look to the holy one of Israel.

8 They will have no regard for altars, the work of their hands, or look to what their fingers made: sacred poles and incense stands.

9 On that day, their strong cities will be like those abandoned by the Hivites and the Amorites; abandoned because of the Israelites. They will be a wasteland,

10 because you forgot the God who saves you, and didn't remember the rock who shelters you. Therefore, plant your pleasant plants, and set out exotic sprouts;

11 make them grow the day you plant them, and make them bloom the morning you start them. But the harvest will disappear on a day of sickness and incurable pain.

12 Doom to the raging of many peoples; like the thundering seas they thunder. Doom to the roar of nations, like the roaring of mighty waters.

13 Nations roar like the roaring of rushing waters. But God will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, pursued like chaff by wind in the mountains, like tumbleweeds before a storm.

14 In the evening, there is terror; but before morning it is gone. This is the fate of those who loot us, the destiny of those who rob us.

1 Doom to the land of winged ships, beyond the rivers of Cush

2 that sends messengers by sea, reed vessels on the water. Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and clean-shaven, to a people feared near and far, a nation barbaric and oppressive, whose land the rivers divide.

3 All you who inhabit the world, who live on earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, you will see! When the trumpet blasts, you will hear!

4 The LORD said to me: I will quietly watch from my own place, like the shimmering heat of sunshine, like a cloud's shade in the harvest heat.

5 Before the harvest, when the bloom is finished, when the blossom is becoming a ripening fruit, God will cut the shoots with a pruning knife, and lop off the spreading branches.

6 They will all be left to the mountain birds and to the beasts of the land. The birds will eat them in summer, all the beasts of the land in winter.

7 At that time, gifts will be brought to the LORD of heavenly forces from a tall and clean-shaven people and from a people feared near and far, a nation barbaric and oppressive, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of heavenly forces, to Mount Zion.

1 An oracle about Egypt. Look! The LORD is riding upon a swift cloud, and is coming to Egypt. Egypt's idols will tremble before God; the Egyptians' hearts will melt within them.

2 I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian, and they will fight, one against another, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

3 Egypt's spirit will fail from within; I will frustrate their plans. They will consult the idols and spirits and ghosts and fortune-tellers.

4 I will hand Egypt over to a harsh master; a strong king will rule them, says the LORD God of heavenly forces.

5 The waters of the sea will dry up; the river will be parched and bare.

6 The rivers will stink; the streams will shrink and dry; reeds and rushes will decay.

7 Grass around the Nile, the grass at the mouth of the Nile, and all the sown land of the Nile will dry up, blow away, and be no more.

8 Those who fish will lament; all who cast fishhooks in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the water will pine away.

9 Workers with flax will be dismayed; carders and weavers will grow pale.

10 Makers of cloth will be crushed; all who earn money will become distressed.

11 The officials of Tanis are fools; the wisest of Pharaoh's counselors give stupid advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I'm a wise person, one of the ancient kings"?

12 Where now are your wise ones? Let them tell you, let them inform you what the LORD of heavenly forces has planned concerning Egypt.

13 The officials of Tanis have become fools; the princes of Memphis are deluded; the tribal chiefs have led Egypt astray.

14 The LORD has poured into them a spirit of confusion. They will make Egypt stumble in everything it does, just as a drunk stumbles in his vomit.

15 Neither head nor tail, palm branch nor reed will be able to do anything for Egypt.

16 On that day, the Egyptians will be like women and will tremble with terror before the hand that the LORD of heavenly forces will raise against them.

17 Judah's land will become what the Egyptians dread; whenever anyone mentions it, they will be terrified because of the plans that the LORD of heavenly forces is making against them.

18 On that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear loyalty to the LORD of heavenly forces. One of them will be called "the city of the sun."

19 On that day, there will be an altar to the LORD within the land of Egypt, and a standing stone for the LORD at its border.

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

21 The LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians; the Egyptians will know the LORD on that day. They will worship with sacrifices and offerings, making solemn promises to the LORD and fulfilling them.

22 The LORD will strike Egypt; striking and then healing. They will return to the LORD, who will hear their pleas and heal them.

23 On that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will come to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

24 On that day, Israel will be the third along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing at the center of the world.

25 The LORD of heavenly forces will pronounce this blessing: Bless Egypt my people, and Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.

1 In the year that Assyria's King Sargon sent his general to Ashdod, he fought against Ashdod and captured it.

2 At that time the LORD had spoken through Isaiah, Amoz's son, "Go, take off the mourning clothes from your waist, and remove the shoes from your feet." And Isaiah did this, walking naked and barefoot.

3 The LORD said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years, as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush,

4 so will the king of Assyria lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, both young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks bared, humiliating Egypt.

5 They will be shattered and shamed because of Cush their hope, and because of Egypt their glory.

6 “On that day, those who live on this coast will say, ‘Look at those in whom we had hoped, to whom we fled for help and rescue from the king of Assyria. How then will we escape?'"

1 An oracle about the wilderness near the sea. Like whirlwinds sweeping through the arid southern plain, it comes from the desert, from a fearsome land.

2 A harsh vision was proclaimed to me: The betrayer betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media! Put an end to all her groaning.

3 Therefore, I'm shaken to my core in anguish. Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor. I'm too bent over to hear, too dismayed to see.

4 My heart pounds; convulsions overpower me. He has turned my evening of pleasure into dread—

5 setting the table, spreading the cloth, eating, drinking. "Arise, captains! Polish the shields."

6 The Lord said this to me: "Go, post a lookout to report what he sees.

7 When he sees chariots, pairs of horsemen, donkey riders, camel riders, he should listen carefully, carefully, very carefully."

8 Then the seer called out: "Upon a watchtower, Lord, I'm standing all day; and upon my observation post I'm stationed throughout the night.

9 Here they come: charioteers, pairs of horsemen!" One spoke up and said, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground!"

10 Oh, my downtrodden people, threshed on my threshing floor, what I heard from the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, I reported to you.

11 An oracle about Dumah. Someone is calling to me from Seir: "Guard, how long is the night? Guard, how long is the night?"

12 The guard said, "Morning has come, but it is still night. If you must inquire, inquire; come back again."

13 An oracle about the desert. In the woods, in the desert where you camp, caravans of the Dedanites

14 meet the thirsty with water; inhabitants of the land of Tema greet the refugees with bread.

15 They have fled from swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow and from the intensity of battle.

16 So the Lord said to me: Within a year, according to the number of years for which a laborer is hired, all the glory of Kedar will end;

17 there will be few Kedarite archers remaining. The LORD God of Israel has spoken.

1 An oracle about the Valley of Vision. What is wrong with you, that you have all gone up to the rooftops,

2 you who are filled with noise, you roaring city, you party town? Your dead weren't slaughtered by the sword; they didn't die in battle.

3 All your leaders escaped together but were captured without a single bow shot. All your escapees were bound together, even though they fled far away.

4 Therefore, I said, "Don't look at me; let me weep bitterly. Don't try to comfort me about the destruction of my dearly loved people."

5 The LORD God of heavenly forces has a day of tumult and trampling and turmoil in the Valley of Vision, a breaking down of walls, a cry for help to the mountains.

6 Elam carried the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.

7 Your finest valleys were filled with chariots, and horsemen doggedly guarded the gate.

8 Judah's covering has been stripped away. On that day, you trusted the weapons in the Forest House.

9 You observed the many broken defenses in David's City, and you collected the waters of the lower pool.

10 You counted Jerusalem's houses, and you tore down houses to fortify the wall.

11 You made a reservoir between the walls for the water of the earlier pool. But you didn't trust its maker; you didn't consider the one who planned it long ago.

12 The LORD God of heavenly forces called on that day for weeping and mourning, and shaven heads, and wearing of mourning clothes.

13 But instead there was fun and frivolity, killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: "Eat and drink! Tomorrow we will die!"

14 But the LORD of heavenly forces has revealed in my hearing: This iniquity won't be forgiven you until you die, says the LORD God of heavenly forces.

15 The LORD God of heavenly forces says, Go now to this official, to Shebna, who is in charge of the house, and say to him:

16 What do you have here—and whom do you have here— that you have hewed out a tomb for yourself, you who cuts his grave on high and carves himself a home in the cliff?

17 The LORD is about to hurl you down, mighty man! He is surely going to cover you with darkness;

18 he will indeed unroll your head wrapping, rolling it like a ball into the open country. There you will die, with your glorious chariots, you disgrace to the house of your master!

19 I will thrust you from your monument; you will be pulled down from your platform.

20 On that day, I will call my servant Eliakim, Hilkiah's son.

21 I will give him your robe and wrap him in your sash, and I will hand over to him your authority. He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

22 I will place the key to David's house on his shoulder; what he opens no one will close, and what he closes no one will open.

23 I will fasten him securely like a tent peg, and he will be a throne of honor for his ancestors' house.

24 All the honor of his household will hang on him, the offspring and the offshoots, every little dish, every bowl, every jar.

25 On that day, says the LORD of heavenly forces, the peg that is fastened securely will give way; it will be cut down, and it will fall, and all the load hanging on it will be lost. The LORD has spoken.

1 An oracle about Tyre. Wail, ships of Tarshish, because your port is destroyed! When returning from Cyprus, they heard about it.

2 Be still, inhabitants of the coast, traders of Sidon, whose messengers crossed over the sea,

3 over the mighty waters. The grain of Shihor, the Nile's harvest, was her income; she was the marketplace of nations.

4 Be ashamed, Sidon, because the sea has spoken; the fortress of the sea has said, "I haven't been in labor; I didn't give birth; I never raised young men or brought up young women."

5 When the Egyptians hear, they will be in anguish at the news about Tyre.

6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, inhabitants of the coast.

7 Is this your triumphant town, whose origin is from ancient times, whose feet carried her to settle far away?

8 Who planned this concerning Tyre, the one who gives crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

9 The LORD of heavenly forces planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty, to shame all the honored of the earth.

10 Go through your own land, Daughter Tarshish, for the harbor is gone.

11 God's hand is extended over the sea, shaking nations. The LORD gave the command to destroy Phoenicia's fortresses,

12 saying, You will no longer celebrate, violated virgin Daughter Sidon. Get up and head to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.

13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans, the people who are no more. Assyria destined it for wild animals: they raised up their siege towers, stripped its palaces, and made it a ruin.

14 Wail, ships of Tarshish, for your fortress is destroyed!

15 On that day, Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, Tyre will become like the prostitute in the song:

16 Take a harp, go around the city, forgotten prostitute. Play well, sing many songs, so they'll remember you.

17 At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre. She will return to her trade and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms on the earth.

18 Her profits and wages will be sacred to the LORD. They won't be stored or saved. Her profits will go to those living before the LORD, for plentiful food and elegant clothes.

1 Look! The LORD will devastate the earth and destroy it, will twist its face and scatter its inhabitants.

2 It will be the same for the people and for the priest; for the slave and for his master; for the female servant and for her mistress; for the buyer and for the seller; for the lender and for the borrower; for the creditor and for the debtor.

3 The earth will be devastated, totally devastated; it will be destroyed, completely destroyed because the LORD has said it would be so.

4 The earth dries up and wilts; the world withers and wilts; the heavens wither away with the earth.

5 The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants, for they have disobeyed instruction, swept aside law, and broken the ancient covenant.

6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth; its inhabitants suffer for their guilt. Therefore, the earth's inhabitants dwindle; very few are left.

7 The wine dries up; the vine withers; all the merry-hearted groan.

8 The joyous tambourines have ceased; the roar of partyers has stopped; the joyous harp has ceased.

9 No one drinks wine or sings; beer is bitter to its drinkers.

10 The town is in chaos, broken; every house is shut, without entrance.

11 There is a cry for wine in the streets. All joy has reached its dusk; happiness is exiled from the earth.

12 Ruin remains in the city, and the gate is battered to wreckage.

13 It will be like this in the central part of the land and among the peoples, like an olive tree that has been shaken, like remains from the grape harvest.

14 They raise their voice; they sing with joy; from the west they will shout about the LORD's majesty.

15 Therefore, in the east honor the LORD; in the islands of the sea, the name of the LORD God of Israel!

16 From the ends of the earth we have heard songs: "Glory to the righteous one!" But I say, "I waste away; I waste away; I'm doomed! Betrayers betray; treacherously betrayers betray."

17 Terror, trench, and trap are upon you, ruler of the earth!

18 Whoever flees from the sound of terror will fall into the trench; whoever climbs from the trench will be caught in the trap. Heaven's windows will open, and the earth's foundations will quake.

19 The earth is shattering, shattering; the earth is shaking, shaking; the earth is teetering, tottering.

20 The earth trembles like a drunk and shudders like a hut; its rebellion weighs heavy upon it; it will fall, no more to rise.

21 On that day, the LORD will punish the forces of heaven in heaven, and the kings of the earth on earth.

22 They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit, shut into a prison, and punished after many days.

23 The moon will be diminished, and the sun will fade, since the LORD of heavenly forces will rule on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, glorious before his elders.

1 LORD, you are my God. I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, planned long ago, faithful and sure.

2 You have turned the city into rubble, the fortified town into a ruin, the fortress of foreigners into a city no more, never to be rebuilt.

3 Therefore, strong people will glorify you; the towns of tyrant nations will fear you.

4 You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in distress, a hiding place from the storm, a shade from the heat. When the breath of tyrants is like a winter storm

5 or like heat in the desert, you subdue the roar of foreigners. Like heat shaded by a cloud, the tyrants' song falls silent.

6 On this mountain, the LORD of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples a rich feast, a feast of choice wines, of select foods rich in flavor, of choice wines well refined.

7 He will swallow up on this mountain the veil that is veiling all peoples, the shroud enshrouding all nations.

8 He will swallow up death forever. The LORD God will wipe tears from every face; he will remove his people's disgrace from off the whole earth, for the LORD has spoken.

9 They will say on that day, "Look! This is our God, for whom we have waited— and he has saved us! This is the LORD, for whom we have waited; let's be glad and rejoice in his salvation!"

10 The LORD's hand will indeed rest on this mountain. Moab will be trampled down as straw is trampled into manure.

11 When in it they spread out their hands as swimmers spread out their hands to swim, God will lay low their pride, even by the efforts of their hands.

12 The fortified towers of their walls will be thrown down, will be leveled, will be brought down to the earth, to the dust.

1 On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: Ours is a strong city! God makes salvation its walls and ramparts.

2 Open the gates and let a righteous nation enter, a nation that keeps faith.

3 Those with sound thoughts you will keep in peace, in peace because they trust in you.

4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD is a rock for all ages.

5 He has thrown down those living on high, and he will level the lofty town, leveling it down to the earth; he will bring it down to dust.

6 The feet trample it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.

7 The way of the righteous is level; you clear a path for the righteous.

8 In the path of your justice, LORD, we wait for you; with all our being, we long for your name and your acclaim.

9 At night I long for you with my whole being; my spirit within me watches for you. When your judgments are at work in the earth, those living in the world learn righteousness.

10 When the wicked are favored, they don't learn righteousness; even among those who do right they do wrong, and they fail to see the LORD's majesty.

11 LORD, your hand is lifted up, but they don't see. Let them see and shrink back because of your zeal for your people; your burning anger that consumes your enemies.

12 LORD, grant us peace, because all that we have done has been your doing.

13 LORD our God, other masters besides you have ruled us, but we will profess your name alone.

14 The dead don't live; ghosts don't rise. Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them, and abolished all memory of them.

15 You've enlarged the nation, LORD. You've enlarged the nation; you are glorified. You've expanded all the land's boundaries.

16 LORD, in distress they sought you out; they poured out prayers to you when you disciplined them.

17 As a pregnant woman close to childbirth is in labor pains, crying out in her pangs, so were we because of you, LORD.

18 We were pregnant, we writhed, but we gave birth to wind. We have achieved no victories on earth; the inhabitants of the earth never fall.

19 Your dead will live, their corpses will rise, and those who dwell in the dust will shout for joy. Your shadow is a shadow of light, but you will bring down the ghosts into the underworld.

20 Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Take cover, for in a little while the fury will be over.

21 Look! The LORD is going out from his place to bring the iniquity of the ruler of the earth down upon him. The earth will uncover its blood and will conceal its slain no longer.

1 On that day, the LORD will take a great sword, harsh and mighty, and will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the writhing serpent, and will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

2 On that day: Sing about a delightful vineyard!

3 I, the LORD, am its guardian. Every moment I water it; night and day I guard it from attack.

4 I'm not angry, but if it yields thorns and thistles for me, I will march to battle against it; I will torch it completely.

5 Or let them cling to me for refuge; let them make peace with me; let them make peace with me.

6 In coming days, Jacob will take root; Israel will blossom and sprout and fill the whole world with produce.

7 Did God strike Israel as he struck those who struck him? Was Israel killed as his killers were killed?

8 By frightening Jerusalem, by sending her away, you contended with her, expelling with a fierce blast on the day of the east wind.

9 By this Jacob's guilt is reconciled, and this was how his sins were finally removed: he made all the altar stones like shattered chalk, sacred poles and incense altars that couldn't stand.

10 The fortified city lies alone, a hut forsaken, abandoned like the desert. Calves graze there; they lie down there and feed on its boughs.

11 When its branches are dry, they are broken. Women come and set fire to it. These people have no understanding; therefore, their maker won't have compassion; the one who formed them won't be gracious.

12 On that day, the LORD will beat grain from the channel of the Euphrates up to the Valley of Egypt. You will be collected, Israelites, one by one.

13 On that day, a great trumpet will be played. Those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come. They will bow to the LORD at his holy mountain in Jerusalem.

1 Oh, the majestic garland of Ephraim's drunks and the fading flower of its splendid beauty on the head that flows with perfume of those hammered with wine.

2 Look! The Lord has someone who is powerful and strong; like a hailstorm, a disastrous tempest, like a downpour of mighty, overflowing waters, he can level them to the ground with his hand.

3 The majestic garland of Ephraim's drunks will be trampled underfoot.

4 The withered flower, which is a thing of beauty as it sits on the head of those bloated with fat, will be like an early fig before the summer harvest: whoever sees it swallows it as soon as it is in hand.

5 On that day, the LORD of heavenly forces will be a splendid garland and a beautiful wreath for the people who survive,

6 and a spirit of justice for the one who sits in judgment, and a strength for those who repel the assault at the gate.

7 These also stagger from wine and stumble from beer: priest and prophet stagger from beer; they are confused by wine; they stray on account of beer; they err when receiving visions; they stumble when making judgments.

8 All the tables are covered with vomit; filth overruns the place.

9 To whom will God teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? To those just weaned from milk? To those who have hardly outgrown the breast?

10 It is "tsav letsav, tsav lestav; qav leqav, qav leqav," a little of this, a little of that.

11 With derisive speech and a foreign tongue, he will speak to this people.

12 He has said to them, "This is the place of rest; give rest to the weary; this is the place of repose"; but they refused to listen.

13 So the LORD's word will be for them: "tsav letsav, tsav letsav; qav leqav, qav leqav," a little of this, a little of that. So that they will go and stagger backward, they will be broken, snared, and captured.

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

15 You said, "We've cut a deal with death; with the underworld we made a pact. When the overflowing flood passes through, it won't reach us; for we have made lies our hiding place, and in falsehood we take shelter."

16 Therefore, the LORD God says: Look! I'm laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a valuable cornerstone, a sure foundation: the one who trusts won't tremble.

17 I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line. But hail will sweep away the hiding place of lies, and water will overflow the shelter.

18 Your deal with death will be dissolved, and your pact with the grave won't stand. The rushing flood: when it passes through, you will be annihilated by it.

19 Every time it passes through it will take you, for morning by morning it will pass, by day and by night. It will be nothing but terror to understand the message.

20 The bed is too short to stretch out, and the shroud is too narrow to cover oneself.

21 Just as on Mount Perazim, the LORD will rise up; as in the Gibeon Valley he will rage to do his deed—strange is his deed!— And to work his work—foreign is his work!

22 So now stop your scoffing, or your chains will be tightened, because destruction has been ordered—I have heard it!— by the LORD God of heavenly forces against the whole land.

23 Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear my word:

24 Does the plowman plow without stopping for planting, opening and harrowing their ground?

25 When he has smoothed its surface, doesn't he scatter fennel, and sow cumin, and plant wheat and barley in their places, and spelt as a border?

26 They are properly ordered; their God directs them.

27 Fennel isn't threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but fennel is beaten with a staff, and cumin with a rod.

28 Bread grain is crushed, but the thresher doesn't thresh it forever. He drives the cart wheel over it; he spreads it out but doesn't crush it.

29 This also comes from the LORD of heavenly forces, who gives wondrous counsel and increases wisdom.

1 Oh, Ariel, Ariel, town where David encamped! Year by year, let the festivals come around—

2 but I will oppress Ariel. There will be mourning and lamentation; she will be like an Ariel to me.

3 I will surround you like a wall, and I will lay a siege against you with assault towers, and I will raise up siegeworks against you.

4 You will be brought down; from the ground you will speak; from low in the dust your speech will come. Your voice will be like a ghost's from the earth; from the dust your words will whisper.

5 But your many enemies will be like fine dust, the terrible horde like passing chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,

6 the LORD of heavenly forces will come to you with thunder, earthquake, and a mighty voice, with whirlwind, tempest, and flames of devouring fire.

7 The horde of nations fighting against Ariel, and all who make war on her and her fortress and besiege her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

8 It will be like when a hungry person dreams of eating but wakes up and the mouth is empty. Or when a thirsty person dreams of drinking but wakes up and has a dry throat. So will it be for all the horde of nations who fight against Mount Zion.

9 Be shocked and stunned; blind yourselves; be blind! Be drunk, but not on wine; stagger, but not on account of beer!

10 The LORD has poured on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has shut your eyes, you prophets, and covered your heads, you seers.

11 This entire vision has become for you like the words of a sealed scroll. When they give it to one who can read, saying, "Read this," that one will say, "I can't, because it's sealed."

12 And when the scroll is given to one who can't read, saying, "Read this," that one will say, "I can't read."

13 The Lord says: Since these people turn toward me with their mouths, and honor me with lip service while their heart is distant from me, and their fear of me is just a human command that has been memorized,

14 I will go on doing amazing things to these people, shocking and startling things. The wisdom of their wise will perish, and the discernment of their discerning will be hidden.

15 Doom to those who hide their plan deep, away from the LORD, whose deeds are in the dark, who say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?"

16 You have everything backward! Should the potter be thought of as clay? Should what is made say of its maker, "He didn't make me"? Should what is shaped say of the one who shaped it, "He doesn't understand"?

17 In just a little while won't Lebanon become farmland once again, and the farmland be considered a forest?

18 On that day: The deaf will hear the words of a scroll and, freed from dimness and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.

19 The poor will again find joy in the LORD, and the neediest of people will rejoice in the holy one of Israel.

20 The tyrant will be no more, the mocker will perish, and all who plot evil will be eliminated:

21 all who incriminate others wrongly, who entrap the judge in the gate, and pointlessly postpone justice for the innocent.

22 Therefore, proclaims the LORD, the God of the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham: Jacob won't be ashamed now, and his face won't grow pale now.

23 When he sees his children among them, the work of my hands, proclaiming my name holy, they will make holy the holy one of Jacob, and stand in awe of Israel's God.

24 Those who wander in spirit will have understanding, and those who grumble will gain insight.

1 Doom to you, rebellious children, says the LORD, who make a plan, which is not mine; who weave a plot, but not by my spirit, piling up sin on sin;

2 setting out to go down to Egypt without consulting me, taking refuge in Pharaoh's refuge and hiding in Egypt's shadow.

3 Pharaoh's refuge will become your shame, hiding in Egypt's shadow your disgrace.

4 Though their officials are in Zoan, and their messengers reach Hanes,

5 all will become shamed because of a people who can't assist them. They are no help; they are no profit; rather, shame and disgrace.

6 An oracle about the beasts in the arid southern plain. Through a land of distress and danger, lioness and roaring lion, viper and flying serpent, they will carry their wealth on donkeys' shoulders and their treasures on camels' humps to a people who won't profit,

7 for Egypt's help is utterly worthless. Therefore, I call her Rahab Who Sits Still.

8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet, inscribe it on a scroll, so in the future it will endure as a witness.

9 These are rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the LORD's teaching,

10 who say to the seers, "Don't foresee," and to the visionaries, "Don't report truthful visions; tell us flattering things; envision deceptions;

11 get out of the way; step off the path; let's have no more ‘holy one of Israel.'"

12 Therefore, the holy one of Israel says: Because you reject this word and trust in oppression and cunning and rely on them,

13 your sin will be like a crack in a high wall; it bulges, about to fall: suddenly, in an instant, it breaks!

14 Its breaking is like the breaking of a storage jar that is totally shattered. No piece from among its fragments will be large enough to take fire from a hearth, or to dip water from a cistern.

15 Therefore, the LORD God, the holy one of Israel, says: In return and rest you will be saved; quietness and trust will be your strength— but you refused.

16 You said, "No! We'll flee on horses"— therefore, you will indeed flee— "and we'll ride off; on swift steeds we will ride"— therefore, your pursuers will be swift.

17 One thousand will flee at the threat of one, and at the threat of five you will flee, until you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a flag on a hill.

18 Nonetheless, the LORD is waiting to be merciful to you, and will rise up to show you compassion. The LORD is a God of justice; happy are all who wait for him.

19 People in Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. God will certainly be merciful to you. Hearing the sound of your outcry, God will answer you.

20 Though the Lord gives you the bread of distress and the water of oppression, your teacher will no longer hide, but you will see your teacher.

21 If you stray to the right or the left, you will hear a word that comes from behind you: "This is the way; walk in it."

22 You will defile your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered priestly vest, and you will scatter them like menstrual rags. "Get out," you will say to them.

23 God will provide rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food the ground produces will be rich and abundant. On that day, your cattle will graze in large pastures.

24 The oxen and donkeys that are working the ground will eat tasty feed spread for them with shovel and fork.

25 On every lofty mountain, and on every high hill, streams will run with water on the day of the great massacre, when the towers fall.

26 The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD bandages the people's brokenness and heals the wounds inflicted by his blows.

27 Look there! The LORD is coming from far away; his anger blazing, his smoke-cloud thick. His lips are full of fury; his tongue is like a devouring fire.

28 His breath is like a raging river that reaches up to the neck, to shake the nations with a sieve of destruction, and to put a misleading rein on the people's jaws.

29 There will be singing for you as on the night that people celebrate a festival. The heart will be joyful as it is when one goes with a flute to the LORD's mountain, to the rock of Israel.

30 The LORD will unleash his majestic voice and display his crushing arm in furious anger, with a flame of consuming fire, in stormy rain and hail.

31 The LORD's voice will terrify Assyria; with a rod he will smite it.

32 And every crack that is made in the foundation wall, which the LORD will bring down upon him, will be accompanied by timbrels and lyres. The LORD will raise his arm and fight against Assyria in battle.

33 His place for burning was arranged long ago; it is indeed made ready for a king. God has made its wood pile wide and deep, fire and wood in abundance. The breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, ignites it.

1 Doom to those going down to Egypt for help! They rely on horses, trust in chariots because they are many, and on riders because they are very strong. But they don't look to the holy one of Israel; they don't seek the LORD.

2 But God also knows how to bring disaster; he has not taken back his words. God will rise up against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who do wrong.

3 Egypt is human and not divine; their horses are flesh and not spirit. The LORD will extend his hand; the helper will stumble, those helped will fall, and they will all die together.

4 The LORD has said to me: When the lion growls, the young lion, over its prey, though a band of shepherds is summoned against it, isn't scared off by their noise or frightened by their roar. So the LORD of heavenly forces will go down to fight on Mount Zion and on her hill.

5 Like birds flying aloft, so the LORD of heavenly forces will shield Jerusalem: shielding and saving, sparing and rescuing.

6 People of Israel, return to the one whom you have deeply betrayed!

7 On that day, you will each reject the idols of silver and the idols of gold, which you have sinfully made for yourselves.

8 Assyria will fall, but not by a human sword— a sword not made by humans will devour them. They will flee before the sword; their young men will become forced laborers.

9 In horror they will flee from their stronghold; their officers will be terrified at the signal, says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose oven is in Jerusalem.

1 See here: A king rules to promote righteousness; rulers govern to promote justice,

2 each like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from a storm, like streams of water in a wasteland, like the shade of a massive cliff in a worn-out land.

3 Then the eyes of those who can see will no longer be blind, the ears of those who can hear will listen,

4 the minds of the rash will know and comprehend, and the tongues of those who stammer will speak fluently and plainly.

5 Then a fool will no longer be called honorable, nor a villain considered respectable.

6 Fools speak folly; their minds devise wickedness, acting irreverently, speaking falsely of the LORD, leaving the hungry empty, and depriving the thirsty of drink.

7 As for the villain, his villainies are evil. He plans schemes to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speak justly.

8 But an honorable person plans honorable things and stands up for what is honorable.

9 Women of leisure, stand up! Hear my voice! Carefree daughters, listen to my word!

10 In a little over a year, the carefree will shudder, because the grape harvest will fail; the vintage won't arrive.

11 Tremble, all of you who are at ease; shudder, all of you who are secure! Strip yourselves, bare your skin, and tie mourning clothes around your waist,

12 beating your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

13 for my people's soil growing barbs and thorns, for all the joyous houses in the jubilant town.

14 The palace will be deserted, the crowded city abandoned. Stronghold and watchtower will become empty fields forever, suited for the pleasure of wild donkeys, and a pasture for flocks—

15 until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the desert turns into farmland, and the farmland is considered a forest.

16 Then justice will reside in wild lands, and righteousness will abide in farmlands.

17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace, and the outcome of righteousness, calm and security forever.

18 Then my people will live in a peaceful dwelling, in secure homes, in carefree resting places.

19 Even if the forest falls and the humbled city is laid low,

20 those who sow beside any stream will be happy, sending out ox and donkey to graze.

1 Doom to the destroyer left undestroyed, you traitor whom none have betrayed: when you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have stopped betraying, they will betray you.

2 LORD, show us favor; we hope in you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in times of distress.

3 At the noise, peoples fled; on account of your roar, nations scattered.

4 They gathered spoil like insects; they rushed upon it like a swarm of locusts.

5 The LORD is exalted; he lives on high, filling Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 He will provide security during a lifetime: a source of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge— fear of the LORD will be Zion's treasure.

7 But then those in Ariel cried out in the streets; messengers of peace wept bitterly.

8 The highways were deserted; travelers left the road. The covenant was broken; solemn pledges were rejected; no one cared for humanity.

9 The land mourned; it wasted away; Lebanon was ashamed; it withered. Sharon became like the desert, and Bashan and Carmel were dropping their leaves.

10 Now I will arise, says the LORD. Now I will exalt myself; now I will stand tall.

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

12 Peoples will be burned to lime, thorns cut up and set ablaze.

13 You who are far away, hear what I have done; and you who are near, know my strength!

14 Sinners became terrified in Zion; trembling seized the godless: "Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with the everlasting blaze?"

15 The one who walks righteously and speaks truthfully, who rejects profit from extortion, who waves away a bribe instead of grabbing it, who won't listen to bloody plots, and who won't contemplate doing something evil.

16 He will live on the heights; fortresses in the cliffs will be his refuge. His food will be provided, his water guaranteed.

17 When you gaze upon a king in his glamour and look at the surrounding land,

18 in dismay you will think: Where is the one who counts? Where is the one who weighs? Where is the one who counts towers?

19 You will no longer see the defiant people, the people of speech too obscure to understand, who stammer in an incomprehensible language.

20 Gaze upon Zion, our festival town. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a carefree dwelling, a tent that is not packed up, whose stakes are never pulled up, whose ropes won't snap.

21 The LORD's majesty will be there for us: as a place of rivers, broad streams where no boat will go, no majestic ship will cross.

22 The LORD is our judge; the LORD is our leader; the LORD is our king— he will deliver us.

23 Your ropes are loosened; they can't hold the mast firmly; they can't spread the sail. Then abundant spoil will be divided; even the lame will seize spoil.

24 And no inhabitant will say, "I'm sick." The people living there will be forgiven their sin.

1 Draw near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you peoples. Hear, earth and all who fill it, world and all its offspring.

2 The LORD rages against all the nations, and is angry with all their armies. God is about to wipe them out and has prepared them for slaughter.

3 Their dead will be cast out, the stench of their corpses will rise, and the mountains will melt from their blood.

4 All the stars of heaven will dissolve, the skies will roll up like a scroll, and all the stars will fall, like a leaf withering from a vine, like fruit from a fig tree.

5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, it will descend upon Edom for judgment, upon a people I have doomed for destruction.

6 The LORD has a sword covered with blood; it is soaked with fat from the blood of lambs and goats, from the kidney fat of rams, for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 Wild oxen will fall with them, steers with mighty bulls, and their land will be drenched with blood; its soil soaked with fat.

8 The LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of payback for Zion's cause.

9 Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch.

10 Night and day won't be extinguished; its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will lie waste; no one will ever pass through it again.

11 Screech owls and crows will possess it; owls and ravens will live there. God will stretch over it the measuring line of chaos and the plummet stone of emptiness over its officials.

12 No Kingdom There, they will call it, and all its princes will disappear.

13 Thorns will grow up in its palaces, weeds and brambles in its fortresses. It will be a dwelling for jackals, a home for ostriches.

14 Wildcats will meet hyenas, the goat demon will call to his friends, and there Lilith will lurk and find her resting place.

15 There the snake will nest and lay eggs and brood and hatch in its shadow. There too vultures will gather, each with its mate.

16 Consult the LORD's scroll and read: Not one of these will be missing; none will lack its mate. God's own mouth has commanded; God's own spirit has gathered them.

17 God has cast the lot for them; God's hand allotted it to them with the measuring line. They will possess it forever; they will live in it from generation to generation.

1 The desert and the dry land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus.

2 They will burst into bloom, and rejoice with joy and singing. They will receive the glory of Lebanon, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the LORD's glory, the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen the weak hands, and support the unsteady knees.

4 Say to those who are panicking: "Be strong! Don't fear! Here's your God, coming with vengeance; with divine retribution God will come to save you."

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

6 Then the lame will leap like the deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing. Waters will spring up in the desert, and streams in the wilderness.

7 The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground, fountains of water. The jackals' habitat, a pasture; grass will become reeds and rushes.

8 A highway will be there. It will be called The Holy Way. The unclean won't travel on it, but it will be for those walking on that way. Even fools won't get lost on it;

9 no lion will be there, and no predator will go up on it. None of these will be there; only the redeemed will walk on it.

10 The LORD's ransomed ones will return and enter Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. Happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and groaning will flee away.

1 Assyria's King Sennacherib marched against all of Judah's fortified cities and captured them in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah.

2 Assyria's king sent his field commander from Lachish, together with a large army, to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the water channel of the Upper Pool, which is on the road to the field where clothes are washed.

3 Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph's son Joah the recorder went out to them.

4 Then the field commander said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Assyria's Great King says this: Why do you feel so confident?

5 Do you think that empty words are the same as good strategy and the strength to fight? Who are you trusting that you now rebel against me?

6 It appears that you are trusting in a staff—Egypt—that's nothing but a broken reed! It will stab the hand of anyone who leans on it! That's all that Pharaoh, Egypt's king, is to anyone who trusts in him.

7 Now suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God.' Isn't he the one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah removed, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship only at this altar'?

8 "So now, make a wager with my master, Assyria's king. I'll give you two thousand horses if you can supply the riders!

9 How will you drive back even the least important official among my master's servants when you are relying on Egypt for chariots and riders?

10 What's more, do you think I've marched against this place to destroy it without the LORD's support? It was the LORD who told me, ‘March against this land and destroy it!'"

11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it. Don't speak with us in Hebrew, because the people on the wall will hear it."

12 The field commander said to them, "Did my master send me to speak these words just to you and your master and not also to the men on the wall? They are the ones who will have to eat their dung and drink their urine along with you."

13 Then the field commander stood up and shouted in Hebrew at the top of his voice: “Listen to the message of the great king, Assyria's king.

14 The king says this: Don't let Hezekiah lie to you. He won't be able to rescue you.

15 Don't let Hezekiah persuade you to trust the LORD by saying, ‘The LORD will certainly rescue us. This city won't be handed over to Assyria's king.'

16 "Don't listen to Hezekiah, because this is what Assyria's king says: Surrender to me and come out. Then each of you will eat from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own well

17 until I come to take you to a land just like your land. It will be a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

18 Don't let Hezekiah fool you by saying, ‘The LORD will rescue us.' Did any of the other gods of the nations save their lands from the power of Assyria's king?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my power?

20 Which one of the gods from those countries has rescued their land from my power? Will the LORD save Jerusalem from my power?"

21 But they kept quiet and didn't answer him with a single word, because King Hezekiah's command was, "Don't answer him!"

22 Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph's son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with ripped clothes. They told him what the field commander had said.

1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he ripped his clothes, covered himself with mourning clothes, and went to the LORD's temple.

2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah, Amoz's son. They were all wearing mourning clothes.

3 They said to him, "Hezekiah says this: Today is a day of distress, punishment, and humiliation. It's as if children are ready to be born, but there's no strength to see it through.

4 Perhaps the LORD your God heard all the words of the field commander who was sent by his master, Assyria's king. He insulted the living God! Perhaps he will punish him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Offer up a prayer for those few people who still survive."

5 When King Hezekiah's servants got to Isaiah,

6 Isaiah said to them, "Say this to your master: The LORD says this: Don't be afraid at the words you heard, which the officers of Assyria's king have used to insult me.

7 I'm about to mislead him, so when he hears a rumor, he'll go back to his own country. Then I'll have him cut down by the sword in his own land."

8 The field commander heard that the Assyrian king had left Lachish. So he went back to the king and found him attacking Libnah.

9 Then the Assyrian king learned that Cush's King Tirhakah was on his way to fight against him. So he sent messengers to Hezekiah again:

10 "Say this to Judah's King Hezekiah: Don't let the God you trust deceive you by saying, ‘Jerusalem won't fall to the Assyrian king.'

11 You yourself have heard what Assyrian kings do to other countries, wiping them out. Is it likely that you will be saved?

12 Did the gods of the nations that my ancestors destroyed save them, the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, or the people of Eden in Telassar?

13 Where now is Hamath's king, Arpad's king, or the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?"

14 Hezekiah took the letters from the messengers and read them. Then he went to the temple and spread them out before the LORD.

15 Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:

16 "LORD of heavenly forces, God of Israel: you sit enthroned on the winged creatures. You alone are God over all the earth's kingdoms. You made both heaven and earth.

17 LORD, turn your ear this way and hear! LORD, open your eyes and see! Listen to Sennacherib's words. He sent them to insult the living God!

18 It's true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have destroyed all the nations and their lands.

19 The Assyrians burned the gods of those nations with fire because they aren't real gods. They are only man-made creations of wood and stone. That's how the Assyrians could destroy them.

20 So now, LORD our God, please save us from Sennacherib's power! Then all the earth's kingdoms will know that you alone are LORD."

21 Then Isaiah, Amoz's son, sent a message to Hezekiah: The LORD God of Israel says this: Since you prayed to me about Assyria's King Sennacherib,

22 this is the message that the LORD has spoken against him: The young woman, Daughter Zion, despises you and mocks you; Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head behind your back.

23 Whom did you insult and ridicule? Against whom did you raise your voice and look on with disdain? It was against the holy one of Israel!

24 With your servants, you've insulted the Lord; you said, "I, with my many chariots, have gone up to the highest mountains, to the farthest reaches of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the best of its pine trees. I have reached its most remote lodging place, its best forest.

25 I have dug wells, have drunk water in foreign lands. With my own feet, I dried up all of Egypt's streams."

26 Haven't you heard? I set this up long ago; I planned it in the distant past! Now I have made it happen, making fortified cities collapse into piles of rubble.

27 Their citizens have lost their power; they are frightened and dismayed. They've become like plants in a field, tender green shoots, the grass on rooftops, blasted by the east wind.

28 I know where you are, how you go out and come in, and how you rage against me.

29 Because you rage against me and because your pride has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. I will make you go back the same way you came.

30 Now this will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows by itself. Next year you will eat what grows from that. But in the third year, plant seed and harvest it; plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

31 The survivors of Judah's family who have escaped will put down roots and bear fruit above.

32 Those who remain will go out from Jerusalem, and those who survive will go out from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of heavenly forces will do this.

33 Therefore, the LORD says this about Assyria's king: He won't enter this city. He won't shoot a single arrow here. He won't come near the city with a shield. He won't build a ramp to besiege it.

34 He'll go back by the same way he came. He won't enter this city, declares the LORD.

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

36 The LORD's messenger went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand soldiers in the Assyrian camp. When people got up the next morning, there were dead bodies everywhere.

37 So Assyria's King Sennacherib left and went back to Nineveh, where he stayed.

38 Later, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. Then they escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon ruled after him.

1 At about that time Hezekiah became deathly sick. The prophet Isaiah, Amoz's son, came to him and said: "The LORD God says this: Put your affairs in order because you are about to die. You won't survive this."

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

3 "Please, LORD, remember how I've walked before you in truth and sincerity. I've done what you consider to be good." Then Hezekiah cried and cried.

4 Then the LORD's word came to Isaiah:

5 "Go and say to Hezekiah: The LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and have seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life.

6 I will rescue you and this city from the power of the Assyrian king. I will defend this city.

7 This will be your sign from the LORD that he will do what he promised:

8 once the shadow cast by the sun descends on the steps of Ahaz, I will make it back up ten steps." And the sun went back ten of the steps that it had already descended.

9 A composition by Judah's King Hezekiah when he was sick and then recovered from his sickness:

10 I thought, I must depart in the prime of my life; I have been relegated to the gates of the underworld for the rest of my life.

11 I thought, I won't see the LORD. The LORD is in the land of the living. I won't look upon humans again or be with the inhabitants of the world.

12 My lifetime is plucked up and taken from me like a shepherd's tent. My life is shriveled like woven cloth; God cuts me off from the loom. Between daybreak and nightfall you carry out your verdict against me.

13 I cried out until morning: "Like a lion God crushes all my bones. Between daybreak and nightfall you carry out your verdict against me.

14 Like a swallow I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes have grown weary looking to heaven. Lord, I'm overwhelmed; support me!"

15 What can I say? God has spoken to me; he himself has acted. I will wander my whole life with a bitter spirit.

16 The LORD Most High is the one who gives life to every heart, who gives life to the spirit!

17 Look, he indeed exchanged my bitterness for wholeness. You yourself have spared my whole being from the pit of destruction, because you have cast all my sins behind your back.

18 The underworld can't thank you, nor can death praise you; those who go down to the pit can't hope for your faithfulness.

19 The living, the living can thank you, as I do today. Parents will tell children about your faithfulness.

20 The LORD has truly saved me, and we will make music at the LORD's house all the days of our lives.

21 Then Isaiah said, "Prepare a salve made from figs, put it on the swelling, and he'll get better."

22 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What's the sign that I'll be able to go up to the LORD's temple?"

1 At that time, Babylon's King Merodach-baladan, Baladan's son, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been ill and had recovered.

2 Hezekiah was pleased, and he showed them his treasury—the silver and the gold, the spices and fine oil—and everything in his armory, all that was found in his storerooms. There wasn't a thing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah didn't show them.

3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say? Where did they come from?" Hezekiah replied, "They came to me from a distant land, from Babylon."

4 So Isaiah said, "What did they see in your house?" Hezekiah said, "They saw everything in my house. There was nothing in my storerooms that I didn't show them."

5 Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD of heavenly forces:

6 Days are coming when all that is in your house, which your ancestors have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.

7 Some of your sons, your own descendants whom you fathered, will be taken to become eunuchs in the king of Babylon's palace."

8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The LORD's word that you delivered is good," since he thought, That means there will be peace and security in my lifetime.

1 Comfort, comfort my people! says your God.

2 Speak compassionately to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended, that her penalty has been paid, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins!

3 A voice is crying out: "Clear the LORD's way in the desert! Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!

4 Every valley will be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be flattened. Uneven ground will become level, and rough terrain a valley plain.

5 The LORD's glory will appear, and all humanity will see it together; the LORD's mouth has commanded it."

6 A voice was saying: "Call out!" And another said, "What should I call out?" All flesh is grass; all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field.

7 The grass dries up and the flower withers when the LORD's breath blows on it. Surely the people are grass.

8 The grass dries up; the flower withers, but our God's word will exist forever.

9 Go up on a high mountain, messenger Zion! Raise your voice and shout, messenger Jerusalem! Raise it; don't be afraid; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!"

10 Here is the LORD God, coming with strength, with a triumphant arm, bringing his reward with him and his payment before him.

11 Like a shepherd, God will tend the flock; he will gather lambs in his arms and lift them onto his lap. He will gently guide the nursing ewes.

12 Who has measured the waters in the palm of a hand or gauged the heavens with a ruler or scooped the earth's dust up in a measuring cup or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills in a balance?

13 Who directed the LORD's spirit and acted as God's advisor?

14 Whom did he consult for enlightenment? Who taught him the path of justice and knowledge and explained to him the way of understanding?

15 Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and valued as dust on a scale. Look, God weighs the islands like fine dust.

16 Lebanon doesn't have enough fuel; its animals aren't enough for an entirely burned offering.

17 All the nations are like nothing before God. They are viewed as less than nothing and emptiness.

18 So to whom will you equate God; to what likeness will you compare him?

19 An idol? A craftsman pours it, a metalworker covers it with gold, and fashions silver chains.

20 The one who sets up an image chooses wood that won't rot and then seeks a skilled artisan to set up an idol that won't move.

21 Don't you know? Haven't you heard? Wasn't it announced to you from the beginning? Haven't you understood since the earth was founded?

22 God inhabits the earth's horizon— its inhabitants are like locusts— stretches out the skies like a curtain and spreads it out like a tent for dwelling.

23 God makes dignitaries useless and the earth's judges into nothing.

24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely is their shoot rooted in the earth when God breathes on them, and they dry up; the windstorm carries them off like straw.

25 So to whom will you compare me, and who is my equal? says the holy one.

26 Look up at the sky and consider: Who created these? The one who brings out their attendants one by one, summoning each of them by name. Because of God's great strength and mighty power, not one is missing.

27 Why do you say, Jacob, and declare, Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD my God ignores my predicament"?

28 Don't you know? Haven't you heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn't grow tired or weary. His understanding is beyond human reach,

29 giving power to the tired and reviving the exhausted.

30 Youths will become tired and weary, young men will certainly stumble;

31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength; they will fly up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be tired; they will walk and not be weary.

1 Be quiet before me, coastlands. Let the nations renew their strength. Let them approach and speak. Let's draw near for a judgment.

2 Who has awakened one from the east and has authority to summon him to serve— giving him nations, conquering kings, making them like dust with his sword, like scattered straw with his bow?

3 He pursues them and passes untouched, needing no path for his feet.

4 Who has acted and who has done this, calling upon generation after generation since the beginning? I, the LORD, was first, and I will be the last!

5 The coastlands see and fear; the ends of the earth tremble; they draw near and arrive.

6 Each helps the other, each saying to the other, "Take courage!"

7 The craftsman encourages the metalworker; the one who smoothes with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, "That's good," and strengthening it with nails so it won't move.

8 But you, Israel my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham, whom I love,

9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are my servant; I chose you and didn't reject you":

10 Don't fear, because I am with you; don't be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will surely help you; I will hold you with my righteous strong hand.

11 All who rage against you will be shamed and disgraced. Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.

12 You will look for your opponents, and won't find them. Those who fight you will be of no account and will die.

13 I am the LORD your God, who grasps your strong hand, who says to you, Don't fear; I will help you.

14 Don't fear, worm of Jacob, people of Israel! I will help you, says the LORD. The holy one of Israel is your redeemer.

15 Look, I've made you into a new threshing tool with sharp teeth. You will thresh mountains and pulverize them; you will reduce hills to straw.

16 When you winnow them, the wind will carry them off; the tempest will scatter them. You will rejoice in the LORD and take pride in the holy one of Israel.

17 The poor and the needy seek water, and there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will respond to them; I, the God of Israel, won't abandon them.

18 I will open streams on treeless hilltops and springs in valleys. I will make the desert into ponds and dry land into cascades of water.

19 I will plant in the desert cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees; I will put in the wilderness cypress, elm, and pine as well,

20 so that they will see and know and observe and comprehend that the LORD's hand has done this, and the holy one of Israel has created it.

21 Present your case, says the LORD. Bring forward your evidence, says Jacob's king.

22 Let the idols approach and tell us what will happen. The prior things—what are they? Announce them, and we'll think about them and know their significance. Or proclaim to us what is to come!

23 Report things that will happen in the future, then we'll know that you are gods. Do good! Or do bad! Then we will all be afraid and fearful.

24 Look! You are nobody, and your deeds are nothing. Whoever chooses you is disgusting.

25 I woke up one from the north and he came; from the east, one who calls my name. He tramples governors like mud, as a potter treads clay.

26 Who announced this from the start so that we would know; from an earlier time so we would say, "That's right"? Truly, no one announced it, no one proclaimed it, and no one heard your words.

27 I first said it to Zion, "Look, here they are"; to Jerusalem I now send a herald.

28 But I look, and there's no one among them, no counselor; and when I ask, no one can answer.

29 Look, all of them are frauds; their deeds amount to nothing; their images are a total delusion.

1 But here is my servant, the one I uphold; my chosen, who brings me delight. I've put my spirit upon him; he will bring justice to the nations.

2 He won't cry out or shout aloud or make his voice heard in public.

3 He won't break a bruised reed; he won't extinguish a faint wick, but he will surely bring justice.

4 He won't be extinguished or broken until he has established justice in the land. The coastlands await his teaching.

5 God the LORD says— the one who created the heavens, the one who stretched them out, the one who spread out the earth and its offspring, the one who gave breath to its people and life to those who walk on it—

6 I, the LORD, have called you for a good reason. I will grasp your hand and guard you, and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations,

7 to open blind eyes, to lead the prisoners from prison, and those who sit in darkness from the dungeon.

8 I am the LORD; that is my name; I don't hand out my glory to others or my praise to idols.

9 The things announced in the past—look—they've already happened, but I'm declaring new things. Before they even appear, I tell you about them.

10 Sing to the LORD a new song! Sing his praise from the ends of the earth! You who sail the sea and all that fills it, the coastlands and their residents.

11 Let the desert and its towns shout aloud, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the cliff dwellers sing; from the top of the mountains let them shout.

12 Let them give the LORD glory and declare God's praise in the coastlands.

13 The LORD will go out like a soldier; like a warrior God will stir up rage. God will shout, will roar; over enemies he will prevail.

14 I've kept still for a very long time. I've been silent and restrained myself. Like a woman in labor I will moan; I will pant, I will gasp.

15 I will wither mountains and valleys, and I will dry up all their vegetation. I will turn rivers into deserts, and I will dry up pools.

16 I will make the blind walk a road they don't know, and I will guide them in paths they don't know. But I will make darkness before them into light and rough places into level ground. These things I will do; I won't abandon them.

17 Turned backward, utterly shamed are those who trust in idols, who say to a cast image, "You are our god!"

18 Hear, deaf ones, and blind ones, look and see!

19 Who is blind if not my servant and deaf like my messenger whom I send? Who is blind like the restored one, blind like the servant of the LORD?

20 You have seen many things, but don't keep watch. With ears open, you don't hear.

21 The LORD desired for the sake of his righteousness to expand and glorify the Instruction.

22 But this is a people plundered and looted, everyone trapped in holes and hidden in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue, loot with no one to say, "Give it back."

23 Which of you will listen to this, will pay attention and respond from now on?

24 Who gave Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Wasn't it the LORD, the one we sinned against? They were not willing to walk in God's ways, and wouldn't listen to his teaching.

25 So God poured out on Jacob the heat of his anger and the fury of battle. It scorched him, and he didn't know it; it burned him, but he didn't give it much thought.

1 But now, says the LORD— the one who created you, Jacob, the one who formed you, Israel: Don't fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when through the rivers, they won't sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you won't be scorched and flame won't burn you.

3 I am the LORD your God, the holy one of Israel, your savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.

4 Because you are precious in my eyes, you are honored, and I love you. I give people in your place, and nations in exchange for your life.

5 Don't fear, I am with you. From the east I'll bring your children; from the west I'll gather you.

6 I'll say to the north, "Give them back!" and to the south, "Don't detain them." Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the end of the earth,

7 everyone who is called by my name and whom I created for my glory, whom I have formed and made.

8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes, the deaf ones who have ears.

9 All the nations are gathered together; the peoples are assembled. Which of them announced this? Who predicted to us the past events? Let them bring their witnesses as a defense; let them hear and say, "It's true!"

10 You are my witnesses, says the LORD, my servant, whom I chose, so that you would know and believe me and understand that I am the one. Before me no god was formed; after me there has been no other.

11 I, I am the LORD, and there is no savior besides me.

12 I announced, I saved, I proclaimed, not some stranger among you. You are my witnesses, says the LORD, and I am God.

13 From the dawn of time, I am the one. No one can escape my power. I act, and who can undo it?

14 The LORD your redeemer, the holy one of Israel, says, For your sake, I have sent an army to Babylon, and brought down all the bars, turning the Chaldeans' singing into a lament.

15 I am the LORD, your holy one, Israel's creator, your king!

16 The LORD says—who makes a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters,

17 who brings out chariot and horse, army and battalion; they will lie down together and will not rise; they will be extinguished, extinguished like a wick.

18 Don't remember the prior things; don't ponder ancient history.

19 Look! I'm doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don't you recognize it? I'm making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness.

20 The beasts of the field, the jackals and ostriches, will honor me, because I have put water in the desert and streams in the wilderness to give water to my people, my chosen ones,

21 this people whom I formed for myself, who will recount my praise.

22 But you didn't call out to me, Jacob; you were tired of me, Israel.

23 You didn't bring me lambs for your entirely burned offering; you didn't honor me with your sacrifices. I didn't make you worship with offerings; I didn't weary you with frankincense.

24 You didn't buy spices for me with your money, or satisfy me with the fat of your sacrifices. Instead, you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your evil actions.

25 I, I am the one who wipes out your rebellious behavior for my sake. I won't remember your sin.

26 Summon me, and let's go to trial together; you tell your story so that you may be vindicated!

27 Your first ancestor sinned, and your officials rebelled against me.

28 So I made the holy officials impure, handed over Jacob to destruction and Israel to abuse.

1 But now hear this, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.

2 The LORD your maker, who formed you in the womb and will help you, says: Don't fear, my servant Jacob, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

3 I will pour out water upon thirsty ground and streams upon dry land. I will pour out my spirit upon your descendants and my blessing upon your offspring.

4 They will spring up from among the reeds like willows by flowing streams.

5 This one will say, "I am the LORD's," and that one will be named after Jacob. Another will write on his hand, "The LORD's" and will take the name Israel.

6 The LORD, Israel's king and redeemer, the LORD of heavenly forces, says: I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there are no gods.

7 Who is like me? Let them speak up, explain it, and lay it out for me. Who announced long ago what is to be? Let them tell us what is to come.

8 Don't tremble; have no fear! Didn't I proclaim it? Didn't I inform you long ago? You are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no other rock; I know of none.

9 Idol-makers are all as nothing; their playthings do no good. Their promoters neither see nor know anything, so they ought to be ashamed.

10 Who would form a god or cast an idol that does no good?

11 All its worshippers will be ashamed, and its artisans, who are only human. They will all gather and stand, tremble and be ashamed together.

12 A blacksmith with his tools works it over coals, and shapes it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He even becomes hungry and weak. If he didn't drink water, he'd pass out.

13 A carpenter stretches out a string, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with carving tools, and marks it with a compass. He makes it into a human form, like a splendid human, to live in a temple.

14 He cuts down cedars for himself, or chooses a cypress or oak, selecting from all the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain makes it grow.

15 It becomes suitable to burn for humans, so he takes some of the wood and warms himself. He kindles fire and bakes bread. He fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.

16 Half of it he burns in the fire; on that half he roasts and eats meat, and he is satisfied. He warms himself and says, "Ah, I'm warm, watching the fire!"

17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, into his idol, and he bows down, worships, and prays to it, saying, "Save me, for you are my god!"

18 They don't know or comprehend, for their eyes can't see and their minds can't comprehend.

19 He doesn't think, and has no knowledge or understanding to think: Half of it I burned in the fire, and I baked bread on its coals, and roasted meat and ate. Should I make the rest into something detestable? Should I bow down to a block of wood?

20 He's feeding on ashes; his deluded mind has led him astray. He can't save himself and say, "Isn't this thing in my hand a lie?"

21 Remember these things, Jacob; Israel, for you are my servant. I formed you; you are my servant! I won't forget you, Israel.

22 I swept away your rebellions like a cloud, and your sins like fog. Return to me, because I have redeemed you.

23 Sing, heavens, for the LORD has acted; shout, depths of the earth! Burst out with a ringing cry, you mountains, forest, and every tree in it. The LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself through Israel.

24 The LORD your redeemer who formed you in the womb says: I am the LORD, the maker of all, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

25 who frustrates the omens of diviners and makes a mockery of magicians, who turns back the wise and turns their knowledge into folly.

26 But who confirms the word of my servant, and fulfills the predictions of my messengers; who says about Jerusalem, "It will be resettled"; and who says about the cities of Judah, "They will be rebuilt, and I will restore their ruins";

27 who says to the ocean depths, "Dry up; I will dry your streams";

28 who says about Cyrus, "My shepherd— he will do all that I want"; who says about Jerusalem, "She will be rebuilt"; and who says about the temple, "You will be founded once again."

1 The LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom I have grasped by the strong hand, to conquer nations before him, disarming kings, and opening doors before him, so no gates will be shut:

2 I myself will go before you, and I will level mountains. I will shatter bronze doors; I will cut through iron bars.

3 I will give you hidden treasures of secret riches, so you will know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by name.

4 For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen, I called you by name. I gave you an honored title, though you didn't know me.

5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no God. I strengthen you— though you don't know me—

6 so all will know, from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is nothing apart from me. I am the LORD; there's no other.

7 I form light and create darkness, make prosperity and create doom; I am the LORD, who does all these things.

8 Pour down, you heavens above, and let the clouds flow with righteousness. Let the earth open for salvation to bear fruit; let righteousness sprout as well. I, the LORD, have created these things.

9 Doom to the one who argues with the potter, as if he were just another clay pot! Does the clay say to the potter, "What are you making?" or "Your work has no handles"?

10 Doom to one who says to a father, "What have you fathered?" and to a woman, "With what are you in labor?"

11 The LORD, the holy one of Israel and its maker, says: Are you questioning me about my own children? Are you telling me what to do with the work of my hands?

12 I myself made the earth, and created humans upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens. I commanded all their forces.

13 I have a right to awaken Cyrus; I will smooth all his paths. He will build my city and set my exiles free, not for a price and not for a bribe, says the LORD of heavenly forces.

14 The LORD says: Egypt will grow weary, Cush will be sold, and the tall Sabeans will cross over to you. They will be yours, and after you they will go. In chains they will come; to you they will bow down. They will plead with you: "Truly God is with you; there's no other, no other God."

15 Surely you are a god who hides himself, Israel's God and savior.

16 They will all be shamed and disgraced; the makers of idols will end up disgraced together.

17 Israel has been saved by the LORD of everlasting salvation. You won't be shamed, and you won't be disgraced forever and always.

18 For this is what the LORD said, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who established it, who didn't create it a wasteland but formed it as a habitation: I, the LORD, and none other!

19 I didn't speak in secret or in some land of darkness; I didn't say to the offspring of Jacob, "Seek me in chaos." I am the LORD, the one who speaks truth, who announces what is correct.

20 Gather and come, draw near together, fugitives of the nations! Those who carry their wooden idols don't know; those who pray to a god who won't save.

21 Announce! Approach! Confer together! Who proclaimed this from the beginning, announced it from long ago? Wasn't it I, the LORD? There's no other God except me, a righteous God and a savior; there's none besides me!

22 Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God, and there's no other.

23 I have sworn a solemn pledge; a word has left my mouth; it is reliable and won't fail. Surely every knee will bow and every tongue will confess;

24 they will say, "Righteousness and strength come only from the LORD. All who are angry with him will come to shame.

25 All the Israelites will be victorious and rejoice."

1 Bel crouches down; Nebo cowers. Their idols sit on animals, on beasts. The objects you once carried about are now borne as burdens by the weary animals.

2 They crouch down and cower together. They aren't able to rescue the burden, but they themselves go into captivity.

3 Listen to me, house of Jacob, all that remains from the house of Israel who have been borne by me since pregnancy, whom I carried from the womb

4 until you grow old. I am the one, and until you turn gray I will support you. I have done it, and I will continue to bear it; I will support and I will rescue.

5 To whom will you liken me and count me equal and compare me so that we are alike?

6 Those who pour out gold from a bag and weigh silver with a balance hire a metalworker; then he makes a god. They bow down; they worship;

7 they carry the idol on their shoulders and support it; they set it down, and it stands still, unable to move from its place. If one cries out to it, it doesn't answer. It can't save people from their distress.

8 Remember this and take courage; take it to heart, you rebels.

9 Remember the prior things—from long ago; I am God, and there's no other. I am God! There's none like me,

10 who tells the end at the beginning, from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "My plan will stand; all that I decide I will do,"

11 I call a bird of prey from the east, a man from a distant land for my plan. As surely as I have spoken, I'll make it happen; I have planned, and yes, I'll do it.

12 Listen to me, you bullheaded people who are far from victory:

13 I'm bringing my victory near—it isn't far, and my salvation—it won't delay. I will establish salvation in Zion and grant my splendor to Israel.

1 Go down and sit in the dust, virgin Daughter Babylon! Sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter Chaldea, because they will no longer call you tender and pampered.

2 Take the millstones and grind flour! Remove your veil, strip off your robe, expose your thighs, wade through the rivers!

3 Your nakedness will be exposed, and your disgrace will be seen. I will take vengeance; no one will intervene.

4 Our redeemer has spoken; the LORD of heavenly forces is his name, the holy one of Israel.

5 Sit silent and go into darkness, Daughter Chaldea, because they will no longer call you Queen of Kingdoms.

6 I was enraged with my people; I made my inheritance impure and put them under your power. You took no pity on them. You made your yoke heavy even on the elderly.

7 You said, "I'm forever; I'm the eternal mistress." You didn't stop and think; you didn't consider the outcome.

8 So listen to this, luxuriant one who sits secure, who says in her heart, I'm utterly unique; I'll never sit as a widow; I'll never know childlessness:

9 Both of these will happen to you at once, on a single day: childlessness and widowhood will envelop you in full measure, despite your many sorceries, despite your very powerful spells.

10 You felt secure in your evil; you said, "No one sees me." Your wisdom and knowledge spun you around. You thought to yourself, I and no one else.

11 Now evil will come against you, something you won't anticipate. A curse will fall upon you, something you won't be able to dispel. Destruction will come upon you suddenly, something you won't foresee.

12 Continue with your enchantments, and with your many spells, which you have practiced since childhood. Maybe you will be able to succeed. Maybe you will inspire terror.

13 You are weary from all your consultations; let the astrologers stand up and save you, those who gaze at the stars, and predict what will happen to you at each new moon.

14 They are just like stubble; the fire burns them. They won't save themselves from the powerful flames. This is no warming ember or fire to sit beside.

15 Those with whom you have wearied yourself are like this, those with whom you were in business from your youth: each has wandered off on their own way; none will save you.

1 Listen to this, house of Jacob, who are known by the name of Israel, descendants of Judah, who swear by the LORD's name and invoke Israel's God dishonestly and unrighteously.

2 They are known as residents of the holy city, those who depend upon the God of Israel— the LORD of heavenly forces is his name.

3 Past things I announced long ago; from my mouth I proclaimed them. I acted suddenly, and they came about.

4 Because I know that you are stubborn, your neck is made of iron, and your forehead is bronze.

5 I informed you long ago; before they came about I proclaimed them to you so you wouldn't say, "My idol did them; my wood statue and metal god commanded them."

6 You've heard and seen all this— won't you admit it? From now on I'll tell you new things, guarded secrets that you don't know.

7 They are created now, not long ago; before today you hadn't heard of them, so you won't say, "I already knew them."

8 You haven't heard, nor have you known; as in ages past your ears are closed, because I knew what a traitor you were; you were known as a rebel from birth.

9 For the sake of my reputation I control my anger; for your sake I restrain my powerful radiance so as to not destroy you.

10 See, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tested you in the furnace of misery.

11 For the sake of my reputation, for my own sake, I will act, for why will my name be made impure? I won't give my glory to another.

12 Listen to me, Jacob; Israel, whom I called: I am the one; I am the first and I am the last.

13 My hand founded the earth; my strong hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they all stand up.

14 Gather yourselves, all of you, and listen. Who among you announced these things? "The LORD loves him. He will do what God wants with Babylon and with the descendants of Chaldea."

15 I, I have spoken and told him the things that will happen to him; I will make him succeed.

16 Come close to me; listen to this: Since the very beginning I haven't spoken in secret. Whenever anything happens, I am there. (And now the LORD God has sent me with his spirit.)

17 The LORD your redeemer, the holy one of Israel, proclaims: I am the LORD your God who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go.

18 If you would pay attention to my commands, your well-being would be like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 Your offspring would be like the sand, and your descendants like its grains. Their name would never be eliminated, never wiped out from before me.

20 Go out from Babylon; flee from the Chaldeans! Report this with a loud shout, proclaim it; broadcast it out to the end of the earth. Say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!"

21 They weren't thirsty when he led them through the deserts. God made water flow from the rock for them; split the rock, and water flowed out.

22 There is no well-being, says the LORD, for the wicked.

1 Listen to me, coastlands; pay attention, peoples far away. The LORD called me before my birth, called my name when I was in my mother's womb.

2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, and hid me in the shadow of God's own hand. He made me a sharpened arrow, and concealed me in God's quiver,

3 saying to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I show my glory."

4 But I said, "I have wearied myself in vain. I have used up my strength for nothing." Nevertheless, the LORD will grant me justice; my reward is with my God.

5 And now the LORD has decided— the one who formed me from the womb as his servant— to restore Jacob to God, so that Israel might return to him. Moreover, I'm honored in the LORD's eyes; my God has become my strength.

6 He said: It is not enough, since you are my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the survivors of Israel. Hence, I will also appoint you as light to the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

7 The LORD, redeemer of Israel and its holy one, says to one despised, rejected by nations, to the slave of rulers: Kings will see and stand up; commanders will bow down on account of the LORD, who is faithful, the holy one of Israel, who has chosen you.

8 The LORD said: At the right time, I answered you; on a day of salvation, I helped you. I have guarded you, and given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land, and to reassign deserted properties,

9 saying to the prisoners, "Come out," and to those in darkness, "Show yourselves." Along the roads animals will graze; their pasture will be on every treeless hilltop.

10 They won't hunger or thirst; the burning heat and sun won't strike them, because one who has compassion for them will lead them and will guide them by springs of water.

11 I will turn all my mountains into roads; my highways will be built up.

12 Look! These will come from far away. Look! These from the north and west, and these from the southland.

13 Sing, heavens! Rejoice, earth! Break out, mountains, with a song. The LORD has comforted his people, and taken pity on those who suffer.

14 But Zion says, "The LORD has abandoned me; my Lord has forgotten me."

15 Can a woman forget her nursing child, fail to pity the child of her womb? Even these may forget, but I won't forget you.

16 Look, on my palms I've inscribed you; your walls are before me continually.

17 Your builders come quickly; those who destroy and demolish you will depart from you.

18 Look up all around and see: they are all gathered; they come to you. As surely as I live, says the LORD, you will put them all on like ornaments, bind them on like a bride.

19 As for your ruins and desolate places and destroyed land— you will soon be crowded with settlers, and those who swallowed you will be far away.

20 You will again hear the children who were born bereaved say, "The place is too crowded for me; make room for me to settle."

21 And you will think to yourself, Who bore me these? I was bereaved and desolate, exiled and sent off. So who raised these? I was left behind, I was alone; where were these?

22 The LORD God says: Look, I will raise my hand to the nations, and to the peoples I will lift up my signal. They will bring your sons in their arms, and will carry your daughters on their shoulders.

23 Kings will be your attendants, and their queens your nursemaids. With faces to the ground they will bow down to you; they will lick the dust from your feet. You will know that I am the LORD; the one who hopes in me won't be ashamed.

24 Can loot be taken from warriors? Can a tyrant's captives escape?

25 The LORD says: Even the captives of warriors will be taken, and the tyrant's loot will escape. I myself will oppose those who oppose you, and I myself will save your children.

26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; and as with wine, with their own blood they will be drunk, so that all flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your savior, and the mighty one of Jacob is your redeemer.

1 The LORD says: Where's your mother's divorce decree, with which I sent her away? Or to which lender did I sell you? On account of your sins you were sold; on account of your transgressions your mother was sent away.

2 Why did I come and find no one? Why did I call when no one answered? Is my hand too small to redeem you? Don't I have enough power to save? With my rebuke I dry up the sea and make the rivers into wilderness. Their fish stink from lack of water; they die of thirst.

3 I clothe the heavens with darkness and cover them with funeral clothing.

4 The LORD God gave me an educated tongue to know how to respond to the weary with a word that will awaken them in the morning. God awakens my ear in the morning to listen, as educated people do.

5 The LORD God opened my ear; I didn't rebel; I didn't turn my back.

6 Instead, I gave my body to attackers, and my cheeks to beard pluckers. I didn't hide my face from insults and spitting.

7 The LORD God will help me; therefore, I haven't been insulted. Therefore, I set my face like flint, and knew I wouldn't be ashamed.

8 The one who will declare me innocent is near. Who will argue with me? Let's stand up together. Who will bring judgment against me? Let him approach me.

9 Look! The LORD God will help me. Who will condemn me? Look, they will wear out like clothing; the moth will eat them.

10 Who among you fears the LORD? Who listens to the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light? They will trust in the LORD's name, and rely upon their God.

11 Look! All of you are kindling fire, igniting torches. Walk by the light of your fire, by the torches you have ignited. This is what will happen to you by my hand: you will lie down in grief.

1 Listen to me, you who look for righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry where you were dug.

2 Look to Abraham your ancestor, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. They were alone when I called them, but I blessed them and made them many.

3 The LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her ruins. He will make her desert like Eden and her wilderness like the LORD's garden. Happiness and joy will be found in her— thanks and the sound of singing.

4 Pay attention to me, my people; listen to me, my nation, for teaching will go out from me, my justice, as a light to the nations.

5 I will quickly bring my victory. My salvation is on its way, and my arm will judge the peoples. The coastlands hope for me; they wait for my judgment.

6 Look up to the heavens, and gaze at the earth beneath. The heavens will disappear like smoke, the earth will wear out like clothing, and its inhabitants will die like gnats. But my salvation will endure forever, and my righteousness will be unbroken.

7 Listen to me, you who know what is right, people who carry my teaching in your heart: Don't fear human scorn, and don't be upset when they abuse you.

8 The moth will eat them as if they were clothing, and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness is forever, and my salvation for all generations.

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD. Awake as in times past, generations long ago. Aren't you the one who crushed Rahab, who pierced the dragon?

10 Didn't you dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep? And didn't you make the redeemed a road to cross through the depths of the sea, a road for the redeemed to pass?

11 Then let those ransomed by the LORD return and come to Zion with singing and with everlasting joy upon their heads. Let happiness and joy overwhelm them; let grief and groaning flee.

12 I, I am the one who comforts you. Why should you fear humans who will die, mortals who are treated like grass?

13 You forgot the LORD your maker, the one who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth. You were continually afraid, all day long, on account of the oppressor's wrath— a fear by which they intend to destroy you. Where now is the oppressor's wrath?

14 The imprisoned ones will soon be released; they won't die in the pit or even lack bread.

15 I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of heavenly forces is his name.

16 I put my words in your mouth and hid you in the shadow of my hand, stretching out the heavens, founding the earth, and saying to Zion, "You are my people."

17 Wake yourself, wake yourself! Rise up, Jerusalem, who drank the cup of wrath from the LORD's hand. You drank; you drained the goblet of reeling.

18 There's no one to guide her among all the children she bore; there's no one to take her by the hand among all the children she raised.

19 These two things have happened to you— Who will be sorry for you?— destruction and devastation, famine and sword— who will comfort you?

20 Your children passed out; they lay at the head of every street like antelope in a net, filled with the LORD's wrath, with the rebuke of your God.

21 Therefore, hear this, suffering one, who is drunk, but not from wine.

22 The LORD, your Lord and your God, who contends for his people, says: Look, I have taken the cup of reeling, the goblet of my wrath, from your hand. You will no longer drink from it.

23 I will put it in the hand of your tormentors, who said to you, "Lie down so that we can walk on you. Make your back like the ground, like a street for those walking on it."

1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion! Put on your splendid clothing, Jerusalem, you holy city; for the uncircumcised and unclean will no longer come into you.

2 Shake the dust off yourself; rise up; sit enthroned, Jerusalem. Loose the bonds from your neck, captive Daughter Zion!

3 The LORD proclaims: You were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money.

4 The LORD God proclaims: Long ago my people went down to reside in Egypt. Moreover, Assyria has oppressed them without cause.

5 And now what have I here? says the LORD. My people are taken away for nothing. Their rulers wail, says the LORD, and continually all day long my name is despised.

6 Therefore, my people will know my name on that day; I'm the one who promises it; I'm here.

7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of a messenger who proclaims peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God rules!"

8 Listen! Your lookouts lift their voice; they sing out together! Right before their eyes they see the LORD returning to Zion.

9 Break into song together, you ruins of Jerusalem! The LORD has comforted his people and has redeemed Jerusalem.

10 The LORD has bared his holy arm in view of all the nations; all the ends of the earth have seen our God's victory.

11 Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Unclean! Don't touch! Get out of that place; purify yourselves, carriers of the LORD's equipment!

12 You won't go out in a rush, nor will you run away, because the one going before you is the LORD; your rear guard is the God of Israel.

13 Look, my servant will succeed. He will be exalted and lifted very high.

14 Just as many were appalled by you, he too appeared disfigured, inhuman, his appearance unlike that of mortals.

15 But he will astonish many nations. Kings will be silenced because of him, because they will see what they haven't seen before; what they haven't heard before, they will ponder.

1 Who can believe what we have heard, and for whose sake has the LORD's arm been revealed?

2 He grew up like a young plant before us, like a root from dry ground. He possessed no splendid form for us to see, no desirable appearance.

3 He was despised and avoided by others; a man who suffered, who knew sickness well. Like someone from whom people hid their faces, he was despised, and we didn't think about him.

4 It was certainly our sickness that he carried, and our sufferings that he bore, but we thought him afflicted, struck down by God and tormented.

5 He was pierced because of our rebellions and crushed because of our crimes. He bore the punishment that made us whole; by his wounds we are healed.

6 Like sheep we had all wandered away, each going its own way, but the LORD let fall on him all our crimes.

7 He was oppressed and tormented, but didn't open his mouth. Like a lamb being brought to slaughter, like a ewe silent before her shearers, he didn't open his mouth.

8 Due to an unjust ruling he was taken away, and his fate—who will think about it? He was eliminated from the land of the living, struck dead because of my people's rebellion.

9 His grave was among the wicked, his tomb with evildoers, though he had done no violence, and had spoken nothing false.

10 But the LORD wanted to crush him and to make him suffer. If his life is offered as restitution, he will see his offspring; he will enjoy long life. The LORD's plans will come to fruition through him.

11 After his deep anguish he will see light, and he will be satisfied. Through his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will make many righteous, and will bear their guilt.

12 Therefore, I will give him a share with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong, in return for exposing his life to death and being numbered with rebels, though he carried the sin of many and pleaded on behalf of those who rebelled.

1 Sing, barren woman who has borne no child; break forth into singing and cry out, you who were never in labor, for the children of the wife who has been deserted will be more numerous than the children of the married, says the LORD.

2 Enlarge the site of your tent, and stretch out the drapes of your dwellings; don't hold back. Lengthen your tent ropes and strengthen your stakes.

3 To the right and to the left you will burst out, and your children will possess the nations' land and settle their desolate cities.

4 Don't fear, because you won't be ashamed; don't be dismayed, because you won't be disgraced. You will forget the shame of your youth; you'll no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.

5 The one marrying you is the one who made you— the LORD of heavenly forces is his name. The one redeeming you is the holy one of Israel, the one called the God of all the earth.

6 As an abandoned and dejected woman the LORD has summoned you; as a young wife when she is rejected, says your God.

7 For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great mercy I will bring you back.

8 In an outburst of rage, I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting love I have consoled you, says your redeemer, the LORD.

9 These are like the days of Noah for me, when I promised that Noah's waters would never again cover the earth. Likewise I promise not to rage against you or rebuke you.

10 The mountains may shift, and the hills may be shaken, but my faithful love won't shift from you, and my covenant of peace won't be shaken, says the LORD, the one who pities you.

11 Suffering one, storm-tossed, uncomforted, look, I am setting your gemstones in silvery metal and your foundations with sapphires.

12 I will make your towers of rubies, and your gates of beryl, and all your walls of precious jewels.

13 All your children will be disciples of the LORD— I will make peace abound for your children.

14 You will be firmly founded in righteousness. You will stay far from oppression because you won't fear, far from terror because it won't come near you.

15 If anyone attacks you, it's none of my doing. Whoever attacks you will fall because of you.

16 Look, I myself created the metalworker who blows the fire of coal and who produces a tool for his work. And I myself created the looter to destroy.

17 No weapon fashioned against you will succeed, and you may condemn every tongue that disputes with you. This is the heritage of the LORD's servants, whose righteousness comes from me, says the LORD.

1 All of you who are thirsty, come to the water! Whoever has no money, come, buy food and eat! Without money, at no cost, buy wine and milk!

2 Why spend money for what isn't food, and your earnings for what doesn't satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good; enjoy the richest of feasts.

3 Listen and come to me; listen, and you will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful loyalty to David.

4 Look, I made him a witness to the peoples, a prince and commander of peoples.

5 Look, you will call a nation you don't know, a nation you don't know will run to you because of the LORD your God, the holy one of Israel, who has glorified you.

6 Seek the LORD when he can still be found; call him while he is yet near.

7 Let the wicked abandon their ways and the sinful their schemes. Let them return to the LORD so that he may have mercy on them, to our God, because he is generous with forgiveness.

8 My plans aren't your plans, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.

9 Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my plans than your plans.

10 Just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and don't return there without watering the earth, making it conceive and yield plants and providing seed to the sower and food to the eater,

11 so is my word that comes from my mouth; it does not return to me empty. Instead, it does what I want, and accomplishes what I intend.

12 Yes, you will go out with celebration, and you will be brought back in peace. Even the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you; all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

13 In place of the thorn the cypress will grow; in place of the nettle the myrtle will grow. This will attest to the LORD's stature, an enduring reminder that won't be removed.

1 The LORD says: Act justly and do what is righteous, because my salvation is coming soon, and my righteousness will be revealed.

2 Happy is the one who does this, the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not making it impure, and avoids doing any evil.

3 Don't let the immigrant who has joined with the LORD say, "The LORD will exclude me from the people." And don't let the eunuch say, "I'm just a dry tree."

4 The LORD says: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, choose what I desire, and remain loyal to my covenant.

5 In my temple and courts, I will give them a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give to them an enduring name that won't be removed.

6 The immigrants who have joined me, serving me and loving my name, becoming my servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath without making it impure, and those who hold fast to my covenant:

7 I will bring them to my holy mountain, and bring them joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their entirely burned offerings and sacrifices on my altar. My house will be known as a house of prayer for all peoples,

8 says the LORD God, who gathers Israel's outcasts. I will gather still others to those I have already gathered.

9 All you beasts of the field, come and eat, all you beasts of the forest!

10 The lookouts are blind; they all lack sense. They are all mute dogs that can't bark, dreamers, loungers, loving to sleep.

11 But the dogs have monstrous appetites. They never have enough. They are shepherds who don't understand. All of them have turned to their own ways, every last one greedy for profit.

12 "Come! I'll get some wine! Let's drink beer! Tomorrow will be like today, or even much better."

1 The righteous person perishes, and no one takes it to heart. Loyal people are gathered together, and no one understands that because of evil the righteous one passed away.

2 They will find peace; those who walk in straight paths will find rest on their burial beds.

3 Come here, you children of sorcery, offspring of adultery and prostitution!

4 Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Aren't you children of rebellion, offspring of lies,

5 who console yourselves with idols under every green tree, who slaughter children in the valleys, under the rocky cliffs?

6 You belong with the smooth talkers in the valley; they, they are your lot. For them you poured out a drink offering, and presented a grain offering. Should I condone these things?

7 On a very high mountain you made your bed. You went up there to offer a sacrifice.

8 Behind the door and the doorpost you placed your symbols. You abandoned me and lay down, making room in your bed and making deals for yourself with them. You loved their bed; you saw their nakedness.

9 You went down to Molech with oil, and you slathered on your ointments; you sent your messengers far away, sent them down to the underworld.

10 Worn out by all your efforts, yet you wouldn't say, "This is useless." You found new strength; therefore, you weren't tired.

11 Whom did you dread and fear so that you lied, didn't remember me or give me a thought? Isn't it because I was silent and closed my eyes that you stopped fearing me?

12 I will bring evidence about your righteousness and your actions; they won't help you.

13 When you cry out, let those things you've gathered save you! The wind will lift them all; one breath will take them away. but those taking refuge in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.

14 It will be said: "Survey, survey; build a road! Remove barriers from my people's road!"

15 The one who is high and lifted up, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says: I live on high, in holiness, and also with the crushed and the lowly, reviving the spirit of the lowly, reviving the heart of those who have been crushed.

16 I won't always accuse, nor will I be enraged forever. It is my own doing that their spirit is exhausted— I gave them breath!

17 I was enraged about their illegal profits; I struck them; in rage I withdrew from them. Yet they went on wandering wherever they wanted.

18 I have seen their ways, but I will heal them. I will guide them, and reward them with comfort. And for those who mourn,

19 I will create reason for praise: utter prosperity to those far and near, and I will heal them, says the LORD.

20 But the wicked are like the churning sea that can't keep still. They churn up from their waters muck and mud.

21 There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.

1 Shout loudly; don't hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their crime, to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 They seek me day after day, desiring knowledge of my ways like a nation that acted righteously, that didn't abandon their God. They ask me for righteous judgments, wanting to be close to God.

3 "Why do we fast and you don't see; why afflict ourselves and you don't notice?" Yet on your fast day you do whatever you want, and oppress all your workers.

4 You quarrel and brawl, and then you fast; you hit each other violently with your fists. You shouldn't fast as you are doing today if you want to make your voice heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I choose, a day of self-affliction, of bending one's head like a reed and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

6 Isn't this the fast I choose: releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke, setting free the mistreated, and breaking every yoke?

7 Isn't it sharing your bread with the hungry and bringing the homeless poor into your house, covering the naked when you see them, and not hiding from your own family?

8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, and you will be healed quickly. Your own righteousness will walk before you, and the LORD's glory will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and God will say, "I'm here." If you remove the yoke from among you, the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;

10 if you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like the noon.

11 The LORD will guide you continually and provide for you, even in parched places. He will rescue your bones. You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water that won't run dry.

12 They will rebuild ancient ruins on your account; the foundations of generations past you will restore. You will be called Mender of Broken Walls, Restorer of Livable Streets.

13 If you stop trampling the Sabbath, stop doing whatever you want on my holy day, and consider the Sabbath a delight, sacred to the LORD, honored, and honor it instead of doing things your way, seeking what you want and doing business as usual,

14 then you will take delight in the LORD. I will let you ride on the heights of the earth; I will sustain you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

1 Look! The LORD does not lack the power to save, nor are his ears too dull to hear,

2 but your misdeeds have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that you aren't heard.

3 Your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with guilt. Your lips speak lies; your tongues mutter malice.

4 No one sues honestly; no one pleads truthfully. By trusting in emptiness and speaking deceit, they conceive harm and give birth to malice.

5 They hatch adders' eggs, and weave spiderwebs. Whoever eats their eggs will die. Moreover, the crushed egg hatches a viper.

6 Their webs can't serve as clothing; they can't cover themselves with their deeds. Their deeds are deeds of malice, and the work of violence is in their hands.

7 Their feet run to evil; they rush to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of malice; desolation and destruction litter their highways.

8 They don't know the way of peace; there's no justice in their paths. They make their roads crooked; no one who walks in them knows peace.

9 Because of all this, justice is far from us, and righteousness beyond our reach. We expect light, and there is darkness; we await a gleam of light, but walk about in gloom.

10 We grope along the wall like the blind; like those without eyes we grope. We stumble at noonday as if it were twilight, and among the strong as if we were dying.

11 All of us growl like bears, and like doves we moan. We expect justice, but there is none; we await salvation, but it is far from us.

12 Our rebellions are numerous in your presence; our sins testify against us. Our rebellions are with us; we're aware of our guilt:

13 defying and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, planning oppression and revolt, muttering lying words conceived in our minds.

14 Justice is pushed aside; righteousness stands far off, because truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty can't enter.

15 Truth is missing; anyone turning from evil is plundered. The LORD looked and was upset at the absence of justice.

16 Seeing that there was no one, and astonished that no one would intervene, God's arm brought victory, upheld by righteousness,

17 putting on righteousness as armor and a helmet of salvation on his head, putting on garments of vengeance, and wrapping himself in a cloak of zeal.

18 God will repay according to their actions: wrath to his foes, retribution to enemies, retribution to the coastlands,

19 so those in the west will fear the LORD's name, and those in the east will fear God's glory. It will come like a rushing river that the LORD's wind drives on.

20 A redeemer will come to Zion and to those in Jacob who stop rebelling, says the LORD.

21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD. My spirit, which is upon you, and my words, which I have placed in your mouth won't depart from your mouth, nor from the mouths of your descendants, nor from the mouths of your descendants' children, says the LORD, forever and always.

1 Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the LORD's glory has shone upon you.

2 Though darkness covers the earth and gloom the nations, the LORD will shine upon you; God's glory will appear over you.

3 Nations will come to your light and kings to your dawning radiance.

4 Lift up your eyes and look all around: they are all gathered; they have come to you. Your sons will come from far away, and your daughters on caregivers' hips.

5 Then you will see and be radiant; your heart will tremble and open wide, because the sea's abundance will be turned over to you; the nations' wealth will come to you.

6 Countless camels will cover your land, young camels from Midian and Ephah. They will all come from Sheba, carrying gold and incense, proclaiming the LORD's praises.

7 All Kedar's sheep will be gathered for you; rams from Nebaioth will be your offerings; they will be accepted on my altar, and I will glorify my splendid house.

8 Who are these who fly like a cloud, like doves to their shelters?

9 I'm the hope of the coastlands. Ships from Tarshish are in the lead to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them for the name of the LORD your God and for the holy one of Israel, who has glorified you.

10 Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in my rage I struck you down, in my favor I have consoled you.

11 Your gates will be open continually; day and night they won't close, to bring to you the wealth of nations, and their kings led in procession.

12 The nation and the dynasty that won't serve you will perish; such nations will be devastated.

13 Lebanon's glory will come upon you, cypress, elm, and pine, to glorify the site of my sanctuary, and I will honor my royal footstool.

14 The children of your tormenters will come bending low to you; all who despised you will bow down at your feet. They will call you The LORD's City, Zion, of the holy one of Israel.

15 Instead of being abandoned, hated, and forbidden, I will make you majestic forever, a joy for all generations.

16 You will suck the milk of nations, and nurse at royal breasts. You will know that I am the LORD, your savior and your redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob.

17 Instead of bronze I will bring gold; instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze; and instead of stones, iron. I will make peace your governor and righteousness your taskmaster.

18 Violence will no longer resound throughout your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders. You will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

19 The sun will no longer be your light by day, nor will the moon shine for illumination by night. The LORD will be your everlasting light; your God will be your glory.

20 Your sun will no longer set; your moon will no longer wane. The LORD will be an everlasting light for you, and your days of mourning will be ended.

21 Your people will all be righteous; they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot that I planted, the work of my hands, to glorify myself.

22 The least will become a thousand, and the smallest a powerful people. I am the LORD; at the right moment, I will hurry it along.

1 The LORD God's spirit is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release for captives, and liberation for prisoners,

2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and a day of vindication for our God, to comfort all who mourn,

3 to provide for Zion's mourners, to give them a crown in place of ashes, oil of joy in place of mourning, a mantle of praise in place of discouragement. They will be called Oaks of Righteousness, planted by the LORD to glorify himself.

4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore formerly deserted places; they will renew ruined cities, places deserted in generations past.

5 Foreigners will stay and shepherd your sheep, and strangers will be your farmers and vinedressers.

6 You will be called The Priests of the LORD; Ministers of Our God, they will say about you. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and fatten yourself on their riches.

7 Instead of shame, their portion will be double; instead of disgrace, they will rejoice over their share. They will possess a double portion in their land; everlasting joy will be theirs.

8 I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and dishonesty. I will faithfully give them their wage, and make with them an enduring covenant.

9 Their offspring will be known among the nations, and their descendants among the peoples. All who see them will recognize that they are a people blessed by the LORD.

10 I surely rejoice in the LORD; my heart is joyful because of my God, because he has clothed me with clothes of victory, wrapped me in a robe of righteousness like a bridegroom in a priestly crown, and like a bride adorned in jewelry.

11 As the earth puts out its growth, and as a garden grows its seeds, so the LORD God will grow righteousness and praise before all the nations.

1 For Zion's sake I won't keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I won't sit still until her righteousness shines out like a light, and her salvation blazes like a torch.

2 Nations will see your righteousness, all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name, which the LORD's own mouth will determine.

3 You will be a splendid garland in the LORD's hand, a royal turban in the palm of God's hand.

4 You will no longer be called Abandoned, and your land will no longer be called Deserted. Instead, you will be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land, Married. Because the LORD delights in you, your land will be cared for once again.

5 As a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you. With the joy of a bridegroom because of his bride, so your God will rejoice because of you.

6 Upon your walls, Jerusalem, I have appointed sentinels. Continually, all day and all night, they won't keep silent. You who call on the LORD, don't rest,

7 and don't allow God to rest until he establishes Jerusalem, and makes it the praise of the earth.

8 The LORD has promised with raised hand and strong arm: I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies. Foreigners won't drink your wine for which you labored.

9 Those who harvest will eat it and will praise the LORD; those who gather will drink it in my holy courtyards.

10 Pass through, pass through the gates; prepare the way for the people! Build, build the road; clear away the stones! Raise up a signal for the peoples.

11 This is what the LORD announced to the earth's distant regions: Say to Daughter Zion, "Look! Your deliverer arrives, bringing reward and payment!"

12 They will be called The Holy People, Redeemed By the LORD. And you will be called Sought After— A City That Is Not Abandoned.

1 Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah in bright red garments, this splendidly dressed one, striding with great power? It is I, proclaiming righteousness, powerful to save!

2 Why is your clothing red, and your garments like those of one who stomps on grapes?

3 I have pressed out in the vat by myself—from the peoples, no one was with me. I stomped on them in my anger, trampled them in my wrath. Their blood splashed on my garments, and stained all my clothing,

4 because I intended a day of vengeance; the year of my deliverance had arrived.

5 I looked and found no helper; I was astonished to find no supporter. But my arm brought victory for me; my wrath helped me.

6 I trampled down nations in my anger and made them drunk on my wrath; I spilled their blood on the ground.

7 I will recount the LORD's faithful acts; I will sing the LORD's praises, because of all the LORD did for us, for God's great favor toward the house of Israel. God treated them compassionately and with deep affection.

8 God said, "Truly, they are my people, children who won't do what is wrong." God became their savior.

9 During all their distress, God also was distressed, so a messenger who served him saved them. In love and mercy God redeemed them, lifting and carrying them throughout earlier times.

10 But they rebelled, and made God's holy spirit terribly sad, so that he turned into their enemy— he fought against them!

11 Then they remembered earlier times, when he rescued his people. Where was the one who drew them up from the sea, the shepherd of the flock? Where was the one who put within them his holy spirit;

12 the one who guided Moses' strong hand with his glorious arm; who split the water for them to create an enduring reputation for himself,

13 and who guided them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they didn't stumble.

14 Like cattle descending to the valley, the LORD's spirit brought them to rest. In this way you led your people and made for yourself a glorious reputation.

15 Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and glorious perch. Where are your energy and your might, your concern and your pity? Don't hold back!

16 You are surely our father, even though Abraham doesn't know us, and Israel doesn't recognize us. You, LORD, are our father; your reputation since long ago is that of our redeemer.

17 Why do you lead us astray, LORD, from your ways? Why do you harden our heart so we don't fear you? Return for the sake of your servants the tribes that are your heritage!

18 Why did the wicked bring down your holy place? Why did our enemies trample your sanctuary?

19 For too long we have been like those you don't rule, like those not known by your name.

1 If only you would tear open the heavens and come down! Mountains would quake before you

2 like fire igniting brushwood or making water boil. If you would make your name known to your enemies, the nations would tremble in your presence.

3 When you accomplished wonders beyond all our expectations; when you came down, mountains quaked before you.

4 From ancient times, no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any god but you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him!

5 You look after those who gladly do right; they will praise you for your ways. But you were angry when we sinned; you hid yourself when we did wrong.

6 We have all become like the unclean; all our righteous deeds are like a menstrual rag. All of us wither like a leaf; our sins, like the wind, carry us away.

7 No one calls on your name; no one bothers to hold on to you, for you have hidden yourself from us, and have handed us over to our sin.

8 But now, LORD, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand.

9 Don't rage so fiercely, LORD; don't hold our sins against us forever, but gaze now on your people, all of us:

10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a wasteland.

11 Our holy, glorious house, where our ancestors praised you, has gone up in flames; all that we treasured has become a ruin.

12 After all this, will you hold back, LORD? Will you keep silent and torment us so terribly?

1 I was ready to respond to those who didn't ask. I was ready to be found by those who didn't look for me. I said, "I'm here! I'm here!" to a nation that didn't call on my name.

2 I extended my hands all day to a rebellious people walking in a way that isn't good, following their own plans;

3 people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on bricks,

4 who sit in tombs and spend the night among rocks; who eat swine's flesh with broth of unclean meat in their bowls;

5 who say, "Keep to yourself! Keep away from me! I'm too holy for you." These people ignite my anger like a fire that burns all day.

6 Look, this stands written before me. I won't be silent, but I will repay; I will repay in full measure

7 your sins and the sins of your ancestors as well, says the LORD. Since they burned incense on the mountains, and mocked me in the hills, I will count out to them full payment for their actions.

8 The LORD proclaims: As new wine is found in the grape cluster, and someone says, "Don't destroy it, for there is a blessing in it," so I will do for the sake of my servants and not destroy everything:

9 I will bring out offspring from Jacob, and from Judah, heirs to my mountains. My chosen ones will take possession; my servants will dwell there.

10 Sharon will become a pasture for sheep, and the Achor Valley a resting place for cattle, for my people who seek me.

11 But you who abandon the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for a god of good fortune, and fill cups of mixed wine for a god of fate:

12 I will offer you to the sword. You will all bow down for slaughter, because I called and you didn't answer; I spoke and you wouldn't hear. You did what I considered evil, and chose what I didn't want.

13 Therefore, the LORD God says: Look, my servants will eat, but you will hunger. My servants will drink, but you will thirst. My servants will rejoice, but you will be ashamed.

14 My servants will sing with contented hearts, but you will cry out from heartache; with broken spirits you will wail.

15 You will leave your name behind for my chosen ones to curse: "May the LORD God kill you! May he call his servants by a different name!"

16 Those who pronounce a blessing in the land will do so by the God called Amen; those who make a solemn pledge in the land will do so by the God called Amen. Past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my sight.

17 Look! I'm creating a new heaven and a new earth: past events won't be remembered; they won't come to mind.

18 Be glad and rejoice forever in what I'm creating, because I'm creating Jerusalem as a joy and her people as a source of gladness.

19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad about my people. No one will ever hear the sound of weeping or crying in it again.

20 No more will babies live only a few days, or the old fail to live out their days. The one who dies at a hundred will be like a young person, and the one falling short of a hundred will seem cursed.

21 They will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22 They won't build for others to live in, nor plant for others to eat. Like the days of a tree will be the days of my people; my chosen will make full use of their handiwork.

23 They won't labor in vain, nor bear children to a world of horrors, because they will be people blessed by the LORD, they along with their descendants.

24 Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear.

25 Wolf and lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the snake—its food will be dust. They won't hurt or destroy at any place on my holy mountain, says the LORD.

1 The LORD says: Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. So where could you build a house for me, and where could my resting place be?

2 My hand made all these things and brought them into being, says the LORD. But here is where I will look: to the humble and contrite in spirit, who tremble at my word.

3 The one who slaughters an ox kills a person; the one who sacrifices a sheep breaks a dog's neck; the one who makes a grain offering offers swine's blood; the one who burns incense blesses an idol. All these have chosen their own ways, and prefer their detestable things.

4 So I too will choose to punish them, to bring horrors upon them, since I called and no one answered. I spoke and no one heard, but they did evil in my eyes. What I didn't want, they chose.

5 Listen to the LORD's word, you who tremble at his word: Your family members, those who hate and exclude you because of my name, have said, "Let the LORD be glorified; let's see your joy." But they will be ashamed.

6 The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the LORD repaying his enemies what they have earned.

7 Before she was in labor, she gave birth. Before her pangs came upon her, she delivered a boy.

8 Whoever heard of such a thing? Whoever saw such things as these? Can a land come to birth in one day? Can a nation be born all at once? Yet as soon as birth pangs came, Zion bore her children.

9 Will I open the womb and not bring to birth? says the LORD. Will I, who create life, close the womb? says your God.

10 Celebrate with Jerusalem; be happy with her, all you who love her! Rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her,

11 so that you may nurse and be satisfied from her comforting breasts, that you may drink and be refreshed from her full breasts.

12 The LORD says: Look, I'm extending prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like an overflowing stream. You will nurse and be carried on the hip and bounced upon the knee.

13 As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; in Jerusalem you will be comforted.

14 When you see this, your heart will rejoice; your entire being will flourish like grass. The LORD's power will be known among his servants, but his fury among his enemies.

15 The LORD will come with fire, God's chariots like a windstorm, to repay in hot anger, to rebuke with fiery flames.

16 With fire and with sword the LORD will judge all humanity; many will be slain by the LORD.

17 Those who became holy and purify themselves, following their leader into the gardens, who eat pork, detestable animals, and mice, will meet their end together, says the LORD.

18 Because of their actions and thoughts, I'm coming to gather all nations and cultures. They will come to see my glory.

19 I will put a sign on them, by sending out some of the survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Libya, and Lydia, and to the archers of Cilicia and Greece—distant coastlands that haven't heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will declare my glory among the nations.

20 They will bring your family members from all nations as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, and on camels—to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, like Israelites bringing an offering in purified containers to the LORD's house.

21 I will select some of them as priests and Levites, says the LORD.

22 As the new heavens and the new earth that I'm making will endure before me, says the LORD, so your descendants and your name will endure.

23 From month to month and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all humanity will come to worship me, says the LORD.

24 They will go out and see the corpses of the people who rebelled against me, where their worm never dies, where their fire is never extinguished. They will be a horror to everyone.

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