
Isaiah

   {1:1} The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah.
{1:2} Hear, heavens,
   and listen, earth; for [1>]Yahweh[<1] has spoken:
"I have nourished and brought up children,
   and they have rebelled against me.
{1:3} The ox knows his owner,
   and the donkey his master's crib;
   but Israel doesn't know,
   my people don't consider."
{1:4} Ah sinful nation,
   a people loaded with iniquity,
   a seed of evildoers,
   children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken Yahweh.
   They have despised the Holy One of Israel.
   They are estranged and backward.
{1:5} Why should you be beaten more,
   that you revolt more and more?
The whole head is sick,
   and the whole heart faint.
{1:6} From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness
      in it:
   wounds, welts, and open sores.
   They haven't been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.
{1:7} Your country is desolate.
   Your cities are burned with fire.
   Strangers devour your land in your presence,
   and it is desolate,
   as overthrown by strangers.
{1:8} The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,
   like a hut in a field of melons,
   like a besieged city.
{1:9} Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant,
   we would have been as Sodom;
   we would have been like Gomorrah.
{1:10} Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom!
   Listen to the law of our [2>]God[<2], you people of Gomorrah!
{1:11} "What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?," says Yahweh.
   "I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams,
   and the fat of fed animals.
   I don't delight in the blood of bulls,
   or of lambs,
   or of male goats.
{1:12} When you come to appear before me,
   who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?
{1:13} Bring no more vain offerings.
   Incense is an abomination to me;
   new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations:
   I can't bear with evil assemblies.
{1:14} My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts.
   They are a burden to me.
   I am weary of bearing them.
{1:15} When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.
   Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear.
   Your hands are full of blood.
{1:16} Wash yourselves, make yourself clean.
   Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes.
   Cease to do evil.
{1:17} Learn to do well.
   Seek justice.
   Relieve the oppressed.
   Judge the fatherless.
   Plead for the widow."

{1:18} "Come now, and let us reason together," says Yahweh:
   "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
   Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
{1:19} If you are willing and obedient,
   you shall eat the good of the land;
   {1:20} but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the
      sword;
   for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it."

{1:21} How the faithful city has become a prostitute!
   She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her,
   but now murderers.
{1:22} Your silver has become dross,
   your wine mixed with water.
{1:23} Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves.
   Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards.
   They don't judge the fatherless,
   neither does the cause of the widow come to them.
{1:24} Therefore the [3>]Lord,[<3] Yahweh of Armies,
   the Mighty One of Israel, says:
"Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries,
   and avenge myself of my enemies;
{1:25} and I will turn my hand on you,
   thoroughly purge away your dross,
   and will take away all your tin.
{1:26} I will restore your judges as at the first,
   and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called 'The city of righteousness,
   a faithful town.'
{1:27} Zion shall be redeemed with justice,
   and her converts with righteousness.
{1:28} But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be
      together,
   and those who forsake Yahweh shall be consumed.
{1:29} For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired,
   and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
{1:30} For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades,
   and as a garden that has no water.
{1:31} The strong will be like tinder,
   and his work like a spark.
They will both burn together,
   and no one will quench them."


   {2:1} This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem.
{2:2} It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh's
      house shall be established on the top of the mountains,
   and shall be raised above the hills;
   and all nations shall flow to it.
{2:3} Many peoples shall go and say,
   "Come, let's go up to the mountain of Yahweh,
   to the house of the God of Jacob;
   and he will teach us of his ways,
   and we will walk in his paths."
For out of Zion the law shall go forth,
   and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
{2:4} He will judge between the nations,
   and will decide concerning many peoples;
   and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
   and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
   neither shall they learn war any more.

{2:5} House of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of Yahweh.
{2:6} For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob,
   because they are filled from the east,
   with those who practice divination like the Philistines,
   and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.
{2:7} Their land is full of silver and gold,
   neither is there any end of their treasures.
Their land also is full of horses,
   neither is there any end of their chariots.
{2:8} Their land also is full of idols.
   They worship the work of their own hands,
   that which their own fingers have made.
{2:9} Man is brought low,
   and mankind is humbled;
   therefore don't forgive them.
{2:10} Enter into the rock,
   and hide in the dust,
from before the terror of Yahweh,
   and from the glory of his majesty.
{2:11} The lofty looks of man will be brought low,
   the haughtiness of men will be bowed down,
   and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.
{2:12} For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is
      proud and haughty,
   and for all that is lifted up;
   and it shall be brought low:
   {2:13} For all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up,
   for all the oaks of Bashan,
   {2:14} For all the high mountains,
   for all the hills that are lifted up,
   {2:15} For every lofty tower,
   for every fortified wall,
   {2:16} For all the ships of Tarshish,
   and for all pleasant imagery.
{2:17} The loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
   and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
   and Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day.
{2:18} The idols shall utterly pass away.
{2:19} Men shall go into the caves of the rocks,
   and into the holes of the earth,
   from before the terror of Yahweh,
   and from the glory of his majesty,
   when he arises to shake the earth mightily.
{2:20} In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver,
   and their idols of gold,
   which have been made for themselves to worship,
   to the moles and to the bats;
   {2:21} To go into the caverns of the rocks,
   and into the clefts of the ragged rocks,
   from before the terror of Yahweh,
   and from the glory of his majesty,
   when he arises to shake the earth mightily.
{2:22} Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils;
   for of what account is he?
{3:1} For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, takes away from
      Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support,
   the whole supply of bread,
   and the whole supply of water;
   {3:2} the mighty man,
   the man of war,
   the judge,
   the prophet,
   the diviner,
   the elder,
   {3:3} the captain of fifty,
   the honorable man,
   the counselor,
   the skilled craftsman,
   and the clever enchanter.
{3:4} I will give boys to be their princes,
   and children shall rule over them.
{3:5} The people will be oppressed,
   everyone by another,
   and everyone by his neighbor.
The child will behave himself proudly against the old man,
   and the base against the honorable.
{3:6} Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his
      father, saying,
   "You have clothing, you be our ruler,
   and let this ruin be under your hand."
{3:7} In that day he will cry out, saying, "I will not be a healer;
   for in my house is neither bread nor clothing.
   You shall not make me ruler of the people."
{3:8} For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen;
   because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh,
to provoke the eyes of his glory.
{3:9} The look of their faces testify against them.
   They parade their sin like Sodom.
   They don't hide it.
   Woe to their soul!
   For they have brought disaster upon themselves.
{3:10} Tell the righteous "Good!"
   For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
{3:11} Woe to the wicked!
   Disaster is upon them;
   for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.
{3:12} As for my people, children are their oppressors,
   and women rule over them.
   My people, those who lead you cause you to err,
   and destroy the way of your paths.
{3:13} Yahweh stands up to contend,
   and stands to judge the peoples.
{3:14} Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people,
   and their leaders:
   "It is you who have eaten up the vineyard.
   The spoil of the poor is in your houses.
   {3:15} What do you mean that you crush my people,
   and grind the face of the poor?" says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
{3:16} Moreover Yahweh said, "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
   and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes,
   walking to trip as they go,
   jingling ornaments on their feet;
{3:17} therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the
      women of Zion,
   and Yahweh will make their scalps bald."

   {3:18} In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their
anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces, {3:19} the earrings,
the bracelets, the veils, {3:20} the headdresses, the ankle chains, the
sashes, the perfume bottles, the charms, {3:21} the signet rings, the
nose rings, {3:22} the fine robes, the capes, the cloaks, the purses,
{3:23} the hand mirrors, the fine linen garments, the tiaras, and the
shawls.
{3:24} It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be
      rottenness;
   instead of a belt, a rope;
   instead of well set hair, baldness;
   instead of a robe, a wearing of sackcloth;
   and branding instead of beauty.
{3:25} Your men shall fall by the sword,
   and your mighty in the war.
{3:26} Her gates shall lament and mourn;
   and she shall be desolate and sit on the ground.

   {4:1} Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying,
"We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be
called by your name. Take away our reproach."

   {4:2} In that day, Yahweh's branch will be beautiful and glorious,
and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors
of Israel. {4:3} It will happen, that he who is left in Zion, and he
who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is
written among the living in Jerusalem; {4:4} when the Lord shall have
washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged
the blood of Jerusalem from its midst, by the spirit of justice, and by
the spirit of burning. {4:5} Yahweh will create over the whole
habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by
day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory
will be a canopy. {4:6} There will be a pavilion for a shade in the
daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm
and from rain.

   {5:1} Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his
      vineyard.
   My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
{5:2} He dug it up,
   gathered out its stones,
   planted it with the choicest vine,
   built a tower in its midst,
   and also cut out a winepress therein.
He looked for it to yield grapes,
   but it yielded wild grapes.
{5:3} "Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
   please judge between me and my vineyard.
{5:4} What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not
      done in it?
   Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
{5:5} Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
   I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up.
   I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down.
{5:6} I will lay it a wasteland.
   It won't be pruned nor hoed,
   but it will grow briers and thorns.
   I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it."
{5:7} For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel,
   and the men of Judah his pleasant plant:
   and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression;
   for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
{5:8} Woe to those who join house to house,
   who lay field to field, until there is no room,
   and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!
{5:9} In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: "Surely many houses will be
      desolate,
   even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
{5:10} For [4>]ten acres[<4] of vineyard shall yield [5>]one bath,[<5]
   and a [6>]homer[<6] of seed shall yield an [7>]ephah.[<7]"

{5:11} Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may
      follow strong drink;
   who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
{5:12} The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their
      feasts;
   but they don't respect the work of Yahweh,
   neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
{5:13} Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge.
   Their honorable men are famished,
   and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
{5:14} Therefore [8>]Sheol[<8] has enlarged its desire,
   and opened its mouth without measure;
   and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices
      among them, descend into it.
{5:15} So man is brought low,
   mankind is humbled,
   and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
{5:16} but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice,
   and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
{5:17} Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
   and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.

{5:18} Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
   and wickedness as with cart rope;
{5:19} Who say, "Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, that we
      may see it;
   and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
   that we may know it!"
{5:20} Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
   who put darkness for light,
   and light for darkness;
who put bitter for sweet,
   and sweet for bitter!
{5:21} Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
   and prudent in their own sight!
{5:22} Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine,
   and champions at mixing strong drink;
{5:23} who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
   but deny justice for the innocent!
{5:24} Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
   and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame,
   so their root shall be as rottenness,
   and their blossom shall go up as dust;
because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies,
   and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
{5:25} Therefore Yahweh's anger burns against his people,
   and he has stretched out his hand against them, and has struck them.
The mountains tremble,
   and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets.
For all this, his anger is not turned away,
   but his hand is still stretched out.
{5:26} He will lift up a banner to the nations from far,
   and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth.
   Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
{5:27} None shall be weary nor stumble among them;
   none shall slumber nor sleep;
   neither shall the belt of their waist be untied,
   nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
{5:28} whose arrows are sharp,
   and all their bows bent.
Their horses' hoofs will be like flint,
   and their wheels like a whirlwind.
{5:29} Their roaring will be like a lioness.
   They will roar like young lions.
Yes, they shall roar,
   and seize their prey and carry it off,
   and there will be no one to deliver.
{5:30} They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the
      sea.
   If one looks to the land behold, darkness and distress.
   The light is darkened in its clouds.

   {6:1} In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a
throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. {6:2}
Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he
covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. {6:3}
One called to another, and said,
"Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies!
   The whole earth is full of his glory!"

   {6:4} The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him
who called, and the house was filled with smoke. {6:5} Then I said,
"Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen
the King, Yahweh of Armies!"

   {6:6} Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his
hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. {6:7} He
touched my mouth with it, and said, "Behold, this has touched your
lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven."

   {6:8} I heard the Lord's voice, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who
will go for us?"

   Then I said, "Here I am. Send me!"

   {6:9} He said, "Go, and tell this people,
'You hear indeed,
   but don't understand;
and you see indeed,
   but don't perceive.'
{6:10} Make the heart of this people fat.
   Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
   and hear with their ears,
   and understand with their heart,
   and turn again, and be healed."

   {6:11} Then I said, "Lord, how long?"

   He answered,
"Until cities are waste without inhabitant,
   and houses without man,
   and the land becomes utterly waste,
   {6:12} And Yahweh has removed men far away,
   and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
{6:13} If there is a tenth left in it,
   that also will in turn be consumed:
as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains when they are felled;
   so the holy seed is its stock."

   {7:1} It happened in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of
Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son
of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it,
but could not prevail against it. {7:2} It was told the house of David,
saying, "Syria is allied with Ephraim." His heart trembled, and the
heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.
{7:3} Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, "Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and
Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on
the highway of the fuller's field. {7:4} Tell him, 'Be careful, and
keep calm. Don't be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of
these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and
Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. {7:5} Because Syria, Ephraim, and
the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying, {7:6}
"Let's go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let's divide it
among ourselves, and set up a king in its midst, even the son of
Tabeel." {7:7} This is what the Lord Yahweh says: "It shall not stand,
neither shall it happen." {7:8} For the head of Syria is Damascus, and
the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years Ephraim
shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people; {7:9} and
the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's
son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.'"

   {7:10} Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, {7:11} "Ask a sign of
Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above."

   {7:12} But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh."

   {7:13} He said, "Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for
you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my
God also? {7:14} Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his
name [9>]Immanuel.[<9] {7:15} He shall eat butter and honey when he
knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good. {7:16} For before the
child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two
kings you abhor shall be forsaken. {7:17} Yahweh will bring on you, on
your people, and on your father's house, days that have not come, from
the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
{7:18} It will happen in that day that Yahweh will whistle for the fly
that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee
that is in the land of Assyria. {7:19} They shall come, and shall all
rest in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks, on all thorn
hedges, and on all pastures. {7:20} In that day the Lord will shave
with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the
king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also
consume the beard. {7:21} It shall happen in that day that a man shall
keep alive a young cow, and two sheep; {7:22} and it shall happen, that
because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat
butter: for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left in the
midst of the land. {7:23} It will happen in that day that every place
where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall
be for briers and thorns. {7:24} People will go there with arrows and
with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns. {7:25} All
the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there
for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of
oxen, and for the treading of sheep."

   {8:1} Yahweh said to me, "Take a large tablet, and write on it with
a man's pen, '[10>]For Maher Shalal Hash Baz;[<10]' {8:2} and I will
take for myself faithful witnesses to testify: Uriah the priest, and
Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah."

   {8:3} I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son.
Then Yahweh said to me, "Call his name 'Maher Shalal Hash Baz.' {8:4}
For before the child knows how to say, 'My father,' and, 'My mother,'
the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away by
the king of Assyria."

   {8:5} Yahweh spoke to me yet again, saying, {8:6} "Because this
people have refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice
in Rezin and Remaliah's son; {8:7} now therefore, behold, the Lord
brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of
Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its channels, and
go over all its banks. {8:8} It will sweep onward into Judah. It will
overflow and pass through; it will reach even to the neck; and the
stretching out of its wings will fill the breadth of your land,
Immanuel. {8:9} Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces!
Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered!
Dress for battle, and be shattered! {8:10} Take counsel together, and
it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand:
for God is with us." {8:11} For Yahweh spoke thus to me with a strong
hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,
{8:12} "Don't say, 'A conspiracy!' concerning all about which this
people say, 'A conspiracy!' neither fear their threats, nor be
terrorized. {8:13} Yahweh of Armies is who you must respect as holy. He
is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread. {8:14} He will
be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a trap and a
snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. {8:15} Many will stumble over
it, fall, be broken, be snared, and be captured." {8:16} Wrap up the
testimony. Seal the law among my disciples. {8:17} I will wait for
Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for
him. {8:18} Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for
signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of Armies, who dwells in
Mount Zion.

   {8:19} When they tell you, "Consult with those who have familiar
spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter:" shouldn't a
people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf
of the living? {8:20} Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they
don't speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for
them. {8:21} They will pass through it, very distressed and hungry; and
it will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse by
their king and by their God. They will turn their faces upward, {8:22}
and look to the earth, and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of
anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.

   {9:1} But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish.
In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and
the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious,
by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

   {9:2} The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
   Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the
      light has shined.
{9:3} You have multiplied the nation.
   You have increased their joy.

   They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men
rejoice when they divide the spoil. {9:4} For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have
broken as in the day of Midian. {9:5} For all the armor of the armed
man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for
burning, fuel for the fire. {9:6} For to us a child is born. To us a
son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name
will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace. {9:7} Of the increase of his government and of peace
there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to
establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from
that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform
this.

   {9:8} The Lord sent a word into Jacob,
   and it falls on Israel.
{9:9} All the people will know,
   including Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride
      and in arrogance of heart,
{9:10} "The bricks have fallen,
   but we will build with cut stone.
The sycamore fig trees have been cut down,
   but we will put cedars in their place."
{9:11} Therefore Yahweh will set up on high against him the adversaries
      of Rezin,
   and will stir up his enemies,
   {9:12} The Syrians in front,
   and the Philistines behind;
   and they will devour Israel with open mouth.
For all this, his anger is not turned away,
   but his hand is stretched out still.
{9:13} Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them,
   neither have they sought Yahweh of Armies.
{9:14} Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail,
   palm branch and reed, in one day.
{9:15} The elder and the honorable man is the head,
   and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.
{9:16} For those who lead this people lead them astray;
   and those who are led by them are destroyed.
{9:17} Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men,
   neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows;
for everyone is profane and an evildoer,
   and every mouth speaks folly.
For all this his anger is not turned away,
   but his hand is stretched out still.
{9:18} For wickedness burns like a fire.
   It devours the briers and thorns;
   yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest,
   and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
{9:19} Through the wrath of Yahweh of Armies, the land is burnt up;
   and the people are the fuel for the fire.
   No one spares his brother.
{9:20} One will devour on the right hand, and be hungry;
   and he will eat on the left hand, and they will not be satisfied.
Everyone will eat the flesh of his own arm:
   {9:21} Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together
      shall be against Judah.
For all this his anger is not turned away,
   but his hand is stretched out still.

    {10:1} Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the
writers who write oppressive decrees; {10:2} to deprive the needy from
justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that
widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their
prey! {10:3} What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the
desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?

   {10:4} They will only bow down under the prisoners,
   and will fall under the slain.
For all this his anger is not turned away,
   but his hand is stretched out still.

   {10:5} Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand
is my indignation! {10:6} I will send him against a profane nation, and
against the people who anger me will I give him a command to take the
spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the
streets. {10:7} However he doesn't mean so, neither does his heart
think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few
nations. {10:8} For he says, "Aren't all of my princes kings? {10:9}
Isn't Calno like Carchemish? Isn't Hamath like Arpad? Isn't Samaria
like Damascus?" {10:10} As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols,
whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
{10:11} shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to
Jerusalem and her idols? {10:12} Therefore it will happen that, when
the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I
will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of
Assyria, and the insolence of his haughty looks. {10:13} For he has
said, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for
I have understanding: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples,
and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down
their rulers. {10:14} My hand has found the riches of the peoples like
a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, have I gathered
all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened
their mouth, or chirped."

   {10:15} Should an axe brag against him who chops with it? Should a
saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift
those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is
not wood. {10:16} Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among
his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled
like the burning of fire. {10:17} The light of Israel will be for a
fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his
thorns and his briers in one day. {10:18} He will consume the glory of
his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. It will be
as when a standard bearer faints. {10:19} The remnant of the trees of
his forest shall be few, so that a child could write their number.

   {10:20} It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel,
and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again
lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of
Israel, in truth. {10:21} A remnant will return, even the remnant of
Jacob, to the mighty God. {10:22} For though your people, Israel, are
like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A
destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. {10:23} For
the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will make a full end, and that determined,
in the midst of all the earth. {10:24} Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of
Armies, says "My people who dwell in Zion, don't be afraid of the
Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff
against you, as Egypt did. {10:25} For yet a very little while, and the
indignation against you will be accomplished, and my anger will be
directed to his destruction." {10:26} Yahweh of Armies will stir up a
scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb.
His rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up like he did
against Egypt. {10:27} It will happen in that day, that his burden will
depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the
yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

   {10:28} He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At
Michmash he stores his baggage. {10:29} They have gone over the pass.
They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of
Saul has fled. {10:30} Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim!
Listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth! {10:31} Madmenah is a fugitive. The
inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety. {10:32} This very day he will
halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of
Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. {10:33} Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of
Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and
the lofty will be brought low. {10:34} He will cut down the thickets of
the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

   {11:1} A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse,
   and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
{11:2} The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him:
   the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
   the spirit of counsel and might,
   the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.
{11:3} His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh.
He will not judge by the sight of his eyes,
   neither decide by the hearing of his ears;
{11:4} but with righteousness he will judge the poor,
   and decide with equity for the humble of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
   and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
{11:5} Righteousness will be the belt of his waist,
   and faithfulness the belt of his waist.
{11:6} The wolf will live with the lamb,
   and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
   The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together;
   and a little child will lead them.
{11:7} The cow and the bear will graze.
   Their young ones will lie down together.
   The lion will eat straw like the ox.
{11:8} The nursing child will play near a cobra's hole,
   and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.
{11:9} They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain;
   for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh,
   as the waters cover the sea.

   {11:10} It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the
root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting
place will be glorious. {11:11} It will happen in that day that the
Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant
that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from
Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the
sea. {11:12} He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble
the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from
the four corners of the earth. {11:13} The envy also of Ephraim will
depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won't
envy Judah, and Judah won't persecute Ephraim. {11:14} They will fly
down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they
will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power
over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them. {11:15}
Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with
his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split
it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals. {11:16}
There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from
Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of
the land of Egypt.

   {12:1} In that day you will say, "I will give thanks to you, Yahweh;
for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you
comfort me. {12:2} Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will
not be afraid; for Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song; and he has
become my salvation." {12:3} Therefore with joy you will draw water out
of the wells of salvation. {12:4} In that day you will say, "Give
thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name. Declare his doings among the
peoples. Proclaim that his name is exalted! {12:5} Sing to Yahweh, for
he has done excellent things! Let this be known in all the earth!
{12:6} Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for the Holy One of
Israel is great in the midst of you!"

   {13:1} The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:
{13:2} Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to
them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
{13:3} I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my
mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones. {13:4} The
noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the
noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together!
Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the battle. {13:5} They come
from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and
the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. {13:6} Wail;
for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the
Almighty. {13:7} Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone's
heart will melt. {13:8} They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will
seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look
in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame. {13:9}
Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to
make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.
{13:10} For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give
their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon
will not cause its light to shine. {13:11} I will punish the world for
their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the
arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the
terrible. {13:12} I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a
person than the pure gold of Ophir. {13:13} Therefore I will make the
heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the
wrath of Yahweh of Armies, and in the day of his fierce anger. {13:14}
It will happen that like a hunted gazelle, and like sheep that no one
gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to
their own land. {13:15} Everyone who is found will be thrust through.
Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. {13:16} Their infants
also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be
ransacked, and their wives raped. {13:17} Behold, I will stir up the
Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they
will not delight in it. {13:18} Their bows will dash the young men in
pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their
eyes will not spare children. {13:19} Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be like when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah. {13:20} It will never be inhabited, neither will it
be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a
tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
{13:21} But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses
will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats
will frolic there. {13:22} Wolves will cry in their castles, and
jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days
will not be prolonged.

   {14:1} For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose
Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself
with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob. {14:2} The
peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of
Israel will possess them in Yahweh's land for servants and for
handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were;
and they shall rule over their oppressors. {14:3} It will happen in the
day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble,
and from the hard service in which you were made to serve, {14:4} that
you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say,
"How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!" {14:5}
Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
{14:6} who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who
ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.
{14:7} The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out song.
{14:8} Yes, the fir trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon,
saying, "Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us."
{14:9} [11>]Sheol[<11] from beneath has moved for you to meet you at
your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, even all the rulers of the
earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the
nations. {14:10} They all will answer and ask you, "Have you also
become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?" {14:11} Your pomp
is brought down to [12>]Sheol[<12], with the sound of your stringed
instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.

   {14:12} How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the
dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
{14:13} You said in your heart, "I will ascend into heaven! I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of
assembly, in the far north! {14:14} I will ascend above the heights of
the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!" {14:15} Yet you
shall be brought down to [13>]Sheol[<13], to the depths of the pit.
{14:16} Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you,
saying, "Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook
kingdoms; {14:17} who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew
its cities; who didn't release his prisoners to their home?"

   {14:18} All the kings of the nations, sleep in glory, everyone in
his own house. {14:19} But you are cast away from your tomb like an
abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with
the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body
trodden under foot. {14:20} You will not join them in burial, because
you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The seed of
evildoers will not be named forever. {14:21} Prepare for slaughter of
his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not
rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with
cities. {14:22} "I will rise up against them," says Yahweh of Armies,
"and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son's son,"
says Yahweh. {14:23} "I will also make it a possession for the
porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of
destruction," says Yahweh of Armies. {14:24} Yahweh of Armies has
sworn, saying, "Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I
have purposed, so shall it stand: {14:25} that I will break the
Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his
yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders. {14:26}
This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the
hand that is stretched out over all the nations. {14:27} For Yahweh of
Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and
who can turn it back?"

   {14:28} This burden was in the year that king Ahaz died. {14:29}
Don't rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you
is broken; for out of the serpent's root an adder will emerge, and his
fruit will be a fiery flying serpent. {14:30} The firstborn of the poor
will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your
root with famine, and your remnant will be killed.

   {14:31} Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all
of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in
his ranks. {14:32} What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people
will take refuge.

   {15:1} The burden of Moab: for in a night, Ar of Moab is laid waste,
and brought to nothing; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and
brought to nothing. {15:2} They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon,
to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba.
Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off. {15:3} In
their streets, they clothe themselves in sackcloth. In their streets
and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly. {15:4}
Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within
them. {15:5} My heart cries out for Moab! Her nobles flee to Zoar, to
Eglath Shelishiyah; for they go up by the ascent of Luhith with
weeping; for in the way of Horonaim, they raise up a cry of
destruction. {15:6} For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate; for the
grass has withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green
thing. {15:7} Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have
gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the
willows. {15:8} For the cry has gone around the borders of Moab; its
wailing to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beer Elim. {15:9} For the waters
of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion
on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.

   {16:1} Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the
wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. {16:2} For it will
be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters
of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon. {16:3} Give counsel! Execute
justice! Make your shade like the night in the midst of the noonday!
Hide the outcasts! Don't betray the fugitive! {16:4} Let my outcasts
dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of
the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing. Destruction
ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land. {16:5} A throne
will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in
the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do
righteousness.

   {16:6} We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud;
even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are
nothing. {16:7} Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail.
You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.
{16:8} For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The
lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which
reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots
were spread abroad. They passed over the sea. {16:9} Therefore I will
weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you
with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on
your harvest the battle shout has fallen. {16:10} Gladness is taken
away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there
will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in
the presses. I have made the shouting stop. {16:11} Therefore my heart
sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres. {16:12}
It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself
on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not
prevail. {16:13} This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab in
time past. {16:14} But now Yahweh has spoken, saying, "Within three
years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of
Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and
the remnant will be very small and feeble."

   {17:1} The burden of Damascus: "Behold, Damascus is taken away from
being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap. {17:2} The cities of Aroer
are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none
shall make them afraid. {17:3} The fortress shall cease from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be
as the glory of the children of Israel," says Yahweh of Armies. {17:4}
"It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin,
and the fatness of his flesh will become lean. {17:5} It will be like
when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes,
it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim. {17:6}
Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree,
two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in
the outermost branches of a fruitful tree," says Yahweh, the God of
Israel. {17:7} In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their
eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. {17:8} They will not
look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect
that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the incense
altars. {17:9} In that day, their strong cities will be like the
forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were
forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a
desolation. {17:10} For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant
pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings. {17:11} In the day of
your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed
blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of
desperate sorrow. {17:12} Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like
the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the
rushing of mighty waters! {17:13} The nations will rush like the
rushing of many waters: but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far
off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the
wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. {17:14} At evening,
behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the
portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

   {18:1} Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the
rivers of Ethiopia; {18:2} that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in
vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, "Go, you swift messengers, to
a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning
onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the
rivers divide!" {18:3} All you inhabitants of the world, and you
dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains,
look! When the trumpet is blown, listen! {18:4} For Yahweh said to me,
"I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat
in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest." {18:5} For
before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a
ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he
will cut down and take away the spreading branches. {18:6} They will be
left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the
animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will summer on them, and all
the animals of the earth will winter on them. {18:7} In that time, a
present will be brought to Yahweh of Armies from a people tall and
smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a
nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide,
to the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies, Mount Zion.

   {19:1} The burden of Egypt: "Behold, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud,
and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence;
and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. {19:2} I will stir up
the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone
against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against
city, and kingdom against kingdom. {19:3} The spirit of Egypt will fail
in its midst. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the
charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards. {19:4} I
will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce
king will rule over them," says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies. {19:5} The
waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become
dry. {19:6} The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be
diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. {19:7}
The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown
fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.
{19:8} The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile
will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish.
{19:9} Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave
white cloth, will be confounded. {19:10} The pillars will be broken in
pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul. {19:11}
The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest
counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, "I
am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?" {19:12} Where then
are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh
of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt. {19:13} The princes of Zoan
have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have
caused Egypt to go astray, who are the cornerstone of her tribes.
{19:14} Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her;
and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a
drunken man staggers in his vomit. {19:15} Neither shall there be any
work for Egypt, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.
{19:16} In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble
and fear because of the shaking of the hand of Yahweh of Armies, which
he shakes over them. {19:17} The land of Judah will become a terror to
Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because
of the plans of Yahweh of Armies, which he determines against it.
{19:18} In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt
that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yahweh of Armies. One
will be called "The city of destruction." {19:19} In that day, there
will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a
pillar to Yahweh at its border. {19:20} It will be for a sign and for a
witness to Yahweh of Armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to
Yahweh because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a
defender, and he will deliver them. {19:21} Yahweh will be known to
Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. Yes, they will
worship with sacrifice and offering, and will vow a vow to Yahweh, and
will perform it. {19:22} Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and
healing. They will return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated by them,
and will heal them. {19:23} In that day there will be a highway out of
Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the
Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the
Assyrians. {19:24} In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and
with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; {19:25} because
Yahweh of Armies has blessed them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people,
Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."

   {20:1} In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king
of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it; {20:2}
at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and
loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your shoes from off
your feet." He did so, walking naked and barefoot. {20:3} Yahweh said,
"As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a
sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, {20:4} so
the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles
of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks
uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. {20:5} They will be dismayed and
confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their
glory. {20:6} The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day,
'Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be
delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?'"

   {21:1} The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the
South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome
land. {21:2} A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man
deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I
have stopped all of Media's sighing. {21:3} Therefore my thighs are
filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a
woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can't hear. I so am
dismayed that I can't see. {21:4} My heart flutters. Horror has
frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into
trembling for me. {21:5} They prepare the table. They set the watch.
They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield! {21:6} For
the Lord said to me, "Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.
{21:7} When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a
troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness."
{21:8} He cried like a lion: "Lord, I stand continually on the
watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post. {21:9}
Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs." He answered,
"Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are
broken to the ground. {21:10} You are my threshing, and the grain of my
floor!" That which I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of
Israel, I have declared to you.

   {21:11} The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman,
what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" {21:12} The watchman
said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire,
inquire. Come back again."

   {21:13} The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will
lodge, you caravans of Dedanites. {21:14} They brought water to him who
was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with
their bread. {21:15} For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn
sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle. {21:16} For the
Lord said to me, "Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would
count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail, {21:17} and the residue of
the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar,
will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it."

   {22:1} The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that
you have all gone up to the housetops? {22:2} You that are full of
shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain
with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. {22:3} All your rulers
fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found
by you were bound together. They fled far away. {22:4} Therefore I
said, "Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don't labor to comfort
me for the destruction of the daughter of my people. {22:5} For it is a
day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the
Lord, Yahweh of Armies, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the
walls, and a crying to the mountains." {22:6} Elam carried his quiver,
with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. {22:7}
It happened that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the
horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. {22:8} He took away the
covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house
of the forest. {22:9} You saw the breaches of the city of David, that
they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
{22:10} You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the
houses to fortify the wall. {22:11} You also made a reservoir between
the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn't look to him
who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who purposed it
long ago. {22:12} In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to
weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in
sackcloth: {22:13} and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and
killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: "Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we will die." {22:14} Yahweh of Armies revealed himself in
my ears, "Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,"
says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

   {22:15} Thus says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, "Go, get yourself to
this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, {22:16}
'What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a
tomb here?' Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation
for himself in the rock!" {22:17} Behold, Yahweh will overcome you and
hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly. {22:18} He will
surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a
large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory
will be, you shame of your lord's house. {22:19} I will thrust you from
your office. You will be pulled down from your station.

   {22:20} It will happen in that day that I will call my servant
Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, {22:21} and I will clothe him with your
robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government
into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and to the house of Judah. {22:22} I will lay the key of the house of
David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will
shut, and no one will open. {22:23} I will fasten him like a nail in a
sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father's house.
{22:24} They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the
offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all
the pitchers. {22:25} "In that day," says Yahweh of Armies, "the nail
that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down,
and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for Yahweh has
spoken it."

   {23:1} The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is
laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of
Kittim it is revealed to them. {23:2} Be still, you inhabitants of the
coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have
replenished. {23:3} On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the
harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations.
{23:4} Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the
sea, saying, "I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I
nourished young men, nor brought up virgins." {23:5} When the report
comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre. {23:6}
Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast! {23:7} Is
this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet
carried her far away to travel? {23:8} Who has planned this against
Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose
traffickers are the honorable of the earth? {23:9} Yahweh of Armies has
planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all
the honorable of the earth. {23:10} Pass through your land like the
Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more. {23:11} He
has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms.
Yahweh has ordered the destruction of Canaan's strongholds. {23:12} He
said, "You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of
Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest."

   {23:13} Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not. The
Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up
their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin. {23:14}
Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste! {23:15}
It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy
years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy
years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute. {23:16}
Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten.
Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered. {23:17}
It will happen after the end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit
Tyre, and she shall return to her wages, and will play the prostitute
with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth. {23:18}
Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to Yahweh. It will not
be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who
dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

   {24:1} Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns
it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. {24:2} It will be as with
the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his
master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so
with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the
taker of interest, so with the giver of interest. {24:3} The earth will
be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this
word. {24:4} The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and
fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. {24:5} The earth
also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed
the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.
{24:6} Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell
therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are
burned, and few men left. {24:7} The new wine mourns. The vine
languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh. {24:8} The mirth of tambourines
ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp
ceases. {24:9} They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will
be bitter to those who drink it. {24:10} The confused city is broken
down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. {24:11} There is
a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The
mirth of the land is gone. {24:12} The city is left in desolation, and
the gate is struck with destruction. {24:13} For it will be so in the
midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree,
as the gleanings when the vintage is done. {24:14} These shall lift up
their voice. They will shout for the majesty of Yahweh. They cry aloud
from the sea. {24:15} Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the
name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea! {24:16}
From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the
righteous! But I said, "I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!" The
treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt
very treacherously. {24:17} Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you
who inhabitant the earth. {24:18} It will happen that he who flees from
the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out
of the midst of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on
high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. {24:19} The
earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken
violently. {24:20} The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will
sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on
it, and it will fall and not rise again. {24:21} It shall happen in
that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and
the kings of the earth on the earth. {24:22} They shall be gathered
together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in
the prison; and after many days shall they be visited. {24:23} Then the
moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for Yahweh of Armies
will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his elders will
be glory.

   {25:1} Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your
name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in
complete faithfulness and truth. {25:2} For you have made a city into a
heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no
city. It will never be built. {25:3} Therefore a strong people will
glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you. {25:4} For you
have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his
distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the
blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall. {25:5} As
the heat in a dry place will you bring down the noise of strangers; as
the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the dreaded ones will be
brought low. {25:6} In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all
peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of choice wines, of fat things
full of marrow, of well refined choice wines. {25:7} He will destroy in
this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and
the veil that is spread over all nations. {25:8} He has swallowed up
death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces.
He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth,
for Yahweh has spoken it. {25:9} It shall be said in that day, "Behold,
this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is
Yahweh! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his
salvation!" {25:10} For in this mountain the hand of Yahweh will rest.

   Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden
down in the water of the dunghill. {25:11} He will spread out his hands
in its midst, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his
pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands. {25:12} He
has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought
to the ground, even to the dust.

   {26:1} In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

   "We have a strong city.
   God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks.
{26:2} Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter:
   the one which keeps faith.
{26:3} You will keep whoever's mind is steadfast in perfect peace,
   because he trusts in you.
{26:4} Trust in Yahweh forever;
   for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock.
{26:5} For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city.
   He lays it low.
   He lays it low even to the ground.
   He brings it even to the dust.
{26:6} The foot shall tread it down;
   Even the feet of the poor,
   and the steps of the needy."
{26:7} The way of the just is uprightness.
   You who are upright make the path of the righteous level.
{26:8} Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, have we waited for
you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul. {26:9} With
my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me
will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. {26:10} Let favor be
shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land
of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see Yahweh's
majesty. {26:11} Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see;
but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes,
fire will consume your adversaries. {26:12} Yahweh, you will ordain
peace for us, for you have also worked all our works for us. {26:13}
Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but
by you only will we make mention of your name. {26:14} The dead shall
not live. The deceased shall not rise. Therefore have you visited and
destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish. {26:15} You
have increased the nation, O Yahweh. You have increased the nation! You
are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of the land. {26:16}
Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when
your chastening was on them. {26:17} Like as a woman with child, who
draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her
pangs; so we have been before you, Yahweh. {26:18} We have been with
child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We
have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the
inhabitants of the world fallen. {26:19} Your dead shall live. My dead
bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your
dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead.

   {26:20} Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors
behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is
past. {26:21} For, behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place to
punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also
will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.

   {27:1} In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword
will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted
serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea. {27:2} In that
day, sing to her, "A pleasant vineyard! {27:3} I, Yahweh, am its
keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will
keep it night and day. {27:4} Wrath is not in me, but if I should find
briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would
burn them together. {27:5} Or else let him take hold of my strength,
that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me."

   {27:6} In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom
and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit. {27:7} Has
he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed
like those who killed them were killed? {27:8} In measure, when you
send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his
rough blast in the day of the east wind. {27:9} Therefore by this the
iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking
away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones
that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherim and the incense altars
shall rise no more. {27:10} For the fortified city is solitary, a
habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will
feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.
{27:11} When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The
women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no
understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on
them, and he who formed them will show them no favor. {27:12} It will
happen in that day, that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of
the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by
one, children of Israel. {27:13} It will happen in that day that a
great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the
land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt,
shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at
Jerusalem.

   {28:1} Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to
the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the
fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine! {28:2} Behold, the
Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying
storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them
down to the earth with his hand. {28:3} The crown of pride of the
drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot. {28:4} The fading
flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile
valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which
someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it. {28:5} In that day,
Yahweh of Armies will become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty,
to the residue of his people; {28:6} and a spirit of justice to him who
sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the
gate. {28:7} They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink.
The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed
up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They
stumble in judgment. {28:8} For all tables are completely full of
filthy vomit and filthiness. {28:9} Whom will he teach knowledge? To
whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk,
and drawn from the breasts? {28:10} For it is precept on precept,
precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a
little. {28:11} But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips
and in another language; {28:12} to whom he said, "This is the resting
place. Give rest to weary"; and "This is the refreshing"; yet they
would not hear. {28:13} Therefore the word of Yahweh will be to them
precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line;
here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be
broken, be snared, and be taken. {28:14} Therefore hear the word of
Yahweh, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: {28:15}
"Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with
[14>]Sheol[<14] are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge
passes through, it won't come to us; for we have made lies our refuge,
and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.'" {28:16} Therefore thus
says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who
believes shall not act hastily. {28:17} I will make justice the
measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.
{28:18} Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement
with [15>]Sheol[<15] shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge
passes through, then you will be trampled down by it. {28:19} As often
as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will
pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to
understand the message." {28:20} For the bed is too short to stretch
out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. {28:21} For
Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the
valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring
to pass his act, his extraordinary act. {28:22} Now therefore don't be
scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of
destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth.

   {28:23} Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!
{28:24} Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning
the soil and breaking the clods? {28:25} When he has leveled its
surface, doesn't he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put
in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt
in its place? {28:26} For his God instructs him in right judgment, and
teaches him. {28:27} For the dill are not threshed with a sharp
instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill
is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod. {28:28} Bread
flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although
he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don't
grind it. {28:29} This also comes forth from Yahweh of Armies, who is
wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

   {29:1} Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year
to year; let the feasts come around; {29:2} then I will distress Ariel,
and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an
[16>]altar hearth[<16]. {29:3} I will encamp against you all around
you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise
siege works against you. {29:4} You will be brought down, and will
speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your
voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground,
and your speech will whisper out of the dust. {29:5} But the multitude
of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless
ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant,
suddenly. {29:6} She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder,
with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with
the flame of a devouring fire. {29:7} The multitude of all the nations
that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her
stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the
night. {29:8} It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he
eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn't satisfied; or like when a
thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold,
he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion will be like that. {29:9} Pause and
wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with
wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. {29:10} For Yahweh has
poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the
prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. {29:11} All vision
has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men
deliver to one who is educated, saying, "Read this, please"; and he
says, "I can't, for it is sealed:" {29:12} and the book is delivered to
one who is not educated, saying, "Read this, please"; and he says, "I
can't read." {29:13} The Lord said, "Because this people draws near
with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed
their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men
which has been taught; {29:14} therefore, behold, I will proceed to do
a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder;
and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of
their prudent men will be hidden."

   {29:15} Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and
whose works are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us?" and "Who knows
us?" {29:16} You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought
to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it,
"He didn't make me"; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He
has no understanding?"

   {29:17} Isn't it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned
into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a
forest? {29:18} In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book,
and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of
darkness. {29:19} The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh,
and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. {29:20}
For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all
those who are alert to do evil are cut off--{29:21} who cause a person
to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate,
and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony. {29:22}
Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house
of Jacob: "Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face
grow pale. {29:23} But when he sees his children, the work of my hands,
in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will
sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of
Israel. {29:24} They also who err in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who grumble will receive instruction."

   {30:1} "Woe to the rebellious children," says Yahweh, "who take
counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my
Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, {30:2} who set out to go down
into Egypt, and have not asked my advice; to strengthen themselves in
the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!
{30:3} Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the
refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. {30:4} For their princes
are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. {30:5} They
shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that
are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach."

   {30:6} The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of
trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery
flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young
donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable
people. {30:7} For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore
have I called her Rahab who sits still. {30:8} Now go, write it before
them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the
time to come forever and ever. {30:9} For it is a rebellious people,
lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh; {30:10}
who tell the seers, "Don't see!" and to the prophets, "Don't prophesy
to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits. {30:11}
Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of
Israel to cease from before us." {30:12} Therefore thus says the Holy
One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression
and perverseness, and rely on it; {30:13} therefore this iniquity shall
be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall,
whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. {30:14} He will break it
as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing,
so that there won't be found among the broken piece a piece good enough
to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."
{30:15} For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, "You
will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness
and in confidence." You refused, {30:16} but you said, "No, for we will
flee on horses"; therefore you will flee; and, "We will ride on the
swift"; therefore those who pursue you will be swift. {30:17} One
thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you
will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain,
and like a banner on a hill. {30:18} Therefore Yahweh will wait, that
he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he
may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all
those who wait for him. {30:19} For the people will dwell in Zion at
Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at
the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you. {30:20}
Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of
affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden anymore, but your eyes
will see your teachers; {30:21} and when you turn to the right hand,
and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you,
saying, "This is the way. Walk in it." {30:22} You shall defile the
overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your
molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing.
You shall tell it, "Go away!" {30:23} He will give the rain for your
seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of
the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will
feed in large pastures. {30:24} The oxen likewise and the young donkeys
that till the ground will eat savory provender, which has been winnowed
with the shovel and with the fork. {30:25} There shall be brooks and
streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the
day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. {30:26} Moreover 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, in
the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the
wound they were struck with.

   {30:27} Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far away, burning with
his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is as a devouring fire. {30:28} His breath is as an
overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations
with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be
in the jaws of the peoples. {30:29} You will have a song, as in the
night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one
goes with a flute to come to Yahweh's mountain, to Israel's Rock.
{30:30} Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show
the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the
flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones. {30:31}
For through the voice of Yahweh the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will
strike him with his rod. {30:32} Every stroke of the rod of punishment,
which Yahweh will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and
harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons. {30:33}
For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is
prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood.
Yahweh's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

   {31:1} Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
   and rely on horses,
   and trust in chariots because they are many,
   and in horsemen because they are very strong,
   but they don't look to the Holy One of Israel,
   and they don't seek Yahweh!
{31:2} Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster,
   and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house
      of the evildoers,
   and against the help of those who work iniquity.
{31:3} Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;
   and their horses flesh, and not spirit.
When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble,
   and he who is helped shall fall,
   and they all shall be consumed together.
{31:4} For thus says Yahweh to me,
"As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey,
   if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him,
   will not be dismayed at their voice,
   nor abase himself for their noise,
   so Yahweh of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its
      heights.
{31:5} As birds hovering, so Yahweh of Armies will protect Jerusalem.
   He will protect and deliver it.
   He will pass over and preserve it."
{31:6} Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of
Israel. {31:7} For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of
silver and his idols of gold--sin which your own hands have made for
you.

   {31:8} "The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man;
   and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him.
He will flee from the sword,
   and his young men will become subject to forced labor.
{31:9} His rock will pass away by reason of terror,
   and his princes will be afraid of the banner,"
says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion,
   and his furnace in Jerusalem.
{32:1} Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness,
   and princes shall rule in justice.
{32:2} A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind,
   and a covert from the storm,
   as streams of water in a dry place,
   as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
{32:3} The eyes of those who see will not be dim,
   and the ears of those who hear will listen.
{32:4} The heart of the rash will understand knowledge,
   and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
{32:5} The fool will no longer be called noble,
   nor the scoundrel be highly respected.
{32:6} For the fool will speak folly,
   and his heart will work iniquity,
   to practice profanity,
   and to utter error against Yahweh,
   To make empty the soul of the hungry,
   and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
{32:7} The ways of the scoundrel are evil.
   He devises wicked devices to destroy the humble with lying words,
   even when the needy speaks right.
{32:8} But the noble devises noble things;
   and he will continue in noble things.
{32:9} Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice!
   You careless daughters, give ear to my speech!
{32:10} For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women;
   for the vintage shall fail.
   The harvest won't come.
{32:11} Tremble, you women who are at ease!
   Be troubled, you careless ones!
   Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked,
   and put sackcloth on your waist.
{32:12} Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
   for the fruitful vine.
{32:13} Thorns and briars will come up on my people's land;
   yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
{32:14} For the palace will be forsaken.
   The populous city will be deserted.
   The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever,
   a delight for wild donkeys,
   a pasture of flocks;
{32:15} Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high,
   and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
   and the fruitful field is considered a forest.
{32:16} Then justice will dwell in the wilderness;
   and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field.
{32:17} The work of righteousness will be peace;
   and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
{32:18} My people will live in a peaceful habitation,
   in safe dwellings,
   and in quiet resting places.
{32:19} Though hail flattens the forest,
   and the city is leveled completely.
{32:20} Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
   who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.

{33:1} Woe to you who destroy, but you weren't destroyed;
   and who betray, but nobody betrayed you!
When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed;
   and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed.

{33:2} Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you.
   Be our strength every morning,
   our salvation also in the time of trouble.
{33:3} At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled.
   When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.
{33:4} Your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers.
   Men will leap on it as locusts leap.
{33:5} Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high.
   He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
{33:6} There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation,
      wisdom, and knowledge.
   The fear of Yahweh is your treasure.
{33:7} Behold, their valiant ones cry outside;
   the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
{33:8} The highways are desolate.
   The traveling man ceases.
   The covenant is broken.
   He has despised the cities.
   He doesn't respect man.
{33:9} The land mourns and languishes.
   Lebanon is confounded and withers away.
   Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.
{33:10} "Now I will arise," says Yahweh;
   "Now I will lift myself up.
   Now I will be exalted.
{33:11} You will conceive chaff.
   You will bring forth stubble.
   Your breath is a fire that will devour you.
{33:12} The peoples will be like the burning of lime,
   like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire.
{33:13} Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
   and, you who are near, acknowledge my might."
{33:14} The sinners in Zion are afraid.
   Trembling has seized the godless ones.
Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
   Who among us can live with everlasting burning?
{33:15} He who walks righteously,
   and speaks blamelessly;
   He who despises the gain of oppressions,
   who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe,
   who stops his ears from hearing of blood,
   and shuts his eyes from looking at evil--
{33:16} he will dwell on high.
   His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks.
   His bread will be supplied.
   His waters will be sure.
{33:17} Your eyes will see the king in his beauty.
   They will see a distant land.
{33:18} Your heart will meditate on the terror.
   Where is he who counted?
   Where is he who weighed?
   Where is he who counted the towers?
{33:19} You will no longer see the fierce people,
   a people of a deep speech that you can't comprehend,
   with a strange language that you can't understand.
{33:20} Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals.
   Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation,
   a tent that won't be removed.
Its stakes will never be plucked up,
   nor will any of its cords be broken.
{33:21} But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty,
   a place of broad rivers and streams,
   in which no galley with oars will go,
   neither will any gallant ship pass by there.
{33:22} For Yahweh is our judge.
   Yahweh is our lawgiver.
   Yahweh is our king.
   He will save us.

{33:23} Your rigging is untied.
   They couldn't strengthen the foot of their mast.
   They couldn't spread the sail.
Then the prey of a great spoil was divided.
   The lame took the prey.

{33:24} The inhabitant won't say, "I am sick."
   The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.


   {34:1} Come near, you nations, to hear!
   Listen, you peoples.
   Let the earth and all it contains hear;
   the world, and everything that comes from it.
{34:2} For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations,
   and angry with all their armies.
He has utterly destroyed them.
   He has given them over for slaughter.
{34:3} Their slain will also be cast out,
   and the stench of their dead bodies will come up;
   and the mountains will melt in their blood.
{34:4} All of the army of the sky will be dissolved.
   The sky will be rolled up like a scroll,
   and all its armies will fade away,
   as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.
{34:5} For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky.
   Behold, it will come down on Edom,
   and on the people of my curse, for judgment.
{34:6} Yahweh's sword is filled with blood.
   It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,
   with the fat of the kidneys of rams;
   for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
   And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
{34:7} The wild oxen will come down with them,
   and the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
   and their land will be drunken with blood,
   and their dust made greasy with fat.
{34:8} For Yahweh has a day of vengeance,
   a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
{34:9} Its streams will be turned into pitch,
   its dust into sulfur,
   And its land will become burning pitch.
{34:10} It won't be quenched night nor day.
   Its smoke will go up forever.
   From generation to generation, it will lie waste.
   No one will pass through it forever and ever.
{34:11} But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it.
   The owl and the raven will dwell in it.
He will stretch the line of confusion over it,
   and the plumb line of emptiness.
{34:12} They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be
      there;
   and all its princes shall be nothing.
{34:13} Thorns will come up in its palaces,
   nettles and thistles in its fortresses;
   and it will be a habitation of jackals,
   a court for ostriches.
{34:14} The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves,
   and the wild goat will cry to his fellow.
Yes, the [17>]night creature[<17] shall settle there,
   and shall find herself a place of rest.
{34:15} The arrow snake will make her nest there,
   and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade.
   Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate.
{34:16} Search in the book of Yahweh, and read:
   not one of these will be missing.
   none will lack her mate.
   For my mouth has commanded,
   and his Spirit has gathered them.
{34:17} He has cast the lot for them,
   and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line.
   They shall possess it forever.
   From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

{35:1} The wilderness and the dry land will be glad.
   The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
{35:2} It will blossom abundantly,
   and rejoice even with joy and singing.
   Lebanon's glory Lebanon will be given to it,
   the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
   They will see Yahweh's glory,
   the excellence of our God.
{35:3} Strengthen the weak hands,
   and make firm the feeble knees.
{35:4} Tell those who have a fearful heart, "Be strong.
   Don't be afraid.
   Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God's retribution.
   He will come and save you.
{35:5} Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
   and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
{35:6} Then the lame man will leap like a deer,
   and the tongue of the mute will sing;
   for waters will break out in the wilderness,
   and streams in the desert.
{35:7} The burning sand will become a pool,
   and the thirsty ground springs of water.
   Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals,
      where they lay.
{35:8} A highway will be there, a road,
   and it will be called The Holy Way.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
   but it will be for those who walk in the Way.
   Wicked fools will not go there.
{35:9} No lion will be there,
   nor will any ravenous animal go up on it.
   They will not be found there;
   but the redeemed will walk there.
{35:10} The Yahweh's ransomed ones will return,
   and come with singing to Zion;
   and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
   and sorrow and sighing will flee away."


   {36:1} Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that
Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of
Judah, and captured them. {36:2} The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh
from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood
by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller's field highway.
{36:3} Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and
Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to
him. {36:4} Rabshakeh said to them, "Now tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the
great king, the king of Assyria, "What confidence is this in which you
trust? {36:5} I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only
vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against
me? {36:6} Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in
Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce
it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. {36:7} But if
you tell me, 'We trust in Yahweh our God,' isn't that he whose high
places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah
and to Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar?'" {36:8} Now
therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I
will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set
riders on them. {36:9} How then can you turn away the face of one
captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on
Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? {36:10} Have I come up now without
Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, "Go up
against this land, and destroy it."'"

   {36:11} Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please
speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and don't
speak to us in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people who are
on the wall."

   {36:12} But Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me only to your
master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on
the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with
you?" {36:13} Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in
the Jews' language, and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the
king of Assyria! {36:14} Thus says the king, 'Don't let Hezekiah
deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you. {36:15} Don't let
Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, "Yahweh will surely deliver
us. This city won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."'
{36:16} Don't listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria,
'Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from
his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the
waters of his own cistern; {36:17} until I come and take you away to a
land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread
and vineyards. {36:18} Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying,
"Yahweh will deliver us." Have any of the gods of the nations delivered
their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? {36:19} Where are the
gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they
delivered Samaria from my hand? {36:20} Who are they among all the gods
of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand,
that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"

   {36:21} But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the
king's commandment was, "Don't answer him."

   {36:22} Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household,
and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came
to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of
Rabshakeh.

   {37:1} It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his
clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh's house.
{37:2} He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the
scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to
Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. {37:3} They said to him, "Thus
says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of
rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no
strength to bring forth. {37:4} It may be Yahweh your God will hear the
words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to
defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God
has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is
left.'" {37:5} So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

   {37:6} Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'Thus says Yahweh,
"Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the
servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. {37:7} Behold, I
will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and will return to his
own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'"

   {37:8} So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring
against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
{37:9} He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come
out to fight against you." When he heard it, he sent messengers to
Hezekiah, saying, {37:10} "Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of
Judah, saying, 'Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you,
saying, "Jerusalem won't be given into the hand of the king of
Assyria." {37:11} Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have
done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered?
{37:12} Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers
have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were
in Telassar? {37:13} Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of
Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?'"

   {37:14} Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers
and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh's house, and spread it
before Yahweh. {37:15} Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying, {37:16}
"Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the
cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the
earth. You have made heaven and earth. {37:17} Turn your ear, Yahweh,
and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold. Hear all of the words of
Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God. {37:18} Truly,
Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their
land, {37:19} and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no
gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have
destroyed them. {37:20} Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his
hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh,
even you only."

   {37:21} Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus
says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to me against
Sennacherib king of Assyria, {37:22} this is the word which Yahweh has
spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and
ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
{37:23} Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you
exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy
One of Israel. {37:24} By your servants, have you defied the Lord, and
have said, "With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the
height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut
down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees. I will enter into its
farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field. {37:25} I have dug
and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the
rivers of Egypt." {37:26} Have you not heard how I have done it long
ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass,
that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into
ruinous heaps. {37:27} Therefore their inhabitants had little power.
They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the
field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and
like a field before its crop has grown. {37:28} But I know your sitting
down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.
{37:29} Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance
has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose and
my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which
you came. {37:30} This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year
that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs
from the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards,
and eat their fruit. {37:31} The remnant that is escaped of the house
of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. {37:32}
For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth, and survivors will escape
from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.'
{37:33} Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, 'He
will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he
come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. {37:34} By
the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not
come to this city,' says Yahweh. {37:35} 'For I will defend this city
to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.'"

   {37:36} The angel of Yahweh went out and struck one hundred and
eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose
early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. {37:37} So
Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh,
and stayed there. {37:38} It happened, as he was worshipping in the
house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck
him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar
Haddon his son reigned in his place.

   {38:1} In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the
prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, "Thus says
Yahweh, 'Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.'"

   {38:2} Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to
Yahweh, {38:3} and said, "Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have
walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that
which is good in your sight." Hezekiah wept bitterly.

   {38:4} Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying, {38:5} "Go,
and tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father, "I
have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add
fifteen years to your life. {38:6} I will deliver you and this city out
of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. {38:7}
This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this
thing that he has spoken. {38:8} Behold, I will cause the shadow on the
sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to
return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial
on which it had gone down."'"

   {38:9} The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick,
and had recovered of his sickness.

   {38:10} I said, "In the middle of my life I go into the gates of
      [18>]Sheol[<18].
   I am deprived of the residue of my years."
{38:11} I said, "I won't see Yah,
   Yah in the land of the living.
   I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
{38:12} My dwelling is removed,
   and is carried away from me like a shepherd's tent.
I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life.
   He will cut me off from the loom.
   From day even to night you will make an end of me.
{38:13} I waited patiently until morning.
   He breaks all my bones like a lion.
   From day even to night you will make an end of me.
{38:14} I chattered like a swallow or a crane.
   I moaned like a dove.
   My eyes weaken looking upward.
   Lord, I am oppressed.
   Be my security."
{38:15} What will I say?
   He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it.
   I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.
{38:16} Lord, men live by these things;
   and my spirit finds life in all of them:
   you restore me, and cause me to live.
{38:17} Behold, for peace I had great anguish,
   but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of
      corruption;
   for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
{38:18} For [19>]Sheol[<19] can't praise you.
   Death can't celebrate you.
Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.
{38:19} The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day.
   The father shall make known your truth to the children.
{38:20} Yahweh will save me.
   Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the
      days of our life in the house of Yahweh.


   {38:21} Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and lay
it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover." {38:22} Hezekiah
also had said, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of
Yahweh?"

   {39:1} At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of
Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he
had been sick, and had recovered. {39:2} Hezekiah was pleased with
them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and
the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his
armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in
his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn't show them.
{39:3} Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and asked him,
"What did these men say? Where did they come from to you?"

   Hezekiah said, "They have come from a country far from me, even from
Babylon."

   {39:4} Then he asked, "What have they seen in your house?"

   Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house. There is
nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."

   {39:5} Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of Yahweh of
Armies: {39:6} 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your
house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, will
be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,' says Yahweh. {39:7} 'They
will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall
father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon's palace.'"

   {39:8} Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "Yahweh's word which you have
spoken is good." He said moreover, "For there will be peace and truth
in my days."

   {40:1} "Comfort, comfort my people," says your God. {40:2} "Speak
comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of
Yahweh's hand double for all her sins."

   {40:3} The voice of one who calls out,
   "Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!
   Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
{40:4} Every valley shall be exalted,
   and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
   The uneven shall be made level,
   and the rough places a plain.
{40:5} The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed,
   and all flesh shall see it together;
   for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it." {40:6} The voice of one
      saying, "Cry!"
   One said, "What shall I cry?"
"All flesh is like grass,
   and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
{40:7} The grass withers,
   the flower fades,
   because Yahweh's breath blows on it.
   Surely the people are like grass.
{40:8} The grass withers,
   the flower fades;
   but the word of our God stands forever."

{40:9} You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
   You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with
      strength.
   Lift it up. Don't be afraid.
   Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God!"
{40:10} Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one,
   and his arm will rule for him.
   Behold, his reward is with him,
   and his recompense before him.
{40:11} He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
   He will gather the lambs in his arm,
   and carry them in his bosom.
   He will gently lead those who have their young.

{40:12} Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
   and marked off the sky with his span,
   and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure,
   and weighed the mountains in scales,
   and the hills in a balance?
{40:13} Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh,
   or has taught him as his counselor?
{40:14} Who did he take counsel with,
   and who instructed him,
   and taught him in the path of justice,
   and taught him knowledge,
   and showed him the way of understanding?
{40:15} Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,
   and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance.
   Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
{40:16} Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
   nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
{40:17} All the nations are like nothing before him.
   They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
{40:18} To whom then will you liken God?
   Or what likeness will you compare to him?
{40:19} A workman has cast an image,
   and the goldsmith overlays it with gold,
   and casts silver chains for it.
{40:20} He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree
      that will not rot.
   He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that
      will not be moved.

{40:21} Haven't you known?
   Haven't you heard, yet?
   Haven't you been told from the beginning?
   Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth?
{40:22} It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
   and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
   who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
   and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;
   {40:23} who brings princes to nothing;
   who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless.
{40:24} They are planted scarcely.
   They are sown scarcely.
   Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground.
   He merely blows on them, and they wither,
   and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

{40:25} "To whom then will you liken me?
   Who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
{40:26} Lift up your eyes on high,
   and see who has created these,
   who brings out their army by number.
   He calls them all by name.
   by the greatness of his might,
   and because he is strong in power,
   Not one is lacking.
{40:27} Why do you say, Jacob,
   and speak, Israel,
   "My way is hidden from Yahweh,
   and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?"
{40:28} Haven't you known?
   Haven't you heard?
   The everlasting God, Yahweh,
   The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint.
   He isn't weary.
   His understanding is unsearchable.
{40:29} He gives power to the weak.
   He increases the strength of him who has no might.
{40:30} Even the youths faint and get weary,
   and the young men utterly fall;
   {40:31} But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength.
   They will mount up with wings like eagles.
   They will run, and not be weary.
   They will walk, and not faint.


   {41:1} "Keep silent before me, islands,
   and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near,
   then let them speak.
   Let's meet together for judgment.
{41:2} Who has raised up one from the east?
   Who called him to his foot in righteousness?
   He hands over nations to him,
   and makes him rule over kings.
   He gives them like the dust to his sword,
   like the driven stubble to his bow.
{41:3} He pursues them,
   and passes by safely,
   Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.
{41:4} Who has worked and done it,
   calling the generations from the beginning?
   I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he."

{41:5} The islands have seen, and fear.
   The ends of the earth tremble.
   They approach, and come.
{41:6} Everyone helps his neighbor.
   They say to their brothers, "Be strong!"
{41:7} So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith.
   He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil,
   saying of the soldering, "It is good";
   and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.
{41:8} "But you, Israel, my servant,
   Jacob whom I have chosen,
   the seed of Abraham my friend,
   {41:9} You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth,
   and called from its corners,
   and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast
      you away;'
{41:10} Don't you be afraid, for I am with you.
   Don't be dismayed, for I am your God.
   I will strengthen you.
   Yes, I will help you.
   Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
{41:11} Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be
      disappointed and confounded.
   Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.
{41:12} You will seek them, and won't find them,
   even those who contend with you.
   Those who war against you will be as nothing,
   as a non-existent thing.
{41:13} For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand,
   saying to you, 'Don't be afraid.
   I will help you.'
{41:14} Don't be afraid, you worm Jacob,
   and you men of Israel.
   I will help you," says Yahweh,
   "and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
{41:15} Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument
      with teeth.
   You will thresh the mountains,
   and beat them small,
   and will make the hills like chaff.
{41:16} You will winnow them,
   and the wind will carry them away,
   and the whirlwind will scatter them.
You will rejoice in Yahweh.
   You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
{41:17} The poor and needy seek water, and there is none.
   Their tongue fails for thirst.
I, Yahweh, will answer them.
   I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
{41:18} I will open rivers on the bare heights,
   and springs in the midst of the valleys.
   I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
   and the dry land springs of water.
{41:19} I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the
      wilderness.
   I will set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;
   {41:20} that they may see, know, consider, and understand together,
   that the hand of Yahweh has done this,
   and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
{41:21} Produce your cause," says Yahweh.
   "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob.
{41:22} "Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen.
   Declare the former things, what they are,
   that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them;
   or show us things to come.
{41:23} Declare the things that are to come hereafter,
   that we may know that you are gods.
Yes, do good, or do evil,
   that we may be dismayed,
   and see it together.
{41:24} Behold, you are of nothing,
   and your work is of nothing.
   He who chooses you is an abomination.

{41:25} "I have raised up one from the north, and he has come;
   from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name;
   and he shall come on rulers as on mortar,
   and as the potter treads clay.
{41:26} Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know?
   And before, that we may say, 'He is right?'
Surely, there is no one who declares.
   Surely, there is no one who shows.
   Surely, there is no one who hears your words.
{41:27} I am the first to say to Zion, 'Behold, look at them;'
   and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.
{41:28} When I look, there is no man;
   even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can
      answer a word.
{41:29} Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing.
   Their molten images are wind and confusion.


   {42:1} "Behold, my servant, whom I uphold;
   my chosen, in whom my soul delights--
   I have put my Spirit on him.
   He will bring justice to the nations.
{42:2} He will not shout,
   nor raise his voice,
   nor cause it to be heard in the street.
{42:3} He won't break a bruised reed.
   He won't quench a dimly burning wick.
   He will faithfully bring justice.
{42:4} He will not fail nor be discouraged,
   until he has set justice in the earth,
   and the islands will wait for his law."
{42:5} Thus says God Yahweh,
   he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it,
   he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.
{42:6} "I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness,
   and will hold your hand,
   and will keep you,
   and make you a covenant for the people,
   as a light for the nations;
   {42:7} to open the blind eyes,
   to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon,
   and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.

{42:8} "I am Yahweh.
   That is my name.
   I will not give my glory to another,
   nor my praise to engraved images.
{42:9} Behold, the former things have happened,
   and I declare new things.
   I tell you about them before they come up."

{42:10} Sing to Yahweh a new song,
   and his praise from the end of the earth,
   you who go down to the sea,
   and all that is therein,
   the islands and their inhabitants.
{42:11} Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices,
   with the villages that Kedar inhabits.
   Let the inhabitants of Sela sing.
   Let them shout from the top of the mountains!
{42:12} Let them give glory to Yahweh,
   and declare his praise in the islands.
{42:13} Yahweh will go out like a mighty man.
   He will stir up zeal like a man of war.
   He will raise a war cry.
   Yes, he will shout aloud.
   He will triumph over his enemies.

{42:14} "I have been silent a long time.
   I have been quiet and restrained myself.
   Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and
      pant.
{42:15} I will destroy mountains and hills,
   and dry up all their herbs.
   I will make the rivers islands,
   and will dry up the pools.
{42:16} I will bring the blind by a way that they don't know.
   I will lead them in paths that they don't know.
   I will make darkness light before them,
   and crooked places straight.
   I will do these things,
   and I will not forsake them.

{42:17} "Those who trust in engraved images,
   who tell molten images,
   'You are our gods'
   will be turned back.
   They will be utterly disappointed.

{42:18} "Hear, you deaf,
   and look, you blind,
   that you may see.
{42:19} Who is blind, but my servant?
   Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send?
   Who is as blind as he who is at peace,
   and as blind as Yahweh's servant?
{42:20} You see many things, but don't observe.
   His ears are open, but he doesn't listen.
{42:21} It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify the
      law,
   and make it honorable.
{42:22} But this is a robbed and plundered people.
   All of them are snared in holes,
   and they are hidden in prisons.
They have become a prey, and no one delivers;
   and a spoil, and no one says, 'Restore them!'
{42:23} Who is there among you who will give ear to this?
   Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
{42:24} Who gave Jacob as plunder,
   and Israel to the robbers?
   Didn't Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned?
   For they would not walk in his ways,
   and they disobeyed his law.
{42:25} Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him,
   and the strength of battle;
   and it set him on fire all around, but he didn't know;
   and it burned him, but he didn't take it to heart."


   {43:1} But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob,
   and he who formed you, Israel:
"Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
   I have called you by your name.
   You are mine.
{43:2} When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
   and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned,
   and flame will not scorch you.
{43:3} For I am Yahweh your God,
   the Holy One of Israel,
   your Savior.
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
   Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
{43:4} Since you have been precious and honored in my sight,
   and I have loved you;
   therefore I will give people in your place,
   and nations instead of your life.
{43:5} Don't be afraid; for I am with you.
   I will bring your seed from the east,
   and gather you from the west.
{43:6} I will tell the north, 'Give them up!'
   and tell the south, 'Don't hold them back!
   Bring my sons from far,
   and my daughters from the ends of the earth--
{43:7} everyone who is called by my name,
   and whom I have created for my glory,
   whom I have formed,
   yes, whom I have made.'"

{43:8} Bring out the blind people who have eyes,
   and the deaf who have ears.
{43:9} Let all the nations be gathered together,
   and let the peoples be assembled.
Who among them can declare this,
   and show us former things?
Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified;
   or let them hear, and say, "That is true."

{43:10} "You are my witnesses," says Yahweh,
   "With my servant whom I have chosen;
   that you may know and believe me,
   and understand that I am he.
Before me there was no God formed,
   neither will there be after me.
{43:11} I myself am Yahweh;
   and besides me there is no savior.
{43:12} I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown;
   and there was no strange god among you.
Therefore you are my witnesses,"
   says Yahweh, "and I am God.
{43:13} Yes, since the day was I am he;
   and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
   I will work, and who can hinder it?"


   {43:14} Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
"For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them
down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.
{43:15} I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King."

   {43:16} Thus says Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea,
   and a path in the mighty waters;
{43:17} who brings forth the chariot and horse,
   the army and the mighty man
   (they lie down together, they shall not rise;
   they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick):
{43:18} "Don't remember the former things,
   and don't consider the things of old.
{43:19} Behold, I will do a new thing.
   It springs forth now.
   Don't you know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness,
   and rivers in the desert.
{43:20} The animals of the field shall honor me,
   the jackals and the ostriches;
because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert,
   to give drink to my people, my chosen,
   {43:21} the people which I formed for myself,
   that they might set forth my praise.
{43:22} Yet you have not called on me, Jacob;
   but you have been weary of me, Israel.
{43:23} You have not brought me of your sheep for burnt offerings;
   neither have you honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
   nor wearied you with frankincense.
{43:24} You have bought me no sweet cane with money,
   nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices;
but you have burdened me with your sins.
   You have wearied me with your iniquities.
{43:25} I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own
      sake;
   and I will not remember your sins.
{43:26} Put me in remembrance.
   Let us plead together.
Set forth your case,
   that you may be justified.
{43:27} Your first father sinned,
   and your teachers have transgressed against me.
{43:28} Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary;
   and I will make Jacob a curse,
   and Israel an insult."


   {44:1} Yet listen now, Jacob my servant,
   and Israel, whom I have chosen.
{44:2} This is what Yahweh who made you,
   and formed you from the womb,
   who will help you says:
"Don't be afraid, Jacob my servant;
   and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
{44:3} For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
   and streams on the dry ground.
I will pour my Spirit on your seed,
   and my blessing on your offspring:
{44:4} and they will spring up among the grass,
   as willows by the watercourses.
{44:5} One will say, 'I am Yahweh's;'
   and another will be called by the name of Jacob;
   and another will write with his hand 'to Yahweh,'
   and honor the name of Israel."

{44:6} This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel,
   and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says:
"I am the first, and I am the last;
   and besides me there is no God.
{44:7} Who is like me?
   Who will call,
   and will declare it,
   and set it in order for me,
   since I established the ancient people?
Let them declare the things that are coming,
   and that will happen.
{44:8} Don't fear,
   neither be afraid.
Haven't I declared it to you long ago,
   and shown it?
You are my witnesses.
   Is there a God besides me?
Indeed, there is not.
   I don't know any other Rock."

{44:9} Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain.
   The things that they delight in will not profit.
   Their own witnesses don't see, nor know, that they may be
      disappointed.
{44:10} Who has fashioned a god,
   or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?
{44:11} Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed;
   and the workmen are mere men.
Let them all be gathered together.
   Let them stand up.
   They will fear.
   They will be put to shame together.
{44:12} The blacksmith takes an axe,
   works in the coals,
   fashions it with hammers,
   and works it with his strong arm.
He is hungry,
   and his strength fails;
he drinks no water,
   and is faint.
{44:13} The carpenter stretches out a line.
   He marks it out with a pencil.
   He shapes it with planes.
   He marks it out with compasses,
   and shapes it like the figure of a man,
   with the beauty of a man,
   to reside in a house.
{44:14} He cuts down cedars for himself,
   and takes the cypress and the oak,
   and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest.
He plants a fir tree,
   and the rain nourishes it.
{44:15} Then it will be for a man to burn;
   and he takes some of it, and warms himself.
   Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread.
Yes, he makes a god, and worships it;
   he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it.
{44:16} He burns part of it in the fire.
   With part of it, he eats meat.
   He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.
Yes, he warms himself,
   and says, "Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire."
{44:17} The rest of it he makes into a god,
   even his engraved image.
He bows down to it and worships,
   and prays to it, and says, "Deliver me; for you are my god!"
{44:18} They don't know, neither do they consider:
   for he has shut their eyes, that they can't see;
   and their hearts, that they can't understand.
{44:19} No one thinks,
   neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
   "I have burned part of it in the fire.
   Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals.
   I have roasted meat and eaten it.
   Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination?
   Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?"
{44:20} He feeds on ashes.
   A deceived heart has turned him aside;
   and he can't deliver his soul,
   nor say, "Isn't there a lie in my right hand?"
{44:21} Remember these things, Jacob and Israel;
   for you are my servant.
   I have formed you.
   You are my servant.
   Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
{44:22} I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions,
   and, as a cloud, your sins.
   Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

{44:23} Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it!
   Shout, you lower parts of the earth!
   Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees,
   for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob,
   and will glorify himself in Israel.
{44:24} Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer,
   and he who formed you from the womb:
"I am Yahweh, who makes all things;
   who alone stretches out the heavens;
   who spreads out the earth by myself;
{44:25} who frustrates the signs of the liars,
   and makes diviners mad;
who turns wise men backward,
   and makes their knowledge foolish;
{44:26} who confirms the word of his servant,
   and performs the counsel of his messengers;
who says of Jerusalem, 'She will be inhabited;'
   and of the cities of Judah, 'They will be built,'
   and 'I will raise up its waste places;'
{44:27} who says to the deep, 'Be dry,'
   and 'I will dry up your rivers;'
{44:28} Who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my
      pleasure,'
   even saying of Jerusalem, 'She will be built;'
   and of the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.'"


   {45:1} Thus says Yahweh to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand
I have held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their
armor; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:
{45:2} "I will go before you,
   and make the rough places smooth.
I will break the doors of brass in pieces,
   and cut apart the bars of iron.
{45:3} I will give you the treasures of darkness,
   and hidden riches of secret places,
that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name,
   even the God of Israel.
{45:4} For Jacob my servant's sake,
   and Israel my chosen,
I have called you by your name.
   I have surnamed you,
   though you have not known me.
{45:5} I am Yahweh, and there is none else.
   Besides me, there is no God.
I will [20>]strengthen[<20] you,
   though you have not known me;
{45:6} that they may know from the rising of the sun,
   and from the west,
that there is none besides me.
   I am Yahweh, and there is no one else.
{45:7} I form the light,
   and create darkness.
I make peace,
   and create calamity.
I am Yahweh,
   who does all these things.
{45:8} Distil, you heavens, from above,
   and let the skies pour down righteousness.
Let the earth open, that it may bring forth salvation,
   and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it.
I, Yahweh, have created it.
{45:9} Woe to him who strives with his Maker--
   a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth!
Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, 'What are you making?'
   or your work, 'He has no hands?'
{45:10} Woe to him who says to a father, 'What have you become the
      father of?'
   or to a mother, 'To what have you given birth?'"
{45:11} Thus says Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel,
   and his Maker:
"You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons,
   and you command me concerning the work of my hands!
{45:12} I have made the earth, and created man on it.
   I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens;
   and I have commanded all their army.
{45:13} I have raised him up in righteousness,
   and I will make straight all his ways.
He shall build my city,
   and he shall let my exiles go free,
   not for price nor reward," says Yahweh of Armies.
{45:14} Thus says Yahweh: "The labor of Egypt,
   and the merchandise of Ethiopia,
   and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you,
   and they shall be yours.
They will go after you.
   They shall come over in chains;
   and they will bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you:
   'Surely God is in you; and there is none else.
   There is no other god.
{45:15} Most certainly you are a God who hidden yourself,
   God of Israel, the Savior.'"
{45:16} They will be disappointed,
   yes, confounded, all of them.
   Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.
{45:17} Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation.
   You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting.
{45:18} For thus says Yahweh who created the heavens,
   the God who formed the earth and made it,
   who established it and didn't create it a waste,
   who formed it to be inhabited:
"I am Yahweh;
   and there is no other.
{45:19} I have not spoken in secret,
   in a place of the land of darkness.
I didn't say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek me in vain.'
   I, Yahweh, speak righteousness.
   I declare things that are right.

{45:20} "Assemble yourselves and come.
   Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations.
Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image,
   and pray to a god that can't save.
{45:21} Declare and present it.
   Yes, let them take counsel together.
Who has shown this from ancient time?
   Who has declared it of old?
   Haven't I, Yahweh?
There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior;
   There is no one besides me.

{45:22} "Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth;
   for I am God, and there is no other.
{45:23} I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in
      righteousness, and will not return, that to me every knee shall
      bow, every tongue shall take an oath. {45:24} They will say of
      me, 'There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.'"
Even to him shall men come; and all those who were incensed against him
      shall be disappointed. {45:25} In Yahweh shall all the seed of
      Israel be justified, and shall glory.
{46:1} Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and
      on the livestock: the things that you carried about are made a
      load, a burden to the weary. {46:2} They stoop, they bow down
      together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves have
      gone into captivity.

{46:3} "Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house
      of Israel, that have been borne from their birth, that have been
      carried from the womb; {46:4} and even to old age I am he, and
      even to gray hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will
      bear; yes, I will carry, and will deliver.

{46:5} "To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me,
      that we may be like? {46:6} Some pour out gold from the bag, and
      weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes
      it a god. They fall down--yes, they worship. {46:7} They bear it
      on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it
      stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it,
      yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

{46:8} "Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind,
      you transgressors. {46:9} Remember the former things of old: for
      I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none
      like me; {46:10} declaring the end from the beginning, and from
      ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel
      shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure; {46:11} calling a
      ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far
      country; yes, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have
      purposed, I will also do it. {46:12} Listen to me, you
      stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness: {46:13} I bring
      near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation
      shall not wait; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my
      glory.

{47:1} "Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit
      on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans: for
      you shall no more be called tender and delicate. {47:2} Take the
      millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the
      train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. {47:3} Your
      nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I
      will take vengeance, and will spare no man."

{47:4} Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name, the Holy One of
      Israel.

{47:5} "Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans;
for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.
{47:6} I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave
      them into your hand: you showed them no mercy; on the aged you
      have very heavily laid your yoke. {47:7} You said, 'I shall be a
      mistress forever;' so that you did not lay these things to your
      heart, nor did you remember the latter end of it.

{47:8} "Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who
      sit securely, who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is none
      else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know
      the loss of children:' {47:9} but these two things shall come to
      you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood;
      in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of
      your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.
      {47:10} For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said,
      No one sees me; your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted
      you, and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none
      else besides me. {47:11} Therefore evil will come on you; you
      won't know when it dawns: and mischief will fall on you; you will
      not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you
      suddenly, which you don't know.

{47:12} "Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of
      your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; if so
      be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail. {47:13}
      You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels: let now the
      astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand
      up, and save you from the things that shall come on you. {47:14}
      Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they
      shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it
      shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before. {47:15}
      Thus shall the things be to you in which you have labored: those
      who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander
      everyone to his quarter; there shall be none to save you.

{48:1} "Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of
      Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear
      by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but
      not in truth, nor in righteousness {48:2} (for they call
      themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of
      Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name): {48:3} I have declared the
      former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth,
      and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened. {48:4}
      Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron
      sinew, and your brow brass; {48:5} therefore I have declared it
      to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you;
      lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved
      image, and my molten image, has commanded them.' {48:6} You have
      heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it?

"I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which
      you have not known. {48:7} They are created now, and not from of
      old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should
      say, 'Behold, I knew them.'
{48:8} Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old
      your ear was not opened: for I knew that you dealt very
      treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.
      {48:9} For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my
      praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off. {48:10}
      Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you
      in the furnace of affliction. {48:11} For my own sake, for my own
      sake, will I do it; for how should my name be profaned? I will
      not give my glory to another.

{48:12} "Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the
      first, I also am the last. {48:13} Yes, my hand has laid the
      foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the
      heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.

{48:14} "Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has
      declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his
      pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
      {48:15} I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have
      brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.


   {48:16} "Come near to me and hear this:

"From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it
      was, there am I." Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with his
      Spirit.

{48:17} Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am
      Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the
      way that you should go. {48:18} Oh that you had listened to my
      commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and
      your righteousness like the waves of the sea: {48:19} your seed
      also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like
      its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from
      before me. {48:20} Go forth from Babylon, flee from the
      Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it
      even to the end of the earth: say, Yahweh has redeemed his
      servant Jacob. {48:21} They didn't thirst when he led them
      through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock
      for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
      {48:22} "There is no peace," says Yahweh, "for the wicked."

{49:1} Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far:
      Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother
      has he made mention of my name: {49:2} and he has made my mouth
      like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand, he has hidden me:
      and he has made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he kept me
      close: {49:3} and he said to me, "You are my servant; Israel, in
      whom I will be glorified." {49:4} But I said, "I have labored in
      vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely
      the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God."

{49:5} Now says Yahweh who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
      to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered to him
      (for I am honorable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God has become
      my strength); {49:6} yes, he says, "It is too light a thing that
      you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to
      restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light
      to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the
      earth."

{49:7} Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to
      him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a
      servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they
      shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy
      One of Israel, who has chosen you."
{49:8} Thus says Yahweh, "In an acceptable time have I answered you,
      and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve
      you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the
      land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage: {49:9} saying
      to those who are bound, 'Come out!'; to those who are in
      darkness, 'Show yourselves!'

"They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their
      pasture. {49:10} They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall
      the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will
      lead them, even by springs of water he will guide them. {49:11} I
      will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be
      exalted. {49:12} Behold, these shall come from far; and behold,
      these from the north and from the west; and these from the land
      of Sinim."

{49:13} Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break forth into
      singing, mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will
      have compassion on his afflicted. {49:14} But Zion said, "Yahweh
      has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me."

{49:15} "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have
      compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I
      will not forget you! {49:16} Behold, I have engraved you on the
      palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. {49:17}
      Your children make haste; your destroyers and those who made you
      waste shall go forth from you. {49:18} Lift up your eyes all
      around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come
      to you. As I live," says Yahweh, "you shall surely clothe
      yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself
      with them, like a bride.

{49:19} "For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land
      that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too small for
      the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far
      away. {49:20} The children of your bereavement shall yet say in
      your ears, The place is too small for me; give place to me that I
      may dwell. {49:21} Then you will say in your heart, 'Who has
      conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my
      children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and
      forth? Who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these,
      where were they?'"

{49:22} Thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, I will lift up my hand to
      the nations, and set up my banner to the peoples; and they shall
      bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be
      carried on their shoulders. {49:23} Kings shall be your nursing
      fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow
      down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of
      your feet; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; and those who
      wait for me shall not be disappointed."

{49:24} Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives
      be delivered?

{49:25} But thus says Yahweh, "Even the captives of the mighty shall be
      taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for
      I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save
      your children. {49:26} I will feed those who oppress you with
      their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood,
      as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am
      your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

{50:1} Thus says Yahweh, "Where is the bill of your mother's divorce,
      with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to
      whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold,
      and for your transgressions was your mother put away. {50:2} Why,
      when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to
      answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? or
      have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the
      sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because
      there is no water, and die for thirst. {50:3} I clothe the
      heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering."

{50:4} The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught,
      that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary: he
      wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who
      are taught. {50:5} The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was
      not rebellious, neither turned away backward. {50:6} I gave my
      back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the
      hair; I didn't hide my face from shame and spitting. {50:7} For
      the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been
      confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know
      that I shall not be disappointed. {50:8} He is near who justifies
      me; who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together:
      who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. {50:9} Behold, the
      Lord Yahweh will help me; who is he who shall condemn me? Behold,
      all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.
      {50:10} Who is among you who fears Yahweh, who obeys the voice of
      his servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him
      trust in the name of Yahweh, and rely on his God. {50:11} Behold,
      all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches
      around yourselves; walk in the flame of your fire, and among the
      brands that you have kindled. You shall have this of my hand; you
      shall lie down in sorrow.

{51:1} "Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek
      Yahweh: look to the rock you were cut from, and to the hold of
      the pit you were dug from. {51:2} Look to Abraham your father,
      and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him,
      and I blessed him, and made him many. {51:3} For Yahweh has
      comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places, and has
      made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of
      Yahweh; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving,
      and the voice of melody.

{51:4} "Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation: for a
      law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a
      light of the peoples. {51:5} My righteousness is near, my
      salvation is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples; the
      islands shall wait for me, and on my arm shall they trust. {51:6}
      Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath;
      for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall
      wax old like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die in
      the same way: but my salvation shall be forever, and my
      righteousness shall not be abolished.

{51:7} "Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose
      heart is my law; don't fear the reproach of men, neither be
      dismayed at their insults. {51:8} For the moth shall eat them up
      like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my
      righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation to all
      generations."

{51:9} Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh; awake, as in the
      days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who
      cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? {51:10} Isn't it
      you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made
      the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
      {51:11} The ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and come with
      singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads.
      They shall obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee
      away.

{51:12} "I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are
      afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be
      made as grass; {51:13} and have forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who
      stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the
      earth; and fear continually all the day because of the fury of
      the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? and where is the
      fury of the oppressor? {51:14} The captive exile shall speedily
      be freed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither
      shall his bread fail. {51:15} For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs
      up the sea, so that its waves roar: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
      {51:16} I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you
      in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay
      the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, 'You are my people.'"

{51:17} Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand
      of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the
      cup of staggering, and drained it. {51:18} There is none to guide
      her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is
      there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she
      has brought up. {51:19} These two things have happened to you.
      Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, and the famine
      and the sword; how shall I comfort you? {51:20} Your sons have
      fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope
      in a net; they are full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of
      your God. {51:21} Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and
      drunken, but not with wine: {51:22} Thus says your Lord Yahweh,
      and your God who pleads the cause of his people, "Behold, I have
      taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of
      the cup of my wrath; you shall no more drink it again: {51:23}
      and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who
      have said to your soul, 'Bow down, that we may walk over you;'
      and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to
      those who walk over."

{52:1} Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful
      garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no
      more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. {52:2}
      Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release
      yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!
      {52:3} For thus says Yahweh, "You were sold for nothing; and you
      shall be redeemed without money."

{52:4} For thus says the Lord Yahweh, "My people went down at the first
      into Egypt to live there: and the Assyrian has oppressed them
      without cause.

{52:5} "Now therefore, what do I do here," says Yahweh, "seeing that my
      people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them
      mock," says Yahweh, "and my name continually all the day is
      blasphemed. {52:6} Therefore my people shall know my name.
      Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks;
      behold, it is I."

{52:7} How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings
      good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who
      publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!" {52:8}
      The voice of your watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do
      they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when Yahweh returns to
      Zion. {52:9} Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste
      places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people, he has
      redeemed Jerusalem. {52:10} Yahweh has made bare his holy arm in
      the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have
      seen the salvation of our God.

{52:11} Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing! Go
      out of the midst of her! Cleanse yourselves, you who bear the
      vessels of Yahweh. {52:12} For you shall not go out in haste,
      neither shall you go by flight: for Yahweh will go before you;
      and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

{52:13} Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and
      lifted up, and shall be very high.
{52:14} Like as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred
      more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men),
{52:15} so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their
      mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they
      see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.

 {53:1} Who has believed our message?
   To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
{53:2} For he grew up before him as a tender plant,
   and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
   When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
{53:3} He was despised,
   and rejected by men;
a man of suffering,
   and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
   and we didn't respect him.

{53:4} Surely he has borne our sickness,
   and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
   struck by God, and afflicted.
{53:5} But he was pierced for our transgressions.
   He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
   and by his wounds we are healed.
{53:6} All we like sheep have gone astray.
   Everyone has turned to his own way;
   and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
{53:7} He was oppressed,
   yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
   and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute,
   so he didn't open his mouth.
{53:8} He was taken away by oppression and judgment;
   and as for his generation,
   who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
   and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
{53:9} They made his grave with the wicked,
   and with a rich man in his death;
although he had done no violence,
   neither was any deceit in his mouth.

{53:10} Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.
   He has caused him to suffer.
When you make his soul an offering for sin,
   he shall see his seed.
He shall prolong his days,
   and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand.
{53:11} After the suffering of his soul,
   he will see the [21>]light[<21] and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;
   and he will bear their iniquities.
{53:12} Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
   and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death,
   and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
   and made intercession for the transgressors.

{54:1} "Sing, barren, you who didn't bear; break forth into singing,
      and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are
      the children of the desolate than the children of the married
      wife," says Yahweh.
{54:2} "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the
      curtains of your habitations; don't spare: lengthen your cords,
      and strengthen your stakes. {54:3} For you shall spread out on
      the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess the
      nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

{54:4} "Don't be afraid; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be
      confounded; for you shall not be disappointed: for you shall
      forget the shame of your youth; and the reproach of your
      widowhood you shall remember no more. {54:5} For your Maker is
      your husband; Yahweh of Armies is his name: and the Holy One of
      Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole earth shall he be
      called. {54:6} For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and
      grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off,"
      says your God.

{54:7} "For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies
      will I gather you. {54:8} In overflowing wrath I hid my face from
      you for a moment; but with everlasting loving kindness will I
      have mercy on you," says Yahweh your Redeemer.

{54:9} "For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn
      that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have
      I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
      {54:10} For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed;
      but my loving kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall
      my covenant of peace be removed," says Yahweh who has mercy on
      you.

{54:11} "You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted, behold,
      I will set your stones in beautiful colors, and lay your
      foundations with sapphires. {54:12} I will make your pinnacles of
      rubies, and your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of
      precious stones. {54:13} All your children shall be taught of
      Yahweh; and great shall be the peace of your children. {54:14} In
      righteousness you shall be established: you shall be far from
      oppression, for you shall not be afraid; and from terror, for it
      shall not come near you. {54:15} Behold, they may gather
      together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against
      you shall fall because of you.

{54:16} "Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals,
      and brings forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the
      waster to destroy.
{54:17} No weapon that is formed against you will prevail;
   and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of Yahweh,
   and their righteousness which is of me," says Yahweh.

{55:1} "Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no
      money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money
      and without price. {55:2} Why do you spend money for that which
      is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy?
      listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let
      your soul delight itself in fatness. {55:3} Turn your ear, and
      come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an
      everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
      {55:4} Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a
      leader and commander to the peoples. {55:5} Behold, you shall
      call a nation that you don't know; and a nation that didn't know
      you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and for the
      Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you."

{55:6} Seek Yahweh while he may be found; call you on him while he is
      near: {55:7} let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
      man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have
      mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

{55:8} "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
      ways," says Yahweh.
{55:9} "For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
   so are my ways higher than your ways,
   and my thoughts than your thoughts.
{55:10} For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky,
   and doesn't return there, but waters the earth,
   and makes it bring forth and bud,
   and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
{55:11} so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth:
   it shall not return to me void,
   but it shall accomplish that which I please,
   and it shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
{55:12} For you shall go out with joy,
   and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break
      forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields
      shall clap their hands. {55:13} Instead of the thorn shall come
      up the fir tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the
      myrtle tree: and it shall be to Yahweh for a name, for an
      everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

{56:1} Thus says Yahweh, "Keep justice, and do righteousness; for my
      salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
      {56:2} Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who
      holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps
      his hand from doing any evil."

{56:3} Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh,
      speak, saying, "Yahweh will surely separate me from his people";
      neither let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree."

{56:4} For thus says Yahweh, "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and
      choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant:
      {56:5} to them I will give in my house and within my walls a
      memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will
      give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. {56:6}
      Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh, to minister to
      him, and to love the name of Yahweh, to be his servants, everyone
      who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my
      covenant; {56:7} even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and
      make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and
      their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; for my house
      shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."
{56:8} The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, "Yet
      will I gather others to him, besides his own who are gathered."

{56:9} All you animals of the field, come to devour, all you animals in
      the forest. {56:10} His watchmen are blind, they are all without
      knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can't bark; dreaming,
      lying down, loving to slumber. {56:11} Yes, the dogs are greedy,
      they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't
      understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to
      his gain, from every quarter. {56:12} "Come," say they, "I will
      get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and
      tomorrow shall be as this day, great beyond measure."

{57:1} The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and
      merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous
      is taken away from the evil. {57:2} He enters into peace; they
      rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness.

{57:3} "But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the
      adulterer and the prostitute. {57:4} Against whom do you sport
      yourselves? Against whom do you make a wide mouth, and stick out
      your tongue? Aren't you children of disobedience, a seed of
      falsehood, {57:5} you who inflame yourselves among the oaks,
      under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys,
      under the clefts of the rocks? {57:6} Among the smooth stones of
      the valley is your portion; they, they are your lot; you have
      even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an
      offering. Shall I be appeased for these things? {57:7} On a high
      and lofty mountain you have set your bed; there also you went up
      to offer sacrifice. {57:8} Behind the doors and the posts you
      have set up your memorial:
   for you have uncovered to someone besides me,
   and have gone up;
you have enlarged your bed,
   and made you a covenant with them:
   you loved their bed where you saw it.
{57:9} You went to the king with oil, and increased your perfumes, and
      sent your ambassadors far off, and debased yourself even to
      [22>]Sheol[<22]. {57:10} You were wearied with the length of your
      way; yet you didn't say, 'It is in vain.' You found a reviving of
      your strength; therefore you weren't faint.

{57:11} "Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and
      have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven't I held
      my peace even of long time, and you don't fear me? {57:12} I will
      declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they shall not
      profit you. {57:13} When you cry, let those who you have gathered
      deliver you; but the wind shall take them, a breath shall carry
      them all away: but he who takes refuge in me shall possess the
      land, and shall inherit my holy mountain."

{57:14} He will say, "Cast up, cast up, prepare the way,
   take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people."
{57:15} For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity,
      whose name is Holy:
   "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a
      contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble,
      and to revive the heart of the contrite.
{57:16} For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry;
      for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls who I have
      made. {57:17} For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry,
      and struck him; I hid myself and was angry; and he went on
      backsliding in the way of his heart. {57:18} I have seen his
      ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore
      comforts to him and to his mourners. {57:19} I create the fruit
      of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who
      is near," says Yahweh; "and I will heal them." {57:20} But the
      wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can't rest, and its
      waters cast up mire and dirt. {57:21} "There is no peace," says
      my God, "for the wicked."

{58:1} "Cry aloud, don't spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and
      declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of
      Jacob their sins. {58:2} Yet they seek me daily, and delight to
      know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and didn't
      forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous
      judgments; they delight to draw near to God. {58:3} 'Why have we
      fasted,' say they, 'and you don't see? Why have we afflicted our
      soul, and you take no knowledge?'

"Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your
      labors. {58:4} Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to
      strike with the fist of wickedness: you don't fast this day so as
      to make your voice to be heard on high. {58:5} Is such the fast
      that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it
      to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes
      under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to
      Yahweh?

{58:6} "Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of
      wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the
      oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? {58:7} Isn't it
      to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the
      poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that
      you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own
      flesh? {58:8} Then your light shall break forth as the morning,
      and your healing shall spring forth speedily; and your
      righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Yahweh shall be
      your rear guard.
{58:9} Then you shall call, and Yahweh will answer; you shall cry, and
      he will say, 'Here I am.'

"If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of
      the finger, and speaking wickedly; {58:10} and if you draw out
      your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then
      your light shall rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the
      noonday; {58:11} and Yahweh will guide you continually, and
      satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones; and
      you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water,
      whose waters don't fail. {58:12} Those who shall be of you shall
      build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of
      many generations; and you shall be called The repairer of the
      breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

{58:13} "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your
      pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the
      holy of Yahweh honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own
      ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
      {58:14} then you shall delight yourself in Yahweh; and I will
      make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed
      you with the heritage of Jacob your father:"
   for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.

{59:1} Behold, Yahweh's hand is not shortened, that it can't save;
      neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear: {59:2} but your
      iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins
      have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. {59:3}
      For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
      iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters
      wickedness. {59:4} None sues in righteousness, and none pleads in
      truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive
      mischief, and bring forth iniquity. {59:5} They hatch adders'
      eggs, and weave the spider's web: he who eats of their eggs dies;
      and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper. {59:6} Their
      webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover
      themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity,
      and the act of violence is in their hands. {59:7} Their feet run
      to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their
      thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are
      in their paths. {59:8} The way of peace they don't know; and
      there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked
      paths; whoever goes therein does not know peace. {59:9} Therefore
      is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us:
      we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we
      walk in obscurity. {59:10} We grope for the wall like the blind;
      yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as
      in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.
      {59:11} We roar all like bears, and moan bitterly like doves: we
      look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far
      off from us.

{59:12} For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins
      testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as
      for our iniquities, we know them: {59:13} transgressing and
      denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking
      oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart
      words of falsehood. {59:14} Justice is turned away backward, and
      righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street,
      and uprightness can't enter. {59:15} Yes, truth is lacking; and
      he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and
      it displeased him that there was no justice. {59:16} He saw that
      there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor:
      therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his
      righteousness, it upheld him. {59:17} He put on righteousness as
      a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put
      on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as
      a mantle. {59:18} According to their deeds, accordingly he will
      repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to
      the islands he will repay recompense. {59:19} So shall they fear
      the name of Yahweh from the west, and his glory from the rising
      of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the
      breath of Yahweh drives.

{59:20} "A Redeemer will come to Zion,
   and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob," says Yahweh.


   {59:21} "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says Yahweh. "My
Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth,
shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed,
nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed," says Yahweh, "from
henceforth and forever."


{60:1} "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh
      is risen on you. {60:2} For, behold, darkness shall cover the
      earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Yahweh will arise on
      you, and his glory shall be seen on you. {60:3} Nations shall
      come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

{60:4} "Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather
      themselves together, they come to you; your sons shall come from
      far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms. {60:5} Then
      you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be
      enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to
      you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. {60:6} The
      multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian
      and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold
      and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of Yahweh.
      {60:7} All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you,
      the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up
      with acceptance on my altar; and I will glorify the house of my
      glory.

{60:8} "Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their
      windows? {60:9} Surely the islands shall wait for me, and the
      ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their
      silver and their gold with them, for the name of Yahweh your God,
      and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you.

{60:10} "Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall
      minister to you: for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor
      have I had mercy on you.
{60:11} Your gates also shall be open continually; they shall not be
      shut day nor night; that men may bring to you the wealth of the
      nations, and their kings led captive.
{60:12} For that nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall
      perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

{60:13} "The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the fir tree, the
      pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my
      sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
{60:14} The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you;
      and all those who despised you shall bow themselves down at the
      soles of your feet; and they shall call you The city of Yahweh,
      The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

{60:15} "Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man
      passed through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy
      of many generations. {60:16} You shall also drink the milk of the
      nations, and shall nurse from royal breasts; and you shall know
      that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One
      of Jacob. {60:17} For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I
      will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I
      will also make your officers peace, and righteousness your ruler.
      {60:18} Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation
      nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your
      walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. {60:19} The sun shall be
      no more your light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon
      give light to you: but Yahweh will be to you an everlasting
      light, and your God your glory. {60:20} Your sun shall no more go
      down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for Yahweh will be
      your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be
      ended. {60:21} Your people also shall be all righteous; they
      shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the
      work of my hands, that I may be glorified. {60:22} The little one
      shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation; I,
      Yahweh, will hasten it in its time."

{61:1} The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me;
   because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
   to proclaim liberty to the captives,
   and release to those who are bound;
{61:2} to proclaim the year of Yahweh's favor, and the day of vengeance
      of our God; to comfort all who mourn; {61:3} to appoint to those
      who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil
      of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of
      heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the
      planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.

{61:4} They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former
      desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the
      desolations of many generations. {61:5} Strangers shall stand and
      feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your
      vinedressers. {61:6} But you shall be named the priests of
      Yahweh; men will call you the ministers of our God: you will eat
      the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their glory.

{61:7} Instead of your shame you shall have double; and instead of
      dishonor they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their
      land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be to them.

{61:8} "For I, Yahweh, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity; and
      I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an
      everlasting covenant with them. {61:9} Their seed shall be known
      among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who
      see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which
      Yahweh has blessed."

{61:10} I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh, my soul shall be joyful in my
      God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has
      covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks
      himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her
      jewels. {61:11} For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the
      garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so
      the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring
      forth before all the nations.

{62:1} For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's
      sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as
      brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. {62:2} The
      nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory,
      and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of Yahweh
      shall name. {62:3} You shall also be a crown of beauty in the
      hand of Yahweh, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
      {62:4} You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your
      land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called
      Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for Yahweh delights in you, and
      your land shall be married. {62:5} For as a young man marries a
      virgin, so your sons shall marry you; and as the bridegroom
      rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
      {62:6} I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they shall
      never hold their peace day nor night: you who call on Yahweh,
      take no rest, {62:7} and give him no rest, until he establishes,
      and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

{62:8} Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his
      strength,
   "Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies;
      and foreigners shall not drink your new wine, for which you have
      labored: {62:9} but those who have garnered it shall eat it, and
      praise Yahweh; and those who have gathered it shall drink it in
      the courts of my sanctuary."

{62:10} Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the
      people! Cast up, cast up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift
      up a banner for the peoples. {62:11} Behold, Yahweh has
      proclaimed to the end of the earth,
   "Say to the daughter of Zion,
   'Behold, your salvation comes.
Behold, his reward is with him,
   and his recompense before him.'"
{62:12} They shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of Yahweh:
      and you shall be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.

{63:1} Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?
      this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness
      of his strength?
   "It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save."
{63:2} Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who
      treads in the wine vat?

{63:3} "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there
      was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled
      them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my
      garments, and I have stained all my clothing. {63:4} For the day
      of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has
      come. {63:5} I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered
      that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought
      salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me. {63:6} I trod down
      the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I
      poured out their lifeblood on the earth."

{63:7} I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh and the
      praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on
      us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he
      has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to
      the multitude of his loving kindnesses. {63:8} For he said,
      "Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely:"
      so he was their Savior.
{63:9} In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his
      presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed
      them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
      {63:10} But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore
      he was turned to be their enemy, and he himself fought against
      them.

{63:11} Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people,
      saying, Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the
      shepherds of his flock? where is he who put his holy Spirit in
      their midst? {63:12} who caused his glorious arm to go at the
      right hand of Moses? who divided the waters before them, to make
      himself an everlasting name? {63:13} who led them through the
      depths, as a horse in the wilderness, so that they didn't
      stumble? {63:14} As the livestock that go down into the valley,
      the Spirit of Yahweh caused them to rest; so you led your people,
      to make yourself a glorious name.

{63:15} Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your
      holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty
      acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is
      restrained toward me. {63:16} For you are our Father, though
      Abraham doesn't know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you,
      Yahweh, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your
      name. {63:17} O Yahweh, why do you make us to err from your ways,
      and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants'
      sake, the tribes of your inheritance. {63:18} Your holy people
      possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden
      down your sanctuary. {63:19} We have become as they over whom you
      never bear rule, as those who were not called by your name.

{64:1} Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down,
      that the mountains might quake at your presence, {64:2} as when
      fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the waters to
      boil; to make your name known to your adversaries, that the
      nations may tremble at your presence! {64:3} When you did awesome
      things which we didn't look for, you came down, the mountains
      quaked at your presence. {64:4} For from of old men have not
      heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God
      besides you, who works for him who waits for him. {64:5} You meet
      him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember you
      in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been
      in sin for a long time; and shall we be saved? {64:6} For we have
      all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as
      a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our
      iniquities, like the wind, take us away. {64:7} There is none who
      calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you; for
      you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means
      of our iniquities.

{64:8} But now, Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you
      our potter; and we all are the work of your hand. {64:9} Don't be
      furious, Yahweh, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we
      beg you, we are all your people. {64:10} Your holy cities are
      become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a
      desolation. {64:11} Our holy and our beautiful house, where our
      fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant
      places are laid waste. {64:12} Will you refrain yourself for
      these things, Yahweh? Will you hold your peace, and afflict us
      very severely?

{65:1} "I am inquired of by those who didn't ask; I am found by those
      who didn't seek me: I said, See me, see me, to a nation that was
      not called by my name. {65:2} I have spread out my hands all the
      day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good,
      after their own thoughts; {65:3} a people who provoke me to my
      face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on
      bricks; {65:4} who sit among the graves, and lodge in the secret
      places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in
      their vessels; {65:5} who say, Stand by yourself, don't come near
      to me, for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a
      fire that burns all the day.

{65:6} "Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but
      will recompense, yes, I will recompense into their bosom, {65:7}
      your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers
      together," says Yahweh, "who have burned incense on the
      mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills; therefore will I first
      measure their work into their bosom."

{65:8} Thus says Yahweh,
"As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Don't destroy
      it, for a blessing is in it:' so will I do for my servants' sake,
      that I may not destroy them all. {65:9} I will bring forth a seed
      out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and
      my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
      {65:10} Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor
      a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought
      me.

{65:11} "But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who
      prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to
      Destiny; {65:12} I will destine you to the sword, and you shall
      all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn't
      answer; when I spoke, you didn't listen; but you did that which
      was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn't delight."

{65:13} Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, my servants shall
      eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink,
      but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but
      you shall be disappointed; {65:14} behold, my servants shall sing
      for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and
      shall wail for anguish of spirit.
{65:15} You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the
      Lord Yahweh will kill you; and he will call his servants by
      another name: {65:16} so that he who blesses himself in the earth
      shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the
      earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former
      troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes.

{65:17} "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the
      former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
      {65:18} But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I
      create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her
      people a joy. {65:19} I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my
      people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of
      weeping and the voice of crying.

{65:20} "There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man
      who has not filled his days; for the child shall die one hundred
      years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old shall be
      accursed. {65:21} They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and
      they shall plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. {65:22} They
      shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and
      another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my
      people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
      {65:23} They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for
      calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of Yahweh, and
      their offspring with them. {65:24} It shall happen that, before
      they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will
      hear. {65:25} The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the
      lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's
      food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,"
      says Yahweh.

{66:1} Thus says Yahweh, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my
      footstool: what kind of house will you build to me? and what
      place shall be my rest? {66:2} For all these things has my hand
      made, and so all these things came to be," says Yahweh:
"but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite
      spirit, and who trembles at my word.
{66:3} He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a
      lamb, as he who breaks a dog's neck; he who offers an offering,
      as he who offers pig's blood; he who burns frankincense, as he
      who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and
      their soul delights in their abominations: {66:4} I also will
      choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them;
      because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they didn't
      listen; but they did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose
      that in which I didn't delight."

{66:5} Hear the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at his word: "Your
      brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name's sake, have
      said,
   'Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your joy;' but it is those
      who shall be disappointed. {66:6} A voice of tumult from the
      city, a voice from the temple, a voice of Yahweh that renders
      recompense to his enemies.

{66:7} "Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came,
      she delivered a son.
{66:8} Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall a
      land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once?
      for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
      {66:9} Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?"
      says Yahweh: "shall I who cause to bring forth shut the womb?"
      says your God. {66:10} "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for
      her, all you who love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you who
      mourn over her;
{66:11} that you may nurse and be satisfied at the comforting breasts;
      that you may drink deeply, and be delighted with the abundance of
      her glory."

{66:12} For thus says Yahweh, "Behold, I will extend peace to her like
      a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream:
      and you will nurse. You will be carried on her side, and will be
      dandled on her knees.
{66:13} As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you
      will be comforted in Jerusalem."

{66:14} You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones
      shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hand of Yahweh
      shall be known toward his servants; and he will have indignation
      against his enemies. {66:15} For, behold, Yahweh will come with
      fire, and his chariots shall be like the whirlwind; to render his
      anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
      {66:16} For by fire will Yahweh execute judgment, and by his
      sword, on all flesh; and the slain of Yahweh shall be many.

   {66:17} "Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go
to the gardens, behind one in the midst, eating pig's flesh, and the
abomination, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together," says
Yahweh.

   {66:18} "For I know their works and their thoughts: the time comes,
that I will gather all nations and languages; and they shall come, and
shall see my glory.

   {66:19} "I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as
escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the
bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the islands afar off, who have not heard my
fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among
the nations. {66:20} They shall bring all your brothers out of all the
nations for an offering to Yahweh, on horses, and in chariots, and in
litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain
Jerusalem, says Yahweh, as the children of Israel bring their offering
in a clean vessel into the house of Yahweh. {66:21} Of them also will I
take for priests and for Levites," says Yahweh.

   {66:22} "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will
make, shall remain before me," says Yahweh, "so your seed and your name
shall remain. {66:23} It shall happen, that from one new moon to
another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to
worship before me," says Yahweh. {66:24} "They shall go forth, and look
on the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me: for
their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and
they will be loathsome to all mankind."





________________________________________________________________________

Footnotes:
[1] {1:2} "Yahweh" is God's proper Name, sometimes rendered "LORD" (all
caps) in other translations.

[2] {1:10} The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim."

[3] {1:24} The word translated "Lord" is "Adonai."

[4] {5:10} literally, ten yokes, or the amount of land that ten yokes
of oxen can plow in one day, which is about 10 acres or 4 hectares.

[5] {5:10} 1 bath is about 22 litres or 5.8 U. S. gallons

[6] {5:10} 1 homer is about 220 litres or 6 bushels

[7] {5:10} 1 ephah is about 22 litres or 0.6 bushels or about 2
pecks)--only one tenth of what was sown.

[8] {5:14} Sheol is the place of the dead.

[9] {7:14} "Immanuel" means "God with us."

[10] {8:1} "Maher Shalal Hash Baz" means "quick to the plunder, swift
to the spoil."

[11] {14:9} Sheol is the place of the dead.

[12] {14:11} Sheol is the place of the dead.

[13] {14:15} Sheol is the place of the dead.

[14] {28:15} Sheol is the place of the dead.

[15] {28:18} Sheol is the place of the dead.

[16] {29:2} or, Ariel

[17] {34:14} literally, lilith, which could also be a night demon or
night monster

[18] {38:10} Sheol is the place of the dead.

[19] {38:18} Sheol is the place of the dead.

[20] {45:5} or, equip

[21] {53:11} So read the Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint. Masoretic
Text omits "the light".

[22] {57:9} Sheol is the place of the dead.

