Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah
1 The visions of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he beheld about Judah and Jerusalem in the time of Kings ʽUzzijah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah.
2 Listen, sky, and give ear, earth, because Jehovah has spoken: I raised children, kept them till they grew tall, and they have rebelled against me. 3 A bull knows its owner, a donkey its master’s manger; Israel does not know, my people does not notice.
4 Ah sinful nation, people heavy with guilt, progeny of evil-doers, vicious children! they have left Jehovah, been contemptuous to the Holy One of Israel, backed away as strangers. 5 What should you be beaten again for? you would go further out of the way. Every head is cankered, every heart unstrung, 6* from foot to head not a sound spot: torn skin and bruises and raw wounds that have not, been squeezed out nor bandaged nor softened with oil. 7* Your country is a desolation, your cities are burned down; your land aliens eat up in your presence, and it is a desolation like an overthrow of aliens; 8* and the daughter of Sion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a night-platform in a melon-patch, like a besieged city. 9 If Jehovah of Armies had not caused the merest survivors of us to be left, we should have been like Sodom, a parallel to Ghomorrah.
10 Listen to Jehovah’s word, chieftains of Sodom; give ear to our God’s instructions, people of Ghomorrah. 11 “What do I want of the multiplicity of your sacrifices?” Jehovah is saying; “I have had my fill of burnt-offerings of rams and fat of stall-fed calves, and for blood of steers and sheep and he-goats I have no fancy; 12* when you come to appear before me, who has demanded this of you? You shall do no more trampling my courts. 13 Bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath, proclaiming a meeting, I cannot bear; fasting and compulsory holiday, 14 your new moons and your dates, my soul hates; they have come to be a dead weight on me, I am tired out with carrying it. 15 And when you spread out your hands I will ignore you; even when you offer great quantities of prayer I am not going to listen: your hands are full of blood. 16 Take a bath, clean up; get the badness of your practices away from before my eyes; leave off doing the bad, learn to do the good; 17* aim at justice, correct injustice; do justice for an orphan, battle for a widow’s cause.”
18 Come and let us have it out, Jehovah is saying. If your sins get to be like scarlet they are to be white as snow, if they get red as crimson they are to be like wool— 19 if you are willing and obedient you shall eat the best in the country, 20 but if you refuse and are disobedient you shall be fed swords, because Jehovah’s mouth has spoken.
21 How has she become a prostitute that was a faithful town, full of justice, in which honesty harbored—but now murderers! 22 Your silver has become dross, your liquor is watered. 23 Your generals are incorrigibles, confederates of thieves, every one a bribe-lover and fee-chaser; they do not do justice for an orphan and a widow’s cause does not reach them. 24 So ha, quoth the Lord, Jehovah of Armies, the Mighty One of Israel: I will have satisfaction from my foes and have revenge on my enemies, 25* and bring my hand back against you; and I will smelt away your dross in a furnace and remove all your tin, 26 and restore your judges as at first and your councillors as at the beginning. After that you shall be called the city of honesty, a faithful town.
27 Sion shall be redeemed by justice, and those of her who come back by righteousness. 28 And the crash of rebels and sinners shall be all together, and those who leave Jehovah shall be exterminated.
29** For you shall be disappointed in the oaks you wanted, and abashed over the gardens you chose; 30* for you shall be like an oak dropping its leaves and like a garden that has no water. 31 And the sturdy shall become tow and his work a spark, and both shall burn up together and have nobody to quench them.