ISAIAH

 2 Hear, O heavens, and pay attention, O earth,+

For Jehovah has spoken:

“Sons I have brought up and raised,+

But they have revolted against me.+

 3 A bull well knows its buyer,

And a donkey the manger of its owner;

But Israel does not know me,*+

My own people do not behave with understanding.”

 4 Woe to the sinful nation,+

The people weighed down with error,

A brood of wicked men, corrupt children!

They have abandoned Jehovah;+

They have treated the Holy One of Israel with disrespect;

They have turned their backs on him.

The whole head is sick,

And the whole heart is diseased.+

There are wounds and bruises and open sores

—They have not been treated* or bound up or softened with oil.+

 8 The daughter of Zion has been left like a shelter* in a vineyard,

Like a hut in a cucumber field,

Like a city under siege.+

 9 Unless Jehovah of armies had left us a few survivors,

We should have become just like Sodʹom,

And we should have resembled Go·morʹrah.+

“I have had enough of your burnt offerings of rams+ and the fat of well-fed animals,+

And I have no delight in the blood+ of young bulls+ and lambs and goats.+

12 When you come to appear before me,+

Who has required this from you,

This trampling of my courtyards?+

New moons,+ sabbaths,+ the calling of conventions+

—I cannot put up with the use of magical power+ along with your solemn assembly.

They have become a burden to me;

I am tired of bearing them.

15 And when you spread out your palms,

I hide my eyes from you.+

Although you offer many prayers,+

I am not listening;+

Your hands are filled with blood.+

16 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;+

Remove your evil deeds from my sight;

Stop doing bad.+

17 Learn to do good, seek justice,+

Correct the oppressor,

Defend the rights of the fatherless child,*

And plead the cause of the widow.”+

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

They will be made as white as snow;+

Though they are as red as crimson cloth,

They will become like wool.

19 If you show willingness and listen,

You will eat the good things of the land.+

20 But if you refuse and rebel,

You will be devoured by the sword,+

For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it.”

She was full of justice;+

Righteousness used to lodge in her,+

But now murderers.+

22 Your silver has become dross,+

And your beer* is diluted with water.

They do not grant justice to the fatherless,*

And the legal case of the widow never reaches them.+

24 Therefore the true Lord, Jehovah of armies,

The Powerful One of Israel, declares:

“Ah! I will rid myself of my adversaries,

And I will take revenge on my enemies.+

25 I will turn my hand against you,

I will smelt away your dross as with lye,

And I will remove all your impurities.+

26 I will restore your judges as in the beginning

And your advisers as at the start.+

27 With justice Zion will be redeemed,+

And her people who return, with righteousness.

28 The rebels and the sinners will be broken together,+

And those leaving Jehovah will come to their finish.+

29 For they will be ashamed of the mighty trees that you desired,+

And you will be disgraced because of the gardens* that you chose.+

30 For you will become like a big tree with withering leaves,+

And like a garden without water.

31 The strong man will become tow,*

And his work a spark;

Both of them will go up in flames together,

With no one to extinguish them.”

 2 In the final part of the days,*

The mountain of the house of Jehovah

Will become firmly established above the top of the mountains,+

And it will be raised up above the hills,

And to it all the nations will stream.+

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah,

To the house of the God of Jacob.+

He will instruct us about his ways,

And we will walk in his paths.”+

For law* will go out of Zion,

And the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem.+

 4 He will render judgment among the nations

And set matters straight* respecting many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

And their spears into pruning shears.+

Nation will not lift up sword against nation,

Nor will they learn war anymore.+

 5 O house of Jacob, come,

Let us walk in the light of Jehovah.+

 6 For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob,+

Because they have become full of things from the East;

They practice magic+ like the Phi·lisʹtines,

And they abound with the children of foreigners.

 7 Their land is filled with silver and gold,

And there is no limit to their treasures.

Their land is filled with horses,

And there is no limit to their chariots.+

They bow down to the work of their own hands,

To what their own fingers have made.

 9 So man bows down, he becomes low,

And you cannot possibly pardon them.

10 Enter into the rock and hide yourself in the dust

Because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah

And his majestic splendor.+

11 The haughty eyes of man will be brought low,

And the arrogance of men will bow down.*

It is coming upon everyone who is haughty and lofty,

Upon everyone, whether exalted or lowly,+

13 Upon all the cedars of Lebʹa·non that are lofty and exalted

And upon all the oaks of Baʹshan,

14 Upon all the lofty mountains

And upon all the high hills,

15 Upon every high tower and every fortified wall,

16 Upon all the ships of Tarʹshish+

And upon all desirable boats.

17 Man’s haughtiness will be brought down,

And the arrogance of men will bow low.*

19 And people will enter into the caves of the rocks

And into the holes in the ground,+

Because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah

And his majestic splendor,+

When he arises to make the earth tremble in terror.

20 In that day men will take their worthless gods of silver and of gold

That they had made for themselves to bow down to

And throw them away to the shrewmice* and to the bats,+

21 In order to enter into the holes in the rocks

And into the clefts of the crags,

Because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah

And his majestic splendor,

When he arises to make the earth tremble in terror.

22 For your own sakes, quit trusting in mere man,

Who is only the breath in his nostrils.*

3 For look! the true Lord, Jehovah of armies,

Is removing from Jerusalem and Judah every kind of support and supply,

All support of bread and water,+

 2 Mighty man and warrior,

Judge and prophet,+ diviner and elder,

 3 Chief of 50,+ dignitary, and adviser,

The expert magician and the skilled charmer.+

 4 I will make boys their princes,

And the unstable* will rule over them.

 5 The people will oppress one another,

Each one his fellow man.+

The boy will assault the old man,

And the lightly esteemed one will defy the respected one.+

“I will not be your wound dresser;*

I have no food or clothing in my house.

 8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,

And Judah has fallen,

Because in word and deed they are against Jehovah;

They behave defiantly in his glorious presence.*+

 9 The expression of their faces testifies against them,

And they proclaim their sin like Sodʹom;+

They do not try to hide it.

10 Tell the righteous that it will go well for them;

They will be rewarded for what they do.*+

Disaster will befall him,

For what his hands have done will be done to him!

12 As for my people, their taskmasters are abusive,

And women rule over them.

My people, your leaders are causing you to wander,

And they confuse the direction of your paths.+

13 Jehovah is taking his position to accuse;

He is standing up to pass sentence on peoples.

“You have burned down the vineyard,

And what you have stolen from the poor is in your houses.+

15 How dare you crush my people

And grind the faces of the poor in the dirt?”+ declares the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies.

16 Jehovah says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,

Walking with their heads high,*

Flirting with their eyes, skipping along,

Making a tinkling sound with their anklets,

17 Jehovah will also strike the head of the daughters of Zion with scabs,

And Jehovah will make their forehead bare.+

18 In that day Jehovah will take away the beauty of their bangles,

The headbands and the crescent-shaped ornaments,+

19 The earrings,* the bracelets, and the veils,

20 The headdresses, the ankle chains, and the breastbands,*

The perfume receptacles* and the charms,*

21 The finger rings and the nose rings,

22 The ceremonial robes, the overtunics, the cloaks, and the purses,

23 The hand mirrors+ and the linen garments,*

The turbans and the veils.

24 Instead of balsam oil,+ there will be a rotten smell;

Instead of a belt, a rope;

Instead of a beautiful hairstyle, baldness;+

Instead of a rich garment, a garment of sackcloth;+

And a brand mark instead of beauty.

25 By the sword your men will fall,

And your mighty men in battle.+

26 Her entrances will mourn and grieve,+

And she will sit on the ground desolate.”+

“We will eat our own bread

And wear our own clothing;

Only let us be called by your name

To take away our disgrace.”*+

5 Let me sing, please, to my beloved

A song about my loved one and his vineyard.+

He planted it with a choice red vine,

Built a tower in the middle of it,

And hewed out a winepress in it.+

Then he kept hoping for it to produce grapes,

But it produced only wild grapes.+

 3 “And now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,

Please judge between me and my vineyard.+

 4 What more could I have done for my vineyard

That I have not already done?+

Why, when I hoped for grapes,

Did it produce only wild grapes?

 5 Now, please, let me tell you

What I will do to my vineyard:

I will remove its hedge,

And it will be burned down.+

I will break down its stone wall,

And it will be trampled on.

 6 I will make it a wasteland;+

It will not be pruned or hoed.

It will be overgrown with thornbushes and weeds,+

And I will command the clouds not to send any rain on it.+

 7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of armies is the house of Israel;+

The men of Judah are the plantation* he was fond of.

He kept hoping for justice,+

But look! there was injustice;

For righteousness,

But look! a cry of distress.”+

 8 Woe to those who join one house to another house+

And who annex one field to another field+

Until there is no more room

And you live by yourselves on the land!

 9 Jehovah of armies has sworn in my ears

That many houses, though great and beautiful,

Will become an object of horror,

Without an inhabitant.+

10 For ten acres* of vineyard will produce but one bath measure,*

And a hoʹmer measure* of seed will produce only an eʹphah.*+

11 Woe to those who get up early in the morning to drink alcohol,+

Who linger late into the evening darkness until wine inflames them!

12 They have harp and stringed instrument,

Tambourine, flute, and wine at their feasts;

But they do not consider the activity of Jehovah,

And they do not see the work of his hands.

13 So my people will go into exile

For lack of knowledge;+

Their glorious men will go hungry,+

And all their people will be parched with thirst.

14 So the Grave* has enlarged itself*

And has opened its mouth wide without limit;+

And her splendor,* her noisy multitudes, and her revelers

Will certainly go down into it.

15 And man will bow down,

Man will be brought low,

And the eyes of the haughty will be brought low.

16 Jehovah of armies will be exalted by his judgment;*

The true God, the Holy One,+ will sanctify himself through righteousness.+

17 And the lambs will graze as in their pasture;

Foreign residents will feed on the desolate places of well-fed animals.

18 Woe to those who drag along their guilt with ropes of deception

And their sin with wagon cords;

19 Those who say: “Let Him speed up his work;

Let it come quickly that we may see it.

Let the purpose* of the Holy One of Israel take place

That we may know it!”+

20 Woe to those who say that good is bad and bad is good,+

Those who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness,

Those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to those wise in their own eyes

And discreet in their own sight!+

22 Woe to those who are mighty in drinking wine

And to the men who are masters at mixing alcoholic drinks,+

23 Those who acquit the wicked for a bribe+

And who deny justice to the righteous!+

24 Therefore, just as the tongue of fire consumes the stubble

And dry grass shrivels in the flames,

Their very roots will rot,

And their blossoms will scatter like powder,

Because they rejected the law* of Jehovah of armies

And disrespected the word of the Holy One of Israel.+

25 That is why the anger of Jehovah burns against his people,

And he will stretch out his hand against them and strike them.+

The mountains will quake,

And their corpses will be like refuse in the streets.+

In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,

But his hand is still stretched out to strike.

26 He has raised up a signal* to a distant nation;+

He has whistled for them to come from the ends of the earth;+

And look! they are coming very swiftly.+

The belt around their waist is not loosened,

Nor are their sandal laces broken.

28 All their arrows are sharp,

And all their bows are bent.*

The hooves of their horses are like flint,

And their wheels like a storm wind.+

29 Their roaring is like that of a lion;

They roar like young lions.*+

They will growl and seize the prey

And carry it off with no one to rescue it.

30 In that day they will growl over it

Like the growling of the sea.+

Anyone who gazes at the land will see distressing darkness;

Even the light has grown dark because of the clouds.+

I am as good as dead,*

For I am a man of unclean lips,

And I live among a people of unclean lips;+

For my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of armies himself!”

Your guilt is removed,

And your sin is atoned for.”

‘You will hear again and again,

But you will not understand;

You will see again and again,

But you will not get any knowledge.’+

10 Make the heart of this people unreceptive,+

Make their ears unresponsive,+

And paste their eyes together,

So that they may not see with their eyes

And hear with their ears,

So that their heart may not understand

And they may not turn back and be healed.”+

“Until the cities crash in ruins without an inhabitant

And the houses are without people

And the land is ruined and desolate;+

12 Until Jehovah removes men far away+

And the deserted condition of the land becomes very extensive.

“It will not succeed,

Nor will it take place.

 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,

And the head of Damascus is Reʹzin.

Within just 65 years

Eʹphra·im will be completely shattered and cease to be a people.+

 9 The head of Eʹphra·im is Sa·marʹi·a,+

And the head of Sa·marʹi·a is the son of Rem·a·liʹah.+

Unless you have firm faith,

You will not be firmly established.”’”

 6 “Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of the Shi·loʹah*+

And they rejoice over Reʹzin and the son of Rem·a·liʹah,+

 7 Therefore look! Jehovah will bring against them

The mighty and vast waters of the River,*

The king of As·syrʹi·a+ and all his glory.

He will come up over all his streambeds

And overflow all his banks

 8 And sweep through Judah.

He will flood and pass through, reaching to the neck;+

His outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land,

O Im·manʹu·el!”*+

Say what you like, but it will not succeed,

For God is with us!*+

Do not fear what they fear;

Do not tremble at it.

13 Jehovah of armies—he is the One you should regard as holy,+

He is the One you should fear,

And he is the One who should cause you to tremble.”+

14 He will become as a sanctuary,

But as a stone to strike against

And as a rock to stumble over+

To both houses of Israel,

As a trap and a snare

To the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15 Many of them will stumble and fall and be broken;

They will be ensnared and caught.

16 Wrap up the written confirmation;*

Seal up the law* among my disciples!

 2 The people who were walking in the darkness

Have seen a great light.

As for those dwelling in the land of deep shadow,

Light has shone on them.+

 3 You have made the nation populous;

You have made its rejoicing great.

They rejoice before you

As people rejoice in the harvesttime,

As those who joyfully divide up the spoil.

 4 For you have shattered to pieces the yoke of their load,

The rod on their shoulders, the staff of the taskmaster,

As in the day of Midʹi·an.+

 5 Every boot that shakes the earth as it marches

And every garment soaked in blood

Will become fuel for the fire.

 6 For a child has been born to us,+

A son has been given to us;

And the rulership* will rest on his shoulder.+

 7 To the increase of his rulership*

And to peace, there will be no end,+

On the throne of David+ and on his kingdom

In order to establish it firmly+ and to sustain it

Through justice+ and righteousness,+

From now on and forever.

 8 Jehovah sent a word against Jacob,

And it has come against Israel.+

 9 And all the people will know it

—Eʹphra·im and the inhabitants of Sa·marʹi·a—

Who say in their haughtiness and in their insolence of heart:

10 “Bricks have fallen,

But we will build with hewn stone.+

Sycamore trees have been cut down,

But we will replace them with cedars.”

11 Jehovah will raise up Reʹzin’s adversaries against him

And will stir his enemies to action,

12 Syria from the east and the Phi·lisʹtines from the west,*+

They will devour Israel with open mouths.+

In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,

But his hand is still stretched out to strike.+

13 For the people have not returned to the One who strikes them;

They have not sought Jehovah of armies.+

14 Jehovah will cut off from Israel

Head and tail, shoot and rush,* in one day.+

15 The elder and highly respected one is the head,

And the prophet giving false instruction is the tail.+

16 Those leading this people are causing them to wander,

And those who are being led are confused.

17 That is why Jehovah will not rejoice over their young men,

And he will have no mercy on their fatherless children* and their widows

Because all of them are apostates and evildoers+

And every mouth is speaking senselessness.

In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,

But his hand is still stretched out to strike.+

18 For wickedness burns like a fire,

Consuming thornbushes and weeds.

It will set fire to the thickets of the forest,

And they will go up in clouds of smoke.

19 In the fury of Jehovah of armies

The land has been set on fire,

And the people will become fuel for the fire.

20 One will cut down on the right

But still be hungry;

And one will eat on the left

But will not be satisfied.

Each will devour the flesh of his own arm,

21 Ma·nasʹseh will devour Eʹphra·im,

And Eʹphra·im Ma·nasʹseh.

In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,

But his hand is still stretched out to strike.+

10 Woe to those who enact harmful regulations,+

Who constantly draft oppressive decrees,

 2 To deny the legal claim of the poor,

To deprive the lowly among my people of justice,+

Making widows their spoil

And fatherless children* their plunder!+

 3 What will you do on the day of reckoning,*+

When destruction comes from afar?+

To whom will you flee for assistance,+

And where will you leave your wealth?*

 4 Nothing remains except to crouch among the prisoners

Or to fall among the slain.

In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,

But his hand is still stretched out to strike.+

 5 “Aha! the As·syrʹi·an,+

The rod to express my anger+

And the staff in their hand for my denunciation!

 6 I will send him against an apostate nation,+

Against the people who infuriated me;

I will command him to take much spoil and much plunder

And to trample them like mud in the streets.+

 7 But he will not be inclined this way

And his heart will not scheme this way;

For it is in his heart to annihilate,

To cut off many nations, not a few.

 8 For he says,

‘Are not my princes all kings?+

10 My hand has seized the kingdoms of the worthless gods,

Whose graven images were more than those of Jerusalem and Sa·marʹi·a!+

11 Will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols

Just as I have done to Sa·marʹi·a and to her worthless gods?’+

12 “When Jehovah finishes all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, He* will punish the king of As·syrʹi·a for his insolent heart and his proud, arrogant gaze.+ 13 For he says,

‘I will do this by the strength of my hand

And with my wisdom, for I am wise.

I will remove the boundaries of peoples+

And pillage their treasures,+

And I will subdue the inhabitants like a mighty one.+

14 Like a man reaching into a nest,

My hand will seize the resources of the peoples;

And like one gathering abandoned eggs,

I will gather the whole earth!

16 Therefore the true Lord, Jehovah of armies,

Will inflict emaciation on his fat ones,+

And beneath his glory he will kindle a blazing fire.+

17 Israel’s Light+ will become a fire,+

And his Holy One a flame;

It will blaze up and consume his weeds and his thornbushes in one day.

18 He will utterly* do away with the glory of his forest and his orchard;

It will be as when a sick man wastes away.+

19 The rest of the trees of his forest

Will be so few that a boy could list them.

20 In that day those remaining of Israel

And the survivors of the house of Jacob

Will no longer support themselves on the one who struck them;+

But they will support themselves on Jehovah,

The Holy One of Israel, with faithfulness.

21 Only a remnant will return,

The remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.+

22 For though your people, O Israel,

Are as the grains of sand of the sea,

Only a remnant of them will return.+

An extermination has been decided on,+

And justice* will engulf them.+

23 Yes, the extermination decided on by the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,

Will be carried out in the entire land.+

27 In that day his load will depart from on your shoulder,+

And his yoke from on your neck,+

And the yoke will be broken+ because of the oil.”

28 He has come to Aiʹath;+

He has passed through Migʹron;

At Michʹmash+ he deposits his baggage.

29 They have passed over the ford;

They spend the night at Geʹba;+

Raʹmah trembles, Gibʹe·ah+ of Saul has fled.+

He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion,

The hill of Jerusalem.

33 Look! The true Lord, Jehovah of armies,

Is chopping off branches with a terrible crash;+

The tallest trees are being cut down,

And the lofty are brought low.

34 He strikes down the thickets of the forest with an iron tool,*

And Lebʹa·non will fall by a mighty one.

11 A twig+ will grow out of the stump of Jesʹse,+

And a sprout+ from his roots will bear fruit.

 2 And the spirit of Jehovah will settle upon him,+

The spirit of wisdom+ and of understanding,

The spirit of counsel and of mightiness,+

The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah.

He will not judge by what appears to his eyes,

Nor reprove simply according to what his ears hear.+

 4 He will judge the lowly with fairness,*

And with uprightness he will give reproof in behalf of the meek ones of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth+

And put the wicked to death with the breath* of his lips.+

 5 Righteousness will be the belt around his waist,

And faithfulness the belt of his hips.+

 6 The wolf will reside for a while with the lamb,+

And with the young goat the leopard will lie down,

And the calf and the lion* and the fattened animal will all be together;*+

And a little boy will lead them.

 7 The cow and the bear will feed together,

And their young will lie down together.

 8 The nursing child will play over the lair of a cobra,

And a weaned child will put his hand over the den of a poisonous snake.

 9 They will not cause any harm+

Or any ruin in all my holy mountain,+

Because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah

As the waters cover the sea.+

To him the nations will turn for guidance,*+

And his resting-place will become glorious.

13 The jealousy of Eʹphra·im will be gone,+

And those who show hostility to Judah will be done away with.

Eʹphra·im will not be jealous of Judah,

Nor will Judah show hostility toward Eʹphra·im.+

14 And they will swoop down on the slopes* of the Phi·lisʹtines to the west;

Together they will plunder the people of the East.

They will thrust out their hand against* Eʹdom+ and Moʹab,+

And the Amʹmon·ites will become their subjects.+

15 Jehovah will divide* the gulf* of the Egyptian sea+

And wave his hand over the River.*+

With his scorching breath* he will strike it in its* seven torrents,

And he will cause people to walk across in their sandals.

16 And there will be a highway+ out of As·syrʹi·a for the remnant of his people who are left,+

As there was for Israel in the day he came out of the land of Egypt.

“I thank you, O Jehovah,

For although you were angry with me,

Your anger gradually subsided, and you comforted me.+

I will trust and feel no dread;+

For Jah* Jehovah is my strength and my might,

And he has become my salvation.”+

 3 With rejoicing you will draw water

From the springs of salvation.+

“Give thanks to Jehovah, call on his name,

Make his deeds known among the peoples!+

 6 Cry out and shout for joy, you inhabitant* of Zion,

For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Call out to them, wave your hand,

So that they may come into the entrances of the nobles.

I have summoned my warriors to express my anger,

My proudly exultant ones.

 4 Listen! A crowd in the mountains;

It sounds like a numerous people!

Listen! The uproar of kingdoms,

Of nations gathered together!+

 5 They are coming from a distant land,+

From the extremity of the heavens,

Jehovah and the weapons of his wrath,

To bring ruin to all the earth.+

 7 That is why all hands will go limp,

And every man’s heart will melt with fear.+

They are seized with convulsions and pain,

Like a woman in labor.

They look at one another in horror,

With faces inflamed by anguish.

 9 Look! The day of Jehovah is coming,

Cruel both with fury and with burning anger,

To make the land an object of horror,+

And to annihilate the land’s sinners from it.

10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations*+

Will not give off their light;

The sun will be dark when it rises,

And the moon will not shed its light.

11 I will call the inhabited earth to account for its badness,+

And the wicked for their error.

I will put an end to the pride of the presumptuous,

And I will humble the haughtiness of tyrants.+

12 I will make mortal man scarcer than refined gold,+

And humans scarcer than the gold of Oʹphir.+

13 That is why I will make the heavens tremble,

And the earth will be shaken out of its place+

At the fury of Jehovah of armies in the day of his burning anger.

14 Like a hunted gazelle and like a flock with no one to gather them,

Each will return to his own people;

Each will flee to his own land.+

15 Whoever is found will be pierced through,

And whoever is caught will fall by the sword.+

16 Their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes,+

Their houses will be looted,

And their wives will be raped.

17 Here I am raising up against them the Medes,+

Who regard silver as nothing

And who take no delight in gold.

18 Their bows will shatter young men;+

They will show no pity on the fruit of the womb

Nor mercy to children.

19 And Babylon, the most glorious* of kingdoms,+

The beauty and the pride of the Chal·deʹans,+

Will be like Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah when God overthrew them.+

20 She will never be inhabited,

Nor will she be a place to reside in throughout all generations.+

No Arab will pitch his tent there,

And no shepherds will rest their flocks there.

21 The desert creatures will lie down there;

Their houses will be filled with eagle owls.

The ostriches will reside there,+

And wild goats* will skip about there.

22 Howling creatures will cry out in her towers,

And jackals in her luxurious palaces.

 5 Jehovah has broken the rod of the wicked,

The staff of the rulers,+

 6 The one furiously striking peoples with unceasing blows,+

The one angrily subduing nations with relentless persecution.+

 8 Even the juniper trees rejoice over you,

Along with the cedars of Lebʹa·non.

They say, ‘Ever since you have fallen,

No woodcutter comes up against us.’

 9 Even the Grave* underneath is stirred up

To meet you when you come.

Because of you, it awakens those powerless in death,

All the oppressive leaders* of the earth.

10 All of them speak up and say to you,

‘Have you also become weak like us?

11 Down to the Grave* your pride has been brought,

The sound of your stringed instruments.+

Maggots are spread beneath you as a bed,

And worms are your covering.’

12 How you have fallen from heaven,

O shining one, son of the dawn!

How you have been cut down to the earth,

You who vanquished nations!+

Above the stars of God I will lift up my throne,+

And I will sit down on the mountain of meeting,

In the remotest parts of the north.+

14 I will go up above the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself resemble the Most High.’

15 Instead, you will be brought down to the Grave,*

To the remotest parts of the pit.

16 Those seeing you will stare at you;

They will closely examine you, saying,

‘Is this the man who was shaking the earth,

Who made kingdoms tremble,+

17 Who made the inhabited earth like the wilderness

And overthrew its cities,+

Who refused to let his prisoners go home?’+

18 All other kings of the nations,

Yes, all of them, lie down in glory,

Each one in his own tomb.*

19 But you are discarded without a grave,

Like a detested sprout,*

Clothed with the slain who were stabbed with the sword,

Who go down to the stones of a pit,

Like a carcass trampled underfoot.

20 You will not join them in a grave,

For you destroyed your own land,

You killed your own people.

21 Prepare a slaughtering block for his sons

Because of the guilt of their forefathers,

So that they will not rise up and take over the earth

And fill the land with their cities.”

“Just as I have intended, so it will occur,

And just as I have decided, that is what will come true.

25 I will crush the As·syrʹi·an in my land,

And I will trample him on my mountains.+

His yoke will be removed from them,

And his load will be removed from their shoulder.”+

26 This is what has been decided* against all the earth,

And this is the hand that is stretched out* against all the nations.

27 For Jehovah of armies has decided,

And who can thwart it?+

His hand is stretched out,

And who can turn it back?+

29 “Do not rejoice, Phi·lisʹti·a, any of you,

Just because the staff of the one striking you has been broken.

For from the root of the serpent+ will come a poisonous snake,+

And its offspring will be a flying fiery snake.*

30 While the firstborn of the lowly feed

And the poor lie down in security,

I will put your root to death with famine,

And what is left of you will be killed.+

For a smoke is coming from the north,

And there are no stragglers in his ranks.”

That Jehovah has laid the foundation of Zion,+

And that the lowly ones of his people will take refuge in her.

Because it has been devastated in a night,

Ar+ of Moʹab has been silenced.

Because it has been devastated in a night,

Kir+ of Moʹab has been silenced.

 2 He has gone up to the House* and to Diʹbon,+

To the high places to weep.

On their roofs and in their public squares they all wail;

They go down weeping.+

 4 Heshʹbon and E·le·aʹleh+ cry out;

Their voice is heard as far as Jaʹhaz.+

On the ascent of Luʹhith they weep as they go up;

On the way to Hor·o·naʹim they cry out over the catastrophe.+

 6 For the waters of Nimʹrim are desolate;

The green grass has dried up,

The grass is gone and nothing green is left.

 7 That is why they are carrying away what is left of their stores and their riches;

They are crossing the valley* of poplars.

The wailing reaches to Eg·laʹim;

The wailing reaches to Beʹer-eʹlim.

 9 For the waters of Diʹmon are full of blood,

And I have more in store for Diʹmon:

A lion for those of Moʹab who escape

And for those remaining in the land.+

16 Send a ram to the ruler of the land,

From Seʹla through the wilderness

To the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

 2 Like a bird chased away from its nest,+

So the daughters of Moʹab will be at the fords of Arʹnon.+

The oppressor will reach his end,

The destruction will come to an end,

And those trampling others down will perish from the earth.

The one who sits on it in the tent of David will be faithful;+

He will judge fairly and will swiftly execute righteousness.”+

 6 We have heard about the pride of Moʹab—he is very proud+—

His haughtiness and his pride and his fury;+

But his empty talk will come to nothing.

 7 So Moʹab will wail for Moʹab;

They will all wail.+

 8 For the terraces of Heshʹbon+ have withered,

The vine of Sibʹmah,+

The rulers of the nations have trampled its bright-red branches;*

They had reached as far as Jaʹzer;+

They had extended into the wilderness.

With my tears I will drench you, O Heshʹbon and E·le·aʹleh,+

Because the shouting over your summer fruit and your harvest has ended.*

10 Rejoicing and joyfulness have been taken away from the orchard,

And there are no songs of joy or shouting in the vineyards.+

The treader no longer treads out wine in the presses,

For I have caused the shouting to cease.+

11 That is why deep within me I am boisterous over Moʹab,+

Like the strumming of a harp,

And my innermost being over Kir-harʹe·seth.+

“Look! Damascus will cease to be a city,

And it will become a heap of ruins.+

 2 The cities of A·roʹer+ will be abandoned;

They will become places for flocks to lie down

With no one to make them afraid.

 3 Fortified cities will disappear from Eʹphra·im,+

And the kingdom from Damascus;+

And those remaining of Syria

Will be like the glory of the Israelites,”* declares Jehovah of armies.

 4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will diminish,

And his healthy body* will grow thin.

 5 It will be as when the harvester is gathering the standing grain

And his arm harvests the ears of grain,

Like when one gleans grain in the Valley* of Rephʹa·im.+

 6 Only gleanings will be left,

As when an olive tree is beaten:

Only two or three ripe olives remain on the highest branch,

Only four or five on its fruit-bearing branches,”+ declares Jehovah the God of Israel.

 9 In that day his fortress cities will become like an abandoned site in the woodland,+

Like a branch that was abandoned before the Israelites;

It will become a wasteland.

10 For you have forgotten the God+ of your salvation;

You have failed to remember the Rock+ of your fortress.

That is why you plant beautiful* plantations

And set it with the shoot of a stranger.*

11 In the day you carefully fence in your plantation,

In the morning you make your seed sprout,

But the harvest will vanish in the day of disease and incurable pain.+

12 Listen! There is a commotion of many peoples,

Who are as boisterous as the seas!

There is an uproar of nations,

Whose sound is like the roar of mighty waters!

He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

Chased like the chaff of the mountains before a wind,

Like a whirling thistle* before a storm wind.

This is the share of those pillaging us

And the lot of those plundering us.

18 Woe to the land of whirring insect wings

In the region of the rivers of E·thi·oʹpi·a!+

 2 It sends envoys by sea,

Across the waters in papyrus vessels, saying:

“Go, you swift messengers,

To a tall and smooth-skinned nation,*

To a people feared everywhere,+

To a strong, conquering nation,*

Whose land is washed away by rivers.”

 3 All you inhabitants of the land and you residents of the earth,

What you see will be like a signal* raised on the mountains,

And you will hear a sound like the blowing of a horn.

“I will remain undisturbed and look on* my established place,

Like the shimmering heat along with the sunlight,

Like the cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

 5 For before the harvest,

When the blossom is finished and the bloom becomes a ripening grape,

The shoots will be cut off with pruning shears

And the tendrils will be lopped off and removed.

 6 They will all be left for the birds of prey of the mountains

And for the beasts of the earth.

The birds of prey will spend the summer on them,

And all the beasts of the earth will spend the harvesttime on them.

 7 At that time a gift will be brought to Jehovah of armies,

From a tall and smooth-skinned nation,*

From a people feared everywhere,

From a strong, conquering nation,*

Whose land is washed away by rivers

To the place that bears the name of Jehovah of armies, Mount Zion.”+

The worthless gods of Egypt will tremble before him,+

And the heart of Egypt will melt within it.

 2 “I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians,

And they will fight one another,

Each against his brother and his neighbor,

City against city, kingdom against kingdom.

 3 And the spirit of Egypt will become bewildered within it,

And I will confuse its plans.+

They will resort to the worthless gods,

To the charmers and to the spirit mediums and to the fortune-tellers.+

 4 I will hand Egypt over to a hard master,

And a harsh king will rule over them,”+ declares the true Lord, Jehovah of armies.

 5 The water of the sea will be dried up,

And the river will become parched and run dry.+

 6 And the rivers will stink;

The Nile canals of Egypt will become low and parched.

 7 The plants along the Nile River, at the mouth of the Nile,

And all the land sown with seed along the Nile+ will dry up.+

 8 And the fishermen will mourn,

Those casting fishhooks into the Nile will lament,

And those who spread their nets on the water will dwindle.

 9 Those who work in combed flax+

And those making white fabric on the loom will be put to shame.

10 Her weavers will be crushed;

All the hired workers will grieve.*

“I am a descendant of wise ones,

A descendant of ancient kings”?

13 The princes of Zoʹan have acted foolishly;

The princes of Noph*+ have been deceived;

The chiefs of her tribes have led Egypt astray.

14 Jehovah has poured out on her a spirit of confusion;+

And they have led Egypt astray in whatever she does,

Like a drunk staggering in his vomit.

15 And Egypt will not have any work to do,

Whether for the head or the tail, the shoot or the rush.*

It is coming like storm winds that sweep through in the south,

From the wilderness, from a fearsome land.+

The treacherous one is acting treacherously,

And the destroyer is destroying.

Convulsions have seized me,

Like those of a woman giving birth.

I am too distressed to hear;

I am too disturbed to see.

 7 And he saw a war chariot with a team of horses,

A war chariot of donkeys,

A war chariot of camels.

“Upon the watchtower, O Jehovah, I am standing constantly by day,

And I am stationed at my guardpost every night.+

10 O my people who have been threshed,

The product* of my threshing floor,+

I have reported to you what I have heard from Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel.

In the forest in the desert plain you will spend the night,

O caravans of Deʹdan.+

14 Bring water to meet the thirsty one,

You inhabitants of the land of Teʹma,+

And bring bread for the one fleeing.

15 For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,

From the bent bow, and from the cruelty of the war.

 2 You were full of turmoil,

A boisterous city, an exultant town.

Your slain were not slain with the sword,

Nor did they die in battle.+

All who were found were taken prisoner,+

Even though they had fled far away.

 4 That is why I said: “Turn your eyes away from me,

And I will weep bitterly.+

Do not insist on comforting me

Over the destruction of the daughter of* my people.+

 5 For it is a day of confusion and of defeat and of panic,+

From the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,

In the Valley of Vision.

There is a demolishing of the wall+

And a cry to the mountain.

 6 Eʹlam+ picks up the quiver

With manned chariots and horses,*

And Kir+ uncovers* the shield.

 7 Your choicest valleys*

Will become full of war chariots,

And the horses* will take their positions at the gate,

 8 And the screen* of Judah will be removed.

12 In that day the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,

Will call for weeping and mourning,+

For shaved heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

13 But instead, there is celebration and rejoicing,

The killing of cattle and the slaughtering of sheep,

The eating of meat and the drinking of wine.+

 3 Over many waters went the grain* of Shiʹhor,*+

The harvest of the Nile, her revenue,

Bringing the profit of the nations.+

 4 Be ashamed, O Siʹdon, you stronghold of the sea,

Because the sea has said:

“I have not had birth pains, and I have not given birth,

Nor have I brought up young men or raised young women.”*+

 5 As when they heard the report about Egypt,+

People will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.+

 8 Who has decided this against Tyre,

The bestower of crowns,

Whose merchants were princes,

Whose tradesmen were honored in all the earth?+

 9 Jehovah of armies himself has decided this,

To profane her pride over all her beauty,

To humiliate all those who were honored throughout the earth.+

11 He has stretched his hand out over the sea;

He has shaken kingdoms.

12 And he says: “You will exult no more,+

O oppressed one, the virgin daughter of Siʹdon.

This is the people—As·syrʹi·a+ was not the one—

They made her a place for those haunting the desert.

They have erected their siege towers;

They have stripped bare her fortified towers,+

Reducing her to a crumbling ruin.

14 Wail, you ships of Tarʹshish,

For your stronghold has been destroyed.+

Play your harp skillfully;

Sing many songs,

So that they will remember you.”

The people as well as the priest,

The servant and his master,

The servant and her mistress,

The buyer and the seller,

The lender and the borrower,

The creditor and the debtor.+

 3 The land will be completely emptied;

It will be completely plundered,+

For Jehovah has spoken this word.

 5 The land has been polluted by its inhabitants,+

For they have bypassed the laws,+

Changed the regulation,+

And broken the lasting* covenant.+

 6 That is why the curse devours the land,+

And those inhabiting it are held guilty.

That is why the inhabitants of the land have dwindled,

And very few men are left.+

 7 The new wine mourns,* the vine withers,+

And all those cheerful at heart are sighing.+

 8 The joy of the tambourines has ceased;

The noise of the revelers has ended;

The happy sound of the harp has ceased.+

 9 They drink wine without song,

And alcohol tastes bitter to those drinking it.

10 The deserted town is broken down;+

Every house is shut up so that no one can enter.

All rejoicing has disappeared;

The joy of the land has gone.+

12 The city is left in ruins;

The gate has been crushed to a heap of rubble.+

As when an olive tree is beaten,+

Like the gleaning when the grape harvest comes to an end.+

14 They will raise their voice,

They will shout joyfully.

15 That is why they will glorify Jehovah in the region of light;*+

In the islands of the sea they will glorify the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.+

Woe to me! The treacherous have acted treacherously;

With treachery the treacherous have acted treacherously.”+

18 Anyone fleeing from the sound of terror will fall into the pit,

And anyone coming up from the pit will be caught in the trap.+

For the floodgates above will be opened,

And the foundations of the land will quake.

19 The land has burst apart;

The land has been shaken up;

The land convulses violently.+

20 The land staggers like a drunken man,

And it sways back and forth like a hut in the wind.

Its transgression weighs heavily on it,+

And it will fall, so that it will not rise up again.

21 In that day Jehovah will turn his attention to the army of the heights above

And to the kings of the earth upon the earth.

22 And they will be gathered together

Like prisoners gathered into a pit,

And they will be shut up in the dungeon;

After many days they will be given attention.

23 The full moon will be abashed,

And the shining sun will be ashamed,+

For Jehovah of armies has become King+ in Mount Zion+ and in Jerusalem,

Glorious before the elders of his people.*+

I exalt you, I praise your name,

For you have done wonderful things,+

Things purposed* from ancient times,+

In faithfulness,+ in trustworthiness.

 2 For you have turned a city into a pile of stones,

A fortified town into a crumbling ruin.

The foreigner’s tower is a city no more;

It will never be rebuilt.

 3 That is why a strong people will glorify you;

The city of tyrannical nations will fear you.+

 4 For you have become a stronghold to the lowly,

A stronghold to the poor in his distress,+

A refuge from the rainstorm,

And a shade from the heat.+

When the blast of the tyrants is like a rainstorm against a wall,

 5 As the heat in a parched land,

You subdue the uproar of strangers.

Like heat that is subdued by the shadow of a cloud,

So the song of the tyrants is silenced.

 6 In this mountain+ Jehovah of armies will make for all the peoples

A banquet of rich dishes,+

A banquet of fine wine,*

Of rich dishes filled with marrow,

Of fine, filtered wine.

 7 In this mountain he will do away with* the shroud that is enveloping all the peoples

And the covering* that is woven over all the nations.

 8 He will swallow up* death forever,+

And the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces.+

The reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

For Jehovah himself has spoken it.

We have hoped in him,+

And he will save us.+

10 For the hand of Jehovah will rest on this mountain,+

And Moʹab will be trampled on in its place+

Like straw trampled into a pile of manure.

11 He will slap out his hands into it

Like a swimmer slapping out his hands to swim,

And he will bring down its haughtiness+

With the skillful movements of his hands.

12 And the fortified city, with your high walls of security,

He will bring down;

He will knock it down to the ground, to the very dust.

 2 Open up the gates+ so that the righteous nation may enter,

A nation that is keeping faithful conduct.

 3 You will safeguard those who fully lean on you;*

You will give them continuous peace,+

Because it is in you that they trust.+

 4 Trust in Jehovah forever,+

For Jah* Jehovah is the eternal Rock.+

He brings it down,

He brings it down to the earth;

He casts it down to the dust.

 6 The foot will trample it,

The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the lowly.”

Because you are upright,

You will smooth out the course of the righteous.

 8 As we follow the path of your judgments, O Jehovah,

Our hope is in you.

 9 In the night I long for you with my whole being,*

Yes, my spirit keeps looking for you;+

For when there are judgments from you for the earth,

The inhabitants of the land learn about righteousness.+

10 Even if the wicked is shown favor,

He will not learn righteousness.+

Even in the land of uprightness* he will act wickedly,+

And he will not see the majesty of Jehovah.+

12 O Jehovah, you will grant us peace,+

Because everything we have done

You have accomplished for us.

13 O Jehovah our God, other masters besides you have ruled over us,+

But we make mention of your name alone.+

For you have turned your attention to them

To annihilate them and destroy all mention of them.

15 You have enlarged the nation, O Jehovah,

You have enlarged the nation;

You have glorified yourself.+

16 O Jehovah, during distress they turned to you;

They poured out their prayer in a whisper when you disciplined them.+

17 Just as a pregnant woman about to give birth

Has labor pains and cries out in pain,

So we have been because of you, O Jehovah.

18 We became pregnant, we had labor pains,

But it is as if we had given birth to wind.

We have not brought salvation to the land,

And no one is born to inhabit the land.

Awake and shout joyfully,

You residents in the dust!+

For your dew is as the dew of the morning,*

And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life.*

20 Go, my people, enter your inner rooms,

And shut your doors behind you.+

Hide yourself for a brief moment

Until the wrath* has passed by.+

21 For look! Jehovah is coming from his place

To call the inhabitants of the land to account for their error,

And the land will expose her bloodshed

And will no longer cover over her slain.”

27 In that day Jehovah, with his harsh and great and strong sword,+

Will turn his attention to Le·viʹa·than,* the gliding serpent,

To Le·viʹa·than, the twisting serpent,

And he will kill the monster that is in the sea.

I safeguard her night and day,

So that no one may harm her.+

Let him make peace with me;

Peace let him make with me.”

 6 In the coming days Jacob will take root,

Israel will blossom and sprout,+

And they will fill the land with produce.+

 9 So in this way the error of Jacob will be atoned for,+

And this will be the full fruitage when his sin is taken away:

He will make all the stones of the altar

Like chalkstones that have been pulverized,

And no sacred poles* or incense stands will be left.+

10 For the fortified city will be deserted;

The pastures will be forsaken and abandoned like a wilderness.+

There the calf will graze and lie down

And will consume her branches.+

11 When her twigs have dried up,

Women will come and break them off,

Making fires with them.

That is why their Maker will show them no mercy,

And the One who formed them will show them no favor.+

28 Woe to the showy* crown* of the drunkards of Eʹphra·im+

And the fading blossom of its glorious beauty,

Which is on the head of the fertile valley of those overcome with wine!

Like a thundering hailstorm, a destructive windstorm,

Like a thunderstorm of powerful floodwaters,

He will forcefully hurl it down to the earth.

 3 The showy* crowns of the drunkards of Eʹphra·im

Will be trampled underfoot.+

 4 And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

Which is on the head of the fertile valley,

Will become like the early fig before summer.

 7 And these also go astray because of wine;

Their alcoholic beverages make them stagger.

Priest and prophet go astray because of alcohol;

The wine confuses them,

And they stagger from their alcohol;

Their vision makes them go astray,

And they stumble in judgment.+

 8 For their tables are full of filthy vomit

—There is no place without it.

 9 To whom will one impart knowledge,

And to whom will one explain the message?

To those who have just been weaned from milk,

Those just taken away from the breasts?

10 For it is “command after command, command after command,

Line by line, line by line,*+

A little here, a little there.”

“Command after command, command after command,

Line by line, line by line,*+

A little here, a little there,”

So that when they walk,

They will stumble and fall backward

And be broken and ensnared and caught.+

14 So hear the word of Jehovah, you boasters,

You rulers of this people in Jerusalem,

15 For you men say:

“We have made a covenant with Death,+

And with the Grave* we have made an agreement.*

When the raging flash flood passes through,

It will not reach us,

For we have made a lie our refuge

And we have hidden ourselves in falsehood.”+

“Here I am laying as a foundation in Zion a tested stone,+

The precious cornerstone+ of a sure foundation.+

17 And I will make justice the measuring line+

And righteousness the leveling tool.*+

The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,

And the waters will flood out the hiding place.

18 Your covenant with Death will be dissolved,

And your agreement with the Grave* will not stand.+

When the raging flash flood passes through,

You will be crushed by it.

19 As often as it passes through,

It will sweep you away;+

For it will pass through morning after morning,

During the day and during the night.

20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on,

And the woven sheet is too narrow to wrap up in.

21 For Jehovah will rise up as at Mount Pe·raʹzim;

He will rouse himself as in the valley* near Gibʹe·on,+

That he may do his deed—his strange deed—

And that he may carry out his work—his unusual work.+

22 Now do not scoff,+

So that your bonds may not be further tightened,

For I have heard from the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,

That an extermination has been determined for all the land.*+

23 Give ear and listen to my voice;

Pay attention and listen to what I say.

25 When he has smoothed out its surface,

Does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin,

And does he not plant wheat, millet, and barley in their places

And spelt+ around the edges?

26 For He teaches* him the right way;

His God instructs him.+

27 For black cumin is not crushed with a threshing sledge,+

And a wagon wheel is not driven over cumin.

Rather, black cumin is beaten out with a rod,

And cumin with a staff.

No, he does not thresh it incessantly;+

And when he drives the roller of his wagon over it with his horses,

He does not crush it.+

29 This also comes from Jehovah of armies,

Whose counsel* is wonderful

And whose achievements are great.*+

Continue year after year;

Let the cycle of festivals+ continue.

 2 But I will bring distress on Arʹi·el,+

And there will be mourning and lamentation,+

And she will become to me like an altar hearth of God.+

 3 I will encamp on all sides against you,

And I will besiege you with a palisade

And raise up siegeworks against you.+

 4 You will be brought low;

From the ground you will speak,

And what you say will be muffled by dust.

Your voice will come from the ground+

Like the voice of a spirit medium,

And your words will chirp from the dust.

 5 The crowd of your enemies* will be like fine powder,+

The crowd of the tyrants just like the blowing chaff.+

 6 Jehovah of armies will give you his attention

With thunder and earthquake and a great noise,

With storm wind and tempest and the flames of a consuming fire.”+

 7 Then the crowd of all the nations waging war against Arʹi·el+

—All those waging war against her,

The siege towers against her,

And those bringing distress on her—

Will become like a dream, a vision of the night.

 8 Yes, it will be just as when someone hungry dreams that he is eating,

But he wakes up hungry,*

And as when someone thirsty dreams that he is drinking,

But he wakes up tired and thirsty.*

So it will happen with the crowd of all the nations

That wage war against Mount Zion.+

 9 Be stunned and amazed;+

Blind yourselves and be blinded.+

They are drunk, but not with wine;

They are staggering, but not from alcohol.

10 For Jehovah has poured a spirit of deep sleep on you;+

He has closed your eyes, the prophets,+

And he has covered your heads, the visionaries.+

13 Jehovah says: “This people approach me with their mouth

And they honor me with their lips,+

But their heart is far removed from me;

And their fear of me is based on commands of men that they have been taught.+

14 Therefore, I am the One who will again do wonderful things with this people,+

With wonder upon wonder;

And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,

And the understanding of their discreet men will be hidden.”+

Their deeds are done in a dark place,

While they say: “Who sees us?

17 In just a short time, Lebʹa·non will be turned into an orchard,+

And the orchard will be regarded as a forest.+

18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the book,

And out of the gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.+

19 The meek will rejoice greatly in Jehovah,

And the poor among men will be joyful in the Holy One of Israel.+

20 For the tyrant will be no more,

The boaster will come to his finish,

And all those keeping alert to do harm will be destroyed,+

21 Those who with a false word make others guilty,

Who lay traps for the defender* in the city gate,+

And who with empty arguments deny justice to the righteous one.+

“Jacob will no longer be ashamed,

And no more will his face grow pale.*+

23 For when he sees his children,

Who are the work of my hands, in his midst,+

They will sanctify my name;

Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,

And they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.+

24 Those who are wayward in spirit will acquire understanding,

And those who complain will accept instruction.”

30 “Woe to the stubborn sons,”+ declares Jehovah,

“Who carry out plans that are not mine,+

Who make alliances,* but not by my spirit,

In order to add sin to sin.

 2 They go down to Egypt+ without consulting me,*+

To take shelter under Pharʹaoh’s protection*

And to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!

 3 But the protection of Pharʹaoh will become for you a reason for shame,

And refuge in Egypt’s shadow a cause for humiliation.+

 4 For his princes are in Zoʹan,+

And his envoys have reached Haʹnes.

 5 They will all be put to shame

By a people who can bring no benefit to them,

Who offer no help and no benefit,

Only shame and disgrace.”+

Through the land of distress and hardship,

Of the lion, the roaring lion,

Of the viper and the flying fiery snake,*

They carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys

And their supplies on the humps of camels.

 8 “Now go, write it on a tablet in their presence,

And inscribe it in a book,+

So that it may serve for a future day

As a permanent witness.+

 9 For they are a rebellious people,+ deceitful sons,+

Sons who are unwilling to hear the law* of Jehovah.+

“Since you reject this word+

And you trust in fraud and deceit

And you rely on these,+

13 So this error will be for you like a broken wall,

Like a bulging high wall ready to fall.

14 It will be broken like a large potter’s jar,

So completely smashed that no fragment among its pieces will be left

To rake the fire from the fireplace

Or to scoop water from a puddle.”*

“By returning to me and resting, you will be saved;

Your strength will be in keeping calm and showing trust.”+

17 A thousand will tremble at the threat of one;+

At the threat of five you will flee

Until what is left of you is like a mast on the top of a mountain,

Like a signal pole on a hill.+

18 But Jehovah is waiting patiently* to show you favor,+

And he will rise up to show you mercy.+

27 Look! The name of Jehovah is coming from far away,

Burning with his anger and with heavy clouds.

His lips are full of indignation,

And his tongue is like a consuming fire.+

28 His spirit* is like a flooding torrent that reaches clear to the neck,

To shake the nations in a sieve of destruction;*

And the peoples will have a bridle in their jaws+ that leads them astray.

29 But your song will be like the one sung in the night

When you prepare* for a festival,+

And your heart will rejoice like one

Who walks with* a flute

On his way to the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.+

30 Jehovah will make his majestic voice+ heard

And reveal his arm+ as it descends in the heat of anger,+

With the flame of a consuming fire,+

A cloudburst+ and a thunderstorm and hailstones.+

31 For because of the voice of Jehovah, As·syrʹi·a will be struck with terror;+

He will strike it with a rod.+

32 And every swing of his rod of punishment

That Jehovah will bring down on As·syrʹi·a

Will be accompanied by tambourines and harps+

As he brandishes his arm against them in battle.+

33 For his Toʹpheth*+ is already prepared;

It is also made ready for the king.+

He has made the woodpile deep and wide,

With an abundance of fire and wood.

The breath of Jehovah, like a torrent of sulfur,

Will set fire to it.

31 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for assistance,+

Who rely on horses,+

Who trust in war chariots because they are numerous,

And in warhorses* because they are mighty.

But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel,

And they do not search for Jehovah.

 2 But he is also wise and will bring calamity,

And he will not take back his words.

He will rise up against the house of evildoers

And against those who help wrongdoers.+

 3 The Egyptians, though, are mere men and not God;

Their horses are flesh and not spirit.+

When Jehovah stretches out his hand,

Whoever offers help will stumble

And whoever is helped will fall;

They will all perish at the same time.

“Just as the lion growls, a strong young lion,* over its prey,

When a whole group of shepherds is called together against it,

And it is not terrified by their voice

Or daunted by their commotion,

So will Jehovah of armies come down to wage war

Over Mount Zion and over her hill.

 8 And the As·syrʹi·an will fall by the sword, not of a man;

And a sword, not of a human, will devour him.+

He will flee because of the sword,

And his young men will be put to forced labor.

 9 His crag will pass away because of sheer fright,

And his princes will be terrified because of the signal pole,” declares Jehovah,

Whose light* is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

32 Look! A king+ will reign for righteousness,+

And princes will rule for justice.

 2 And each one will be like a hiding place* from the wind,

A place of concealment* from the rainstorm,

Like streams of water in a waterless land,+

Like the shadow of a massive crag in a parched land.

 3 Then the eyes of those seeing will no longer be pasted shut,

And the ears of those hearing will pay attention.

 4 The heart of those who are impetuous will ponder over knowledge,

And the stammering tongue will speak fluently and clearly.+

 5 The senseless one will no longer be called generous,

And the unprincipled man will not be called noble;

 6 For the senseless one will speak nonsense,

And his heart will devise harmful things,+

To promote apostasy* and to speak what is wayward against Jehovah,

To cause the hungry one* to go unfed

And to deprive the thirsty one of something to drink.

 7 The devices of the unprincipled man are bad;+

He promotes shameful conduct

To ruin the afflicted one with lies,+

Even when the poor speaks what is right.

 8 But the generous one has generous intentions,

And in generous* endeavors he perseveres.

10 In a little over a year, you who are carefree will shudder,

Because no fruit will have been gathered when the grape harvest ends.+

Strip yourselves bare,

And put sackcloth around your hips.+

12 Beat your breasts in lamentation

Over the desirable fields and the fruitful vine.

13 For the ground of my people will be covered with thorns and briars;

They will cover all the houses of rejoicing,

Yes, the city of exultation.+

14 For the fortified tower has been forsaken;

The noisy city has been abandoned.+

Oʹphel+ and the watchtower have become a permanent wasteland,

A delight for wild donkeys,

A pasture for the flocks,+

15 Until the spirit is poured out on us from above,+

And the wilderness becomes an orchard,

And the orchard is regarded as a forest.+

16 Then justice will reside in the wilderness,

And righteousness will dwell in the orchard.+

17 The result of true righteousness will be peace,+

And the fruitage of true righteousness will be lasting tranquility and security.+

18 My people will dwell in a peaceful abiding place,

In secure dwellings and in tranquil resting-places.+

19 But the hail will flatten the forest,

And the city will be completely leveled.

20 Happy are you who sow seed alongside all waters,

Who send out* the bull and the donkey.”+

33 Woe to you, you destroyer who has not been destroyed;+

You betrayer who has not been betrayed!

Become our arm*+ every morning,

Yes, our salvation in the time of distress.+

 4 As the voracious locusts gather, so your spoil will be gathered;

People will rush on it like swarms of locusts.

 5 Jehovah will be exalted,

For he resides in the heights above.

 6 He is the stability of your times;

An abundance of salvation,+ wisdom, knowledge, and the fear of Jehovah+

—This is his treasure.

 7 Look! Their heroes cry out in the street;

The messengers of peace weep bitterly.

 8 The highways are deserted;

There is no one traveling on the pathways.

He* has broken the covenant;

He has rejected the cities;

He shows no regard for mortal man.+

Sharʹon has become like the desert,

And Baʹshan and Carʹmel shake off their leaves.+

10 “Now I will rise up,” says Jehovah,

“Now I will exalt myself;+

Now I will magnify myself.

14 The sinners in Zion are in dread;+

Trembling has seized the apostates:

15 The one who walks in continual righteousness,+

Who speaks what is upright,+

Who rejects dishonest, fraudulent gain,

Whose hands refuse a bribe rather than grabbing it,+

Who closes his ear to talk of bloodshed,

And who shuts his eyes to avoid seeing what is bad

16 —He will reside in the heights;

His secure refuge* will be in rocky strongholds,

His bread will be provided,

And his water supply will never fail.”+

17 Your eyes will behold a king in his splendor;

They will see a land far away.

19 You will no more see the insolent people,

A people whose language is too obscure* to comprehend,

Whose stammering tongue you cannot understand.+

Your eyes will see Jerusalem as a tranquil dwelling place,

A tent that will not be moved.+

Never will its tent pins be pulled out,

And none of its ropes will be torn apart.

21 But there the Majestic One, Jehovah,

Will be for us a region of rivers, of wide canals,

Where no galley fleet will go

And no majestic ships will pass by.

22 For Jehovah is our Judge,+

Jehovah is our Lawgiver,+

Jehovah is our King;+

He is the One who will save us.+

23 Your ropes will hang loose;

They cannot hold up the mast nor spread the sail.

At that time an abundance of spoil will be divided up;

Even the lame will take much plunder.+

34 Come close to hear, you nations,

And pay attention, you peoples.

Let the earth and that which fills it listen,

The land and all its produce.

 2 For Jehovah’s indignation is against all the nations,+

And his wrath is against all their army.+

He will devote them to destruction;

He will give them to the slaughter.+

 3 Their slain will be thrown out,

And the stench of their carcasses will ascend;+

The mountains will melt because of* their blood.+

 4 All the army of the heavens will rot away,

And the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll.

All their army will wither away,

As a withered leaf falls from the vine

And a shriveled fig from the fig tree.

It will descend on Eʹdom in judgment,+

On the people whom I devoted to destruction.

It will be covered with the fat,+

With the blood of young rams and goats,

With the kidney fat of rams.

For Jehovah has a sacrifice in Bozʹrah,

A great slaughter in the land of Eʹdom.+

 7 The wild bulls will go down with them,

The young bulls with the powerful ones.

Their land will be drenched in blood,

And their dust will be soaked with fat.”

 8 For Jehovah has a day of vengeance,+

A year of retribution for the legal case over Zion.+

 9 Her* streams will be changed into pitch,

And her dust into sulfur,

And her land will become like burning pitch.

10 By night or by day it will not be extinguished;

Its smoke will keep ascending forever.

From generation to generation she will remain devastated;

No one will pass through her forever and ever.+

11 The pelican and the porcupine will possess her,

And long-eared owls and ravens will reside in her.

He will stretch out over her the measuring line of emptiness

And the plumb line* of desolation.

12 None of her nobles will be called to the kingship,

And all her princes will come to nothing.

13 Thorns will grow in her fortified towers,

Nettles and thorny weeds in her fortresses.

She will become a lair of jackals,+

An enclosure for ostriches.

14 Desert creatures will meet up with howling animals,

And the wild goat* will call to its companion.

15 There the arrow snake will make its nest and lay eggs,

And it will hatch them and gather them in its shadow.

Not one of them will be missing;

None of them will be lacking a mate,

For it is the mouth of Jehovah that has given the order,

And it is his spirit that has gathered them together.

17 He is the One who has cast the lot for them,

And his own hand has measured out their assigned place.*

They will possess it for all time;

They will reside in it throughout all generations.

35 The wilderness and the parched land will exult,+

And the desert plain will be joyful and blossom as the saffron.*+

 2 Without fail it will blossom;+

It will rejoice and shout for joy.

The glory of Lebʹa·non will be given to it,+

The splendor of Carʹmel+ and of Sharʹon.+

 3 Strengthen the weak hands,

And make firm the knees that are shaking.+

Look! Your own God will come with vengeance,

God will come with retribution.+

 5 At that time the eyes of the blind will be opened,+

And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.+

 6 At that time the lame will leap like the deer,+

And the tongue of the speechless will shout for joy.+

For waters will burst forth in the wilderness,

And streams in the desert plain.

 7 The heat-parched ground will become a reedy pool,

And the thirsty ground springs of water.+

In the lairs where jackals rested,+

There will be green grass and reeds and papyrus.

 8 And a highway will be there,+

Yes, a way called the Way of Holiness.

It is reserved for the one walking on the way;

No one foolish will stray onto it.

 9 No lion will be there,

And no vicious wild beasts will come on it.

They will not be found there;+

Only the repurchased ones will walk there.+

Exultation and rejoicing will be theirs,

And grief and sighing will flee away.+

Against whom have you raised your voice+

And lifted your arrogant eyes?

24 Through your servants you have taunted Jehovah+ and said,

‘With the multitude of my war chariots

I will ascend the heights of mountains,+

The remotest parts of Lebʹa·non.

25 I will dig wells and drink waters;

I will dry up the streams* of Egypt with the soles of my feet.’

27 Their inhabitants will be helpless;

They will be terrified and put to shame.

They will become as vegetation of the field and green grass,

As grass of the roofs that is scorched by the east wind.

28 But I well know when you sit, when you go out, when you come in,+

And when you are enraged against me,+

29 Because your rage against me+ and your roaring have reached my ears.+

So I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle+ between your lips,

And I will lead you back the way you came.”

“He will not come into this city+

Or shoot an arrow there

Or confront it with a shield

Or cast up a siege rampart against it.”’+

34 ‘By the way he came he will return;

He will not come into this city,’ declares Jehovah.

35 ‘I will defend this city+ and save it for my own sake+

And for the sake of my servant David.’”+

10 I said: “In the middle of my life

I must go into the gates of the Grave.*

I will look no more on mankind

When I am with the inhabitants of the place where everything ceases.

12 My own dwelling has been pulled out and removed from me+

Like the tent of a shepherd.

I have rolled up my life like a loom worker;

He cuts me off like the threads of the warp.

Like a lion, he keeps breaking all my bones;

From daylight to nightfall you keep bringing me to an end.+

14 Like the swift or the thrush,* so I keep chirping;+

I keep cooing like the dove.+

‘O Jehovah, I am in great distress;

Be my support!’*+

I will walk humbly* all my years

Because of my bitter distress.*

16 ‘O Jehovah, by these things* every man lives,

And in them is the life of my spirit.

17 Look! Instead of peace, I had great bitterness;

But in your fondness for me,*

You preserved me from the pit of destruction.+

18 For the Grave* cannot glorify you,+

Death cannot praise you.+

19 The living, the living can praise you,

Just as I can this day.

20 O Jehovah, save me,

And we will play my songs on stringed instruments+

All the days of our life at the house of Jehovah.’”+

 2 “Speak to the heart of* Jerusalem,

And proclaim to her that her compulsory service has been fulfilled,

That her guilt has been paid off.+

 4 Let every valley be raised up,

And every mountain and hill be made low.

The rough ground must become level,

And the rugged ground a valley plain.+

 5 The glory of Jehovah will be revealed,+

And all flesh* will see it together,+

For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.”

 7 The green grass dries up,

The blossom withers,+

Because the breath* of Jehovah blows upon it.+

 8 The green grass dries up,

The blossom withers,

But the word of our God endures forever.”+

 9 Go up onto a high mountain,

You woman bringing good news for Zion.+

Raise your voice with power,

You woman bringing good news for Jerusalem.

10 Look! The Sovereign Lord Jehovah will come with power,

And his arm will rule for him.+

Look! His reward is with him,

And the wage he pays is before him.+

With his arm he will gather together the lambs,

And in his bosom he will carry them.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand+

And taken the measurements* of the heavens with a span of his hand?*

Who has gathered in a measure the dust of the earth+

Or weighed the mountains in the balances

And the hills in the scales?

13 Who has taken the measurements of* the spirit of Jehovah,

And who can instruct him as his adviser?+

14 With whom did he consult to gain understanding,

Or who teaches him in the path of justice,

Or teaches him knowledge,

Or shows him the way of true understanding?+

15 Look! The nations are like a drop from a bucket,

And as the film of dust on the scales they are regarded.+

16 Even Lebʹa·non is not sufficient to keep a fire burning,*

And its wild animals are not sufficient for a burnt offering.

17 All the nations are as something nonexistent in front of him;+

He regards them as nothing, as an unreality.+

19 The craftsman casts an idol,*

The metalworker overlays it with gold,+

And he forges silver chains.

20 He chooses a tree for his contribution,+

A tree that will not rot.

He searches for a skilled craftsman

To prepare a carved image that will not topple over.+

22 There is One who dwells above the circle* of the earth,+

And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.

He is stretching out the heavens like a fine gauze,

And he spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.+

23 He reduces high officials to nothing

And makes the judges* of the earth an unreality.

24 They are hardly planted,

They are hardly sown,

Their stem has hardly taken root in the earth,

And they are blown on and dry up,

And the wind carries them away like stubble.+

It is the One who brings out their army by number;

He calls them all by name.+

Because of his vast dynamic energy and his awe-inspiring power,+

Not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you declare, O Israel,

‘My way is hidden from Jehovah,

And I receive no justice from God’?+

29 He gives power to the tired one

And full might to those lacking strength.*+

30 Boys will tire out and grow weary,

And young men will stumble and fall,

31 But those hoping in Jehovah will regain power.

They will run and not grow weary;

They will walk and not tire out.”+

41 “Listen to me in silence,* you islands;

Let the nations regain their strength.

 2 Who has raised up someone from the sunrise,*+

Calling him in righteousness to His feet,*

To hand over nations to him

And to make him subdue kings?+

Who reduces them to dust before his sword,

Like windblown stubble before his bow?

 3 He pursues them, passing along unhindered

Over paths that his feet have not traveled.

 4 Who has acted and done this,

Summoning the generations from the beginning?

I, Jehovah, am the First One;+

And with the last ones I am the same.”+

 6 Each one helps his companion

And says to his brother: “Be strong.”

 7 So the craftsman strengthens the metalworker;+

The one who flattens with the forge hammer

Strengthens the one hammering at the anvil.

 8 “But you, O Israel, are my servant,+

You, O Jacob, whom I have chosen,+

The offspring* of Abraham my friend,+

 9 You, whom I took from the ends of the earth,+

And you, whom I called from its most distant parts.

I said to you, ‘You are my servant;+

I have chosen you; I have not rejected you.+

I will fortify you, yes, I will help you,+

I will really hold on to you with my right hand of righteousness.’

12 You will search for men who struggle with you, but you will not find them;

The men at war with you will become as something nonexistent, as nothing at all.+

13 For I, Jehovah your God, am grasping your right hand,

The One saying to you, ‘Do not be afraid. I will help you.’+

14 Do not be afraid, you worm* Jacob,+

You men of Israel, I will help you,” declares Jehovah, your Repurchaser,+ the Holy One of Israel.

15 “Look! I have made you a threshing sledge,+

A new threshing instrument with double-edged teeth.

You will tread down the mountains and crush them

And make the hills like chaff.

16 You will winnow them,

And the wind will carry them away;

A windstorm will scatter them.

You will be joyful in Jehovah,+

And you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.”+

18 I will make rivers flow on the bare hills+

And springs in the valley plains.+

I will turn the wilderness into a reedy pool of water

And the waterless land into springs of water.+

19 In the desert I will plant the cedar tree,

The acacia and the myrtle and the pine tree.+

In the desert plain I will plant the juniper tree,

Together with the ash and the cypress tree,+

20 So that all people may see and know

And pay attention and understand

That the hand of Jehovah has done this,

And the Holy One of Israel has created it.”+

Do tell us about the former* things,

So that we may reflect on them* and know their outcome.

23 Tell us what will happen in the future,

So that we may know that you are gods.+

Yes, do something, good or bad,

So that we may be amazed when we see it.+

24 Look! You are something nonexistent,

And your achievement is nothing.+

25 I have raised up someone from the north, and he will come,+

One from the rising of the sun*+ who will call on my name.

He will trample rulers* as if they were clay,+

Like a potter who treads moist clay.

26 Who told about this from the beginning, so that we could know,

Or from times past, so that we could say, ‘He is right’?+

28 But I kept looking, and there was no one;

There was not one among them to give advice.

I have put my spirit in him;+

He will bring justice to the nations.+

 2 He will not cry out or raise his voice,

And he will not make his voice heard in the street.+

 3 No crushed reed will he break,

And no smoldering wick will he extinguish.+

 4 He will not grow dim or be crushed until he establishes justice in the earth;+

And the islands keep waiting for his law.*

 5 This is what the true God, Jehovah, says,

The Creator of the heavens and the Grand One who stretched them out,+

The One who spread out the earth and its produce,+

The One who gives breath to the people on it+

And spirit to those who walk on it:+

 6 “I, Jehovah, have called you in righteousness;

I have taken hold of your hand.

I will safeguard you and give you as a covenant for the people+

And as a light of the nations,+

 7 For you to open the blind eyes,+

To bring the prisoner out of the dungeon

And those sitting in darkness out of the prison.+

 8 I am Jehovah. That is my name;

I give my glory to no one else,*

Nor my praise to graven images.+

 9 See, the first things have come to pass;

Now I am declaring new things.

10 Sing to Jehovah a new song,+

His praise from the ends of the earth,+

You who go down to the sea and all that fills it,

You islands and their inhabitants.+

11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voice,+

The settlements where Keʹdar+ dwells.

Let the inhabitants of the crag shout joyfully;

Let them cry out from the top of the mountains.

12 Let them attribute glory to Jehovah

And declare his praise in the islands.+

He will shout, yes, he will let out a war cry;

He will show himself mightier than his enemies.+

Like a woman giving birth,

I will groan, pant, and gasp all at once.

15 I will devastate mountains and hills

And dry up all their vegetation.

I will turn rivers into islands*

And dry up reedy pools of water.+

16 I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know+

And cause them to tread on unfamiliar paths.+

I will turn the darkness before them into light+

And turn the rugged terrain into level land.+

17 They will be turned back and will be utterly put to shame,

Those who trust in carved images,

Those who say to metal statues:* “You are our gods.”+

18 Listen, you who are deaf;

Look and see, you who are blind.+

19 Who is blind except my servant,

So deaf as the messenger I send?

Who is so blind as the one rewarded,

So blind as the servant of Jehovah?+

21 For the sake of his righteousness,

Jehovah has taken pleasure in magnifying the law* and making it glorious.

22 But this is a people plundered and pillaged;+

All of them are trapped in the holes and hidden in the prisons.+

They have been plundered with no one to rescue them,+

And pillaged with no one to say: “Bring them back!”

24 Who has given Jacob for pillage

And Israel to the plunderers?

In His ways they refused to walk,

And His law* they would not obey.+

25 So He kept pouring out on him wrath,

His anger and the fury of war.+

43 Now this is what Jehovah says,

Your Creator, O Jacob, the One who formed you, O Israel:+

 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,+

And through the rivers, they will not flood over you.+

When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,

Nor will the flame singe you.

 3 For I am Jehovah your God,

The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I have given Egypt as a ransom for you,

E·thi·oʹpi·a and Seʹba in exchange for you.

 4 For you became precious in my eyes,+

You were honored, and I have loved you.+

So I will give people in place of you

And nations in exchange for your life.*

I will bring your offspring* from the east

And gather you together from the west.+

Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth,+

 7 Everyone who is called by my name+

And whom I created for my own glory,

Whom I have formed and made.’+

 8 Bring out a people who are blind, though they have eyes,

And who are deaf, though they have ears.+

 9 Let all the nations assemble in one place,

And let the peoples be gathered together.+

Let them present their witnesses to prove themselves right,

Or let them hear and say, ‘It is the truth!’”+

10 “You are my witnesses,”+ declares Jehovah,

“Yes, my servant whom I have chosen,+

So that you may know and have faith in me*