Key terms · the divine name (YHWH)
Isaiah
יהוה Hebrew · Strong’s H3068
Every sentence 420 uses
Each sentence in Balanced English, with the word marked. The verse link opens it in the reader.
Listen, heavens; earth, open your ears, for the LORD has spoken: I raised children and made them great, but they have rebelled against me.
Woe to a nation that sins, a people loaded down with guilt, the offspring of wrongdoers, children bent on corruption! They have left the LORD, they have scorned the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from him and gone backward.
Had the LORD of Armies not let a few of us survive, we would have shared the fate of Sodom; Gomorrah’s end would have been ours.
Rulers of Sodom, hear the word of the LORD! People of Gomorrah, open your ears to the instruction of our God!
What use to me are all your sacrifices? says the LORD. I have had all I want of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened beasts; the blood of bulls and lambs and goats gives me no pleasure.
Come, let us take this matter to court together, says the LORD. Your sins may be scarlet, yet they will turn white as snow; though they are as red as crimson dye, they will be like undyed wool.
But if you say no and rebel, the sword will eat you up; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Rebels and sinners alike will be crushed, and all who walk away from the LORD will be finished.
In days to come, the mountain of the LORD’s house will stand firm, the chief of all the mountains, rising high above the hills, and the nations will all stream toward it.
Peoples in great numbers will set out, saying, “Come, let us climb to the mountain of the LORD, up to the house of Jacob’s God, so that he may show us his ways and we may walk on his paths.” For instruction will go out from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
House of Jacob, come! Let us walk by the light of the LORD.
Get into the rocks! Bury yourself in the dust, away from the dread of the LORD and from his majestic splendor!
The arrogant gaze of humankind will be lowered, people’s lofty pride will be bent down, and on that day the LORD alone will be lifted high.
For the LORD of Armies has set a day against everything proud and towering, against everything raised high, and it will be brought down,
Humankind’s pride will be bent down, people’s lofty airs laid low, and on that day the LORD alone will be lifted high.
People will crawl into caves in the rock and pits in the ground, away from the dread of the LORD and from his majestic splendor, when he rises up to make the earth shudder.
so that they can creep into the cracks of the rocks and the crevices of the crags, away from the dread of the LORD and from his majestic splendor, when he rises up to make the earth shudder.
Jerusalem has tripped and Judah lies fallen, for what they say and what they do opposes the LORD; they rebel in full view of his glory.
The LORD takes his place to bring a charge; he stands up to judge the peoples.
The LORD comes into court against the elders and the leaders of his people: You are the ones who have burned the vineyard; your houses hold what you robbed from the poor.
The LORD said: Since the daughters of Zion are proud and go about with heads held high and flirting eyes, stepping daintily as they walk and jingling the rings on their ankles,
the Lord will cover the heads of the daughters of Zion with scabs, and the LORD will strip their foreheads bare.
On that day the branch of the LORD will become a thing of beauty and glory, and the fruit of the land will be the boast and the splendor of Israel’s survivors.
Then over the whole site of Mount Zion and over those who gather there, the LORD will create a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a blazing fire by night. Above all the glory a canopy will be spread.
The vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are the planting that delighted him. He waited for justice, but what he found was bloodshed; for righteousness, but what he heard was a cry of the wronged.
In my hearing the LORD of Armies has sworn: Many houses will surely be left in ruins, large, fine houses standing empty, with no one to live in them.
Lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine fill their banquets, but they pay no attention to what the LORD is doing and do not notice the work of his hands.
But the LORD of Armies stands high in justice, and the holy God shows that he is holy by acting in righteousness.
So, just as flames devour stubble and dry grass collapses into the fire, their root will turn to rot and their blossom will rise like dust, because they have thrown away the instruction of the LORD of Armies and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
That is why the anger of the LORD blazes against his people. He has raised his hand against them and struck them down. The mountains shook, and their corpses lay like trash in the middle of the streets. In spite of all this, his anger has not turned back; his hand is still stretched out.
And they kept calling to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Armies! All that fills the earth is his glory.”
Then I said, “Woe to me! I am finished. My lips are unclean, and the people I live among have unclean lips, and with my own eyes I have looked on the King, the LORD of Armies!”
and the LORD has sent the people far off, and much of the land lies empty and abandoned.
The LORD said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear-jashub and go out to meet Ahaz at the end of the water channel from the Upper Pool, on the road to the Fuller’s Field,
The LORD spoke to Ahaz once more:
“Ask the LORD your God for a sign. Let your request reach down to the depths or up to the heights above.”
Ahaz replied, “I will make no request, and I will not test the LORD.”
The LORD will bring days on you, on your people, and on your royal house that have not been seen since Ephraim split off from Judah: the king of Assyria!
On that day the LORD will whistle for the fly from the farthest streams of Egypt and for the bee in the land of Assyria.
The LORD said to me, “Get yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’
I went in to the prophetess, and she became pregnant and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Give him the name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
The LORD spoke to me once more:
For this is what the LORD said to me while his hand held me hard, warning me not to follow the way of this people:
The LORD of Armies is the one you must treat as holy. Let him be the one you fear, let him be the one who makes you tremble.
I will wait on the LORD while he keeps his face hidden from the house of Jacob; I will look to him in hope.
Here I am with the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and omens in Israel from the LORD of Armies, who makes his home on Mount Zion.
His rule will grow and grow, and its peace will never end, on David’s throne and over his kingdom, as he makes it firm and holds it up with justice and righteousness from now on and for all time. The burning zeal of the LORD of Armies will make this happen.
So the LORD has raised Rezin’s foes high against them and spurred on their enemies:
And still the people have not come back to the one who struck them, nor gone looking for the LORD of Armies.
So in one day the LORD lopped off Israel’s head and tail, the tall palm and the lowly rush.
The fury of the LORD of Armies has burned the land black, and the people have become like wood for the fire. No one spares even his own brother.
On that day the remnant of Israel, those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will no longer lean on the one who struck them down. Their support will be the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in all faithfulness.
The LORD of Armies will crack a whip over him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it up as he did in Egypt.
The Spirit of the LORD will settle on him: the Spirit who gives wisdom and insight, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
Fearing the LORD will be his delight. He will not judge by what his eyes take in, or give rulings by what reaches his ears.
None will hurt and none will destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be as full of knowing the LORD as the sea is full of water.
The LORD will destroy the gulf of the Egyptian sea; he will sweep his hand over the River with his scorching wind and break it into seven streams, so that people can cross in their sandals.
On that day you will say: LORD, I thank you! You were angry with me, but your anger has turned back, and now you comfort me.
Look, God is my salvation! I will rely on him and not be afraid. For Yah, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
On that day you will say: Give thanks to the LORD; call on his name! Make his deeds known among the peoples; remind them that his name is lifted high.
Make music to the LORD, for he has acted in majesty; let the whole earth come to know it.
Hear the roar on the mountains, like a vast multitude! Hear the din of kingdoms, of nations assembling! the LORD of Armies is gathering an army for war.
They come from a faraway land, from the ends of the sky: the LORD and the weapons of his fury, to ruin the whole earth.
Howl, for the day of the LORD is close at hand! It will come like ruin from the Almighty.
Look, the day of the LORD is on its way, merciless, full of fury and blazing anger, to turn the earth into a wasteland; and he will wipe out the sinners who live in it.
So I will make the sky shudder, and the earth will be jolted out of its place by the fury of the LORD of Armies, on the day his anger blazes.
Yes, the LORD will show mercy to Jacob. He will choose Israel once more and let them settle in peace on their own soil. The foreigner living among them will join them, and such people will bind themselves to the house of Jacob.
Peoples will take them and bring them home, and the house of Israel will hold those peoples as their own, male and female servants on the land of the LORD. Those who once carried them off will become their captives, and they will rule over those who oppressed them.
And on the day when the LORD gives you rest from your sorrow and your unrest, and from the cruel bondage forced on you,
The LORD has snapped the rod of the wicked, the scepter held by tyrants,
I will rise against them, declares the LORD of Armies. I will wipe out Babylon’s name and every survivor, its children and its children’s children, declares the LORD.
I will turn it into a home for hedgehogs and a land of marshy pools, and I will sweep it clean with destruction as with a broom, declares the LORD of Armies.
The LORD of Armies has taken an oath: What I have had in mind will surely happen; what I have decided will stand firm,
The LORD of Armies has made up his mind; who can overturn it? His hand is outstretched; who can pull it back?
What reply should be given to the envoys of that nation? This: The LORD has laid the foundation of Zion, and the downtrodden among his people will find shelter in her.
Such was the word the LORD spoke about Moab in earlier days.
But now the LORD has spoken: Within three years, counted as a hired worker counts them, the glory of Moab with all its great throng will be treated as nothing, and those left over will be a handful, without strength.
The stronghold will vanish from Ephraim and royal rule from Damascus; Aram’s survivors will end up like the glory of the Israelites, declares the LORD of Armies.
Some gleanings will remain in it, like olives left after a tree is beaten: two or three up in the crown, four or five out on the branches that bore the crop, declares the LORD, the God of Israel.
For the LORD said this to me: I will keep still and watch from the place where I dwell, silent as heat glimmering in the sunlight, as a dew cloud in the warmth of harvest.
At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Armies, from a people who are tall with smooth skin, from a people dreaded near and far, a nation of immense strength that treads others down, whose land is cut through by rivers. They will be brought to Mount Zion, the place that bears the name of the LORD of Armies.
An oracle about Egypt. Look, the LORD is riding a swift cloud, on his way to Egypt. Egypt’s idols will shake at his coming, and Egypt’s courage will melt away inside it.
So where are your wise men? Let them explain to you, if they know, what the LORD of Armies intends for Egypt.
The LORD has poured into it a spirit that twists everything, and they have sent Egypt reeling in all it does, like a drunk who slips in his own vomit.
On that day Egypt will be like women, trembling and shaking in fear when the LORD of Armies raises his hand and waves it over them.
Egypt will come to fear the land of Judah. Each time someone speaks its name, Egyptians will shudder at the plan that the LORD of Armies is making against them.
On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and bind themselves by oath to the LORD of Armies. One will be known as the City of Destruction.
On that day an altar to the LORD will stand in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a sacred pillar for the LORD near its border.
These will stand as a sign and a testimony to the LORD of Armies in the land of Egypt. When the Egyptians cry out to the LORD under their oppressors, he will send them someone to save them, a champion who will set them free.
The LORD will reveal himself to Egypt, and on that day Egypt will know the LORD. They will bring him sacrifices and grain offerings in worship; they will make vows to the LORD and fulfill them.
The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and then healing. They will turn back to the LORD, and he will listen to their prayers and heal them.
whom the LORD of Armies has blessed with these words: “May Egypt, my people, be blessed, and Assyria, which my hands have made, and Israel, my own inheritance.”
at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz: “Go, untie the sackcloth from around your waist, and pull the sandals off your feet.” He did as he was told, walking about naked and barefoot.
Then the LORD said, “My servant Isaiah has walked about naked and barefoot for three years, a sign and a forewarning against Egypt and Cush.
O my people, threshed like grain, crushed on my threshing floor! What I heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, I have announced to you.
Of Kedar’s warriors, only a handful of bowmen will remain, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.
The LORD of Armies has made himself known to my ears: This guilt of yours will never be atoned for until the day you die, says the Lord GOD of Armies.
Look out, you strong man! The LORD is going to fling you far away and grip you hard.
On that day, declares the LORD of Armies, the peg fixed in a secure place will work loose. It will be hacked off and fall, and everything it held will be cut away, for the LORD has spoken.’”
The LORD of Armies planned it, to stain the pride that every splendor brings and to bring low all the earth’s honored ones.
He has reached out his hand over the sea and set kingdoms trembling. The LORD has issued orders against Canaan, that her fortresses be torn down.
At the end of the seventy years the LORD will turn his attention to Tyre. She will go back to earning her fee, selling herself to every kingdom of the world across the face of the earth.
Yet what she gains and what she is paid will be holy, belonging to the LORD. No one will lock it away or pile it up. Her earnings will go to those who live in the presence of the LORD, to give them all the food they want and splendid clothing.
Look! The LORD is about to strip the earth bare and lay it waste; he will wrench its face out of shape and scatter the people who live on it.
The earth will be stripped completely bare and looted through and through, for this is the word the LORD has spoken.
These raise their voices and ring out with joy; from the west they shout aloud at the majesty of the LORD.
So honor the LORD in the lands of the dawn; in the coastlands of the sea, honor the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
On that day the LORD will call to account the army of the heights up on high and the kings of the earth down on the earth.
The moon will blush and the sun will hang its head, for the LORD of Armies will reign as king on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his elders there will be glory.
LORD, you are my God! I will lift you high and give thanks to your name. You have worked a marvel: purposes formed long ago, carried out with steadfast faithfulness.
On this mountain the LORD of Armies will spread a banquet for all the peoples: a feast of the richest food, a feast of wine long aged, dishes rich with marrow, old wine strained clear.
He will swallow up death for all time. The Lord GOD will wipe every face clean of tears and lift from all the earth the disgrace of his people, for the LORD has spoken.
On that day people will say: Look, this is our God! We waited for him, and he will rescue us. This is the LORD, the one we waited for; let us be full of joy and delight in his salvation.
The hand of the LORD will rest upon this mountain, but Moab will be crushed underfoot on its own ground, like straw stamped down into a dung heap.
Put your trust in the LORD for all time, for Yah, the LORD, is a rock that stands through every age.
Even on the path where your judgments lead, LORD, we have waited for you; our deepest longing is for your name, the name by which you are remembered.
Show mercy to the wicked, and still they will not learn righteousness; even where all is upright they act crookedly, blind to the majesty of the LORD.
LORD, your hand is lifted up, yet they take no notice. They will see your burning devotion to your people, and shame will cover them; the very fire that waits for your enemies will devour them.
LORD, you will set peace in place for us; indeed, whatever we have accomplished was your doing for us.
LORD our God, masters other than you have lorded it over us, but it is you alone, your name, that we call on.
You have made the nation grow, LORD, you have made the nation grow; you have shown your glory and pushed out every border of the land.
LORD, when hardship came they sought you out; under your correction they poured out a hushed prayer.
Like an expectant mother whose hour has come, who twists in pain and cries out in her labor, that is how we have been before you, LORD.
Look! The LORD is setting out from his place to call the people of the earth to account for their guilt. The earth will lay bare the blood poured out on it and no longer keep its slain covered.
On that day the LORD will take his great sword, harsh and strong, and bring it down on Leviathan the serpent in flight, on Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will kill the monster that lives in the sea.
I, the LORD, am the one who tends it. I give it water moment by moment. So that no one will do it harm, I stand guard over it night and day.
On that day the LORD will beat out the grain from the current of the Euphrates down to the Wadi of Egypt, and you will be picked up one at a time, Israelites.
On that day a great ram’s horn will sound. Those lost in the land of Assyria will come, with those driven off into the land of Egypt, and they will bow down to the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
On that day the LORD of Armies himself will be the splendid crown, the beautiful garland, worn by the survivors of his people,
So the word of the LORD will come to them as tsav latsav, tsav latsav, qav laqav, qav laqav, a little here, a little there, so that they will walk on and fall backward, broken, trapped, and taken captive.
Now then, you men who sneer, you who govern this people in Jerusalem: listen to what the LORD says!
As at Mount Perazim, the LORD will stand up; as in the valley near Gibeon, he will burst into fury, to do his deed, a strange deed, and to carry out his work, an alien work.
This too comes from the LORD of Armies, whose counsel is a wonder and whose wisdom is great.
The LORD of Armies will come to her with thunder, earthquake, and a mighty roar, with gale and tempest and the blaze of a fire that consumes.
The LORD has poured over you a spirit of heavy sleep. He has shut your eyes, that is, your prophets; he has wrapped your heads, that is, your seers.
Woe to those who burrow deep to keep their schemes hidden from the LORD! Their deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, “Who sees us? Who knows about us?”
The humble will have more and more joy in the LORD, and the neediest of humankind will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says this about the house of Jacob: From now on Jacob will not be disgraced; his face will not turn pale anymore.
Woe to the rebellious children, declares the LORD, who carry through a scheme that does not come from me, who seal a pact with a drink offering when my Spirit has not led them, piling up sin after sin,
For they are a defiant people, children who deal falsely, children who refuse to listen to the instruction of the LORD,
Even so, the LORD is waiting to be kind to you; he is rising to have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice. Those who wait for him are truly blessed.
The moonlight will be as bright as sunlight, and sunlight will be seven times stronger, like seven days’ light in one, on the day the LORD bandages the fractures of his people and heals the wounds his blows left.
Look! The name of the LORD is coming from far away, his anger burning and the smoke rising thick and heavy. His lips brim with fury; his tongue is like a fire that devours.
But for you there will be singing, as on the night a holy feast begins, and joy in your hearts, like pilgrims walking to the flute’s tune on their way to the mountain of the LORD, the Rock of Israel.
The LORD will make the splendor of his voice ring out, and he will show his arm as it falls, with furious anger and a flame of fire that devours, with bursting storm, driving rain, and hailstones.
At the voice of the LORD Assyria will be shattered with dread, as he strikes it with the rod.
Each time the LORD brings the rod he has appointed down on Assyria, tambourines and lyres will sound, and he will do battle against them with a raised and swinging arm.
For Topheth was laid out long ago, and it stands ready for the king too. Its pyre is broad and deep, heaped with plenty of wood for the fire, and the breath of the LORD will kindle it like a river of sulfur.
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help! They lean on horses; they put their confidence in chariots, for there are many of them, and in cavalry, for it is very strong. But they do not turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel; they do not inquire of the LORD.
Egypt is human and not God; its horses are flesh and not spirit. The LORD will stretch out his hand: the one who gives help will stagger, the one who receives it will go down, and both will be finished together.
For the LORD has said this to me: Think of a lion, a young lion, rumbling over its kill. A crowd of shepherds is called out against it, yet their yelling does not scare it and their uproar does not make it shrink back. In the same way the LORD of Armies will come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.
Like birds on the wing, the LORD of Armies will protect Jerusalem: he will protect and rescue, he will pass over and deliver.
Its rock will give way in terror, its officers will be shaken at the sight of the signal flag, declares the LORD, who keeps a fire in Zion and a furnace in Jerusalem.
For a fool talks foolishness, and his mind works at evil: he behaves godlessly and says twisted things about the LORD, he sends the hungry away still empty and cuts off drink from the thirsty.
LORD, show us grace; we have waited for you. Be their strong arm morning by morning, and our salvation when trouble comes.
The LORD is exalted, for he lives on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
He will be the firm foundation of your times, a rich store of salvation, of wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
Now I will rise up, says the LORD; now I will show myself high and mighty; now I will lift myself up.
Instead, there the LORD in majesty will be ours, a place of rivers and wide streams, where no galley with oars will sail and no mighty ship will pass through.
For our judge is the LORD, our lawgiver is the LORD, our king is the LORD; he himself will save us.
For the LORD is angry with all the nations, furious with all their armies. He has doomed them to destruction and handed them over to be slaughtered.
The LORD has a sword, and it drips with blood and is greasy with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat from the kidneys of rams. For in Bozrah the LORD is holding a sacrifice, a great slaughter across the land of Edom.
For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of repayment, to take up Zion’s case.
Search the scroll of the LORD and read it through: of all these, not one will be absent, and none will go without its mate. It is my own mouth that gave the order, and his Spirit has brought them together.
Its blossoms will be everywhere; it will exult with gladness and glad cries. It will receive the glory of Lebanon, the splendor of Carmel and of Sharon. They will see the LORD in his glory, our God in his splendor.
Those the LORD has ransomed will come back; they will enter Zion with glad shouts, with joy that never ends resting on their heads. Delight and gladness will catch up with them, and grief and groaning will run away.
Or if you tell me, “Our trust is in the LORD our God,” did Hezekiah not get rid of his high places and his altars? Did he not tell Judah and Jerusalem, “It is before this altar that you must bow down”?
And was it apart from the LORD that I came up to ruin this land? It was the LORD who said to me, “Go up against this land and ruin it.”’”
And do not let Hezekiah lead you to rely on the LORD when he tells you, “The LORD is sure to rescue us. The king of Assyria will never be given this city.”’
Watch out, or Hezekiah will lead you astray by saying, “The LORD will rescue us.” Did any of the gods of the nations ever rescue its own land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
Among all the gods of these countries, which ones have rescued their land from my hand, that the LORD should rescue Jerusalem from me?’”
As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, wrapped himself in sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.
Perhaps the LORD your God will hear what the chief officer said when his master the king of Assyria sent him to insult the living God, and will call him to account for the words the LORD your God has heard. Lift up a prayer, then, for the remnant that is still here.”
Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘The LORD says this: Do not be frightened by what you have heard, the words with which the king of Assyria’s lackeys have reviled me.
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it through. He went up to the house of the LORD and opened it out in the presence of the LORD.
Then Hezekiah prayed to the LORD,
“LORD of Armies, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim: you, and no one else, are God of every kingdom on earth. It was you who made the heavens and the earth.
Turn your ear, LORD, and listen; open your eyes, LORD, and look. Hear every word Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.
It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have laid waste all these lands and their territory,
So now, LORD our God, rescue us from his power, so that every kingdom on earth will know that you alone are the LORD.”
Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: “The LORD, the God of Israel, says this: Because you have prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,
this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: The virgin, Daughter Zion, looks down on you and laughs at you; Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head at your back.
For a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and from Mount Zion those who have escaped. The burning zeal of the LORD of Armies will make this happen.
Therefore the LORD says this about the king of Assyria: He will never set foot in this city. He will not fire a single arrow into it, nor face it with a shield, nor pile up an earthen ramp against its walls.
The road that brought him here will take him back again. This city he will not enter, declares the LORD.
The angel of the LORD then went out and struck down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. At dawn, when people got up, they found them all lying dead.
In those days Hezekiah fell ill and was close to death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “The LORD says this: Give final instructions to your household, for you are dying and will not live.”
Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the LORD.
He said, “Please, LORD, remember how I have lived before you faithfully and with an undivided heart, doing what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept loudly.
Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:
“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Now I will add fifteen years to your days.
And this will be your sign from the LORD that the LORD will carry out what he has said:
The LORD has come to save me! So all the days of our life we will make music on my strings at the house of the LORD.
And Hezekiah had asked, “What sign is there to show that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the word of the LORD of Armies:
Look, a time is coming when all that is in your palace, everything your ancestors have laid up until today, will be hauled off to Babylon. Not one thing will remain, says the LORD.
Hezekiah answered Isaiah, “This word of the LORD that you have brought is good.” He was thinking, “At any rate there will be peace and stability as long as I live.”
Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her that her time of forced labor is finished, that the penalty for her guilt has been paid, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice calls out: In the wilderness clear a road for the LORD; across the desert plain lay a straight highway for our God.
The glory of the LORD will be unveiled, and every human being will see it together, for the LORD has spoken it with his own mouth.
The grass dries out and the flower droops when the wind of the LORD blows across it; yes, the people are mere grass.
Who has taken the measure of the Spirit of the LORD? What adviser of his has ever taught him?
Why do you say, Jacob, and why do you insist, Israel, “My path is hidden from the LORD, and my God lets my case slip by”?
Do you not know? Or have you not heard? The LORD is the God of all ages, the maker of the earth to its farthest edges. He does not tire or wear out, and his understanding is beyond all searching.
But those who wait for the LORD will take on fresh strength. They will climb high on outspread wings like eagles. They will run and not wear out; they will walk and not tire.
Who has worked and achieved this? Who summoned the generations at the very start? I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last I am still he.
For I, the LORD your God, have hold of your right hand; I am the one telling you, “Do not be afraid. I will help you myself.”
Do not be afraid, Jacob, worm that you are, you small band of Israel! I am the one who will help you, declares the LORD. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer.
You will winnow them; the wind will lift them away and the storm will scatter them far. And you will be glad in the LORD; you will take pride in the Holy One of Israel.
The afflicted and the poor hunt for water and find none; thirst has dried their tongues. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, Israel’s God, will never leave them.
All this is so that people will see and know, will ponder and understand together, that it was the hand of the LORD that did this, and the Holy One of Israel who created it.
Bring your lawsuit forward, says the LORD; produce your strongest proofs, says the King of Jacob.
God, the LORD, says this, the one who created the heavens and stretched them out, who hammered the earth flat and brought forth its growth, who gives breath to the people living on it and life to those who walk there:
I, the LORD, called you for a righteous purpose; I will grip your hand and guard you. I will make you a covenant for the people and a light for the nations,
I am the LORD; that is my name. My glory I will not hand over to anyone else, nor the praise due to me to carved images.
Sing the LORD a new song; let his praise sound from the far edge of the earth, you seafarers and everything that fills the sea, you coastlands and all who dwell on them.
Let them bring glory to the LORD and spread his praise through the coastlands.
The LORD will go out like a hero; like a seasoned soldier he will fire up his zeal. He will shout, yes, raise the battle roar, and prove his strength against his enemies.
Who is so blind as my servant, so deaf as the messenger I am sending? Who is as blind as the dedicated one, as blind as the servant of the LORD?
For the sake of his own righteousness, the LORD was glad to make the instruction great and splendid.
Who gave Jacob up as spoil and Israel to raiders? Was it not the LORD, the one we sinned against? They refused to walk in his ways and would not heed his instruction.
But now the LORD, your Creator, Jacob, the one who shaped you, Israel, says this: Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I called you by your own name; you belong to me.
For I am the LORD your God; I am the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as the price of your freedom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
You are my witnesses, declares the LORD, and my servant, the one I have chosen, so that you will come to know me, put your trust in me, and grasp that I am he. Before me no god was ever shaped, and none will come after me.
It is I, I who am the LORD; there is no savior but me.
It was I who told it beforehand, I who saved, I who made it heard; no foreign god was among you. You are my witnesses, declares the LORD, and I am God.
The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says this: For your sake I have sent an enemy against Babylon. I will bring all of them down in flight, the Chaldeans, in the ships that once rang with their shouts.
I am the LORD, your Holy One, who created Israel, your King.
The LORD says this, the one who makes a road through the sea, a path through surging waters,
The LORD says this, he who made you, who shaped you in the womb and will come to your aid: Have no fear, Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, my chosen one.
One will say, “I am the LORD’s”; another will claim the name of Jacob; another will write on the hand, “Belonging to the LORD,” and take Israel as a name of honor.
The LORD, the King of Israel, its Redeemer, the LORD of Armies, says this: I am the first and I am the last; there is no god but me.
Ring out with joy, you heavens, because the LORD has acted! Raise a shout, you depths below the earth! Burst into joyful song, mountains, you forest too, and every tree within it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and he will show his glory in Israel.
The LORD, your Redeemer, who shaped you in the womb, says this: I am the LORD, who made everything, who alone stretched out the heavens, who hammered out the earth with no one beside me,
The LORD says this to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom I hold by the right hand to beat down nations before him and undo the sword belts of kings, to throw doors open ahead of him so that no gates stay shut:
I will hand over to you treasures kept in the dark and wealth hoarded in hidden vaults. Then you will know that I am the LORD; the God of Israel is calling you by name.
I am the LORD; there is no one else. Other than me, there is no God. I will buckle your belt on you for battle, though you have not known me,
so that people from where the sun rises to where it sets may know that there is none but me. I am the LORD; there is no one else.
I shape the light and I create the darkness; I bring about peace and I create calamity. I am the LORD, the one who does all of this.
Heavens above, let righteousness trickle down; clouds, let it stream out. Earth, open up and yield a harvest of salvation, and let righteousness sprout along with it. I, the LORD, have brought it into being.
The LORD, the Holy One of Israel, the one who formed him, says this: Ask me about what is coming! Are you going to give me orders about my children, about the things my hands have made?
I myself have roused him for my righteous purpose, and I will clear every path before him. He will build my city again and release my exiled people, without ransom or bribe, says the LORD of Armies.
The LORD says this: The harvests of Egypt, the trade goods of Cush, and the Sabeans, a towering people, will pass into your hands and belong to you. They will march behind you in chains; they will cross over to you, bow low before you, and make their appeal to you: “God really is in your midst! There is no one else; there is no other god at all.”
Israel is saved by the LORD, a salvation that lasts for all time. You will never be shamed or humiliated, through all the ages to come.
For the LORD says this, the creator of the heavens, the one who is God, who shaped the earth and made it, who set it firmly in place, who did not create it to be a barren waste but formed it for people to live on: I am the LORD; there is no one else.
My words were not whispered in hiding, from some corner of a dark land. I never told Jacob’s offspring, “Look for me, but you will find nothing.” I am the LORD: what I say is righteous, and what I announce is upright.
Make your declaration and bring your evidence; let them plan their answer together! Who made this known in times long past and announced it back then? Was it not I, the LORD? No god exists other than me. I am a God who is righteous and who saves, and there is no one except me.
Of me they will say, “Only in the LORD is there righteousness and strength.” Everyone who burned with anger against him will come before him in shame.
In the LORD all Israel’s descendants will be shown to be in the right, and they will rejoice proudly in him.
Our Redeemer, whose name is the LORD of Armies, the Holy One of Israel!
Hear this, house of Jacob, you who bear the name Israel and sprang from the waters of Judah, you who swear by the name of the LORD and call on the God of Israel, yet without truth and without righteousness.
For they name themselves after the holy city and lean for support on the God of Israel; the LORD of Armies is his name.
All of you, gather and hear! Which of them announced these things? The one the LORD loves will carry out his purpose against Babylon, and his arm will be turned against the Chaldeans.
The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says this: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is for your good and guides you along the road you are to walk.
Go out of Babylon! Escape from the Chaldeans! Raise a joyful cry and tell it; let this be heard, sent out to the far ends of the earth. Say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked.
Coastlands, listen to me; peoples who live far away, give heed. The LORD called me while I was still in the womb; he spoke my name while I was yet inside my mother.
But I said, “I have toiled for no purpose; I have worn out my strength for what is empty, a mere breath. Even so, my case rests with the LORD, and my God holds my wages.”
And now the LORD speaks, who shaped me in the womb to be his servant, to turn Jacob back to him and to gather Israel to him (for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength),
The LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, says this to the one whom everyone despises, whom the nation detests, the servant of rulers: Kings will see you and rise to their feet; princes will see you and bow low, because of the LORD, who keeps faith, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
The LORD says this: In a time of favor I answered you; on the day of salvation I came to your aid. I will watch over you and give you to be a covenant for the people, to set the land on its feet again and to hand out once more its ruined estates,
Heavens, ring out with joy! Earth, be glad! Mountains, break out in cries of joy! For the LORD has comforted his people and will show tender love to his suffering ones.
But Zion said, “The LORD has left me behind; the Lord has forgotten all about me.”
Raise your eyes and look in every direction: they are all gathering and coming to you. As I live, declares the LORD, you will put every one of them on like jewelry and wrap them about you like a bride on her wedding day.
Kings will look after your children as guardians, and their princesses will nurse them for you. They will bow low before you with their faces to the ground and lick the dust off your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD, and that none who wait in hope for me end up ashamed.
But the LORD says this: Yes, a warrior’s captives will be taken from him, and a tyrant’s loot will slip out of his hands. I myself will take on the one who fights you, and I myself will rescue your children.
Those who oppress you I will feed with their own flesh, and they will get drunk on their own blood as if it were new wine. Then all humankind will know that I, the LORD, am the one who saves you, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
The LORD says this: Where is the certificate of divorce I gave your mother when I sent her away? Or was it to one of my creditors that I handed you over in payment? No, it was for your own guilt that you were sold, and for your rebellions that your mother was sent away.
Who among you fears the LORD and listens to the voice of his servant? Let the one who walks in darkness, with no glimmer of light, trust in the name of the LORD and lean on his God.
Listen to me, you who chase after righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock you were cut from, to the hollow of the pit you were dug out of.
For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will bring comfort to all her ruined places. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her barren plain like the garden of the LORD. Gladness and delight will be found in her, songs of thanks and the sound of music.
Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD! Awake as in days long gone, in ages past! Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who ran the sea monster through?
Those the LORD has ransomed will come back; they will enter Zion with glad shouts, with joy that never ends resting on their heads. Delight and gladness will catch up with them, and grief and groaning will run away.
and you have forgotten the LORD your Maker, who spread out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? Day after day you live in constant dread of the oppressor’s rage as he takes aim to destroy. But where is the oppressor’s rage now?
I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea until its waves roar; the LORD of Armies is his name.
Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the LORD’s hand the cup of his wrath, who have drunk the goblet that makes people reel and emptied it to the bottom.
Your children have collapsed; they lie at the corner of every street like an antelope in a net, filled to the brim with the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
Your Lord, the LORD, your God who takes up his people’s cause, says this: See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that makes you reel. The goblet of my wrath you will never drink again.
For the LORD says this: You were sold and nothing was paid; you will be redeemed and no silver will change hands.
So now, what is here for me? declares the LORD. My people have been taken, and nothing was paid for them. Their rulers howl, declares the LORD, and all day long, without pause, my name is scorned.
Hear it! Your watchmen are raising a shout; they cry out for joy as one, for they see it plainly, eye to eye, as the LORD comes back to Zion.
You ruined places of Jerusalem, break into song; shout for joy, all of you together! The LORD has brought comfort to his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The LORD has stripped bare his holy arm in full view of every nation, and the whole earth, to its farthest edges, will see the salvation of our God.
Depart, depart, get out of there! Touch nothing unclean. Leave from the midst of her and make yourselves pure, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.
For you will not leave in a rush, nor go off like runaways. The LORD walks at your head, and the God of Israel guards you from behind.
Who has believed the news that reached us? And the arm of the LORD, to whom has it been laid bare?
Every one of us has wandered off like sheep; we have each turned aside down our own path, and the LORD has made all our guilt fall on him.
Yet it pleased the LORD to crush him and make him sick. If he offers himself as a guilt offering, he will see children and live long days, and through his hands what pleases the LORD will thrive.
Sing out, childless woman who never bore a child; burst into song and shout, you who never went into labor! For the woman left alone will have more children than the woman who has a husband, says the LORD.
Your husband is the one who made you; the LORD of Armies is his name. Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, and he is called God of the whole earth.
For the LORD calls to you as to a wife left alone and grieving in spirit, as to the wife a man married young and then cast off, says your God.
When my anger overflowed, I turned my face away from you for a moment; but with loyal love that lasts forever I will show you compassion, says the LORD, your Redeemer.
The mountains may move away and the hills may totter, yet my loyal love will never move away from you, and my covenant of peace will not totter, says the LORD, who shows you compassion.
The LORD will teach every one of your children, and great peace will be theirs.
Not one weapon shaped to harm you will succeed, and every tongue that accuses you in court you will prove wrong. This is the share that belongs to the servants of the LORD; their righteousness comes from me, declares the LORD.
You in turn will summon a nation you have never known, and a nation that never knew you will hurry to you, drawn by the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has made you shine with honor.
Look for the LORD while he can still be found; call to him while he is close by.
Let those who do wrong leave their path behind, and the evil their schemes. Let them come back to the LORD, and he will show them mercy; let them come back to our God, for he is generous to forgive.
What I plan is not what you plan, and the paths you take are not my paths, declares the LORD.
Where thornbushes grew, cypress trees will rise; where nettles grew, myrtle will spring up. This will win the LORD a name, a sign that will last forever and never be cut down.
The LORD says this: Guard justice and practice righteousness, for my salvation is near and ready to come, and my righteousness is about to be made known.
The foreigner who has attached himself to the LORD must not say, “The LORD is sure to set me apart from his people.” The eunuch must not say, “See, I am nothing but a dried-up tree.”
For the LORD says this to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what gives me pleasure, and who hold firmly to my covenant:
As for the foreigners who attach themselves to the LORD, who serve him, who love the name of the LORD and become his servants, everyone who guards the Sabbath and does not make it common and who clings to my covenant,
I bring into being the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to those far off and to those close at hand, says the LORD, and I will heal them.
Do you think this is the fast I choose: a day when people deny themselves, droop their heads like a bulrush, and make their bed on sackcloth and ashes? Do you call that a fast, a day that wins the favor of the LORD?
Then like the dawn your light will break forth, and your healing will spring up without delay. Your righteousness will march ahead of you, and the glory of the LORD will guard you from behind.
Then when you call, the LORD will answer; when you cry out for help, he will say, “I am here.” If you do away with the yoke among you, the finger pointed in scorn, and words that do harm,
The LORD will guide you without ceasing. He will satisfy your hunger in a sunbaked land and give strength to your bones. You will be like a garden with plenty of water, like a spring whose flow never stops.
If you hold back your steps on the Sabbath and do not chase your own interests on my holy day; if you name the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD a day to honor, and honor it by leaving your own paths, your own pursuits, and your deal-making aside,
then you will find joy in the LORD. I will set you astride the high places of the land and nourish you from the inheritance of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
See, the hand of the LORD is not too short to save, nor has his ear become too heavy to hear.
We have rebelled and been false to the LORD; we have turned away from following our God. We have spoken of oppression and revolt, and from our hearts we have conceived and voiced lying words.
Truth has gone missing, and the one who keeps away from evil is robbed for it. The LORD saw this, and it was evil in his sight that justice was gone.
In the west they will fear the name of the LORD, and in the east, where the sun rises, they will fear his glory. For he will come like a river forced through a narrow gorge, a torrent driven by the wind of the LORD.
To Zion a Redeemer will come, to the people of Jacob who turn away from their rebellion, declares the LORD.
As for me, this is the covenant I make with them, says the LORD: my Spirit who rests on you and my words that I have set in your mouth will never leave your lips, nor the lips of your children, nor the lips of their children after them, says the LORD, from this day on and for all time.
Rise up and shine, for your light has come; the glory of the LORD has dawned over you.
Look: darkness will cover the earth and a heavy gloom will lie on the peoples, but the LORD will rise like the dawn over you, and his glory will be seen above you.
Caravans of camels will fill your land, young camels from Midian and Ephah. Everyone from Sheba will come, bringing gold and frankincense and announcing the deeds of the LORD that deserve praise.
The coastlands wait in hope for me; the ships of Tarshish sail first, carrying your children home from distant places, and their silver and gold along with them, for the name of the LORD your God, for the Holy One of Israel, since he has made you glorious.
The children of those who oppressed you will come to you with heads bowed; everyone who looked down on you will fall at your feet. They will name you City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
Nations will feed you with their milk, and kings will nurse you like a child at the breast. Then you will know that I, the LORD, am the one who saves you, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
No longer will the sun be what lights your day, nor the glow of the moon what shines on you; the LORD will be your light for all time, and your God will be your splendor.
Your sun will set no more, and your moon will never fade; the LORD will be your light for all time, and your days of grief will be over.
The smallest family among you will grow to a thousand, the weakest into a strong nation. I am the LORD; when the time is right, I will bring it about quickly.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD rests on me, for the LORD has anointed me to carry good news to the lowly. He has sent me to bandage hearts that are broken, to announce freedom for captives and, for those in chains, eyes opened wide,
to announce a year when the LORD shows favor and a day when our God takes vengeance, to console all who grieve,
to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a festive turban in place of ashes, the oil of rejoicing in place of grief, a cloak of praise in place of a spirit burning low. They will be named oaks of righteousness, planted by the LORD to show his beauty.
And you will be known as priests of the LORD; people will speak of you as those who serve our God. You will live on the wealth of the nations and take pride in their glory.
For I, the LORD, am a lover of justice and I hate robbery joined to wrongdoing. I will pay them their wages faithfully and make a covenant with them that lasts forever.
Their children will be famous among the nations, and their descendants among the peoples. Anyone who sees them will recognize them as a line of children whom the LORD has blessed.
My joy in the LORD overflows; my whole being delights in my God. He has dressed me in clothing of salvation and wrapped me in a cloak of righteousness, like a bridegroom wearing a turban as a priest does, like a bride decked out in her jewels.
Nations will see your righteousness and every king your glory. You will be given a new name, one that the LORD will pronounce with his own mouth.
You will be a beautiful crown held in the hand of the LORD, a king’s turban resting in the palm of your God.
No one will call you Abandoned any longer, or call your land Desolation. Instead you will be named She Is My Delight, and your land Wedded, because the LORD delights in you, and your land will be taken as a bride.
I have stationed guards on your walls, Jerusalem; through the whole day and the whole night they will keep calling out, never silent. You who keep reminding the LORD, do not rest,
The LORD has bound himself by oath, by his right hand and his strong arm: I will not let your enemies eat your grain any more, nor let outsiders drink the new wine you worked to make,
no, the ones who reaped the grain will eat it, praising the LORD, and the ones who picked the grapes will drink the wine in the courtyards of my holy house.
See, the LORD has announced to the farthest parts of the earth: Tell Daughter Zion, “Look, your salvation is coming! Look, he brings his prize with him; what he has won goes ahead of him.”
They will be named The Holy People, Those the LORD Has Redeemed, and you will be named Sought After, The City Not Abandoned.
I will bring to mind the acts of loyal love the LORD has shown, the deeds that make the LORD worthy of praise, for all that the LORD has done for us: the great goodness he has shown to the house of Israel, out of his tender mercy and his abundant loyal love.
As cattle make their way down into a valley, the Spirit of the LORD brought them to rest. In this way you guided your people, to make for yourself a name full of splendor.
Surely you are our Father, even if Abraham has never heard of us and Israel would not claim us as his own. You, LORD, are our Father; from ages past your name has been Our Redeemer.
LORD, why do you send us straying from your paths, and make our hearts so hard that we no longer fear you? Turn back to us for the sake of your servants, the tribes that belong to you.
But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you the potter who shaped us; every one of us is what your hand has made.
LORD, do not let your anger go too far, and do not keep our guilt in mind forever. Look at us, we beg you: all of us are your people.
With all this before you, LORD, will you still hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and afflict us so severely?
for your guilt and the guilt of your ancestors as well, says the LORD. They made offerings smoke on the mountains and mocked me on the hills, so I will measure out what their past deeds have earned and pour it into their laps.
The LORD says this: As long as new wine can be found in a bunch of grapes, people say, “Leave it whole, for there is blessing in it.” I will do the same for my servants’ sake: I will not destroy everything.
But you who turn away from the LORD, who have forgotten my holy mountain, who lay a table for Gad and fill cups of mixed wine for Meni,
Their work will not be wasted, nor will they bring children into the world for sudden ruin; for they are the offspring of those the LORD has blessed, and their own children with them.
Wolf and lamb will graze side by side, the lion will eat straw as the ox does, and the snake will live on dust. None will hurt and none will destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, says the LORD.
The LORD says this: The heavens are my throne, and the earth is a stool for my feet. What kind of house would you build for me, and what kind of place could be my resting place?
My own hand made all these things, and that is how they all exist, declares the LORD. The one I will regard with favor is the lowly, the broken in spirit, who trembles at my word.
Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: Your own kin, who hate you and cast you out because of my name, have said, “Let the LORD show his glory, and we will see how glad you are!” But it is they who will be put to shame.
Hear that roar from the city! Hear the noise from the temple! It is the sound of the LORD paying back his enemies what they have earned.
Would I bring on the birth and then not let the child be born? says the LORD. Would I, who bring children to birth, then hold them back? says your God.
For the LORD says this: Look, I will make peace flow to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like a stream in flood. You will feed at her breast; she will carry you at her side and play with you on her knees.
You will see this and your hearts will be glad; your bones will spring up like new grass. It will be known that the hand of the LORD is with his servants, but he will be furious with his enemies.
Look! the LORD comes in fire, and his chariots sweep in like a storm, to give vent to his anger in fury and his rebuke in tongues of fire.
By fire and by his sword the LORD will bring all humanity to judgment, and those struck down by the LORD will be many.
Those who set themselves apart and cleanse themselves to enter the gardens, following the one in the center, who eat pork, vile creatures and mice, will perish together, declares the LORD.
They will bring all your kin out of every nation as an offering to the LORD. They will come on horses, in chariots and covered carts, on mules and on swift camels, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the Israelites bring grain offerings to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
And I will even take some of them to be priests and Levites, says the LORD.
The new heavens and the new earth that I am about to make will stand firm in my presence, declares the LORD; in the same way your descendants and your name will stand firm.
Month after month at the new moon, and week after week on the Sabbath, all humanity will come to bow in worship before me, says the LORD.