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Isaiah 1:21-25 (Listen)

• Song of Solomon 8
• Isaiah 1
• Isaiah 2

The Unfaithful City

21 How the faithful city

rhas become a whore,1

sshe who was full of justice!

Righteousness lodged in her,

but now murderers.

22 tYour silver has become dross,

your best wine mixed with water.

23 Your princes are rebels

and companions of thieves.

Everyone uloves a bribe

and runs after gifts.

vThey do not bring justice to the fatherless,

and the widow's cause does not come to them.

24 Therefore the wLord declares,

the Lord of hosts,

the xMighty One of Israel:

“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies

yand avenge myself on my foes.

25 zI will turn my hand against you

and will smelt away your adross as with lye

and remove all your alloy.

Isaiah 28-31 (Listen)

• Isaiah 27
• Isaiah 28–31
• Isaiah 32

Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem

28 Ah, the proud crown of ythe drunkards of Ephraim,

and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!

2 Behold, the Lord has zone who is mighty and strong;

like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,

like aa storm of mighty, overflowing waters,

he casts down to the earth with his hand.

3 bThe proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim

will be trodden underfoot;

4 cand the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

which is on the head of the rich valley,

will be like da first-ripe fig before the summer:

when someone sees it, he swallows it

as soon as it is in his hand.

5 eIn that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory,1

and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,

6 and fa spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,

and gstrength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

7 hThese also reel with wine

and istagger with strong drink;

the priest and jthe prophet reel with strong drink,

they are swallowed by2 wine,

they stagger with strong drink,

they reel in vision,

they stumble in giving judgment.

8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit,

with no space left.

9 k“To whom will he teach knowledge,

and to whom will he explain the message?

Those who are weaned from the milk,

those taken from the breast?

10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,

line upon line, line upon line,

here a little, there a little.”

11 lFor by people of strange lips

and with a foreign tongue

the Lord will speak to this people,

12 to whom he has said,

m“This is rest;

give rest to the weary;

and this is repose”;

yet they would not hear.

13 And the word of the Lord will be to them

precept upon precept, precept upon precept,

line upon line, line upon line,

here a little, there a little,

nthat they may go, and fall backward,

and be broken, and snared, and taken.

A Cornerstone in Zion

14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you oscoffers,

who rule this people in Jerusalem!

15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,

and with Sheol we have an agreement,

when the poverwhelming whip passes through

it will not come to us,

for we have made qlies our refuge,

and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;

16 therefore thus says the Lord God,

r“Behold, I am the one who has laid3 as a foundation sin Zion,

a stone, a tested stone,

a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:

‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’

17 And I will make justice tthe line,

and righteousness tthe plumb line;

and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,

and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”

18 Then uyour covenant with death will be annulled,

and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;

when the overwhelming scourge passes through,

you will be beaten down by it.

19 As often as it passes through it will take you;

vfor morning by morning it will pass through,

by day and by night;

and it will be wsheer terror to understand the message.

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

and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.

21 For the Lord will rise up xas on Mount Perazim;

yas in the Valley of zGibeon he will be roused;

to do his deed—strange is his deed!

and to work his work—alien is his work!

22 Now therefore do not ascoff,

lest your bonds be made strong;

for I have heard ba decree of destruction

from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.

23 Give ear, and hear my voice;

give attention, and hear my speech.

24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?

Does he continually open and harrow his ground?

25 cWhen he has leveled its surface,

does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,

and put in wheat in rows

and barley in its proper place,

and emmer4 as the border?

26 dFor he is rightly instructed;

his God teaches him.

27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,

nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,

but dill is beaten out with a stick,

and cumin with a rod.

28 Does one crush grain for bread?

No, he does not thresh it forever;5

when he drives his cart wheel over it

with his horses, he does not crush it.

29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts;

he is ewonderful in counsel

and excellent in wisdom.

The Siege of Jerusalem

29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel,

the city fwhere David encamped!

Add year to year;

let the feasts run their round.

2 Yet I will distress Ariel,

and there shall be moaning and lamentation,

and she shall be to me like an Ariel.6

3 gAnd I will encamp against you all around,

and will besiege you hwith towers

and I will raise siegeworks against you.

4 iAnd you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,

and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;

your voice shall come from the ground like jthe voice of a ghost,

and from the dust your speech shall whisper.

5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like ksmall dust,

and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.

lAnd in an instant, suddenly,

6 myou will be visited by the Lord of hosts

with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,

with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

7 And nthe multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,

all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,

shall be olike a dream, a vision of the night.

8 pAs when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating

and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,

or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking

and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,

so shall the multitude of all the nations be

that fight against Mount Zion.

9 Astonish yourselves7 and be astonished;

blind yourselves and be blind!

Be drunk, but not with wine;

rstagger, but not with strong drink!

10 sFor the Lord has poured out upon you

a spirit of deep sleep,

and has closed your eyes (the prophets),

and covered your heads (the seers).

11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is tsealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

13 And the Lord said:

“Because uthis people vdraw near with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,

while their hearts are far from me,

and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

14 therefore, behold, wI will again

do wonderful things with this people,

with wonder upon wonder;

and xthe wisdom of their wise men shall perish,

and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

15 Ah, yyou who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,

whose deeds are zin the dark,

and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

16 aYou turn things upside down!

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,

that the thing made should say of its maker,

“He did not make me”;

or the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”?

17 Is it not yet a very little while

buntil Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?

18 In that day cthe deaf shall hear

dthe words of a book,

and out of their gloom and darkness

ethe eyes of the blind shall see.

19 fThe meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,

and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing

and gthe scoffer cease,

and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,

21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender,

and hlay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,

and with an empty plea iturn aside him who is in the right.

22 Therefore thus says the Lord, jwho redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,

no more shall his face grow pale.

23 For when he sees his children,

kthe work of my hands, in his midst,

they will sanctify my name;

lthey will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob

and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24 And those mwho go astray in spirit will come to understanding,

and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

Do Not Go Down to Egypt

30 “Ah, nstubborn children,” declares the Lord,

o“who carry out a plan, but not mine,

and who make pan alliance,8 but not of my Spirit,

that they may add sin to sin;

2 qwho set out to go down to Egypt,

without asking for my direction,

to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh

and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

3 rTherefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,

and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.

4 For though his officials are at sZoan

and this envoys reach uHanes,

5 everyone comes to shame

through va people that cannot profit them,

that brings neither help nor profit,

but shame and disgrace.”

6 An woracle on xthe beasts of ythe Negeb.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,

from where come the lioness and the lion,

the adder and the zflying fiery serpent,

they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,

and their treasures on the humps of camels,

to a people that cannot profit them.

7 Egypt's ahelp is worthless and empty;

therefore I have called her

b“Rahab who sits still.”

A Rebellious People

8 And now, go, cwrite it before them on a tablet

and inscribe it in a book,

that it may be for the time to come

as a witness forever.9

9 dFor they are a rebellious people,

lying children,

children unwilling to hear

the instruction of the Lord;

10 ewho say to fthe seers, “Do not see,”

and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;

speak to us gsmooth things,

prophesy illusions,

11 leave the way, turn aside from the path,

let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,

“Because you despise this word

and trust in hoppression and perverseness

and rely on them,

13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you

ilike a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,

whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

14 and its breaking is jlike that of a potter's vessel

that is smashed so ruthlessly

that among its fragments not a shard is found

with which to take fire from the hearth,

or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,

“In kreturning10 and lrest you shall be saved;

in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,

“No! We will flee upon mhorses”;

therefore you shall flee away;

and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;

therefore your pursuers shall be swift.

17 nA thousand shall flee at the threat of one;

at the threat of five you shall flee,

till you are left

like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,

like a signal on a hill.

The Lord Will Be Gracious

18 Therefore the Lord owaits to be gracious to you,

and therefore he pexalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

qblessed are all those who wait for him.

19 For a people shall dwell rin Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the sbread of adversity and the swater of affliction, tyet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 uAnd your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is vthe way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. wYou will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

23 xAnd he will give yrain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. zIn that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and athe oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And bon every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, cwhen the towers fall. 26 dMoreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when ethe Lord binds up fthe brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,

burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;11

his lips are full of fury,

and his tongue is like a devouring fire;

28 ghis breath is hlike an overflowing stream

that reaches up to the neck;

to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,

and to place on the jaws of the peoples ia bridle that leads astray.

29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, jas when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to kthe mountain of the Lord, to lthe Rock of Israel. 30 And the Lord mwill cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger nand a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst oand storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, pwhen he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them qwill be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. rBattling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For sa burning place12 has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, tits pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; uthe breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt

31 Woe to vthose who go down to Egypt for help

and rely on horses,

who wtrust in chariots because they are many

and in horsemen because they are very strong,

but xdo not look to the Holy One of Israel

or consult the Lord!

2 And yyet he is wise and brings disaster;

zhe does not call back his words,

but awill arise against the house of the evildoers

and against the helpers of bthose who work iniquity.

3 The Egyptians are man, and not God,

and their horses care flesh, and not spirit.

When the Lord stretches out his hand,

the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,

and they will all perish together.

4 For thus the Lord said to me,

d“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,

and when a band of shepherds is called out against him

he is not terrified by their shouting

or daunted at their noise,

eso the Lord of hosts will come down

to fight13 on Mount Zion and on its hill.

5 fLike birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts

will protect Jerusalem;

he will protect and deliver it;

he will spare and rescue it.”

6 gTurn to him from whom people14 have hdeeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day ieveryone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

8 j“And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;

and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;

and he shall flee from the sword,

and his young men shall be kput to forced labor.

9 lHis rock shall pass away in terror,

and his officers desert the standard in panic,”

declares the Lord, whose mfire is in Zion,

and whose nfurnace is in Jerusalem.

• Isaiah 27
• Isaiah 28–31
• Isaiah 32