Category: Isaiah

[5:8] You are doomed! You buy more houses and fields to add to those you already have. Soon there will be no place for anyone else to live, and you alone will live in the land.

[5:9] I have heard the Lord Almighty say, “All these big, fine houses will be empty ruins.

[5:10] The grapevines growing on five acres of land will yield only five gallons of wine. Ten bushels of seed will produce only one bushel of grain.”

[5:11] You are doomed! You get up early in the morning to start drinking, and you spend long evenings getting drunk.

[5:12] At your feasts you have harps and tambourines and flutes—and wine. But you don't understand what the Lord is doing,

[5:13] and so you will be carried away as prisoners. Your leaders will starve to death, and the common people will die of thirst.

[5:14] The world of the dead is hungry for them, and it opens its mouth wide. It gulps down the nobles of Jerusalem along with the noisy crowd of common people.

[5:15] Everyone will be disgraced, and all who are proud will be humbled.

[5:16] But the Lord Almighty shows his greatness by doing what is right, and he reveals his holiness by judging his people.

[5:17] In the ruins of the cities lambs will eat grass and young goats will find pasture.

[5:18] You are doomed! You are unable to break free from your sins.

[5:19] You say, “Let the Lord hurry up and do what he says he will, so that we can see it. Let Israel's holy God carry out his plans; let's see what he has in mind.”

[5:20] You are doomed! You call evil good and call good evil. You turn darkness into light and light into darkness. You make what is bitter sweet, and what is sweet you make bitter.

[5:21] You are doomed! You think you are wise, so very clever.

[5:22] You are doomed! Heroes of the wine bottle! Brave and fearless when it comes to mixing drinks!

[5:23] But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you keep the innocent from getting justice.

[5:24] So now, just as straw and dry grass shrivel and burn in the fire, your roots will rot and your blossoms will dry up and blow away, because you have rejected what the Lord Almighty, Israel's holy God, has taught us.

[5:25] The Lord is angry with his people and has stretched out his hand to punish them. The mountains will shake, and the bodies of those who die will be left in the streets like rubbish. Yet even then the Lord's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

[5:26] The Lord gives a signal to call for a distant nation. He whistles for them to come from the ends of the earth. And here they come, swiftly, quickly!

[5:27] None of them grow tired; none of them stumble. They never doze or sleep. Not a belt is loose; not a sandal strap is broken.

[5:28] Their arrows are sharp, and their bows are ready to shoot. Their horses' hoofs are as hard as flint, and their chariot wheels turn like a whirlwind.

[5:29] The soldiers roar like lions that have killed an animal and are carrying it off where no one can take it away from them.

[5:30] When that day comes, they will roar over Israel as loudly as the sea. Look at this country! Darkness and distress! The light is swallowed by darkness.

[6:1] In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on his throne, high and exalted, and his robe filled the whole Temple.

[6:2] Around him flaming creatures were standing, each of which had six wings. Each creature covered its face with two wings, and its body with two, and used the other two for flying.

[6:3] They were calling out to each other: “Holy, holy, holy! The Lord Almighty is holy! His glory fills the world.”

[6:4] The sound of their voices made the foundation of the Temple shake, and the Temple itself became filled with smoke.

[6:5] I said, “There is no hope for me! I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, and I live among a people whose every word is sinful. And yet, with my own eyes I have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

[6:6] Then one of the creatures flew down to me, carrying a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.

[6:7] He touched my lips with the burning coal and said, “This has touched your lips, and now your guilt is gone, and your sins are forgiven.”

[6:8] Then I heard the Lord say, “Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?” I answered, “I will go! Send me!”

[6:9] So he told me to go and give the people this message: “No matter how much you listen, you will not understand. No matter how much you look, you will not know what is happening.”

[6:10] Then he said to me, “Make the minds of these people dull, their ears deaf, and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand. If they did, they might turn to me and be healed.”

[6:11] I asked, “How long will it be like this, Lord?” He answered, “Until the cities are ruined and empty—until the houses are uninhabited—until the land itself is a desolate wasteland.

[6:12] I will send the people far away and make the whole land desolate.

[6:13] Even if one person out of ten remains in the land, he too will be destroyed; he will be like the stump of an oak tree that has been cut down.” (The stump represents a new beginning for God's people.)

[7:1] When King Ahaz, the son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, ruled Judah, war broke out. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, attacked Jerusalem, but were unable to capture it.

[7:2] When word reached the king of Judah that the armies of Syria were already in the territory of Israel, he and all his people were so terrified that they trembled like trees shaking in the wind.

[7:3] The Lord said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear Jashub, and go to meet King Ahaz. You will find him on the road where the cloth makers work, at the end of the ditch that brings water from the upper pool.

[7:4] Tell him to keep alert, to stay calm, and not to be frightened or disturbed. The anger of King Rezin and his Syrians and of King Pekah is no more dangerous than the smoke from two smoldering sticks of wood.

[7:5] Syria, together with Israel and its king, has made a plot.

[7:6] They intend to invade Judah, terrify the people into joining their side, and then put Tabeel's son on the throne.

[7:7] “But I, the Lord, declare that this will never happen.

[7:8] Why? Because Syria is no stronger than Damascus, its capital city, and Damascus is no stronger than King Rezin. As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be too shattered to survive as a nation.

[7:9] Israel is no stronger than Samaria, its capital city, and Samaria is no stronger than King Pekah. “If your faith is not enduring, you will not endure.”

[7:10] The Lord sent another message to Ahaz:

[7:11] “Ask the Lord your God to give you a sign. It can be from deep in the world of the dead or from high up in heaven.”

[7:12] Ahaz answered, “I will not ask for a sign. I refuse to put the Lord to the test.”

[7:13] To that Isaiah replied, “Listen, now, descendants of King David. It's bad enough for you to wear out the patience of people—do you have to wear out God's patience too?

[7:14] Well then, the Lord himself will give you a sign: a young woman who is pregnant will have a son and will name him ‘Immanuel.’

[7:15] By the time he is old enough to make his own decisions, people will be drinking milk and eating honey.

[7:16] Even before that time comes, the lands of those two kings who terrify you will be deserted.

[7:17] “The Lord is going to bring on you, on your people, and on the whole royal family, days of trouble worse than any that have come since the kingdom of Israel separated from Judah—he is going to bring the king of Assyria.

[7:18] “When that time comes, the Lord will whistle as a signal for the Egyptians to come like flies from the farthest branches of the Nile, and for the Assyrians to come from their land like bees.

[7:19] They will swarm in the rugged valleys and in the caves in the rocks, and they will cover every thorn bush and every pasture.

[7:20] “When that time comes, the Lord will hire a barber from across the Euphrates—the emperor of Assyria!—and he will shave off your beards and the hair on your heads and your bodies.

[7:21] “When that time comes, even if a farmer has been able to save only one young cow and two goats,

[7:22] they will give so much milk that he will have all he needs. Yes, the few survivors left in the land will have milk and honey to eat.

[7:23] “When that time comes, the fine vineyards, each with a thousand vines and each worth a thousand pieces of silver, will be overgrown with thorn bushes and briers.

[7:24] People will go hunting there with bows and arrows. Yes, the whole country will be full of briers and thorn bushes.

[7:25] All the hills where crops were once planted will be so overgrown with thorns that no one will go there. It will be a place where cattle and sheep graze.”

[8:1] The Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters: ‘Quick Loot, Fast Plunder.’

[8:2] Get two reliable men, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, to serve as witnesses.”

[8:3] Some time later my wife became pregnant. When our son was born, the Lord said to me, “Name him ‘Quick-Loot-Fast-Plunder.’

[8:4] Before the boy is old enough to say ‘Mamma’ and ‘Daddy,’ all the wealth of Damascus and all the loot of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

[8:5] The Lord spoke to me again.

[8:6] He said, “Because these people have rejected the quiet waters of Shiloah Brook and tremble before King Rezin and King Pekah,

[8:7] I, the Lord, will bring the emperor of Assyria and all his forces to attack Judah. They will advance like the flood waters of the Euphrates River, overflowing all its banks.

[8:8] They will sweep through Judah in a flood, rising shoulder high and covering everything.” God is with us! His outspread wings protect the land.

[8:9] Gather together in fear, you nations! Listen, you distant parts of the earth. Get ready to fight, but be afraid! Yes, get ready, but be afraid!

[8:10] Make your plans! But they will never succeed. Talk all you want to! But it is all useless, because God is with us.

[8:11] With his great power the Lord warned me not to follow the road which the people were following. He said,

[8:12] “Do not join in the schemes of the people and do not be afraid of the things that they fear.

[8:13] Remember that I, the Lord Almighty, am holy; I am the one you must fear.

[8:14] Because of my awesome holiness I am like a stone that people stumble over; I am like a trap that will catch the people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the people of Jerusalem.

[8:15] Many will stumble; they will fall and be crushed. They will be caught in a trap.”

[8:16] You, my disciples, are to guard and preserve the messages that God has given me.

[8:17] The Lord has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him.

[8:18] Here I am with the children the Lord has given me. The Lord Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us as living messages to the people of Israel.

[8:19] But people will tell you to ask for messages from fortunetellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, “After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living.”

[8:20] You are to answer them, “Listen to what the Lord is teaching you! Don't listen to mediums—what they tell you cannot keep trouble away.”

[9:1] The land of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali was once disgraced, but the future will bring honor to this region, from the Mediterranean eastward to the land on the other side of the Jordan, and even to Galilee itself, where the foreigners live.

[9:2] The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows, but now light is shining on them.

[9:3] You have given them great joy, Lord; you have made them happy. They rejoice in what you have done, as people rejoice when they harvest grain or when they divide captured wealth.

[9:4] For you have broken the yoke that burdened them and the rod that beat their shoulders. You have defeated the nation that oppressed and exploited your people, just as you defeated the army of Midian long ago.

[9:5] The boots of the invading army and all their bloodstained clothing will be destroyed by fire.

[9:6] A child is born to us! A son is given to us! And he will be our ruler. He will be called, “Wonderful Counselor,” “Mighty God,” “Eternal Father,” “Prince of Peace.”

[9:7] His royal power will continue to grow; his kingdom will always be at peace. He will rule as King David's successor, basing his power on right and justice, from now until the end of time. The Lord Almighty is determined to do all this.