- Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner and the ass his master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people does not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores — they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devour it in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
- Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? — says the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons, and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot bear — it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they are a trouble unto me, I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear.
- Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourself, make yourself clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land, but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
- How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it, but now — murderers. Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water, your princes are rebellious and are companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease myself of my adversaries and avenge myself of my enemies, and I will turn my hand upon you, and purely purge away your dross, and take away all your tin. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen. For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water. And the strong shall be as tinder, and the maker of it as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
- The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem; and it shall come to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
- O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord, yea, come, for you have all gone astray, everyone to his wicked ways. Therefore, O Lord, you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are replenished from the east, and listen unto fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. And the mean man bows not down and the great man humbles himself not; therefore, forgive him not.
- O you wicked ones, enter into the rock and hide yourselves in the dust, for the fear of the Lord and his majesty shall smite you. And it shall come to pass that the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of Hosts soon comes upon all nations, yea, upon everyone; yea, upon the proud and lofty, and upon everyone who is lifted up; and he shall be brought low. Yea, and the day of the Lord shall come upon all the cedars of Lebanon, for they are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills, and upon all the nations which are lifted up, and upon every people, and upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall, and upon all the ships of the sea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth, for the fear of the Lord shall come upon them and the glory of his majesty shall smite them when he arises to shake terribly the earth. In that day, a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which he has made for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks and into the tops of the rugged rocks; for the fear of the Lord shall come upon them and the majesty of the Lord shall smite them when he arises to shake terribly the earth. Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?
- For behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts does take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the supply and the support, the whole support of bread and the whole supply of water, the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the elder, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the expert craftsman, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children unto them to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, everyone by another and everyone by his neighbor. The child shall behave himself proudly against the elder, and the base against the honorable. When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, and shall say, You have clothing, be our ruler and let not this ruin come under your hand — in that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer, for in my house there is neither bread nor clothing; make me not a ruler of the people. For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongues and their doings have been against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their countenance does witness against them, and does declare their sin to be even as Sodom; they cannot hide it. Woe unto their souls, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say unto the righteous that it is well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, for they shall perish, for the reward of their hands shall be upon them.
- And my people, children are their oppressors and women rule over them. O my people, they who lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths. The Lord stands up to plead, and stands to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and the princes thereof; for you have eaten up the vineyard and the spoil of the poor in your houses. What do you mean? You beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor, says the Lord God of Hosts.
- Moreover, the Lord says, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will expose their secret parts. In that day, the Lord will take away the finery of tinkling ornaments, and cauls, and round ornaments like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the perfume vessels, and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the mirrors, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils. And it shall all come to pass, instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty. Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall be desolate, shall sit upon the ground.
- And in that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach.
- In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, the fruit of the earth excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, they that are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem shall be called holy, everyone that is written among the living in Jerusalem when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all, the glory of Zion shall be a defense. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and a cover from storm and from rain.
- And then will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard: My well-beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein. And he expected that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Therefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. And now come, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment, and behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry.
- Woe unto them that join house to house until there can be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth. In my ears says the Lord of Hosts, Truly many houses shall be desolate, and great and fair cities without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah.
- Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, and wine inflame them. And the harp and the viol, the tambourine and pipe, and wine are in their feasts, but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. Therefore, my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge, and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore, hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoices shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled; but the Lord of Hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
- Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as with a cart rope, that say, Let him make speed; hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it.
- Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
- Woe unto the wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.
- Woe unto the mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink, who justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chaff, their root shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he has stretched forth his hand against them and has smitten them. And the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the middle of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand stretched out still.
- And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth. And behold, they shall come with speed, swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosened, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken; whose arrows shall be sharp, and all their bows bent, and their horses’ hooves shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind, their roaring like a lion. They shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry away safe, and none shall deliver. And in that day, they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if they look unto the land, behold, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH
Chapter 1
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.