July 29

Isaiah 1:1 — 4:6

Isaiah

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz that he visioned concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah:

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for Jehovah himself has spoken: “Sons I have brought up and raised, but they themselves have revolted against me. 3 A bull well knows its buyer, and the ass the manger of its owner; Israel itself has not known, my own people have not behaved understandingly.”

4 Woe to the sinful nation, the people heavy with error, an evildoing seed, ruinous sons! They have left Jehovah, they have treated the Holy One of Israel with disrespect, they have turned backwards. 5 Where else will YOU be struck still more, in that YOU add more revolt? The whole head is in a sick condition, and the whole heart is feeble. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no sound spot in it. Wounds and bruises and fresh stripes—they have not been squeezed out or bound up, nor has there been a softening with oil. 7 YOUR land is a desolation, YOUR cities are burned with fire; YOUR ground—right in front of YOU strangers are eating it up, and the desolation is like an overthrow by strangers. 8 And the daughter of Zion has been left remaining like a booth in a vineyard, like a lookout hut in a field of cucumbers, like a blockaded city. 9 Unless Jehovah of armies himself had left remaining to us just a few survivors, we should have become just like Sodom, we should have resembled Gomorrah itself.

10 Hear the word of Jehovah, YOU dictators of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, YOU people of Gomorrah. 11 “Of what benefit to me is the multitude of YOUR sacrifices?” says Jehovah. “I have had enough of whole burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed animals; and in the blood of young bulls and male lambs and he-goats I have taken no delight. 12 When YOU people keep coming in to see my face, who is it that has required this from YOUR hand, to trample my courtyards? 13 Stop bringing in any more valueless grain offerings. Incense—it is something detestable to me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of a convention—I cannot put up with the [use of] uncanny power along with the solemn assembly. 14 YOUR new moons and YOUR festal seasons my soul has hated. To me they have become a burden; I have become tired of bearing [them]. 15 And when YOU spread out YOUR palms, I hide my eyes from YOU. Even though YOU make many prayers, I am not listening; with bloodshed YOUR very hands have become filled. 16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the badness of YOUR dealings from in front of my eyes; cease to do bad. 17 Learn to do good; search for justice; set right the oppressor; render judgment for the fatherless boy; plead the cause of the widow.”

18 “Come, now, YOU people, and let us set matters straight between us,” says Jehovah. “Though the sins of YOU people should prove to be as scarlet, they will be made white just like snow; though they should be red like crimson cloth, they will become even like wool. 19 If YOU people show willingness and do listen, the good of the land YOU will eat. 20 But if YOU people refuse and are actually rebellious, with a sword YOU will be eaten up; for the very mouth of Jehovah has spoken [it].”

21 O how the faithful town has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness itself used to lodge in her, but now murderers. 22 Your silver itself has become scummy dross. Your wheat beer is diluted with water. 23 Your princes are stubborn and partners with thieves. Every one of them is a lover of a bribe and a chaser after gifts. For a fatherless boy they do not render judgment; and even the legal case of a widow does not get admittance to them.

24 Therefore the utterance of the [true] Lord, Jehovah of armies, the Powerful One of Israel, is: “Aha! I shall relieve myself of my adversaries, and I will avenge myself on my enemies. 25 And I will turn back my hand upon you, and I shall smelt away your scummy dross as with lye, and I will remove all your waste products. 26 And I will bring back again judges for you as at the first, and counselors for you as at the start. After this you will be called City of Righteousness, Faithful Town. 27 With justice Zion herself will be redeemed, and those returning of her, with righteousness. 28 And the crash of revolters and that of sinful ones will be at the same time, and those leaving Jehovah will come to their finish. 29 For they will be ashamed of the mighty trees that YOU people desired, and YOU will be abashed because of the gardens that YOU have chosen. 30 For YOU will become like a big tree the foliage of which is withering, and like a garden that has no water. 31 And the vigorous man will certainly become tow, and the product of his activity a spark; and both of them will certainly go up in flames at the same time, with no one to do the extinguishing.”

2 The thing that Isaiah the son of Amoz visioned concerning Judah and Jerusalem: 2 And it must occur in the final part of the days [that] the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills; and to it all the nations must stream. 3 And many peoples will certainly go and say: “Come, YOU people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion law will go forth, and the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem. 4 And he will certainly render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.

5 O men of the house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

6 For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob. For they have become full of what is from the East, and they are practicers of magic like the Philistines, and with the children of foreigners they abound. 7 And their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no limit to their treasures. And their land is filled with horses, and there is no limit to their chariots. 8 And their land is filled with valueless gods. To the work of one’s hands they bow down, to that which one’s fingers have made. 9 And earthling man bows down, and man becomes low, and you cannot possibly pardon them.

10 Enter into the rock and hide yourself in the dust because of the dreadfulness of Jehovah, and from his splendid superiority. 11 The haughty eyes of earthling man must become low, and the loftiness of men must bow down; and Jehovah alone must be put on high in that day. 12 For it is the day belonging to Jehovah of armies. It is upon everyone self-exalted and lofty and upon everyone lifted up or low; 13 and upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up and upon all the massive trees of Bashan; 14 and upon all the lofty mountains and upon all the hills that are lifted up; 15 and upon every high tower and upon every fortified wall; 16 and upon all the ships of Tarshish and upon all desirable boats. 17 And the haughtiness of the earthling man must bow down, and the loftiness of men must become low; and Jehovah alone must be put on high in that day.

18 And the valueless gods themselves will pass away completely. 19 And people will enter into the caves of the rocks and into the holes of the dust because of the dreadfulness of Jehovah and from his splendid superiority, when he rises up for the earth to suffer shocks. 20 In that day the earthling man will throw his worthless gods of silver and his valueless gods of gold that they had made for him to bow before to the shrewmice and to the bats, 21 in order to enter into the holes in the rocks and into the clefts of the crags, because of the dreadfulness of Jehovah and from his splendid superiority, when he rises up for the earth to suffer shocks. 22 For YOUR own sakes, hold off from the earthling man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for on what basis is he himself to be taken into account?

3 For, look! the [true] Lord, Jehovah of armies, is removing from Jerusalem and from Judah support and stay, the whole support of bread and the whole support of water, 2 mighty man and warrior, judge and prophet, and practicer of divination and elderly man, 3 chief of fifty and highly respected man and counselor and expert in magical arts, and the skilled charmer. 4 And I shall certainly make boys their princes, and mere arbitrary power will rule over them. 5 And the people will actually tyrannize one over the other, even each one over his fellowman. They will storm, the boy against the old man, and the lightly esteemed one against the one to be honored. 6 For each one will lay hold of his brother in the house of his father, [saying:] “You have a mantle. A dictator you ought to become to us, and this overthrown mass should be under your hand.” 7 He will raise [his voice] in that day, saying: “I shall not become a wound dresser; and in my house there is neither bread nor a mantle. YOU men must not set me as dictator over the people.”

8 For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah itself has fallen, because their tongue and their dealings are against Jehovah, in behaving rebelliously in the eyes of his glory. 9 The very expression of their faces actually testifies against them, and of their sin like that of Sodom they do tell. They have not hidden [it]. Woe to their soul! For they have dealt out to themselves calamity.

10 Say, YOU men, that it [will be] well with the righteous one, for they will eat the very fruitage of their dealings. 11 Woe to the wicked one!—Calamity; for the treatment [rendered] by his own hands will be rendered to him! 12 As for my people, its task assigners are dealing severely, and mere women actually rule over it. O my people, those leading you on are causing [you] to wander, and the way of your paths they have confused.

13 Jehovah is stationing himself to contend and is standing up to pass sentence upon peoples. 14 Jehovah himself will enter into judgment with the elderly ones of his people and its princes.

“And YOU yourselves have burned down the vineyard. What was taken by robbery from the afflicted one is in YOUR houses. 15 What do YOU men mean in that YOU crush my people, and that YOU grind the very faces of the afflicted ones?” is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies.

16 And Jehovah says: “For the reason that the daughters of Zion have become haughty and they walk with their throats stretched forth and ogling with their eyes, they go walking with tripping steps, and with their feet they make a tinkling sound, 17 Jehovah also will actually make the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion scabby, and Jehovah himself will lay their very forehead bare. 18 In that day Jehovah will take away the beauty of the bangles and the headbands and the moon-shaped ornaments, 19 the eardrops and the bracelets and the veils, 20 the headdresses and the step chains and the breastbands and the ‘houses of the soul’ and the ornamental humming shells, 21 the finger rings and the nose rings, 22 the robes of state and the overtunics and the cloaks and the purses, 23 and the hand mirrors and the undergarments and the turbans and the large veils.

24 “And it must occur that instead of balsam oil there will come to be merely a musty smell; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of an artistic hair arrangement, baldness; and instead of a rich garment, a girding of sackcloth; a brand mark instead of prettiness. 25 By the sword your own men will fall, and your mightiness by war. 26 And her entrances will have to mourn and express sorrow, and she will certainly be cleaned out. She will sit down on the very earth.”

4 And seven women will actually grab hold of one man in that day, saying: “We shall eat our own bread and wear our own mantles; only may we be called by your name to take away our reproach.”

2 In that day what Jehovah makes sprout will come to be for decoration and for glory, and the fruitage of the land will be something to be proud of and something beautiful for those of Israel who have escaped. 3 And it must occur that the ones remaining in Zion and the ones left over in Jerusalem will be said to be holy to him, everyone written down for life in Jerusalem.

4 When Jehovah will have washed away the excrement of the daughters of Zion and he will rinse away even the bloodshed of Jerusalem from within her by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning down, 5 Jehovah will also certainly create over every established place of Mount Zion and over her convention place a cloud by day and a smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; because over all the glory there will be a shelter. 6 And there will come to be a booth for a shade by day from the dry heat, and for a refuge and for a hiding place from the rainstorm and from the precipitation.