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ISA EN_UST en_English_ltr Thu Apr 30 2026 06:52:16 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) tc

1 These are things that Yahweh revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz about Judah and Jerusalem. Isaiah spoke about them during the times when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah ruled as kings of Judah.

2 Isaiah told the sky and the land, as if they could hear,

“It is as if the Israelites were my own children

who rebelled against me after I raised them.

3 Even an ox knows who its owner is,

and a donkey knows where its master feeds it,

but the Israelites do not know me.

They do not recognize how they ought to relate to me.”

4 How terrible it will be for this nation that keeps sinning!

These people commit so many crimes!

They do evil, destructive things just as their ancestors did.

They do not consider it important to obey Yahweh,

the holy God of the Israelites.

Instead, they treat him as if he were a stranger.

5 You Judeans are like a person whom someone has beaten all over his body.

This should make you realize that you need to stop rebelling against Yahweh.

You are like a person whom someone has been beaten so badly that he can no longer think clearly

and who has completely lost his courage.

6 You are like a person whose whole body is not healthy anywhere.

It is as if you have many wounds, bruises, and open sores

that no one has cleaned out, rubbed with oil, or put a bandage on.

7 Foreign armies have made your land desolate

and have set your cities on fire.

Right in front of you,

foreigners are eating up everything your ground produces,

and they have left it as desolate as a place that enemies have destroyed.

8 Like a temporary shelter that someone would set up at harvest time

in a vineyard or a cucumber field,

Jerusalem is the only Judean city whose walls are still standing,

and enemies have surrounded it and are trying to destroy it.

9 If Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

had not let a few of us survive,

enemies would have completely destroyed all of our cities,

just as he completely destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

10 Listen to what Yahweh our God wants to teach you,

you rulers and people who are as wicked

as the rulers and people of Sodom and Gomorrah!

11 Yahweh says, “No matter how many sacrifices you offer to me,

that will not impress me.

You have sacrificed more than enough rams as burnt offerings to me,

and you have offered me more than enough fat from animals you have fed well.

The blood of bulls, lambs, and male goats

does not please me at all.

12 I never asked you to come and worship me

by leading in so many animals

and trampling around with them in the courtyard of my temple!

13 These offerings mean nothing to me, so stop bringing them!

The incense that you burn disgusts me.

You keep doing evil things even though you attend religious gatherings,

so I detest your New Moon festivals and Sabbath assemblies.

14 I hate it when you gather for your New Moon festivals

and for the festivals that I appointed for you to observe each year.

It is as if they have become a heavy load

that I am tired of carrying.

15 When you pray to me, lifting up your hands,

I do not look at you.

Even when you pray many times,

I do not listen to you.

That is because you have committed violent crimes.

It is as if you still have blood stains on your hands.

16 I can see the evil things that you are doing.

Stop doing them,

as if you were thoroughly washing that blood off your hands.

17 Learn to do things that are right.

Make sure that people treat each other fairly.

Give a better life to people whom others are treating cruelly.

Legally defend helpless people such as orphans and widows.

18 Yahweh says, “Let us now settle this matter between us.

You have committed so many violent crimes

that it is as if you have blood stains on your hands

that are as bright red as scarlet cloth or crimson dye.

But I can forgive you and make you good again

so that it will be as if your hands are as white as snow or wool.

19 If you obey me willingly,

you will eat good food that the land produces.

20 But if you refuse to obey me and you continue to rebel against me,

enemy armies will destroy you.”

This will surely happen because Yahweh himself has said that it will happen.

21 The people of Jerusalem have changed so much!

They used to worship Yahweh faithfully,

but now they worship many different gods.

They are acting the way a prostitute does.

In that city, people formerly treated one another fairly and did what was right.

But now, they commit murder.

22 The people of Jerusalem used to be pure, like silver,

but now they are corrupt, like silver mixed with cheaper metals.

The people of that city used to be strong, like pure wine,

but now they are weak, like wine that someone has mixed with water.

23 The leaders of the city disobey Yahweh,

and they join others in stealing from people.

They accept bribes and ask for gifts to make unfair decisions.

They do not help orphans and widows

by considering their legal cases and deciding them fairly.

24 Yahweh is the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies.

He is the mighty God whom the Israelites should worship.

This is what he declares about these things:

“I am going to punish the people who are acting

so contrary to the way I want people to act.

This will satisfy me. But how terrible it will be for them!

25 I will use my power against those people.

By punishing them, I will make Jerusalem pure again,

just as people use lye to help them melt precious metals

so they can remove impurities and base metals from them.

26 Then I will give you good judges and wise advisors,

such as you had before.

After I do that, people will describe Jerusalem as

‘the city where people do what is right’

and ‘the city whose people are faithful to Yahweh.’ ”

27 Yahweh will rescue the people of Jerusalem who sincerely repent,

by doing what is right and fair.

28 However, he will destroy people who rebel and keep sinning.

Then there will be no people in the city who have abandoned Yahweh.

29 Then anyone who went to sacred oak trees or groves to worship idols

will feel great shame for having done that.

30 My opponents will be like an oak tree whose leaves are drying up

or a garden that has no water,

and when I punish them, it will be as if I am burning them up. 31 The strongest people among you will be like dry flax fiber that burns easily,

and it will be as if the idols they have made are a spark that sets them on fire.

It will be as if they and their idols burn up together

and no one puts out the fire.

2 This is the message that Yahweh revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz about Judah and Jerusalem.

2 In the future, the mountain where Yahweh’s temple is

will be the most important place on earth.

It will be as if it is higher than any other mountain or hill.

So many people from many nations will come there,

it will be as if they are a great river flowing there.

3 People from many groups will say to each other,

“Come on, let us go to the mountain where Yahweh is,

to the temple where we can worship the God whom Jacob worshiped.

There Yahweh will teach us how he wants us to live,

and we will obey him.”

Yes, people who go to Mount Zion in Jerusalem

will learn what Yahweh wants them to do,

and they will go from there and teach other people.

4 Yahweh will settle disputes between the people of many nations.

Then those peoples will reshape their implements of war

into implements for farming.

Armies of nations will no longer fight against armies of other nations,

and people will no longer train to be soldiers.

5 You descendants of Jacob, come on,

let us live in the way Yahweh has shown us we should live!

6 Yahweh, you have now abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob,

because they have adopted pagan practices that they have learned from eastern nations.

They also practice divination as the Philistines do,

and they join foreigners in ritually clapping at pagan ceremonies.

7 The descendants of Jacob have great quantities of silver and gold in their land.

It is as if their wealth has no limit.

They also have great quantities of horses in their land,

and it is as if they have more chariots than anyone can count.

8 But they also have great quantities of idols in their land.

They bow down to things that they themselves have made.

9 But Yahweh will humble the common people and their leaders

by making them desperate instead of prosperous.

Yahweh, do not restore them until you have thoroughly corrected them!

10 Yahweh will make you Judeans very afraid

when he demonstrates that he rules with great glory.

You will want to hide in rocky caves

or in holes in the ground to escape from him.

11 Right now the common people and their leaders have a very proud attitude.

But Yahweh will humble those people.

After that, only Yahweh will receive honor.

12 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, has decided that on a certain day

he will act to humble people who are proud and who think too highly of themselves.

13 He will act against people who seem to be as tall and majestic

as the cedars of Lebanon and the oaks of Bashan.

14 He will act against people who are very proud,

as if they were as high as tall mountains or lofty hills.

15 He will act against people who believe they are safe

because their cities have strong walls and high defensive towers.

16 He will act against people who are proud of their ships that can sail long distances

and of their expensive boats.

17 Right now the common people and their leaders are very proud,

but Yahweh will humble those people.

After that, only Yahweh will receive honor.

18 People will get rid of all of their idols.

19 People will hide in rocky caves

and in holes in the ground

because Yahweh will make them very afraid

when he demonstrates that he rules with great glory.

What he does will terrify the people who live on the earth.

20 When that happens, people will throw away their golden and silver idols

that people crafted so that they could worship them.

They will throw them into holes in the ground where moles live

and into caves where bats live.

21 Then they will crawl into narrow spaces among rocks

because Yahweh will make them very afraid

when he demonstrates that he rules with great glory.

What he does will terrify the people who live on the earth.

22 Stop trusting in human beings.

They are only alive because God breathed life into them.

They are not of great value.

3 Pay attention! Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

is about to take away the food and drink

that the people of Jerusalem and Judah depend on.

2 He will also take away the people they depend on, their heroes and soldiers,

their judges and prophets,

their fortunetellers and elders,

3 their military officers and important officials,

their advisors, skilled craftsmen,

and clever magicians.

4 Yahweh says, “I will make mere youths their leaders,

and immature people will make foolish decisions about them.”

5 People will treat each other cruelly;

they will fight with one another, even with their neighbors.

Young people will treat older people disrespectfully,

and insignificant people will mock those they should honor.

6 At that time, people will go to one of their relatives and say,

“You have a coat, so you must have some resources.

You be our leader!

We will give you the authority to govern our community,

which is in a very bad situation.”

7 But that relative will protest and say,

“No, I cannot fix this situation.

I do not have any food or a coat in my house.

So do not make me your leader!”

8 The people of Jerusalem and Judah are saying and doing things

that offend Yahweh right in his glorious presence.

As a result, their society has increasingly worse problems.

9 The look on their faces shows that they are guilty

of sins as bad as the ones that the people of Sodom committed.

But they sin openly, without trying to hide what they are doing.

How terrible it will be for them!

God will punish them as they deserve.

10 Tell righteous people that things will go well for them.

They will experience the good results of what they have done.

11 But how terrible it will be for wicked people!

It will be terrible because God will punish them as they deserve for the evil things they have done.

12 My people now have immature and inexperienced leaders

who are oppressing them.

Those leaders of my people are telling them to do the wrong things.

They are not providing good direction for them.

13 Yahweh is ready to judge his people,

as if he had taken his place as a prosecutor in a courtroom.

14 Yahweh brings charges against the elders and the rulers of his people.

He says, “Your houses are full of things that you have stolen from poor people.

It is as if my people were a vineyard and you had stolen all the grapes it produced.

15 How dare you oppress my people who are poor

as if you were grinding their faces into the dirt!”

This is what Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares.

16 Yahweh also says,

“I am going to punish the women of Jerusalem because they are vain.

They hold their heads high

and flirt with their eyes.

They walk with short, dainty steps

and jingle the bracelets on their ankles.

17 To punish them, I, the Lord will make sores appear on their scalps,

and I, Yahweh, will make them go bald.”

18 When Yahweh does that, he will also strip away all the things the women of Jerusalem use to make themselves beautiful. He will take away their ankle ornaments, their headbands, their crescent-shaped necklaces, 19 their earrings, bracelets, and veils, 20 their scarves, ankle chains, sashes, perfume containers, and charms, 21 their signet rings and nose rings, 22 their fine robes, capes, cloaks, and purses, 23 and their mirrors, linen garments, turbans, and shawls.

24 Instead of smelling sweet like perfume, they will stink.

Instead of wearing sashes, they will have ropes around their waists.

Instead of having fancy hair, they will have bald heads.

Instead of wearing fine robes, they will wear rough sackcloth.

Instead of being beautiful, they will have scars from branding as captives.

25 The strong men of Jerusalem will die in battle.

26 People at the gates of the city will mourn and cry.

Enemies will plunder the city.

It will be as if Jerusalem is a desolate woman

sitting alone on the ground.

4 When that happens, because few men will be alive, seven women will grab one man and say to him, “Allow us all to marry you! We will provide our own food and our own clothing. All we want is not to have disgrace for not having husbands.”

2 A time will come when Yahweh causes beautiful and glorious crops to grow to feed the Israelites who have survived. They will be proud of the good things that their land produces, and people will admire them for those things. 3 Yahweh will have written in his book the names of the people who would survive and keep living in Jerusalem. So people will recognize that all those who remain in that city on Mount Zion are holy. 4 They will be holy because the Lord will have judged the people and purified them, as if he had burned away their impurities. He will make the women who live in Jerusalem good again, as if he had washed dirt off them. He will make Jerusalem a peaceful place again instead of a violent one, as if he were washing away the blood stains of the people whom others murdered there. 5 Yahweh will create a cloud of smoke during the day to cover every place on Mount Zion and all the people who gather there. At night, he will cover them with a blazing fire. He will put a covering over that entire glorious place to protect it. 6 This covering will protect the people from the heat of the sun during the day, and it will shelter them when there are rain storms.

5 Now I am going to sing a song for my dear friend,

about him and his vineyard.

He had a vineyard on a very fertile hillside.

2 My friend plowed the ground and cleared away the stones.

Then he planted very good grapevines on that ground.

In the middle of the vineyard, he built a watchtower,

and he dug a pit for squeezing the grapes.

He expected to harvest good grapes,

but the vines produced only sour grapes.

3 Now this is what Yahweh says:

“You people who live in Jerusalem and other places in Judah,

I am like the friend, and you are like his vineyard;

now judge which of us has done what is right.

4 What more could I have done for you

than what I have already done?

I expected you to do good deeds,

so you should not have done evil deeds,

like the vineyard that produced only sour grapes!

5 So I am telling you now that I will no longer protect Judah,

the place that is like my vineyard.

It will be as if I am cutting down and burning up

the hedge around a vineyard that kept out small animals.

It will be as if I am scattering the stones from the wall around a vineyard

that kept out large animals so that they can walk over the stones and eat the fruit.

6 It will be as if I make that vineyard a place where no useful crops grow,

where no one prunes the vines or hoes the soil,

where weeds grow wildly,

and on which rain does not fall from the clouds.”

7 The Israelites are like a vineyard that belongs to Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies.

The people of Judah are like a garden that he has carefully tended.

He expected them to act justly,

but instead, they murdered others.

He expected them to do what was right,

but instead, he heard people crying for help because others were attacking them violently.

8 How terrible it will be for people who acquire the houses and lands around them

so that others have no place to live

and they themselves live alone in the land.

9 I heard Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, solemnly swear,

“Some day, many of those huge houses will be empty;

no one will be living in those beautiful mansions.

10 The vines on ten acres of land will produce only about 22 liters of juice,

and someone who plants 220 liters of seed will harvest only 22 liters of grain.”

11 How terrible it will be for people who get up early each morning

to start drinking beer,

and who stay awake into the night

drinking wine until they are completely drunk.

12 They hold big parties and serve plenty of wine.

At those parties, people play harps and lyres and tambourines and flutes.

But they do not recognize or understand

what Yahweh is doing.

13 Because the Israelites do not know him,

enemies will carry them away as captives to another land.

Both the leaders and the common people

will be very hungry and thirsty.

14 It is as if the place where dead people go is making more room for them

and is eager to have as many of them as possible.

Both the leaders and the common people will go down into that place,

all those people who liked to have fun carousing.

15 Both the common people and their leaders will no longer be so arrogant.

People who now are proud will have a humbler attitude.

16 But people will praise Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, because he acts justly.

God is holy, and when he does what is right, people will recognize that he is holy.

17 Then lambs will eat grass as they usually do,

and wandering animals will graze on land that is now desolate

but on which people formerly fattened their animals.

18 How terrible it will be for people who work hard to keep sinning,

as if their sin were a heavy cart that they were pulling with ropes

and as if the lies they tell to maintain their sin were those ropes.

19 Those people say about the holy God of the Israelites,

“If he is going to punish us, let him do that right away.

Let him do what he has decided to do.

We would like to know what this punishment is actually going to be.”

20 How terrible it will be for people who say

that evil actions are good actions and that good actions are evil actions.

It is as if they are saying that darkness is light and that light is darkness

or that bitter things are sweet and sweet things are bitter.

21 How terrible it will be for people who think that they are wise

and consider themselves to be clever.

22 How terrible it will be for people who think that they are heroes

because they are able to drink much wine

and who boast about being able to mix things into beer to make it stronger.

23 Those people accept bribes to let guilty people go free,

and they punish innocent people instead.

24 Therefore, just as flames of fire burn up stubble

and dry grass shrivels up in flames,

it will be as though those people are plants whose roots have rotted

and whose flowers have withered.

This will happen because they rejected the law of Yahweh,

the commander of the heavenly armies.

The holy God of the Israelites

told them what he wanted them to do, but they ignored him.

25 As a result, Yahweh is extremely angry with his people.

He has already used his power to punish them.

He punished them so severely that it was as if the mountains shook.

So many people died that others could not bury them all

and their bodies remained in the streets as if they were garbage.

Even so, Yahweh continues to be very angry,

and he is ready to use his power to punish his people further.

26 Yahweh will summon the armies of distant nations

as if he were raising a battle flag to gather them

or as if he were whistling for them so loudly

that they could hear him even though they were very far away.

A foreign army will come very rapidly to attack Jerusalem.

27 All its soldiers will be strong and capable.

They will not need to sleep very much.

All of their equipment will be in good condition,

so they will be ready to fight in battles.

28 They will have sharpened their arrows,

and they will have their bows ready to shoot those arrows.

The horses in this army have strong hooves that do not break,

as if they were stone,

and it has many fast chariots whose wheels stir up great clouds of dust,

as if there were a whirlwind.

29 The sound of this army approaching will be like the roar of a great lion.

A lion growls and then pounces on an animal and carries it away,

and no one can rescue that animal.

30 In the same way, this army will make a great sound as it approaches to attack,

like the loud sound that the waves of the sea make when they crash onto the land.

When this army arrives, if someone looks across the land,

he will see the army darkening it like the shadow of a cloud,

and he will see the people suffering great distress.

6 During the year when King Uzziah died, I had a vision of the Lord. He was sitting on a very high throne. He was wearing a robe, and the bottom of it spread out and covered the floor of the temple. 2 Shining creatures were standing above the Lord. Each one had six wings. Each creature covered his face with two wings, covered his body with two wings, and flew with the other two wings. 3 They shouted to each other and said,

“Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, is absolutely holy!

His glory fills the whole earth!”

4 When they shouted, the whole building shook, so that the heavy doors swayed in their sockets. Smoke filled the temple.

5 Then I cried out, “Something terrible is going to happen to me! I am going to die! Now that I have seen Yahweh, the great King, the commander of the heavenly armies, I realize that I do not speak purely, and I am part of a community of people who do not speak purely.” 6 Then one of the shining creatures picked up a burning coal from the altar with a pair of tongs. He flew to me with it. 7 He touched the coal to my lips and said, “Listen, this coal from the altar has touched your lips, so God has forgiven all of your sins.”

8 Then I heard the Lord ask, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go and speak for all of us?” I answered, “I will go! Send me!”

9 Then he said, “Go and say this to these people,

‘You will listen carefully to God’s message, but you will not understand it.

You will consider carefully what God is doing, but you will not know why he is doing it.’

10 Speak my message to these people even though, in response,

they will become less willing to obey me

and less able to understand what I want them to do.

If they did respond differently, they would understand what I wanted them to do,

they would be willing to obey me, and they would repent.

Then I would help them.”

11 Then I asked, “How long must I continue to do that, Lord?”

He replied, “You must do it until enemies destroy their cities

and no one lives in the houses in them anymore.

Do that until enemies have also completely ruined all the farmland.

12 Do that until I allow enemies to take the people away to other places

and large areas in the land of Israel are empty.

13 Even if one tenth of the people survive, enemies will come back and destroy them. They will do that in the same way that people burn the stump of a large tree that they have cut down. But I will set apart a small group of survivors from whom the nation can start growing again.”

7 When Ahaz son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah was the king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel marched with their armies to attack Jerusalem. However, they were not able to conquer it. 2 Someone reported to David’s descendant Ahaz that the army of Aram had joined forces with the army of Israel. This terrified Ahaz and his people. They were trembling the way trees shake when a wind blows through a forest.

3 Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear-Jashub and go out to meet Ahaz. You will find him on the road that leads to the field where people wash their clothes. He will be at the end of the channel that brings water to the upper pool. 4 Tell him, ‘Stay in control of yourself and do not panic. Do not be afraid, and do not lose your resolve. Rezin, the Aramean king, and Pekah son of Remaliah, the Israelite king, are attacking you violently. But they will not be able to harm you, any more than the ends of two logs that had mostly burned up and were just smoking could start a fire. 5 It is true that the king of Aram has made a plan with the king of Israel to attack you. They have agreed, 6 “Let us go attack the people of Judah and terrify them. We will break through their defenses, and we will make the son of Tabeel their king.”

7 But this is what I, Yahweh, the Lord, say: “Their plan will not succeed. What they are saying will not happen.8-9 8-9That is because the kingdom of Aram is no stronger than its capital city, Damascus. The city of Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin, and he is a mere human being. The kingdom of Israel is no stronger than its capital city, Samaria. The city of Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah , and he is a mere human being. Within 65 years, enemies will completely destroy Israel so that it no longer exists as a nation. But you people must trust me if you want your kingdom to survive.” ’ ”

10 Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz through Isaiah and said, 11 “Ask Yahweh your God to do something to show you that what he is saying is true. You may ask him to do something anywhere in his entire creation.” 12 Ahaz replied, “No, I will not ask for anything. I will not challenge Yahweh to prove that what he is saying is true.”

13 Then Isaiah said, “Listen, you descendant of David! People are already tired of you for being afraid and not showing any resolve. Now you are also making my God tired of you! 14 Therefore, the Lord himself will do something to show all of you that what he is saying is true. Listen! A young woman will become pregnant, and she will give birth to a son. She will name him Immanuel. 15 Before that child is old enough to know right from wrong, he will be eating curds and honey. 16 That will happen because, before that boy is old enough to know right from wrong, no one will live anymore in the lands of the two kings whom you fear so much.

17 Yahweh is going to make a disaster happen to you, your family, and the whole nation that will be worse than anything that has happened since the time when Israel separated from Judah. The king of Assyria is going to attack you.”

18 At that time, Yahweh will cause the army of Egypt to come and invade this land. The Egyptian leaders will be from the Upper Nile region. He will also cause the army of Assyria to come from its land. Those armies will be like swarms of flies and bees. 19 They will come and occupy every part of this land, as if those flies and bees had settled in the steep valleys and in the cracks of the rocks, on all the thorn bushes, and at all the places where people get water.

20 At that time, the Lord will allow the Assyrian army to come from the other side of the Euphrates River. They will take away your crops and valuable possessions. They will leave the land empty, as if someone had used a razor to shave off someone’s beard and remove the hair from his entire body.

21 After that, a person will only be able to keep alive a young cow and two sheep. 22 However, those animals will produce enough milk that their owner will have curds to eat. In fact, everyone who remains in the land will eat curds and honey.

23 At that time, in the places where people once had a thousand grape vines worth a thousand pieces of silver, only briars and thorn bushes will grow. 24 Briars and thorn bushes will cover the whole land, so people will go to those places not to grow crops but to hunt with bows and arrows. 25 Briars and thorn bushes will grow on the hillsides that farmers once cultivated with hoes. So people will not go there, because they will be afraid that the briars and thorns will cut them. Instead, those hills will become places where people let their cattle roam and where sheep trample the ground.

8 Then Yahweh told me, “Get a large tablet and write on it in big letters, ‘For Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’ ” 2 I asked two trustworthy men to serve as witnesses that I had written on the tablet at this time, Uriah the high priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.

3 Then I has sexual relations with my wife, the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Then Yahweh told me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, 4 because before this boy is old enough to say ‘papa’ or ‘mama,’ the king of Assyria will come and take away all the valuable things in the cities of Damascus and Samaria.”

5 Yahweh spoke to me again and said, 6 “These people should have trusted me, even though I work in ways that are hard to recognize, like the water that flows quietly through the Shiloah canal into Jerusalem. Instead, many of them are glad that King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel have invaded Judah to try to force the Judeans to join them in opposing Assyria. So I am going to do something in response. 7 Because they have not trusted me, I, the Lord, will allow the army of the king of Assyria to invade Judah. That army is large and powerful, like the waters of the Euphrates River, So many soldiers will come that it will be as if that river had flooded and overflowed all of its banks. 8 It will be as if that flood had swept into Judah and covered the land so that only people’s heads were above water. Just as an eagle spreads out its wings, this army will spread out over the country in which Immanuel will be living.

9 Listen, all you people in distant countries!

Go ahead and shout your war cries and prepare for battle,

but Yahweh will shatter you!

10 Go ahead and make your plans to attack,

but God will make those plans fail!

Say what you want to say,

but nothing you plan will succeed,

because God will help us!

11 I say this because Yahweh spoke to me very strongly and warned me not to act like other people in Judah. He said this to me:

12 “Do not believe that secret plots are happening just because people say they are.

Do not be afraid at all of the things that those people are so afraid of.

13 Instead, you should have a special regard for me,

Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies.

You should be most concerned about respecting me and not offending me.

14 I will keep you safe.

However, for the people of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah,

including the people who live in Jerusalem,

I will be like a stone that they trip over

and like a trap that catches them.

15 It will be as if many of those people trip over that stone

and fall and never get up again.

It will be as if that trap catches them

when their enemies capture them and take them away.”

16 So I, Isaiah, want someone to keep a record of what God has said to me.

Preserve his instructions and give them to my disciples.

17 I will wait to see what Yahweh will do.

Even though he has stopped favoring the descendants of Jacob,

I will trust him confidently.

18 Listen, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are warning signs for the people of Israel.

Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, who is present in his temple on Mount Zion, is using us for that purpose.

19 Some people say that we should try to contact people who have died or talk to spirits to find out what to do. But they just mumble things in squeaky voices. Yahweh is the God of the Judeans, and they should ask him what to do. It makes no sense for people who are alive to ask dead people to tell them what to do! 20 Pay attention to the instructions that God has given by speaking to me! If people urge us to do something different, they cannot expect good things to happen for them. 21 Those people will wander through the land, destitute and hungry. When they become very hungry, they will become very angry. They will curse their king and their God. They will look all around, up at the sky 22 and around on the earth, but they will see only distressing, gloomy things that make them feel hopeless. Finally, their enemies will take them away to a place where they will have great trouble.

9 However, the people who have been suffering will not continue to suffer. Previously, Yahweh made the people experience great difficulties who lived in the kingdom of Israel, such as in the territories of Zebulun and Naphtali. But in the future, he will make the situation much better for the people of that kingdom, such as those who live along the road to the sea and in the Galilee region east of the Jordan River, where many foreigners live.

2 Yahweh will make life much better for those people who were experiencing such distress.

Yes, he will make life better for those who were living in a land where there was much trouble.

3 Yahweh, you will cause the nation to grow larger,

and you will cause its people to be very happy.

They will rejoice in your presence as people do when they harvest their crops,

or as soldiers celebrate when they divide among themselves the things that they have captured in battle.

4 The people will be happy because you will free them from carrying heavy loads,

and because you will free them from the power of those who have been oppressing them,

just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.

5 Then people will burn as fuel for their cooking fires

all the boots that the soldiers were wearing as they marched along

and all of their garments that got blood stains on them.

6 We will also rejoice because God will give us a special child.

A woman will give birth to a son who will be our ruler.

People will call him “Wonderful Counselor,” “Mighty God,”

“Everlasting Father,” and “Prince of Peace.”

7 He will continually rule over more territory, and he will make things go well for his people.

He will rule as King David did over his kingdom.

He will make it strong and lasting

by continually doing what is fair and right.

Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

will make this happen because he very much wants it to happen.

8 The Lord sent a warning to the descendants of Jacob,

and those Israelites heard it.

9-10 9-10The people of the northern kingdom of Israel,

including those who lived in the city of Samaria,

knew what he said.

But they were very proud and arrogant.

They said, “If our enemies knock down our brick buildings,

we will build new buildings from stone blocks.

If they destroy the houses we built from sycamore wood,

we will build new ones from cedar wood.”

11 Yahweh influenced the enemies of Rezin to attack his ally, Israel.

Yahweh influenced other foreign kingdoms to attack Israel as well.

12 In fact, the army of Aram, Israel’s former ally, attacked from the east,

and the army of Philistia attacked from the west.

They conquered Israel as if they had been an animal that was gobbling up its prey.

Even so, Yahweh continues to be very angry,

and he is ready to use his power to punish his people further.

13 Even though Yahweh punished the people like that, they still would not worship him.

They still did not ask Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, to help them.

14 Therefore, all at once Yahweh will destroy people in Israel of every kind,

from the important people who are like stately palm trees

to less important people who are like marsh reeds that sway in the wind.

15 The important ones are the elders and others whom people honor.

The least important ones are the false prophets.

16 The leaders of the people are telling them to do the wrong things.

As a result, the people they are leading are suffering greatly.

17 The people do not respect God, and so they do wrong things,

and they say it is acceptable to do those things.

Because of that, the Lord does not help the Israelite soldiers win battles,

and he does not even act mercifully toward widows and orphans.

Even so, Yahweh continues to be very angry,

and he is ready to use his power to punish his people further.

18 The wicked behavior of the people is spreading as if it were a wildfire,

as if it were burning up briars and thorns and then starting a great fire in the forests,

from which a great cloud of smoke was rising.

19 Because Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, is extremely angry,

he is allowing enemies to devastate the land as if they were burning it up.

The people are like fuel for a great fire.

It is as if no one is trying to rescue even his own brother from that fire.

20 Foreign armies have invaded the country from the east and from the west,

and no matter how many things they destroy, they keep destroying more things.

Israelites are even attacking and killing their own kinsmen.

21 People from Manasseh attack people from Ephraim,

and people from Ephraim attack people from Manasseh.

Meanwhile, soldiers from both tribes are attacking the people of Judah.

Even so, Yahweh continues to be very angry,

and he is ready to use his power to punish his people further.

10 How terrible it will be for judges who make unjust laws

and for people who make decrees that cause people to suffer.

2 You do not give poor people fair judgments;

no, you deny justice to needy people.

You allow people to seize what belongs to widows,

and you rob orphans of their possessions.

3 You will not be able to do anything to save yourselves

when I send an army from far away to punish you.

You will not be able to run to anyone for help,

and you will have nowhere to keep your valuable possessions safe.

4 You will only be able to stumble along with other prisoners,

or your dead bodies will fall among those whom others have killed.

Even so, Yahweh continues to be very angry,

and he is ready to use his power to punish his people further.

5 Yahweh says, “How terrible it will be for the Assyrians!

I use them like a rod and a club to punish other nations

because I am angry with those nations.

6 I send them to attack nations that make me angry

because they do not honor me.

I send them to take away the valuable possessions that people have

and to subdue them as if they were walking on mud in the streets.

7 However, the king of Assyria does not understand

that he is only a weapon that I am using.

He does not plan to act that way.

Instead, he wants to destroy many nations completely.

8 He boasts and says, ‘I have conquered many kings,

and now they all lead their soldiers as commanders in my army.

9 We conquered Calno just as we conquered Carchemish.

We conquered Hamath just as we conquered Arpad.

We conquered Samaria just as we conquered Damascus.

10 The kingdoms I conquered each worshiped their own gods,

and their idols were more impressive than the ones in Jerusalem and Samaria.

11 I defeated Samaria and its gods,

and I will certainly do the same thing to Jerusalem and its gods!’

12 However, when the Lord finishes everything he plans to do to discipline the people who live in Jerusalem on Mount Zion and elsewhere in Judah, he will punish the king of Assyria, because that king is very proud and looks at everyone with arrogant contempt.

13 That king has said, ‘I have done all this by my own great power.

I have accomplished this because I am so wise and intelligent.

I have made the territories of nations my own territory.

I have captured the treasures that belonged to those nations.

Because I am so powerful, I have defeated kings,

so that they no longer sit on their thrones.

14 I took the wealth of other kingdoms

as easily as someone reaches into a bird’s nest.

I gathered treasures from throughout the world

as easily as someone gathers eggs that a bird has abandoned,

as if no bird flapped its wings or called out or chirped to stop me.’

15 An axe cannot boast that it is stronger than the person who chops with it!

A saw cannot claim to be greater than the person who moves it back and forth!

That would be like a rod waving around the person who picks it up,

or like a wooden club lifting up the person who carries it!

16 Therefore Yahweh, the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

will cause the strong warriors of Assyria to die from a disease that makes them very thin.

He will destroy the things that they are so proud of

as if he were burning them up in a fire.

17 Yahweh, the holy God who is like a light for the people of Israel,

will destroy the Assyrians in a single day.

He will do that as if they were thorns and briars

and he were a great fire.

18 Yahweh will completely destroy the splendid forests and fertile farmlands of Assyria.

The soil will be bare, with nothing on it,

just as a disease can make it so that there is almost no flesh on a person’s bones.

19 So few trees will remain in the forests of Assyria

that even a child could count them.”

20 When that happens, the few people who remain alive in Israel,

the survivors among Jacob’s descendants,

will no longer rely on the Assyrians, who tried to destroy them.

Instead, they will genuinely trust in Yahweh,

the holy God of the Israelites.

21 The survivors among Jacob’s descendants will once again worship Yahweh.

He is the only God who truly has power.

22 Even though the people of Israel now seem to be as numerous

as the grains of sand on the seashore,

only a small number of them will return to their land after being captives.

Yahweh has determined to destroy most of them,

and he will do that to punish them for doing so many wrong things.

23 Yes, Yahweh, the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

has determined to destroy people throughout the world.

24 Therefore, Yahweh, the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies, says,

“My people who live in Jerusalem on Mount Zion and in other parts of Judah,

do not be afraid of the Assyrians

when they lift up their rods and staffs to hit you

just as the Egyptians hit your ancestors when they were slaves.

25 Very soon I will no longer be angry with you,

and then I will destroy them because I am angry with them.”

26 Then Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

will defeat the Assyrians as if he were striking them with a whip.

He will defeat them just as he helped Gideon defeat the Midianites at the rock of Oreb.

He will defeat them just as he destroyed the Egyptian army

when he had Moses lift up his staff over the sea.

27 When that happens, you will no longer be slaves to the Assyrians

and have to work hard and carry heavy loads for them.

You will be healthy and strong and free.

28 The invading Assyrian army has attacked Aiath.

They have marched through Migron.

They have stored their equipment at Michmash.

29 They have crossed through the mountain pass

and set up their camp at Geba.

The people of Ramah are trembling with fear.

The people of Gibeah, King Saul’s hometown, have run away.

30 The people of Gallim should cry out for help!

The people of Laishah should listen to them!

The people of Anathoth are in great danger!

31 The people of Madmenah are running away,

and the inhabitants of Gebim are trying to hide.

32 This very day the invading army will halt at Nob.

The king who is commanding them will defiantly shake his fist

to threaten the people who live in Jerusalem on Mount Zion.

33 Listen! Yahweh, the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

will defeat the Assyrians with his terrifying power,

as if he were cutting off the branches of a great tree.

The Assyrians have great, proud soldiers and commanders,

but Yahweh will destroy them as if they were tall trees he was cutting down.

34 They will be like a thick forest that he was cutting down with an iron axe.

He will destroy them with his great power,

as if he were chopping down great trees in Lebanon.

11 The dynasty of David son of Jesse

now seems like the stump of a tree that someone has cut down.

But one of his descendants will become king again.

It will be as if a branch had grown from the roots of that tree and produced fruit.

2 The Spirit of Yahweh will always remain with that king.

The Spirit will make him wise and understanding.

The Spirit will enable him to plan well and act powerfully.

The Spirit will enable him to know Yahweh and to revere him greatly.

3 He will be very happy to obey Yahweh.

He will not make decisions based on how people appear

or on what people tell him.

4 Instead, he will judge the cases of poor people fairly.

Yes, he will make good decisions on behalf of needy people throughout his land.

But as for wicked people, he will give powerful commands to punish them.

He will even execute them for the harm they have done to other people.

5 His desire to do what is just and honest

will equip him to rule well.

6 When he becomes king, conditions will be so peaceful that even

wolves will live peacefully with lambs.

Leopards will lie down with young goats.

Calves and young lions and fat calves will stay together,

and a small child will lead them.

7 Cows and bears will eat together;

their young will lie down beside each other.

Lions will eat straw the way cattle do.

8 Babies will play safely near the holes where serpents live.

Small children will put their hands into the nests of poisonous snakes without getting hurt.

9 People will no longer do harmful or destructive things

anywhere on the mountain that Yahweh chose as the place where people would worship him.

That is because people throughout the earth will know Yahweh,

just as water completely fills the sea.

10 At that future time, the place where this descendant of Jesse lives will be famous. People of other nations will recognize that they can come to him to get good advice about what to do. They will come to him the way soldiers gather around a signal flag.

11 At that time, the Lord will use his power to bring the survivors of his people back to their land, just as he brought them there before from Egypt. He will bring them back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from lands along the coast of the sea.

12 He will signal to the nations that he is restoring his people.

He will gather together the Israelites whom enemies carried away into exile.

He will bring back the people of Judah whom enemies scattered

to different places throughout the earth.

13 People in Israel will stop envying the people of Judah,

and people in Judah will stop being hostile to the people of Israel.

14 Together, their armies will sweep down the hills to the west and conquer the Philistines.

They will also defeat the people who live to the east and take their valuable possessions.

They will conquer Edom and Moab,

and the Ammonites will obey them.

15 Yahweh will turn the gulf of the Sea of Egypt into dry land,

and he will use his power to change the Euphrates River.

He will make a strong, hot wind blow over it

so that it splits it into seven shallow streams

that people can walk across wearing sandals.

16 Those of his people who still remain in Assyria

will have an easy road on which to return home.

It will be like when Yahweh made a path through the Sea of Reeds for the Israelites

when they left the land of Egypt long before.

12 At that time you will say,

“Yahweh, I thank you! Previously you were angry with me,

but now you are no longer angry, and you have comforted me.

2 Listen, God is the one who saves me!

Because Yahweh makes me strong and has saved me,

I sing about him.

I trust in him, and I am not afraid.

3 You, his people, will joyfully experience what he has done to save you,

just as people joyfully draw water from a well.

4 At that time you will tell others,

“Thank Yahweh! Pray to him!

Tell the people of other nations what he has done!

Remind them how he has earned a wonderful reputation!

5 Sing praises to Yahweh for the glorious things he has done.

People throughout the world know about them!

6 You people who live in the city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion,

shout loudly and joyfully to praise him,

since the holy God of the Israelites

lives among you and powerfully helps you!”

13 Isaiah son of Amoz received this message from Yahweh about Babylon:

2 Lift up a flag on the top of a bare hill

to signal that an army should come to attack Babylon!

Shout to them and wave your hand

to signal them to advance until they break through the gates

that the important people use to enter or leave the city.

3 Yahweh says, “I have set apart some warriors who are glad to help me triumph.

I am angry with the Babylonians,

so I have commanded those warriors to attack them.”

4 Listen! There is a noise on the mountains

that sounds like a huge army!

That noise is the sound of the soldiers

whom Yahweh is gathering from many kingdoms.

Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

is assembling an army for battle.

5 Those soldiers are coming from distant lands,

from the farthest places under the sky.

They are the weapons that Yahweh will use

to destroy the whole land of Babylonia

because he is angry with its king and people.

6 The Babylonians should wail, because Yahweh will act very soon.

He, Shaddai, the Almighty God, will destroy them very powerfully.

7 Because of this, the Babylonians will lose their courage,

and they will become weak with fear.

8 They will feel such terror that

they will have great anguish constantly.

They will move about in pain

as a woman does when she gives birth to a baby.

They will look at each other in shock,

and their faces will turn red with shame and anguish.

9 Pay attention! The time when Yahweh acts will be soon.

He will punish the Babylonians fiercely because he is so angry.

He will make the land of Babylonia desolate,

and he will destroy everyone in it who has done wrong.

10 When that happens, it will be as if

no stars or constellations shine in the sky at night.

It will be as if it stays dark even after the sun rises

and as if the moon does not give any light at night.

11 Yahweh says, “I will punish the people of the world for the evil things they have done.

I will punish wicked people for their sins.

I will stop arrogant people from boasting.

I will humble proud people who cruelly oppress others.

12 So many people will die that it will be harder to find a living person

than to find valuable gold such as gold from the land of Ophir.

13 To do this, I will shake the sky and the earth

so that they move from their places.

That will happen at the time when I, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

punish the Babylonians because I am so angry with them.”

14 Then the foreigners living in Babylon will run away,

as if they were a gazelle that hunters were chasing

or as if they were a flock of sheep that had no shepherd to control them.

Each of them will say that he is not Babylonian,

he belongs to a different group of people,

and each of them will flee back to his homeland.

15 The enemy soldiers will not let the Babylonian soldiers escape.

They will pursue them, catch them, and kill them.

16 Those enemy soldiers will kill babies

by hurling them to the ground while their parents watch.

They will steal the valuable possessions from the houses in Babylon,

and they will rape the women there.

17 Yahweh says, “Pay attention! I am going to influence the Medes to attack the Babylonians.

The Medes will not accept gold or silver as payment to stop them from attacking.

18 From their powerful bows, they will shoot arrows

that will smash through the armor of the Babylonian soldiers and kill them.

They will not spare children or even babies.”

19 Babylon has been a very glorious kingdom.

Its people, the Chaldeans, have been proud of how magnificent it is.

However, God will destroy Babylon completely,

just as he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 No one will ever live in Babylon again.

No, in all future generations, no one will settle there.

Nomads will not set up their tents there,

and shepherds will not have their flocks rest there.

21 Instead, wild desert animals will lie down in its ruins,

and owls will make their nests throughout its abandoned houses.

Ostriches will live there,

and wild goats will leap around among the ruins.

22 Hyenas will howl in its ruined towers,

and jackals will make their dens in palaces that used to be beautiful.

These things will happen soon..

God will not let Babylon last much longer.

14 This will happen because Yahweh will act mercifully toward the descendants of Jacob.

He will choose the Israelites to be his people again,

and he will let them return and live in their land.

Then foreigners will unite with the Israelite people.

2 People from other nations will help the Israelites return to their land,

and the Israelites will make those foreigners serve them on the land that Yahweh gave them.

The Israelites will capture those who once captured them,

and they will rule over those who once oppressed them.

3 Someday Yahweh will relieve you Israelite people from the suffering, distress, and harsh slavery that others forced on you. 4 When that happens, you will mock the king of Babylon by saying,

“See how he is no longer oppressing us!

He will not attack us again!

5 Yahweh has taken away the power of that wicked ruler.

6 He used to harm other people furiously and continuously.

He ruled other nations viciously,

and he did not restrain himself when he persecuted them.

7 But now people throughout the world are resting peacefully.

They are singing happy songs.

8 It is as if even the cypress and cedar trees in Lebanon

are celebrating the defeat of the king of Babylon.

They are singing as if he could hear,

‘Now that you are gone, no one comes to cut us down.’

9 It is as if the place underground where dead people are is excited to meet you when you arrive.

It is as if that place is waking up the spirits of people who were leaders on earth so they can meet you.

It is as if it is making those who once ruled over the nations as kings

stand up from their thrones to greet you.

10 When you arrive, they will say to you,

‘Now you have become as weak as we are!

You have become just like us!’

11 You used to be so arrogant, and you lived in luxury,

but now you have come down here to the place where dead people are.

Maggots and worms are devouring your corpse.

They completely surround your body as if they were its bed and blanket.

12 King of Babylon, it is as if you have fallen from the sky!

You are like the planet Venus, which rises brightly high into the morning sky

but then disappears when the sun rises.

You once defeated many nations,

but now it is as if you are a tree that someone has cut down that is lying on the ground.

13 You said to yourself, ‘I will go up into the sky

and set up my throne higher than the stars that God made.

The divine beings gather on a mountain in the far north,

and I will preside over their gathering.

14 I will rise above the tops of the clouds

and make myself equal to the Most High.’

15 Instead, you have descended to the place where dead people are.

You are in the deepest part of that underground place.

16 The dead people there stare at you and look closely at you.

They say, ‘It is hard to believe that this is the man

who terrified the people who live on the earth

and who conquered so many kingdoms!

17 He devastated the world and tore down cities,

and he never let prisoners go home, but look at him now!’

18 When the king who rules a nation dies,

his people bury him honorably in a tomb near his palace.

19 But no one has buried your body in a grave.

Instead, people have discarded it,

the same way they discard a branch that is useless.

It is as if you died in battle and soldiers first trampled your body while fighting

and then threw it into a pit with a lining of stones

along with the bodies of many other soldiers who died in battle.

20 It is your fault that enemies have destroyed your land

and killed so many of your people.

So no one will bury you the way people have buried other kings.

Because you have been so evil, you will not have descendants,

so people will never remember you.

21 Because the king of Babylon has been so evil,

kill his descendants!

Otherwise, they might become powerful and conquer other lands

and build cities for themselves throughout the world!”

22 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares,

“I myself will take action against the people of Babylon.

I will make sure that they have no survivors or any descendants

and that no one remembers them.”

That is what Yahweh declares.

23 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares,

“I will make Babylon a swampy marshland where herons live.

I will destroy it so completely

that it will be as if I had swept it away with a broom.

24 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, has made this solemn oath:

“What I have planned will certainly happen,

and no one will change what I have decided: 25 I will destroy the Assyrians in my land and crush them on my mountains.

Then my people will no longer be slaves to the Assyrians

and have to work hard and carry heavy loads for them.

26 This is the plan that Yahweh has made regarding the whole earth.

This is how he has decided to use his power against all the foreign kingdoms. 27 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, has decided to do this,

so no one can stop him.

He has decided to use his power,

so no one can resist him.

28 Yahweh gave this message during the year when King Ahaz died:

29 Do not celebrate, all you Philistines,

because the king who used to oppress you has died.

Other kings will succeed him, and they will oppress you even worse,

as if that king had been a serpent and as if a viper and then a flying serpent

came from him the way a branch grows from a stump.

30 The poorest of my people will have food to eat,

and those who are needy will have safe places to settle.

However, I will use famine to destroy the population of you Philistines

so that none of you survive.

31 If your cities and their gates could cry out in fear, they should,

and all of you Philistines should be very afraid.

That is because a great army is coming from the north,

and it will darken the land like a thick cloud of smoke.

None of its soldiers leave its ranks and fall behind.

32 The nation of that army is likely to send messengers

to Jerusalem to demand surrender or tribute.

When it does, we should tell them that Yahweh has made

Jerusalem on Mount Zion a strong city,

and his people who live in the countryside can go there and be safe.

15 Yahweh gave this message about Moab:

Enemies will destroy the cities of Ar and Kir in Moab in a single night

and leave them in ruins.

2 The Moabites will go up to their temple,

and the people of the city of Dimon will go up to their hilltop shrines to weep.

The people of Moab will wail about what happens to the towns of Nebo and Medeba.

They will shave their heads and cut off their beards to show that they are grieving.

3 They will wear sackcloth when they go out in public.

They will wail on their rooftops and in their city squares.

People will be weeping as they come down

into the cities from the temple and the shrines.

4 The people of the cities of Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out;

people as far away as Jahaz will hear them wailing.

The Moabite soldiers will shout in distress,

and they will tremble with fear.

5 I feel very sorry for the people of Moab.

Its refugees will flee as far as Zoar and Eglath Shelishiyah.

They will weep as they go up on the road to Luhith.

All along the road to Horonaim, they will cry out because enemies have destroyed their land.

6 The water in the Nimrim brook will dry up.

The grass will wither, the plants will die,

and nothing green will remain.

7 So the people will take their valuable possessions and the food they have saved

and carry those things across the Wadi of the Willows.

8 People will cry out throughout the whole territory of Moab.

There will be wailing from Eglaim in the south

all the way to Beer Elim in the north.

9 The stream near Dimon will be red with the blood of those who have died,

but Yahweh will bring even more trouble on Dimon.

He will send lions to attack those who try to escape from Moab

and those who remain in that land.

16 The leaders of Moab will say to each other,

“We must send lambs as gifts to the ruler of Judah.

We must send them from the city of Sela through the wilderness

to the city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion.

2 At that time, the women of Moab will look like fluttering birds that someone has chased from their nests

as they try to wade to safety across the shallow places of the Arnon River.

3 The leaders of Moab will say to the ruler of Judah: Decide that it is right to help us.

Protect us, just as the shadow of a large rock

provides a dark, cool shelter from the heat of the sun at midday.

Hide us who are fleeing from our enemies,

and do not tell them where we are.

4 Allow us who are fleeing from Moab to live among you.

Please protect us from those who want to destroy us!

We do not need to settle among you permanently, because

someday no one will be oppressing us or destroying our land anymore.

Those who have been doing that will be gone from our land.

5 If you help us, your reign will become more secure

because you will be acting mercifully toward people in need.

You will be a genuine successor of David as king,

making fair decisions and quickly doing what is right.”

6 We people of Judah have heard how very proud the Moabites are.

We have heard that they very arrogantly make great claims about themselves.

But their boasts are not true.

7 As a result, people throughout Moab will wail about what is happening to them.

They will feel very badly and moan

that they can no longer have raisin cakes from the city of Kir Hareseth.

8 The crops in the fields of the city of Heshbon

and the grapevines at the town of Sibmah have withered.

Armies that rulers of other nations command

have destroyed Sibmah’s finest vines.

Moab is no longer prosperous as it was when it was like a vine

whose shoots spread out north to the city of Jazer,

extended east into the wilderness,

and went all the way to the sea in the west.

9 So I will weep as the people of Jazer are weeping

for the grapevines of Sibmah.

If I could, I would water the fields and vineyards

around the cities of Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears.

I am sad because no one is shouting joyfully anymore

about collecting summer fruit or harvesting grain.

10 No one is celebrating happily anymore

in the fields they have cultivated.

No one is singing or shouting joyfully in the vineyards.

No one is crushing grapes in the winepresses to make wine.

Yahweh says, “I have stopped people from shouting joyfully.”

11 So I grieve deeply for Moab.

My moaning is like the mournful sound of a harp.

I am very sad for Kir Heres.

12 When it becomes evident that the Moabites have worn themselves out

praying at their hilltop shrines,

they will go to their temples to pray,

but they will accomplish nothing by praying.

13 That was the message that Yahweh spoke about Moab previously. 14 However, Yahweh now says, “In no more than three years, counted as precisely as a hired worker counts the years of his contract, people will consider Moab insignificant, even though it was once glorious. Even though there are now a large number of Moabites, only very few of them will remain, and they will be weak.”

17 Yahweh gave this message about the Aramean kingdom whose capital was Damascus:

“Listen! I am going to destroy Damascus, so that it will no longer be a city.

It will be only a pile of ruins!

2 People will abandon the towns around the city of Aroer.

Flocks of sheep will eat grass and lie down there,

and no one will chase them away.

3 The northern kingdom of Israel will also lose its fortified cities

when enemies destroy the kingdom whose capital is Damascus.

The few people who remain in Aram

will lose the things that made them great, just as the Israelites will.”

That is what Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares.

4 “The kingdom of Israel has been glorious,

but at that time, it will become insignificant,

as if it were a fat person who became very thin.

5 The land of Israel will be as bare as a field where harvesters have cut down the grain stalks

and collected the heads of grain.

It will be like the fields in the Valley of the Raphaites

after poor people have come along and picked up the grain that the harvesters left behind.

6 Only a few Israelites will remain,

like the few olives that remain on a tree after workers have shaken it,

which poor people then come and pick.

The few Israelites will be like the two or three olives that remain on the top branches,

or like the four or five olives that remain on the branches that produce the most fruit.”

That is what Yahweh, the God whom Israelites should worship, declares.

7 At that time, the people will seek help from the God who made them.

They will depend on the holy God of the Israelites.

8 They will no longer seek help from the gods whom they worship at altars

that they have made themselves.

They will not worship idols they have made

that represent the goddess Asherah or the sun.

9 When the Israelites invaded the land of Canaan,

the former inhabitants abandoned their cities,

and trees and shrubs grew there.

In the same way, when God punishes the Israelites,

they will abandon their cities that have walls around them;

no one will live in them.

10 That will happen because they no longer worship the God who saved them.

He protected them as if he had been a huge rock they could climb onto and be safe.

They may plant fine plants

and even vine cuttings from foreign lands.

But since they no longer worship Yahweh,

11 even if the plants sprout and produce blossoms right away,

at harvest time, they will not have produced any crops.

People will just cut them down and throw them into a heap.

This will happen at the time when enemies afflict you

and you experience suffering that no one can relieve.

12 How terrible it will be for the huge army

that a king will assemble from many peoples!

It will make a loud sound, as the sea does.

Yes, that great army will make a loud roar, as a waterfall does.

13 But even though it will make a load roar as a waterfall does,

Yahweh will defeat it, and its soldiers will run away back to their distant homes.

Israelite soldiers will chase them,

and they will scatter like the chaff that the wind scatters on the hills

or like the tumbleweed that storms blow away.

14 It will be as if the enemies who terrify us so much

disappear in a single night.

That is what will happen to those who invade our land

and try to take our possessions.

18 How terrible it will be for the people who live in the land

where insects’ wings buzz loudly!

That is the land of Cush,

through which rivers flow.

2 The king of that land sends ambassadors down the river in papyrus boats,

sailing over the surface of the water.

But his messengers who travel so quickly can go back to their nation

because Judah does not need to make an alliance with them.

The people of that nation are tall and have smooth skin.

Others throughout the world fear that nation

because it conquers other countries and takes their territories.

Great rivers flow through its land.

3 People who live throughout the world

should pay attention to the signs that Yahweh himself

is going to take action to defeat the enemies of Judah.

4 Yahweh told me this:

“I am watching quietly from heaven where I live, but I will act soon.

It is as if it is late summer

and the heat seems to shimmer during the day

and a heavy mist forms overnight

but thunderstorms form suddenly.”

5 When Yahweh defeats Judah’s’ enemies, it will be as if

grapes were ready for people to harvest.

It will be as if the blossoms had fallen off those vines

and grapes had grown where the flowers were.

It will be as if Yahweh uses pruning hooks

to cut off the sprigs that hold the grape bunches

and as if he also cuts off the branches that have grown from the vine.

6 The bodies of the dead enemy soldiers will remain on the battlefield.

There are birds that live in the mountains that eat flesh.

Those birds will eat those bodies during the summer.

Wild animals will eat those bodies during the winter.

7 When Yahweh defeats that enemy army,

ambassadors will return from that nation

whose people are tall and have smooth skin.

Others throughout the world fear that nation

because it conquers other countries and takes their territories.

Great rivers flow through its land.

But those ambassadors will be bringing gifts to Yahweh,

the commander of the heavenly armies,

at Mount Zion, the place where he has chosen to be present.

19 Yahweh gave this message about Egypt.

Pay attention! Yahweh is coming to Egypt,

riding on a fast-moving cloud.

It will be as if the idols of Egypt tremble when he arrives.

The Egyptians will not be brave anymore.

2 Yahweh says, “I will influence the Egyptians to fight against each other.

People will fight against their own relatives and neighbors.

The army of one city will fight against the army of another city.

The army of one kingdom will fight against the army of another kingdom.

3 I will prevent the Egyptians from doing what they plan,

and this will greatly discourage them.

They will try to find out what to do by asking the gods that their idols represent.

They will ask fortunetellers and those who try to contact people who have died or talk to spirits.

4 Then I will give a cruel person the power to become the master of the Egyptians.

He will rule over them as a fierce king.”

This is what the Lord, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares.

5 The water in the great Nile River will dry up

so that its riverbed will become dry ground.

6 The water in the irrigation channels will become stagnant and stink.

The streams that the Nile divides into at its delta will steadily dry up.

The reeds and rushes in the river will wither.

7 The vegetation along the Nile at its mouth

and the crops that people plant near the Nile will dry up.

The wind will blow them away, and nothing will remain.

8 The people who used to catch fish in the Nile

will be very sad because they cannot do that work anymore,

whether they caught fish by casting hooks into the river

or by throwing nets into the water.

9 Workers used to helped to produce linen

Some of them combed the flax fibers.

Others wove the fibers into cloth.

These workers will also be sad

because they have no work

because there is no water to grow flax anymore.

10 The work that provided the basis of the Egyptian economy will end.

The people who worked for wages will feel great distress.

11 The officials of the city of Zoan are certainly fools.

The wisest advisors of Pharaoh give foolish advice.

None of them should brag to Pharaoh,

“I am one of the wise people you ought to consult.

` My ancestors were kings, and they passed their wisdom

down through the generations to me.”

12 If there really are wise people in Egypt,

they should recognize what Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

is planning to do to Egypt.

Then they should tell the Egyptians.

13 But the officials of Zoan have become foolish.

The officials of Noph are only deceiving themselves when they think they are wise.

The most important leaders of its tribes have led Egypt astray.

14 Yahweh has confused the Egyptians

by making these leaders tell them to do the wrong things.

It is as if the Egyptians are stumbling about

the way a very drunk person vomits and then steps in his vomit.

15 No one in Egypt is able to do anything to change the situation.

It does not matter whether he is a leader or a common person.

It does not matter whether he is important or unimportant.

16 At that time, the Egyptians will not be strong warriors. They will tremble with fear because of what Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, is about to do to them by his power. 17 The Egyptians will be very afraid of the people who live in the land of Judah. Suppose someone mentions Judah to an Egyptian. That will make him very afraid because of what Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, has decided to do to Egypt.

18 At that time, people in five cities in the land of Egypt will speak Hebrew. They will worship Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, as their God. People will call one of those cities “the City of Destruction.”

19 At that time, there will be an altar for worshiping Yahweh in the center of the land of Egypt. There will also be a stone pillar at Egypt’s border that honors Yahweh. 20 This pillar will identify Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, as the God whom people worship in the land of Egypt. When enemies invade and oppress the Egyptians, they will pray to Yahweh for help. He will send a powerful person to rescue them from their enemies.

21 At that time, Yahweh will reveal himself to the Egyptians, and they will acknowledge him. They will worship him with sacrifices and grain offerings. The Egyptians will make vows to Yahweh, and will do what they have promised. 22 Yahweh will punish the Egyptians when they do wrong, and this will cause them to repent. They will pray to Yahweh, and he will restore them.

23 At that time, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. Assyrians will travel to Egypt, and Egyptians will travel to Assyria. The people of both countries will worship Yahweh together.

24 At that time, Yahweh will use the Israelites together with the Egyptians and Assyrians to make good things happen for people throughout the earth. 25 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, will bless them. He will say, “I bless Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the nation I have made, and Israel, my special possession.”

20 One year, King Sargon of Assyria sent the Tartan, his army commander, to attack the city of Ashdod. The Tartan and his soldiers fought against Ashdod and conquered it. 2 At that time, Isaiah son of Amoz received a message from Yahweh. Yahweh told him, “Take off the rough cloth that you have been wearing. Also take off the sandals you are wearing.” So Isaiah did what Yahweh told him to do. He went around naked and barefoot.

3 Then Yahweh said, “My servant Isaiah has been going around naked and barefoot for three years. He has been doing that as a sign to warn about what is going to happen to the people of Egypt and Cush. 4 The king of Assyria is going to capture the people of Egypt and Cush and lead them away. He will force people of all ages to walk naked and barefoot, just as Isaiah has done, with their buttocks uncovered. This will cause the people of Egypt to feel great shame. 5 Then the people who boasted that they could expect the people of Cush and Egypt to help them will feel shock and shame. 6 At that time, the people who live in this coastal area will say, ‘Look what happened to the nations we were hoping would help us! We expected them to protect us if the king of Assyria attacked us. Now we cannot escape from him!’ ”

21 Yahweh gave this message about Babylon, the land near a great river that will become a desert.

The powerful army of a nation that terrifies others

will come swiftly and destructively from the desert.

It will sweep along like the storm winds that blow across the Negev.

2 God showed me a distressing vision:

In a surprise attack, this army will destroy Babylon.

Yahweh has commanded the Elamites and Medes

to go and besiege that city.

Babylon made many people suffer,

but Yahweh will keep them from suffering anymore.

3 Because of what I saw, I feel anguish constantly throughout my body

like the pains that a woman feels when she gives birth.

I have to bend over to support myself,

and this keeps me from hearing anything further.

I feel such dismay that I am not able to see anything further.

4 When I try to think, I get confused.

I am very afraid of what will happen.

I was hoping that things would be peaceful.

But what God has shown me has made me afraid about the future.

5 In my vision, I saw the Babylonians preparing a great feast.

They spread out carpets, and they ate and drank.

But then someone shouted, “Get up, you commanders!

Get your weapons ready to fight a battle!”

6 The Lord said to me,

“Have a watchman stand on the wall.

Have him report whatever he sees.

7 If he sees a chariot coming along with two soldiers riding horses,

or if he sees someone coming who is riding on a donkey or camel,

he should pay very careful attention to what he sees.”

8 Later the watchman called out loudly to me,

“My lord, I have stood on this watchtower

continually during the day,

and I have stayed here at my guard post

throughout the night.

9 And now I am finally seeing something.

Here comes a man in a chariot!

A pair of horsemen are traveling with him.”

One of those men shouted out this news:

“Enemies have completely destroyed Babylon!

They have taken the idols that represented its gods

and smashed them on the ground!”

10 My people, your captors have been oppressing you

as if they were crushing grain on a threshing floor.

But now I am telling you what Yahweh has revealed to me about them.

He is the commander of the heavenly armies and the God whom Israelites should worship.

11 Yahweh gave this message about Edom, which I will call Dumah.

Someone called out to me from Mount Seir,

“Watchman, how much longer will our suffering last?

It feels as if it has been a long, dark night”

12 I the watchman replied,

“You will briefly have some relief, which will feel like morning,

but then you will be suffering again,

and it will feel like another night.

If you really want to understand what God is doing,

repent of your sin and ask him to help you.”

13 Yahweh gave this message about Arabia:

“You people who lead caravans from Dedan,

you will have to camp in the thickets of the Arabian desert.

14 The people who live in the land of Tema

should bring water to these thirsty people.

They should bring food to feed these refugees.

15 They are fleeing to escape from intense fighting.

They do not want the soldiers of hostile armies

to stab them with their swords

or shoot their arrows at them.”

16 The Lord said to me, “A hired worker counts the years of his contract precisely, and in one year that is just as precise, the people of Kedar will no longer be great. 17 The warriors of Kedar are famous for being good archers, but only a few of them will survive. This will happen because I, Yahweh, the God whom Israelites should worship, have said it will happen.”

22 Yahweh gave this message about Jerusalem, which is up on a mountain, but which seemed like a valley in the vision he gave me.

It is strange that so many people have gone up onto their flat rooftops.

2 People in the city are having a very noisy celebration.

Many other people have died,

but enemies did not kill them with swords.

Instead, they died of hunger or disease.

3 The leaders of the city have fled

and surrendered to the enemy without fighting.

Other people tried to flee far from the city,

but the enemy found them and captured them.

4 Because of this, I have told the people around me,

“Leave me alone, because I want to weep bitterly.

Do not try to comfort me about how the enemy is destroying

Jerusalem, our capital city.”

5 I am so sad because Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

has allowed this to be a time of great trouble for Jerusalem.

Enemy soldiers will try to batter down the city walls.

Then the people will cry out for help to Yahweh,

whose temple is on Mount Zion.

6 Armies from Elam and Kir are ready to attack.

They have arrived in chariots and on horseback.

They have brought quivers full of arrows,

and they are removing the protective covers of their shields

to get ready to fight a battle.

7 Enemy chariots have overrun the fertile valleys around the city.

Enemy soldiers have come on horseback

and positioned themselves right outside the city gates.

8 Those enemies destroyed the defenses of Judah.

When that happened, the people of Jerusalem hoped they could protect themselves

with the supply of weapons in the House of the Forest.

9 The people realized that there were many breaks in the walls of Jerusalem.

They also realized that they needed to collect water and store it safely within the city.

10 So they surveyed the houses in Jerusalem

and tore some of them down to use their stones to repair the city wall.

11 They also built a reservoir, the Pool of Siloam, between the walls of the city

to store water that they channeled down from the catchment area of the Gihon Spring.

But they did not ask Yahweh for help,

even though he was the one who originally created the water.

12 At that time, Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

told the people to weep and mourn

and shave their heads and wear rough cloth

to show that they were sorry for the sins they had committed.

13 But instead of doing that, they had a celebration!

They slaughtered cattle and sheep

to have meat for a feast where they also drank wine.

They said, “We should eat and drink as much as we want,

because we might die tomorrow!”

14 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, revealed this to me: “I swear that I will not forgive these people for this sin for as long as they live!” That is what Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies, said.

15 Yahweh the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies, also said this to me:

“Go and give this message from me to Shebna,

the official who is in charge of the royal palace:

16 ‘You should not be having workers chisel out a tomb for you

in that rocky cliff above the city of Jerusalem!

You have no ancestors who have tombs there.

17 You think that you are a great man,

but I am about to take away your official position.

It will be as if I grab you powerfully and throw you away.

18 It will be as if I roll you up into a ball

and hurl you into a large, open country.

You will die there.

You are very proud of your military power,

but this will be the end of it.

I am going to punish you in this way because

you have disgraced the household of your master, the king.

19 I will remove you from your important position

so that you have to stop working in the palace.

20 Then I will summon my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah to replace you.

21 I will give him your robe to wear,

and I will fasten your sash around him.

This will show that I have given him the authority that you had.

He will protect the people who live in Jerusalem and other places in Judah,

just as a father protects his family. 22 I will give him authority over the royal household of Judah.

When he says that something should happen,

no one will stop it from happening.

When he says that something should not happen,

no one will make it happen.

23 I will establish him firmly in his position

as if he were a peg that someone had hammered firmly into a wall.

He will bring great honor to his family,

as if they had a special place to sit on important occasions.

24 Many members of the younger generation of his extended family

will receive important positions because of him.

It will be as if he is a peg on which people hang

all of their small household containers, such as bowls and jars.

25 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares, “There will be a time when Eliakim no longer has his position. It will be as if a peg that someone firmly fastened had come loose and fallen down and everything that was hanging on it had also crashed down.” This will surely happen because Yahweh has said that it will happen.

23 Yahweh gave this message about the city of Tyre.

Sailors on ships that can sail long distances should weep

because enemies have destroyed the port city of Tyre!

There are no buildings left, and it is not safe for their ships to enter the harbor.

They first heard this news when they stopped at the island of Cyprus

where the Kittim people live.

2 Merchants from the city of Sidon

made Tyre wealthy by using its harbor to send and receive goods

that they transported across the sea in ships.

People who lived along the coast near Tyre also became wealthy.

Now those merchants and people should be silent with grief.

3 Tyre became wealthy by trading the grain

that people grew along the Nile River.

Tyre was a place where people from many nations

bought and sold goods.

4 The people of the city of Sidon should feel shame.

The city of Tyre, its ally, was once a strong city by the sea.

Now it is as if the sea is speaking to the people of Sidon

on behalf of Tyre and saying,

“I have no population left.

It is as if I never had labor pains and gave birth to children.

It is as if I never raised young men or brought up young women.”

5 When the Egyptians hear what happened to Tyre,

they will tremble with grief.

6 The ships that once docked at Tyre

should now go to other ports.

The people who live along the part of the coast

near where Tyre used to be should weep with grief.

7 Tyre was a city for a very long time.

The people who lived along the coast were very proud of it.

Its people went out and settled in many other lands.

8 The leaders of Tyre appointed leaders for its colonies.

Its merchants were like princes.

People throughout the world treated its traders with great respect.

So it is important to consider who decided to destroy it, and why.

9 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, decided to destroy it.

He did that to show that people should not have considered Tyre

to be so great that it was almost a god.

He did that to show that the leaders of Tyre, whom people honored so greatly,

were only human beings.

10 The people who formerly made their living from the sea trade

should now spread out over the land and farm it,

just as the Nile floods over its banks.

They should do this because they no longer have a reason

to keep living by the sea.

11 Yahweh used his power to destroy this great city by the sea,

and that has made the people of other kingdoms afraid.

He decided that enemies would destroy the fortresses

of this great merchant city.

12 Yahweh said to the people of Tyre, who came from Sidon,

“Now that enemies have destroyed your city,

you will no longer be happy.

Even if you leave and resettle on the island of Cyprus,

where the Kittim people live,

you will not have a peaceful life there either.”

13 Consider what happened to the land of the Chaldeans!

It is as if those people are not even a nation anymore.

The Assyrians turned their land into a place where wild desert animals live.

They set up siege towers to conquer their capital city of Babylon.

When they captured it, they took away the valuable things from its palaces,

and then they destroyed it completely.

14 Sailors on ships that can sail long distances should weep

because enemies have destroyed the city of Tyre,

the place that was once a secure harbor for them.

15 Now that enemies have destroyed it,

people will not use Tyre as a trading port

for 70 years, about as long as a king lives.

By the end of those 70 years,

Tyre will be like the prostitute in this song:

16 “You prostitute whom people have forgotten,

pick up your harp and walk through the city.

Play skillfully and sing many songs

so that people will remember you.”

17 After those 70 years end,

Yahweh will restore Tyre.

Then Tyre will once again earn money

by trading with kingdoms throughout the world,

just as a prostitute earns money from her clients.

18 However, the people of Tyre will dedicate what they earn to Yahweh.

They will not store it up or save it for themselves.

Instead, their trading profits will belong to those who worship Yahweh,

so that they can have the food they need

and buy good clothing.

24 Pay attention! Yahweh is about to destroy everything on the earth

and make it a wasteland.

He will ruin the surface of the land

and scatter the people who live on it.

2 He will treat everyone the same way:

ordinary people and priests,

male servants and their masters,

female servants and their mistresses,

buyers and sellers,

those who lend money and those who borrow it,

creditors and those who owe them debts.

3 Yahweh will completely empty the earth

and remove everything valuable on it.

This will surely happen because Yahweh has said that it will happen.

4 The plants on the earth will completely wither.

The plants that grow in the ground will not be able to produce any fruit.

The most important people on earth will become weak.

5 The people who live on the earth have made it

a place that Yahweh considers unclean.

That is because they have disobeyed his instructions,

disregarded his laws,

and broken the permanent agreement that he made with them.

6 Because of that, God has cursed the earth and is destroying it.

The people of the earth are suffering for what they have done wrong.

As a result, most of the people of the earth are dying.

Only a few people remain alive.

7 The grapevines are producing few grapes,

so there is little new wine.

The people who used to feel happy are now groaning.

8 People no longer play happy music on tambourines or harps.

They no longer celebrate loudly.

9 People no longer sing songs as they drink wine.

People no longer enjoy drinking beer.

10 There is so much damage in the city

that it is no longer a busy place.

People do not allow others to enter their homes.

11 People shout in the streets because they have no more wine.

People who used to be happy are not happy anymore.

Instead, they feel gloomy.

12 Enemies have battered down the gates of the city

and come in and destroyed its buildings.

13 This is what it will be like throughout the earth

and among its peoples:

it will be like when workers beat the last few olives off a tree,

or like the few grapes that remain after the grape harvest ends.

14 But those who survive will shout loudly and joyfully.

From the western coastlands, they will proclaim how majestic Yahweh is.

15 So people in eastern regions should also praise Yahweh.

Those who live in the coastlands by the sea

should celebrate the fame of Yahweh,

the God whom Israelites worship.

16 We know that people in faraway places are singing,

“Glorify Yahweh, who is righteous!”

However, I say, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away!

How terrible it is for me!”

Dishonest people continue to betray others.

They betray others repeatedly and very dishonestly.

17 You people who live on the earth,

you will experience great fear

and difficulties you cannot overcome,

as if they were deep pits or traps from which you could not escape.

18 If someone tries to flee from something that scares him,

it will be as if he falls into a deep pit.

If he overcomes one difficulty, as if he climbed out of that pit,

he will have another difficulty, as if a trap catches him.

God will cause torrential rainstorms

and great earthquakes.

19 God will shatter the earth completely.

He will split it open

and make it shake violently.

20 The earth will move back and forth the way a drunk person staggers.

It will sway as a hut does in a windstorm.

The sins of the people who live on the earth

are like a weight that is too heavy for it to carry.

It will be as if the earth collapses under that weight

and is not able to get up again.

21 At that time, Yahweh will punish the powerful beings in the heavens above

and the kings on the earth below.

22 Yahweh will gather them all together and put them in a dungeon like prisoners.

He will lock them up in that prison,

and after a long time, he will punish them.

23 Then the moon and the sun will not seem so bright

because Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, will reign

on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

and the elders of his people will see how glorious he is.

25 Yahweh, you are my God.

I will praise and worship you for who you are.

You have done wonderful things.

You planned them long ago, and you have accomplished them with complete faithfulness.

2 You turn cities into piles of rubble.

You even destroy cities that have strong walls around them.

Even when foreigners build fortresses,

you destroy them so completely

that no one will ever rebuild them.

3 Therefore, people from powerful nations will declare that you are very great.

and people will be in awe of you

in the cities of nations that terrify others.

4 Yahweh, you protect poor people just as a strong fortress protects those inside it.

You protect needy people when they are suffering

just as a shelter protects people from rain

and a shade protects people from the heat of the sun.

Cruel people attack others the way a rainstorm batters a wall

5 and the way scorching heat makes a desert unbearable.

Foreign armies may cause trouble, but you defeat them

just as a cloud cools the land with its shade.

You keep cruel people from singing to celebrate their victories.

6 Here on Mount Zion, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

will prepare a wonderful feast for all peoples.

It will be a banquet with rich food and fine wine.

7 The people of all nations are gloomy,

as if a thick shroud were covering them.

But here on Mount Zion, Yahweh will make them happy again,

as if he were taking away that shroud.

8 He will do that by making it so that no one dies anymore.

Yahweh, the Lord, will make it so that no one weeps anymore.

His people were in shameful situations in many places in the world,

but he will restore them to honorable situations.

This will surely happen because Yahweh has said that it will happen.

9 At that time, people will proclaim,

“Pay attention! Our God has done this!

We waited confidently for him to help us,

and he has rescued us!

Our God is Yahweh. We waited confidently for him to help us.

Now he has rescued us, so we should be happy and celebrate!”

10 Yahweh will use his power to protect Mount Zion,

but he will defeat the people of Moab in their own land

just as someone tramples straw into a pile of manure.

11 The people of Moab will try to escape

as if they were in a giant pool of manure

and trying to swim out of it.

But no matter how cleverly they try to escape,

Yahweh will defeat them and humble them.

12 Even though there are strong, high walls around Moab’s cities,

Yahweh will demolish them

so that they are only stones lying on the dust of the ground.

26 At that time, people in the land of Judah will sing this song:

“We have a strong city!

God protects us as though he had built walls and fortifications around us to save us.

2 Open the gates so that the people who do what is right may enter.

Those people remain faithful to Yahweh.

3 Yahweh, you keep those who firmly commit themselves to you

completely secure, because they trust in you.

4 So always trust Yahweh,

because Yahweh will always protect us

as if he were a huge rock we could climb onto and be safe.

5 He has humbled those who lived in a city

that they thought was safe because it was on a high place.

He has destroyed it so completely that all that remains

are stones lying on the dust of the ground.

6 Poor and needy people walk over its ruins.”

7 Yahweh, you are righteous,

and when people want to do what is right,

you make it easier for them to do that.

8 Yes, Yahweh, we want to do what you have decided is right,

and we are waiting for you to help us do that.

We earnestly want people to know

what you are like and the great things you have done.

9 During the night I long for you,

and the first thing I want to do in the morning

is to meet with you.

When you judge people on the earth,

those who live in the world learn to do what is right.

10 Even if rulers show mercy to wicked people

and do not punish them right away,

they do not learn to do what is right.

Even in a land where people do what is right, they do wrong things,

and they do not recognize how great Yahweh is.

11 Yahweh, you are about to use your power to punish them,

but they do not recognize this.

Show them how eager you are to help your people,

and let that shame them.

Give them the punishment you have prepared for your enemies,

and may that destroy them.

12 Yahweh, you have really made happen

everything it seems that we have accomplished.

So please make good things happen for us,

13 Yahweh our God, other masters have governed us,

but you are the only one whose authority we acknowledge.

14 Those rulers are dead, and they will not live again.

They are spirits of dead people who will not come back to life.

That is because you punished them and destroyed them.

Now no one remembers them anymore.

15 Yahweh, you have greatly increased the population of our nation,

and people honor you for doing that.

You have also enlarged our territory.

16 Yahweh, when your people were suffering,

they called out to you to help them.

When you were punishing them to correct them,

they whispered prayers to you.

17 A pregnant woman writhes in pain and cries out

when she is about to give birth.

In the same way, we suffered because of your discipline, Yahweh.

18 We suffered as if we were having birth pangs,

but it was as if we did not give birth to anything.

We could not do anything to make our land safe,

and no new people came into the world.

19 But Yahweh, those of your people who have died will live again;

their bodies will become alive!

Those who now lie in the ground should come back to life and sing joyfully!

You are like dew, Yahweh, which makes plants live even when there is not rain,

but you are like spiritual dew that makes dead people live again.

When the spirits of dead people come back to life,

it will be as if the earth is giving birth to people.

20 So now, my people, go into your rooms

and shut your doors behind you.

Hide there for just a little while

until Yahweh is no longer angry.

21 Listen! Yahweh is about to come from heaven

to punish the people on earth for the evil things they have done.

It will become evident whom others have murdered,

even if they buried their bodies or their blood soaked into the ground.

27 At that time, Yahweh will destroy the enemy nations that have oppressed the Israelites.

It will be as if he uses his big, strong, dangerous sword

to kill a sea monster that glides swiftly through the water

and moves so elusively that no one else can capture or kill it.

2 At that time, Yahweh will sing this song:

“You people of Israel, sing with me about the vineyard that delights me, which represents you!

3 I, Yahweh, guard that vineyard.

I water the plants frequently.

I guard it all the time

so that no one steals the fruit or harms the plants.

4 I am no longer angry with the vineyard for producing sour grapes,

so I will no longer allow weeds to grow wildly in it.

If I see any weeds, I will pull them out and burn them up,

as if I were attacking an enemy in battle.

5 Those weeds represent enemies who can make peace with me

and depend on me for protection

so that I do not destroy them.”

6 In the future, the descendants of Jacob will be like a plant with deep roots.

Those Israelites will flourish and prosper.

They will provide good things for people throughout the world.

7 Yahweh has not punished the Israelite people

as severely as he punished the nations that attacked them.

He has not killed Israelites the way he killed the enemies who killed them.

8 Yahweh disciplined his people just enough to correct them.

He did that by sending them away into exile.

He drove them out of their land the way a harsh east wind blows things away.

9 The descendants of Jacob will break down all of their pagan altars

and crush their stones to pieces as if they were chalk.

They will destroy the idols that they made

to represent the goddess Asherah and the sun.

When they do that, it will show that Yahweh has made them stop committing those sins

and has forgiven them.

10 Cities that once had strong walls around them are now empty.

People do not live in them anymore, just as they do not live in the desert.

Calves eat grass and lie down where the cities once were.

They chew the leaves off the branches of trees.

11 Those cities are like a tree that has died and whose branches have dried up.

Women come and break branches like that and use them to start fires.

Those people do not understand how Yahweh wants them to live.

So even though he created them,

he will not be merciful to them or treat them kindly.

12 However, at that future time, Yahweh will gather his people one by one.

He will separate them from the people of other nations

the way a farmer separates grain from chaff.

He will collect them all the way from the Euphrates River, which flows so strongly,

to the brook at the boundary of Egypt.

13 At that time, someone will blow a great ram’s horn.

Then those Israelites who are about to die in Assyria

and those whom their enemies have taken to Egypt

will come back to Jerusalem.

They will worship Yahweh there on his holy mountain, Mount Zion.

28 How terrible it will be for the people who live in the city of Samaria!

They are proud that their city is very beautiful.

It is on a hilltop above a rich valley.

It looks to them like a crown on a king’s head.

But it will stop being beautiful, just as a flower fades.

The people who live there drink so much wine that they become drunk.

2 Listen! The Lord is going to use someone who is very powerful to punish them.

That person will come like a very destructive hailstorm

and like a flood of mighty water that sweeps over the land.

He will use his power to destroy Samaria completely.

3 Those drunkards in Samaria are proud of their city on top of a hill,

but enemy soldiers will trample it under their feet.

4 That very beautiful city

on a hilltop above a rich valley

will stop being beautiful, just as a flower fades.

Enemies will take the valuable things from Samaria

just as someone quickly picks and eats a fig he sees that has ripened before summer.

5 When that happens, some people will survive

who belong to Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies.

He will rule them in a glorious way.

6 He will enable judges to judge cases fairly,

and he will make soldiers who defend cities strong enough

to keep enemy armies from conquering them.

7 However, the leaders of Judah also drink too much wine and beer.

This makes them stumble about drunkenly.

The priests and prophets become drunk

from drinking wine and beer.

As a result, the prophets do not understand messages from Yahweh,

and the priests do not correctly decide the cases the people bring to them.

8 They drink so much that they vomit on the tables where they are eating

and there are no clean places on those tables.

9 The Judeans mock God and say, “He speaks to us as if we were people

who are difficult to teach and need to have someone explain to us what he is doing.

He speaks to us as if we were babies

who have just stopped nursing.

10 We say this because he only tells us one thing at a time, and he repeats it.

He explains each part of it repeatedly.

He talks only for a little while and then waits before saying anything more.”

11 Because these people refuse to listen, Yahweh will speak to them

through foreigners who speak a language they do not understand.

12 Yahweh told his people earlier,

“I am offering rest and refreshment to anyone who is weary.” But they refused to listen. 13 So now Yahweh really will only tell them one thing at a time and repeat it.

He will explain each part of it repeatedly.

He will talk only for a little while and then wait before saying anything more.

As a result, they will not succeed at what they attempt,

like babies who try to walk but fall into a sitting position.

God will let their enemies defeat them, trap them, and capture them.

14 So listen to what Yahweh says, you rulers of the people in Jerusalem,

who have been speaking so mockingly!

15 You say boastfully,

“We are confident that no one will kill us.

It is as if the place where dead people are has promised us that we will not go there.

The Assyrian army is very destructive.

It has overwhelmed other nations as if it were a flood.

But we will be safe from it

because we have protected ourselves by making a secret agreement with Egypt.”

16 So Yahweh, the Lord, says this:

“I am going to make Jerusalem a new kind of community,

as if I were building a new building.

I am going to make sure that the people live in the right way,

as if I were setting in place a special first stone for the building

that I had proved to be perfectly straight

so that it could guide the placement of all the other stones.

Whoever trusts me to do this will not scramble to try to save himself.

17 I will make sure that people in Jerusalem treat one another fairly,

as if I were using justice to measure lengths

and using righteousness to make sure that walls were straight

in the building I was building.

But enemies will destroy those who think they are safe

because they have made a secret agreement.

It will be as if they were crops that a great hailstorm destroyed

or as if a great flood swept them away.

18 Suppose that the place where dead people are

really had promised these Judean leaders that they would not go there.

Then I am cancelling that promise.

Instead, the Assyrian army, which is very destructive,

will destroy them as if a flood had washed them away.

The Assyrian soldiers will march throughout their land.

19 Each day, the Assyrian army will advance steadily farther into Judah.

Its soldiers will continually capture more cities.

When the Judean leaders finally understand what Yahweh is doing,

it will terrify them.”

20 The secret agreement with Egypt will not be adequate to support or protect them,

just like a bed that is too short for a person to stretch out on

or a blanket that is too narrow for someone to wrap around himself.

21 Yahweh will take action just as he did at Mount Perazim,

where he enabled David to defeat the Philistines,

and in the Valley of Gibeon, where he enabled Joshua to defeat five Canaanite kings.

He will do something to his own people

that they would not expect him to do.

22 So the Judeans should stop speaking so mockingly.

Otherwise, Yahweh will punish them even more severely.

Yahweh, the Lord, the commander of the heavenly armies,

has told me that he has decided to destroy the entire land.

23 Listen carefully to what I say!

Yes, pay close attention to this message!

24 When a farmer plows his field, he does not keep plowing without ever planting anything.

He does not keep breaking up the soil continually.

25 No, after he makes the ground smooth,

he scatters seeds of black cumin and common cumin on the soil.

He plants wheat in rows,

and he plants barley in places where it will grow well.

He plants spelt along the edges of the field.

26 God has enabled farmers to understand the right way to do things.

27 A farmer does not use a heavy threshing sledge to thresh black cumin,

and he does not roll the wheels of a cart over cumin.

Instead, he beats black cumin with a stick,

and he beats cumin with a rod.

28 A farmer does thresh grain that he wants to use to make bread,

but he certainly does not thresh it continually.

He may drive the wheels of a cart over it,

but he does not let his horses crush it with their hooves.

29 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

has helped people understand how to do these things right.

He gives wonderful advice,

and he makes people truly wise.

29 How terrible it will be for the people of Jerusalem,

the city that King David made his royal capital!

Even if they keep celebrating festivals year after year,

2 I will cause great trouble for the people of Jerusalem,

and they will weep and grieve.

The whole city will become like an altar where I burn sacrifices.

3 I will cause enemies to come and surround the city.

They will station troops around it to keep anyone from leaving,

and they will build fortifications to help them attack the city.

4 I will humble the people of Jerusalem so completely

that it will seem as if they are speaking from the ground.

It will seem that what they say is coming faintly from the dust.

They will sound like ghosts speaking from underground

who mumble things there in high-pitched voices.

5 However, suddenly and unexpectedly,

Yahweh will destroy the huge foreign army that is attacking Jerusalem.

He will disperse its many fierce soldiers

the way a strong wind blows away dust or chaff.

6 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

will come to help the people of Jerusalem.

He will defeat their enemies with his great power,

which is like thunder and an earthquake and a very loud noise

and a violent windstorm and a raging fire.

7 An army of soldiers from many nations will attack Jerusalem.

It will besiege the city and cause its people to suffer.

But suddenly it will go away,

as if it had been just a dream that someone was having during the night.

8 The soldiers in that army from many nations will think

that they are going to conquer the city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion,

but suddenly Yahweh will defeat them.

They will be like a hungry man who dreams that he is eating

but wakes up and realizes that he is still hungry.

They will be like a thirsty man who dreams that he is drinking

but wakes up and realizes that he is weak from thirst.

9 Even if the people of Jerusalem try to understand what is happening, this will confuse them.

It is as if they are blind and cannot see what Yahweh is doing.

It is as if they are drunk and staggering around

because they have drunk wine and beer.

10 Because the people do not want to understand,

Yahweh has made them unable to understand,

as if he had put them deeply to sleep.

He has prevented their prophets from understanding,

as if he had closed their eyes.

He has prevented their seers from seeing,

as if he had covered their heads.

11 Everything that God has revealed has become to them like the words on a scroll that someone has sealed shut. If a person gave that scroll to someone who could read and said, “Please read this,” he would say, “I can not read it, because someone has sealed it.” 12 And if a person gave that scroll to someone who could not read and said, “Please read this,” he would say, “I am not able to read.”

13 The Lord said,

“I am going to do something because these people seem to honor me by what they say,

but they have not truly devoted themselves to me.

When they worship me,

they only do things that other people have told them to do.

14 Therefore, I am going to amaze these people

by doing more things that make them wonder.

I will show that the people they think are wise are not truly wise.

Yes, I will show that the people they think are intelligent are not truly intelligent.”

15 How terrible it will be for people who try to hide their plans from Yahweh

by making them secretly!

They do things privately and say to themselves,

“No one sees us! No one knows what we are doing!”

16 You are considering things to be the opposite of what they really are.

You are acting as if you were the one who made God.

That is like a pot acting as if it made the potter.

No one should say about the one who made him,

“He did not make me.”

No one should say about the one who formed him,

“He did not understand what he was doing.”

17 But very soon, Yahweh will make things the opposite of what they are now.

It will be as if the great forests of Lebanon become fertile farmland

and as if fertile farmland becomes great forests.

18 At that time, deaf people will be able to hear

when someone reads words from a scroll.

Blind people will see clearly.

They will no longer see dimly or not at all.

19 Poor people will be very happy again

because of what Yahweh has done for them.

He is the holy God of the Israelites.

20 They will be happy because Yahweh will destroy people who terrify others

and the people who have been mocking him.

He will destroy people who eagerly look for opportunities to do wrong things.

21 Those people falsely accuse others who are innocent.

They try to trick the elders who decide cases at the city gate.

They get people to tell lies so that people who deserve to win their cases lose them.

22 Yahweh is the one who rescued Abraham.

Because of what he is going to do,

he says this to the descendants of Jacob:

“The Israelites should no longer feel shame

that makes their faces turn pale.

23 I will enable them to have many descendants,

and when they see those descendants around them,

they will be loyal only to me.

I am the holy God of their ancestor Jacob,

and the Israelites will worship me as their God.

24 Then those who believed wrong things will understand the right things,

and those who were complaining will accept what I teach them.”

30 Yahweh declares, “How terrible it will be for the Israelites

who have rebelled against me even though I am like a father to them.

They have made plans without asking me what they should do.

They have made an alliance with the rulers of Egypt

even though I did not guide them to do that by my Spirit.

By doing these things, they keep committing more sins.

2 They sent messengers to Egypt

without asking me if they should do that.

They wanted Pharaoh to protect them,

as if Egypt were a fortress where they could go to be safe

or a huge rock whose shadow would shelter them from the sun.

3 However, it will embarrass the Israelites that they depended on Pharaoh to protect them.

It will humiliate them that they thought Egypt was like

a huge rock whose shadow would shelter them from the sun.

4 Officials from Judah have gone to places throughout Egypt

as ambassadors seeking help. However,

5 it will embarrass all of them that they did this.

That is because the Egyptians will not be helpful to them at all.

Instead, the Judeans will feel shame and disgrace

because they depended on Egypt.”

6 Yahweh gave this message about animals that were in the Negev.

The Judean leaders loaded valuable treasures

onto the backs of donkeys and the humps of camels.

They had those animals carry those treasures

through a land that is difficult and dangerous to cross.

Lions and lionesses can kill people in that land,

and vipers and flying serpents can bite them there.

They are bringing those treasures to the Egyptians to make an alliance,

but the Egyptians will not be helpful to them.

7 The Egyptians will not do anything for the Judeans that really helps them

even though the Judeans think that they are very powerful, like a sea monster.

That is why I call Egypt “The Sea Monster That Does Nothing.”

8 Yahweh told me, “Now go and write this message on a tablet where my people can see it.

Also write it on a scroll so that in the future,

it will always testify that I warned them.

9 These people are rebellious.

They are like children who do not obey their parents.

They disobey the commands that I, Yahweh, gave them in my law.

10 They tell the prophets who see visions,

‘Stop seeing visions that show us the right things to do.

See visions about things that are not true,

and tell us that we are doing good things.

11 Tell us that we can live in a way

that is not the way Yahweh wants people to live.

Stop confronting us with messages from

the holy God of us Israelites!’ ”

12 Because the people are saying these things,

this is what the holy God of the Israelites says:

“I am going to punish you because you are refusing to obey what I have told you.

Instead, you are relying on cheating and oppressing other people.

13 Sometimes a crack spreads in a high wall and causes it to bulge.

When that happens, the wall collapses very suddenly.

Because you are sinning in this way, I will punish you just as suddenly.

14 I will smash you the way someone smashes a clay jar

into tiny pieces without leaving any large pieces.

It will be as if there is not a single shard among the broken pieces

big enough to take coals from a fireplace

or to scoop water from a cistern.”

15 Yahweh the Lord, the holy God of the Israelites, also says this:

“If you repent and depend on me, I will save you.

If you quietly trust me, I will make you strong.

However, you refuse to do that.

16 Instead, you said, ‘No! We will escape from trouble

by riding on fast horses that the Egyptians will give us!”

But you will have to run away to try to escape from your enemies,

and they will be riding on fast horses as they chase you.

17 A thousand of your soldiers will run away when only one enemy soldier resists them.

When five of them resist you, your army will run away.

Those who remain will be alone,

like a flagpole on a mountaintop

or a signal flag on top of a hill.”

18 Even so, Yahweh wants to be kind to you;

yes, he is eager to treat you mercifully.

Yahweh is a God who always does what is just.

Those who wait patiently for him to act have a truly good life.

19 Someday you Israelites will once again live in the city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion. You will not be sad anymore. When you call out to Yahweh for help, he will surely treat you kindly. As soon as he hears you cry out, he will help you. 20 The Lord will allow you to experience suffering and trouble as though they were your food and drink. But then he, your teacher, will not hide himself from you anymore. You will see him personally. 21 Whenever you are about to do something that is wrong, he will speak to you and tell you the right thing to do instead, as if he were a guide walking behind you and telling you how to stay on the right path. 22 At that time, you will reject the idols you have made for yourselves and covered with silver and gold. You will throw them away as you would throw away filthy rags. It will be as if you say to each one, “Get away from us!”

23 Then Yahweh will send rain so that the seeds you plant in the ground will grow. The crops that the ground produces will be plentiful and healthy. Your livestock will graze in large, open pastures at that time. 24 The oxen and the donkeys that plow your ground will eat grain that farmers have sorted with shovels and pitchforks and to which they have added salt for flavor. 25 At that time, Yahweh will kill many of the enemy soldiers who are attacking you, and you will knock down their siege towers. Then streams of water will flow down from every high mountain and every tall hill. 26 The moon will shine as brightly as the sun. The sun will shine seven times more brightly than it does now. Each day will have as much light as seven days have now. This will happen when Yahweh repairs the harm that his people have suffered.

27 Listen to this! Yahweh is coming from far away,

and it is clear that he is very angry with his enemies.

What he is saying shows that he is furious

and that he is going to destroy his enemies as if he were a fire that would burn them up.

28 His anger, which is evident from his heavy breathing,

is like a flood that rises as high as a person’s neck.

He will totally destroy his enemies,

just as only chaff and dust come through a sieve.

It will be as if they are animals on whose jaws Yahweh puts a bridle

so that he can lead them to a place where someone will slaughter them.

29 However, his people will sing joyfully

as they do on the night when they celebrate a festival.

They will feel very happy,

as people do when they walk, playing flutes, up Mount Zion

to come to the temple of Yahweh.

He is like a rock on which the Israelites are safe.

30 Yahweh will shout with his powerful voice.

He will show how he strikes with his mighty power.

His wrath will be as destructive as lightning

in a storm with heavy rain, strong winds, and hailstones.

31 When they realize that Yahweh is powerfully destroying them,

the Assyrians will become very afraid.

32 Yahweh will fight against the Assyrians and destroy them

by using his tremendous power.

His people will sing and play tambourines and harps

to celebrate each thing that Yahweh does to destroy the Assyrians.

33 It is as if Yahweh prepared a place long ago in Tophet

to burn the body of the king of Assyria.

It is as if he made a deep, wide pile from much firewood.

It is as if Yahweh will set all that wood on fire

with his own breath, which will be like a stream of burning sulfur.

31 How terrible it will be for those who depend on the Egyptians to help them!

Such people believe that Egypt’s many horses, chariots, and horsemen will protect them.

They do not depend on Yahweh, the holy God of the Israelites,

and they do not ask him to help them.

2 They believe the Egyptians are wise, but Yahweh is also wise,

He has determined to allow the Judeans to experience great trouble,

and he is going to do what he has said he will do.

He will punish the people who do what is wrong,

and he will also punish anyone who would help them do wrong things.

3 The Egyptians are only humans. They are not God!

Their horses are merely animals, not powerful spirits!

Yahweh will enable enemies to defeat the Egyptians,

whom the Judeans expected to help them.

Then those enemies will also defeat the Judeans,

and they and the Egyptians will perish together.

4 Yahweh said this to me:

“When a strong, young lion kills a sheep,

it growls as it eats it to warn other animals away.

The shepherd of that sheep may call many other shepherds

to come and chase that lion away.

The shepherds may shout at it and make noise,

but that does not frighten the lion. It does not run away.

In the same way, I, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

will come down to fight from the height of Mount Zion and nothing will deter me.

5 I, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, will protect Jerusalem

the way a mother bird hovers over its nest to protect its baby birds.

I will protect the city and rescue its people from their enemies.”

6 You Israelites have greatly rebelled against Yahweh. Repent and obey him once more. 7 When you do that, each of you will throw away the silver and gold idols that you made for yourselves. It was a sin to make and worship those idols.

8 “No human army will destroy the Assyrian army.

I, Yahweh, will destroy it.

The Assyrian soldiers who survive will run away from the battlefield.

The Judeans will capture many of their young soldiers

and make them slaves who have to work hard for them.

9 The Assyrian king, whose soldiers considered to be their strong leader,

will be so afraid that he runs away.

The Assyrian commanders will panic when they realize that I, Yahweh, am attacking them.”

This is what Yahweh declares.

From his temple in Jerusalem on Mount Zion,

he destroys his enemies as if he were a great fire burning them up.

32 Listen! Someday a king will rule who does what is right.

His officials will help him govern fairly.

2 Each of those rulers will protect the people,

like a shelter that protects people from wind and storms.

or like the shadow of a huge rock in a hot place.

Each one will provide for them,

like a brook flowing through a dry place.

3 People will look carefully at what Yahweh wants to show them,

and they will listen carefully to what Yahweh wants to tell them.

4 People will take the time to think carefully

so that they understand what Yahweh wants them to know.

People who now cannot speak well will speak fluently and clearly.

5 People will stop saying that foolish people are noble.

People will not say that scoundrels are honorable.

6 After all, foolish people say foolish things,

and they think about doing wrong things.

They say and believe things about Yahweh that are not true,

and so they do not live as he wants people to live.

They do not give food to hungry people,

and they do not give water to thirsty people.

7 A scoundrel plans to do wicked things,

and he uses evil methods to accomplish them.

He plans to ruin poor people by telling lies about them in court,

even though those poor people deserve to win their cases.

8 But an honorable person plans to do honorable things,

and he commits himself to doing what is honorable.

9 You women who are so proud and complacent,

pay attention and listen to what I say!

10 In a little more than a year,

you who are so complacent now will tremble with fear.

That is because no one will harvest any grapes

or gather any other crops.

11 You women who are so proud and complacent should shake with fear.

Take off your fancy clothes

and instead wear rough cloth to show that you are sorry for your sins.

12 Beat your breasts to mourn for the good grainfields

and the grapevines that now produce much fruit.

13 Do that because only thorns and briars will grow

on the ground that belongs to us Israelites.

In fact, they will also grow in the houses in which people now live happily

in cities where people enjoy themselves.

14 That is because people will abandon their expensive homes

and crowds will no longer gather in the cities.

For a long time, animals will use empty hilltop forts and watchtowers as their dens.

Wild donkeys will roam and flocks will graze where people once lived.

15 It will be like that until Yahweh sends his Spirit to us from heaven.

Then the deserts will become fertile farmland,

and the fertile farmland will become great forests.

16 Then people will act fairly and do what is right

throughout the land,

both in places where people have settled

and in places where they do not live.

17 When people do what is right, they will live peacefully.

When people live in a way that is right, they will always live quietly and safely.

18 We Israelites will live peacefully in our homes,

We will have safe places where we can stay

and quiet places where we can rest.

19 Yahweh will destroy the Assyrians and their cities

the way a severe hailstorm knocks down trees in a forest.

20 But we Israelites will have truly good lives.

We will plant seeds wherever streams will water them,

and we will let our cattle and donkeys go wherever they want.

33 How terrible it will be for the nation that has destroyed others,

which has broken its agreements with others!

No one has destroyed it yet,

but when it stops destroying others,

others will destroy it.

No one has broken an agreement with it yet,

but when it stops breaking its agreements with others,

others will break their agreements with it.

2 Yahweh, we are waiting for you to help us,

so please be kind to us,

Strengthen us each day,

and rescue us when we suffer distress.

3 When our enemies hear the loud noise of you approaching, they run away.

When you show how powerful you are, they scatter.

4 Then we will swarm like locusts over their valuable possessions

and take them all away, just as caterpillars eat all the leaves off plants.

5 Yahweh, who lives in heaven, is greater than anyone else.

He will lead the people who live in Jerusalem on Mount Zion

to do what is fair and right.

6 He will make them secure for as long as they live.

He will rescue them powerfully,

and he will enable them to know and understand important things.

These things will happen for the people

because they greatly revere Yahweh.

7 But now brave warriors are crying out loud in the streets.

The ambassadors whom the Judeans sent to make peace

are weeping very sadly because they did not succeed.

8 People do not travel on the roads anymore.

The Assyrian king has broken the peace treaty he made,

even though he made it in the presence of witnesses.

He does not care what people think of him.

9 People are not working in the fields, so they are not producing crops.

No one is harvesting the trees in the great forests of Lebanon,

so they are becoming wild again.

The fertile plain of Sharon has become like a desert.

Crops are not growing in the agricultural areas of Bashan and Carmel;

it is as if the leaves have dropped off the plants there.

10 Yahweh says, “Now I am going to take action.

Now I will show how very powerful I am.

11 The enemy nations will not succeed in conquering Judah.

Their own hostility will destroy them, as if a fire had burned them up.

12 It will be as if a fire burns those nations completely to ashes.

They will be like thornbushes that people cut down and burn up.

13 People throughout the world should listen to what I am going to do

and recognize how powerful I am.”

14 Sinful people in Jerusalem are afraid;

godless people tremble uncontrollably with fear.

They say, “None of us will survive in the presence of Yahweh!

He is about to destroy wicked people as if he were a fire that was burning them up continually!”

15-16 15-16These are the people who will be safe,

as if they were on the top of a cliff:

people who do what is right

and speak honestly;

people who do not try to get rich by extorting others

and who refuse to accept bribes;

people who refuse to consider doing evil

such as by attacking others violently.

God will always make sure that such people

have the food and drink that they need.

17 You people of Judah will see your king reigning splendidly.

You will see that his kingdom is very large.

18 You will think about when the enemy terrified you and you will say,

“The Assyrian officers who gathered their soldiers are gone! The Assyrian officials who collected tribute from us are gone!

The Assyrian officers who built siege towers against us are gone!”

19 You will no longer see those proud people

who spoke a language that you could not understand.

20 Instead, when you look at Mount Zion,

you will see that the city of Jerusalem,

where we celebrate our annual festivals,

has become a safe place to live.

No one will ever be able to destroy it so that it is not there anymore.

21 That is because Yahweh will be our mighty protector there.

He will protect Jerusalem the way a wide river protects a city,

and it will be as if no enemy warships

are able to approach the city on that river.

22 It will be that way because Yahweh judges us.

Yahweh gives us our laws.

Yahweh rules us as our king.

He is the one who will save us.

23 It is as if our enemies are trying to attack us on ships whose ropes hang loose

so that the masts do not stay securely in place

and the sailors can not spread the sail.

We will take many valuable possessions from our enemies

and divide them among ourselves.

Even people who can not fight as soldiers will be able to take valuable possessions.

24 Yahweh will forgive the sins that the people who live in Jerusalem have committed.

As a result, those people will no longer say that they are suffering.

34 You people of other nations, come near

and listen carefully to what I am saying.

Everyone who lives on the earth should hear it.

2 Yahweh is angry with the people of other nations,

and he is especially furious with their armies.

He has decided to destroy them completely,

and so he is going to allow others to kill them.

3 No one will bury them,

so their dead bodies will stink.

So much blood will flow from their bodies

that it seem as if the mountains are liquid.

4 All of the stars in the sky will disappear,

and the sky will also disappear,

the way a scroll disappears when someone rolls it up.

The stars will fade away

just as leaves fade and fall off grapevines

or figs shrivel up and drop from fig trees.

5 Yahweh says, “It is as if my sword drinks blood

and it has drunk all the blood it wants in the sky.

Now I will use my sword against the people of Edom.

I have decided to destroy those people completely.”

6 Yahweh is going to kill many people

as if he were offering a sacrifice of many animals

in the city of Bozrah and throughout the land of Edom.

As a result, it will be as if his sword has much blood and fat on it

from slaughtering lambs, goats, and rams

and removing their fat and inner organs.

7 It will even be as if Yahweh slaughters wild oxen

along with young and strong oxen from a herd.

It will be as if the land of Edom drinks blood

and has drunk all the blood it wants,

and it will be as if the ground there eats fat

and has become fat from eating so much of it.

8 This will happen because it will be the time when Yahweh takes revenge on Edom

and punishes them for what they did to the people of Judah.

9 The rivers in Edom will flow with tar instead of water,

and the ground will be sulfur instead of soil.

Burning tar will cover the land.

10 Fire will always be burning,

and the smoke from it will rise continually.

People will not live in Edom again in any future generation.

No one will ever even travel through that land.

11 Pelicans, desert owls, screech owls, and ravens

will live there instead.

It will be as if Yahweh is using a measuring line

not to make sure that a building is the right size

but to make sure that no building is there.

It will be as if Yahweh is using a cord with weights on the end

not to make sure that walls are straight

but to make sure that there are no walls.

12 There will be nothing in Edom that people would call a kingdom,

so it will not have any nobles or princes.

13 Thorns, nettles, and thornbushes will grow up over the palaces and fortresses.

Jackals and ostriches will live in those ruins.

14 Wild desert animals and hyenas will roam there,

and wild goats will call out to each other.

Animals that come out at night

will also make their dens there and live there.

15 Great owls will build their nests there.

They will lay their eggs, hatch them,

and care for their young in the shade of those ruins.

Hawks will also gather there,

living near one another throughout those ruins.

16 Yahweh has decided that every one of these creatures will be there.

None will be without its counterpart.

Yahweh has recorded this in a scroll,

and anyone can verify it by checking that scroll.

This will happen because Yahweh himself has commanded it,

and it will be his Spirit who gathers all those animals there.

17 Yahweh has assigned each creature its own territory,

and he has measured out the land and divided it among them.

They will possess that land forever.

Their descendants will live there in every generation.”

35 Someday the wilderness and the dry desert will become fertile,

and the barren plains will produce wildflowers.

2 The desert will surely produce flowers abundantly.

It will seem as if it is happily celebrating!

Yahweh will make it as beautiful as the forests of Lebanon

and as fertile as the plains of Carmel and Sharon.

There people will see how glorious Yahweh is.

Yes, they will see how magnificent our God is.

3 So encourage people who have become discouraged,

and strengthen people who are afraid.

4 Say to those who are anxious,

“Do not be afraid but be brave

because your God is coming to punish his enemies as they deserve.

He himself will come and rescue you.”

5 Then Yahweh will enable blind people to see

and enable deaf people to hear.

6 Then people who could not walk will jump around as deer do,

and people who could not speak will shout joyfully.

Then water will gush out from springs in the desert,

and streams will flow through the barren land.

7 The ground that shimmered with heat will become a pool of water,

and springs will flow in land that once was dry.

Grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow

in places where jackals once lived.

8 There will be a highway through that land,

and people will call it “The Way of Holiness.”

Only people who live as God wants will travel on it.

No one who dishonors God will walk on that road,

and foolish people will not wander onto it.

9 No lions will be there,

and no dangerous animals will go along that road.

Only the people whom God has rescued will walk on it.

10 The people whom Yahweh has set free will return

and come to Zion, singing joyfully.

They will always be happy,

as if they are wearing joy as a crown on their heads.

It will be as if great happiness caught up with them on the road

and has stayed with them.

They will not sigh with sadness anymore.

36 After Hezekiah had been ruling Judah for almost 14 years, King Sennacherib of Assyria led his army to attack all of the cities in Judah that had walls around them. They started capturing these cities one by one. 2 The king of Assyria sent one of his most important officials, the Rabshakeh, with a large army from the city of Lachish to persuade King Hezekiah to surrender. When the army reached Jerusalem, they stopped alongside the aqueduct through which water flowed from the Upper Pool into Jerusalem. They stopped at the place where it went under the road that led to the Field of the Fuller. 3 Hezekiah sent three of his officials to speak with him. He sent Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace. He also sent Shebna, his official secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the official who reported to the people everything that Hezekiah decided they should do. 4 The Rabshakeh told them to tell Hezekiah, “The great king, the king of Assyria, says that you have no reason to expect that anyone will help you fight against him. 5 You claim that you have a strong enough army and good enough plans to resist him. But that is only talk. You can not resist him alone, and you can not depend on anyone else to help you. So you should not have rebelled against him. 6 In fact, you are relying on the army of Egypt to help you. But you must realize that that is like using a broken reed as a staff for support. The pointed end of such a staff would make a hole in the hand of anyone who tried to use it! That is what Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is like. He hurts anyone who relies on him for help.” 7 The Rabshakeh then said to Hezekiah’s officials, “Perhaps you will tell me that you are relying on Yahweh your God to help you. But he will not help you, because Hezekiah has insulted him by destroying his hilltop shrines and the altars on which the Judeans were offering sacrifices to him. Hezekiah has required everyone who lives in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Judah to worship only at the altar in Jerusalem. 8 So tell Hezekiah for me that I am offering him a deal on behalf of my master, the king of Assyria. I will give him 2,000 horses if he still has enough healthy soldiers to ride on them! 9 But also tell him that I know that even if I gave him those horses, he would not be able to defeat the squad of one of the least important officers in our army. Tell him I know that is why he is hoping that the king of Egypt will send chariots and soldiers on horseback to help him. 10 Furthermore, do not think that we have come to destroy Judah without Yahweh’s help. It is Yahweh himself who told us to come here and destroy this land!”

11 Then Eliakim told the Rabshakeh on behalf of himself and Shebna and Joah, “Sir, please speak to us in your own Aramaic language. We understand it. Do not keep speaking to us in our Judean language. The people who are standing on the wall can hear and understand you, and you are frightening them.” 12 But the Rabshakeh told Eliakim, “You should not think that my master sent me to say these things only to your king and to you and not also to the people on the wall who are listening! If you do not surrender, we will besiege the city, and soon they will have nothing to eat but their own dung and nothing to drink but their own urine. The three of you will also have nothing else to eat or drink.” 13 Then the Rabshakeh directly faced the people on the wall. He shouted to them in Judean, “Listen to this message from the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 He says that you must not allow Hezekiah to deceive you. Hezekiah will not be able to rescue you from his army. 15 The king says that you must not allow Hezekiah to persuade you to rely on Yahweh by telling you that Yahweh will certainly rescue you and not allow the army of the king of Assyria to capture this city! 16 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you! The king of Assyria says that you should come out of the city and surrender to him. He says that if you do that, instead of being very hungry as you are now, each of you will be able to eat the grapes and figs you have grown and drink water from your own wells. 17 He promises that you will be able to do that until his soldiers come and take you to a land that is like your land. It will be a land where you can grow grain to make bread and grow grapes to make wine. 18 The king says that you must not believe Hezekiah, because he is deceiving you when he says that Yahweh will rescue you. The king reminds you that none of the gods that the people of other nations worship have been able to prevent him from conquering those nations! 19 The gods of Hamath and Arpad did not come and rescue the people who lived there! The gods of Sepharvaim did not come and rescue the people who lived there! And even the gods of Samaria did not prevent me from conquering it! 20 The king reminds you that none of these gods prevented him from conquering the people who worshiped them. So do not think that Yahweh will prevent him from conquering Jerusalem.”

21 King Hezekiah had commanded the people, “When the Rabshakeh speaks to you, do not answer him.” So the people who were listening did not say anything in reply to him. 22 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes because they felt great distress. They went back to Hezekiah and told him what the Rabshakeh had said.

37 When King Hezekiah heard what the Rabshakeh had said, to show what great distress he was feeling, he tore his regular clothes and wore rough cloth instead. Then he went into the courtyard of Yahweh’s temple to pray. 2 Then Hezekiah sent Eliakim, Shebna, and some of the older priests to go and speak with the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. All those men were also wearing rough cloth to show their distress. 3 The men told Isaiah, “King Hezekiah says that we are now in great trouble. Yahweh seems to be punishing us for our sins. Foreigners are insulting us because we do not seem to have a God who can help us. Our lives are in danger, like the lives of the mother and child when it is time for a woman to give birth but she does not have the strength to push her baby out. 4 The Rabshakeh insulted the only true God. That was what his master, the king of Assyria, sent him to do. Perhaps Yahweh your God heard what he said. Perhaps he will punish him for saying those things. King Hezekiah asks you to pray for those of us who are still alive here in Jerusalem.” 5 After the messengers from Hezekiah told Isaiah these things, 6 Isaiah told them to go back to the king and tell him that Yahweh said to him, “Those soldiers of the king of Assyria insulted me by saying that I was no better than the false gods that other nations worship. You have learned what they said, but you should not let it make you afraid. 7 I am going to send a spirit to Sennacherib that will make him anxious. Then he will hear a rumor that will worry him so much that he will return to his own country. There some men will assassinate him.” 8 To report what had happened in Jerusalem, the Rabshakeh went to Libnah. He went there because he learned that the Assyrian army had left Lachish. The king of Assyria was then leading an attack against Libnah. 9 Soon after that, King Sennacherib received a report that King Tirhakah of Cush was leading his army to attack them. So he did not attack Jerusalem right away, but instead he sent more messengers to King Hezekiah. 10 The king told his messengers to tell Hezekiah, “Yahweh your God is promising you that my army will never capture Jerusalem. You trust Yahweh, but what he is saying is not true, so do not believe him. 11 You have certainly heard what the armies of the kings of Assyria have done to all the other lands they invaded. They have completely destroyed them. So do not think that you will escape! 12 The gods of other nations did not rescue them. Instead, the armies of previous kings of Assyria destroyed them. That is what happened to the people of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph and the Edenites who lived in Tel Assar. 13 The Assyrians defeated and killed the kings of Hamath and Arpad and the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah.”

14 The messengers gave Hezekiah a letter from the Assyrian king that said the same thing they had told him. Hezekiah read the letter. Then he went to the courtyard of Yahweh’s temple. The Assyrian king had written the letter on a scroll, and Hezekiah unrolled the scroll so that the writing would be visible as he prayed to Yahweh. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, 16 “Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, you are the God of us Israelites. You are present in a special way above the statues of the winged creatures that are above the sacred chest in your temple. You are the only true God. You rule all the kingdoms on this earth. You are the one who created everything on the earth and in the heavens. 17 So, Yahweh, please pay attention to me as I speak, and look at what the king of Assyria has written. Listen as I read it aloud to what King Sennacherib has said to insult you, the only true God. 18 Yahweh, it is true that the armies of the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed many people groups and the lands in which they were living. 19 It is also true that they have burned up the idols of those nations. But those were not really gods. They were only wooden or stone statues. Humans made them, and that is why the Assyrians were able to destroy them so easily. 20 So now, Yahweh our God, please prevent the king of Assyria from conquering us. That way the people in all the kingdoms of the world will know that you, Yahweh, are the only true God.”

21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah. He told him, “Yahweh, the God of us Israelites, wants to tell you something in answer to your prayer to him about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. 22 This is what Yahweh says about him. The people of Jerusalem will belittle him and make fun of him. They will shake their heads to ridicule him as he runs away from the city with his army. 23 Yahweh says that the Assyrian king should not have insulted and made fun of him, the holy God of the Israelites. He should not have shouted at him or proudly looked up at the sky. 24 Yahweh says that the Assyrian king sent messengers to make fun of him. Through those messengers, boasting about his military conquests, he said that it was as if he had led his many chariots to the highest and most distant mountains in Lebanon. He said it was as if he and his soldiers had cut down the tallest cedar trees and best cypress trees in Lebanon. Boasting that he would now conquer Jerusalem, he said that it was as if he and his army would now go to the place where people most want to go in Lebanon. That is a place where workers have made a beautiful park in the midst of the forest. 25 Yahweh says that the Assyrian king is boasting that in order to march through desolate regions, he and his soldiers have dug wells in other countries to get water to drink. He is also boasting that he will conquer Matsor, which people also call Egypt, as easily as a person can stamp out a small puddle of water.

26 But Yahweh says that the Assyrian king should realize that he planned long ago for those things to happen. Now he is causing them to occur. That is why the king’s army has been capturing and destroying many cities that had high walls around them. 27 The people who lived in those cities were not able to resist the Assyrians. This discouraged them and shamed them. The Assyrians destroyed them as easily as someone can cut down green plants that are growing in a field. The Assyrians destroyed them just as the heat of the sun destroys grass on the roof of a house before it can grow. 28 But, Yahweh says, he knows where the king of Assyria lives. He knows when he leaves home and when he returns. He knows when the king yells at him angrily. 29 Yahweh says that he has heard the king yelling at him proudly and angrily. As a result, he is going to force him to return to his own country without conquering Jerusalem by the same route that he took to get here. It will be as if Yahweh puts a hook in his nose and a bit in his mouth in order to make him go where he wants him to go.

30 Here is a sign for you, Hezekiah, to show that this message is truly from Yahweh. This year, you and your people will eat wild grain. Next year, you will eat the grain that grows from the seeds of those wild plants. But the following year, you Israelites will be able to plant grain and harvest it. You will be able to plant vineyards and eat the grapes. 31 The people in Judah who remain alive will once again prosper and have many children, like plants whose roots go deep down into the ground and that produce much fruit. 32 People will survive the Assyrian invasion. Afterwards, many of them will move from Jerusalem on Mount Zion to resettle other parts of Judah. Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, will eagerly make this happen. 33 Yahweh declares that the king of Assyria will not bring his army to this city. His soldiers will not shoot a single arrow at it. His soldiers will not appear outside of it carrying shields. They will not build a high mound of dirt against the city wall to try to get over it. 34 Yahweh declares that the king of Assyria will not lead his army to this city. Instead, they will return to their own country by the same route that they took to get here. 35 Yahweh says that he will defend this city and prevent the Assyrians from destroying it. He will do that to show that he is the one true God and because of what he promised to his servant David, that his descendants would always rule in Jerusalem.”

36 That night, an angel representing Yahweh went to the place where the Assyrian soldiers had set up their tents. He killed 185, 000 of the soldiers. When the rest of the soldiers woke up the next morning, they saw the dead bodies of all those soldiers. 37 Then King Sennacherib had his soldiers take down their tents, and he led them away from Israel. They returned to Assyria, and Sennacherib remained in the city of Nineveh. 38 One day King Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch. Two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords. Then they escaped to the region of Ararat. Sennacherib’s other son Esarhaddon became the next king of Assyria.

38 Around that time, Hezekiah became so sick that he was in danger of dying. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and told him, “Yahweh says that you are not going to recover from this illness. Instead, you are going to die. So you should tell the people in your palace what you want them to do after you die.” 2 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall so that he could have privacy and prayed to Yahweh. 3 He said, “Yahweh, please do not forget that I have served you loyally and I have devoted myself entirely to you. I have done things that pleased you.” Then Hezekiah started to cry loudly. 4 Yahweh then gave Isaiah a message. He said, 5 “Go back to Hezekiah and tell him that I, Yahweh, say this. I am the God whom his ancestor King David worshiped. I have heard what he prayed. I have seen how he has been crying. Tell him that I will heal him and enable him to live for 15 more years. 6 Promise him that I will prevent the king of Assyria from defeating him and conquering this city. I will defend this city. 7 I, Yahweh, am going to do something that will prove to him that I will do what I have promised. 8 On the stairway that King Ahaz had his workers build as a sundial, the shadow of the sun has gone down ten steps. I am going to make it go back up those ten steps.” And the sun did go back up the ten steps that it had gone down.

9 When King Hezekiah was almost well again, he wrote this song:

10 I said to myself, “In the middle of my life,

I am about to die and go to the place where dead people are.

Yahweh is not going to allow me to live a full lifetime.

11 I said, “I will never see Yahweh again

in this world where people are alive.

I will not see my friends again

or any other people who now are alive in this world.

12 It is as if my life is a tent

that a shepherd has taken down and carried away.

When a weaver has finished weaving a piece of cloth,

he cuts it off from the loom and rolls it up.

It felt as if Yahweh had cut off my life in the same way.

It felt as if the sickness he allowed was steadily killing me.

13 I could not sleep, but I waited patiently for morning.

I was in such pain that I felt as if a lion were tearing me apart.

It felt as if the sickness Yahweh allowed was steadily killing me.

14 I moaned painfully so that I sounded like

a swallow or a crane chirping or a dove cooing.

I looked up toward heaven for help for so long that my eyes became tired.

I called out, ‘Lord, I am suffering such distress! Please help me!’

15 But there was really nothing that I could say to him,

since he had told me that he had decided to allow this illness.

I felt very sad that I was going to die,

and I knew that I should behave humbly for as long as I was alive.

16 Lord, what you say and do enables all people to live,

and what you have said and done just now has enabled me to live.

Yes, you have healed me

and allowed me to continue living!

17 I suffered badly, but in fact, that was good for me.

You forgave all of my sins,

and you rescued me from dying and not existing anymore.

18 After all, in the place where dead people are,

no one sings songs to praise you.

Those who have gone down into that place

can not expect you to do things for them faithfully.

19 Only people who are still alive thank you,

as I am doing now.

People who are alive tell their children

how you helped them because you are faithful.

20 Yahweh will enable me to recover fully.

Then we will sing songs to praise him

while others play musical instruments.

We will praise Yahweh in his temple for as long as we live.”

21 Isaiah had told Hezekiah’s servants, “Make a paste from figs and put it on the sore place on Hezekiah’s body. Then he will recover.” 22 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah when he told him that Yahweh would heal him, “What sign will Yahweh give me to show that he is going to heal me and that I will be able to go and worship him in his temple?”

39 Merodach Baladan had become the king of Babylon after his father Baladan died. Around this time, he learned that King Hezekiah had been very sick, so he sent messengers to him. They brought a gift to Hezekiah, along with a letter that said how glad Merodach Baladan was that Hezekiah had recovered. 2 When the messengers arrived, Hezekiah listened as they read the letter to him from Berodach Baladan. Then he showed them all the valuable possessions he was keeping in his palace. He showed them the silver and the gold, the spices, the special olive oil, and the weapons for his soldiers. He showed them all the valuable things that were in his storerooms. The messengers saw all the things that were in Hezekiah’s palace and in other places in his kingdom. 3 Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?” Hezekiah replied, “They came from a country that is far from here. They came from Babylon.” 4 Isaiah asked, “What did they see in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “I showed them everything in my palace. I showed them all the valuable things that are in my storerooms.”

5 Then Isaiah told him, “Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, has given me this message for you. 6 “There will truly be a time when the Babylonian army comes and takes away all the valuable things in your palace. That includes the things that your ancestors have put there over the years. They will leave nothing valuable here.” This is what Yahweh is telling you. 7 He is also telling you, “The Babylonian army will force some of your own descendants to go to Babylon. There they will be eunuchs in the royal palace.” 8 Then Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “I accept what Yahweh has said in the message that you have delivered.” He said that because he was thinking, “Even if that happens, the people of my kingdom will live peacefully and safely for as long as I am alive.”

40 Our God says, “Comfort my people!

Yes, comfort them!

2 Speak tenderly to the people of Jerusalem

and announce to them

that their time of suffering has ended.

Tell them that I have forgiven them for what they did wrong

and that I, Yahweh, have punished them enough

for all of their sins.”

3 I hear someone shouting,

“Make a road for Yahweh in the wilderness!

Yes, clear a straight path through the desert for our God!

4 Fill in the valleys

and flatten the mountains and hills.

Level the uneven ground

and smooth out the rough places.

5 Then Yahweh will show how glorious he is,

and people throughout the world will see it at the same time.”

This will surely happen, because Yahweh himself has said it will happen.

6 I heard someone say, “Shout!”

I responded, “What should I shout?”

The answer was, “People are temporary, like grass.

Their loyalty is completely unreliable, like wildflowers that bloom only briefly.

7 Grass dries up and flowers wilt

when Yahweh makes a hot wind blow on them.

Certainly people live only for a short time, like grass.

8 Yes, grass dries up and flowers wilt,

but our God always keeps his promises.”

9 You people of Jerusalem, you have good news to tell!

Go up on a high mountain and shout it out!

Shout it loudly, and do not be afraid!

Tell the people of the other cities of Judah,

“Listen, our God is coming!”

10 Listen! Yahweh the Lord is coming powerfully,

and he will use his great strength to rule.

Listen! He is bringing something good with him.

11 He will take care of his people

the way a shepherd takes care of his sheep.

It will be as if some of his people are young lambs

that he gently gathers and holds close to his chest,

and it will be as if others of his people are mother sheep

that he leads carefully as they are nursing their lambs.

12 No human being has used the hollow of his hand

to measure the water of the oceans.

No human being has measured the sky

by using the distance between his thumb and little finger as a unit.

No human being has determined how much dust is on the earth

by putting it in large baskets.

No human being has used a scale or a balance

to weigh the mountains and hills.

13 No one has ever understood how vast Yahweh’s Spirit is,

and no one has ever been his counselor and given him advice.

14 Yahweh has never consulted anyone to help him understand things.

He did not need anyone to teach him how to judge fairly.

No one has ever taught him anything he did not already know.

He did not need anyone to show him how to think wisely.

15 Listen! From Yahweh’s perspective, the nations are as insignificant

as one drop of water is to a whole bucketful of water.

They are as insignificant as dust on a set of scales,

which makes basically no difference in weighing.

Listen! Yahweh could pick up all the lands by the sea

as easily as he could pick up a tiny grain of sand on the beach.

16 If someone wanted to offer Yahweh the sacrifice he deserves,

the wood from all the trees in Lebanon would not make a big enough fire,

and there would not be enough animals there.

17 From Yahweh’s perspective, all the nations are so insignificant

it is as if they do not even exist.

18 So there is no one to whom one can compare God.

There is nothing at all that resembles him.

19 An idol is certainly not like him! A craftsman shapes an idol out of metal,

and then another worker covers it with a thin layer of gold

and makes silver chains to hang on it.

20 A poor person who cannot afford gold or silver

chooses a piece of wood that will not rot.

Then he finds a capable woodworker

to carve an idol for him from it

that will not topple over.

21 Surely all of you know this!

Surely you have heard about it!

Someone must have told you about it long ago.

People should have understood it since God created the earth.

22 God sits on his throne in heaven above the earth.

From there, its people look as tiny as grasshoppers to him.

When he created it, God stretched out the sky

the way people stretch out a curtain

or set up a tent to live in.

23 He is able to take away the power of rulers

and make those who judge other people’s cases insignificant.

24 They are like plants that are just beginning to grow from seeds,

whose roots are just beginning to go down into the ground.

It is as if God merely blows on them and they dry up,

and then a windstorm carries them away as if they were straw.

25 So the holy God says,

“There is no one to whom you can compare me!

No one is equal to me!”

26 Look up at the sky and realize

that God created all those stars!

He is the one who brings every one of them out at night.

He summons each star by name.

Because his power is so very great,

not a single star ever fails to appear.

27 You people of Israel should not say

that Yahweh is not aware of your situation

or that your God is not treating you fairly.

28 You must have heard and you must know

that Yahweh is the eternal God.

He created the entire earth.

He never gets tired or weary,

and no one can fully understand how wise he is.

29 He gives strength to people who have become exhausted,

and he makes those who have lost their energy become strong again.

30 Even young people get tired and become exhausted.

Strong young men can become so tired that they collapse.

31 But those who trust in Yahweh will become strong again.

They will be able to do things without apparent effort,

the way eagles spread their wings and float in the sky.

They will run for a long time and not become exhausted.

They will walk long distances and not get tired.

41 Yahweh says, “You people throughout the world,

be silent in front of me while I ask you some questions!

Then be brave and come forward and speak with me.

We will meet together and decide which one of us is right.

2 Who has summoned this king from the east to serve him

and enabled him to be so victorious?

Whoever has done this enables him to defeat nations

and depose their kings.

His armies use their weapons to destroy opposing armies

so that they scatter and flee

as if they were dust or straw that the wind was blowing away.

3 His armies chase their enemies,

and the enemies do not harm them.

They travel so fast that it seems as if their feet are not touching the ground.

4 Who has made this happen?

Who has determined what each generation would do throughout history?

I, Yahweh, am the one who has made this happen!

I was present when the first thing happened,

and I will be present when the last things happen.”

5 People throughout the world see what is happening,

and they tremble with fear.

So they gather together.

6 They encourage one other and say to each other,

‘Be strong!’

7 The worker who made an idol encourages another worker who will cover it with gold.

That other worker flattens the gold by hitting it with a hammer on an anvil.

Then he attaches the gold to the idol,

and the first worker tells him, “That should hold together.”

Then they carefully nail down the idol so that it will not topple over!

8 But Yahweh says, “You Israelites are my servants.

I chose you descendants of Jacob to be my people.

You are descendants of Abraham, who was my friend.

9 You are the ones I am bringing back from places throughout the world.

I have told you that I want you to be my servants.

I have chosen you,

and I will not reject you.

10 I will be with you,

so do not be afraid.

I am your God,

so do not be anxious.

I will make you strong, and I will help you.

Indeed, I will protect you with the great power by which I always win victories.

11 Listen! I am going to shame and humiliate

all the people who were angry with you.

I am going to destroy completely

those who opposed you.

12 Then, even if you search for the people who had a dispute with you,

you will not find them.

Those people who attacked you

will not exist at all anymore.

13 I will protect you in this way because I, Yahweh, am your God.

I am strengthening you,

and I am telling you, ‘Do not be afraid,

because I will help you.’

14 Even though you Israelites, who are descendants of Jacob, seem insignificant,

do not be afraid,

because I will help you!”

This is what Yahweh declares.

He is the holy God of the Israelites, and he rescues them.

15 Yahweh says, “Listen! I am going to enable you to defeat your enemies

as if they were grain and you were a new threshing sledge

with many sharp objects on the bottom of it.

Even if your enemies are large and powerful

like mountains and hills,

it will be as if they are grain you are crushing

to separate out the chaff.

16 It will be as if you toss them up into the air

and a strong wind blows them away as it does chaff.

But as for you, you will be very happy about what I, Yahweh have done for you.

You will praise me, the holy God of you Israelites.

17 When poor people need water but have no water,

and their tongues are dry because they are so thirsty,

I, Yahweh, will come and help them.

I am the God of the Israelites, and I will never abandon them.

18 I will make rivers flow for them on hills where no plants are growing.

I will make fountains flow in the valleys.

I will make springs flow in dry areas

so that there are many pools of water in those areas.

19 I will make trees grow in the desert.

They will be cedar trees, acacia trees, myrtle trees, olive trees,

cypress trees, plane trees, and box trees. All those trees will be there.

20 I will do this so that everyone who sees it will think about it carefully

and they will all understand

that I, Yahweh, have done this by my power.

Yes, they will know that I, the holy God of the Israelites, have created it.”

21 Yahweh, the King of the descendants of Jacob, says,

“Present your case! Make your best arguments!

22 Have your idols come and tell us what will happen!

Have them tell us what happened in the past

so we may think about those things

and learn whether what they predicted really happened.

Or have them tell us about the future

so that we see whether that happens.

23 Those idols should tell us what signs

indicate what is going to happen in the future.

If they do that, then we will know that they really are gods.

Tell them to do anything at all

that will amaze and frighten all of us.

24 But the gods whom those idols represent do not do anything,

so it is clear that they really do not exist at all.

So anyone who decides to worship them is doing something that I detest.

25 I have empowered a man to come from the north as a conqueror.

He is originally from the east,

and he is loyal to me.

He defeats other rulers as easily as someone squashes mud

or a potter treads on clay.

26 No idol announced this ahead of time so that we knew it would happen.

No one can say, ‘An idol predicted that, and it happened!’

Indeed, no idol ever predicted anything

No one ever heard one say anything at all.

27 I was the first one to tell the people who live on Mount Zion,

‘Listen, your exiles are coming back!’

I sent a messenger to bring this good news to Jerusalem.

28 I looked among the idols, but none of them could say anything

or give any advice.

When I asked them questions, none of them answered.

29 It is clear that the gods whom those idols represent

do not really exist. They can not do anything.

Those metal images represent beings that are not real at all.

42 Yahweh says, “Here is my servant. I support him.

I have chosen him, and he pleases me.

I have given him my Spirit,

and he will make the people of the nations do what is right.

2 He will not yell at people,

and he will not shout in public places.

3 He will not harm weak people

who are barely surviving.

Instead, he will make sure that judges decide cases in the right way.

4 He will not become tired or lose courage

until he ensures that earthly rulers govern fairly.

People throughout the world will look forward to learning what he decrees.”

5 Yahweh our God created the sky and put it in place.

He also formed the earth and everything that is on it.

He makes the people who live on the earth alive.

This is what he says:

6 “I, Yahweh, have chosen you to do what is right.

I will help you and protect you.

Through you I will fulfill my agreement with my people,

and through you I will reveal my salvation to other nations.

7 You will help people recognize what is true,

and you will free people who are in bad circumstances

because others are holding them as their prisoners.

8 I am Yahweh. That is who I am.

I will not allow anyone else to receive the honor that only I deserve.

I will not allow people to praise wooden idols in the way that they should praise only me.

9 Listen! The events I predicted in the past have happened.

Now I am telling you what is going to happen in the future.

I am telling you about these things before they begin to happen.”

10 People throughout the world should sing a new song to praise Yahweh.

This includes people who sail on the oceans to catch what is in them

and those who live anywhere on the land.

11 People should also sing who live in towns in desolate areas,

such as the villages where the people of Kedar live.

It includes the people who live in the city of Sela.

They should sing joyfully and shout to praise Yahweh

from their city on top of a rocky cliff.

12 People throughout the world should honor Yahweh

and tell about how great he is.

13 Yahweh will go out to fight against his enemies like a warrior champion.

He will be eager to fight.

He will shout his battle cry very loudly,

and he will overpower his enemies.

14 Yahweh says, “I have been quiet for a long time;

I have stayed silent and restrained myself from acting.

But now it is time for me to act, as if I were a woman who was about to have a baby,

and so I will yell, and I will breathe hard and fast.

15 I will destroy mountains and hills

and make the plants on them dry up.

I will cause rivers to become dry land,

and I will also dry up marshes.

16 The Israelites have not understood how they should live,

as if they were blind people who could not see the path they should walk on.

But I will enable them to live properly,

as if I were enabling blind people to see what is in front of them.

It will be as if I am also making smooth the path they should walk on.

I will certainly do these things for them.

I will continually help them.

17 Some people depend on the gods that wooden or metal idols represent.

They even worship them.

But those gods will do nothing to help them,

and this will greatly humiliate them.

18 You Israelites have been disobeying me as if you were deaf and could not hear my commands.

Now you must obey me.

You Israelites have been ignoring my instructions as if you were blind.

Now must recognize what I want you to do, and you must do it.

19 The Israelites are my servants,

but it is as if they are blind.

I want to send them as my messengers,

but it is as if they are deaf.

I made a covenant with them and they are my servants,

but they do not recognize what I want them to do.

20 They actually do see many things,

but they do not understand what those things mean.

They actually are able to hear,

but they do not respond as they should to what they hear.”

21 Yahweh always does what is right.

So it pleased him to show that his law is great and glorious.

22 That is why the Babylonians were able to conquer the Israelites

and take away their valuable possessions.

That is why they took them captive and held them as their prisoners.

No one has rescued them from captivity.

No one has demanded that the Babylonians set these captives free.

23 The Israelites should listen carefully to what I am about to say.

They should consider it in order to understand what they should do in the future.

24 They should recognize who allowed enemies

to conquer the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob, and make them prisoners.

It was Yahweh who did this,

because we Israelites sinned against him.

We would not live as he wanted us to live,

and we did not obey his laws.

25 As a result, he became extremely angry with us,

and he allowed powerful enemies to defeat us in war.

It was as if those enemies burned up the Israelites entirely.

But they did not consider what happened

or understand why it happened.

43 Yahweh is the one who created the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob.

This is what he now says to them:

“I am rescuing you, so do not be afraid.

I am calling for you Israelites by name. You belong to me.

2 When you experience difficult situations,

as if you were crossing a deep river,

I will help you, so it will be as if you do not drown.

When you experience dangerous situations,

as if you were in an area that was burning,

I will protect you, so it will be as if that fire does not burn you.

3 I will do this because I am Yahweh your God.

I am the holy God of you Israelites. I will save you.

I will allow your captors to have the people of Egypt, Cush, and Seba

instead of you so that you can go free.

4 You are very valuable to me.

I honor you, and I love you personally.

So I will allow your captors to have the people of other nations

instead of you so that you may live.

5 I am helping you, so do not be afraid.

I will gather your descendants from throughout the world

and bring them home.

6 I will command the people of nations throughout the world,

‘Release my people and do not keep any of them as prisoners!

Allow all of them to return from distant places on the earth.

7 Send back all of those people! They belong to me.

I created them, and they show that I am glorious.’

8-9 8-9Suppose it were possible to gather together

the people of all nations for a trial.

Suppose it were possible to bring in the Israelites as witnesses,

even though they do not understand as they should what Yahweh is doing,

and they are not responding to it as they should.

One could then ask the people of the nations,

“Did any of your gods predict what is happening now?

Did any of them predict anything that happened in the past?

If you claim that they did, bring in witnesses to prove this.

Let people listen to them and decide whether your claim is true.”

10 No one would testify on behalf of a foreign god, but Yahweh would declare,

“You Israelites are my witnesses

that I have said what was going to happen and have made it happen.

I chose you to be my servants.

I wanted you to know me and trust me

and understand that I am the only true God.

There was no other god before me,

and there will be no other god after me.

11 I, Yahweh, am the only true God.

I am the only one who can save people.

12 I announced that I was going to save you, and I did save you.

I told you that myself.

No foreign god told you that!

So you can testify for me,” Yahweh would declare,

“that I am God.

13 I have always existed,

and no one can rescue people from my power.

When I act, no one can undo what I have done.”

14 Yahweh is the holy God of you Israelites.

He is the one who rescues you.

He says this to you:

“For your sake, I will have an army attack Babylon.

It will defeat the Babylonians, and they will run away.

They will flee in the ships of which they are so proud.

15 I am Yahweh, your holy God.

I created you Israelites, and I am your true king.”

16-17 16-17Yahweh is the one who made a dry path

through the Sea of Reeds so that the Israelites could cross it.

He then got the Egyptian army with its great soldiers

and chariots and horses to follow them.

But the waters flowed back over them and they all drowned and died.

They were like a lamp whose light went out.

This is what Yahweh now says to you Israelites:

18 “You do not need to remember these things

that happened so long ago.

19 I am about to do something new that is just as great.

I have already begun to do it. You ought to be able to recognize it.

I am actually going to make a path through the desert,

and I will make water flow there.

20 Even wild animals such as jackals and ostriches will thank me

for making this water flow in the desert.

I will do that so that my people, whom I have chosen,

will have water to drink when they walk on that path.

21 I created those people so that they would belong to me.

They will tell why I deserve to have people praise me.

22 However, you descendants of Jacob have not prayed to me.

It appears that you people of Israel have become tired of worshiping me.

23-24 23-24You have not brought me your sheep as burnt offerings,

and you have not offered sacrifices to honor me.

You have not spent money to buy aromatic cane for me,

and you have not made me content with the fat from your sacrifices.

I have not burdened you by requiring grain offerings,

and I have not tired you out by demanding frankincense.

Instead, you have burdened me by the sins you have committed,

and you have wearied me by the wrong things you have done.

25 But for my part, I am the one who forgives your sins

for my own sake.

I will never think about your sins again.

26 If you have any evidence that you did not sin against me,

I am willing to consider it.

Go ahead and try to state your case

if you think you can prove that you did not sin.

27 But you people have been sinning against me from the time of your first ancestor.

Your priests and prophets have continually sinned.

28 That is why I allowed enemies to destroy my temple

and the priests no longer had a special place to do their work.

That is why I allowed enemies to destroy the descendants of Jacob completely.

Now other nations are mocking the people of Israel.”

44 “I have chosen you Israelites, who are descendants of Jacob,

to be my servants. So now listen to me.”

2 Yahweh is the one who originally made you. He helps you.

This is what he says.

“You descendants of Jacob who serve me, do not be afraid.

I call you Jeshurun because you are special to me.

3 Do not be afraid, because I will make streams of water flow

onto the land that is now dry.

I will give my Spirit to your descendants,

and I will bless them.

4 They will grow up as grass does in a meadow

and as willow trees do along a riverbank.

5 They will proudly say that they are descendants of Jacob

and that they belong to me, Yahweh.

They will write on their hands that they belong to me, Yahweh,

and when they say their names, they will add that they are Israelites.”

6 Yahweh is the true king of the Israelites,

and he is rescuing them.

Yahweh is the commander of the heavenly armies.

This is what he says.

“I have always existed, and I will always exist.

I am the only God.

7 No one is like me!