Isaiah

Isaiah

¹The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, who were kings of Judah. ²Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth, for the LORD has spoken. He said, "I fathered children and raised them, but they have rebelled against me. ³The ox knows the one who bought it, and the donkey knows its master's manger and stall, but Israel does not know me, and my people do not understand me." ⁴Woe to the sinful nation, a people loaded with wickedness, offspring of evildoers, corrupt children! You have abandoned the LORD and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. ⁵Why would you be struck again, while you keep piling sin on top of sin? The whole head is given over to sickness, and the whole heart to grief. ⁶From the foot to the head there is nothing but wounds, welts and festering sores. No one cleans them with medicine, no one binds them up, and no one soothes them with oil. ⁷Your land is desolate, and your cities are burned with fire. Enemies devour your fields right in front of you; foreign enemies wreck and plunder them. ⁸The daughter of Zion will be left like a watchman's hut in a melon patch, like a shelter in a vineyard, like a city under siege. ⁹If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom and been just like Gomorrah. ¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of the LORD, you people of Gomorrah! ¹¹"What good to me are all your sacrifices?" says the LORD. "I have had my fill of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of sheep. I do not want the blood of bulls and goats. ¹²Even when you come, do not appear before me. Who asked you to bring this? Do not trample my courts again. ¹³Even if you bring fine flour, it is worthless, and your incense is unclean. ¹⁴I hate your new moons and your festivals with all my soul. ¹⁵When you lift up your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you. Even if you pray and pray, I will not listen to you, because your hands are full of blood. ¹⁶Wash yourselves and be clean. Remove the evil of your souls from before my eyes. Stop doing wrong. ¹⁷Learn to do good. Pursue justice and rescue the oppressed. Defend the orphan and stand up for the widow. ¹⁸"Come, let us settle this together," says the LORD. "Even if your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow. Even if they are red like crimson, I will make them clean as wool. ¹⁹If you are willing and listen to me, you will eat the good things of the land. ²⁰But if you refuse to listen to me, the sword will devour you." The mouth of the LORD has said so. ²¹How the city of Zion, once faithful, has become a prostitute! She was full of justice, and righteousness lived in her, but now she is full of robbers and murderers. ²²Your gold has become worthless, and your wine sellers water down the wine. ²³Your rulers are rebels and partners of thieves. They take bribes and love gifts. They are eager to sell justice; they do not hear the widow's case, and they do not defend the orphan. ²⁴Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says: "Woe to the mighty men of Israel! My anger against my enemies will not cool, and I will take vengeance on those who hate me. ²⁵I will turn my hand against you and refine you. I will burn up the traitors and remove all the rebels from you. ²⁶I will give you back your officials as in former times and your counselors as at the beginning." ²⁷Your captives will be rescued through righteousness and mercy. ²⁸Sinners and rebels will be crushed together, and all who abandoned the LORD will perish. ²⁹They will be put to shame over the gods they devised for themselves, and disgraced over the shrines they loved. ³⁰They will be like a terebinth tree whose leaves have withered, and like a garden with no water. ³¹Their strength will be like a strand of flax, and their works like sparks of fire. Sinners and rebels will burn together, and no one will be there to put out their fire.