Because the palace has been abandoned, the populated city forsaken.
Hill and watch-tower have become caves forever,
A delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks;

Woe to thee that destroyest, and thou wast not destroyed; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! When thou hast ceased to destroy, thou shalt be destroyed; and when thou hast made an end of dealing treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.

The LORD is exalted; for he dwells on high: he has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases: he has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he regards no man.

The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling.

"Now I'll rise up," the LORD has said, "now I'll exalt myself; now I'll be lifted up.

Sinners are afraid in Zion; trembling has seized [the] godless: "Who of us can {live} [with] devouring fire? Who of us can {live} [with] everlasting consuming hearths?"

The one who walks righteously and has spoken sincere words, who rejects gain from extortion and waves his hand, rejecting bribes, who blocks his ears from hearing plots of murder and shuts his eyes against seeing evil

Never again will you see the cruel people, a people whose tongue has no sense for you; whose language is strange to you.

For [the] anger of Yahweh [is] against all the nations, and [his] wrath [is] against all their armies; he has put them under a ban, he has given them up for slaughter.

When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
it will then come down on Edom
and on the people I have set apart for destruction.

{Yahweh has a sword}; it is full [of] blood. It is covered with fat, with [the] blood of lambs and goats, with [the] fat of [the] kidneys of rams, for {Yahweh has a sacrifice} in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

For {Yahweh has a day of vengeance}, a year of retribution for the strife of Zion.

Seek from the book of Yahweh and {read}; none of these shall be missing; none shall miss her mate. For my mouth {is the one that} has commanded, and his spirit {is the one that} has gathered them.

And he {is the one that} has cast [the] lot for them, and his hand has apportioned it to them with the measuring line; they shall take possession of it forever, they shall live in it {from generation to generation}.

No lion will be there, or any cruel beast; they will not be seen there; but those for whom the Lord has given a price,

Even those whom he has made free, will come back again; they will come with songs to Zion; on their heads will be eternal joy; delight and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and sounds of grief will be gone for ever.

And Rabshakeh saith unto them, 'Say ye, I pray you, unto Hezekiah, 'Thus said the great king, the king of Asshur, What is this confidence in which thou hast confided?

I said, 'Only a word of lips! {War has power and a plan}!' Now, in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

Lo, thou hast trusted on the staff of this broken reed -- on Egypt -- which a man leaneth on, and it hath gone into his hand, and pierced it -- so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all those trusting on him.

And if thou say to me, We rely upon Jehovah our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?

How then wilt thou turn away the face of one pasha of the least of my lords servants? Or hast thou on thy part trusted upon Egypt, for chariots and for horsemen?

And now, without Jehovah have I come up against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said unto me, Go up unto this land, and thou hast destroyed it.'

But Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your masters and you? [Was it] not for the people who sit on the wall, to eat their dung and drink their urine with you?"

Let not Hezekiah persuade you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

Who among all the gods of these countries has delivered their land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from me?'"

Maybe Yahweh your God heard [the] words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to taunt [the] living God, and he will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God hears. And you must lift up a prayer for the benefit of the remnant that is found.'"

And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith Jehovah: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Now he heard concerning Tirhakah the king of Cush, saying, "He has set out to fight against you." When he heard [it], he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?

Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, who sittest between the cherubim, thou, the Same, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made the heavens and the earth.

Yahweh, extend your ear and hear! Yahweh, open your eyes and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God!

And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,

this [is] the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: She shows contempt for you; she derides you, virgin daughter of Zion; she shakes [her] head behind you, daughter of Jerusalem.

Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted the voice? Against the Holy One of Israel hast thou lifted up thine eyes on high.

By thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the recesses of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its cypresses; and I will enter into its furthest height, into the forest of its fruitful field.

Hast thou not heard that long ago I did it, and that from ancient days I formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown.

Because you were enraged {against} me, and your noise has come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle on your lips, and I will turn you back on the way [by] which you came.

The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward;

He will go back
the way he came,
and he will not enter this city.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

Go to Hezekiah, and say, The Lord, the God of David, your father, says, Your prayer has come to my ears, and I have seen your weeping: see, I will give you fifteen more years of life.

And this [is] the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken:

Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which has gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down.

I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah in the land of the living. With those who dwell where all has ceased to be, I shall behold man no more.

My house has been plucked up and vanishes from me like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver, I've taken account of my life, and he cuts me off from the loom day and night you make an end of me.

What can I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done [it]. I will walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit; and thou hast recovered me, and made me to live.

Behold, instead of peace I had bitterness upon bitterness; but thou hast in love delivered my soul from the pit of destruction; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the word of Jehovah which thou hast spoken. And he said, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.

"Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her, that her compulsory labor is fulfilled, that her sin is paid for, that she has {received} from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins."

And the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all {humankind} together shall see [it], for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken."

See, the Lord God will come as a strong one, ruling in power: see, those made free by him are with him, and those whom he has made safe go before him.

Who has measured [the] waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off [the] heavens with span, comprehended the dust of the earth in third of a measure and weighed out [the] mountains in the scales, and [the] hills in a balance?

Who has measured up the spirit of Yahweh or informed him [as] {his counselor}?

With whom has he consulted, that he enlightened him and taught him [the] path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and made [the] way of understanding known to him?

A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.

He that is so impoverished that he has no offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks unto him a skillful workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not move.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from [the] {beginning}? Have you not understood [from] the foundation of the earth?

Indeed, hardly are they planted; indeed, hardly [are they] sown; indeed, hardly has their shoot taken root in the earth when he blows on them and they wither, and [the] tempest carries them like stubble.

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that brings out their host by number: he calls them all by names by the greatness of his might, for he is strong in power; not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hidden from Jehovah and my judgment has passed over from my God?

Dost thou not know, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not nor tireth? There is no searching of his understanding.

He gives power to the feeble, increasing the strength of him who has no force.

Who has roused salvation from the east, summoned him to his foot, gives nations {in his presence}, and subjugates kings? He makes [them] like the dust [with] his sword, like scattered stubble [with] his bow.

Who has accomplished and done [this], calling the generations from [the] {beginning}? I, Yahweh, [am] first; and I [am] the one with [the] last.

“In fact, I have made of you a new, sharp threshing implement with sharp edges;
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
And make the hills like chaff.

so that they may see and know, and take to heart and understand together that the hand of Yahweh has done this, and the holy one of Israel has created it."

I stirred up [one] from [the] north, and he has come from [the] rising of the sun. He shall call on my name, and he shall come [on] officials as [on] mortar, and as [the] {potter} treads clay.

Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that shows, yea, there is none that declares, yea, there is none that hears your words.

He will not grow faint, and he will not be broken until he has established justice in the earth. And [the] coastlands wait for his teaching.

Sing to the Lord a new song,
Sing His praise from the end of the earth!
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
You islands and coastlands, and those who inhabit them [sing His praise]!

Who is blind, but my servant? who has his ears stopped, but he whom I send? who is blind as my true one, or who has his ears shut like the Lord's servant?

But this is a people whose property has been taken away from them by force; they are all taken in holes, and shut up in prisons: they are made prisoners, and no one makes them free; they are taken by force and no one says, Give them back.

Therefore he has poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire all around, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee; and I will give men for thee, and peoples for thy life.

Every one who is named by my name, and whom I have made for my glory, who has been formed and designed by me.

Let all the nations gather together, and let [the] peoples assemble. Who among them has declared this, and {declared} [the] former things to us? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be in the right, and let them hear and say, "[It is] true!"

The Lord, who has taken up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, Because of you I have sent to Babylon, and made all their seers come south, and the Chaldaeans whose cry is in the ships.

But thou hast not called upon me, Jacob; for thou hast been weary of me, O Israel:

thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt-offerings, neither hast thou glorified me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to toil with an oblation, nor wearied thee with incense.

Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices; but thou hast made me to toil with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.

Put me now in remembrance, for we will reason together, and show what thou hast for thee, to make thee righteous.

Your first father has sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me.

The Lord, the King of Israel, even the Lord of armies who has taken up his cause, says, I am the first and the last, and there is no God but me.

If there is one like me, let him come forward and say it, let him make it clear and put it in order before me: who has made clear in the past the things to come? let him make clear the future to me.

Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?

He has cedars cut down for himself, he takes an oak and lets it get strong among the trees of the wood; he has an ash-tree planted, and the rain gives it growth.

Then it will be used to make a fire, so that a man may get warm; he has the oven heated with it and makes bread: he makes a god with it, to which he gives worship: he makes a pictured image out of it, and goes down on his face before it.

They have not known nor understood: for he has shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.

And no one takes note, no one has enough knowledge or wisdom to say, I have put part of it in the fire, and made bread on it; I have had a meal of the flesh cooked with it: and am I now to make the rest of it into a false god? am I to go down on my face before a bit of wood?

He feeds on ashes: a deceived heart has turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

Sing for joy, heavens, for Yahweh has done [it]! Shout, depths of [the] earth! Break forth, mountains, [in] rejoicing, forest and every tree in it, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and he will show his glory in Israel!

The Lord, who has taken up your cause, and who gave you life in your mother's body, says, I am the Lord who makes all things; stretching out the heavens by myself, and giving the earth its limits; who was with me?

For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

I am Jehovah, and there is none else; there is no God beside me: I girded thee, and thou hast not known me;

Woe [to the] one who strives with his {maker}, a potsherd among potsherds of earth! Does [the] clay say to the one who fashions it, 'What are you making?' and 'Your work has no hands'?

Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? Or to his mother, What hast thou brought forth?

This is what the Lord says: "The profit of Egypt and the revenue of Ethiopia, along with the Sabeans, those tall men, will be brought to you and become yours. They will walk behind you, coming along in chains. They will bow down to you and pray to you: 'Truly God is with you; he has no peer; there is no other God!'"

Israel has been saved by the Lord
With an everlasting salvation;
You will not be put to shame or humiliated
To all eternity.