Your land lies desolate [because of your disobedience],
Your cities are burned with fire,
Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your very presence;
It is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me [without your repentance]?”
Says the Lord.
“I have had enough of [your] burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of well-fed cattle [without your obedience];
And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls or lambs or goats [offered without repentance].

“I hate [the hypocrisy of] your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts.
They have become a burden to Me;
I am weary of bearing them.

“So when you spread out your hands [in prayer, pleading for My help],
I will hide My eyes from you;
Yes, even though you offer many prayers,
I will not be listening.
Your hands are full of blood!

“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be like wool.

“If you are willing and obedient,
You shall eat the best of the land;

Your rulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone loves bribes
And chases after gifts.
They do not defend the fatherless,
Nor does the widow’s cause come before them [instead they delay or turn a deaf ear].

Most certainly [Lord] You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with influences from the east,
And they are soothsayers [who foretell] like the Philistines;
Also they strike bargains with the children of foreigners (pagans).

For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against all who are proud and arrogant
And against all who are lifted up,
That they may be degraded.

And the wrath of God will be against all the cedars of Lebanon [west of the Jordan] that are high and lifted up,
Against all the oaks of Bashan [east of the Jordan],

Against all the high mountains,
Against all the hills that are lifted up,

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,
Because their words and their actions are against the Lord,
To rebel against His glorious presence and defiantly provoke Him.

O My people! Children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Your leaders lead you astray
And confuse (destroy, swallow up) the direction of your paths.

Moreover, the Lord said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud
And walk with outstretched necks and seductive (flirtatious, alluring) eyes,
And trip along with mincing steps and an affected gait
And walk with jingling anklets on their feet,

Woe (judgment is coming) to those who join house to house and join field to field [to increase their holdings by depriving others],
Until there is no more room [for others],
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!

Therefore My people go into exile because they lack knowledge [of God];
And their honorable men are famished,
And their common people are parched with thirst.

So the common man will be bowed down and the man of importance degraded,
And the eyes of the proud (arrogant) will be degraded.

Woe (judgment is coming) to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever and shrewd in their own sight!

Woe (judgment is coming) to those who are heroes at drinking wine
And men of strength in mixing intoxicating drinks,

He will lift up a flag to [call] the distant nations [to bring His judgment on Judah],
And will whistle for them from the ends of the earth;
And indeed, they will come with great speed swiftly.

Their arrows are sharp and all their bows are strung and bent;
Their horses’ hoofs seem like flint and their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

He touched my mouth with it and said, “Listen carefully, this has touched your lips; your wickedness [your sin, your injustice, your wrongdoing] is taken away and your sin atoned for and forgiven.”

The Lord has removed [His] people far away,
And there are many deserted places in the midst of the land.

“And though a tenth [of the people] remain in the land,
It will again be subject to destruction [consumed and burned],
Like a massive terebinth tree or like an oak
Whose stump remains when it is chopped down.
The holy seed [the elect remnant] is its stump [the substance of Israel].”

For before the child will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land (Canaan) whose two kings you dread will be deserted [both Ephraim and Aram].

As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the pick and the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place where oxen are pastured and where sheep tread.

Listen carefully, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders [that will occur] in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

[Direct those people] to the law and to the testimony! If their teachings are not in accord with this word, it is because they have no dawn.

They [who consult mediums and soothsayers] will pass through the land deeply distressed and hungry, and when they are hungry, they will become enraged and will curse their king and their God as they look upward.

For those who lead this people are causing them to go astray;
And those who are led [astray] by them are swallowed up.

By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is burned up,
And the people are like fuel for the fire;
No man spares his brother.

They slice off [in discord] what is on the right hand but are still hungry,
And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;
Each eats the flesh of his own arm.

[The tribe of] Manasseh devours [the tribe of his brother] Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
And together they are against Judah (the southern kingdom, the house of David).
In spite of all this, God’s anger does not turn away
But His hand is still stretched out [in judgment].

For Assyria says, “Are not my princes all kings?

“My hand has found the wealth of the people like a nest,
And as one gathers eggs that are abandoned, so I have gathered all the earth;
And there was not one that flapped its wing, or that opened its beak and chirped.”

Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

I [the Lord] have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have even called My great warriors,
My proudly exulting ones [the Medes and the Persians who triumph for My honor]—
To execute My anger.

For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob (the captives in Babylon) and will again choose Israel, and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners (Gentiles) will join them [as proselytes] and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob (Israel).

“All of them will respond [tauntingly] and say to you,
‘You have become as weak as we are.
You have become like us.

‘Your pomp and magnificence have been brought down to Sheol,
Along with the music of your harps;
The maggots [which prey on the dead] are spread out under you [as a bed]
And worms are your covering [Babylonian rulers].’

“But you [king of Babylon] have been cast out of your tomb (denied burial)
Like a rejected branch,
Clothed with the slain who are pierced by the sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit [into which carcasses are thrown],
Like a dead body trampled [underfoot].

They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba;
Everyone’s head is shaved, and every beard is cut off [in mourning].

For the waters of Nimrim are desolate.
Indeed the grass is withered, the new growth dies;
There is no green thing.

For the waters of Dimon are full of blood;
Yet I will bring even more woes on Dimon—
A lion upon those of Moab who escape and upon the remnant of the land.

“Let our outcasts of Moab live among you;
Be a [sheltered] hiding place to them from the destroyer.”
For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,
Oppressors [who trample men] have completely disappeared from the land,

“The cities of Aroer [east of the Jordan] are deserted;
They will be [only a refuge] for flocks to lie down in,
And there will be no one to make them afraid.

At evening time, now look, sudden terror!
Before morning the Assyrians are no more.
This is the portion (fate) of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who pillage us.

[Those who are] the pillars and foundations of Egypt will be crushed;
And all those who work for wages will be grieved in soul.

The princes of Zoan are complete fools;
The counsel of the Pharaoh’s wisest advisors has become stupid.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings?”

Where then are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them understand what the Lord of hosts
Has purposed against Egypt [if they can].

The princes of Zoan have acted like fools,
The princes of Memphis are deluded [and entertain false hope];
Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes
Have led Egypt astray.

Therefore [continues Isaiah] my loins are filled with anguish;
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in childbirth;
I am so bent and bewildered that I cannot hear, I am so terrified that I cannot see.

You [Jerusalem] who were full of noise,
A tumultuous city, a joyous and exuberant city;
Your slain were not slain [in a glorious death] with the sword,
Nor did they die in battle.

But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in my ears,
“This sin absolutely will not be forgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.

Is this your jubilant city,
Whose origin dates back to antiquity,
Whose feet used to carry her [far away] to colonize distant places?

The earth also is polluted by its inhabitants, because they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.

Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live on it suffer the punishment of their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned [under the curse of God’s wrath], and few people are left.

Terror and pit [of destruction] and snare
Confront you, O inhabitant of the earth.

Then it will be that he who flees at the sound of terror will fall into the pit,
And he who comes up out of the pit will be caught in the snare;
For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.

They will be gathered together
As prisoners [are gathered] in a dungeon;
They will be shut up in prison,
And after many days they will be visited and punished.

O Lord, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will praise and give thanks to Your name;
For You have done miraculous things,
Plans formed long, long ago, [fulfilled] with perfect faithfulness.

The way of the righteous [those in right-standing with God—living in moral and spiritual integrity] is smooth and level;
O Upright One, make a level path for the just and righteous.

In the night my soul longs for You [O Lord],
Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
For [only] when Your judgments are experienced on the earth
Will the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

The [wicked] dead will not live [again], the spirits of the dead will not rise and return;
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And You have wiped out every memory of them [every trace of them].

You have increased the nation, O Lord;
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.

When its branches are dry, they are broken off;
The women come and make a fire with them.
For they are not a people of understanding,
Therefore He who made them will not have compassion on them,
And He who created them will not be gracious to them.

But even these reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:
The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink;
They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink;
They reel while seeing visions,
They stagger when pronouncing judgment.

For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, so that there is no place [that is clean.]

They say “To whom would He teach knowledge?
And to whom would He explain the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?

Stop and take some time and wonder [at this prophecy],
Blind yourselves and be blinded [at its fulfillment by your spiritual incompetence].
They are drunk, but not from wine;
They stagger, but not from strong drink.

Then the Lord said,

“Because this nation approaches [Me only] with their words
And honors Me [only] with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me is a tradition that is learned by rote [without any regard for its meaning],

Woe (judgment is coming) to those who [try to] deeply hide their plans from the Lord,
Whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And who say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

“For his princes are at Zoan
And his ambassadors arrive at Hanes [in Egypt].

“All will be ashamed because of a people (the Egyptians) who cannot benefit them,
Who are not a help or benefit, but a shame and also a disgrace.”

A [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the beasts of the Negev (the South):

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
From where come lioness and lion, viper and [fiery] flying serpent,
They carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys
And their treasures on the humps of camels,
To a people (Egyptians) who cannot benefit them.

A thousand of you will flee at the threat of one man;
You will flee at the threat of five,
Until you are left like a flag on the top of a mountain,
And like a signal on a hill.

Therefore the Lord waits [expectantly] and longs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed (happy, fortunate) are all those who long for Him [since He will never fail them].

On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams of water on the day of the great slaughter (the day of the Lord), when the towers fall [and all His enemies are destroyed].

Now look, the name of the Lord comes from far away,
Burning with His anger, and heavy with smoke;
His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue is like a consuming fire.

Woe (judgment is coming) to those who go down to Egypt for help,
Who rely on horses
And trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek and consult the Lord!

Now the Egyptians are men and not God,
And their horses are flesh and not spirit;
And the Lord will stretch out His hand,
And he (Egypt) who helps will stumble,
And he (Judah) who is helped will fall,
And all of them will perish together.

As for the rogue, his weapons are evil;
He conceives wicked plans
To ruin the poor with lies,
Even when the plea of the needy one is just and right.

Rise up, you women who are carefree,
And hear my voice,
You confident and unsuspecting daughters!
Listen to what I am saying.

Tremble, you women who are carefree;
Tremble with fear, you complacent ones!
Strip, undress and wear sackcloth on your waist [in grief],

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness will live in the fertile field.

Blessed (happy, fortunate) are you who cast your seed upon all waters [when the river overflows its banks and irrigates the land],
You who allow the ox and the donkey to roam freely.

At the sound of the tumult, the peoples flee;
At the lifting up of Yourself nations scatter.

The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

“The peoples will be burned to lime,
Like thorns cut down which are burned in the fire.

“You who are far away, hear what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

The sinners in Zion are terrified;
Trembling has seized the godless.
[They cry] “Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting burning?”

Say to those with an anxious and panic-stricken heart,
“Be strong, fear not!
Indeed, your God will come with vengeance [for the ungodly];
The retribution of God will come,
But He will save you.”

So now, exchange pledges with my master the king of Assyria and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them.

But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad [in Aram]? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

Now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know and fully realize that You alone, Lord, are God.”

“Like a swallow, like a crane, so I chirp;
I coo like a dove.
My eyes look wistfully upward;
O Lord, I am oppressed, take my side and be my security.

‘Listen carefully, the days are coming when everything that is in your house and everything that your predecessors have stored up until this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.

‘And some of your own sons (descendants) who will come from you, whom you will father, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”