The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's feeding trough, but Israel doesn't know, and my people don't understand.

"Oh, you sinful nation! You people burdened down by iniquity! You offspring of those who keep practicing what is evil! You corrupt children! "They've abandoned the LORD; they've despised the Holy One of Israel; in their estrangement, they've walked away from me.

"Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? Your whole head is sick, and your whole heart is faint.

"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.

Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. All of them are lovers of bribes and are runners after gifts. They don't bring justice to orphans, and the widow's case never comes up for review in their court."

Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.

"The expressions on their faces give them away. They parade their sin around like Sodom; they don't even try to hide it. How horrible it will be for them, because they have brought disaster on themselves!"

How dare you crush my people as you grind down the face of the poor?" declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

What more could I do in my vineyard, that I haven't already done? When I expected it to produce good grapes, why did it yield wild ones?

"Now, let me tell you, won't you please, what I'm going to do to my vineyard. "I'm going to take away its protective hedge, and it will be devoured; I'll break down its wall, and it will be trampled.

For ten acres of vineyard will produce only one bath, and one omer of seed will produce only one ephah."

"How terrible it will be for those who rise at dawn in order to grab a stiff drink, for those who stay up late at night as wine inflames them!

They have the lyre and harp, the tambourine and flute, as well as wine at their festivals, but they don't respect what the LORD is doing, nor do they consider his actions.

Tell him, "Be careful, be calm, don't be afraid, and don't lose heart because of these two smoldering stumps of torches, that is, because of the fierce anger of Rezin, from Aram, and Remaliah's son.

Furthermore, Ephraim's head is Samaria, and Remaliah's son is its king. If all of you don't keep on believing, you'll never remain loyal.'"

"Don't call conspiracy everything that this people calls conspiracy, and don't fear what they fear, or live in terror.

"The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamore trees have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.'

I'm sending my fury against a godless nation, and I'll command him against the people with whom I'm angry to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.

But this is not what he intends, and this is not what he thinks in his mind; but it is in his mind to destroy, and to cut down many nations.

He keeps bragging: "I've done it by the strength of my hand, and by my wisdom, because I'm so clever. I removed the boundaries of nations, and plundered their treasures; like a bull I brought down those who sat on thrones.

At that time, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer rely on the one who struck them down, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies says: "My people, you who live in Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrians, of the rod that beats you, who lift up their club against you as the Egyptians did.

Behold, the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies will lop off its boughs with terrifying power; the tallest in height will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.

He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One."

"The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard will lie down with the young goat. The calf and the lion will graze together, and a little child will lead them.

The cow and the bear will graze, and their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

But they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west, and they will plunder the people to the east. They'll lay their hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

It will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Bedouin will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

But desert beasts will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there owls will dwell, and goat-demons will dance there.

that struck down nations in anger with unceasing blows, that oppressed nations in fury with relentless persecution.

Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the noise of your harps. Maggots are spread out beneath you, and worms are your covering."

"How you have fallen from heaven, Day Star, son of the Dawn! How you have been thrown down to earth, you who laid low the nation!

But you are brought down to join the dead, to the far reaches of the Pit.

But you are cast away from your grave, like a repulsive branch, your clothing is the slain, those pierced by the sword; those who go down to the Pit. Like a dead body trampled underfoot,

to crush the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will turn away from you, and his burden from your shoulders."

"Don't rejoice, all of you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken, because from the snake's root a viper will spring up, and its offspring will be a darting, poisonous serpent.

The firstborn of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety; but I'll kill your root by famine, and I'll execute your survivors.

In its streets they wear sackcloth; on its rooftops and in its squares everyone wails and falls down weeping.

"Give us advice; reach a decision! Cast your shadow as if night had come at high noon. Shelter the fugitives, And don't betray a single refugee.

For the fields of Heshbon wither, as well as the vines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations have struck down its choicest vines, which once reached Jazer and pushed to the desert. Its shoots spread out and passed over the sea."

The nations roar like the rushing of many waters, but the LORD will rebuke them, and they will run far away, chased like chaff blown down from the mountains or like thick dust that rolls along, blown along by a wind storm.

It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of the Heavenly Armies in the land of Egypt; when they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior, and he will come down and rescue them.

you who are full of commotion, you passionate city, you rollicking town? Your slain weren't killed by the sword, nor are they dead in battle.

Therefore I said: "Look away from me; and let me weep bitter tears; don't try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people."

For to the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies belongs the day of tumult, trampling, and confusion in the Valley of Vision, and the pulling down of his Temple on its mountain.

counted the houses of Jerusalem, tore down certain houses to strengthen the wall,

At that time," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "the peg that was driven into a secure place will give way; it will be sheared and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down." The LORD has spoken.

"Watch out! The LORD is about to depopulate the land and devastate it; he will turn it upside down and scatter its inhabitants.

The chaotic city lies broken down; every house is closed up so that no one can enter them.

LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for you have done marvelous things, plans made long ago in faithfulness and truth.

For the LORD's power will rest on this mountain, but the Moabites will be trodden down beneath him, just as straw is trodden down in the slime of a manure pit.

They will spread out their hands in the thick of it, just as swimmers spread out their hands to swim, but the LORD will bring down their pride, together with the cleverness of their hands.

He brings down the high fortifications of your walls and lays them low; he will raze them to the ground, right down to the dust.

For he has made drunk the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low to the ground casting it down to the dust,

If favor is shown to the wicked, they don't learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they act perversely and do not perceive the majesty of the LORD.

"But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Those who live in the dust will wake up and shout for joy! For your dew is like the dew of dawn, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Has the LORD struck them down, just as he struck down those who struck them? Or have they been killed, just as their killers were killed?

For the fortified city stands desolate, a settlement abandoned and forsaken like the desert; calves graze there, and there they lie down and strip bare its branches.

But as for you, don't start mocking, or your chains will become tighter; for I have heard from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies about destruction, and it is decreed against the whole land.

and you will be brought down. You will speak from the ground, and your speech will mumble from the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the ground, and your speech will whisper from the dust.

Or when they give the book to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please,' he answers, "I don't know how to read.'"

"How terrible it will be for you who go to great depths to hide your plans from the LORD, you whose deeds have been done in the dark, and who say, "Who can see us? Who has recognized us?'

For the ruthless will vanish, and mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down

They set out to go down to Egypt, without asking my advice; taking refuge in Pharaoh's protection, and seeking shelter in Egypt's shadow.

"Go now, and write it down on a tablet in their presence, inscribing it in a book, so that for times to come it may be an everlasting witness.

They say to the seers, "Don't see visions,' and to the prophets, "Don't give us visions of what is right! Instead, tell us welcome things, prophesy illusions,

And every stroke of his punishing rod that the LORD brings down on them will be to the sound of tambourines and harps, as he fights against her in battle with a brandished arm.

"How terrible it will be for those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the chariot, because there are so many, and in charioteers, because they are so strong but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek the LORD!

For this is what the LORD told me: "Just as a lion or a young lion growls over his objects of prey, even when a whole band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not alarmed at their shouting or disturbed by their clamor so the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its hill.

So tremble, you ladies of leisure! Shudder, you daughters who feel so complacent! Strip down and make yourselves naked down to the waist! Then wrap yourself in sackcloth and beat your breasts.

But it will hail when the forest comes down, and the wood will be leveled completely.

"Those who are far away have heard what I've done; and those that are near have acknowledged my power.

The valleys will be split, all the stars in the heavens will fall down, and the skies will be rolled up like a scroll. All their starry host will fade away like leaves withering on a vine, or fruit withering on a fig tree.

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah replied to him, "Please speak with your servants with us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew where the people sitting on the wall can hear."

"Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king of Assyria says: "Don't let Hezekiah deceive you for he cannot save you!

Don't let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the LORD when he says, "The LORD will really deliver us!" and "This city will never be handed over to the king of Assyria!"

Don't listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: "Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then everyone will eat from his own vine and from his own fig tree, and everyone will drink water from his own cistern,

But the people remained silent and didn't respond to him with so much as a single word, because the king had commanded, "Don't answer him."

"Here is what to tell your master," Isaiah told them. "This is what the LORD says: "Don't be afraid of the words you've heard those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have insulted me.

Watch this! I'm going to place an attitude within him, so that when he hears a certain report, he'll return to his own country. Then I'll have him cut down by the sword in his own land."

When he heard it, he returned and sent messengers to Hezekiah: "Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: "Don't let your God on whom you depend deceive you when he says, "Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."

Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, dooming them to destruction. So do you think you will be saved?

By your messengers you have insulted the LORD, and you have said, "With my many chariots I have climbed the heights of mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines; I reached its remotest heights, the most verdant of its forests.

""I know when you rise up and when you sit down, your comings and goings and how you've become enraged at me.

Later, while he was worshiping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with swords and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then Sennacherib's son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

"Please, LORD," he said, "Remember how I have walked before you faithfully and with a true heart, and I have done what pleases you." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Watch! I will make the shadow on the steps of the upper dial of Ahaz that marks the sun go ten steps backwards."'" Then the sunlight turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had gone down.

What can I say, so I tell myself, since he has done this to me? I will walk slowly all my years because of my soul's anguish.

For Sheol cannot thank you, death cannot sing your praise; and those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.

"Climb up a high mountain, you messenger of good news to Zion! Lift up your voice with strength, you messenger to Jerusalem! Lift it up! Don't be afraid! Say to the towns of Judah, "Here is your God!'

"You know, don't you? You have heard, haven't you? Hasn't it been told you from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth?

Don't you know? Haven't you heard? The LORD is the eternal God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary; and his understanding cannot be fathomed.

Who has aroused victory from the east, and has summoned it to his service, and has handed over nations to him? Who brings down kings, and turns them into dust with his sword, into windblown stubble with his bow?

And who pursues them and moves on unscathed by a path that his feet don't know?

Don't be afraid, because I'm with you; don't be anxious, because I am your God. I keep on strengthening you; I'm truly helping you. I'm surely upholding you with my victorious right hand."

"For I am the LORD your God, who takes hold of your right hand, who says to you, "Don't be afraid. I'll help you.

Don't be afraid, you little worm Jacob, and you insects of Israel! I myself will help you,' declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel."

all so that people may see and recognize, perceive, consider, and comprehend at the same time, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has created it."

Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the ends of the earth, you who sail down the sea and by everything in it, you coastlands and their inhabitants.

"Don't be afraid, for I am with you; I'll bring your children from the east, and gather you from the west.