This is the vision that Amoz's son Isaiah had about Judah and Jerusalem during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

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

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there's no soundness evident only bruises, sores, and festering wounds that haven't been cleaned out, bandaged, or treated with oil."

"The daughter of Zion is left abandoned, like a booth in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, or like a city under siege.

"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.

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity."

"Go into the rocks! Hide in the dust to escape the terror of the LORD and to escape the glory of his majesty!

"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!"

I will sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: "The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

The seraphim stood above him. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he was flying.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a burning coal in his hand that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

Because Aram's head is Damascus, and Rezin is its king, within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered as a people.

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.'"

So the LORD has cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in a single day

the elder and the dignitary is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.

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 has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon, to the high places to weep; over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails. His head is completely bald, and every beard is shaved off.

"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 this is what the LORD told me: "I will remain quiet and watch in my dwelling place like dazzling heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

As a result, there will be nothing for Egypt that head or tail, palm branch or reed, can do.

For he has fled from swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle."

All your leaders have fled together; she is captured without using bows. All of you who were caught were captured together, although they had fled while the enemy was still far away.

The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies so heavy upon it, that it falls, never to rise again.

For you have been a stronghold for the poor, a stronghold for the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat for the blistering attack from the ruthless is like a rainstorm beating against a wall,

and the noise of foreigners is like the heat of the desert. Just as you subdue heat by the shade of clouds, so the victory songs of violent men will be stilled.

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,

Come, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.

Furthermore, at that time, a great trumpet will be sounded, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and those who had been expelled to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on his holy mountain at Jerusalem.

"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?'

He has turned the tables on you as if the potter were thought to be like heat. Can what is made say of the one who made it, "He did not make me?' Or can what is formed say of the ones who formed it, "He has no skill?'

And although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers won't hide themselves anymore, but your own eyes will see your teachers.

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."

Then Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, approached Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and let him know what the field commander had said.

So the field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, since he had heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish.

Now King Sennacherib had received this report concerning King Tirhakah of Cush: "He has marched out to fight against you."

This is the message that the LORD has spoken in opposition to him: ""The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem she tosses her head behind you as you flee.

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.

Now Isaiah had said, "Let them prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover."

Hezekiah also had asked, "What will be the sign for me to go up to the LORD's Temple?"

At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, when he heard he had been sick and had survived.

so he drenched him with the heat that is his anger, the violence of war. It enveloped him in flames, but still he had no insight. It burned him up, but he didn't take it to heart."

And neither had you heard, nor did you understand, nor did you open your ear long ago. Indeed, I knew that you would act very deceitfully, and they would call you a rebel from birth.

Now if only you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea.

He made my mouth like a sharp sword; he hid me in the shadow of his hands. He made me like a polished arrow and hid me away in his quivers.

They won't hunger or thirst, nor will the desert heat or sun beat upon them; for the one who has compassion on them will drive them and guide them alongside springs of water.

Your children have fainted. They lie at the head of every street, like antelope caught in a trap, filled with the anger of the LORD and the rebuke of your God.

But I will put it into the hands of those who tormented and oppressed you, those who said to you, "Lie down, so we can step over you,' so that you had to make your back like the ground, and like a street for them to walk over."

so will he startle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.

For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of a dry ground; he had no form and he had no majesty that we should look at him, and there is no attractiveness that we should desire him.

"He was despised and rejected by others, and a man of sorrows, intimately familiar with suffering; and like one from whom people hide their faces; and we despised him and did not value him.

Then they made his grave with the wicked, and with rich people in his death, although he had committed no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth."

I hid my face from you for a moment in a surge of anger, but I will have compassion on you with my everlasting gracious love," says the LORD your Redeemer.

"For this is what the high and lofty One says, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "He lives in the height and in holiness, and also with the one who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Because of his wicked greed I was angry, so I punished him; and I hid my face, and was angry but he kept turning back to his stubborn will.

"Is this the kind of fast that I have chosen, merely a day for a person to humble himself? Is it merely for bowing down one's head like a bulrush, for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, an acceptable day to the LORD?

He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in fury like a cloak.

"For I, the LORD, love justice, and I hate robbery and iniquity; I will faithfully present your reward and make an everlasting covenant with you.

"For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year for my redeeming work had come.

"Hear this message from the LORD, you who tremble at his words: "Your own brothers who hate you and exclude you because of my name have said: "Let the LORD be glorified; he will see your joy,' yet it is they who will be put to shame.