Listen, you heavens, and let the earth pay attention, because the LORD has spoken: "I reared children and brought them to adulthood, but then they rebelled against me.

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.

"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 come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts?

Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly.

As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden.

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."

"Wash yourselves, and make yourselves clean; remove your evil behavior from my presence; stop practicing what is evil.

When I turn my attention to you, I'll refine your dross as in a furnace. I'll remove all your alloy.

Let me restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you'll be called "The Righteous City' and "The Faithful City of Zion'.

Many groups of people will come, commenting, "Come! Let's go up to the Temple of the God of Jacob, that they may teach us his ways. Then let's walk in his paths." "Instruction will proceed from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

"But at that time, he'll protest! He'll say, "I won't be your healer. I have neither food nor clothing in my house! You're not going to make me a leader of the people!'

"As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, your leaders are misleading you they're giving you confusing directions."

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

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

"So now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, won't you please, between me and my vineyard.

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.

Therefore my people go into exile because they lack understanding; my honored men go hungry, and the crowd is parched with thirst.

who say: "Let God be quick, let him speed up his work so we may see it! Let it happen! let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near, so we may recognize it!'"

"How terrible it will be for me!" I cried, "because I am ruined! I'm a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips! And my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies!"

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

He touched my mouth and said, "Look! Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sins atoned for."

Then I heard the voice of the LORD as he was asking, "Whom will I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am!" I replied. "Send me."

In reply, the LORD announced, "Please listen, you household of David. Is it such a minor thing for you to try the patience of men? Must you also try the patience of my God?

The LORD also told me, "Take a large tablet and write on it with a stylus pen, "For Maher-shalal-hash-baz'.

Then I will call Uriah the priest and Jeberechiah's son Zechariah as reliable witnesses to testify on my behalf."

After this, I was intimate with the prophetess and she conceived. Later, she bore a son, and then the LORD told me, "Call him "Maher-shalal-hash-baz,'

The LORD spoke to me again:

For this is what the LORD spoke to me, as his forceful hand was resting on me, and as he was warning me not to live the way this people were living:

"Bind up the testimony, and seal up the teaching among my disciples.

I'll wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I'll put my trust in him.

Watch out! I and the children whom the LORD has given me are a sign and a wonder in Israel from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, who resides on Mount Zion."

to deprive the needy of justice and to rob the poor of my people of their rights, so that widows may become their spoil and so that they may plunder orphans!

"How terrible it will be for Assyria, the rod of my anger! The club is in their hands!

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.

"Because this is what he is saying: "My commanders are all kings, are they not?

As my hand has reached to the idolatrous kingdoms whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

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.

My hand has found, as if in a nest, the wealth of the people; and as one gathers eggs that have been abandoned, so I have gathered all the inhabitants of the earth. Nothing moved a wing, opened its mouth, or chirped.'

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.

In just a little while, my fury will come to an end, and my anger then will be directed to their destruction.

They will neither harm nor destroy on my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."

At that time, you will say: "I will praise you, LORD, for although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away, and you have comforted me.

"Look! God yes God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid. For the LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation."

I myself have commanded my consecrated ones; I have also summoned my warriors, those who rejoice in my triumph, to carry out my angry judgments.

Watch out! I'm stirring up the Medes against them, who care nothing for silver and take no delight in gold.

You said in your heart, "I'll ascend to heaven, above the stars of God. I'll erect my throne; I'll sit on the Mount of Assembly in the far reaches of the north;

"And I'm going to make it a possession of the hedgehog pools of water and I'll sweep with the broom of destruction," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

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."

My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent to Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction.

"Therefore I weep with the tears of Jazer for the vines of Sibmah. I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh for the shouts of joy over your summer fruit and your grain harvest have ended.

Therefore my insides moan like a lyre for Moab, and my innermost being for Kir-hareseth.

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."

Zoan's princes are nothing but fools; the wisest advisors of Pharaoh give stupid advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I'm a descendant of wise men, a descendant of ancient kings"?

The LORD of the Heavenly Armies has blessed them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."

Then the LORD said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has walked around naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a warning for Egypt and Ethiopia,

A dire vision has been announced to me: the traitor betrays, and the plunderer takes loot. Get up, Elam! Attack, Media! I am putting a stop to all the groaning she has caused.

Therefore my body is racked with pain; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am so upset that I cannot hear; I am so frightened that I cannot see while I'm reeling around.

And as for my heart, horror has terrified me; the twilight I longed for has started to make me tremble.

For this is what the LORD told me: "Go post a lookout. Have him report what he sees.

Then the lookout shouted: "Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and I am stationed at my post throughout the night.

O my downtrodden people, my wall! I'll tell you what I have heard from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel."

A message concerning Dumah. "Someone is calling to me from Seir: "Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?'

For this is what the LORD is saying to me: "Within three years, according to the years of a contract worker, the pomp of Kedar will come to an end.

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."

"Nevertheless, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies has revealed himself to my hearing: ""Surely because of you this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,' says the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies."

Look Out! The LORD is about to hurl you away violently, my strong fellow! He will fold you up completely,

"At that time, I'll call for my servant, Hilkiah's son Eliakim,

From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise: "Glory to the Righteous One!' "But I say, "I am pining away, I'm pining away. How terrible things are for me! For treacherous people betray treacherous people are betraying with treachery!'"

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.

Open your gates, so the righteous nation that safeguards its faith may enter.

My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me searches for you. For when your judgments come upon the earth, the world's inhabitants learn righteousness.

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

I am not angry. If only the vineyard could give me briers and thorns to battle, I would march against it, and I would burn it all up.

Or else let it lay claim to my protection; let it make peace with me, yes, let it make peace with me."

"Pay attention! Listen to what I have to say; Pay attention, and hear my speech.

Then I'll besiege Aruel, and there will be sorrow and mourning; she will become to me like an altar fireplace.

Then the Lord said: "Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, worship of me has become merely like rules taught by human beings.

Therefore, watch out! "As for me, I will once again do amazing things with this people, wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the insights of their discerning men will stay hidden."

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?'

For when he sees in his midst his children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and stand in awe of the God of Israel.

"Oh, you stubborn children," declares the LORD, "who carry out plans but they are not mine, and who make alliances but not by my Spirit, piling sin upon sin.

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.

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.

"As for you ladies of leisure Get up and listen to my voice! You daughters who feel so complacent hear what I have to say!

and over the land of my people overgrown with thorns and briers yes, over all the houses of merriment and over this city of revelry.

My people will live in peaceful dwellings, in secure homes and in undisturbed resting places.

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

For my sword will be seen in the heavens. Look! It descends in judgment on Edom, on the people I have doomed to destruction.

"Tell Hezekiah, king of Judah, "This is what the mighty king, the king of Assyria, has to say: What is this "guarantee" that makes you yourself rely on it? Do you really think that guarantees alone can withstand strategy and military strength? On whom are you now depending, that you're rebelling against me?

But if you all say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God" - isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, while he kept on telling Judah and Jerusalem, "You are to worship in front of this altar in Jerusalem'?

Come now, all of you, make a bet with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you can furnish riders for them!

How, then, can you repulse even one officer from the least of my master's officials, when you are depending for yourselves on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

One other thing: have I really marched against this country to destroy it apart from the LORD's direction? The LORD himself ordered me, "March against this country to destroy it.'"

But the field commander asked, "Was it only to all of you and to your master that my master sent me to speak these things? Wasn't it also to the men sitting on the wall who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?"

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,

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sephar-vaim? Have they saved Samaria from me?