Dull the mind of this people, deafen their ears, and blind their eyes. By doing so, they won't see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed."

During the reign of Jotham's son Ahaz, Uzziah's grandson, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Remaliah's son Pekah, king of Israel, approached Jerusalem and waged war against it, but they could not mount an attack against it.

For the LORD of the Heavenly Armies has planned, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?"

The watchman replies: "Morning is coming, but also the night. If you want to ask, then ask; come back again.'"

I'll set him like a peg into a secure place; he will become a throne of honor to his father's house.

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.

and a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

"And this entire vision has become for you like the words of a sealed book. When people give it to someone who can read, and say, "Read this, please,' he answers, "I cannot, because it is sealed.'

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.'"

"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.

Yet he is also wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words, but will rise up against the house of those who practice evil and against anyone who assists people who work iniquity.

Turn back to him, yes to him whom your people have so greatly betrayed, you people of Israel.

"Study and read from the book of the LORD: And not one will be missing, each will not long for its mate. For it is the mouth of the LORD that has issued the order, and it is his Spirit that has gathered them.

Your insolence has reached my ears, so I'll put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I'll make you turn back on the road by which you came.

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.

Yes, it was for my own good that I suffered extreme anguish. But in love you have held back my life from the Pit in which it has been confined; you have tossed all my sins behind your back.

"I have certainly stayed silent for a long time; I've kept still and held myself back. Now, like a woman giving birth, I'll cry out. All of a sudden I'll gasp and pant.

Those who trust in carved idols will turn back and be completely disappointed, along with those who say to metal images, "You are our gods.'"

But this is a people who have been robbed and plundered, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become prey, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, "Send them back!'

I'll say to the north, "Give them up'! and to the south, "Don't keep them back!' Bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the ends of the earth

who frustrates the omens of idle talkers, and drives diviners mad, who turns back the wise, and makes their knowledge foolish;

"And now, says the LORD, who formed you from the womb as his servant to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him and I am honored in the LORD's sight and my God has been my help

he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Israel and bring back those of Jacob I have preserved. I'll also make you as a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.

My Lord GOD has opened my ears, and I did not rebel; I did not shrink back.

I gave my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not turn away my face from insults and spitting.

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."

"Enlarge the location of your tent, let the curtains of your dwellings be stretched wide, and don't hold back. Lengthen your cords; strengthen your stakes.

For the LORD has called you back like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like the wife of a man's youth when she is cast off," says the LORD your God.

"O afflicted one, passed back and forth, and not comforted, Look! I am about to set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

"For you will go out in joy, and come back with peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees in the fields will clap their hands.

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.

"Shout aloud! Don't hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their rebellions, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

"Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring up quickly; and your vindication will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will guard your back.

I'll drive back justice, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth has fallen in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.

Look down from heaven, and see from your holy and glorious dwelling. Where are your zeal and your might? Where are the yearning of your heart and your compassion? They are held back from me.

Why, LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts, so that we do not fear you? Turn back for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.

LORD, after all this, can you hold yourself back? Can you keep silent and punish us so severely?

Watch out! It stands written before me: "I won't keep silent, but I will pay back in full; I'll indeed repay into their laps

"Whoever slaughters an ox is just like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb is just like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever makes a grain offering is just like one who offers pig's blood; and whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense is just like one who blesses an idol. Yes, these have chosen their own ways, and they take delight in their contaminated actions.

"Listen to that uproar in the city! Listen to that noise from the Temple! It is the sound of the LORD paying back retribution to his enemies!

"Take notice! The LORD will come with fire, and his chariot will be like a whirlwind, to pay back his anger yes, his anger! in fury, and his menacing rebukes in flames of fire.