Your land is wasted, your cities burned with fire. Strangers devour your land right before your eyes, and it is wasted, as overthrown by strangers.

Come now, and let us reason together, says Jehovah; though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.

So, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame burns up the chaff; their root shall be like rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up like dust, because they have cast away the Law of Jehovah of Hosts, and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel.

And Jehovah said to me, Take a great scroll and write in it with a man's pen: Make Haste to Plunder! Hasten to the Prey!

For You have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his taskmaster, as in the day of Midian.

And he shall cut off on the right hand and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left, and they shall not be satisfied. Each man shall eat the flesh of his own arm;

Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the scribes who write toil;

to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to steal the right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and they rob the orphans!

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger! And the staff in their hand is My fury.

Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it? Shall the saw magnify itself against him who moves it? As if the rod could wave those who lift itself up! As if a staff could raise what is not wood!

And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a boy might write them.

Therefore so says the Lord Jehovah of Hosts, O my people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria. He shall strike you with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against you, in the way of Egypt.

And Jehovah of Hosts shall stir up a whip on him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and as His rod was on the sea, so shall He lift it up in the way of Egypt.

But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and shall decide with uprightness for the meek of the earth. And He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

And in that day there shall be the Root of Jesse standing for a banner of the people; to Him the nations shall seek; and His resting place shall be glorious.

Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod of your striking is broken. For a viper comes forth from the root of a snake, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and he shall slay your remnant.

And rivers shall be fouled; the Nile of Egypt will languish and dry up; the reed and the rush shall decay.

He shall cause those who come from Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and we have made a vision with hell; when the overwhelming rod shall pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood,

And your covenant with death shall be wiped out, and your vision with hell shall not stand; when the overwhelming rod shall pass through, then you shall be beaten down by it.

For his God instructs him to do right; his God teaches him.

For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument, nor is a cart wheel turned on cummin; but the dill is beaten out with a staff and the cummin with a rod.

And the vision of all has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which they give to one who knows books saying, Please read this; and he says, I cannot, for it is sealed.

And the book is delivered to him who does not know books, saying, Please read this; and he says, I do not know books.

Now go, write it before them in a tablet, and note it in a book, so that it may be for the time to come forever and ever,

who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy falsehood;

But you said, No; for we will flee on a horse. Therefore you shall flee. And you said, We will ride on the swift; therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.

For through the voice of Jehovah, the Assyrian shall be beaten down, who struck with a rod.

Also the weapons of the fool are evil; he thinks of wicked ways to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.

Seek out of the book of Jehovah, and read; not one of these shall fail, none shall lack its mate; for My mouth has commanded, and His Spirit has gathered them.

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land shall become springs of water in the home of jackals, in its lair, and a place for the reed and rush.

Lo, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; on which, if a man lean on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

And Hezekiah received the letter from the courier's hand, and read it. And Hezekiah went up into the house of Jehovah and spread it before Jehovah.

The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward;

He too poor for that offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he looks for a skillful workman to prepare a graven image that will not totter.

Yes, they shall not be planted; yes, they shall not be sown. Yes, their stump shall not take root in the earth. And He shall also blow on them, and they shall wither, and the tempest shall take them away like stubble.

Do not fear; for I am with you; be not dismayed; for I am your God. I will make you strong; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.

For I, Jehovah your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

A bruised reed He shall not break, and a smoking wick He shall not quench; He shall bring out judgment to truth.

One shall say, I am Jehovah's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall write with his hand, For Jehovah, and be named by the name of Israel.

He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside, so that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

So says Jehovah to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have made strong in order to humble nations before him. And I will loosen the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.

I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Seek me in vain. I Jehovah speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

They pour gold out of the bag, and weigh silver out of the measuring rod, and hire a goldsmith; and he makes it a god; they fall down, yea, they bow down.

My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens. I called; they stood up together.

For He comes up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor majesty that we should see Him, nor an appearance that we should desire Him.

for you shall break out on the right hand and on the left. And your seed shall inherit the nations, and people will inhabit ruined cities.

then you shall delight yourself in Jehovah; and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed yourself with the inheritance of Jacob your father. For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.

And justice is driven back, and justice stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the street, and right cannot enter.

Jehovah has sworn by His right hand, and by the arm of His strength, Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and the sons of strangers will not drink your wine for which you have labored.

Why is Your clothing red, and Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

who led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name?