“And I will turn My hand against you,
And will [thoroughly] purge away your dross as with lye
And remove all your tin (impurity).

When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying,
“You have a robe, you shall be our judge and ruler,
And this pile of ruins will be under your control,”

Therefore the Lord will afflict the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion with scabs [making them bald],
And the Lord will expose their foreheads (send them into captivity).”

In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, [braided] caps, crescent [head] ornaments,

And in that day seven women will take hold of one man, saying, “We will eat our own food and wear [and provide] our own clothes; only let us be called by your name; take away our shame [of being unmarried].”

“So now let me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will take away its thorn-hedge, and it will be burned up;
I will break down its stone wall and it will be trampled down [by enemies].

Who justify the wicked and acquit the guilty for a bribe,
And take away the rights of those who are in the right!

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

He touched my mouth with it and said, “Listen carefully, this has touched your lips; your wickedness [your sin, your injustice, your wrongdoing] is taken away and your sin atoned for and forgiven.”

and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, do not fear and be weak-hearted because of these two stumps of smoldering logs, on account of the fierce anger of [King] Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah (Pekah, usurper of the throne of Israel).

Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet [for public display] and write on it in ordinary characters: Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

“Take counsel together [against Judah], but it will come to nothing;
Speak the word, but it will not stand,
For God is with us (Immanuel).”

“Many [among them] will stumble over them;
Then they will fall and be broken,
They will even be snared and trapped.”

Listen carefully, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders [that will occur] in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

I send Assyria against a godless nation
And commission it against the people of My wrath
To take the spoil and to seize the plunder,
And to trample them down like mud in the streets.

They [of Babylon] will be shocked and terrified,
Pains and anguish will grip them;
They will be in pain like a woman in childbirth.
They will stare aghast and horrified at one another,
Their faces aflame [from the effects of the unprecedented warfare].

The peoples will take them along and bring them to their own place (Judea), and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the Lord as male and female servants; and they will take captive those whose captives they have been, and they will rule over their [former] oppressors.

that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

“How the oppressor has ceased [his insolence],
And how the fury has ceased!

Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;
In the vineyards there will be no singing or joyful sound;
No treader treads out wine in the presses,
For I (God) put an end to the joyful shouting.

at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, untie the sackcloth from your hips and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking around stripped [to his loincloth] and barefoot.

My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been turned into fear and trembling for me.

They set the table [for the doomed banquet], they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink;
“Rise up, captains [of Belshazzar’s court], oil your shields [for battle, for your enemy is at the gates]!”

All your leaders have fled together [with your king],
And have been captured without the bow [which they had thrown away];
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
Though they had fled far away.

Elam took up the quiver
With the chariots, infantry and horsemen;
And Kir uncovered the shield.

‘Listen carefully, the Lord is about to hurl you away violently, O man;
And He is about to grasp you firmly

Take a harp, walk around the city,
O forgotten prostitute;
Play the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.

He will swallow up death [and abolish it] for all time.
And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
And He will take away the disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.

“Or let him (Israel) cling to My strength and rely on My protection [My stronghold],
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him make peace with Me.”

In the generations to come Jacob will take root;
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the surface of the world with fruit.

They say “To whom would He teach knowledge?
And to whom would He explain the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?

Therefore the word of the Lord to them will be [merely monotonous repetitions]:
“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
Rule upon rule, rule upon rule,
Here a little, there a little.”
That they may go and stumble backward, and be broken, ensnared, and taken captive.

Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol (the place of the dead) we have made an agreement,
When the overwhelming scourge passes by, it will not reach us,
For we have made lies our refuge and we have concealed ourselves in deception.”

“As often as it passes through, it will seize you;
For morning after morning it will pass through, by day and by night,
And it will be sheer terror to understand what it means.”

Stop and take some time and wonder [at this prophecy],
Blind yourselves and be blinded [at its fulfillment by your spiritual incompetence].
They are drunk, but not from wine;
They stagger, but not from strong drink.

“Woe (judgment is coming) to the rebellious children,” declares the Lord,
“Who carry out a plan, but not Mine,
And make an alliance [by pouring out a libation], but not of My Spirit,
In order to add sin to sin;

Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts and observances;
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a undisturbed settlement,
A tent which will not be taken down;
Not one of its stakes will ever be pulled up,
Nor any of its ropes be severed.

Your ship’s ropes (tackle) hang loose;
They cannot hold the base of their mast firmly,
Nor spread out the sail.
Then an abundance of spoil and plunder will be divided;
Even the lame will take the plunder.

But if you say to me, ‘We trust in and rely on the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?

until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

“Like a swallow, like a crane, so I chirp;
I coo like a dove.
My eyes look wistfully upward;
O Lord, I am oppressed, take my side and be my security.

Now Isaiah had said, “Have them take a cake of figs and rub it [as an ointment] on the inflamed spot, that he may recover.”

‘And some of your own sons (descendants) who will come from you, whom you will father, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

With whom did He consult and who enlightened Him?
Who taught Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And informed Him of the way of understanding?

In fact, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
Now look, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

Scarcely have they been planted,
Scarcely have they been sown,
Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,
But He merely blows on them, and they wither,
And a strong wind carries them away like stubble.

You whom I [the Lord] have taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its remotest parts
And said to you, ‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and have not rejected you [even though you are exiled].

“I am the Lord, I have called You (the Messiah) in righteousness [for a righteous purpose],
I will also take You by the hand and keep watch over You,
And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people [Israel],
As a light to the nations (Gentiles),

He cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak and lets it grow strong for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain nourishes it.

Then it becomes fuel for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also kindles a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god [from the same wood] and worships it. He makes it into a carved idol [with his own hands] and falls down and worships it!

“Declare and present your defense of idols;
Indeed, let them consult together.
Who announced this [rise of Cyrus and his conquests] long before it happened?
Who declared it long ago?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no other God besides Me,
A [consistently and uncompromisingly] just and righteous God and a Savior;
There is none except Me.

“Take millstones [as a female slave does] and grind meal;
Remove your veil, strip off the skirt,
Uncover the leg, cross the rivers [at the command of your captors].

“Your nakedness will be uncovered,
Your shame will also be exposed;
I will take vengeance and will spare no man.”

“Can the spoils of war be taken from the mighty man,
Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

Indeed, this is what the Lord says,

“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,
And the tyrant’s spoils of war will be rescued;
For I will contend with your opponent,
And I will save your children.

There is no one to guide her among all the sons she has borne,
Nor is there anyone to take her by the hand among all the sons she has reared.

So says your Lord, the Lord, who is also your God
Who pleads the cause of His people,
“Listen carefully, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering and intoxication,
The cup of My wrath;
You shall never drink it again.

But now, what do I have here,” declares the Lord, “seeing that My people have been taken away without reason? Those who rule over them howl [with taunting and mockery of salvation],” declares the Lord, “and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.

After oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation [His contemporaries], who [among them] concerned himself with the fact
That He was cut off from the land of the living [by His death]
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke [of death] was due?

The righteous man perishes [at the hand of evil], and no one takes it to heart;
Faithful and devout men are taken away, while no one understands
That the righteous person is taken away [to be spared] from disaster and evil.

“Of whom do you make fun?
Against whom do you open wide your mouth
And stick out your tongue?
Are you not children of rebellion (sin),
Offspring of deceit,

“When you cry out [for help], let your [ridiculous] collection of idols save you.
But the wind will carry them all away,
A [mere] breath will take them.
But he who takes refuge in Me will possess the land [Judea]
And will inherit My holy mountain.”

And it will be said,
“Build up, build up, clear the way.
Remove the stumbling block out of the way [of the spiritual return] of My people.”

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You do not see it?
Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’
Hear this [O Israel], on the day of your fast [when you should be grieving for your sins] you find something you desire [to do],
And you force your hired servants to work [instead of stopping all work, as the law teaches].

“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
You will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away from your midst the yoke [of oppression],
The finger pointed in scorn [toward the oppressed or the godly], and [every form of] wicked (sinful, unjust) speech,

No one sues righteously [but for the sake of doing injury to others—to take some undue advantage], and no one pleads [his case] in truth; [but rather]
They trust in empty arguments and speak lies;
They conceive trouble and bring forth injustice.

For we all have become like one who is [ceremonially] unclean [like a leper],
And all our deeds of righteousness are like filthy rags;
We all wither and decay like a leaf,
And our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing], like the wind, takes us away [carrying us far from God’s favor, toward destruction].

There is no one who calls on Your name,
Who awakens and causes himself to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us
And have handed us over to the [consuming and destructive] power of our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing].

“Because he who blesses himself on the earth
Will bless himself by the God of truth and faithfulness;
And he who swears [an oath] on the earth
Will swear by the God of truth and faithfulness;
Because the former troubles are forgotten,
And because they are hidden from My sight.

I will also take some of them as priests and Levites,” says the Lord.