Therefore, as flames of fire devour straw, as dry grass collapses in flames, so their root will be rotten, and their blossom will blow away like dust, because they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

So the LORD told Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool that proceeds along the highway to Launderer's Field.

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.

The nursing child will play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on vipers' dens.

"The afterlife below is all astir to meet you when you arrive; it rouses up the spirits of the dead to greet you everyone who used to be world leaders. It has raised up from their thrones all who used to be kings of the nations.

A message about Damascus: "Look! Damascus will cease to be a city. Instead, it will become a pile of ruins.

At that time, you looked at the arsenal of the Palace of the Forest, and saw that there were many breaches in the City of David. So you stored up water from the Lower Pool,

and built a reservoir between the walls to store water from the Old Pool. But you did not look at the One who did it, nor did you see the One who planned it long ago.

rolling you up tightly like a ball and throwing you into a large country. There you will die, and there your splendid chariots will lie. You're a disgrace to your master's house!

Does he who plows for sowing plow all the time? Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing his field?

"Therefore, this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: "No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will his face grow pale.

Moreover, the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the sun's light will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

the burning sands will become a pool, and the thirsty ground fountains of water. In the haunts of jackals there will be a verdant resting place with reeds and rushes."

Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander, along with a very large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the field commander stopped at the aqueduct at the Upper Pool on the road to Laundryman's Field,

The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on strings all the days of our lives in the LORD's Temple.

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

"Who has measured the waters of the sea in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens by the width of his hand? Who has enclosed the dust of the earth in a measuring bowl, or weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

You'll winnow them, and the wind will lift them up, and a tempest will blow them away. Then you'll rejoice in the LORD, and you'll make your boast in the Holy One of Israel."

I'll open up rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I'll turn the desert into a pool of water, and the parched land into springs of water.

"Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low. Their idols are on beasts, on livestock. Your loads are more burdensome than their reports.

And you'll no longer be called "Deserted,' and your land will no longer be called "Desolate'; but people will call you "Hephzibah,' and your land "Beulah' for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married."

just as fire sets twigs ablaze and the fire causes water to boil to make known your name to your enemies, yes, to your enemies before you, so that the nations might quake at your presence!