"Now hear this, you wanton creature, lounging with no cares, and saying to herself: "I am the one, and there will be none besides me; I won't live as a widow, nor will I see the loss of children.'

"You trusted in your own knowledge. You said, "No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge have misled you. You said in your heart, "I am the one, and there will be none besides me.'

"But disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will not be able to ward off; and devastation will come upon you suddenly, and you won't anticipate it.

"But stand up now with your spells and your many incantations, at which you have labored from your childhood until today,

according to your multiple schemes. Let them stand up now those who conjure the heavens and gaze at the stars, predicting at the new moons and save you from what is about to happen to them.

"See, they are just like stubble; fire burns them up. They could not even save themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals for warming oneself, no fire to sit by.

Because I knew that you are obstinate, and because your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze,

"You have heard now look at them all! How can you not admit them? From now on, I'll make you hear new things, hidden things that you have not known.

They are created now, and not long ago; you didn't hear them before today, so you cannot say, "Yes, I knew them.'

And neither had you heard, nor did you understand, nor did you open your ear long ago. Indeed, I knew that you would act very deceitfully, and they would call you a rebel from birth.

Draw near to me, and listen to this: "From the beginning I haven't spoken in secret; at the time it happened, I was there.' And now the LORD God, and his Spirit, has sent me.

Now if only you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea.

"But there is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

"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

"Can a woman forget her nursing child, or have no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these mothers may forget; But as for me, I'll never forget you!

Indeed, your ruins, your desolate places, and your devastated land will now be too crowded for your inhabitants, while those who swallowed you up will be far away.

"Oh, yes! Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens will be your nursing mothers. They will bow to you with their faces to the ground, and lick the dust from your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.

"I'll make those who mistreat you eat their own flesh, and they will get drunk on their own blood, as with new wine. "Then all mankind will know that I am the LORD your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

Why is it that when I came, no one was there? Why was there no answer when I called? Was my arm too short to redeem you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? Look! By my mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert. Their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

"The Lord GOD has given me a learned tongue, so that I may know how to sustain the weary with words. And morning after morning he wakens, and he wakens my ear to listen like those who are being taught.

For the Lord GOD helps me, so I won't be disgraced. Therefore I've made my face like flint, and I know that I won't be put to shame."

Who among you fears the LORD, obeying the voice of his servant, who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and rely upon his God.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people who have my instruction in their hearts. Don't fear the insults of mortals, and don't be dismayed at their hateful words.

As a result, you have forgotten the LORD who made you, who stretched out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations, and you live in constant fear every day because of the oppressor's fury, since he's ready to destroy. Now where is the oppressor's fury?

There is no one to guide you out of all the children she bore, no one to take her by the hand out of all the children she brought up.

Now listen to this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine:

"Now therefore, what am I doing here," asks the LORD, "seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Those who rule over them are deluded," says the LORD, "and continuously, all the day long, my name is blasphemed.

Therefore my people will know my name; in that day they'll know that it is I who speaks, "Here I am!'

"Depart! Depart! Go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.

For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of a dry ground; he had no form and he had no majesty that we should look at him, and there is no attractiveness that we should desire him.

Then they made his grave with the wicked, and with rich people in his death, although he had committed no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth."

"Don't be afraid, because you won't be ashamed; don't fear shame, for you won't be humiliated because you will forget the disgrace of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.

"For this is like the waters of Noah to me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again spread over the earth; so have I sworn that I won't be angry with you again and that I won't rebuke you.

no weapon that is forged against you will be effective. This is the heritage of the LORD's servants, and their righteousness from me," says the LORD.

"Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters! Also, you that have no money, come, buy, and eat! Come! Buy wine and milk without money and without price.

"Look! You will call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that does not know you will run to you, because of the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you."

"Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say: "The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.' Furthermore, let no eunuch say, "Look! I am just a dry tree.'"

"Also the righteous are perishing, but no one takes it to heart; devout people are taken away, while no one understands that the righteous person is taken away from calamity.

You grew tired with your many wanderings, but you wouldn't say: "It is hopeless.' You found new strength for your desire, and so you did not falter.

"Yet there is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."

They seek me day after day, and are eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practices righteousness and has not forsaken the justice of their God. "They ask me to reveal just decisions; they are eager to draw near to God.

"Why have we fasted,' they ask, "but you do not see? "Why have we humbled ourselves,' they ask, "but you take no notice?'" "Look! On your fast day you serve your own interest and oppress all your workers.

No one brings a lawsuit fairly, and no one goes to law honestly; they have relied on empty arguments and they tell lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity.

The pathway of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their courses. They have made their roads crooked; no one who walks in them will know peace."

Let's grope along the wall like the blind; let us grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at midday as if it were twilight, in desolate places like dead people.

Truth is missing, and whoever turns away from evil becomes a prey." "Then the LORD looked, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

He saw that there was no one, and was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm brought him victory, and his righteous acts upheld him.

"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "And my Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, won't depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children's children, from now on and forever."

"Although you have been forsaken and despised, with no one traveling through, I will make you the everlasting pride, the joy of all generations.

Then violence will no longer be heard in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders; but you'll call your walls "Salvation', and your gates "Praise'.

"The sun will no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness will the moon shine on you by night for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

The nations will see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and people will call you by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.

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."

"Upon your walls, Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; all day and all night they won't remain silent. You who make mention of the LORD, take no rest,

and give him no rest until he prepares, establishes and makes Jerusalem a song of praise throughout the earth.

"The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: "I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies; never again will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have toiled;

"I have trodden the winepress alone, and from my people no one was with me, I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and I stained all my clothing.

I looked, but there was no helper, I was appalled that there was no one to give support; so my own arm brought me victory, and as for my wrath, it supported me.

But you are our Father, even Abraham does not know us and Israel has not acknowledged us; you are he, O LORD, our Father, from long ago, "Our Redeemer' is your name.

Your holy people took possession for a little while, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.

Since ancient times no one has heard, and no ear has perceived, and no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

There is no one who calls on your name or rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have given us into the control of our iniquity.

Don't be angry beyond measure, LORD, and don't remember our iniquity for a season. Please look now, we are all your people.

This is what the LORD says: "Just as new wine is found in the cluster, and people have said, "Don't destroy it, for there is a gift in it,' so I'll act for my servants' sake, by not destroying them all.

I'll consign you to the sword, and all of you will bend down for the slaughter because when I called, you didn't answer, when I spoke, you didn't listen; but you did what was evil in my sight, and chose what I took no pleasure in."

Take notice! I'm about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things won't be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

I'll rejoice over Jerusalem, and take delight in my people; no longer will the sound of weeping be heard in it, nor the cry of distress.

"And there will no longer be in it a young boy who lives only a few days, or an old person who does not live out his days; for one who dies at a hundred years will be thought a mere youth, and one who falls short of a hundred years will be considered accursed.

Therefore I, too, will choose harsh treatment for them, and will bring upon them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they didn't listen; but they did what I consider to be evil, and chose what doesn't please me."

Who has ever heard of such a thing? And who ever sees such things? Can a country be born in a single day, or can a nation be brought forth in a single moment? Yet no sooner was Zion in labor than she delivered her children.

"But as for me, I know their actions and their thoughts. Come and gather all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.

"For as the new heavens and the new earth that I am about to make will endure before me," says the LORD, "so will your descendants and your name endure.

And from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all humanity will come to worship before me," says the LORD.

"I knew you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart for me before you were born; I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations."

I replied, "Ah, LORD God! Look, I don't know how to speak, because I'm only a young man."

"They didn't ask, "Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through the land of desert and pits, through the land of dryness and deep darkness, a land that people don't pass through, and where no one lives?'

"The priests didn't say, "Where is the LORD?' and those handling the Law didn't know me. The rulers transgressed against me, the prophets prophesied by Baal, and they followed that which does not profit.

Now, what are you doing on the road to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? And what are you doing on the road to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

Your wickedness will be punished, and you will be corrected due to your acts of apostasy. Know and see that it's evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God, but the fear of me is not in you," declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

"How can you say, "I'm not defiled. I haven't gone after the Baals.'? Look at what you've done in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift young camel galloping aimlessly;

"I've punished your children with no results, they have accepted no discipline. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion."

"When a man divorces his wife, she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, will the first husband return to her again? The land would be deeply polluted, would it not? Since you have committed fornication with many lovers, would you now return to me?" declares the LORD.

This is why the rain has been withheld and there are no spring showers. Yet you have a harlot's look and you refuse to be ashamed.

"And in those days when you increase in numbers and multiply in the land," declares the LORD, "people will no longer say, "The Ark of the Covenant of the LORD,' and it won't come to mind, and they won't remember it or miss it, nor will it be made again.

At that time people will call Jerusalem, "The Throne of the LORD," and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. They'll no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskin of your heart, you men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to put it out, because of your evil deeds."

A wind too strong for that is coming at my bidding. Now I'm judging them as I speak."

"For my people are foolish, they don't know me. They're stupid children, they have no understanding. They're skilled at doing evil, but how to do good, they don't know."

I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void, at the heavens, and there was no light there.

I looked, and no people were there. All the birds of the sky had gone.

At the sound of the horseman and the archer the entire city flees. Its residents go into the thickets and climb among the rocks. Every city is abandoned, and no one lives in them.

Then I said, "These are only the poor, they're foolish, for they don't know the LORD's way, the requirement of their God.

Let me go to the leaders and speak to them. For they know the LORD's way, the requirement of their God." "But they, all together, have broken the yoke and torn off the restraints.

People of Israel, I'm now bringing a nation from far away to attack you," declares the LORD. "It is an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know. And you won't understand what they say.

and have grown fat and sleek. There is no limit to their evil deeds. They don't argue the case of the orphan to secure justice. They don't defend the rights of the poor.

They treated my people's wound superficially, telling them, "Peace, peace,' but there is no peace.

Were they ashamed because they did what was repugnant to God? They were not ashamed at all they don't even know how to blush! Therefore they'll fall with those who fall. When I punish them, they'll be brought down," says the LORD.

Therefore, hear, nations, and know, congregation, what will happen to them.

They grab bow and spear; they're cruel and show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea as they ride on horses, deployed like men ready for battle against you, daughter of Zion."

"I've made you an assayer of my people, as well as a fortress. You know how to test their way."