"Now I will rise up," says the Lord. "Now I will exalt myself; now I will magnify myself.

The nations will be burned to ashes; like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.

This is the person who will live in a secure place; he will find safety in the rocky, mountain strongholds; he will have food and a constant supply of water.

You will see a king in his splendor; you will see a wide land.

Your mind will recall the terror you experienced, and you will ask yourselves, "Where is the scribe? Where is the one who weighs the money? Where is the one who counts the towers?"

You will no longer see a defiant people whose language you do not comprehend, whose derisive speech you do not understand.

Look at Zion, the city where we hold religious festivals! You will see Jerusalem, a peaceful settlement, a tent that stays put; its stakes will never be pulled up; none of its ropes will snap in two.

Instead the Lord will rule there as our mighty king. Rivers and wide streams will flow through it; no war galley will enter; no large ships will sail through.

For the Lord, our ruler, the Lord, our commander, the Lord, our king -- he will deliver us.

Though at this time your ropes are slack, the mast is not secured, and the sail is not unfurled, at that time you will divide up a great quantity of loot; even the lame will drag off plunder.

No resident of Zion will say, "I am ill"; the people who live there will have their sin forgiven.

For the Lord is angry at all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will annihilate them and slaughter them.

Their slain will be left unburied, their corpses will stink; the hills will soak up their blood.

All the stars in the sky will fade away, the sky will roll up like a scroll; all its stars will wither, like a leaf withers and falls from a vine or a fig withers and falls from a tree.

He says, "Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. Look, it now descends on Edom, on the people I will annihilate in judgment."

Wild oxen will be slaughtered along with them, as well as strong bulls. Their land is drenched with blood, their soil is covered with fat.

For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion.

Edom's streams will be turned into pitch and her soil into brimstone; her land will become burning pitch.

Night and day it will burn; its smoke will ascend continually. Generation after generation it will be a wasteland and no one will ever pass through it again.

Owls and wild animals will live there, all kinds of wild birds will settle in it. The Lord will stretch out over her the measuring line of ruin and the plumb line of destruction.

Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom and all her officials will disappear.

Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns; thickets and weeds will grow in her fortified cities. Jackals will settle there; ostriches will live there.

Wild animals and wild dogs will congregate there; wild goats will bleat to one another. Yes, nocturnal animals will rest there and make for themselves a nest.

Owls will make nests and lay eggs there; they will hatch them and protect them. Yes, hawks will gather there, each with its mate.

Carefully read the scroll of the Lord! Not one of these creatures will be missing, none will lack a mate. For the Lord has issued the decree, and his own spirit gathers them.

He assigns them their allotment; he measures out their assigned place. They will live there permanently; they will settle in it through successive generations.

Let it richly bloom; let it rejoice and shout with delight! It is given the grandeur of Lebanon, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the grandeur of the Lord, the splendor of our God.

Then blind eyes will open, deaf ears will hear.

Then the lame will leap like a deer, the mute tongue will shout for joy; for water will flow in the desert, streams in the wilderness.

The dry soil will become a pool of water, the parched ground springs of water. Where jackals once lived and sprawled out, grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow.

A thoroughfare will be there -- it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it; it is reserved for those authorized to use it -- fools will not stray into it.

No lions will be there, no ferocious wild animals will be on it -- they will not be found there. Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,

those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. They will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and suffering will disappear.

Perhaps you will tell me, 'We are trusting in the Lord our God.' But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, 'You must worship at this altar.'

Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them.

Certainly you will not refuse one of my master's minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen.

But the chief adviser said, "My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!"

Don't let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord by saying, "The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."

Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, "The Lord will rescue us." Has any of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?

Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. So pray for this remnant that remains.'"

Look, I will take control of his mind; he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land."'"

"Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: 'Don't let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, "Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."

Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. Do you really think you will be rescued?

Certainly you must have heard! Long ago I worked it out, in ancient times I planned it, and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins.

Because you rage against me and the uproar you create has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle between your lips, and I will lead you back the way you came."

"This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: This year you will eat what grows wild, and next year what grows on its own. But the year after that you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce.

Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit.

"For a remnant will leave Jerusalem; survivors will come out of Mount Zion. The intense devotion of the Lord who commands armies will accomplish this.

So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: 'He will not enter this city, nor will he shoot an arrow here. He will not attack it with his shielded warriors, nor will he build siege works against it.

He will go back the way he came -- he will not enter this city,' says the Lord.

I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant."'"

In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, "This is what the Lord says, 'Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.'"

"Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and how I have carried out your will." Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

"Go and tell Hezekiah: 'This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: "I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life,

and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city."'"

Isaiah replied, "This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said:

Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz." And then the shadow went back ten steps.

"I thought, 'I will no longer see the Lord in the land of the living, I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world.

What can I say? He has decreed and acted. I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief.

The Lord is about to deliver me, and we will celebrate with music for the rest of our lives in the Lord's temple."

Isaiah ordered, "Let them take a fig cake and apply it to the ulcerated sore and he will get well."

Hezekiah said, "What is the confirming sign that I will go up to the Lord's temple?"

Look, a time is coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,' says the Lord.

Some of your very own descendants whom you father will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"

Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The Lord's word which you have announced is appropriate." Then he thought, "For there will be peace and stability during my lifetime."

Every valley must be elevated, and every mountain and hill leveled. The rough terrain will become a level plain, the rugged landscape a wide valley.

The splendor of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it at the same time. For the Lord has decreed it."

Not even Lebanon could supply enough firewood for a sacrifice; its wild animals would not provide enough burnt offerings.

To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; he then seeks a skilled craftsman to make an idol that will not fall over.

Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and humiliated; your adversaries will be reduced to nothing and perish.

When you will look for your opponents, you will not find them; your enemies will be reduced to absolutely nothing.

"Look, I am making you like a sharp threshing sledge, new and double-edged. You will thresh the mountains and crush them; you will make the hills like straw.

You will winnow them and the wind will blow them away; the wind will scatter them. You will rejoice in the Lord; you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched from thirst. I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers; I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

I will make streams flow down the slopes and produce springs in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water and the arid land into springs.

I will make cedars, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees grow in the wilderness; I will make evergreens, firs, and cypresses grow together in the desert.

I will do this so people will observe and recognize, so they will pay attention and understand that the Lord's power has accomplished this, and that the Holy One of Israel has brought it into being."

"Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen! Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, so we may examine them and see how they were fulfilled. Or decree for us some future events!

Predict how future events will turn out, so we might know you are gods. Yes, do something good or bad, so we might be frightened and in awe.

I first decreed to Zion, 'Look, here's what will happen!' I sent a herald to Jerusalem.

"Here is my servant whom I support, my chosen one in whom I take pleasure. I have placed my spirit on him; he will make just decrees for the nations.

He will not cry out or shout; he will not publicize himself in the streets.

A crushed reed he will not break, a dim wick he will not extinguish; he will faithfully make just decrees.

He will not grow dim or be crushed before establishing justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait in anticipation for his decrees."

I am the Lord! That is my name! I will not share my glory with anyone else, or the praise due me with idols.

I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; I will dry up all their vegetation. I will turn streams into islands, and dry up pools of water.

I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. I will turn the darkness in front of them into light, and level out the rough ground. This is what I will do for them. I will not abandon them.

Those who trust in idols will turn back and be utterly humiliated, those who say to metal images, 'You are our gods.'"

Who among you will pay attention to this? Who will listen attentively in the future?

Now, this is what the Lord says, the one who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: "Don't be afraid, for I will protect you. I call you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I am with you; when you pass through the streams, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not harm you.

Since you are precious and special in my sight, and I love you, I will hand over people in place of you, nations in place of your life.

Don't be afraid, for I am with you. From the east I will bring your descendants; from the west I will gather you.

I will say to the north, 'Hand them over!' and to the south, 'Don't hold any back!' Bring my sons from distant lands, and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,

You are my witnesses," says the Lord, "my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe in me, and understand that I am he. No god was formed before me, and none will outlive me.

From this day forward I am he; no one can deliver from my power; I will act, and who can prevent it?"

"Look, I am about to do something new. Now it begins to happen! Do you not recognize it? Yes, I will make a road in the desert and paths in the wilderness.

The wild animals of the desert honor me, the jackals and ostriches, because I put water in the desert and streams in the wilderness, to quench the thirst of my chosen people,

For I will pour water on the parched ground and cause streams to flow on the dry land. I will pour my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your children.

They will sprout up like a tree in the grass, like poplars beside channels of water.