But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and a strange language;

to whom he said, "This is the resting place. Give rest to weary;" and "This is the refreshing;" yet they would not hear.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not be put to shame.

For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.

Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?

When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and emmer as its borders?

Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it.

It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn't satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and he has covered your heads (the seers).

All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't, for it is sealed:"

and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't read."

You turn things upside down. Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, "He did not make me;" or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding?"

But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.

He will break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won't be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."

Therefore the LORD will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.

For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.

He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.

There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

For through the voice of the LORD the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod.

Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which the LORD will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.

For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. The LORD's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity.

Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.

As birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it."

"The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor.

The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.

But the noble devises noble things; and he will continue in noble things.

Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.

The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn't regard man.

He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil?

he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure.

Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?

For the LORD is our judge. The LORD is our lawgiver. The LORD is our king. He will save us.

For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.

But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.

He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

Tell those who have a fearful heart, "Be strong. Do not be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God's retribution. He will come and save you.

And a highway will be there, and a way, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.

The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway to the Launderers' Field.

But if you tell me, 'We trust in the LORD our God,' isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar?'"

How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

Thus says the king, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you.

It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD's house.

He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'"

So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to fight against you." When he heard it, he returned and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, 'He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.

By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city,' says the LORD.

It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.

and said, "Remember now, the LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight." Hezekiah wept bitterly.

This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken.

The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.

My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.

The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day. The father shall make known your truth to the children.

Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover."

At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered.

Then he asked, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The LORD's word which you have spoken is good." He said moreover, "For there will be peace and truth in my days."

The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness. Make a level highway in the desert for our God.

You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God."

He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.

Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved.

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;

They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their host by number. He calls them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking.

Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.

Who has raised up one from the east? Whom he called to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow.

He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.

Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last, I am he."

So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good;" and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.

"I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.

Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, 'He is right?' Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words.

"Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.

He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street.

He won't break a bruised reed. And he won't extinguish a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.

He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and for his law the coastlands will hope."

Thus says God the LORD, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.

The LORD will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.

Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as the LORD's servant?

You see many things, but do not observe. His ears are open, but he doesn't listen.

Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.

Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he did not know; and it burned him, but he did not take it to heart."

But now thus says the LORD who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: "Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

"You are my witnesses," says the LORD, "With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.

Yes, since the day was I am he; and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?"

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.

The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.

The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house.

He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it.