"Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? Your whole head is sick, and your whole heart is faint.

"Your country lies desolate; your cities have been incinerated. Before your very eyes, foreigners are devouring your land they've brought devastation on it, while the land is overthrown by foreigners.

"The daughter of Zion is left abandoned, like a booth in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, or like a city under siege.

If the Lord of the Heavenly Armies hadn't left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom; we would be like Gomorrah.

"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.

Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly.

As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden.

"Wash yourselves, and make yourselves clean; remove your evil behavior from my presence; stop practicing what is evil.

Learn to practice what is good; seek justice, alleviate oppression, defend orphans in court, and plead the widow's case.

Your silver has become dross, your best wine is diluted with water.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies, the one who is Israel's Mighty One, declares: "Now I'll get relief from his enemies and avenge myself on his foes.

When I turn my attention to you, I'll refine your dross as in a furnace. I'll remove all your alloy.

Let me restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you'll be called "The Righteous City' and "The Faithful City of Zion'.

You'll be like an oak whose leaf is withering, like an unwatered garden.

The message that Amoz's son Isaiah received concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

"It will come about in the last days that the mountain that is the LORD's Temple will be established as the highest of mountains, and will be raised above the hills; all the nations will stream to it.

Many groups of people will come, commenting, "Come! Let's go up to the Temple of the God of Jacob, that they may teach us his ways. Then let's walk in his paths." "Instruction will proceed from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.

Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.

"So mankind is humbled, each human being is brought low, and you won't forgive."

At that time, mankind will throw their silver and gold idols that their fingers have made as objects of worship to the moles and to the bats.

"Stop trusting in human beings, whose life breath is in their nostrils, for what are they really worth?"

"Note this! The Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies is taking away from Jerusalem and Judah everything that your society needs all food supplies and all water supplies,

"How terrible it will be for the wicked! Disaster is headed their way, because what they did with their hand will be repaid to them.

"As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, your leaders are misleading you they're giving you confusing directions."

The LORD is taking his place to argue his case; he's standing up to judge the people.

The LORD will go to court to oppose the elders and princes of his people: "You're the ones who have been devouring the vineyard, the plunder of the poor is in your own houses!

How dare you crush my people as you grind down the face of the poor?" declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

The LORD also says: "Because Zion's women are so haughty, and walk with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, prancing along as they walk, and making tinkling noises with their ankle bracelets,

"At that time, seven women will cling tightly to one man and will make him this offer: "We'll provide our own bread. We'll provide our own clothes. Just let us marry you so we won't be stigmatized anymore.'"

and also to serve as a refuge and shelter from storms and rain."

For the vineyard of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden in which he delights. He looked for justice, but saw only bloodshed; he searched for righteousness, but heard only an outcry!

"How terrible it will be for you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you have settled yourselves alone in the middle of the land!"

"How terrible it will be for those who rise at dawn in order to grab a stiff drink, for those who stay up late at night as wine inflames them!

They have the lyre and harp, the tambourine and flute, as well as wine at their festivals, but they don't respect what the LORD is doing, nor do they consider his actions.

Therefore my people go into exile because they lack understanding; my honored men go hungry, and the crowd is parched with thirst.

Therefore Sheol's appetite has grown; it has opened its mouth beyond limit. Jerusalem's nobility and her multitudes will go there, along with her brawlers and whoever is reveling within her.

Humanity is brought low, and each one is humbled, while the eyes of the self-exalting are brought low.

But the LORD of the Heavenly Armies is exalted in justice, and the Holy God proves himself to be righteously holy.

"How terrible it will be for those who parade iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin along as with a cart rope;

"How terrible it will be for those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute what is bitter for what is sweet and what is sweet for what is bitter!"

"How terrible it will be for those who are wise in their own opinion, and clever in their own reckoning!

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.

No one is weary, no one stumbles, and no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt around their waists will come undone, nor will their sandal straps be broken.

They will roar over it at that time, like the sea waves roar. If one surveys the land, watch out! There's darkness and distress; even the daylight is darkened by its clouds.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, high and exalted. The train of his robe filled the Temple.

They kept on calling to each other: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!"

He touched my mouth and said, "Look! Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sins atoned for."

Then I heard the voice of the LORD as he was asking, "Whom will I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am!" I replied. "Send me."

During the reign of Jotham's son Ahaz, Uzziah's grandson, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Remaliah's son Pekah, king of Israel, approached Jerusalem and waged war against it, but they could not mount an attack against it.

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.

Tell him, "Be careful, be calm, don't be afraid, and don't lose heart because of these two smoldering stumps of torches, that is, because of the fierce anger of Rezin, from Aram, and Remaliah's son.

"Let's go attack Judah, let's terrorize it, and let's conquer it for ourselves. Then we'll install Tabeel's son as king!"'

"But this is what the Lord GOD has to say: ""It won't take place. It won't ever happen.

Because Aram's head is Damascus, and Rezin is its king, within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered as a people.

Furthermore, Ephraim's head is Samaria, and Remaliah's son is its king. If all of you don't keep on believing, you'll never remain loyal.'"

"Ask a sign from the LORD your God. Make it as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven above."

In reply, the LORD announced, "Please listen, you household of David. Is it such a minor thing for you to try the patience of men? Must you also try the patience of my God?

"Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign. Watch! The virgin is conceiving a child, and will give birth to a son, and his name will be called Immanuel.

However, before the youth knows enough to reject what's wrong and choose what's right, the land whose two kings you dread will be devastated."

"The LORD will bring to you, to your people, and to your ancestor's house such a time as has never been since Ephraim broke away from Judah the king of Assyria will come.

At that time, the LORD will hire a barber to come from beyond the Euphrates River that is, the king of Assyria and he will shave your heads, your leg hair, and your beards, too.

As for all the hills that used to be cultivated with a hoe, you won't go there, because you'll fear iron briars and thorns. Nevertheless, those hills will be reserved as a pasture where cattle will feed and where sheep will graze."

Then I will call Uriah the priest and Jeberechiah's son Zechariah as reliable witnesses to testify on my behalf."

watch out! The LORD God is about to bring the flood waters of the Euphrates River against them, mighty and strong.

"It's the king of Assyria and all of his arrogance! He will rise over all of the river's channels and run over all of its banks. He will sweep on into Judah, overflowing as he passes through, like flood waters reaching up to a person's neck. His outstretched wings will flow as wide as your land, O Immanuel!"

Take counsel together, but it will all be for nothing; go ahead and talk, but it will all be for nothing, for God is with us."

For this is what the LORD spoke to me, as his forceful hand was resting on me, and as he was warning me not to live the way this people were living:

The LORD of the Heavenly Armies he's the one you are to regard as holy. Let him be the one whom you fear, and let him be the one before whom you stand in terror!

I'll wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I'll put my trust in him.

You have increased the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice in your presence as they rejoice at the harvest, as they are glad when they're dividing the spoils of war.

Now as to the yoke that has been his burden, and the bar laid on his shoulder the rod of his oppressor you have broken it as on the day of Midian.

For every boot of the tramping soldier in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be used for burning as fuel for a fire.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west and they devour Israel with open mouths! "Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike."

the elder and the dignitary is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.

Therefore the Lord does not have pity on their young men, and has no compassion on their orphans and widows, because each of them was godless and an evildoer, and every mouth spoke folly. "Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike.

Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. "Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike."

so you won't have to crouch among those in chains or fall among the slain? "Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike."

"How terrible it will be for Assyria, the rod of my anger! The club is in their hands!

But this is not what he intends, and this is not what he thinks in his mind; but it is in his mind to destroy, and to cut down many nations.

"Because this is what he is saying: "My commanders are all kings, are they not?

As my hand has reached to the idolatrous kingdoms whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

will I not deal with Jerusalem and her idols as I have dealt with Samaria and her images?'"

My hand has found, as if in a nest, the wealth of the people; and as one gathers eggs that have been abandoned, so I have gathered all the inhabitants of the earth. Nothing moved a wing, opened its mouth, or chirped.'

"Does the ax exalt itself over the one who swings it? Or does the saw magnify itself in opposition to the one who wields it? As if a rod were to wield those who lift it, or as if a club were to brandish the one who is not wood!

The splendor of its forest and its fruitful land the LORD will destroy both soul and body and Assyria will be as when a dying man wastes away.

For even if your people of Israel number as many as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Overwhelming, righteous destruction is decreed,

because the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies will bring about destruction, as has been decreed, throughout the entire region.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies says: "My people, you who live in Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrians, of the rod that beats you, who lift up their club against you as the Egyptians did.

The LORD of the Heavenly Armies will brandish a whip against them, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; and as his staff was stretched out over the sea, so he will lift it up as he did in Egypt.

He has crossed over by the pass; his overnight lodging is at Geba. Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Marmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim take cover.

This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fists at the mountain that is the Daughter of Zion, at Jerusalem's hill.

They will neither harm nor destroy on my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."

At that time, as to the root of Jesse, who will be standing as a banner for the nations, the nations will rally to him, and his resting place is glorious.

At that time, the LORD will reach out his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

And there will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people out of Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

"Look! God yes God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid. For the LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation."

"Give thanks to the LORD; call on his name. Make known his actions among the nations. Proclaim that his name is exalted.