"They raise their voices; they shout for joy; from the west they shout aloud over the LORD's majesty.

Therefore, you in the east, give glory to the LORD! You in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the LORD God of Israel!

From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise: "Glory to the Righteous One!' "But I say, "I am pining away, I'm pining away. How terrible things are for me! For treacherous people betray treacherous people are betraying with treachery!'"

The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies so heavy upon it, that it falls, never to rise again.

and the noise of foreigners is like the heat of the desert. Just as you subdue heat by the shade of clouds, so the victory songs of violent men will be stilled.

"And you will say at that time, "Look! It's the LORD! This is our God! We waited for him, and he saved us. This is the LORD! We waited for him, so let us rejoice, and we will be glad that he has saved us."

For the LORD's power will rest on this mountain, but the Moabites will be trodden down beneath him, just as straw is trodden down in the slime of a manure pit.

Open your gates, so the righteous nation that safeguards its faith may enter.

Yes, LORD, in the path of your judgments we wait; your name and your Law are the soul's desire.

My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me searches for you. For when your judgments come upon the earth, the world's inhabitants learn righteousness.

"LORD, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. And let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame yes, let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them!

Just as a pregnant woman writhes and cries out during her labor when she is about to give birth, so were we because of you, LORD.

For see, the LORD is coming from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their sins; the earth will reveal the blood that has been shed on it, and will no longer conceal its slain."

At that time, with his fierce, mighty, and powerful sword, the LORD will punish the gliding serpent Leviathan the coiling serpent Leviathan and he will kill the dragon that's in the sea.

I, the LORD, watch over it And I water it continuously. I guard it night and day so no one can harm it.

By this, then, Jacob's guilt will be atoned for, and this will be the full harvest that comes from the removal of his sin: when he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalkstones, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.

And that fading flower, his glorious beauty, which sits on the heads of people bloated with food, will be like an early fig before summer whenever someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it's in his hand.

to whom he said, "This is the resting place, so give rest to the weary"' and, "This is the place of repose" - but they would not listen.

So, then, the message from the LORD to them will become: "Do this and do that, do this and do that, line upon line, line upon line, a little here, a little there," so that they will go, but fall backward, and be injured, snared, and captured.

Because you said: "We have entered into a covenant with death, and we have an agreement with Sheol, so when the overwhelming scourge makes its choice, it cannot reach us, since we have made lies our refuge and have concealed ourselves inside falsehood,'

"Pay attention! Listen to what I have to say; Pay attention, and hear my speech.

as when a hungry man dreams he eats, but wakes up still hungry; or when a thirsty man dreams he drinks, but wakes up faint, with his thirst unquenched. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.

"And this entire vision has become for you like the words of a sealed book. When people give it to someone who can read, and say, "Read this, please,' he answers, "I cannot, because it is sealed.'

Or when they give the book to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please,' he answers, "I don't know how to read.'"

"How terrible it will be for you who go to great depths to hide your plans from the LORD, you whose deeds have been done in the dark, and who say, "Who can see us? Who has recognized us?'

He has turned the tables on you as if the potter were thought to be like heat. Can what is made say of the one who made it, "He did not make me?' Or can what is formed say of the ones who formed it, "He has no skill?'

On that day the deaf will hear the words of a scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

They set out to go down to Egypt, without asking my advice; taking refuge in Pharaoh's protection, and seeking shelter in Egypt's shadow.

But Pharaoh's protection will become your shame, and sheltering in Egypt's shadow your longing.

"Go now, and write it down on a tablet in their presence, inscribing it in a book, so that for times to come it may be an everlasting witness.

For they are a rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to hear the LORD's instruction.

They say to the seers, "Don't see visions,' and to the prophets, "Don't give us visions of what is right! Instead, tell us welcome things, prophesy illusions,

Its breaking will be like when potters' vessels are broken, shattered so ruthlessly that among its fragments not even a broken sliver will be found for taking fire from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern."

"Nevertheless, the LORD will wait so he can be gracious to you; and thus he will rise up to show you mercy. For the LORD is a God of justice. How blessed are all those who wait for him."

And although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers won't hide themselves anymore, but your own eyes will see your teachers.

Then you will defile your carved idols that are overlaid with silver and your images plated with gold. You'll throw them away like disgusting objects and say to them, "Away with you!"

He will also provide rain for your seed that you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the ground will be rich and abundant. At that time, your cattle will graze in broad meadows,

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.

See, the name of the LORD comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.

You will have songs as on nights when people celebrate a holy festival, and gladness of heart, as when they set out with flutes to go to the LORD's mountain, to the Rock of Israel.

Indeed, the Assyrians will be shattered at the LORD's voice, when he strikes them with his scepter.

"How terrible it will be for those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the chariot, because there are so many, and in charioteers, because they are so strong but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek the LORD!

For this is what the LORD told me: "Just as a lion or a young lion growls over his objects of prey, even when a whole band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not alarmed at their shouting or disturbed by their clamor so the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its hill.

Like birds hovering overhead, so the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will protect Jerusalem; he will shield and deliver it; and he will pass over and bring it to safety.

Turn back to him, yes to him whom your people have so greatly betrayed, you people of Israel.

Then the eyes of those who can see won't turn away, and the ears of those who can hear will listen.

"As for you ladies of leisure Get up and listen to my voice! You daughters who feel so complacent hear what I have to say!

So tremble, you ladies of leisure! Shudder, you daughters who feel so complacent! Strip down and make yourselves naked down to the waist! Then wrap yourself in sackcloth and beat your breasts.

"How terrible it will be for you, destroyer, you who have not been destroyed yourself! And how terrible it will be for you, traitor, one whom people have not betrayed! When you have sunk so low in destroying others, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betraying, they will betray you."

He will be a sure foundation for your times, abundance and salvation, wisdom and knowledge the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure."

"Your eyes will see the king in his elegance, and will view a land that stretches afar.

Your mind will ponder at that time of terror: "Where is the king's accountant? Where is the one who weighed the revenue? Where is the officer who supervises the towers?'

No longer will you see those arrogant people, those people with their obscure speech you cannot comprehend, stammering in a language you cannot understand.

"Look at Zion, city of our festivals! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed abode, an immovable tent; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor will any of its ropes be broken.

And no one living there will say, "I am ill.' The people living there will have their sins forgiven."

The LORD has a sword bathed in blood; it's covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, and with fat from the kidneys of rams." "For the LORD holds a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for Zion's cause.

Edom's streams will be turned into burning sulfur, and its dust into sulfur; its land will become pitch.

it will burst into bloom, and rejoice with gladness and shouts of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.

Say to those with anxious hearts, "Be strong, do not be afraid! Here is your God he will bring vengeance, he will bring divine retribution, and he will save you.'

and the LORD's ransomed ones will return and enter Zion with singing. Everlasting joy will rest upon their heads, gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and mourning will flee away."

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,

Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, went out to him.

"Tell Hezekiah, king of Judah, "This is what the mighty king, the king of Assyria, has to say: What is this "guarantee" that makes you yourself rely on it? Do you really think that guarantees alone can withstand strategy and military strength? On whom are you now depending, that you're rebelling against me?

But if you all say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God" - isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, while he kept on telling Judah and Jerusalem, "You are to worship in front of this altar in Jerusalem'?

How, then, can you repulse even one officer from the least of my master's officials, when you are depending for yourselves on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

One other thing: have I really marched against this country to destroy it apart from the LORD's direction? The LORD himself ordered me, "March against this country to destroy it.'"

But the people remained silent and didn't respond to him with so much as a single word, because the king had commanded, "Don't answer him."

Then Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, approached Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and let him know what the field commander had said.

As soon as Hezekiah the king heard this, he tore his clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and went into the LORD's Temple.

Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all wearing sackcloth, to Amoz's son, the prophet Isaiah.

Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to mock the living God, and perhaps he will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard. So lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives in this city."

That's why King Hezekiah's officials came to Isaiah.

Watch this! I'm going to place an attitude within him, so that when he hears a certain report, he'll return to his own country. Then I'll have him cut down by the sword in his own land."

So the field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, since he had heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish.

When he heard it, he returned and sent messengers to Hezekiah: "Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: "Don't let your God on whom you depend deceive you when he says, "Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."

Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, dooming them to destruction. So do you think you will be saved?

Hezekiah received the letters from the messengers, and read them. Then he went up to the LORD's Temple and spread the letters in front of the LORD.

and have thrown their gods into the fire but they are not gods, but rather the products of human hands, mere wood and stone. So the Assyrians destroyed them.

So now, LORD our God, save us from his oppressive hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God."

Then Amoz's son Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says, to whom you prayed concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.

Your insolence has reached my ears, so I'll put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I'll make you turn back on the road by which you came.

"And this will be your sign, Hezekiah: Eat this year what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

After this, the angel of the LORD went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When Hezekiah's army awakened in the morning there were all the dead bodies!

Later, while he was worshiping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with swords and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then Sennacherib's son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

During that time, Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. Then Amoz's son Isaiah the prophet came to him and told him, "This is what the LORD says: "Put your house in order, because you are going to die. You won't recover.'"

"Go tell Hezekiah, "This is what the LORD God of your ancestor David has to say: "I've heard your prayer and I've seen your tears; so I will add fifteen years to your life.

I'll save you and this city from the king of Assyria, and I'll defend this city, for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.

This is the LORD's sign to you that the LORD will carry out this thing he has promised:

I said, "I won't see the LORD in the land of the living; and I'll no longer observe human beings among the denizens of the grave.

My house has been plucked up and vanishes from me like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver, I've taken account of my life, and he cuts me off from the loom day and night you make an end of me.

Like a swallow or a crane I chirp, I moan like a dove. My eyes look weakly upward. O Lord, I am oppressed, so stand up for me!

What can I say, so I tell myself, since he has done this to me? I will walk slowly all my years because of my soul's anguish.

"My Lord is against them, yet they live, and among all of them who live is his spirit. Now you have restored me to health, so let me live!

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."

Hezekiah also had asked, "What will be the sign for me to go up to the LORD's Temple?"

Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men have to say? And from where did they come to you?" Hezekiah replied, "From a distant land they came to me from Babylon."

"What did they see in your palace?" he asked. "They saw everything in my palace," Hezekiah replied. "There is nothing in my treasuries that I did not show them."

"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her heavy service has been completed, that her penalty has been paid, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins."