"How the faithful city has become a whore, she who used to be filled with justice! Righteousness used to reside within her, but now only murderers live there.

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

Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. All of them are lovers of bribes and are runners after gifts. They don't bring justice to orphans, and the widow's case never comes up for review in their court."

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'.

Your strong one will be like tinder, and your work a spark; both of them will burn together, with no one to quench the flames that burn them."

For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with practices learned from the East and they are fortune-tellers like the Philistines. They cut deals with foreigners.

"For the LORD of the Heavenly Armies has reserved a time to oppose all who are proud and haughty, and the self-exalting they will be humbled.

"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,

"For a man will grab his brother in his own father's house, and say, "You have a cloak, so you be our leader, and this heap of ruins will be under your rule!'

"But at that time, he'll protest! He'll say, "I won't be your healer. I have neither food nor clothing in my house! You're not going to make me a leader of the people!'

"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 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!

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,

Your men will die violently, while your forces fall in battle

"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.'"

I'll make it a wasteland, and it won't be pruned or cultivated. Instead, briers and thorns will grow up. I'll also issue commands to the clouds, that they drop no rain upon it."

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!

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

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

"How terrible it will be for those who are heroes at drinking wine, and champions in mixing strong drink,

Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against his people, so he stretched out his hands against them and afflicted them. The mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in the middle of the streets. Throughout all of this, his anger has not turned away, and his hands are still stretched out to attack.

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.

Their arrows are sharp, all their bows ready for action. Their horses' hooves seem like flint, and their chariot wheels spin like a whirlwind.

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.

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

Until the LORD removes people far away, and there are many empty places in the middle of the land.

Even though a tenth of its people remain in it, it will once again be burned, like a terebinth or an oak tree, the stump of which, though the tree has been felled, still contains holy seed."

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.

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

"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 call for flies that will come from far away from the headwaters of Egypt's rivers and for bees that are in the land of Assyria.

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.

"At that time, every place where once there were a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briars and thorns will grow.

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."

for before the young lad knows how to call out to his father or mother, the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria."

"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!"

"Band together, you nations, but be shattered! Listen, all you distant countries! Strap on your armor, but be shattered.

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:

"Don't call conspiracy everything that this people calls conspiracy, and don't fear what they fear, or live in terror.

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!

Watch out! I and the children whom the LORD has given me are a sign and a wonder in Israel from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, who resides on Mount Zion."

"So when they advise you, "Ask the mediums your questions, and quiz the spiritists who chirp and mutter,' shouldn't a people instead be consulting their God and not the dead on behalf of those who are living

for instruction and for testimony? Surely they are speaking like this because the truth hasn't dawned on them.

"They'll pass through the land, while greatly distressed and hungry. When they are hungry, they'll become enraged, and they'll curse their king and their god. They'll turn their faces upwards,

or they'll look toward the earth, but they'll see only distress and darkness, the gloom that comes from anguish, and then they'll be thrown into total darkness."

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.

and all of the people were evil Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria saying proudly with arrogant hearts:

For those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.

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."

What will you do on the day of Judgment, in the calamity that will come from far away? To whom will you run for help, and where will you leave your wealth,

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."

"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,

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!

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,

At that time, his burden will depart from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck. Indeed, the yoke will be broken, because you've become obese."

Ephraim's jealousy will vanish, and those who are hostile to Judah will be eliminated; Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not be hostile to Ephraim.

At that time, you will say: "I will praise you, LORD, for although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away, and you have comforted me.

Shout aloud, and sing for joy, you who live in Zion, because great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel."

They will be like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with no one to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.

It will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Bedouin will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

Many nations will take them and bring them to their land and their own place. The house of Israel will put those nations to conscripted labor in the LORD's land. They will take captive those who were their captors, and will rule continually over those who oppressed them.

At the time, when the LORD gives you rest from your suffering, turmoil, and the cruel bondage which they forced you to serve,

In answer, all of them will tell you, "You've also become as weak as we are! You have become just like us!'

Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the noise of your harps. Maggots are spread out beneath you, and worms are your covering."

You said in your heart, "I'll ascend to heaven, above the stars of God. I'll erect my throne; I'll sit on the Mount of Assembly in the far reaches of the north;

But you are brought down to join the dead, to the far reaches of the Pit.

But you are cast away from your grave, like a repulsive branch, your clothing is the slain, those pierced by the sword; those who go down to the Pit. Like a dead body trampled underfoot,

you will not be united with them in burial, for you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. People will never mention the descendants of those who practice evil again!

Prepare a massacre for his sons because of the guilt of their forefathers! They are not to rise and inherit the earth, and cover the surface of the world with cities."

to crush the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will turn away from you, and his burden from your shoulders."

In the year that King Ahaz died this message came:

The firstborn of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety; but I'll kill your root by famine, and I'll execute your survivors.

A message concerning Moab: "For Ir in Moab is destroyed in a night, and Moab is ruined! Because Ir in Moab is destroyed in a single night, Moab is ruined!

In its streets they wear sackcloth; on its rooftops and in its squares everyone wails and falls down weeping.

Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the loins of Moab cry aloud; its heart quakes for itself.

The Nimrim waters are desolate; the grass is withered, its vegetation gone; there is no foliage left.

The Dibon streams are full of blood; but I will bring upon Dibon even more a lion will pounce upon those of Moab who escape, upon those who remain in the land."

Like fluttering birds, like an abandoned nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon River.

"Give us advice; reach a decision! Cast your shadow as if night had come at high noon. Shelter the fugitives, And don't betray a single refugee.

"Therefore I weep with the tears of Jazer for the vines of Sibmah. I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh for the shouts of joy over your summer fruit and your grain harvest have ended.

Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards, in the vineyards people will sing no songs, and no cheers are raised. No vintner treads out wine in the presses, because I've put an end to the shouting.

it will be as if harvesters gather standing grain, reaping the ears by hand, or it will be as if grain is harvested in the valley of Rephaim.

Nevertheless, gleanings will remain in Israel, as when an olive tree is beaten two or three ripe olives left in the topmost branches, four or five left among the branches of a fruit-filled tree," declares the LORD God of Israel.

They will not look upon the altars, the products that their own fingers have made, and they will have no regard for Asherah poles or incense altars.

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock that is your strength. Therefore even though you plant delightful plants, sowing them with imported vine-seedlings,

at the time that you plant them, carefully making them grow, the very morning you make your seed to sprout, your harvest will be ruined in a time of grief and unbearable pain."

The nations roar like the rushing of many waters, but the LORD will rebuke them, and they will run far away, chased like chaff blown down from the mountains or like thick dust that rolls along, blown along by a wind storm.

Zoan's princes are nothing but fools; the wisest advisors of Pharaoh give stupid advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I'm a descendant of wise men, a descendant of ancient kings"?

Where are your wise men now? Let them tell you, let them make known what the LORD has planned against Egypt.

As a result, there will be nothing for Egypt that head or tail, palm branch or reed, can do.

In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod, attacked it, and captured it

at that time the LORD spoke through Amoz's son Isaiah: "Go loosen the sackcloth that's around your waist, and take your sandals off your feet." So that's what he did: he went around naked and barefoot.

When he sees chariots, each man with a pair of horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him pay attention, full attention."

And there will be few archers, those who are descendants of Kedar, who survive, because the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken."