But I know your sitting down,
your going out and your coming in,
and your raging against Me.

Because your raging against Me
and your arrogance have reached My ears,
I will put My hook in your nose
and My bit in your mouth;
I will make you go back
the way you came.

“‘This will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

“Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow there
or come before it with a shield
or build up an assault ramp against it.

He will go back
the way he came,
and he will not enter this city.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!

So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.

One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then his son Esar-haddon became king in his place.

In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

He said, “Please, Lord, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly, and have done what pleases You.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on Ahaz’s stairway go back by 10 steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back the 10 steps it had descended.

I said: In the prime of my life
I must go to the gates of Sheol;
I am deprived of the rest of my years.

I said: I will never see the Lord,
the Lord in the land of the living;
I will not look on humanity any longer
with the inhabitants of what is passing away.

My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
like a shepherd’s tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver;
He cuts me off from the loom.
You make an end of me from day until night.

I thought until the morning:
He will break all my bones like a lion;
You make an end of me day and night.

Lord, because of these promises people live,
and in all of them is the life of my spirit as well;
You have restored me to health
and let me live.

Indeed, it was for my own welfare
that I had such great bitterness;
but Your love has delivered me
from the Pit of destruction,
for You have thrown all my sins behind Your back.

Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil—and all his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?”

Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything in my palace. There isn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”

‘The time will certainly come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.

‘Some of your descendants who come from you will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

A voice of one crying out:

Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness;
make a straight highway for our God in the desert.

The grass withers, the flowers fade
when the breath of the Lord blows on them;
indeed, the people are grass.

Zion, herald of good news,
go up on a high mountain.
Jerusalem, herald of good news,
raise your voice loudly.
Raise it, do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”

He protects His flock like a shepherd;
He gathers the lambs in His arms
and carries them in the fold of His garment.
He gently leads those that are nursing.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?
Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure
or weighed the mountains in a balance
and the hills in the scales?

Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are considered as a speck of dust in the scales;
He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

To an idol?—something that a smelter casts,
and a metalworker plates with gold
and makes silver welds for it?

To one who shapes a pedestal,
choosing wood that does not rot?
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not fall over.

God is enthroned above the circle of the earth;
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

They are barely planted, barely sown,
their stem hardly takes root in the ground
when He blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.

“Who will you compare Me to,
or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.

Look up and see:
who created these?
He brings out the starry host by number;
He calls all of them by name.
Because of His great power and strength,
not one of them is missing.

but those who trust in the Lord
will renew their strength;
they will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not faint.

He pursues them, going on safely,
hardly touching the path with his feet.

Each one helps the other,
and says to another, “Take courage!”

The craftsman encourages the metalworker;
the one who flattens with the hammer
supports the one who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good.”
He fastens it with nails so that it will not fall over.

Do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you; I will help you;
I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.

Do not fear, you worm Jacob,
you men of Israel:
I will help you—
this is the Lord’s declaration.
Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

You will winnow them
and a wind will carry them away,
a gale will scatter them.
But you will rejoice in the Lord;
you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

I will open rivers on the barren heights,
and springs in the middle of the plains.
I will turn the desert into a pool of water
and dry land into springs of water.

I will plant cedars in the desert,
acacias, myrtles, and olive trees.
I will put juniper trees in the desert,
elms and cypress trees together,

so that all may see and know,
consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.

“Let them come and tell us
what will happen.
Tell us the past events,
so that we may reflect on them
and know the outcome,
or tell us the future.

Tell us the coming events,
then we will know that you are gods.
Indeed, do something good or bad,
then we will be in awe and perceive.

“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come,
one from the east who invokes My name.
He will march over rulers as if they were mud,
like a potter who treads the clay.

Who told about this from the beginning,
so that we might know,
and from times past,
so that we might say: He is right?
No one announced it,
no one told it,
no one heard your words.

When I look, there is no one;
there is no counselor among them;
when I ask them, they have nothing to say.

“This is My Servant; I strengthen Him,
this is My Chosen One; I delight in Him.
I have put My Spirit on Him;
He will bring justice to the nations.

He will not cry out or shout
or make His voice heard in the streets.

He will not grow weak or be discouraged
until He has established justice on earth.
The islands will wait for His instruction.”

This is what God, Yahweh, says—
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and life to those who walk on it—

in order to open blind eyes,
to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,
and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

Let them give glory to the Lord
and declare His praise in the islands.

“I have kept silent from ages past;
I have been quiet and restrained Myself.
But now, I will groan like a woman in labor,
gasping breathlessly.

I will lead the blind by a way they did not know;
I will guide them on paths they have not known.
I will turn darkness to light in front of them
and rough places into level ground.
This is what I will do for them,
and I will not forsake them.

They will be turned back and utterly ashamed—
those who trust in idols
and say to metal-plated images:
You are our gods!

Who is blind but My servant,
or deaf like My messenger I am sending?
Who is blind like My dedicated one,
or blind like the servant of the Lord?

But this is a people plundered and looted,
all of them trapped in holes
or imprisoned in dungeons.
They have become plunder
with no one to rescue them
and loot, with no one saying, “Give it back!”

Who among you will pay attention to this?
Let him listen and obey in the future.

Who gave Jacob to the robber,
and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord?
Have we not sinned against Him?
They were not willing to walk in His ways,
and they would not listen to His instruction.

So He poured out on Jacob His furious anger
and the power of war.
It surrounded him with fire, but he did not know it;
it burned him, but he paid no attention.

Now this is what the Lord says—
the One who created you, Jacob,
and the One who formed you, Israel—
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name; you are Mine.

I will be with you
when you pass through the waters,
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not overwhelm you.
You will not be scorched
when you walk through the fire,
and the flame will not burn you.

For I Yahweh your God,
the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior,
give Egypt as a ransom for you,
Cush and Seba in your place.

Because you are precious in My sight
and honored, and I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you
and nations instead of your life.

Also, from today on I am He alone,
and none can deliver from My hand.
I act, and who can reverse it?”

This is what the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says:

Because of you, I will send to Babylon
and bring all of them as fugitives,
even the Chaldeans in the ships in which they rejoice.

I am Yahweh, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King.

This is what the Lord says—
who makes a way in the sea,
and a path through surging waters,

who brings out the chariot and horse,
the army and the mighty one together
(they lie down, they do not rise again;
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick)—

Look, I am about to do something new;
even now it is coming. Do you not see it?
Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert.

The animals of the field will honor Me,
jackals and ostriches,
because I provide water in the wilderness,
and rivers in the desert,
to give drink to My chosen people.

“But Jacob, you have not called on Me,
because, Israel, you have become weary of Me.

“It is I who sweep away your transgressions
for My own sake
and remember your sins no more.

For I will pour water on the thirsty land
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants
and My blessing on your offspring.

This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’;
another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’
and name himself by the name of Israel.”

Who, like Me, can announce the future?
Let him say so and make a case before Me,
since I have established an ancient people.
Let these gods declare the coming things,
and what will take place.

The woodworker stretches out a measuring line,
he outlines it with a stylus;
he shapes it with chisels
and outlines it with a compass.
He makes it according to a human likeness,
like a beautiful person,
to dwell in a temple.

He cuts down cedars for his use,
or he takes a cypress or an oak.
He lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest.
He plants a laurel, and the rain makes it grow.

It serves as fuel for man.
He takes some of it and warms himself;
also he kindles a fire and bakes bread;
he even makes it into a god and worships it;
he makes an idol from it and bows down to it.

He burns half of it in a fire,
and he roasts meat on that half.
He eats the roast and is satisfied.
He warms himself and says, “Ah!
I am warm, I see the blaze.”

No one reflects,
no one has the perception or insight to say,
“I burned half of it in the fire,
I also baked bread on its coals,
I roasted meat and ate.
I will make something detestable with the rest of it,
and I will bow down to a block of wood.”

He feeds on ashes.
His deceived mind has led him astray,
and he cannot deliver himself,
or say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

Rejoice, heavens, for the Lord has acted;
shout, depths of the earth.
Break out into singing, mountains,
forest, and every tree in it.
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
and glorifies Himself through Israel.

“I will go before you
and level the uneven places;
I will shatter the bronze doors
and cut the iron bars in two.

I call you by your name,
because of Jacob My servant
and Israel My chosen one.
I give a name to you,
though you do not know Me.

so that all may know from the rising of the sun to its setting
that there is no one but Me.
I am Yahweh, and there is no other.

“Woe to the one who argues with his Maker—
one clay pot among many.
Does clay say to the one forming it,
‘What are you making?’
Or does your work say,
‘He has no hands’?

How absurd is the one who says to his father,
‘What are you fathering?’
or to his mother,
‘What are you giving birth to?’”

This is what the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel and its Maker, says:
“Ask Me what is to happen to My sons,
and instruct Me about the work of My hands.

I made the earth,
and created man on it.
It was My hands that stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their host.

I have raised him up in righteousness,
and will level all roads for him.
He will rebuild My city,
and set My exiles free,
not for a price or a bribe,”
says the Lord of Hosts.

This is what the Lord says:

The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush
and the Sabeans, men of stature,
will come over to you
and will be yours;
they will follow you,
they will come over in chains
and bow down to you.
They will confess to you:
God is indeed with you, and there is no other;
there is no other God.

All of them are put to shame, even humiliated;
the makers of idols go in humiliation together.

Israel will be saved by the Lord
with an everlasting salvation;
you will not be put to shame or humiliated
for all eternity.

I have not spoken in secret,
somewhere in a land of darkness.
I did not say to the descendants of Jacob:
Seek Me in a wasteland.
I, Yahweh, speak truthfully;
I say what is right.

Speak up and present your case—
yes, let them take counsel together.
Who predicted this long ago?
Who announced it from ancient times?
Was it not I, Yahweh?
There is no other God but Me,
a righteous God and Savior;
there is no one except Me.

It will be said to Me: Righteousness and strength
is only in the Lord.”
All who are enraged against Him
will come to Him and be put to shame.

I will be the same until your old age,
and I will bear you up when you turn gray.
I have made you, and I will carry you;
I will bear and save you.