The Lord rises to argue the case
and stands to judge the people.

Why do you crush My people
and grind the faces of the poor?”
This is the declaration
of the Lord God of Hosts.

On that day the Lord will strip their finery: ankle bracelets, headbands, crescents,

On that day seven women
will seize one man, saying,
“We will eat our own bread
and provide our own clothing.
Just let us be called by your name.
Take away our disgrace.”

On that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

Whoever remains in Zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy—all in Jerusalem who are destined to live—

Then the Lord will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy over all the glory,

and there will be a booth for shade from heat by day, and a refuge and shelter from storm and rain.

He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones,
and planted it with the finest vines.
He built a tower in the middle of it
and even dug out a winepress there.
He expected it to yield good grapes,
but it yielded worthless grapes.

Now I will tell you
what I am about to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge,
and it will be consumed;
I will tear down its wall,
and it will be trampled.

I will make it a wasteland.
It will not be pruned or weeded;
thorns and briers will grow up.
I will also give orders to the clouds
that rain should not fall on it.

Woe to those who add house to house
and join field to field
until there is no more room
and you alone are left in the land.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of beer,
who linger into the evening,
inflamed by wine.

At their feasts they have lyre, harp,
tambourine, flute, and wine.
They do not perceive the Lord’s actions,
and they do not see the work of His hands.

Woe to those who drag wickedness
with cords of deceit
and pull sin along with cart ropes,

to those who say:
“Let Him hurry up and do His work quickly
so that we can see it!
Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel take place
so that we can know it!”

Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who substitute darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own opinion
and clever in their own sight.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
who are fearless at mixing beer,

Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against His people.
He raised His hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like garbage in the streets.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

On that day they will roar over it,
like the roaring of the sea.
When one looks at the land,
there will be darkness and distress;
light will be obscured by clouds.

Seraphim were standing above Him; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

And one called to another:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts;
His glory fills the whole earth.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

And He replied:

Go! Say to these people:
Keep listening, but do not understand;
keep looking, but do not perceive.

When it became known to the house of David that Aram had occupied Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the hearts of his people trembled like trees of a forest shaking in the wind.

Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Fuller’s Field.

Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly because of these two smoldering stubs of firebrands, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.

The head of Aram is Damascus,
the head of Damascus is Rezin
(within 65 years
Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people),

the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
then you will not stand at all.

Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz:

“Ask for a sign from the Lord your God—from the depths of Sheol to the heights of heaven.”

Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God?

By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good, he will be eating butter and honey.

For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned.

On that day
the Lord will whistle to the fly
that is at the farthest streams of the Nile
and to the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave the head, the hair on the legs, and to remove the beard as well.

On that day
a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,

And on that day
every place where there were 1,000 vines,
worth 1,000 pieces of silver,
will become thorns and briers.

You will not go to all the hills
that were once tilled with a hoe,
for fear of the thorns and briers.
Those hills will be places for oxen to graze
and for sheep to trample.

Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

I was then intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,

for before the boy knows how to call out father or mother, the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria.”

The Lord spoke to me again:

It will pour into Judah,
flood over it, and sweep through,
reaching up to the neck;
and its spreading streams
will fill your entire land, Immanuel!

For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep me from going the way of this people:

Do not call everything an alliance
these people say is an alliance.
Do not fear what they fear;
do not be terrified.

You are to regard only the Lord of Hosts as holy.
Only He should be feared;
only He should be held in awe.

He will be a sanctuary;
but for the two houses of Israel,
He will be a stone to stumble over
and a rock to trip over,
and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Here I am with the children the Lord has given me to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.

When they say to you, “Consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future He will bring honor to the Way of the Sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

For You have shattered their oppressive yoke
and the rod on their shoulders,
the staff of their oppressor,
just as You did on the day of Midian.

For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be on His shoulders.
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

The dominion will be vast,
and its prosperity will never end.
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.

Aram from the east and Philistia from the west
have consumed Israel with open mouths.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

The people did not turn to Him who struck them;
they did not seek the Lord of Hosts.

So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,
palm branch and reed in a single day.

Therefore the Lord does not rejoice
over Israel’s young men
and has no compassion
on its fatherless and widows,
for everyone is a godless evildoer,
and every mouth speaks folly.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

Manasseh is with Ephraim,
and Ephraim with Manasseh;
together, both are against Judah.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

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Woe to those enacting crooked statutes
and writing oppressive laws

to keep the poor from getting a fair trial
and to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice,
so that widows can be their spoil
and they can plunder the fatherless.

What will you do on the day of punishment
when devastation comes from far away?
Who will you run to for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?

There will be nothing to do
except crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger—
the staff in their hands is My wrath.

I will send him against a godless nation;
I will command him to go
against a people destined for My rage,
to take spoils, to plunder,
and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

But this is not what he intends;
this is not what he plans.
It is his intent to destroy
and to cut off many nations.

For he says,
“Aren’t all my commanders kings?

Isn’t Calno like Carchemish?
Isn’t Hamath like Arpad?
Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?

and as I did to Samaria and its idols
will I not also do to Jerusalem and its idols?”

My hand has reached out, as if into a nest,
to seize the wealth of the nations.
Like one gathering abandoned eggs,
I gathered the whole earth.
No wing fluttered;
no beak opened or chirped.

Does an ax exalt itself
above the one who chops with it?
Does a saw magnify itself
above the one who saws with it?
It would be like a staff waving the one who lifts it!
It would be like a rod lifting a man who isn’t wood!

Israel’s Light will become a fire,
and its Holy One, a flame.
In one day it will burn up Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on the one who struck them, but they will faithfully depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob,
to the Mighty God.

Therefore, the Lord God of Hosts says this: “My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, though he strikes you with a rod and raises his staff over you as the Egyptians did.

In just a little while My wrath will be spent and My anger will turn to their destruction.”

On that day
his burden will fall from your shoulders,
and his yoke from your neck.
The yoke will be broken because of fatness.

Assyria has come to Aiath
and has gone through Migron,
storing his equipment at Michmash.

On that day the root of Jesse
will stand as a banner for the peoples.
The nations will seek Him,
and His resting place will be glorious.

On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover—from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coasts and islands of the west—the remnant of His people who survive.

But they will swoop down
on the Philistine flank to the west.
Together they will plunder the people of the east.
They will extend their power over Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

On that day you will say:
“I will praise You, Lord,
although You were angry with me.
Your anger has turned away,
and You have had compassion on me.

and on that day you will say:
“Give thanks to Yahweh; proclaim His name!
Celebrate His works among the peoples.
Declare that His name is exalted.

Sing to Yahweh, for He has done glorious things.
Let this be known throughout the earth.

Lift up a banner on a barren mountain.
Call out to them.
Wave your hand, and they will go
through the gates of the nobles.

I have commanded My chosen ones;
I have also called My warriors,
who exult in My triumph,
to execute My wrath.

They are coming from a far land,
from the distant horizon—
the Lord and the weapons of His wrath—
to destroy the whole country.

Wail! For the day of the Lord is near.
It will come like destruction from the Almighty.

Look, the day of the Lord is coming—
cruel, with rage and burning anger—
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy the sinners on it.

I will bring disaster on the world,
and their own iniquity, on the wicked.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will shake from its foundations
at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,
on the day of His burning anger.

Like wandering gazelles
and like sheep without a shepherd,
each one will turn to his own people,
each one will flee to his own land.

Whoever is found will be stabbed,
and whoever is caught will die by the sword.

Their children will be smashed to death before their eyes;
their houses will be looted,
and their wives raped.

Their bows will cut young men to pieces.
They will have no compassion on little ones;
they will not look with pity on children.

It will never be inhabited
or lived in from generation to generation;
a nomad will not pitch his tent there,
and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.

The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their captors and will rule over their oppressors.

When the Lord gives you rest from your pain, torment, and the hard labor you were forced to do,