The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's feeding trough, but Israel doesn't know, and my people don't understand.

"Oh, you sinful nation! You people burdened down by iniquity! You offspring of those who keep practicing what is evil! You corrupt children! "They've abandoned the LORD; they've despised the Holy One of Israel; in their estrangement, they've walked away from me.

"Listen to what the LORD says, you rulers of Sodom, and pay attention to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

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.

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.

People will oppress one another It will be man against man and neighbor against neighbor. The young will be disrespectful to the old, and the worthless to the honorable.

"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 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.

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

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.

"How terrible it will be for me!" I cried, "because I am ruined! I'm a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips! And my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies!"

"Go!" he responded. "Tell this people: ""Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'

Dull the mind of this people, deafen their ears, and blind their eyes. By doing so, they won't see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed."

Then I asked, "For how long, LORD?" He replied: "Until cities lie waste, without inhabitants, and houses without people; and the land becomes utterly desolate.

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."

When it was reported to the house of David, "Aram has joined forces with Ephraim!" the heart of the people of Ahaz trembled like forest trees in a windstorm.

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

"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.

"People will come there armed with bows and arrows, because the entire land will be nothing but briers and thorns.

"Because this people have rejected the gently-flowing waters of Shiloah, and because they keep rejoicing in Rezin and Remaliah's son,

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.

"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

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; for those living in a land of deep darkness, a light has shined upon them.

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

"But the people have not returned to rely on him who struck them, nor have they sought the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

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

From the wrath of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies the land has been scorched, and the people have become like fuel for the fire; no one will spare his neighbor.

to deprive the needy of justice and to rob the poor of my people of their rights, so that widows may become their spoil and so that they may plunder orphans!

I'm sending my fury against a godless nation, and I'll command him against the people with whom I'm angry to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.

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.'

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,

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.

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.

He will raise a banner for the nations and will assemble the dispersed of Israel; he will gather the scattered people of Judah from the corners of the earth.

But they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west, and they will plunder the people to the east. They'll lay their hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

The LORD will totally destroy the gulf of the Sea of Egypt. He will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River with a violent wind, breaking it up into seven streams, and making a way for people to cross on foot.

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.

I'll make people scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than gold from Ophir.

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.

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!

How will they answer the messengers of the nation? "The LORD has founded Zion, and in it the afflicted among his people will find refuge."

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.

which sends envoys by the sea, in papyrus boats over the water! Go, swift messengers, to a tall, smooth-skinned nation, to a people feared far and wide, a nation that metes out punishment and oppresses, whose land the rivers divide.

At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of the Heavenly Armies from a tall and smooth-skinned people, from a people feared far and wide, a nation that metes out punishment and oppresses, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place that bears the name of the LORD.

The LORD of the Heavenly Armies has blessed them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."

O my downtrodden people, my wall! I'll tell you what I have heard from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel."

Therefore I said: "Look away from me; and let me weep bitter tears; don't try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people."

"Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is a people that no longer exist; Assyria destined her for desert creatures. They raised up her siege towers, they stripped her fortresses bare and turned her into a ruin.

It will be the same for the lay people as for priests, the same for servants as for their masters, for female servants as for their mistresses, for buyers as for sellers, for lenders as for borrowers, and for creditors as for debtors.

Therefore the curse keeps on consuming, and its inhabitants are declared guilty. Furthermore, the inhabitants of earth are ablaze, and few people are left.

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!'"

he has swallowed up death forever! Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and he will take away the disgrace of his people from the entire earth." for the LORD has spoken.

At that time, people will sing this song in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city; God crafts victory, its walls and ramparts.

"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!

Come, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.

When its branches are dry, they are broken off, and women come and kindle fires with them, since this is a people who show no consideration. That is why the One who made them shows them no compassion; the One who created them shows them no mercy.

At that time, the LORD will winnow grain from the Euphrates River channel to the Wadi of Egypt, and you will be gathered in one by one, O people of Israel.

How terrible it will be for that arrogant garland the drunks of Ephraim! How terrible it will be for that fading flower of his glorious beauty, which sits on the heads of people bloated with food, of people overcome with wine!

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.

At that time, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will become a glorious crown, a beautiful diadem for the remnant of his people,

These people also stagger from wine and reel from strong drink. Priests and prophets stagger from strong drink; they're drunk from wine; they reel from strong drink, waver when seeing visions, and stumble when rendering decisions.

Very well, then, through the mouths of foreigners and foreign languages the LORD will speak to this people

"Therefore hear the message from the LORD, you scoffers who rule this people that are in Jerusalem.

"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.'

Then the Lord said: "Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, worship of me has become merely like rules taught by human beings.

Therefore, watch out! "As for me, I will once again do amazing things with this people, wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the insights of their discerning men will stay hidden."

The humble will again experience joy in the LORD, and the poorest people will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

There is only loathsome destruction through a people that cannot benefit them, who bring neither help nor profit, but only shame and disgrace."

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

Indeed, you people who live in Zion and in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious the LORD will be to you at the sound of your cry! As soon as he hears it, he will answer you.

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.

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.

Yet he is also wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words, but will rise up against the house of those who practice evil and against anyone who assists people who work iniquity.

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

The hearts of reckless people will understand sound judgment, and the tongues of those who stammer will be ready to speak clearly.

People will no longer call a fool noble, nor will a bad person be declared honorable.

For fools utter contempt, and their minds plot wrong things: practicing ungodliness, spreading lies about the LORD, leaving the pangs of hungry people unsatisfied, and depriving thirsty people of drink.

Furthermore, the crimes of bad people are evil; and they devise wicked schemes, destroying the poor with lying words, even when needy people plead a just cause.

For people will be beating their breasts in mourning over the pleasant fields, over the fruitful vines,

and over the land of my people overgrown with thorns and briers yes, over all the houses of merriment and over this city of revelry.

My people will live in peaceful dwellings, in secure homes and in undisturbed resting places.

"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."

Your plunder is gathered as when grasshoppers gather; just like locusts pounce, people have pounced on it.

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

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

For my sword will be seen in the heavens. Look! It descends in judgment on Edom, on the people I have doomed to destruction.

then the lame will leap like deer, and the tongues of speechless people will sing for joy. Yes, waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will run through the desert;

"A highway will be there yes, there and people will call it "The Holy Way'. As for unclean people, they will not journey on it, but it will be for whomever is traveling on that Way not even fools will get lost.

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah replied to him, "Please speak with your servants with us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew where the people sitting on the wall can hear."

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."

Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my ancestors save them the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden, who were in Tel-assar?

"Comfort! Yes, comfort my people," says your God.

Grass withers and flowers fade away when the LORD's breath blows on them; surely the people are like grass.

"Be silent before me, you coastlands, and let the people renew their strength! Let them come forward, then let them speak together let's draw near for a ruling.

all so that people may see and recognize, perceive, consider, and comprehend at the same time, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has created it."