'Lord' in the Bible

Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth;For the Lord has spoken:“I have reared and brought up sons,But they have rebelled against Me and have broken away.

“The ox [instinctively] knows its owner,And the donkey its master’s feeding trough,But Israel does not know [Me as Lord],My people do not understand.”

Ah, sinful nation,A people loaded down with wickedness [with sin, with injustice, with wrongdoing],Offspring of evildoers,Sons who behave corruptly!They have abandoned (rejected) the Lord,They have despised the Holy One of Israel [provoking Him to anger],They have turned away from Him.

If the Lord of hostsHad not left us a few survivors,We would be like Sodom,We would be like Gomorrah.

Hear the word of the Lord [rulers of Jerusalem],You rulers of [another] Sodom,Listen to the law and instruction of our God,You people of [another] Gomorrah.

“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me [without your repentance]?”Says the Lord.“I have had enough of [your] burnt offerings of ramsAnd the fat of well-fed cattle [without your obedience];And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls or lambs or goats [offered without repentance].

“Come now, and let us reason together,”Says the Lord.“Though your sins are like scarlet,They shall be as white as snow;Though they are red like crimson,They shall be like wool.

But if you refuse and rebel,You shall be devoured by the sword.”For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Therefore the Lord God of hosts,The Mighty One of Israel, declares:“Ah, I will be freed of My adversariesAnd avenge Myself on My enemies.

But rebels and sinners will be crushed and destroyed together,And those who abandon (turn away from) the Lord will be consumed (perish).

And many peoples shall come and say,“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,To the house (temple) of the God of Jacob;That He may teach us His waysAnd that we may walk in His paths.”For the law will go out from ZionAnd the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Most certainly [Lord] You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob,Because they are filled with influences from the east,And they are soothsayers [who foretell] like the Philistines;Also they strike bargains with the children of foreigners (pagans).

So the common man has been humbled [before idols]And the man of importance has been degraded,Therefore do not forgive them [O Lord].

Go among the rocks and hide in the dustFrom the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty.

The proud look of man will be degradedAnd the arrogance of men will be humbled,And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoningAgainst all who are proud and arrogantAnd against all who are lifted up,That they may be degraded.

Then the pride of man will be humbledAnd the arrogance of men will be degraded;The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,

They [the stricken, deprived of all in which they had trusted] will go into the caves of the rocksAnd into the holes of the ground [fleeing]From the terror and dread of the LordAnd from the splendor of His majesty,When He arises to terrify the earth.

To go into the caverns of the rocks and into the clefts of the [ragged] cliffs [as they flee]From the terror and dread of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty,When He arises to terrify the earth.

Listen carefully, the Lord God of hosts is removing from Jerusalem and from JudahBoth supply and support, the whole supply of breadAnd the whole supply of water;

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,Because their words and their actions are against the Lord,To rebel against His glorious presence and defiantly provoke Him.

The Lord rises to contend,And stands to judge the people.

The Lord enters into judgment with the elders of His people and their princes,“For it is you who have devoured the vineyard [with your oppression, you have robbed the people and ruined the country];The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

“What do you mean by crushing My peopleAnd grinding the face of the poor?”Declares the Lord God of hosts.

Moreover, the Lord said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proudAnd walk with outstretched necks and seductive (flirtatious, alluring) eyes,And trip along with mincing steps and an affected gaitAnd walk with jingling anklets on their feet,

Therefore the Lord will afflict the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion with scabs [making them bald],And the Lord will expose their foreheads (send them into captivity).”

In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, [braided] caps, crescent [head] ornaments,

In that day the Branch of the Lord will be splendid and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be excellent and lovely to those of Israel who have survived.

When the Lord has washed away the [moral] filth of the daughters of Zion and has cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,

then the Lord will create over the entire site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud by day, smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory and brilliance will be a canopy [a defense, a covering of His divine love and protection].

“And now, says the Lord, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,Judge between Me and My vineyard (My people).

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house (nation) of IsraelAnd the men of Judah are His delightful planting [which He loves].So He looked for justice, but in fact, [He saw] bloodshed and lawlessness;[He looked] for righteousness, but in fact, [He heard] a cry of distress and oppression.

In my ears the Lord of hosts said, “Be assured that many houses will become desolate,Even great and beautiful ones will be unoccupied.

They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine at their feasts;But they do not regard nor even pay attention to the deeds of the Lord,Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in justice,And God, the Holy One, will show Himself holy in righteousness [through His righteous judgments].

Therefore, as the tongue of fire consumes the stubble [from straw]And the dry grass collapses into the flame,So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away like fine dust;Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hostsAnd despised and discarded the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore the anger of the Lord has burned against His people,And He has stretched out His hand against them and has struck them down.And the mountains trembled, and their dead bodies lay like rubbish in the middle of the streets.In spite of all this God’s anger is not turned away,But His hand is still stretched out [in judgment].

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw [in a vision] the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, with the train of His royal robe filling the [most holy part of the] temple.

And one called out to another, saying,“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts;The whole earth is filled with His glory.”

Then I said,“Woe is me! For I am ruined,Because I am a man of [ceremonially] unclean lips,And I live among a people of unclean lips;For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,And houses are without peopleAnd the land is utterly desolate,

The Lord has removed [His] people far away,And there are many deserted places in the midst of the land.

Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz [king of Judah], you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field;

for this is what the Lord God says, “It shall not stand nor shall it happen.

Then the Lord spoke again to [King] Ahaz, saying,

“Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God [one that will convince you that God has spoken and will keep His word]; make your request as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.”

But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Listen carefully, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will call his name Immanuel (God with us).

The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim (the ten northern tribes) separated from Judah—[He will call for] the king of Assyria.”

In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the mouth of the rivers and canals of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

In that day [when foreign armies swarm the land] the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from the regions beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), [that razor will shave] the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard [leaving Judah stripped, shamed and scorned].

Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet [for public display] and write on it in ordinary characters: Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

So I approached [my wife] the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz [to remind the people of the prophecy];

Again the Lord spoke to me, saying,

Now therefore, listen carefully, the Lord is about to bring on them the waters of the [Euphrates] River, strong and abundant—The king of Assyria and all his glory;And it will rise over all its channels and canals and go far beyond its banks.

For in this way the Lord spoke to me with His strong hand [upon me] and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people [behaving as they do], saying,

“It is the Lord of hosts whom you are to regard as holy and awesome.He shall be your [source of] fear,He shall be your [source of] dread [not man].

And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; and I will look eagerly for Him.

Listen carefully, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders [that will occur] in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish [for with judgment comes the promise of salvation]. In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make them honored [by the presence of the Messiah], by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

You [O God] will increase the nation,You will multiply their joy;They will rejoice before YouLike the joy and jubilation of the harvest,As men rejoice when they divide the spoil [of victory].

There shall be no end to the increase of His government and of peace,[He shall rule] on the throne of David and over his kingdom,To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousnessFrom that time forward and forevermore.The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

The Lord sends a word (message) against Jacob,And it falls on Israel [the ten northern tribes, the kingdom of Ephraim].

Therefore the Lord raises against Ephraim adversaries from Rezin [king of Aram]And spurs their enemies on,

Yet the people do not turn back [in repentance] to Him who struck them,Nor do they seek the Lord of hosts [as their most essential need].

Therefore the Lord cuts off head and tail [the highest and the lowest] from Israel,Both [the high] palm branch and [the low] bulrush in one day.

Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men,Nor does He have compassion on their fatherless or their widows;For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,And every mouth is speaking foolishness.In spite of all this, God’s anger does not turn awayBut His hand is still stretched out [in judgment].

By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is burned up,And the people are like fuel for the fire;No man spares his brother.

So when the Lord has completed all His work [of judgment] on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit [the thoughts, the declarations, and the actions] of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the haughtiness of his pride.”

Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, will send a wasting disease among the stout warriors of Assyria;And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.

The Lord will consume the glory of Assyria’s forest and of its fruitful garden, both soul and body,And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

For the Lord, the God of hosts, will execute a complete destruction, one that is decreed, in the midst of all the land.

Therefore, the Lord God of hosts says this, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian who strikes you with a rod and lifts up his staff against you, as [the king of] Egypt did.

The Lord of hosts will brandish a whip against them like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the [Red] Sea and He will lift it up the way He did in [the flight from] Egypt.

Listen carefully, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the [beautiful] boughs with terrifying force;The tall in stature will be cut downAnd the lofty will be abased and humiliated.

And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him—The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,The Spirit of counsel and strength,The Spirit of knowledge and of the [reverential and obedient] fear of the Lord—

And He will delight in the fear of the Lord,And He will not judge by what His eyes see,Nor make decisions by what His ears hear;

They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LordAs the waters cover the sea.

Then it will happen on that day that the LordWill again acquire with His hand a second timeThe remnant of His people, who will remain,From Assyria, from [Lower] Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush (Ethiopia), from Elam [in Persia], from Shinar [Babylonia], from Hamath [in Aram],And from the coastlands bordering the [Mediterranean] Sea.

And the Lord will utterly destroyThe tongue of the Sea of Egypt;And with His scorching windHe will wave His hand over the River;He will strike and divide it into seven channelsAnd make [it possible for] people [to] walk over in sandals.

And on that day you will say,“I will give thanks to You, O Lord;For though You were angry with me,Your anger has turned away,And You comfort me.

“Behold, God, my salvation!I will trust and not be afraid,For the Lord God is my strength and song;Yes, He has become my salvation.”

And in that day you will say,“Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name [in prayer].Make His deeds known among the peoples [of the earth];Proclaim [to them] that His name is exalted!”

Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done excellent and glorious things;Let this be known throughout the earth.

I [the Lord] have commanded My consecrated ones,I have even called My great warriors,My proudly exulting ones [the Medes and the Persians who triumph for My honor]—To execute My anger.

A sound of tumult on the mountains,Like that of many people!A sound of the uproar of the kingdoms,Of nations gathered together!The Lord of hosts is mustering an army for battle.

They are coming from a distant country,From the end of heaven [the farthest horizon]—The Lord and the weapons of His indignation—To destroy the whole land.

Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!It will come as destruction from the Almighty (All Sufficient One—Invincible God)!

Listen carefully, the day of the Lord is coming,Cruel, with wrath and raging anger,To make the land a horror [of devastation];And He shall exterminate its sinners from it.

In this way I will punish the world for its evilAnd the wicked for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing];I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proudAnd will abase the arrogance of the tyrant.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;And the earth will be shaken from its placeAt the wrath of the Lord of hostsIn the day of His burning anger.

For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob (the captives in Babylon) and will again choose Israel, and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners (Gentiles) will join them [as proselytes] and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob (Israel).

The peoples will take them along and bring them to their own place (Judea), and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the Lord as male and female servants; and they will take captive those whose captives they have been, and they will rule over their [former] oppressors.

And it will be in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and from the harsh service in which you have been enslaved,

“The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,The scepter of the [tyrant] rulers

“I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, and son and grandson,” declares the Lord.

“I will also make Babylon a possession of the hedgehog and of swamps of water, and I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.