1 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The Wickedness of Judah

²Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children[1] have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. ³The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

⁴Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

⁵Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.

⁷Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. ⁸And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

⁹If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching[2] of our God, you people of Gomorrah! ¹¹“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

¹²“When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? ¹³Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. ¹⁴Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. ¹⁵When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. ¹⁶Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, ¹⁷ learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

¹⁸“Come now, let us reason[3] 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 become like wool. ¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; ²⁰but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Unfaithful City

²¹How the faithful city has become a whore,[4] she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. ²²Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water. ²³Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

²⁴Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes. ²⁵I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. ²⁶And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”

²⁷Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. ²⁸But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. ²⁹For they[5] shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. ³⁰For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. ³¹And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.

[1] Or Sons; also verse 4 [2] Or law [3] Or dispute [4] Or become unchaste [5] Some Hebrew manuscripts you

2 The Mountain of the Lord

2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, ³ and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law, [6] and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. ⁴He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

⁵O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

The Day of the Lord

⁶For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. ⁷Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. ⁸Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. ⁹So man is humbled, and each one is brought low— do not forgive them! ¹⁰Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty. ¹¹The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

¹²For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low; ¹³against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; ¹⁴against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills; ¹⁵against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; ¹⁶against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. ¹⁷And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. ¹⁸And the idols shall utterly pass away. ¹⁹And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground,^[7]from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

²⁰In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, ²¹to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. ²²Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

[6] Or teaching [7] Hebrew dust