Chapters 1-16

Chapters 1-16

CHAPTERS 1—16

CHAPTER 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.

2 Hear, O heavens,
And hearken, O earth,
For thus the Lord speaketh:
I have nourished and brought up children;
Yet they have acted wickedly towards me.

Note 347. Or, Have rebelled against me; or, Have revolted against me.

3 The ox knoweth his owner,
And the ass his masters crib;
Israel doth not know;
My people doth not understand.

4 O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
Seed of evil-doers, degenerate children!
They have forsaken Jehovah,
They have despised the Holy One of Israel,
They are estranged backwards.

Note 348. Or, Have provoked to anger.

5 Why should I strike you any more?
Ye will add faithlessness.
The whole head is sickness,
And the whole heart is faintness.

6 From the sole of the foot even to the head
There is no soundness in it;
A wound, a swelling, And a purifying sore;
And they have not been plastered, nor bound up,
Nor softened with ointment.

7 Your country is desolation;
Your cities are burnt with fire;
Your land do strangers devour in your presence,
It is reduced to solitude, like the destruction of foreigners.

8 And the daughter of Zion shall be left,
As a cottage in a vineyard,
As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,
As a city laid waste.

9 Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant,
We should have been as Sodom,
And like Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye princes of Sodom!
Give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah!
Of what value to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
Saith the Lord.

11 I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams,
And of the fat of fed beasts;
And in the blood of oxen, or of sheep, or of he-goats,
I delight not.

12 When you come that you may appear before my face,
Who hath required this at your hand?
Even to tread my courts.

13 Do not continue to bring an offering of vanity.
Incense is an abomination to me.
The new-moon, And the sabbath, And the yearly assemblies,
I cannot endure,
(It is a vain thing,)
Nor the assembly.

14 Your new-moons And your yearly festivals
My soul hateth;
They have been a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.

15 When ye spread forth your hands,
I will hide mine eyes from you.
Even though you multiply prayer,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash you, make you clean;
Take away the wickedness of your practices from before mine eyes;
Cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well:
Seek judgment, restore the oppressed;
Plead for the orphan, defend the widow.

Note 349. Or, Guide.

18 Come now, and let us reason together,
Hath the Lord said:
If your sins be as scarlet,
They shall be white as snow;
If they be red like purple,
They shall be as wool.

19 If ye shall be willing and shall hearken,
Ye shall eat the good of the land.

20 But if ye shall refuse and rebel,
Ye shall be consumed by the sword;
For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

21 How is the faithful city become a harlot!
She was full of judgment,
And righteousness lodged by night in her;
But now murderers.

Note 350. Or, Dwelt.

22 Thy silver is become dross,
And thy wine is mixed with water.

23 Thy princes are rebellious,
And are companions of thieves;
Every one loveth a gift,
And seeketh eagerly for rewards.
They judge not the cause of the fatherless,
Nor doth the cause of the widow come to them.

24 Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts,
The mighty One of Israel;
Alas! I will take consolation on mine adversaries,
I will be avenged of mine enemies.

Note 351. Or, The Governor.

25 I will turn my hand upon thee;
I will purely purge away thy dross,
And I will take away all thy tin.

26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first,
And thy counsellors as at the beginning.
Then shall it be said of thee,
The city of righteousness,
The faithful city.

27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment,
And they who shall be brought back to her with righteousness.

28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together,
And they who have revolted from the Lord shall be consumed.

29 Yea, they shall be ashamed
Of the trees which ye have desired,
And they shall be covered with disgrace
By the groves which ye have chosen.

30 Ye shall surely be as a tree whose leaf fadeth,
And as a grove that hath no water.

31 And your strong man shall be as tow,
And the maker of it as a spark;
And they shall both be burnt,
And there shall be none to quench them.

Note 352. Otherwise, Your god.

CHAPTER 2

1 The word which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah And Jerusalem.

2 And it shall come to pass in the last of the days,
That the mountain of the house of Jehovah
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.

3 And many peoples shall come, and shall say,
Come, and we shall go up
To the mountain of Jehovah,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
And he will teach us in his ways,
And we shall walk in his paths;
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 And he will judge among the nations,
And will rebuke many peoples:
And they shall beat their swords into spades,
And their spears into pruning-hooks;
And nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they practise war any more.

5 O house of Jacob, come ye,
And we shall walk in the light of the Lord.

6 Verily thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob;
Because they are filled with the east
And with soothsayers, like the Philistines;
And they have delighted in the children of foreigners.

Note 353. Or, With antiquity.

7 Their land is full of silver and gold,
And there is no end to their treasures.
Their land is also full of horses,
And there is no end to their chariots.

8 Their land is also full of idols,
And they have bowed down
Before the work of their own hands,
Before that which their fingers have made.

9 And the man of low degree boweth down,
And the man of rank humbleth himself;
Therefore do not thou forgive them.

Note 354. Or, Thou wilt not forgive them.

10 Enter into the rock,
Hide thee in the dust,
From before the fear of the Lord
And the glory of his majesty.

11 The loftiness of the eyes of men shall be humbled,
And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down;
And Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.

12 For the day of Jehovah of hosts shall be
On every one that is proud and lofty,
And on all that is lifted up,
And it shall be brought low.

13 Even on all the cedars of Lebanon high and lifted up,
On all the oaks of Bashan,

14 And on all the lofty mountains,
And on all the high hills,

15 And on every lofty tower,
And on every fortified wall;

16 On all the ships of Tarshish,
And on delightful pictures.

17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
And the haughtiness of men shall be humbled;
And Jehovah alone shall be exalted on that day.

18 And he will utterly abolish the idols.

19 And they shall enter into caverns of the rocks,
And into clefts of the earth,
From the presence of the terror of Jehovah,
And from the glory of his majesty,
When he shall arise to shake the earth.

20 In that day shall a man cast away
His idols of silver,
And his idols of gold,
Which they made for him to worship,
Into the cavern of the moles and of the bats;

21 And they shall enter into the clefts of the rocks,
And into the tops of the ragged rocks,
From before the fear of the Lord,
And from the glory of his majesty,
When he shall arise to shake the earth.

22 Cease then from man,
Whose breath is in his nostrils;
For in what respect is he valued?

Note 355. Or, To what? or, How much?

CHAPTER 3

1 For, behold, the Governor, Jehovah of hosts,
Will take away from Jerusalem and Judah
The stay and the strength;
The whole stay of bread;
The whole stay of water;

2 The strong man and the man of war,
The judge and the prophet,
And the diviner and the elder;

3 The captain of fifty, and the man of rank,
The senator, and the skilful artificer, and the eloquent.

Note 356. Or, Skilled in mysterious style.

4 And I will appoint boys to be their rulers,
And babes shall rule over them.

5 The people shall violently oppress each other,
A man his neighbour;
The youth shall behave insolently towards the old man,
The despicable towards the honourable.

6 When every man shall take hold of his brother
Of the family of his father, saying,
Thou hast raiment;
Be thou our ruler;
Let this ruin be under thy hand;

7 He shall swear in that day, saying,
I will not be a healer;
For in my house is neither bread nor raiment;
Therefore make me not a ruler of the people.

8 Verily Jerusalem is ruined,
And Judah is fallen;
Because their tongue And their practices are against Jehovah,
To provoke the eyes of his glory.

9 The proof of their countenance answereth in them;
They have declared their sin, as Sodom,
And have not hid it.
Wo to their soul!
For they have brought evil on them.

Note 357. Or, Against them.

10 Say ye to the righteous man,
It shall be well;
For they shall eat the fruit of their hands.

11 Wo to the wicked man!
It shall be ill;
For according to the works of his hands
Shall it be rewarded to him.

12 Of my people children are oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O my people!
They who govern thee lead thee astray,
And pervert the way of thy paths.

13 Jehovah standeth to plead,
And standeth up to judge the people.

14 Jehovah will enter into judgment
With the elders of his people,
And with their rulers;
And ye have destroyed the vineyard,
And the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

15 What mean ye that ye crush my people,
And grind the faces of the poor?
Saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts.

16 Jehovah also saith,
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
And walk with stretched-forth neck,
And with wandering eyes,
And walk and mince as they go,
And make a tinkling with their feet.

17 Therefore will the Lord make bald
The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,
And the Lord will expose their shame.

18 In that day will the Lord take away
Ornaments that tinkled, or were made of net-work, or like a half-moon,

19 Perfumes, bracelets, and head-hands;

20 Bonnets, ornaments of the legs,
Chaplets, neck-amulets, and ear-rings;

21 Rings and nose-jewels,

22 Changeable dresses, mantles,
Upper garments, and hair-ties,

23 Mirrors and fine linens,
Hoods and veils.

24 And instead of a sweet odour there shall be rottenness,
And instead of a girdle, a rent,
And instead of curled locks, baldness;
Instead of a belt, a girdle of sackcloth,
Instead of beauty, burning.

25 Thy men shall fall by the sword,
And thy might in the battle.

26 Her gates shall lament and mourn,
And she, desolate, shall sit on the ground.

CHAPTER 4

1 In that day, therefore, shall seven women
Take hold of one man, saying,
We will eat our own bread,
We will wear our own raiment;
Only let thy name be called on us,
And take thou away our reproach.

Note 358. Or, Let us be called by thy name.

2 In that day shall the branch of Jehovah
Be for beauty and glory,
And the fruit of the earth
Be for excellence and comeliness,
To the escaped of Israel.

3 And it shall come to pass
That he who shall be left in Zion,
And shall remain in Jerusalem,
Shall be called holy,
And all shall be enrolled
Among the living at Jerusalem.

Note 359. Or, To life.

4 When the Lord shall have washed away
The filth of the daughter of Zion,
And shall have cleansed the blood of Jerusalem
From the midst of her,
Both by the Spirit of judgment,
And by the Spirit of burning.

5 And Jehovah will create
On every dwelling-place of Mount Zion,
And on all her assemblies,
A cloud and darkness by day,
And the brightness of a flaming fire by night;
For on all the glory shall be a defence.

6 And a covering shall be by day
For a shadow from the heat, and for refuge,
And for a covert from storm and from rain.

CHAPTER 5

1 Come, I will sing for my beloved
A song of my beloved to his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard
On a hill, the son of oil.

2 He fenced it, and gathered out the stones,
And planted it as a choice vine;
He reared a tower in the midst of it,
And built a wine-press in it:
He therefore hoped that it would yield grapes,
And it yieldeth wild grapes.

3 Now then, O inhabitant of Jerusalem,
And man of Judah,
Judge ye between me and my vineyard.

4 What more ought to have been done to my vineyard,
Which I have not done to it?
How did I look that it should yield grapes,
And yet it hath yielded wild grapes?

5 And now come, I will shew to you
What I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away its hedge, that it may become pasture;
I will break down its wall, that it may be trodden down.

6 I will lay it waste;
It shall not be pruned nor digged;
And the brier and thorn shall grow up.
Yea, I will command the clouds
That they do not rain on it.

7 Verily the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah his pleasant plant.
Hence he looked for judgment, and behold oppression;
For righteousness, and behold a cry.

8 Wo to them that join house to house,
And add field to field,
Till there be no place;
That you may be placed alone
In the midst of the earth.

9 This is in the ears of Jehovah of hosts,
If many houses be not laid desolate,
Great and fair, without inhabitant.

10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall produce one bath,
And the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah.

11 Wo to them that rise early
To follow drunkenness,
And who prolong the time till night,
While wine inflameth them.

12 And the harp, the lyre, the tabret, and the pipe, and wine
Are in their entertainments;
But they do not regard the work of Jehovah,
Nor consider the operation of his hands.

13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity,
Because they have no knowledge;
And their glory are men famished,
And their multitude are dried up with thirst.

14 Therefore hell hath enlarged his soul,
And opened his mouth without measure;
And his glory and his multitude hath descended,
And his wealth, and he that rejoiced in her.

15 And the man of low degree shall be bowed down,
And the man of rank shall be humbled;
Yea, the eyes of the haughty shall be humbled.

16 And Jehovah of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,
And God, who is holy, shall be sanctified in righteousness.

17 And the lambs shall feed after their manner,
And the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

18 Wo to them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,
And sin as with cart-ropes.

19 Who say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work,
That we may see it;
Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
That we may know it.

20 Wo to them that call evil good,
And good evil;
That put darkness for light,
And light for darkness;
That turn bitter into sweet,
And sweet into bitter.

21 Wo to them that are wise in their own eyes,
And are prudent in their own sight.

22 Wo to them that are powerful to drink wine,
And powerful men to mingle strong drink;

23 Who justify the wicked for reward,
And take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.

24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devoureth the stubble,
And the chaff is consumed by the flame;
So their root shall be as rottenness,
And their blossom shall pass away as dust;
Because they have cast away the law of Jehovah of hosts,
And have loathed the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 Therefore the anger of Jehovah
Hath been kindled against his people,
And, stretching forth his hand against them,
He hath smitten them;
And the mountains trembled,
And their torn carcass was thrown into the midst of the streets;
And for all these things his anger hath not been turned away,
But his hand is stretched out still.

26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar;
He will hiss to the nation from the end of the earth;
And lo, it will come speedy and swift.

27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them;
None shall slumber nor sleep;
None shall have the girdle of their loins loosed,
Nor shall the latchet of their shoes be broken.

28 Their arrows will be sharp,
And all their bows bent.
The hoofs of their horses shall be counted as flint,
And their wheels as a whirlwind.

29 Their roaring shall be like that of a lion;
They shall roar like young lions;
They shall gnash and seize the prey;
They shall carry away the spoils,
And none shall deliver.

30 He shall roar against them in that day, as the roaring of the sea;
Then shall he look to the earth,
And behold! the darkness of tribulation;
And the light shall be darkened in the heavens.

CHAPTER 6

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and his remotest parts filled the temple.

2 And seraphim stood above it;
Each had six wings;
With two they covered their face,
With two they covered their feet,
And with two did they fly.

3 And one cried to another, saying,
Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts;
The whole earth is full of his glory.

4 And the posts of the doors were moved by the voice of him that cried,
And the house was filled with smoke.

5 Then I said,
Wo to me, for I am undone;
Because I am a man of polluted lips,
And I dwell amidst a people having polluted lips;
And yet mine eyes have seen the king, Jehovah of hosts.

Note 360. Or, Reduced to silence.

6 And one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, snatched with a fork from the altar.

7 And laying it on my mouth, he said,
Lo, this hath touched thy lips,
And thy sin shall be expiated.

8 Afterwards I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? And who shall go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me.

9 Then he said,
Go and tell this people:
Hearing hear, and do not understand;
Seeing see, and do not know.

10 Harden the heart of this people,
And make heavy their ears,
And close up their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And their heart understand,
And when they have been converted, they be healed.

11 And I said, how long, O Lord. And he said,
Till the houses be laid waste without inhabitant,
And the houses be emptied of men,
And the land be reduced to solitude;

12 Till God have removed men far away,
And till there be great desolation in the midst of the land:

13 Till a tenth shall return,
And be destroyed like a teil and an oak,
Whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves;
So in it shall the substance be the holy seed.