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 corrupt and ruined condition of the Jews
2 📚Hear, O heavens, and give ear✭,
O earth, for the LORD has spoken:
“I have reared and brought up children,
and they have rebelled against me.
3 📚✭The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know,
my people do not consider”.
4 📚✭Alas, sinful nation,
a people weighed down with
wickedness,
a brood of evildoers,
children who are corrupters!
They have forsaken the LORD,
they have provoked the Holy
One of Israel to anger,
they have gone away backward.
5 📚✭Why should you be struck again?
You revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart is faint.
6 📚From the sole of the foot
even to the head there is
no soundness in it,
but wounds, and bruises,
and putrefying sores.
They have not been closed,
or bound up, or soothed with
ointment.
7 📚Your country is desolate,
your cities are burned with fire.
Strangers devour your land
in your presence,
and it is desolate,
as overthrown by strangers.
8 📚✭And the daughter of Zion is
left like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a hut in a garden of cucumbers,
like a besieged city.
9 📚✭Unless the LORD of hosts✭ had left
to us a very small remnant,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have been like
Gomorrah.
10 📚✭Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the law of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
God’s rejection of their kind of religion
11 📚✭“To what purpose is
the multitude of your sacrifices
to me?” says the LORD.
“I have had enough of the burnt
offerings of rams,
and the fat of fed cattle;
and I do not delight in the
blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of male goats.
12 📚✭“When you come to appear before me,
who has required this at your hand,
this trampling of my courts?
13 📚✭Bring no more meaningless offerings!
Your incense is an abomination to me.
The New Moon festivals and Sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies,
I cannot endure.
Even the solemn meeting is wickedness.
14 📚Your New Moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates;
they are a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 📚✭And when you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
yes, even though you utter many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood✭.
16 📚✭“Wash yourselves!
Make yourselves clean✭!
Put away the evil of your actions
from before my eyes!
Cease✭ to do evil!
17 📚Learn to do good✭!
Seek justice,
relieve the oppressed!
Show justice to the fatherless,
plead for the widow✭!
God’s invitation, promise and warning
18 📚✭“Come now,
and let us reason together”, says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they will be as white as snow;
though they are as red as crimson,
they will be like wool.
19 📚✭If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the good of the land.
20 📚But if you refuse and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it”.
God’s judgment on Jerusalem, His promise of a new day
21 📚How the faithful city has become a prostitute✭!
It was full of justice;
righteousness once lodged in it,
but now murderers✭!
22 📚✭Your silver has become dross,
your wine mixed with water.
23 📚Your rulers✭ are rebellious,
and companions of thieves.
Each one loves bribes✭,
and chases after rewards.
They do not show justice to the fatherless.
The cause of the widow✭ does not come before them.
24 📚✭Therefore the Lord,
the LORD of hosts,
the mighty One of Israel, says,
“Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries,
and avenge myself on my enemies.
25 📚✭And I will turn my hand against you,
and thoroughly purge✭ away your dross,
and take away all your alloy.
26 📚✭And I will restore your judges as at the first,
and your counsellors as at the beginning.
Afterward you will be called,
The City of Righteousness,
The Faithful City✭”.
27 📚“Zion will be redeemed with justice,
and her repentant✭ ones with righteousness.
28 📚And the destruction of the transgressors
and of the sinners will be together,
and those who forsake
the LORD will be consumed.
29 📚✭For you will be ashamed of the sacred oaks
which you have desired,
and you will be disgraced because of
the gardens that you have chosen.
30 📚✭For you will be like an oak
whose leaf fades away,
and like a garden that has no water.
31 📚And the strong will be like tinder,
and his handiwork like a spark;
and they will both burn together,
and no one will quench them”.