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1 This is the vision of Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz, which he saw concerning Y'hudah and Yerushalayim during the days of 'Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz and Y'chizkiyahu, kings of Y'hudah:

2 "Hear, heaven! Listen, earth! For ADONAI is speaking. "I raised and brought up children, but they rebelled against me.

3 An ox knows its owner and a donkey its master's stall, but Isra'el does not know, my people do not reflect.

4 "Oh, sinful nation, a people weighed down by iniquity, descendants of evildoers, immoral children! They have abandoned ADONAI, spurned the Holy One of Isra'el, turned their backs on him!

5 "Where should I strike you next, as you persist in rebelling? The whole head is sick, the whole heart diseased.

6 From the sole of the foot to the head there is nothing healthy, only wounds, bruises and festering sores that haven't been dressed or bandaged or softened up with oil.

7 "Your land is desolate, your cities are burned to the ground; foreigners devour your land in your presence; it's as desolate as if overwhelmed by floods.

8 The daughter of Tziyon is left like a shack in a vineyard, like a shed in a cucumber field, like a city under siege."

9 If ADONAI-Tzva'ot had not left us a tiny, tiny remnant, we would have become like S'dom, we would have resembled 'Amora.

10 Hear what ADONAI says, you rulers of S'dom! Listen to God's Torah, you people of 'Amora!

11 "Why are all those sacrifices offered to me?" asks ADONAI. "I'm fed up with burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened animals! I get no pleasure from the blood of bulls, lambs and goats!

12 Yes, you come to appear in my presence; but who asked you to do this, to trample through my courtyards?

13 Stop bringing worthless grain offerings! They are like disgusting incense to me! Rosh-Hodesh, Shabbat, calling convocations - I can't stand evil together with your assemblies!

14 Everything in me hates your Rosh-Hodesh and your festivals; they are a burden to me - I'm tired of putting up with them!

15 "When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; no matter how much you pray, I won't be listening; because your hands are covered with blood.

16 "Wash yourselves clean! Get your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing evil,

17 learn to do good! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, defend orphans, plead for the widow.

18 "Come now," says ADONAI, "let's talk this over together. Even if your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow; even if they are 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 eaten by the sword"; for the mouth of ADONAI has spoken.

21 How the faithful city has become a whore! Once she was filled with justice, righteousness lodged in her; but now murderers!

22 Your silver is no longer pure, your wine is watered down.

23 Your leaders are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and run after gifts. They give no justice to orphans, the widow's complaint doesn't catch their attention.

24 "Therefore," says the Lord, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the Mighty One of Isra'el, "I will free myself of my adversaries, I will take vengeance on my enemies.

25 But I will also turn my hand against you! I will cleanse your impurities as with lye and remove all your alloyed base metal.

26 I will restore your judges as at first and your advisers as at the beginning. After that, you will be called the City of Righteousness, Faithful City.

27 Tziyon will be redeemed by justice; and those in her who repent, by righteousness.

28 "Rebels and sinners together will be broken and those who abandon ADONAI be consumed.

29 You will be ashamed of the sacred oaks you desired, you will blush at the gardens you chose;

30 for you will be like an oak whose leaf fades, like a garden without any water.

31 The strong will be like tinder and [the idol's] maker like a spark; both will burn together, and no one will put them out."

1 This is the word that Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz saw concerning Y'hudah and Yerushalayim:

2 In the acharit-hayamim the mountain of ADONAI's house will be established as the most important mountain. It will be regarded more highly than the other hills, and all the Goyim will stream there.

3 Many peoples will go and say, "Come, let's go up to the mountain of ADONAI, to the house of the God of Ya'akov! He will teach us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For out of Tziyon will go forth Torah, the word of ADONAI from Yerushalayim.

4 He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. Then they will hammer their swords into plow-blades and their spears into pruning-knives; nations will not raise swords at each other, and they will no longer learn war.

5 Descendants of Ya'akov, come! Let's live in the light of ADONAI!

6 For you have abandoned your people the house of Ya'akov. Now they are filled from the east, full of sorcerers, like the P'lishtim; even the children of foreigners are enough for them!

7 Their land is full of silver and gold; They have no end of treasures. Their land is full of horses; They have no end of chariots.

8 Their land is full of idols; everyone worships the work of his hands, what his own fingers have made.

9 A person bows down, a man lowers himself - don't forgive them!

10 Come into the rock, hide in the dust to escape the terror of ADONAI and the glory of his majesty.

11 The proud looks of man will be humiliated; the arrogance of men will be bowed down; and when that day comes, ADONAI alone will be exalted.

12 Yes, ADONAI-Tzva'ot has a day in store for all who are proud and lofty, for all who are lifted high to be humiliated;

13 for all cedars of the L'vanon that are high and lifted up, for all the oaks of the Bashan;

14 for all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up;

15 for every high tower, for every fortified wall;

16 for every "Tarshish" ship, for every luxurious vessel.

17 The pride of man will be bowed down, the arrogance of men will be humiliated, and when that day comes, ADONAI alone will be exalted.

18 The idols will be completely abolished.

19 People will enter cracks in the rocks and holes in the ground to escape the terror of ADONAI and his glorious majesty, when he sets out to convulse the earth.

20 On that day a man will take hold of his idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, and fling them away to the moles and bats!

21 Then they will enter the cracks in the rocks and the crevices in the cliffs to escape the terror of ADONAI and his glorious majesty, when he sets out to convulse the earth.

22 Stop relying on man, in whose nostrils is a mere breath - after all, he doesn't count for much, does he?

1 For see! The Lord, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, will remove from Yerushalayim and Y'hudah every kind of support all reserves of food and water;

2 heroes and warriors, judges and prophets, diviners and leaders,

3 captains of fifty, men of rank and advisers, skillful magicians and expert enchanters.

4 I will put children in authority; capriciousness will govern them.

5 People will oppress each other - everyone his friend, everyone his neighbor. The young will be insolent toward their elders, the insignificant arrogant toward the respected.

6 A man will take hold of his brother in his father's house and say, "You have a coat, so rule us! Take charge of this ruin!"

7 But on that day, he will protest, "I don't have a remedy, I lack food and clothing for my own house; don't put me in charge of people!"

8 For Yerushalayim is ruined, and Y'hudah has fallen; because their words and deeds defy ADONAI, in open provocation of his glory.

9 Their very look witnesses against them! They parade their sin, like S'dom; they don't even try to hide it - all the worse for them! - they bring evil on themselves.

10 Say that it will go well with the righteous, that they will enjoy the fruit of their actions;

11 but woe to the wicked, it will go badly with him; for what he has done will be done to him.

12 My people - children oppress them, and women are ruling over them. My people! Your guides lead you astray and obliterate the paths you should follow.

13 ADONAI rises to accuse, he stands to judge the peoples.

14 ADONAI presents the indictment against the leaders and officers of his people: "It is you who devour the vineyard; in your houses is plunder taken from the poor.

15 What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding down the faces of the poor?" says Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot.

16 Moreover ADONAI says: "Because Tziyon's women are so proud, walking with their heads in the air and throwing seductive glances, moving with mincing steps and jingling their anklets

17 Adonai will strike the crown of the heads of Tziyon's women with sores, and ADONAI will expose their private parts."

18 On that day Adonai will take away their finery - their anklets, medallions and crescents,

19 their pendants, bracelets and veils;

20 their headbands, armlets, sashes, perfume bottles, amulets,

21 rings and nose-jewels;

22 their fine dresses, wraps, shawls, handbags,

23 gauze scarves, linen underclothes, turbans and capes.

24 Then, there will be instead of perfume, a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well-set hair, a shaved scalp; instead of a rich robe, a sackcloth skirt; and a slave-brand instead of beauty.

25 Your men will fall by the sword and your warriors in battle.

26 Her gates will lament and mourn; ravaged, she will sit on the ground.

1 On that day, seven women will grab hold of one man and say, "We will supply our own food and wear our own clothes. Just let us bear your name; take away our disgrace."

2 On that day, ADONAI's plant will be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the land will be the pride and splendor of Isra'el's survivors.

3 Those left in Tziyon and remaining in Yerushalayim will be called holy, and everyone in Yerushalayim written down for life.

4 When Adonai washes away the filth of the women of Tziyon and cleanses Yerushalayim from the blood shed in it with a blast of searing judgment,

5 ADONAI will create over the whole site of Mount Tziyon and over those who assemble there a smoking cloud by day and a shining, flaming fire by night; for the Glory will be over everything like a hupah.

6 A sukkah will give shade by day from the heat; it will also provide refuge and cover from storm and rain.

1 I want to sing a song for someone I love, a song about my loved one and his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

2 He dug up its stones and cleared them away, planted it with the choicest vines, built a watchtower in the middle of it, and carved out in its rock a winepress. He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only sour, wild grapes.

3 Now, citizens of Yerushalayim and people of Y'hudah, judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more could I have done for my vineyard that I haven't already done in it? So why, when I expected good grapes, did it produce sour, wild grapes?

5 Now come, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and [its grapes] will be eaten up; I will break through its fence, and [its vines] will be trampled down.

6 I will let it go to waste: it will be neither pruned nor hoed, but overgrown with briars and thorns. I will also order the clouds not to let rain fall on it.

7 Now the vineyard of ADONAI-Tzva'ot is the house of Isra'el, and the men of Y'hudah are the plant he delighted in. So he expected justice, but look - bloodshed! - and righteousness, but listen - cries of distress!

8 Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, until there's no room for anyone else, and you live in splendor alone on your land.

9 ADONAI-Tzva'ot said in my ears, "Many houses will be brought to ruin, large, magnificent ones left empty;

10 for a ten-acre vineyard will produce only five gallons of wine, and seed from five bushels of grain will yield but half a bushel."

11 Woe to those who get up early to pursue intoxicating liquor; who stay up late at night, until wine inflames them.

12 They have lutes and lyres, drums and flutes, and wine at their parties; but they pay no attention to how ADONAI works and never look at what his hands have made.

13 For such lack of knowledge my people go into exile; this is also why their respected men starve and their masses are parched from thirst.

14 Therefore Sh'ol has enlarged itself and opened its limitless jaws - and down go their nobles and masses, along with their noise and revels.

15 The masses are lowered, the nobles are humbled - proud looks will be brought down.

16 But ADONAI-Tzva'ot is exalted through justice, God the Holy One is consecrated through righteousness.

17 Then lambs will be able to feed as if they were in their own pasture, and those wandering through will eat from the ruined fields of the overfed.

18 Woe to those who begin by pulling at transgression with a thread, but end by dragging sin along as if with a cart rope.

19 They say, "We want God to speed up his work, to hurry it along, so we can see it! We want the Holy One of Isra'el's plan to come true right now, so we can be sure of it!"

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who change darkness into light and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter!

21 Woe to those seeing themselves as wise, esteeming themselves as clever.

22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, men whose power goes to mixing strong drinks,

23 who acquit the guilty for bribes but deny justice to the righteous!

24 Therefore, as fire licks up the stubble, and the chaff is consumed in the flame; so their root will rot, and their flowers scatter like dust; because they have rejected the Torah of ADONAI-Tzva'ot, they have despised the word of the Holy One of Isra'el.

25 This is why ADONAI's anger blazed up against his people, why he stretched out his hand against them and struck them [so hard that] the hills shook, and corpses lay like trash in the streets. Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.

26 He will give a signal to faraway nations, he will whistle for them to come from the ends of the earth; and here they come, so fast!

27 none of them tired or stumbling, none of them sleeping or drowsy, none with a loose belt, none with a broken sandal-strap.

28 Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung, their horses' hoofs are like flint, and their [chariot] wheels like a whirlwind.

29 They will roar like lions - yes, roaring like young lions, they growl and seize the prey and carry it off, with no one to rescue.

30 On that day they will growl at them, like the sea when it growls - and when one looks toward land, one sees darkness closing in; the light is dissipated in the obscuring overcast.

1 In the year of King 'Uziyahu's death I saw Adonai sitting on a high, lofty throne! The hem of his robe filled the temple.

2 S'rafim stood over him, each with six wings - two for covering his face, two for covering his feet and two for flying.

3 They were crying out to each other, "More holy than the holiest holiness is ADONAI-Tzva'ot! The whole earth is filled with his glory!"

4 The doorposts shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke.

5 Then I said, "Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! because I, a man with unclean lips, living among a people with unclean lips, have seen with my own eyes the King, ADONAI-Tzva'ot!"

6 One of the s'rafim flew to me with a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

7 He touched my mouth with it and said, "Here! This has touched your lips. Your iniquity is gone, your sin is atoned for."

8 Then I heard the voice of Adonai saying, "Whom should I send? Who will go for us?" I answered, "I'm here, send me!"

9 He said, "Go and tell this people: 'Yes, you hear, but you don't understand. You certainly see, but you don't get the point!'

10 "Make the heart of this people [sluggish with] fat, stop up their ears, and shut their eyes. Otherwise, seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, then understanding with their hearts, they might repent and be healed!"

11 I asked, "Adonai, how long?" and he answered, "Until cities become uninhabited ruins, houses without human presence, the land utterly wasted;

12 until ADONAI drives the people far away, and the land is one vast desolation.

13 If even a tenth [of the people] remain, it will again be devoured. "But like a pistachio tree or an oak, whose trunk remains alive after its leaves fall off, the holy seed will be its trunk."

1 During the days of Achaz the son of Yotam, the son of 'Uziyahu, king of Y'hudah, Retzin the king of Aram and Pekach the son of Remalyah, king of Isra'el, advanced on Yerushalayim to attack it but were unable to conquer it.

2 It was told to the house of David that Aram and Efrayim had become allies. Achaz's heart began to tremble, as did the hearts of his people, like forest trees shaken by the wind.

3 Then ADONAI said to Yesha'yahu, "Go out now to meet Achaz, you and your son Sh'ar Yashuv, at the end of the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderers' Field;

4 and say to him, 'Take care to stay calm and unafraid; don't be demoralized by these two smoldering stumps of firewood, by the blazing anger of Retzin and Aram or the son of Remalyah;

5 or because Aram, Efrayim and the son of Remalyah have been plotting against you, thinking,

6 "We will invade Y'hudah, tear it apart, divide it among ourselves and appoint the son of Tav'el as king there."

7 "'This is what Adonai ELOHIM says: "It won't occur, it won't happen.

8 For the head of Aram is Dammesek, and the head of Dammesek Retzin. In sixty-five years Efrayim will be broken and will cease to be a people.

9 The head of Efrayim is Shomron, and the head of Shomron is the son of Remalyah. Without firm faith, you will not be firmly established."'"

10 ADONAI spoke again to Achaz; he said,

11 "Ask ADONAI your God to give you a sign. Ask it anywhere, from the depths of Sh'ol to the heights above."

12 But Achaz answered, "I won't ask, I won't test ADONAI."

13 Then [the prophet] said, "Listen here, house of David! Is trying people's patience such a small thing for you that you must try the patience of my God as well?

14 Therefore Adonai himself will give you people a sign: the young woman will become pregnant, bear a son and name him 'Immanu El [God is with us].

15 By the time he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good, he will [have to] eat curdled milk and [wild] honey.

16 Yes, before the child knows enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be left abandoned.

17 ADONAI will bring the king of Ashur on you, your people and your father's house. These will be days worse than any you've known since Efrayim broke loose from Y'hudah." Or: "the virgin." See Introduction, Section XIV, footnote 69.

18 Yes, when that day comes, ADONAI will whistle for the fly in the farthest streams of the Nile in Egypt and for the bee in the land of Ashur.

19 They will come and settle, all of them, in steep vadis and holes in the rocks and on all thorn bushes and brambles.

20 When that day comes, Adonai will shave - with a razor hired beyond the [Euphrates] River, that is, with the king of Ashur - the head and the hair between the legs, and get rid of the beard as well.

21 When that day comes, a man will raise a young cow and two sheep.

22 Will they produce in abundance? No, he will [have to] eat curdled milk. Indeed, everyone left in the land will eat curdled milk and [wild] honey.

23 When that day comes, wherever there once were a thousand grapevines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, there will be only briars and thorns.

24 One will go there [to hunt] with bow and arrow, because all the land will be briars and thorns.

25 You won't visit hills once worked with a hoe, for fear of the briars and thorns; it will be good only for pasturing cattle and being trampled down by sheep.

1 ADONAI said to me, "Take a large tablet, and write on it in easily readable letters; 'Maher shalal, hash baz [the spoil hurries, the prey speeds along].'"

2 I had it witnessed for me by reliable witnesses - Uriyah the cohen and Z'kharyahu the son of Y'verekhyahu.

3 Then I had sexual relations with my wife; she became pregnant and gave birth to a son; and ADONAI said to me, "Name him Maher Shalal Hash Baz;

4 because before the child knows how to cry, 'Abba!' and 'Eema!', the riches of Dammesek and the spoil of Shomron will be carried off and given to the king of Ashur."

5 ADONAI went on speaking and said more to me:

6 "Since this people has rejected the gently flowing waters from Shilo'ach and takes joy in Retzin and the son of Remalyah;

7 now Adonai will bring upon them the mighty floodwaters of the [Euphrates] River - that is, the king of Ashur and his power. It will rise above all its channels and overflow all its banks.

8 It will sweep through Y'hudah, flooding everything and passing on. It will reach even up to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the whole expanse of the land." God is with us! [Hebrew: 'immanu El]

9 You may make an uproar, peoples; but you will be shattered. Listen, all of you from distant lands: arm yourselves, but you will be shattered; yes, arm yourselves, but you will be shattered;

10 devise a plan, but it will come to nothing; say anything you like, but it won't happen; because God is with us [Hebrew: 'immanu El].

11 For this is what ADONAI said to me, speaking with a strong hand, warning me not to live the way this people does:

12 "Don't regard as alliance what this people calls alliance, and don't fear what they fear or be awestruck by it;

13 but ADONAI-Tzva'ot - consecrate him! Let him be the object of your fear and awe!

14 He is there to be a sanctuary. But for both the houses of Isra'el he will be a stone to stumble over, a rock obstructing their way; a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.

15 Many of them will stumble and fall, be broken and trapped and captured.

16 Wrap up this document, and confine its teaching to those I have instructed."

17 I will wait for ADONAI, who is hiding his face from the house of Ya'akov; yes, I will look for him.

18 Meanwhile, I and the children whom ADONAI has given me will become for Isra'el signs and wonders from ADONAI-Tzva'ot living on Mount Tziyon. YESHA'YAHU (ISAIAH) 819

19 So when they tell you to consult those squeaking, squawking mediums and fortune-tellers; [you are to answer], "Shouldn't a people seek their God? Must the living ask the dead

20 for teaching and instruction?" For they will indeed give you this unenlightened suggestion.

21 Distressed and hungry they will pass through the land; and because of their hunger they will grow angry and curse by their king and by their God. But whether they look up [to God]

22 or [down] at the earth, they will see only trouble and darkness, anguished gloom and pervasive darkness.

1 But there will be no more gloom for those who are now in anguish. In the past the land of Z'vulun and the land of Naftali were regarded lightly; but in the future he will honor the way to the lake, beyond the Yarden, Galil-of-the-Goyim.

2 The people living in darkness have seen a great light; upon those living in the land that lies in the shadow of death, light has dawned.

3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice in your presence as if rejoicing at harvest time, the way men rejoice when dividing up the spoil.

4 For the yoke that weighed them down, the bar across their shoulders, and their driver's goad you have broken as on the day of Midyan['s defeat].

5 For all the boots of soldiers marching and every cloak rolled in blood is destined for burning, fuel for the fire.

6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; dominion will rest on his shoulders, and he will be given the name Pele-Yo'etz El Gibbor Avi-'Ad Sar-Shalom [Wonder of a Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace],

7 in order to extend the dominion and perpetuate the peace of the throne and kingdom of David, to secure it and sustain it through justice and righteousness henceforth and forever. The zeal of ADONAI-Tzva'ot will accomplish this.

8 Adonai sent a word to Ya'akov, and it has fallen on Isra'el.

9 All the people know it, Efrayim and the inhabitants of Shomron. But they say in pride, in the arrogance of their hearts,

10 "The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with cut stone; the sycamore-fig trees have been chopped down, but we will replace them with cedars."

11 So ADONAI has raised up Retzin's foes against him and spurred on his enemies -

12 Aram from the east, P'lishtim from the west; and they devour Isra'el with an open mouth. Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.

13 Yet the people do not turn to the one striking them, they don't seek ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

14 Therefore ADONAI will cut off Isra'el's head and tail, [tall] palm frond and [lowly] reed in a single day.

15 The old and the honored are the head, while prophets teaching lies are the tail.

16 For those leading this people lead them astray, and those led by them are destroyed.

17 Therefore Adonai takes no joy in their young men and has no compassion on their orphans and widows; for everyone is ungodly and does evil, every mouth speaks foolishly. Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.

18 For wickedness burns like fire, it devours briars and thorns; it sets the forest underbrush ablaze, with clouds of smoke whirling upward.

19 The anger of ADONAI-Tzva'ot is burning up the land; the people, too, are fuel for the fire - no one spares even his brother.

20 The one on the right grabs but stays hungry, the one on the left eats but is unfilled. Everyone devours his own arm's flesh

21 M'nasheh devours Efrayim; and Efrayim, M'nasheh; while together they oppose Y'hudah. Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.

1 Woe to those who enact unjust decrees and draft oppressive legislation

2 to deprive the impoverished of justice and rob my people's poor of their rights, looting widows and preying on orphans!

3 What will you do on the day of punishment, when calamity comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth,

4 so as not to squat among the prisoners or fall among the slain? Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens.

5 "Oh Ashur, the rod expressing my anger! The club in their hands is my fury!

6 I am sending him against a hypocritical nation, ordering him to march against a people who enrage me, to take the spoil and the plunder and trample them down like mud in the street.

7 That is not what Ashur intends, that is not what they think; rather, they mean to destroy, to cut down nation after nation.

8 For [their king] says, 'Aren't all my commanders kings?

9 Hasn't Kalno [suffered] like Kark'mish, Hamat like Arpad, Shomron like Dammesek?

10 Just as my hand reached the kingdoms of non-gods, with more images than in Yerushalayim and Shomron;

11 so won't I do to Yerushalayim and her non-gods what I did to Shomron and her idols?'"

12 Therefore when Adonai has done everything he intends to do to Mount Tziyon and Yerushalayim, "I will punish the king of Ashur for the boasting that comes from his proud heart and from reveling in his arrogant looks.

13 For he says, "'With my own strong arm I have done this, and with my wisdom, because I'm so clever! I erased the boundaries between peoples, I plundered their stores for the future; as a mighty man, I subjugated the inhabitants.

14 My hand found the riches of the peoples like a nest; and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered the whole earth! Not one wing fluttered, not one beak opened or let out a chirp!'"

15 Should the axe glorify itself over the one who chops with it? Should the saw magnify itself over the one who moves it? It's as if a stick could wave the hand that raises it up, or as if a wooden staff could lift [a person, who is] not made of wood.

16 Therefore the Lord, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, will send leanness to his well-fed ones; and in place of his glory, a fire will be kindled that will burn and burn.

17 The light of Isra'el will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, burning and devouring his thorns and briars in a single day.

18 The glory of his forest and of his fertile land he will consume body and soul, like an invalid wasting away.

19 So few forest trees will remain that a child could list them.

20 On that day the remnant of Isra'el, those of the house of Ya'akov who escaped, will no longer rely on the man who struck them down, but will truly rely on ADONAI, the Holy One of Isra'el.

21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Ya'akov, to the mighty God.

22 For, although your people, Isra'el, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with justice.

23 Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot will bring about this decreed destruction throughout all the land.

24 Therefore Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot says: "My people living in Tziyon, don't be afraid of Ashur, even when he strikes you with a stick and raises his staff against you, the way it was in Egypt.

25 For in but a little while, my fury will end; and my anger will have destroyed them."

26 ADONAI-Tzva'ot will wield a whip against them, as he did when striking Midyan at the Rock of 'Orev; as his staff was over the sea, he will raise it, the way it was in Egypt.

27 On that day his burden will fall from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck; the yoke will be destroyed by your prosperity.

28 He has come to 'Ayat and passed through Migron. He has stored his equipment at Mikhmas.

29 They have crossed the pass, then lodged at Geva. Ramah is shaking, Giv'at-Sha'ul has fled.

30 Cry, shriek, Bat-Gallim! Listen, Layish! Poor 'Anatot!

31 Madmenah is in flight, The people of Gevim take cover.

32 This very day he will stop at Nov; and he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Tziyon, at the hill of Yerushalayim.

33 See how Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot lops off the branches with terrible violence! The ones standing highest are chopped down, the lofty are laid low.

34 He will hack down the forest underbrush with an axe, and the L'vanon in its splendor falls.

1 But a branch will emerge from the trunk of Yishai, a shoot will grow from his roots.

2 The Spirit of ADONAI will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and fearing ADONAI

3 he will be inspired by fearing ADONAI. He will not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear,

4 but he will judge the impoverished justly; he will decide fairly for the humble of the land. He will strike the land with a rod from his mouth and slay the wicked with a breath from his lips.

5 Justice will be the belt around his waist, faithfulness the sash around his hips.

6 The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard lie down with the kid; calf, young lion and fattened lamb together, with a little child to lead them.

7 Cow and bear will feed together, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 An infant will play on a cobra's hole, a toddler put his hand in a viper's nest.

9 They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be as full of the knowledge of ADONAI as water covering the sea.

10 On that day the root of Yishai, which stands as a banner for the peoples - the Goyim will seek him out, and the place where he rests will be glorious.

11 On that day Adonai will raise his hand again, a second time, to reclaim the remnant of his people who remain from Ashur, Egypt, Patros, Ethiopia, 'Eilam, Shin'ar, Hamat and the islands in the sea.

12 He will hoist a banner for the Goyim, assemble the dispersed of Isra'el, and gather the scattered of Y'hudah from the four corners of the earth.

13 Efrayim's jealousy will cease - those who harass Y'hudah will be cut off, Efrayim will stop envying Y'hudah, and Y'hudah will stop provoking Efrayim.

14 They will swoop down on the flank of the P'lishtim to the west. Together they will pillage the people to the east - they will put out their hand over Edom and Mo'av, and the people of 'Amon will obey them.

15 ADONAI will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian Sea. He will shake his hand over the [Euphrates] River to bring a scorching wind, dividing it into seven streams and enabling people to cross dryshod.

16 There will be a highway for the remnant of his people who are still left from Ashur, just as there was for Isra'el when he came out from the land of Egypt.

1 On that day you will say: "I thank you, ADONAI, because, although you were angry at me, your anger is now turned away; and you are comforting me.

2 "See! God is my salvation. I am confident and unafraid; for Yah ADONAI is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation!"

3 Then you will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation.

4 On that day you will say, "Give thanks to ADONAI! Call on his name! Make his deeds known among the peoples, declare how exalted is his name.

5 Sing to ADONAI, for he has triumphed - this is being made known throughout the earth.

6 Shout and sing for joy, you who live in Tziyon; for the Holy One of Isra'el is with you in his greatness!"

1 This is a prophecy about Bavel, which Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz saw:

2 Hoist a banner on a high mountain, shout to [the invaders]; beckon them to enter the Nobles' Gate.

3 "I have ordered my holy ones, summoned my heroes, eager and bold, to execute my anger."

4 Listen! A tumult on the mountains - it sounds like a vast multitude! Listen! The uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathering together! ADONAI-Tzva'ot is mustering an army for war.

5 They come from a distant land, from beyond the horizon. It's ADONAI, with the weapons of his rage, to lay waste to all the earth.

6 Howl! for the Day of ADONAI is at hand, destruction coming from Shaddai.

7 This is why every arm will hang limp and everyone's courage melt away.

8 They will be gripped by panic, seized with pain and agony, writhing like a woman in labor, looking aghast at each other, faces aflame.

9 Here comes the Day of ADONAI, full of cruelty, rage and hot fury, to desolate the earth and destroy the sinners in it.

10 For the stars, the constellations in the sky, will no longer give their light; the sun will be dark when it rises; and the moon will no longer shine.

11 "I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the arrogance of the proud and humble the insolence of tyrants.

12 I will make humans rarer than gold, scarcer than Ofir's pure gold.

13 This is why I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of ADONAI-Tzva'ot on the day of his fierce anger.

14 Then, like a hunted gazelle, like sheep with no one to gather them, everyone will head back to his own people; everyone will flee to his own land.

15 Anyone found will be pierced through; anyone caught will fall by the sword,

16 their babies dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses looted, their wives raped.

17 I will stir up against them the Medes, who cannot be tempted by silver or bought off with gold.

18 Their bows will tear young men to pieces, they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb, their eye will not spare children."

19 Thus Bavel, that jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Kasdim, will be like S'dom and 'Amora when overthrown by God.

20 It will never again be inhabited, never lived in through all generations. Arabs will not pitch tents there nor shepherds bring their flocks.

21 But wildcats will lie there, their houses will be full of owls, ostriches will live there, and wild goats will dance there.

22 Jackals will howl in their palaces and wild dogs in their temples of delight. Its time is close at hand, its days will not last long.

1 For ADONAI will have compassion on Ya'akov - he will once again choose Isra'el and resettle them in their own land, where foreigners will join them, attaching themselves to the house of Ya'akov.

2 Peoples will take and escort them to their homeland, and the house of Isra'el will possess them in the land of ADONAI as male and female slaves. They will take their captors captive and rule over their oppressors.

3 Then, when ADONAI gives you rest from your suffering and trouble and from the hard service imposed on you,

4 you will take up this taunt-song against the king of Bavel: "At last the oppressor is stilled, his arrogance is ended!

5 ADONAI has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,

6 which furiously struck down peoples with unceasing blows, angrily beating down nations with relentless persecution.

7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet. They break into song.

8 The cypresses rejoice over you, with the cedars of the L'vanon - 'Now that you are laid low, no one comes to cut us down.'

9 "Sh'ol below is stirred up to meet you when you come. It awakens for you the ghosts of the dead who were leaders on earth; it makes all the kings of the nations arise from their thrones.

10 They all greet you with these words: 'Now you are as weak as we are, you have become like us!

11 Your pride has been brought down to Sh'ol with the music of your lyres, under you a mattress of maggots, over you a blanket of worms.'

12 "How did you come to fall from the heavens, morning star, son of the dawn? How did you come to be cut to the ground, conqueror of nations?

13 You thought to yourself, 'I will scale the heavens, I will raise my throne above God's stars. I will sit on the Mount of Assembly far away in the north.

14 I will rise past the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.'

15 "Instead you are brought down to Sh'ol, to the uttermost depths of the pit.

16 Those who see you will stare at you, reflecting on what has become of you: 'Is this the man who shook the earth, who made kingdoms tremble,

17 who made the world a desert, who destroyed its cities, who would not set his prisoners free?'

18 "All other kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory, each in his tomb.

19 But you are discarded, unburied, like a loathed branch, clothed like the slain who were pierced by the sword, then fall to the stones inside a pit, like a corpse to be trampled underfoot.

20 You will not be joined with those kings in the grave, because you destroyed your own land, you have brought death to your own people. The descendants of evildoers will be utterly forgotten.

21 Get ready to slaughter his sons for the iniquity of their fathers; so they won't arise, take over the earth and cover the world with their cities."

22 "I will arise against them," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot. "I will cut off from Bavel name and remnant, offshoot and offspring," says ADONAI.

23 "I will make it a haunt for hedgehogs, it will become a swampy waste, I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

24 ADONAI-Tzva'ot has sworn, "Just as I thought it, it will occur; just as I planned it, so it will be.

25 I will break Ashur in my land, I will trample him down on my mountains. Then his yoke will fall off them, his burden be removed from their shoulders."

26 This is the program planned for all the earth, this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.

27 ADONAI-Tzva'ot has made his decision. Who is there that can stop him? He has stretched out his hand. Who can turn it back?

28 In the year that King Achaz died, this prophecy came:

29 Do not rejoice, P'leshet, any of you, that the rod which struck you is broken; for out of the snake's root will come a viper, and his offspring will be a flying fiery serpent.

30 While the firstborn of the poor graze and the needy lie down in safety, I will kill off your root with famine and slaughter the rest of you.

31 Howl, gate! Cry, city! Melt away, P'leshet, all of you! For a smoke is coming from the north, with not a straggler in its ranks.

32 And what is one to answer the messengers of the nation? That ADONAI founded Tziyon, and there the poor of his people will find refuge.

1 This is a prophecy about Mo'av: The night 'Ar is sacked, Mo'av is ruined. The night Kir is sacked, Mo'av is ruined.

2 He went up to the temple, to Dibon and to the high places, to weep. On N'vo and Meidva Mo'av is howling, every head shaved bald, every beard cut off.

3 In the streets they wear sackcloth; on their roofs and in their squares, everyone howls and weeps profusely.

4 Heshbon and El'aleh cry out, they are heard as far as Yachatz. Mo'av's best troops cry aloud, as their courage faints away.

5 My heart cries out for Mo'av! Its fugitives flee to Tzo'ar, a calf three years old. They ascend the slope of Luchit, weeping as they go; on their way to Horonayim, they utter heartrending cries.

6 The waters of Nimrim are desolate, the grass is dried up, the new growth fails, nothing green is left.

7 Therefore they carry away their wealth, everything they have put aside, across the Vadi of the Willows.

8 For the cry has circulated throughout Mo'av's territory - its howling has reached Eglayim, its howling has reached Be'er-Elim.

9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood, yet I have worse in store for Dimon - a lion for those who escape from Mo'av and for those who remain in its land.

1 Send lambs for the ruler of the land from the crags toward the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Tziyon.

2 The daughters of Mo'av at the fords of the Arnon are like fluttering birds pushed from the nest.

3 "Give [us] counsel! Decide [to help]! Make your shadow [over us] like night in the middle of noonday. Hide [our] outcasts! Don't betray [our] fugitives!

4 Let our outcasts live with you! Protect Mo'av from the attacks of robbers!" For when the extorting ends, the spoiling ceases, and those trampling on the land are destroyed,

5 a throne will be set up by grace, and on it, in the tent of David, will sit an honest judge, seeking justice and pursuing righteousness.

6 We have heard about Mo'av's pride, how very proud they are; about their haughty arrogance, their insolence and bravado.

7 Therefore Mo'av will wail for Mo'av - they will all wail! You will sigh, stricken by grief, for the raisin-cakes of Kir-Hareset.

8 For the grainfields of Heshbon are withering, also the vineyards of Sibmah, whose red grapes overpowered rulers of nations - once they reached as far as Ya'zer and trailed out into the desert; their spreading branches even crossed the sea.

9 Therefore I will weep for Sibmah's vine as I weep for Ya'zer; I will water you with my tears, Heshbon and El'aleh; because the shouts of battle are falling on your summer fruits and harvest;

10 gladness and joy are removed from the fruitful fields. No revelry in the vineyards, no happy shouting, no one treading grapes in the wine presses - I have silenced the vintage-cheers.

11 This is why my heart throbs like a lyre for Mo'av, and everything in me for Kir-Heres.

12 Even when Mo'av is seen growing weary of worshipping on the high places and entering their sanctuaries to pray, they will have accomplished nothing.

13 This is the word ADONAI spoke against Mo'av in the past.

14 But now ADONAI has said, "Within three years [and not a day more], as if a hired worker were keeping track of the time, the glory of Mo'av will be brought into contempt, despite its large population; and the surviving remnant will be few and feeble."

1 This is a prophecy about Dammesek: "Dammesek will soon stop being a city; it will become a heap of ruins.

2 The cities of 'Aro'er will be abandoned, given over to flocks lying down undisturbed.

3 Efrayim will have no defenses, Dammesek will cease to rule, and Aram's survivors will share the fate of Isra'el's finest sons," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

4 "When that day comes, Ya'akov's glory will wane, and his full body grow thin,

5 as when the harvester collects the standing grain, reaping the ears of grain with his arm; yes, as when they glean the grain in the Refa'im Valley.

6 Yet gleanings will be left, as when beating an olive tree - two or three olives at the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches," says ADONAI, the God of Isra'el.

7 On that day, a person will heed his Maker and turn his eyes toward the Holy One of Isra'el.

8 He will pay no heed to the altars made with his own hands, he will not turn toward what his fingers made, the sacred poles and standing-stones for sun-worship.

9 When that day comes, his strong cities, which others abandoned when Isra'el advanced, will be like abandoned woods and forests; they will be laid waste.

10 For you have forgotten the God who saved you, failed to remember the Rock of your strength; so you plant pagan-style gardens and set out vine-cuttings for a foreign god.

11 Though you make them grow on the day you plant them, and in the morning your seedlings flower; the crop will vanish the day disease comes, a day of incurable pain.

12 Oh, the terror-stricken uproar of many peoples, roaring like the roar of the seas, and the rushing about of nations, rushing and surging like wild, wild waters!

13 Yes, the nations will roar like the mighty ocean, but he will rebuke them, and far will they flee, driven like chaff by a mountain wind, like whirling dust in advance of the storm.

14 As evening falls, you can see terror; before sunrise, they have ceased to be. This is the lot of those who plunder us, the fate of those who prey on us.

1 Woe to the land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;

2 they send ambassadors by sea, across the water in papyrus-reed boats! Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and bronzed, to a people feared far and near, to a strong and conquering nation whose land is divided by rivers!

3 All you inhabitants of the world, you who live on the earth: when a banner is hoisted on the mountains, look! When the shofar is blown, listen!

4 For ADONAI has said this to me: "I will look on from my place and do nothing, like heat shimmering in the sun, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

5 For before the harvest, when the flowering is over, and the bud becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the branches with pruning-knives, lop off the twigs and take them away.

6 They will all be left to the vultures in the mountains and to the wild animals in the fields; the vultures will feed on them in summer, and the wild animals of the fields in winter.

7 At that time tribute will be brought to ADONAI-Tzva'ot from a nation tall and bronzed, from a people feared far and near, from a strong and conquering nation whose land is divided by rivers, to the place where the name of ADONAI-Tzva'ot lives, Mount Tziyon.

1 This is a prophecy about Egypt: Look! ADONAI is riding a swift cloud, on his way to Egypt. Before him Egypt's idols tremble, Egypt's courage melts within them.

2 "I will incite Egypt against Egypt, brother will fight against brother, friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

3 The courage of Egypt will ebb away within it, I will reduce its counsel to confusion. They will consult idols and mediums, ghosts and spirits.

4 I will hand over the Egyptians to a cruel master. A harsh king will rule them," says the Lord, ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

5 The water will ebb from the sea, the river will be drained dry.

6 The rivers will become foul, the canals of Egypt's Nile will dwindle and dry up, the reeds and rushes will wither.

7 The river-plants on the banks of the Nile and everything sown near the Nile will dry up, blow away and be no more.

8 Fishermen too will lament, all who cast hooks in the Nile will mourn, those who spread nets on the water lose heart.

9 The linen-workers will be in despair, along with the weavers of white cotton;

10 the spinners will be crushed, the hired workers dejected.

11 The princes of Tzo'an are utter fools, Pharaoh's wisest counselors give stupid advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I'm a sage, descended from kings of old."

12 Where are they, then, those sages of yours? Let them tell you, so all can know what ADONAI-Tzva'ot has planned against Egypt!

13 The princes of Tzo'an have been fooled, the princes of Nof have been duped, Egypt's clan chiefs have led her astray.

14 ADONAI has mixed up their minds with a spirit that distorts judgment, so they make Egypt stagger in whatever she does, like a drunk staggering in his vomit.

15 Nobody in Egypt will find work to do - neither head nor tail, neither [tall] palm frond nor [lowly] reed.

16 On that day Egypt will be like women trembling with fear, because ADONAI-Tzva'ot is shaking his fist at them.

17 Just mentioning the land of Y'hudah to the Egyptians will throw them into panic; they will be afraid because of what ADONAI-Tzva'ot has planned for them.

18 On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Kena'an and swear loyalty to ADONAI-Tzva'ot; one of them will be called the City of Destruction.

19 On that day there will be an altar to ADONAI in the middle of the land of Egypt, as well as a standing-stone for ADONAI at its border.

20 It will be a sign and witness to ADONAI-Tzva'ot in the land of Egypt; so that when they cry out to ADONAI for help because of the oppressors, he will send them a savior to defend and rescue them.

21 ADONAI will make himself known to Egypt; on that day, the Egyptians will know ADONAI. They will worship him with sacrifices and offerings, they will make vows to ADONAI and keep them.

22 Yet ADONAI will strike Egypt, both striking and healing, so they will return to ADONAI. He will listen to their prayers, and he will heal them.

23 On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Ashur. Ashur will come to Egypt and Egypt to Ashur, and Egypt will worship with Ashur.

24 On that day Isra'el will be a third partner with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing here on earth;

25 for ADONAI-Tzva'ot has blessed him: "Blessed be Egypt my people, Ashur the work of my hands and Isra'el my heritage." Hebrew 'ir haheres, parodying 'ir hacheres, "City of the Sun," i.e., Heliopolis

1 In the year that Sargon the king of Ashur sent his commander-in-chief to attack Ashdod, he captured it.

2 It was at that time that ADONAI, speaking through Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz, said, "Go and unwind the sackcloth from around your waist, and take your sandals off your feet." So he did it, going about unclothed and barefoot.

3 In time, ADONAI said, "Just as my servant Yesha'yahu has gone about unclothed and barefoot for three years as a sign and portent against Egypt and Ethiopia,

4 so will the king of Ashur lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, unclothed and barefoot, with their buttocks exposed, to the shame of Egypt.

5 They will be dismayed and ashamed because of Ethiopia their hope and Egypt their pride.

6 On that day, the people living along this coast will say, 'Look what happened to the people to whom we fled for help, hoping they would rescue us from the king of Ashur! How will we escape now?'"

1 A prophecy about the coastal desert: Like whirlwinds sweeping over the Negev, it comes from the desert, from a fearsome land.

2 A dire vision has been shown to me: the betrayer betrays, and the spoiler spoils. 'Eilam, advance! Madai, lay siege! I will end all groaning.

3 This is why my insides are racked with pain; I am seized by pangs, like a woman in labor; wrenched by what I hear, aghast at what I see.

4 My mind reels, shuddering assails me. The twilight I longed for terrifies me.

5 They set the table, light the lamps, eat and drink - "Get going, princes! Oil the shields!"

6 For this is what Adonai said to me: "Go, post a watchman to report what he sees!

7 If he sees the cavalry, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be on alert, on full alert!"

8 He calls out like a lion: "My lord, I stand on the watchtower all day long, I stay at my post all night."

9 Then, as they appeared - the cavalry, horsemen in pairs - he spoke these words: "She has fallen! She has fallen - Bavel! All the carved images of her gods lie shattered on the ground."

10 My people, who have been threshed, grain trodden down on my threshing-floor: I am telling you what I have heard from ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el.

11 A prophecy about Dumah: Someone is calling to me from Se'ir: "Watchman, how much longer is it night? Watchman, how much longer is it night?"

12 The watchman answers: "Morning is coming, but also the night. If you want to ask, ask! Come back again!"

13 A prophecy about Arabia: You caravans of D'danim will camp in the desert growth of Arabia.

14 Bring water to the thirsty, you who live in Teima, greet the fugitives with food;

15 because they are fleeing the sword, the drawn sword, the bent bow and the press of battle.

16 For this is what Adonai has told me: "Within a year [and not a day more], as if a hired worker were keeping track of the time, the glory of Kedar will come to an end.

17 Few of Kedar's valiant archers will be left. " ADONAI the God of Isra'el has spoken.

1 A prophecy about the Valley of Vision: Tell me what is wrong with you, that you have all gone up on the roofs.

2 You city full of noise, confusion and boisterous excitement, your slain did not fall to the sword, nor did they die in battle.

3 All your leaders fled together and were captured without the use of a bow; all from you who were found were captured, even though they had fled far away.

4 This is why I said, "Don't look at me, leave me alone to weep bitterly, don't try to comfort me over the destruction of my people."

5 For it is a day of panic, trampling and confusion from Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot in the Valley of Vision. With walls crashing down, they cry for help to the mountains.

6 'Eilam picks up the quivers, with cavalry and horsemen, and Kir uncovers the shields.

7 In time, your choicest valleys are overrun by chariots, and the cavalry take their posts by the gate;

8 thus is Y'hudah's protection removed. That day you looked for the armor in the House of the Forest.

9 You saw how many breaches there were in the City of David, you collected water from the lower pool,

10 you surveyed the houses in Yerushalayim, tearing some down to fortify the wall.

11 You also built a reservoir between the two walls for the water from the Old Pool; but you didn't look to Him who made these things; you had no respect for Him who fashioned them long ago.

12 That day Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot called on you to weep and mourn, to shave your heads and wear sackcloth;

13 but instead, one sees joy and celebrating, killing of oxen, slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat, drinking of wine "Let's eat and drink now, because tomorrow we'll be dead!"

14 Then ADONAI-Tzva'ot revealed himself in my ears: "You will not atone for this iniquity until you die." This is what Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot says.

15 Thus says Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot: "Go and find that steward, Shevna, administrator of the palace, and ask him:

16 'What do you own here, and who gave you the right to cut yourself a tomb here? Why do you get such an eminent tomb? Why are you carving a resting-place for yourself in the rock?'"

17 Look, strong man! ADONAI is about to throw you out! He will grab you,

18 roll you up, and toss you around like a ball in the open country. There you will die, with your fancy chariots, you disgrace to your master's palace!

19 "I will remove you from your office, I will snatch you from your post.

20 When that day comes, I will summon my servant Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu.

21 I will dress him in your robe, gird him with your sash of office, and invest him with your authority. He will be a father to the people living in Yerushalayim and to the house of Y'hudah.

22 I will place the key of David's house on his shoulder; no one will shut what he opens; no one will open what he shuts.

23 "I will fasten him firmly in place like a peg, so that he will become a seat of honor for his clan.

24 They will hang on him all the weight of his clan, descendants and offspring, as well as all the vessels of small capacity, from pitchers to cups.

25 When that day comes, the peg fastened firmly in place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the weight that was on it will be cut off." For ADONAI has said it.

1 A prophecy about Tzor: Howl, you "Tarshish" ships, because the harbor is destroyed! On returning from Kittim, they discover they cannot enter it.

2 Silence, you who live on the coast, you who have been enriched by the merchants of Tzidon crossing the sea.

3 By the great water the grain of Shichor, the harvest of the Nile, brought you profits. She was marketplace for the nations.

4 Shame, Tzidon, for the sea speaks; the fortress of the sea says, "I no longer have labor pains or bear children, yet I have raised neither boys nor girls.

5 When the report reaches Egypt, they will be in anguish at the fate of Tzor.

6 Cross over to Tarshish! Howl, you who live on the coast!

7 Is this your boisterous city, whose feet long ago in antiquity carried her off to found distant colonies?

8 Who planned this against Tzor, the city that once bestowed crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are honored throughout the earth?

9 ADONAI-Tzva'ot planned it to break the pride of all the arrogant, to humiliate all those who are honored everywhere on earth.

10 People of Tarshish! Nothing restricts you now. You can flow freely over your land just like the Nile River.

11 He has stretched out his hand against the sea, he has shaken kingdoms; ADONAI has ordered that Kena'an's fortresses be destroyed.

12 He has said, "Exult no more, oppressed virgin daughter of Tzidon. Arise, cross to Kittim; even there you will find no rest."

13 Look at the land of the Kasdim! This was the people who did not exist when Ashur destined it for desert creatures. They erected their siege towers and tore down her palaces, so that it has been made a ruin.

14 Howl, you "Tarshish" ships, because your fortress is destroyed

15 When that day comes, Tzor will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of a king. After seventy years, its fate will be the same as that of the prostitute in this song:

16 "Take a lyre, walk the city, you poor, forgotten whore! Play sweetly, sing all your songs, so that they will remember you!"

17 After seventy years are over ADONAI will remember Tzor. She will receive her wages again and prostitute herself to all the world's kingdoms on the face of the earth.

18 But her merchandise and profits will be dedicated to ADONAI; they will not be stored up or hoarded, because her profits will be for those living in ADONAI's presence, so that they can eat their fill and wear fine clothing.

1 Look! ADONAI is stripping and destroying the land, turning it upside down and scattering its inhabitants

2 cohen and commoner, slave and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

3 The land will be completely stripped, completely plundered, for ADONAI has spoken this word.

4 The land fades and withers, the world wilts and withers, the exalted of the land languish.

5 The land lies defiled under its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the teachings, changed the law and broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore a curse is devouring the land, and its inhabitants are punished for their guilt. It is why those living there waste away, and the people left are few.

7 The new wine fails, the vines wilt, all the revelers sigh,

8 the happy sound of tambourines ceases, the shouts of merrymakers are stilled, the joy of the lyre ends.

9 They no longer sing as they drink their wine, strong liquor tastes bitter to those drinking it.

10 The city of chaos is shattered, every house closed up; no one can enter.

11 In the streets they are crying over the wine; all joy has faded, cheer has left the land.

12 In the city, only desolation, its gates are battered beyond repair.

13 Around the earth, among the peoples, it will be as when beating an olive tree, as when gleaning the grapes at the end of the harvest.

14 They lift their voices, singing for joy, shouting from the west to honor ADONAI.

15 So in the east, honor ADONAI ; in the coastlands, honor the name of ADONAI, the God of Isra'el.

16 From the farthest part of the earth we have heard them sing, "Glory to the Righteous One!" But, I say, I'm wasting away, I am wasting away! Woe to me! Traitors betray! Oh, how the traitors betray and betray!

17 Terror, pit and trap are upon you, you who are living on earth.

18 He who flees at the sound of terror will fall into the pit. He who climbs up out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For the windows above have been opened, and the earth's foundations shake.

19 The earth cracks and breaks open, the earth crumbles to pieces, the earth trembles and totters.

20 The earth staggers to and fro like a drunk, sways back and forth like a watchman's shelter; its transgression weighs heavy upon it; it will fall and not rise again.

21 When that day comes, ADONAI will punish the armies of the high heaven on high, and the kings of the earth here on earth.

22 They will be assembled like prisoners in a dungeon and shut up in prison to be punished many years.

23 Then the moon will be confused and the sun ashamed, for ADONAI-Tzva'ot will rule on Mount Tziyon and in Yerushalayim, with his glory manifest to the rulers of his people.

1 ADONAI, you are my God. I exalt you, I praise your name. For you have accomplished marvels, [fulfilled] ancient plans faithfully and truly.

2 For you have made a city a heap of stones, turned a fortified city into rubble, made the foreigners' fortress a city that will never be rebuilt.

3 Therefore mighty peoples glorify you, the city of ruthless nations fears you.

4 For you have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in distress, shelter from the storm, shade from the heat for the blast from the ruthless was like a storm that could destroy a wall.

5 Like desert heat, you subdue the foreigners' uproar; like heat subdued by a cloud's shadow, the song of the ruthless dies away.

6 On this mountain ADONAI-Tzva'ot will make for all peoples a feast of rich food and superb wines, delicious, rich food and superb, elegant wines.

7 On this mountain he will destroy the veil which covers the face of all peoples, the veil enshrouding all the nations.

8 He will swallow up death forever. Adonai ELOHIM will wipe away the tears from every face, and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people suffer. For ADONAI has spoken.

9 On that day they will say, "See! This is our God! We waited for him to save us. This is ADONAI ; we put our hope in him. We are full of joy, so glad he saved us!"

10 For on this mountain the hand of ADONAI will rest. But Mo'av will be trampled down where they are, like straw trampled into a pile of manure.

11 They will spread out their hands in Mo'av, like a swimmer using his hands to tread water; but their pride will be humbled and sunk, no matter how clever the strokes of their hands.

12 Your high, fortified walls he will level, strike to the ground, lay in the dust.

1 On that day this song will be sung in the land of Y'hudah: "We have a strong city! He has built walls and ramparts for our safety.

2 Open the gates! Let the righteous nation enter, a nation that keeps faith!

3 "A person whose desire rests on you you preserve in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.

4 Trust in ADONAI forever, because in Yah ADONAI, is a Rock of Ages."

5 For he has humbled those in high places, levelling the lofty city, levelling it to the ground, laying it in the dust.

6 It is trampled underfoot by the feet of the poor, by the footsteps of the needy.

7 The way of the righteous is level; Righteous One, you smooth the path for the righteous.

8 Following the way of your judgments, we put our hope in you. The desire of all our soul is to remember you and your name.

9 My soul desires you at night, my spirit in me seeks you at dawn; for when your judgments are here on earth, the people in the world learn what righteousness is.

10 Even if pity is shown to the wicked, he still doesn't learn what righteousness is. In a land of uprightness he will still act wrongly and fail to see the majesty of ADONAI.

11 ADONAI, you raised your hand, but they still didn't see. Yet with shame they will see your zeal for the people. Yes, fire will destroy your enemies.

12 ADONAI, you will grant us peace; because all we have done, you have done for us.

13 ADONAI our God, other lords besides you have ruled us, but only you do we invoke by name.

14 The dead will not live again, the ghosts will not rise again; for you punished and destroyed them, wiped out all memory of them.

15 You enlarged the nation, ADONAI, you enlarged the nation; and thus you glorified yourself; you extended all the frontiers of the country.

16 ADONAI, when they were troubled, they sought you. When you chastened them, they poured out a silent prayer.

17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth cries out and writhes in her labor pains, so we have been at your presence, ADONAI

18 we have been pregnant and been in pain. But we, as it were, have given birth to wind; we have not brought salvation to the land, and those inhabiting the world have not come to life.

19 Your dead will live, my corpses will rise; awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the morning dew, and the earth will bring the ghosts to life.

20 Come, my people, enter your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past.

21 For see! ADONAI emerges from his place to punish those on earth for their sin. Then the earth will reveal the blood shed on it and no longer conceal its slain.

1 On that day ADONAI, with his great, strong, relentless sword, will punish Livyatan the fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent Livyatan; he will slay the sea monster.

2 On that day, a pleasant vineyard - sing about it!

3 "I, ADONAI, guard it. Moment to moment I water it. So that no harm will come to it, I guard it night and day.

4 I have no anger in me. If it gives me briars and thorns, then, as in war, I will trample it down and burn it up at once;

5 unless it takes hold of my strength, in order to make peace with me, yes, to make peace with me."

6 The time is coming when Ya'akov will take root; Isra'el will bud and flower, and fill the whole world with a harvest.

7 [ADONAI] will not strike Isra'el, as he did others who struck Isra'el; he will not kill them, as he did the others.

8 Your controversy with her is fully resolved by sending her [into exile]. He removes her with a rough gust of wind on a day when it's blowing from the east.

9 So the iniquity of Ya'akov is atoned for by this, and removing his sin produces this result: he chops up all the altar stones like chalk - sacred poles and sun-pillars stand no more.

10 For the fortified city is alone, abandoned and deserted, like the desert. Calves graze and lie down there, stripping its branches bare.

11 When its harvest dries up, it is broken off; women come and set it on fire. For this is a people without understanding. Therefore he who made them will not pity them, he who formed them will show them no mercy.

12 On that day ADONAI will beat out the grain between the Euphrates River and the Vadi of Egypt; and you will be gathered, one by one, people of Isra'el!

13 On that day a great shofar will sound. Those lost in the land of Ashur will come, also those scattered through the land of Egypt; and they will worship ADONAI on the holy mountain in Yerushalayim.

1 Woe to the haughty crown of Efrayim's drunks, to the fading flower of its proud splendor, located at the head of the rich valley belonging to people overcome by wine!

2 Adonai has someone strong and powerful. He comes like a hailstorm, a destructive tempest, like a flood of water, rushing, overwhelming; with his hand he hurls them to the ground.

3 The haughty crown of Efrayim's drunks is trampled underfoot;

4 and the fading flower of its proud splendor, located at the head of the rich valley, is like the first ripe fig of summer whoever sees it picks and eats it.

5 On that day, ADONAI-Tzva'ot will be a glorious crown, a brilliant diadem for the remnant of his people.

6 He will also be a spirit of justice for whoever sits as a judge, and a source of strength for those repelling enemy attacks at the gate.

7 But there are others reeling from wine, staggering about because of strong liquor; cohen and prophet reel from strong liquor, they are confused by wine. Led astray by strong liquor, they err in their visions and stumble when judging.

8 All tables are covered with vomit and feces, not a single place is clean.

9 Can no one be taught anything? Can no one understand the message? Must one teach barely weaned toddlers, babies just taken from the breast,

10 so that [one has to use nursery rhymes]? Tzav la-tzav, tzav la-tzav, kav la-kav, kav la-kav z'eir sham, z'eir sham [Precept by precept, precept by precept, line by line, line by line, a little here, a little there].

11 So with stammering lips, in a foreign accent, [ADONAI] will speak to this people.

12 He once told this people, "It's time to rest, the exhausted can rest, now you can relax" - but they wouldn't listen.

13 So now the word of ADONAI for them comes "precept by precept, precept by precept, line by line, line by line, a little here, a little there," so that when they walk, they stumble backward, and are broken, trapped and captured!

14 So listen to the word of ADONAI, you scoffers, composing taunts for this people in Yerushalayim:

15 Because you said, "We made a covenant with death, we made a contract with Sh'ol. When the raging flood passes through, it will not touch us. For we have made lies our refuge and hid ourselves in falsehoods"

16 therefore here is what Adonai ELOHIM says: "Look, I am laying in Tziyon a tested stone, a costly cornerstone, a firm foundation-stone; he who trusts will not rush here and there.

17 I will make justice the plumbline and righteousness the plumb-bob; hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, water will overflow the hiding place,

18 your covenant with death will be annulled, and your contract with Sh'ol will not stand. When the raging flood passes through, you will be trampled down by it.

19 As often as it passes through, it will take you, for it will pass through every morning, day after day, night after night; understanding the message will be sheer terror."

20 For, [as the saying goes,] "The bed is too short for a person to stretch, and the blanket too narrow [to protect him from cold] even if he crams himself in."

21 For ADONAI will arise, as at Mount P'ratzim, and storm with rage, as in the Giv'on Valley; so he can do his deed, his strange deed, and perform his task, his alien task.

22 Therefore, now, stop your scoffing, or your bonds will be further tightened; for I have heard from Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot that destruction is decreed for the whole land.

23 Listen and hear my voice; pay attention, and hear what I say:

24 Does a farmer sowing keep plowing forever? Does he never stop breaking up and harrowing his land?

25 No - when he finishes levelling it, he scatters his dill-seed, sows his cumin, puts wheat in rows, barley where it belongs, and plants buckwheat around the edges;

26 because his God has taught him this, has given him instruction.

27 Dill must not be threshed with a sledge or cartwheels driven over cumin; rather, dill one beats with a stick and cumin with a flail.

28 When crushing grain for bread, one doesn't thresh it forever; one drives the horse and cart wheels over it but doesn't crush it to powder.

29 This too comes from ADONAI-Tzva'ot - his counsel is wonderful, his wisdom great.

1 Woe to Ari'el [fireplace on God's altar, lion of God] - Ari'el, the city where David encamped! Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,

2 but then I will bring trouble to Ari'el. There will be mourning and moaning, as she becomes truly an ari'el for me.

3 I will encamp all around you, besiege you with towers and mount siege-works against you.

4 Prostrate, you will speak from the ground; your words will be stifled by the dust; your voice will sound like a ghost in the ground, your words like squeaks in the dust.

5 But your many foes will become like fine powder, the horde of tyrants like blowing chaff, and it will happen very suddenly.

6 You will be visited by ADONAI-Tzva'ot with thunder, earthquakes and loud noises, whirlwinds, tempests, flaming firestorms.

7 Then, all the nations fighting Ari'el, every one at war with her, the ramparts around her, the people that trouble her will fade like a dream, like a vision in the night.

8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming he's eating; but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty; or like a thirsty man dreaming he's drinking; but when he wakes up, he is dry and exhausted - it will be like this for the horde of all nations fighting against Mount Tziyon.

9 If you make yourselves stupid, you will stay stupid! If you blind yourselves, you will stay blind! You are drunk, but not from wine; you are staggering, but not from strong liquor.

10 For ADONAI has poured over you a spirit of lethargy; he has closed your eyes (that is, the prophets) and covered your heads (that is, the seers).

11 For you this whole prophetic vision has become like the message in a sealed-up scroll. When one gives it to someone who can read and says, "Please read this," he answers, "I can't, because it's sealed."

12 If the scroll is given to someone who can't read with the request, "Please read this," he says, "I can't read."

13 Then Adonai said: "Because these people approach me with empty words, and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service; while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me, and their 'fear of me' is just a mitzvah of human origin

14 therefore, I will have to keep shocking these people with astounding and amazing things, until the 'wisdom' of their 'wise ones' vanishes, and the 'discernment' of their 'discerning ones' is hidden away."

15 Woe to those who burrow down deep to hide their plans from ADONAI! They work in the dark and say to themselves, "Nobody sees us, nobody knows us."

16 How you turn things upside down! - Is the potter not better than the clay, Does something made say of its maker, "He didn't make me"? Does the product say of its producer, "He has no discernment"?

17 In but a little while the L'vanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field regarded as a forest.

18 On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

19 The humble will again rejoice in ADONAI and the poor exult in the Holy One of Isra'el,

20 for the tyrant is now nothing, the scoffer is finished, and all alert to do evil are cut off

21 those whose words make a man out to be a sinner, those who set traps for the arbitrator at the city gate, and those who groundlessly deny justice to the one in the right.

22 Therefore, here are the words of ADONAI, who redeemed Avraham, concerning the house of Ya'akov: "Ya'akov will no longer be ashamed, no longer will his face grow pale.

23 When his descendants see the work of my hands among them, they will consecrate my name. Yes, they will consecrate the Holy one of Ya'akov and stand in awe of the God of Isra'el.

24 Those whose spirits stray will come to understand, and those who complain will learn their lesson.

1 "Woe to the rebellious children," says ADONAI. "They make plans, but the plans are not mine; they develop alliances, but not from my Spirit, in order to pile sin upon sin.

2 They go down to Egypt but don't consult me, seeking refuge in Pharaoh's protection, seeking shelter in Egypt's shadow.

3 But Pharaoh's protection will bring you shame, shelter in Egypt's shadow will lead to disgrace.

4 Though his princes are at Tzo'an, and his envoys have reached Hannes,

5 they all are disappointed with a people that doesn't help them, who give no assistance and no advantage, only disappointment and disgrace."

6 A prophecy about the animals in the Negev: In a land of trouble and anguish, of lionesses and roaring lions, of vipers and poisonous flying serpents, they carry their riches on donkeys' backs and their treasures on camels' humps to a people who will not help them.

7 For Egypt's help is worthless, pointless; so I call her "Arrogance Doing Nothing."

8 Now go, inscribe it on a tablet, write it for them in a scroll, so that on the final day it will be a witness forever and ever.

9 For this is a rebellious people; they are lying children, children who refuse to hear the Torah of ADONAI.

10 They say to the seers, "Do not see!" to those who have visions, "Do not tell us the visions you have as they really are; but flatter us, fabricate illusions!

11 Get out of the way! Leave the path! Rid us of the Holy One of Isra'el!"

12 Therefore here is what the Holy One of Isra'el says: "Because you reject this word, trust in extortion and rely on deceit,

13 this sin will become for you a crack bulging out high on a wall, showing signs it is ready to fall; then suddenly, all at once, it breaks."

14 He will break it like a clay pot, ruthlessly shattering it into pieces so tiny not even a potsherd remains for taking fire from the fireplace or scooping water from the cistern.

15 For this is what Adonai ELOHIM, the Holy One of Isra'el, says: "Returning and resting is what will save you; calmness and confidence will make you strong - but you want none of this!

16 'No!' you say, 'We will flee on horseback!' Therefore you will surely flee. And, 'We will ride on swift ones!' So your pursuers will be swift.

17 A thousand will flee at the threat of one, you all will flee at the threat of five, until you are left isolated, like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill."

18 Yet ADONAI is just waiting to show you favor, he will have pity on you from on high; for ADONAI is a God of justice; happy are all who wait for him!

19 People in Tziyon, who live in Yerushalayim, you will weep no more. At the sound of your cry, he will show you his grace; on hearing it, he will answer you.

20 Though Adonai may give you but bread and water, and not very much of that; your teacher will no longer hide himself, but with your own eyes you will see your teacher.

21 With your ears you will hear a word from behind you: "This is the way; stay on it, whether you go to the right or the left."

22 You will treat as unclean your silver-covered idols and your cast metal images plated with gold; you will throw them away, like menstrual cloths; you will say to them, "Get out of here!"

23 Then he will give you rain for the seed you use to sow your land; and the food that comes from the ground will be rich and abundant. When that day comes, your cattle will graze in spacious pastures.

24 The oxen and donkeys that work the land will eat a tasty mixture, winnowed free of chaff, spread by pitchfork and shovel.

25 On every high mountain and lofty hill will be streams and flowing brooks, on a day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.

26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as bright as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun will be seven times stronger, like the light of seven days [in one], on the day ADONAI binds up the wounds of his people and heals the bruise caused by the blow.

27 Here comes the name of ADONAI from afar, his anger burning, in thick rising smoke. His lips are full to the brim with fury, his tongue a consuming fire.

28 His breath is like a racing torrent that rises up to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and put a bridle in the peoples' mouths to lead them astray.

29 Your song will be like one that is sung on a night when a holy feast is kept, and your hearts will be happy, as if walking to the sound of the flute, to the mountain of ADONAI, to the Rock of Isra'el.

30 ADONAI will make his glorious voice heard, and he will reveal his arm descending with furious anger in a flaming firestorm, with cloudbursts, tempests and hailstones.

31 For ADONAI's voice will terrify Ashur, as with his scepter he strikes them down.

32 Every sweep of the punishing rod that ADONAI imposes on him will be to tambourines and lyres, as he brandishes his arm against them in battle.

33 For the Tofet fire pit has long been ready, prepared for the king, made large and deep, with plenty of wood and blazing with fire; like a stream of sulfur, ADONAI's breath sets it aflame.

1 Woe to those going down to Egypt expecting help - relying on horses; trusting in chariots, because they have many, and in the strength of their cavalrymen - but not looking to the Holy One of Isra'el, not consulting ADONAI.

2 But he too is wise and can bring disaster, and he does not take back his words; he will rise against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who do wrong.

3 Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit. So when ADONAI stretches out his hand, both he who helps will stumble, and he who is helped will fall; both will perish together.

4 For here is what ADONAI says to me: "As a lion or lion cub growls at its prey and isn't frightened away by the shouts of hordes of shepherds called out against him - their voices do not upset him - so likewise ADONAI-Tzva'ot will descend to fight on Mount Tziyon, on its hill.

5 Like hovering birds, ADONAI-Tzva'ot will protect Yerushalayim. In protecting it, he will rescue it; in sparing it, he will save it.

6 People of Isra'el! Return to him to whom you have been so deeply disloyal!

7 For on that day everyone will discard his idols of silver and idols of gold, which you made for yourselves with your own sinful hands.

8 Then Ashur will fall by a sword not of mortals, a sword, not of humans, will devour him; he will flee before the sword, and his young men will be put to forced labor.

9 His rock, out of terror, will pass away, and his panicked officers will desert the standard." So says ADONAI, whose fire is in Tziyon, whose furnace is in Yerushalayim.

1 There is coming a king who will reign justly and princes who will rule uprightly.

2 A man will be like a refuge from the wind, like protection from a storm, like streams of water on arid ground, like a rock cliff shading a weary land.

3 The eyes of those seeing will not be closed, the ears of those hearing will pay close attention.

4 The minds of the impetuous will learn to weigh carefully, the tongues of the stutterers will speak readily and clearly.

5 The mean person will no longer be called generous, or the miserly said to be noble;

6 for the mean person will speak meanness, his heart planning evil, so that he can act godlessly, spreading error concerning ADONAI, as he lets the hungry go on starving and deprives the thirsty of drink.

7 The mean person's means are mean - he devises wicked devices to ruin the poor and needy with lies, even when their cause is just.

8 But the generous person devises generous things, and his generosity will keep him standing.

9 You women who are so complacent, listen to me! Overconfident women, pay attention to my words!

10 In a year and a few days more, you overconfident women will shudder, because the vintage will fail, the harvest will not come.

11 Tremble, you complacent women! Shudder, you overconfident women! Strip bare, wear sackcloth to cover yourselves.

12 Beat your breasts in mourning for the pleasant fields and fruitful vines,

13 for the land of my people, producing thorns and briars, for all the happy homes in the joyful city.

14 For the palace will be abandoned, the crowded city deserted, 'Ofel and fortress wastelands forever, a delight for wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks

15 till the Spirit is poured out on us from above, and the desert becomes a fertile field, with the fertile field regarded as a forest.

16 Then justice will dwell in the desert, and righteousness abide in the fertile field.

17 The effect of righteousness will be peace; the result of righteousness, quiet trust forever.

18 My people will live in a peaceful place, in secure neighborhoods and tranquil dwellings.

19 Just as the forest will surely come down, the city will surely be laid low.

20 Happy are you who sow by all streams, letting oxen and donkeys roam freely.

1 Woe, destroyer, yourself undestroyed! Woe, betrayer, yourself unbetrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you tire of betraying, they will betray you.

2 ADONAI, show us mercy; we have waited for you. Be their arm every morning, and our salvation in time of trouble.

3 At the sound of the tumult, the peoples wander off; when you exalt yourself, the nations are scattered.

4 Your spoil is gathered as if stripped by shearer-worms; they run over it like a swarm of locusts.

5 ADONAI is exalted, for he dwells on high; he has filled Tziyon with justice and right.

6 He will be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge, and fear of ADONAI, which is his treasure.

7 Hear their brave men crying out for help! The envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are deserted, there are no travelers. He has broken the covenant, despised the cities; he has no regard for human life.

9 The land is mourning and wilting away. The L'vanon is withering with shame. The Sharon has become like the 'Aravah. Bashan and Karmel have been shaken bare.

10 "Now I will arise," says ADONAI, "Now I will exalt and lift myself up.

11 You conceive chaff and give birth to stubble, your breath is a fire devouring you.

12 The peoples will be as if burned into lime, like thorns cut off to burn in the fire.

13 You living far off, hear what I have done! You who are near, acknowledge my strength!"

14 The sinners in Tziyon are frightened; trembling has seized the ungodly. "Who of us can live with the devouring fire? Who of us can live with eternal burning?"

15 He whose life is right and whose speech is straight, he who scorns getting rich by extortion, he who shakes his hands free of bribes, stops his ears against talk of bloodshed and shuts his eyes against looking at evil.

16 Such a person will live on the heights, his refuge a fortress among the cliffs, his food and water in steady supply.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty, they will gaze on a land stretching into the distance.

18 Your mind will meditate on the terror: "Where is the man who did the counting? Where is the man who did the weighing? Where is the man who numbered the towers?"

19 You will not see the intransigent people, that people whose language is so obscure, whose stuttering speech you cannot understand.

20 Look at Tziyon, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Yerushalayim a secure abode, a tent that will not be removed, whose pegs will never be pulled out and whose guy-ropes will not be cut.

21 But there in his splendor ADONAI will be with us, in a place of rivers and broad streams. But no boat with oars will go there, no majestic ship will pass by.

22 For ADONAI is our judge, ADONAI is our lawgiver, ADONAI is our king. He will save us.

23 For your ropes are hanging loose, not holding the mast, not spreading the sail. Then the plunder shared out is so huge that even the lame get part of the spoil.

24 No inhabitant will say, "I am ill"; the people living there will be forgiven their sin.

1 Come close, you nations, and listen! Pay close attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and everything in it; the world, with all it produces.

2 For ADONAI is angry at every nation, furious with all their armies; he has completely destroyed them, handed them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be thrown out, the stench will rise from their corpses, the mountains will flow with their blood.

4 The whole host of heaven will decompose, the heavens themselves be rolled up like a scroll; all their array will wither away like a withering grape-leaf that falls from a vine or a withered fig from a fig tree.

5 "For my sword has drunk its fill in heaven; now it descends on Edom to judge them, the people I have doomed to destruction."

6 There is a sword that belongs to ADONAI. It is filled with blood, gorged with fat, filled with the blood of lambs and goats, gorged with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For ADONAI has a sacrifice in Botzrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 The wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong, mature ones. Their land will be drunk with blood and their dust made greasy with fat.

8 For ADONAI has a day of vengeance, a year of requital for fighting with Tziyon.

9 Its streams will be changed to tar, its dust to sulfur, its land burning tar

10 that will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever. In all generations it will lie waste; no one will pass through it ever again.

11 Horned owl and hawk will possess it, screech owl and raven will live there; he will stretch over it the measuring line of confusion and the plumbline of the empty void.

12 Of its nobles, none will be called to be king, and all its princes will be nothing.

13 Thorns will overgrow its palaces, nettles and thistles its fortresses; it will become a lair for jackals, an enclosure for ostriches.

14 Wildcats and hyenas will meet there; and billy-goats call to each other; Lilit [the night monster] will lurk there and find herself a place to rest.

15 There the hoot owl will nest, lay her eggs, hatch and gather her young in its shade. There the vultures will assemble, every one with its mate.

16 Consult the book of ADONAI and read it: not one of these will be missing, none will be lacking a mate. For by his own mouth he gave the order, and by his Spirit he brought them together.

17 It is he who cast the lot for them, his hand measured out their shares. They will possess it forever, and live there through all generations.

1 The desert and the dry land will be glad; the 'Aravah will rejoice and blossom like the lily.

2 It will burst into flower, will rejoice with joy and singing, will be given the glory of the L'vanon, the splendor of Karmel and the Sharon. They will see the glory of ADONAI, the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen your drooping arms, and steady your tottering knees.

4 Say to the fainthearted, "Be strong and unafraid! Here is your God; he will come with vengeance; with God's retribution he will come and save you."

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped;

6 then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the mute person's tongue will sing. For in the desert, springs will burst forth, streams of water in the 'Aravah;

7 the sandy mirage will become a pool, the thirsty ground springs of water. The haunts where jackals lie down will become a marsh filled with reeds and papyrus.

8 A highway will be there, a way, called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not pass over it, but it will be for those whom he guides fools will not stray along it.

9 No lion or other beast of prey will be there, traveling on it. They will not be found there, but the redeemed will go there.

10 Those ransomed by ADONAI will return and come with singing to Tziyon, on their heads will be everlasting joy. They will acquire gladness and joy, while sorrow and sighing will flee.

1 It was in the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyahu that Sancheriv king of Ashur advanced against all the fortified cities of Y'hudah and captured them.

2 From Lakhish the king of Ashur sent Rav-Shakeh to Hizkiyahu in Yerushalayim with a large army. He positioned himself by the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, which is by the road to the Launderers' Field.

3 Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went out to meet him.

4 Rav-Shakeh addressed them: "Tell Hizkiyahu: 'Here is what the great king, the king of Ashur, says: "What makes you so confident?

5 I say: do mere words constitute strategy and strength for battle? In whom, then, are you trusting when you rebel against me like this?

6 Look! Relying on Egypt is like using a broken stick as a staff - when you lean on it, it punctures your hand. That's what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like for anyone who puts his trust in him.

7 But if you tell me, 'We trust in ADONAI our God,' then isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, telling Y'hudah and Yerushalayim, 'You must worship before this altar'?

8 All right, then, make a wager with my lord the king of Ashur: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find enough riders for them.

9 How then can you repulse even one of my master's lowest-ranked army officers? Yet you are relying on Egypt for chariots and riders!

10 Do you think I have come up to this land to destroy it without ADONAI's approval? ADONAI said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it!'"'"

11 Elyakim, Shevnah and Yo'ach said to Rav-Shakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; don't speak to us in Hebrew while the people on the wall are listening."

12 But Rav-Shakeh answered, "Did my master send me to deliver my message just to your master and yourselves? Didn't he send me to address the men sitting on the wall, who, like you, are going to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?"

13 Then Rav-Shakeh stood up and, speaking loudly in Hebrew, said: "Hear what the great king, the king of Ashur, says!

14 This is what the king says: 'Don't let Hizkiyahu deceive you, because he won't be able to save you.

15 And don't let Hizkiyahu make you trust in ADONAI by saying, "ADONAI will surely save us; this city will not be given over to the king of Ashur."

16 Don't listen to Hizkiyahu.' For this is what the king says: 'Make peace with me, surrender to me. Then every one of you can eat from his vine and fig tree and drink the water in his own cistern,

17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and wine, a land with bread and vineyards.

18 Beware of Hizkiyahu; he is only deluding you when he says, "ADONAI will save us." Has any god of any nation ever saved his land from the power of the king of Ashur?

19 Where are the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where are the gods of S'farvayim? Did they save Shomron from my power?

20 Where is the god of any of these countries that has saved its country from my power, so that ADONAI might be able to save Yerushalayim from my power?'"

21 But they kept still and didn't answer him so much as a word, for the king's order was, "Don't answer him."

22 Then Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went to Hizkiyahu with their clothes torn and reported to him what Rav-Shakeh had said.

1 On hearing it, King Hizkiyahu tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of ADONAI.

2 He sent Elyakim, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and the leading cohanim, covered with sackcloth, to Yesha'yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz.

3 They said to him, "This is what Hizkiyahu says: 'Today is a day of trouble, rebuke and disgrace. Children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to bring them to birth.

4 Maybe ADONAI your God will hear the words of Rav-Shakeh, whom his master the king of Ashur has sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the message which ADONAI your God has heard. So pray for the remnant that is left.'"

5 When King Hizkiyahu's servants came to Yesha'yahu,

6 he said to them, "Tell your master that this is what ADONAI says: 'Don't be afraid of the words you heard the servants of the king of Ashur use to insult me.

7 I will put a spirit in him that will make him hear a rumor and return to his own land; then I will cause him to die by the sword in his own land.'"

8 Rav-Shakeh returned and, having heard that the king of Ashur had left Lakhish, found him making war with Livnah.

9 Then he heard it said that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia was on his way to fight him. On hearing this, the king of Ashur sent messengers to Hizkiyahu, after ordering them,

10 "This is what you are to say to Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah: 'Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, "Yerushalayim will not be handed over to the power of the king of Ashur."

11 You have heard what the kings of Ashur have done to all lands - they have completely destroyed them. So how will you be delivered?

12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them? No, my ancestors destroyed them - Gozan, Haran, Retzef and the people of 'Eden who were in Tel'asar.

13 Where is the king of Hamat? the king of Arpad? the king of the city of S'farvayim, of Hena and 'Ivah?'"

14 Hizkiyahu took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it. Then Hizkiyahu went up to the house of ADONAI and spread it out before ADONAI.

15 This is the prayer that Hizkiyahu prayed to ADONAI:

16 "ADONAI-Tzva'ot, God of Isra'el, who dwells above the k'ruvim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth.

17 Turn your ear, ADONAI, and hear! Open your eyes, ADONAI, and see! Hear all the words that Sancheriv sent to taunt the living God.

18 It is true that the kings of Ashur have laid waste all the countries and their lands

19 and have thrown their gods into the fire. For those were non-gods, merely the products of people's hands, wood and stone; this is why they could destroy them.

20 Now therefore, ADONAI our God, save us from his power - so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you are ADONAI - you only."

21 Then Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz sent this message to Hizkiyahu: "ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'You prayed to me against Sancheriv king of Ashur.'

22 Here is ADONAI's answer concerning him: "'The virgin daughter of Tziyon despises you; she laughs you to scorn. The daughter of Yerushalayim shakes her head at you.

23 Whom have you taunted and insulted? Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? The Holy One of Isra'el!

24 "'Through your servants you taunted Adonai. You said, "With my many chariots I have ascended the mountain heights even in the far reaches of the L'vanon. I cut down its tall cedars and its best cypress trees. I reached its remotest heights and its best forests.

25 I dug [wells] and drank the water. The soles of my [soldiers'] feet dried up all the rivers of Egypt."

26 "'Haven't you heard? Long ago I made it; in antiquity I produced it; and now I am making it happen: you are turning fortified cities into heaps of ruins,

27 while their inhabitants, shorn of power, are disheartened and ashamed, weak as grass, frail as plants, like grass on the rooftops or grain scorched by the east wind.

28 "'But I know when you sit, when you leave, when you enter - and when you rage against me.

29 And because of your rage against me, because of your pride that has reached my ears, I am putting my hook in your nose and my bridle on your lips; and I will make you return by the way on which you came.

30 "'This will be the sign for you [people of Isra'el]: this year, you will eat the grain that grows of itself; the second year, you will eat what grows from that; but in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

31 "'Meanwhile, the remnant of the house of Y'hudah that has escaped will again take root downward and bear fruit upward;

32 for a remnant will go out from Yerushalayim, those escaping will go out from Mount Tziyon. The zeal of ADONAI-Tzva'ot will accomplish this.'

33 "Therefore this is what ADONAI says concerning the king of Ashur: "'He will not come to this city or even shoot an arrow there; he will not confront it with a shield or erect earthworks against it.

34 "'By the way he came he will return; he will not come to this city,' says ADONAI.

35 'For I will defend this city and save it, both for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.'"

36 Then the angel of ADONAI went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of Ashur. Early the next morning, there they were, all of them, corpses - dead.

37 So Sancheriv king of Ashur left, went and returned to live in Ninveh.

38 One day, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisrokh his god, his sons Adramelekh and Shar'etzer struck him with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. So his son Esar-Hadon took his place as king.

1 Around this time Hizkiyahu became ill to the point of death. Yesha'yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz, came and said to him, "Here is what ADONAI says: 'Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not live.'"

2 Hizkiyahu turned his face toward the wall and prayed to ADONAI:

3 "I plead with you, ADONAI, remember now how I have lived before you truly and wholeheartedly, and how I have done what you see as good." And he cried bitter tears.

4 Then the word of ADONAI came to Yesha'yahu:

5 "Go and tell Hizkiyahu that this is what ADONAI, the God of David your ancestor, says: 'I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; therefore I will add fifteen years to your life.

6 Also I will rescue you and this city from the power of the king of Ashur; I will defend this city.

7 The sign for you from ADONAI that ADONAI will do what he said is

8 that I will cause the shadow of the sundial, which has started going down on the sundial of Achaz, to go backward ten intervals.'" So the sun went back ten intervals of the distance it had already gone down.

9 After Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah had been ill and had recovered, he wrote the following:

10 "I once said: 'In the prime of life I am going off to the gates of Sh'ol. I am being deprived of living out the full span of my life.'

11 "I said, 'I will never again see Yah, Yah in the land of the living; I will look on human beings no more or be with those who live in this world.

12 My home is uprooted and taken away from me like a shepherd's tent. Like a weaver, I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom. Between day and night you could finish me off.

13 I try to be strong like a lion till morning, but still my illness breaks all my bones - between day and night you could finish me off.

14 I make little chattering sounds like a swallow, I moan aloud like a dove, My eyes are weary with looking upward. Adonai, I am overwhelmed; guarantee my life!'

15 "What is there that I can say? He has spoken to me and acted! I will go humbly all my years, remembering how bitter I was.

16 Adonai, by these things people live; in all these is the life of my spirit. You're restoring my health and giving me life

17 though instead of peace, I felt very bitter. You desired my life and preserved it from the nothingness pit; for you threw all my sins behind your back.

18 "Sh'ol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those descending to the pit cannot hope for your truth.

19 The living, the living - they can thank you, as I do today; fathers will make their children know about your faithfulness.

20 ADONAI is ready to save me; hence we will make our stringed instruments sound all the days of our life in the house of ADONAI."

21 Then Yesha'yahu said, "Have them take a fig-plaster and apply it to the inflammation, and he will recover."

22 Hizkiyahu asked, "What sign will there be that I will be able to go up to the house of ADONAI?"

1 M'rodakh-Bal'adan the son of Bal'adan, king of Bavel, heard that Hizkiyahu had been ill and had recovered, so he sent a letter and a gift to him.

2 Hizkiyahu was pleased with the gifts and showed the messengers all of the building where he kept his treasures, including the silver, gold, spices and precious oils; also all of the building where he kept his armor; and everything in his treasury - there was nothing in his palace or in his entire domain that Hizkiyahu did not show them.

3 Then Yesha'yahu the prophet came to King Hizkiyahu and asked him, "What did these men say? Where did they come from?" Hizkiyahu answered, "They came to me from a distant country, Bavel."

4 Yesha'yahu asked, "What have they seen in your palace?" "They have seen everything in my palace," said Hizkiyahu. "There isn't a thing among my treasures that I haven't shown them."

5 Yesha'yahu said to Hizkiyahu, "Hear what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says:

6 'The day will come when everything in your palace, along with everything your ancestors stored up until today, will be carried off to Bavel. Nothing will be left,' says ADONAI.

7 'They will carry off some of your descendants, your own offspring; and they will be made eunuchs serving in the palace of the king of Bavel."

8 Hizkiyahu said to Yesha'yahu, "The word of ADONAI which you have just told me is good"; because he thought, "At least peace and truth will continue during my lifetime."

1 "Comfort and keep comforting my people," says your God.

2 "Tell Yerushalayim to take heart; proclaim to her that she has completed her time of service, that her guilt has been paid off, that she has received at the hand of ADONAI double for all her sins."

3 A voice cries out: "Clear a road through the desert for ADONAI! Level a highway in the 'Aravah for our God!

4 Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill lowered, the bumpy places made level and the crags become a plain.

5 Then the glory of ADONAI will be revealed; all humankind together will see it, for the mouth of ADONAI has spoken."

6 A voice says, "Proclaim!" And I answer, "What should I proclaim?" "All humanity is merely grass, all its kindness like wildflowers:

7 the grass dries up, the flower fades, when a wind from ADONAI blows on it. Surely the people are grass!

8 The grass dries up, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever."

9 You who bring good news to Tziyon, get yourself up on a high mountain; you who bring good news to Yerushalayim, cry out at the top of your voice! Don't be afraid to shout out loud! Say to the cities of Y'hudah, "Here is your God!

10 Here comes Adonai ELOHIM with power, and his arm will rule for him. Look! His reward is with him, and his recompense is before him.

11 He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering his lambs with his arm, carrying them against his chest, gently leading the mother sheep."

12 Who has counted the handfuls of water in the sea, measured off the sky with a ruler, gauged how much dust there is on the earth, weighed the mountains on scales, or the hills in a balance?

13 Who has measured the Spirit of ADONAI? Who has been his counselor, instructing him?

14 Whom did he consult, to gain understanding? Who taught him how to judge, taught him what he needed to know, showed him how to discern?

15 The nations are like a drop in a bucket, they count like a grain of dust on the scales. The islands weigh as little as specks of dust.

16 The L'vanon would not suffice for fuel or its animals be enough for burnt offerings.

17 Before him all the nations are like nothing. He regards them as less than nothing.

18 With whom, then, will you compare God? By what standard will you evaluate him?

19 An image made by a craftsman, which a goldsmith overlays with gold, for which he then casts silver chains?

20 A man too poor to afford an offering chooses a piece of wood that won't rot, then seeks out a skilled artisan to prepare an image that won't fall over.

21 Don't you know? Don't you hear? Haven't you been told from the start? Don't you understand how the earth is set up?

22 He who sits above the circle of the earth - for whom its inhabitants appear like grasshoppers - stretches out the heavens like a curtain, spreads them out like a tent to live in.

23 He reduces princes to nothing, the rulers of the earth to emptiness.

24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely their stem taken root in the ground, when he blows on them, they dry up, and the whirlwind carries them off like straw.

25 "With whom, then, will you compare me? With whom am I equal?" asks the Holy One.

26 Turn your eyes to the heavens! See who created these? He brings out the army of them in sequence, summoning each by name. Through his great might and his massive strength, not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you complain, Ya'akov; why do you say, Isra'el, "My way is hidden from ADONAI, my rights are ignored by my God"?

28 Haven't you known, haven't you heard that the everlasting God, ADONAI, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow tired or weary? His understanding cannot be fathomed.

29 He invigorates the exhausted, he gives strength to the powerless.

30 Young men may grow tired and weary, even the fittest may stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in ADONAI will renew their strength, they will soar aloft as with eagles' wings; when they are running they won't grow weary, when they are walking they won't get tired.

1 "Keep silence before me, coastlands! Let the peoples replenish their strength! Let them approach; then let them speak. Let us assemble for judgment."

2 Who has raised from the east one who is just and called him to be in his service? He hands nations over to him and subjects kings to him; his sword reduces them to dust, his bow to driven straw.

3 He pursues them, passing on unscathed, hardly touching the path with his feet.

4 Whose work is this? Who has brought it about? He who called the generations from the beginning, "I, ADONAI, am the first; and I am the same with those who are last."

5 The coastlands have seen and became afraid. The ends of the earth have trembled. They have approached, and now they have come.

6 Every one helps his fellow workman, everyone says to his brother, "Be strong!"

7 The woodworker encourages the goldsmith, the polisher encourages the hammerer; he says of the soldering, "Yes, that's good," then puts nails in [the idol] to keep it from moving.

8 "But you, Isra'el, my servant; Ya'akov, whom I have chosen, descendants of Avraham my friend,

9 I have taken you from the ends of the earth, summoned you from its most distant parts and said to you, 'You are my servant' - I have chosen you, not rejected you.

10 Don't be afraid, for I am with you; don't be distressed, for I am your God. I give you strength, I give you help, I support you with my victorious right hand.

11 All those who were angry with you will be disgraced, put to shame; those who fought against you will be destroyed, brought to nothing.

12 You will seek them but not find them, those who contended with you; yes, those who made war with you will be brought to nothing, nothing at all.

13 For I, ADONAI, your God, say to you, as I hold your right hand, 'Have no fear; I will help you.

14 Have no fear, Ya'akov, you worm, you men of Isra'el!' I will help you," says ADONAI; "Your redeemer is the Holy One of Isra'el.

15 "I will make you into a threshing-sledge, new, with sharp, pointed teeth, to thresh the mountains and crush them to dust, to reduce the hills to chaff.

16 As you fan them, the wind will carry them off, and the whirlwind will scatter them. Then you will rejoice in ADONAI, you will glory in the Holy One of Isra'el.

17 "The poor and needy look for water in vain; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, ADONAI, will answer them. I, the God of Isra'el, will not leave them.

18 I will open up rivers on the barren hills and wells down in the broad valleys. I will turn the desert into a lake and dry ground into springs.

19 I will plant the desert with cedars, acacias, myrtles and olive trees; In the 'Aravah I will put cypresses together with elm trees and larches."

20 Then the people will see and know, together observe and understand that the hand of ADONAI has done this, that the Holy One of Isra'el created it.

21 "Present your case," says ADONAI, "Produce your arguments," says Ya'akov's king.

22 Bring out those idols! Have them foretell the future for us, tell us about past events, so that we can reflect on them and understand their consequences. Or tell us about events yet to come,

23 state what will happen in the future, so that we can know you are gods. At least, do something, either good or bad - anything, to make us awestruck and fearful!

24 You can't! - because you are less than nothing. Whoever chooses you is an abomination!

25 "I roused someone from the north, and he has come from the rising sun; he will call on my name. He will trample on rulers as if they were mud, like a potter treading clay."

26 Who said this at the start, so we could know, or foretold it, so we could say, "He's right"? In fact, no one said it; no one foretold it - the fact is, nobody hears what you say.

27 I am the first to declare it to Tziyon, to send Yerushalayim a messenger with good news.

28 But when I look around, there is no one - not a single one can give counsel, who, when I ask, can give an answer.

29 Look at them all! What they do is nothing! Their idols are so much wind and waste.

1 "Here is my servant, whom I support, my chosen one, in whom I take pleasure. I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring justice to the Goyim.

2 He will not cry or shout; no one will hear his voice in the streets.

3 He will not snap off a broken reed or snuff out a smoldering wick. He will bring forth justice according to truth;

4 he will not weaken or be crushed until he has established justice on the earth, and the coastlands wait for his Torah."

5 Thus says God, ADONAI, who created the heavens and spread them out, who stretched out the earth and all that grows from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it:

6 "I, ADONAI, called you righteously, I took hold of you by the hand, I shaped you and made you a covenant for the people, to be a light for the Goyim,

7 so that you can open blind eyes, free the prisoners from confinement, those living in darkness from the dungeon.

8 I am ADONAI; that is my name. I yield my glory to no one else, nor my praise to any idol.

9 See how the former predictions come true; and now new things do I declare - before they sprout I tell you about them."

10 Sing to ADONAI a new song! Let his praise be sung from the ends of the earth by those sailing the sea and by everything in it, by the coastlands and those living there.

11 Let the desert and its cities raise their voices, the villages where Kedar lives; let those living in Sela shout for joy; let them cry out from the mountaintops!

12 Let them give glory to ADONAI and proclaim his praise in the coastlands.

13 ADONAI will go out like a soldier, like a soldier roused to the fury of battle; he will shout, yes, he raises the battle cry; as he triumphs over his foes.

14 "For a long time I have held my peace, I have been silent, restrained myself. Now I will shriek like a woman in labor, panting and gasping for air.

15 I will devastate mountains and hills, wither all their vegetation, turn the rivers into islands and dry up the lakes.

16 The blind I will lead on a road they don't know, on roads they don't know I will lead them; I will turn darkness to light before them, and straighten their twisted paths. These are things I will do without fail.

17 Those who trust in idols, who say to statues, 'You are our gods,' will be repulsed in utter shame.

18 Listen, you deaf! Look, you blind! - so that you will see!

19 Who is as blind as my servant, or as deaf as the messenger I send? Who is as blind as the one I rewarded, as blind as the servant of ADONAI?"

20 You see much but don't pay attention; you open your ears, but you don't listen.

21 ADONAI was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to make the Torah great and glorious.

22 But this is a people pillaged and plundered, all trapped in holes and sequestered in prisons. They are there to be plundered, with no one to rescue them; there to be pillaged, and no one says, "Return them!"

23 Which of you will listen to this? Who will hear and give heed in the times to come?

24 Who gave Ya'akov to be pillaged, Isra'el to the plunderers? Didn't ADONAI, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they refused to walk, he whose Torah they did not obey?

25 This is why he poured on him his blazing anger as well as the fury of battle - it wrapped him in flames, yet he learned nothing; it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart.

1 But now this is what ADONAI says, he who created you, Ya'akov, he who formed you, Isra'el: "Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I am calling you by your name; you are mine.

2 When you pass through water, I will be with you; when you pass through rivers, they will not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you will not be scorched - the flame will not burn you.

3 For I am ADONAI, your God, the Holy One of Isra'el, your Savior - I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and S'va for you.

4 Because I regard you as valued and honored, and because I love you. For you I will give people, nations in exchange for your life.

5 Don't be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your descendants from the east, and I will gather you from the west;

6 I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Don't hold them back! Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth,

7 everyone who bears my name, whom I created for my glory - I formed him, yes, I made him.'"

8 Bring forward the people who are blind but have eyes, also the deaf who have ears.

9 All the nations are gathered together, and the peoples are assembled. Who among them can proclaim this and reveal what happened in the past? Let them bring their witnesses to justify themselves, so that others, on hearing, can say, "That's true."

10 "You are my witnesses," says ADONAI, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you can know and trust me and understand that I am he no god was produced before me, nor will any be after me.

11 I, yes I, am ADONAI; besides me there is no deliverer.

12 I have declared, saved and proclaimed - not some alien god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses," says ADONAI. "I am God.

13 Since days began, I have been he. No one can deliver from my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?"

14 Here is what ADONAI, your redeemer, the Holy One of Isra'el, says: "For your sake I have sent [an army] to Bavel and knocked down the fleeing Kasdim, all of them; their songs of triumph are now lamentations.

15 I am ADONAI, your Holy One, the Creator of Isra'el, your King."

16 Here is what ADONAI says, who made a way in the sea, a path through the raging waves;

17 who led out chariot and horse, the army in its strength - they lay down, never to rise again, snuffed out and quenched like a wick:

18 "Stop dwelling on past events and brooding over times gone by;

19 I am doing something new; it's springing up - can't you see it? I am making a road in the desert, rivers in the wasteland.

20 The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I put water in the desert, rivers in the wasteland, for my chosen people to drink,

21 the people I formed for myself, so that they would proclaim my praise.

22 But you haven't called on me, Ya'akov; because you have grown weary of me, Isra'el.

23 You have not brought me sheep for your burnt offerings, you have not honored me with your sacrifices. I didn't burden you by requiring grain offerings. or weary you by demanding frankincense.

24 You have not spent money to buy me sweet cane or filled me with the fat of your sacrifices. Instead, you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your crimes.

25 I, yes I, am the one who blots out your offenses for my own sake; I will not remember your sins.

26 Remind me when we're in court together - tell your side, make the case that you are right.

27 Your first father sinned, and your spokesmen rebelled against me.

28 Therefore I repudiated the officials of the sanctuary, delivered Ya'akov to the curse of destruction, and subjected Isra'el to scorn.

1 "Now listen, Ya'akov my servant, Isra'el whom I have chosen:

2 Thus says ADONAI, who made you, formed you in the womb, and will help you: Don't be afraid, Ya'akov my servant, Yeshurun, whom I have chosen.

3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring.

4 They will spring up among the grass like willows on the riverbanks.

5 One will say, 'I belong to ADONAI.' Another will be called by the name of Ya'akov. Yet another will write that he belongs to ADONAI. and adopt the surname Isra'el."

6 Thus says ADONAI, Isra'el's King and Redeemer, ADONAI-Tzva'ot: "I am the first, and I am the last; besides me there is no God.

7 Who is like me? Let him speak out! Let him show me clearly what has been happening since I set up the eternal people; let him foretell future signs and events.

8 Don't be frightened, don't be afraid - Didn't I tell you this long ago? I foretold it, and you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? There is no other Rock - I know of none."

9 All idol-makers amount to nothing; their precious productions profit no one; and their witnesses, to their own shame, neither see nor understand.

10 Who would fashion a god or cast an image that profits no one anything?

11 All involved will be ashamed, but more than anyone else, the people who made them. Let them all be assembled, let them stand up; let them fear and be shamed together.

12 A blacksmith makes a tool over burning coals; with his strong arm he shapes it with hammers. But when he gets hungry, his strength fails; if he doesn't drink water, he grows tired.

13 A carpenter takes his measurements, sketches the shape with a stylus, planes the wood, checks it with calipers, and carves it into the shape of a man; and, since it is honored like a man, of course it has to live in a house.

14 He goes to chop down cedars; he takes an evergreen and an oak; he especially tends one tree in the forest, plants a pine for the rain to nourish.

15 In time, when it's ready for use as fuel, he takes some of it to keep himself warm and burns some more to bake bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, carves it into an idol and falls down before it.

16 So half of it he burns in the fire; with that half he roasts meat and eats his fill; he warms himself; says, "It feels so good, getting warm while watching the flames!"

17 With the rest of the log he fashions a god, a carved image, then falls down before it; he worships it and prays to it. "Save me," he says, "for you are my god!"

18 Such people know nothing, understand nothing. Their eyes are sealed shut, so that they can't see; their hearts too, so they can't understand.

19 Not one thinks to himself or has the knowledge or the discernment to say, "I burned half of it in the fire, baked bread on its coals, roasted meat and ate it. Should I now make the rest an abomination? Should I prostrate myself to a tree trunk?"

20 He is relying on ashes! A deceived heart has led him astray; so that now he won't save himself, just won't say, "This thing in my hand is a fraud!"

21 "Keep these matters in mind, Ya'akov, for you, Isra'el, are my servant. I formed you, you are my own servant; Isra'el, don't forget me.

22 Like a thick cloud, I wipe away your offenses; like a cloud, your sins. Come back to me, for I have redeemed you."

23 Sing, you heavens, for ADONAI has done it! Shout, you depths of the earth! Mountains, break out into song, along with every tree in the forest! For ADONAI has redeemed Ya'akov; he glorifies himself in Isra'el.

24 Here is what ADONAI says, your Redeemer, he who formed you in the womb: "I am ADONAI, who makes all things, who stretched out the heavens all alone, who spread out the earth all by myself.

25 I frustrate false prophets and their omens, I make fools of diviners, I drive back the sages and make their wisdom look silly.

26 I confirm my servants' prophecies and make my messengers' plans succeed. I say of Yerushalayim: 'She will be lived in,' of the cities of Y'hudah, 'They will be rebuilt; I will restore their ruins.'

27 I say to the deep sea, 'Dry up! I will make your streams run dry.'

28 I say of Koresh, 'He is my shepherd, he will do everything I want. He will say of Yerushalayim, "You will be rebuilt," and of the temple, "Your foundation will be laid."'"

1 Thus says ADONAI to Koresh, his anointed, whose right hand he has grasped, so that he subdues nations before him and strips kings of their robes, so that doors open in front of him, and no gates are barred:

2 "I will go ahead of you, levelling the hills, shattering the bronze gates, smashing the iron bars.

3 I will give you treasures hoarded in the dark, secret riches hidden away, so that you will know that I, ADONAI, calling you by your name, am the God of Isra'el.

4 It is for the sake of Ya'akov my servant, yes, for Isra'el my elect, that I call you by your name and give you a title, although you don't know me.

5 I am ADONAI; there is no other; besides me there is no God. I am arming you, although you don't know me,

6 so that those from the east and those from the west will know that there is none besides me - I am ADONAI; there is no other.

7 I form light, I create darkness; I make well-being, I create woe; I, ADONAI, do all these things.

8 "Heavens above, rain down justice; let the clouds pour it down. Let the earth open, so that salvation springs up, and justice sprouts with it. I, ADONAI, have created it."

9 Woe to anyone who argues with his maker, like potsherds lying on the ground! Does the clay ask the potter, "What are you doing?" or, "What's this you're making, that has no hands?"

10 Woe to him who asks a father, "Of what are you the father?" or who asks a woman, "To what are you giving birth?"

11 Thus says ADONAI, the Holy One of Isra'el, his Maker: "You ask for signs concerning my children? You give orders concerning the work of my hands?

12 I am the one who made the earth! I created human beings on it! I- my hands - stretched out the heavens, and directed all their number.

13 I am stirring up Koresh to righteousness, I am smoothing out all his paths. He will rebuild my city; and he will free my exiles, taking neither ransom nor bribe," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

14 Here is what ADONAI says: "The earnings of Egypt, the commerce of Ethiopia, and men of stature from S'va will come over to you and become yours; they will come in chains and follow you. They will prostrate themselves before you; they will pray to you: 'Surely God is with you; there is no other, other gods are nothing.'"

15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself, God of Isra'el, Savior!

16 The idol-makers will be ashamed, disgraced, all of them; they will go dishonored together.

17 But Isra'el, saved by ADONAI with an everlasting salvation, you will never, ever, be ashamed or disgraced.

18 For thus says ADONAI, who created the heavens, God, who shaped and made the earth, who established and created it not to be chaos, but formed it to be lived in: "I am ADONAI; there is no other.

19 I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness. I did not say to the descendants of Ya'akov, 'It is in vain that you will seek me.' I, ADONAI, speak rightly; I say what is true.

20 Assemble, come and gather together, you refugees from the nations! Those carrying their wooden idols are ignorant, they pray to a god that cannot save.

21 Let them stand and present their case! Indeed, let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, announced it in times gone by? Wasn't it I, ADONAI? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides me.

22 Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God; there is no other.

23 In the name of myself I have sworn, from my mouth has rightly gone out, a word that will not return - that to me every knee will bow and every tongue will swear

24 about me that only in ADONAI are justice and strength." All who rage against him will come to him ashamed,

25 but all the descendants of Isra'el will find justice and glory in ADONAI.

1 Bel bows down, N'vo stoops low; their idols are borne by animals, beasts of burden. The loads you yourselves were carrying are now burdening tired animals.

2 They stoop and bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity.

3 "Listen to me, house of Ya'akov, all who remain of the house of Isra'el: I have borne you from birth, carried you since the womb.

4 Till your old age I will be the same - I will carry you until your hair is white. I have made you, and I will bear you; yes, I will carry and save you.

5 To whom will you liken me and equate me? With whom will you compare me, as if we were similar?"

6 They squander the gold from their bags and weigh silver on a scale; they hire a goldsmith to make a god, before which they fall down and worship!

7 It is borne on shoulders and carried, then set in its place; and there it stands. From its place it does not move. If one cries to it, it cannot answer or save anyone from his troubles.

8 Remember this, and stand firm. Keep it in mind, you rebels.

9 "Remember things that happened at the beginning, long ago - that I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.

10 At the beginning I announce the end, proclaim in advance things not yet done; and I say that my plan will hold, I will do everything I please to do.

11 I call a bird of prey from the east, the man I intended, from a distant country. I have spoken and will bring it about; I have made a plan, and I will fulfill it.

12 Listen to me, you stubborn people, so far from righteousness:

13 I am bringing my justice nearer, it is not far away; my salvation will not be delayed, I will place my salvation in Tziyon for Isra'el my glory.

1 "Come down, and sit in the dust, you virgin daughter of Bavel! Sit on the ground, not on a throne, daughter of the Kasdim! No longer are you to be called dainty and delicate.

2 Take the millstones, and grind meal; take off your veil, strip off your skirt, uncover your legs, wade through the streams.

3 Your private parts will be exposed; yes, your shame will be seen. I am going to take vengeance, and no one will stand in my way."

4 Our Redeemer! ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name, the Holy One of Isra'el!

5 "Sit there speechless, go into darkness, you daughter of the Kasdim! For you will no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms.

6 I was angry with my people, I desecrated my own possession and gave them over to you. But you showed them no mercy; you made your yoke very heavy, even upon the aged.

7 You said, 'I will be mistress forever.' so you didn't consider these things or think about the consequences.

8 Now hear this, you lover of luxuries, lolling at ease and saying to yourself, 'I am important, and no one else! I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.'

9 But both will come over you in an instant, in a single day loss of children and widowhood; they will utterly overwhelm you, despite your many occult practices and powerful spells to prevent it."

10 You were at ease in your wickedness, you thought, "No one sees me." Your "wisdom" and "knowledge" perverted you, as you thought to yourself, "I am important, and no one else."

11 Yet disaster will befall you, and you won't know how to charm it away; calamity will come upon you, and you won't be able to turn it aside; ruin will overcome you, suddenly, before you know it.

12 So for now, keep on with your powerful spells and your many occult practices; from childhood you have been working at them; maybe they will do you some good, maybe you will inspire terror!

13 You are worn out with all your consultations - so let the astrologers and stargazers, the monthly horoscope-makers, come forward now and save you from the things that will come upon you!

14 Look, they will be like straw! The fire will consume them. They will not save even themselves from the power of the flame. It will not be coals for warming oneself, not a fire to sit beside!

15 So much for your [wizards], with whom you have worked all your life! Each will wander off in his own direction, and nobody will save you.

1 Listen to this, house of Ya'akov, called by the name of Isra'el, who have come from the spring of Y'hudah, who swear by the name of ADONAI and invoke the God of Isra'el! - it is not sincerely or justifiably

2 that they call themselves people of the holy city or rely on the God of Isra'el - ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name:

3 "I announced things that happened at the beginning, long ago; they issued from my mouth, I proclaimed them. Then suddenly I acted, and they occurred.

4 Because I knew that you were stubborn, your neck an iron sinew, your forehead bronze,

5 I announced it to you long ago; before it occurred, I proclaimed it to you; so that you could not say, 'My idol did it; my carved image, my statue, gave the order for it.'

6 You have heard and seen all this, so why won't you admit it? "Now I am announcing new things to you, secret things you have not known,

7 created now, not long ago; before today, you did not hear them: so you can't say, 'I already know about them.'

8 No, you haven't heard, and you haven't known; these things have not reached your ears before. For I knew how treacherous you were - you were called a rebel from the womb.

9 Yet for the sake of my own reputation I am deferring my anger; for the sake of my praise I am patient with you, so as not to cut you off.

10 "Look, I have refined you, but not [as severely] as silver; [rather] I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

11 For my sake I will do it, for my own sake. I will not let [my reputation] be tarnished; I will not yield my glory to anyone else.

12 "Listen to me, Ya'akov; Isra'el, whom I have called: I am he who is first; I am also the last.

13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth, my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summoned them, at once they rose into being.

14 "All of you, assemble and listen: which of you has foretold what is coming? ADONAI's friend will do his will against Bavel, using his arm against the Kasdim.

15 It is I who have spoken, I have summoned him, I have brought him, and he will succeed.

16 "Come close to me, and listen to this: since the beginning I have not spoken in secret, since the time things began to be, I have been there; and now Adonai ELOHIM has sent me and his Spirit."

17 Thus says ADONAI, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Isra'el: "I am ADONAI, your God, who teaches you for your own good, who guides you on the path you should take.

18 If only you would heed my mitzvot! Then your peace would flow on like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 Your descendants would be numerous as the sand, your offspring countless as its grains. Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from my presence."

20 Get out of Bavel! Flee the Kasdim! With shouts of joy announce it, proclaim it! Send the news out to the ends of the earth! Say, "ADONAI has redeemed his servant Ya'akov."

21 They weren't thirsty when he led them through the deserts, he made water flow from the rock for them - he split the rock, and out gushed the water.

22 But there is no peace, says ADONAI, for the wicked.

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