Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 The vision of Yesha`yahu the son of Amotz, which he saw concerning Yehudah and Yerushalayim, in the days of `Uzziyah, Yotam, Achaz, and Hizkiyahu, kings of Yehudah.
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The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
2 Hear, heavens, And listen, eretz; for the LORD has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against me.
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Heaven and earth, you're the jury. Listen to God's case: "I had children and raised them well, and they turned on me.
3 The ox knows his owner, And the donkey his master's crib; But Yisra'el doesn't know, My people don't consider.
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The ox knows who's boss, the mule knows the hand that feeds him, But not Israel. My people don't know up from down.
4 Ah sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A seed of evil-doers, Children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Yisra'el. They are estranged and backward.
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Shame! Misguided God-dropouts, staggering under their guilt-baggage, Gang of miscreants, band of vandals - My people have walked out on me, their God, turned their backs on The Holy of Israel, walked off and never looked back.
5 Why should you be beaten more, That you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faint.
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"Why bother even trying to do anything with you when you just keep to your bullheaded ways? You keep beating your heads against brick walls. Everything within you protests against you.
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: Wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven't been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.
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From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, nothing's working right. Wounds and bruises and running sores - untended, unwashed, unbandaged.
7 Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, And it is desolate, As overthrown by strangers.
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Your country is laid waste, your cities burned down. Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch, reduced to rubble by barbarians.
8 The daughter of Tziyon is left like a shelter in a vineyard, Like a hut in a field of melons, Like a besieged city.
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Daughter Zion is deserted - like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street, Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks, like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.
9 Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, We would have been as Sedom; We would have been like `Amorah.
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If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn't left us a few survivors, we'd be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sedom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of `Amorah!
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"Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive God's revelation, you Gomorrah-schooled people.
11 "What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?," says the LORD. "I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, And the fat of fed animals. I don't delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs, Or of male goats.
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"Why this frenzy of sacrifices?" God's asking. "Don't you think I've had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves? Don't you think I've had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
12 When you come to appear before me, Who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?
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When you come before me, who ever gave you the idea of acting like this, Running here and there, doing this and that - all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
13 Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; New moons, Shabbatot, and convocations: I can't bear with evil assemblies.
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"Quit your worship charades. I can't stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings - meetings, meetings, meetings - I can't stand one more!
14 My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts; They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.
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Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You've worn me out! I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning.
15 When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
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When you put on your next prayer-performance, I'll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I'll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you've been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
16 Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; Cease to do evil.
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Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don't have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong.
17 Learn to do well. Seek justice, Relieve the oppressed, Judge the fatherless, Plead for the widow."
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Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless. Let's Argue This Out
18 "Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
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"Come. Sit down. Let's argue this out." This is God's Message: "If your sins are blood-red, they'll be snow-white. If they're red like crimson, they'll be like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land;
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If you'll willingly obey, you'll feast like kings.
20 But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken it."
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But if you're willful and stubborn, you'll die like dogs." That's right. God says so. Those Who Walk Out on God
21 How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, But now murderers.
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Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city has become a whore! She was once all justice, everyone living as good neighbors, And now they're all at one another's throats.
22 Your silver has become dross, Your wine mixed with water.
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Your coins are all counterfeits. Your wine is watered down.
23 Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They don't judge the fatherless, Neither does the cause of the widow come to them.
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Your leaders are turncoats who keep company with crooks. They sell themselves to the highest bidder and grab anything not nailed down. They never stand up for the homeless, never stick up for the defenseless.
24 Therefore the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, The Mighty One of Yisra'el, says: "Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries, And avenge myself of my enemies;
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This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the Strong One of Israel: "This is it! I'll get my oppressors off my back. I'll get back at my enemies.
25 And I will turn my hand on you, Thoroughly purge away your dross, And will take away all your tin.
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I'll give you the back of my hand, purge the junk from your life, clean you up.
26 I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called 'The city of righteousness, A faithful town.'
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I'll set honest judges and wise counselors among you just like it was back in the beginning. Then you'll be renamed City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City."
27 Tziyon shall be redeemed with justice, And her converts with righteousness.
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God's right ways will put Zion right again. God's right actions will restore her penitents.
28 But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, And those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.
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But it's curtains for rebels and God-traitors, a dead end for those who walk out on God.
29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, And you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
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"Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines will leave you looking mighty foolish, All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens that you thought was the latest thing.
30 For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, And as a garden that has no water.
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You'll end up like an oak tree with all its leaves falling off, Like an unwatered garden, withered and brown.
31 The strong will be like tinder, And his work like a spark. They will both burn together, And no one will quench them."
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'The Big Man' will turn out to be dead bark and twigs, and his 'work,' the spark that starts the fire That exposes man and work both as nothing but cinders and smoke."
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.