Isaiah 4-10
English Standard Version
2In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.
3And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,
4when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.
5Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy.
6There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.
Chapter 5
1Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? 5And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry! 8Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. 9The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing: "Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. 10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah." 11Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them! 12 They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands. 13Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst. 14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down, her revelers and he who exults in her. 15 Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low. 16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness. 17Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich. 18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, 19who say: "Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!" 20Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! 22Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, 23who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right! 24Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. 26He will raise a signal for nations far away, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, quickly, speedily they come! 27 None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken; 28 their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses ' hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind. 29Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and none can rescue. 30They will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened by its clouds.Chapter 6
1In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"
4And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
5And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."
8And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am! Send me."
9And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
11Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,
12and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.
Chapter 7
1In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. 2When the house of David was told, "Syria is in league with Ephraim," the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
3And the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer 's Field.
4And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.
5Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,
6"Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,"
7thus says the Lord God: "‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.
8For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
9And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’"
10Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz:
11"Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven."
12But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test."
13And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?
14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
16For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
17The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father 's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah — the king of Assyria!"
18In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.
21In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep,
22and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.
23In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.
24With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns.
25And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.
Chapter 8
1Then the Lord said to me, "Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’ 2And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me."
3And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, "Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz;
4for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria."
5The Lord spoke to me again:
6"Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
7therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks,
8and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel."
9Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered.
10Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
11For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:
12"Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.
13But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken."
16Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples.
17I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.
18Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
19And when they say to you, "Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter," should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?
20To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
21They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.
22And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
8The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will fall on Israel;
9and all the people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:
10"The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place."
11But the Lord raises the adversaries of Rezin against him, and stirs up his enemies.
12 The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
13The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the Lord of hosts.
14So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day —
15 the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;
16for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.
17Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
18For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
19Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another.
20 They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm,
21Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
Chapter 10
1Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, 2to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! 3What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? 4Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. 5Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! 6Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. 7But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few; 8for he says: "Are not my commanders all kings? 9 Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? 10As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, 11shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?" 12When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. 13For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.
14My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped."
15Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
16Therefore the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.
17 The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.
18The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the Lord will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
19The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.
20In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
23For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.
24Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: "O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.
25For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.
26And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.
27And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat."
28He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage;
29they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O poor Anathoth!
31Madmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low.
34He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.
