Isaiah 6-14
English Standard Version
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.
Chapter 11
1There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. 6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder 's den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples — of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
12He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.
15And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.
16And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
Chapter 12
1You will say in that day: "I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. 2"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." 3With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 "Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.
6Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel."
2On a bare hill raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles.
3I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones.
4The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle.
5 They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
7Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt.
8They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame.
9Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.
11I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.
14And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.
15Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.
17Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold.
18 Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.
19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
20 It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there ostriches will dwell, and there wild goats will dance.
22Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged.
Chapter 14
1For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord 's land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.
3When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve,
4you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: "How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!
5The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers,
6 that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution.
7The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing.
8 The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’
9Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations.
10 All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’
11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.
12"How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!
13You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north;
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.
16Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,
17who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’
18All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb;
19but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot.
20You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. "May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named!
21Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities."
22"I will rise up against them," declares the Lord of hosts, "and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity," declares the Lord.
23"And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," declares the Lord of hosts.
24The Lord of hosts has sworn: "As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,
25that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder."
26This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27 For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
28In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle:
29Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent 's root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
30And the firstborn of the poor will graze, and the needy lie down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant it will slay.
31 Wail, O gate; cry out, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32What will one answer the messengers of the nation? "The Lord has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge."
