Isaiah & 2017 Sign
Isaiah 2 : The Mountain of the Lord
1The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.
4And he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.
The Day of the Reckoning
6For thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are’soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
7And their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.
8Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
9And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought low: therefore forgive them not.
10Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty.
11The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.
12For there shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low;
13and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15and upon every lofty tower, and upon every fortified wall,
16and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant imagery.
17And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.
18And the idols shall utterly pass away.
19And men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth.
20In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for them to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
21to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth.
22Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?
Isaiah 4 : A Remnant in Zion
1And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name; take thou away our reproach.
2In that day shall the branch of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. 3And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem; 4when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning. 5And Jehovah will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory’shall be spread a covering. 6And there shall be a pavilion for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.
Isaiah 11 : The Root of Jesse
1And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2And the spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
3And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
4But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
6The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatted calf together; and a little child shall lead them.
7And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
9They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
10And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
11And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14But they shall fly on the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over with dry sandals.
16And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 13 : A Judgment against Babylon
1The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
2Lift you up a banner on the high mountain, exalt the voice to them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for my anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
4The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts musters the host of the battle.
5They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6Howl you; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
8And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man takes up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.
15Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined to them shall fall by the sword.
16Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
18Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children.
19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelled in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
21But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
22And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
Isaiah 14 : God’s Restoration of Israel
1For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall join to the house of Jacob. 2And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Triumphant Exultation over Babel
3And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage wherein you were made to serve,
4That you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers.
6He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hinders.
7The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
8Yes, the fir trees rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you are laid down, no feller is come up against us.
9Hell from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming: it stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10All they shall speak and say to you, Are you also become weak as we? are you become like to us?
11Your pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your viols: the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you.
12How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!
13For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also on the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16They that see you shall narrowly look on you, and consider you, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
18All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
19But you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet.
20You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, and slain your people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
21Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22For I will rise up against them, said the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, said the LORD. 23I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, said the LORD of hosts.
God’s Purpose against Assyria
24The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: 25That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. 26This is the purpose that is purposed on the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations. 27For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who shall cancel it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
Philistia will Be Destroyed
28In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
29Rejoice not you, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote you is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
30And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill your root with famine, and he shall slay your remnant.
31Howl, O gate; cry, O city; you, whole Palestina, are dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
32What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.
Isaiah 23 : The Fall of Tyre
1The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.
2Be still, you inhabitants of the isle; you whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.
3And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.
4Be you ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea has spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.
5As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
6Pass you over to Tarshish; howl, you inhabitants of the isle.
7Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
8Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?
9The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
10Pass through your land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
11He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD has given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.
12And he said, You shall no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shall you have no rest.
13Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.
14Howl, you ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.
15And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
16Take an harp, go about the city, you harlot that have been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.
17And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
Isaiah 24 : God’s Judgment on the Earth
1Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof. 2And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. 3The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD has spoken this word. 4The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. 5The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. 6Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
7The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry hearted do sigh.
8The mirth of tabrets ceases, the noise of them that rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases.
9They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
10The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
11There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
12In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
13When thus it shall be in the middle of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.
14They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
15Why glorify you the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe to me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yes, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
17Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are on you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18And it shall come to pass, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up out of the middle of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy on it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.
22And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
Isaiah 25 : Song of Praise for God’s Favor
1O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2For you have made of a city an heap; of a defended city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3Therefore shall the strong people glorify you, the city of the terrible nations shall fear you.
4For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5You shall bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make to all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
8He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD has spoken it.
9And it shall be said in that day, See, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
10For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.
11And he shall spread forth his hands in the middle of them, as he that swims spreads forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
12And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust
Isaiah 26 : Song of Trust in God’s Provision
1In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
2Open you the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
3You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you.
4Trust you in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
5For he brings down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he lays it low; he lays it low, even to the ground; he brings it even to the dust.
6The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
7The way of the just is uprightness: you, most upright, do weigh the path of the just.
8Yes, in the way of your judgments, O LORD, have we waited for you; the desire of our soul is to your name, and to the remembrance of you.
9With my soul have I desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you early: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
11LORD, when your hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yes, the fire of your enemies shall devour them.
12LORD, you will ordain peace for us: for you also have worked all our works in us.
13O LORD our God, other lords beside you have had dominion over us: but by you only will we make mention of your name.
14They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
15You have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation: you are glorified: you had removed it far to all the ends of the earth.
16LORD, in trouble have they visited you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
17Like as a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and cries out in her pangs; so have we been in your sight, O LORD.
18We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19Your dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
20Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over.
21For, behold, the LORD comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
Isaiah 27 : The Deliverance of Israel
1In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2In that day sing you to her, A vineyard of red wine.
3I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
4Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
5Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
6He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7Has he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
8In measure, when it shoots forth, you will debate with it: he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
9By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.
10Yet the defended city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
11When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.
12And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river to the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. 13And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
Isaiah 28 : Judgment on Ephraim
1Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looks on it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.
5In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people,
6And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10For precept must be on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, and there a little:
11For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12To whom he said, This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13But the word of the LORD was to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
A Cornerstone in Zion
(1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 1 Peter 2:4-12)
14Why hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing whip shall pass through, it shall not come to us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16Therefore thus said the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing whip shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined on the whole earth.
Listen and Hear God’s Voice
23Give you ear, and hear my voice; listen, and hear my speech.
24Does the plowman plow all day to sow? does he open and break the clods of his ground?
25When he has made plain the face thereof, does he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place?
26For his God does instruct him to discretion, and does teach him.
27For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about on the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
Isaiah 29 : Woe to the City of David
1Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelled! add you year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
2Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be to me as Ariel.
3And I will camp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with a mount, and I will raise forts against you.
4And you shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust, and your voice shall be, as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
5Moreover the multitude of your strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away: yes, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
6You shall be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
7And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her fortification, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
8It shall even be as when an hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he wakes, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he wakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
9Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry you out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered.
11And the vision of all is become to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he said, I cannot; for it is sealed: 12And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he said, I am not learned.
13Why the Lord said, For as much as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
15Woe to them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? and who knows us?
16Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
Sanctification to the Godly
17Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
19The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
21That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nothing.
22Therefore thus said the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the middle of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
24They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.
Isaiah 32 : A Righteous King
1Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
3And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall listen.
4The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
5The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7The instruments also of the churl are evil: he devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.
8But the liberal devises liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.
The Women of Jerusalem
9Rise up, you women that are at ease; hear my voice, you careless daughters; give ear to my speech.
10Many days and years shall you be troubled, you careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.
11Tremble, you women that are at ease; be troubled, you careless ones: strip you, and make you bore, and gird sackcloth on your loins.
12They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13On the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
14Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
15Until the spirit be poured on us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
16Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
18And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
19When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.
20Blessed are you that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.
Isaiah 33 : The Lord is Exalted
1Woe to you that spoil, and you were not spoiled; and deal treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with you! when you shall cease to spoil, you shall be spoiled; and when you shall make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with you.
2O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for you: be you their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
3At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of yourself the nations were scattered.
4And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run on them.
5The LORD is exalted; for he dwells on high: he has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.
6And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
7Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
8The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases: he has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he regards no man.
9The earth mourns and languishes: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.
10Now will I rise, said the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
11You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
12And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.
13Hear, you that are far off, what I have done; and, you that are near, acknowledge my might.
14The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
15He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shakes his hands from holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil;
16He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.
17Your eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.
18Your heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19You shall not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than you can perceive; of a stammering tongue, that you can not understand.
20Look on Zion, the city of our solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
21But there the glorious LORD will be to us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
22For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
23Your tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.
24And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
Isaiah 34 : God’s Judgments on the Nations
1Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.
2For the indignation of the LORD is on all nations, and his fury on all their armies: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter.
3Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
5For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down on Idumea, and on the people of my curse, to judgment.
6The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
7And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
8For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.
9And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out on it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
12They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
13And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
14The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
15There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
16Seek you out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it has commanded, and his spirit it has gathered them.
17And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
Isaiah 35 : The Glory of Zion
(Matthew 9:32-34; Mark 7:31-37)
1The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
2It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.
3Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
4Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
7And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
8And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
9No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
10And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy on their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 42 : The Lord’s Chosen Servant
1Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit on him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
2He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
3A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment to truth.
4He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
5Thus said God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which comes out of it; he that gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
6I the LORD have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
7To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
8I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
9Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
A New Song of Praise
10Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.
11Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar does inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.
13The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yes, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.
14I have long time held my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.
15I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
16And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do to them, and not forsake them.
17They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, You are our gods.
Israel is Deaf and Blind
18Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see.
19Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’s servant?
20Seeing many things, but you observe not; opening the ears, but he hears not.
21The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.
22But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none said, Restore.
23Who among you will give ear to this? who will listen and hear for the time to come?
24Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient to his law.
25Therefore he has poured on him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.
ISAIAH 43 : Israel’s Only Savior
1But now thus said the LORD that created you, O Jacob, and he that formed you, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are mine.
2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle on you.
3For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior: I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for you.
4Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honorable, and I have loved you: therefore will I give men for you, and people for your life.
5Fear not: for I am with you: I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west;
6I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
7Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yes, I have made him.
8Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
9Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
10You are my witnesses, said the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
11I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior.
12I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore you are my witnesses, said the LORD, that I am God.
13Yes, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
The Destruction of Babylon Foretold
14Thus said the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
15I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.
16Thus said the LORD, which makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;
17Which brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as wick.
Deliverance for God’s People
18Remember you not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
20The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
21This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.
Israel’s Unfaithfulness
(Judges 2:11-15; Jeremiah 2:23-37)
22But you have not called on me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel.
23You have not brought me the small cattle of your burnt offerings; neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with an offering, nor wearied you with incense.
24You have bought me no sweet cane with money, neither have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices: but you have made me to serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities.
25I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.
26Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare you, that you may be justified.
27Your first father has sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me.
28Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
ISAIAH 47 : The Fall of Babylon Predicted
1Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.
2Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover your locks, make bore the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
3Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet you as a man.
4As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5Sit you silent, and get you into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
6I was wroth with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and given them into your hand: you did show them no mercy; on the ancient have you very heavily laid your yoke.
7And you said, I shall be a lady for ever: so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end of it.
8Therefore hear now this, you that are given to pleasures, that dwell carelessly, that say in your heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:
9But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come on you in their perfection for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the great abundance of your enchantments.
10For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, None sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and none else beside me.
11Therefore shall evil come on you; you shall not know from where it rises: and mischief shall fall on you; you shall not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you shall not know.
12Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, wherein you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail.
13You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from these things that shall come on you.
14Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.
15Thus shall they be to you with whom you have labored, even your merchants, from your youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save you.
ISAIAH 48 : Israel’s Stubbornness
1Hear you this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
2For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
3I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
4Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;
5I have even from the beginning declared it to you; before it came to pass I showed it you: lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, has commanded them.
6You have heard, see all this; and will not you declare it? I have showed you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when you heard them not; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them.
8Yes, you heard not; yes, you knew not; yes, from that time that your ear was not opened: for I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.
9For my name’s sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I cut you not off.
10Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11For my own sake, even for my own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory to another.
Israel Promised Deliverance
12Listen to me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
13My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spanned the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.
14All you, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them has declared these things? The LORD has loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
15I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
16Come you near to me, hear you this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, has sent me.
17Thus said the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD your God which teaches you to profit, which leads you by the way that you should go.
18O that you had listened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19Your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
20Go you forth of Babylon, flee you from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare you, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say you, The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.
21And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
22There is no peace, said the LORD, to the wicked.
ISAIAH 49 : You are My Servant
1Listen, O isles, to me; and listen, you people, from far; The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name.
2And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he hid me;
3And said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
4Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
5And now, said the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
6And he said, It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.
7Thus said the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose you.
The Restoration of Israel
8Thus said the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you: and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
9That you may say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
10They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
11And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
12Behold, these shall come from far: and, see, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
13Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted.
14But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.
15Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget you.
16Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
17Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go forth of you.
18Lift up your eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live, said the LORD, you shall surely clothe you with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride does.
19For your waste and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed you up shall be far away.
20The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.
21Then shall you say in your heart, Who has begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?
22Thus said the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
24Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
25But thus said the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contends with you, and I will save your children.
26And I will feed them that oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
Isaiah 50 : Israel’s Sin
1Thus said the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
2Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinks, because there is no water, and dies for thirst.
3I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
The Servant’s Obedience
(Matthew 27:27-31; Mark 15:16-20; Luke 22:63-65; John 19:1-15)
4The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as the learned.
5The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
7For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is my adversary? let him come near to me.
9Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? see, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
10Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and has no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay on his God.
11Behold, all you that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that you have kindled. This shall you have of my hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.
ISAIAH 51 :Salvation for Zion
1Listen to me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the LORD: look to the rock from where you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from where you are dig.
2Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bore you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4Listen to me, my people; and give ear to me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
5My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait on me, and on my arm shall they trust.
6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7Listen to me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear you not the reproach of men, neither be you afraid of their revilings.
8For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not it that has cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
10Are you not it which has dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
11Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12I, even I, am he that comforts you: who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
13And forget the LORD your maker, that has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. 15But I am the LORD your God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name. 16And I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, You are my people.
The Cup of Wrath
17Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; you have drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
19These two things are come to you; who shall be sorry for you? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort you?
20Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
21Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22Thus said your Lord the LORD, and your God that pleads the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; you shall no more drink it again:
23But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you; which have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
ISAIAH 52 : Deliverance for Jerusalem
1Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for from now on there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2Shake yourself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3For thus said the LORD, You have sold yourselves for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money. 4For thus said the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 5Now therefore, what have I here, said the LORD, that my people is taken away for nothing? they that rule over them make them to howl, said the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed. 6Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that does speak: behold, it is I.
7How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that said to Zion, Your God reigns!
8Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10The LORD has made bore his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11Depart you, depart you, go you out from there, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the middle of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
The Servant Exalted
13Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14As many were astonished at you; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
ISAIAH 53 :The Suffering Servant
(Matthew 26:57-68; Mark 14:53-65; John 18:19-24; 1 Peter 2:21-25)
1Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opens not his mouth.
8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
A Grave Assigned
(Matthew 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42)
9And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul to death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
ISAIAH 54 :Future Blessings for Zion
1Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, said the LORD.
2Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes;
3For you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4Fear not; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be you confounded; for you shall not be put to shame: for you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more.
5For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
6For the LORD has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, said your God.
7For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
8In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, said the LORD your Redeemer.
9For this is as the waters of Noah to me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you.
10For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, said the LORD that has mercy on you.
11O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones.
13And all your children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of your children.
14In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression; for you shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near you.
15Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against you shall fall for your sake.
16Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
17No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, said the LORD.
ISAIAH 55 : Invitation to the Needy
1Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3Incline your ear, and come to me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
5Behold, you shall call a nation that you know not, and nations that knew not you shall run to you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.
6Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you on him while he is near:
7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, said the LORD.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
ISAIAH 56 : Salvation for All Nations
1Thus said the LORD, Keep you judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2Blessed is the man that does this, and the son of man that lays hold on it; that keeps the sabbath from polluting it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
3Neither let the son of the stranger, that has joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD has utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
4For thus said the LORD to the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
5Even to them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
6Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keeps the sabbath from polluting it, and takes hold of my covenant;
7Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
8The Lord GOD, which gathers the outcasts of Israel said, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered to him.
Israel’s Sinful Leaders
9All you beasts of the field, come to devour, yes, all you beasts in the forest.
10His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11Yes, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
12Come you, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
ISAIAH 57 : The Blessed Death of the Righteous
1The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
2He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.
God Condemns Idolatry
3But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
4Against whom do you sport yourselves? against whom make you a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are you not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood.
5Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks?
6Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they, they are your lot: even to them have you poured a drink offering, you have offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?
7On a lofty and high mountain have you set your bed: even thither went you up to offer sacrifice.
8Behind the doors also and the posts have you set up your remembrance: for you have discovered yourself to another than me, and are gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them; you loved their bed where you saw it.
9And you went to the king with ointment, and did increase your perfumes, and did send your messengers far off, and did debase yourself even to hell.
10You are wearied in the greatness of your way; yet said you not, There is no hope: you have found the life of your hand; therefore you were not grieved.
11And of whom have you been afraid or feared, that you have lied, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and you fear me not?
12I will declare your righteousness, and your works; for they shall not profit you.
13When you cry, let your companies deliver you; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that puts his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;
Healing for the Repentant
(Jeremiah 3:11-25; Hosea 14:1-3; Zechariah 1:1-6)
14And shall say, Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people.
15For thus said the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
16For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
17For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.
18I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.
19I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, said the LORD; and I will heal him.
20But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21There is no peace, said my God, to the wicked.
ISAIAH 58 :True Fasts and Sabbaths
1Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
3Why have we fasted, say they, and you see not? why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.
4Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
7Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?
8Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
9Then shall you call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the middle of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10And if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in obscurity, and your darkness be as the noon day:
11And the LORD shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones: and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
14Then shall you delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
ISAIAH 61 :The Year of the Lord’s Favor
(Matthew 2:19-23; Matthew 13:53-58; Mark 6:1-6; Luke 2:39-40; Luke 4:16-30)
1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
4And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
5And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
6But you shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves.
7For your shame you shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be to them.
8For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed.
10I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
ISAIAH 62 : Zion’s Salvation and New Name
1For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns.
2And the Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory: and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
3You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah: for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.
5For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you: and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
6I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: you that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,
7And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8The LORD has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your corn to be meat for your enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine, for the which you have labored:
9But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.
10Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
11Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the world, Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
12And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and you shall be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.
ISAIAH 65 : ZION’S SALVATION AND NEW NAME : Judgments and Promises
1I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, to a nation that was not called by my name.
2I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, which walks in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
3A people that provokes me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifices in gardens, and burns incense on altars of brick;
4Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
5Which say, Stand by yourself, come not near to me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.
6Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
7Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, said the LORD, which have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
8Thus said the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one said, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
9And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and my elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
10And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
11But you are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering to that number.
12Therefore will I number you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear; but did evil before my eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
13Therefore thus said the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed:
14Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.
15And you shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay you, and call his servants by another name:
16That he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes.
New Heavens and Earth
17For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
18But be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
19And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
20There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.
21And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
24And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, said the LORD.
ISAIAH 66 : Heaven is My Throne
1Thus said the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that you build to me? and where is the place of my rest?
2For all those things has my hand made, and all those things have been, said the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word.
3He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrifices a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offers an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burns incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.
4I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear: but they did evil before my eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
5Hear the word of the LORD, you that tremble at his word; Your brothers that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
6A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that renders recompense to his enemies.
Rejoice with Jerusalem
7Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
8Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
9Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? said the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? said your God.
10Rejoice you with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her:
11That you may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
12For thus said the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall you suck, you shall be borne on her sides, and be dandled on her knees.
13As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.
God’s Final Judgments against the Wicked
15For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the middle, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, said the LORD.
18For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory. 19And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. 20And they shall bring all your brothers for an offering to the LORD out of all nations on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, said the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD. 21And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, said the LORD.
22For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, said the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, said the LORD.
24And they shall go forth, and look on the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh.