Isaiah 1-6

Isaiah 1

¹The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw about Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

²Give ear, O heavens, and you, O earth, to the word which the Lord has said: I have taken care of my children till they became men, but their hearts have been turned away from me.

³Even the ox has knowledge of its owner, and the ass of the place where its master puts its food: but Israel has no knowledge, my people give no thought to me.

⁴O nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime, a generation of evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have gone away from the Lord, they have no respect for the Holy One of Israel, their hearts are turned back from him.

⁵Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep on in your evil ways? Every head is tired and every heart is feeble.

⁶The body, from head to foot, is all diseased; it is a mass of open wounds, marks of blows, and broken flesh: the flow of blood has not been stopped, and no oil has been put on the wounds.

⁷Your country has become waste; your towns are burned with fire; as for your land, it is overturned before your eyes, made waste and overcome by men from strange lands.

⁸And the daughter of Zion has become like a tent in a vine-garden, like a watchman's house in a field of fruit, like a town shut in by armies.

⁹If the Lord of armies had not kept some at least of us safe, we would have been like Sodom, and the fate of Gomorrah would have been ours.

¹⁰Give ear to the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; let your hearts be turned to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.

¹¹What use to me is the number of the offerings which you give me? says the Lord; your burned offerings of sheep, and the best parts of fat cattle, are a weariness to me; I take no pleasure in the blood of oxen, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

¹²At whose request do you come before me, making my house unclean with your feet?

¹³Give me no more false offerings; the smoke of burning flesh is disgusting to me, so are your new moons and Sabbaths and your holy meetings.

¹⁴Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed under them.

¹⁵And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes will be turned away from you: even though you go on making prayers, I will not give ear: your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶Be washed, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; let there be an end of sinning;

¹⁷Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow.

¹⁸Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool?

¹⁹If you will give ear to my word and do it, the good things of the land will be yours;

²⁰But if your hearts are turned against me, I will send destruction on you by the sword; so the Lord has said.

²¹The upright town has become untrue; there was a time when her judges gave right decisions, when righteousness had a resting-place in her, but now she is full of those who take men's lives.

²²Your silver is no longer true metal, your wine is mixed with water.

²³Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.

²⁴For this reason the Lord, the Lord of armies, the Strong One of Israel, has said, I will put an end to my haters, and send punishment on those who are against me;

²⁵And my hand will again be on you, washing away what is unclean as with soap, and taking away all your false metal;

²⁶And I will give you judges again as at the first, and wise guides as in the past; then you will be named, The Town of Righteousness, the true town.

²⁷Upright acts will be the price of Zion's forgiveness, and by righteousness will men be living there.

²⁸But a common destruction will overtake sinners and evil-doers together, and those who have gone away from the Lord will be cut off.

²⁹For you will be put to shame because of the trees of your desire, and because of the gardens of your pleasure.

³⁰For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become dry, and like a garden without water.

³¹And the strong will be as food for the fire, and his work as a flame; and they will be burned together, with no one to put out the fire.

Isaiah 2

¹The word which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw about Judah and Jerusalem.

²And it will come about in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord will be placed on the top of the mountains, and be lifted up over the hills; and all nations will come to it.

³And the peoples will say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will give us knowledge of his ways, and we will be guided by his word; for out of Zion the law will go out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

⁴And he will be the judge between the nations, and the peoples will be ruled by his decisions: and their swords will be turned into plough-blades, and their spears into vine-knives: no longer will the nations be turning their swords against one another, and the knowledge of war will be gone for ever.

⁵O family of Jacob, come, and let us go in the light of the Lord.

⁶For you, O Lord, have given up your people, the family of Jacob, because they are full of the evil ways of the east, and make use of secret arts like the Philistines, and are friends with the children of strange countries.

⁷And their land is full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their stores; their land is full of horses, and there is no end to their carriages.

⁸Their land is full of images; they give worship to the work of their hands, even to that which their fingers have made.

⁹And the poor man's head is bent, and the great man goes down on his face: for this cause there will be no forgiveness for their sin.

¹⁰Go into a hole in the rock, covering yourselves with dust, in fear of the Lord, before the glory of his power.

¹¹The high looks of man will be put to shame, and the pride of men will be made low, and only the Lord will be lifted up in that day.

¹²For the day of the Lord of armies is coming on all the pride of men, and on all who are high and lifted up;

¹³And on all the high trees of Lebanon, and on all the strong trees of Bashan;

¹⁴And on all the high mountains, and on all the hills which are lifted up;

¹⁵And on every high tower, and on every strong wall;

¹⁶And on all the ships of Tarshish, and on all the fair boats.

¹⁷And the high looks of man will be put to shame, and the pride of men will be made low: and only the Lord will be lifted up in that day.

¹⁸And the images will never be seen again.

¹⁹And men will go into cracks of the rocks, and into holes of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and before the glory of his power, when he comes out of his place, shaking the earth with his strength.

²⁰In that day men will put their images of silver and of gold, which they made for worship, in the keeping of the beasts of the dark places;

²¹To take cover in the cracks of the rocks, and in the holes of the hills, for fear of the Lord, and before the glory of his power, when he comes out of his place, shaking the earth with his strength.

²²Have no more to do with man, whose life is only a breath, for he is of no value.

Isaiah 3

¹For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to take away from Jerusalem and from Judah all their support; their store of bread and of water;

²The strong man and the man of war; the judge and the prophet; the man who has knowledge of secret arts, and the man who is wise because of his years;

³The captain of fifty, and the man of high position, and the wise guide, and the wonder-worker, and he who makes use of secret powers.

⁴And I will make children their chiefs, and foolish ones will have rule over them.

⁵And the people will be crushed, every one by his neighbour; the young will be full of pride against the old, and those of low position will be lifted up against the noble.

⁶When one man puts his hand on another in his father's house, and says, You have clothing, be our ruler and be responsible for us in our sad condition:

⁷Then he will say with an oath, I will not be a helper, for in my house there is no bread or clothing: I will not let you make me a ruler of the people.

⁸For Jerusalem has become feeble, and destruction has come on Judah, because their words and their acts are against the Lord, moving the eyes of his glory to wrath.

⁹Their respect for a man's position is a witness against them; and their sin is open to the view of all; like that of Sodom, it is not covered. A curse on their soul! for the measure of their sin is full.

¹⁰Happy is the upright man! for he will have joy of the fruit of his ways.

¹¹Unhappy is the sinner! for the reward of his evil doings will come on him.

¹²As for my people, their ruler is acting like a child, and those who have authority over them are women. O my people, your guides are the cause of your wandering, turning your footsteps out of the right way.

¹³The Lord is ready to take up his cause against his people, and is about to come forward as their judge.

¹⁴The Lord comes to be the judge of their responsible men and of their rulers: it is you who have made waste the vine-garden, and in your houses is the property of the poor which you have taken by force.

¹⁵By what right are you crushing my people, and putting a bitter yoke on the necks of the poor? This is the word of the Lord, the Lord of armies.

¹⁶Again, the Lord has said, Because the daughters of Zion are full of pride, and go with outstretched necks and wandering eyes, with their foot-chains sounding when they go:

¹⁷The Lord will send disease on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will let their secret parts be seen.

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the glory of their foot-rings, and their sun-jewels, and their moon-ornaments,

¹⁹The ear-rings, and the chains, and the delicate clothing,

²⁰The head-bands, and the arm-chains, and the worked bands, and the perfume-boxes, and the jewels with secret powers,

²¹The rings, and the nose-jewels,

²²The feast-day dresses, and the robes, and the wide skirts, and the handbags,

²³The looking-glasses, and the fair linen, and the high head-dresses, and the veils.

²⁴And in the place of sweet spices will be an evil smell, and for a fair band a thick cord; for a well-dressed head there will be the cutting-off of the hair, and for a beautiful robe there will be the clothing of sorrow; the mark of the prisoner in place of the ornaments of the free.

²⁵Your men will be put to the sword, and your men of war will come to destruction in the fight.

²⁶And in the public places of her towns will be sorrow and weeping; and she will be seated on the earth, waste and uncovered.

Isaiah 4

¹And in that day seven women will put their hands on one man, saying, There will be no need for you to give us food or clothing, only let us go under your name, so that our shame may be taken away.

²In that day will the young growth of the Lord be beautiful in glory, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride of those who are still living in Israel.

³And it will come about that the rest of the living in Zion, and of those who have been kept from destruction in Jerusalem, will be named holy, even everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem:

⁴When Zion has been washed from her sin by the Lord, and Jerusalem made clean from her blood by a judging and a burning wind.

⁵And over every living-place on Mount Zion, all over all her meetings, the Lord will make a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all, the glory of the Lord will be a cover and a tent;

⁶And a shade in the daytime from the heat, and a safe cover from storm and from rain.

Isaiah 5

¹Let me make a song about my loved one, a song of love for his vine-garden. My loved one had a vine-garden on a fertile hill:

²And after working the earth of it with a spade, he took away its stones, and put in it a very special vine; and he put up a watchtower in the middle of it, hollowing out in the rock a place for the grape-crushing; and he was hoping that it would give the best grapes, but it gave common grapes.

³And now, you people of Jerusalem and you men of Judah, be the judges between me and my vine-garden.

⁴Is there anything which might have been done for my vine-garden which I have not done? why then, when I was hoping for the best grapes did it give me common grapes?

⁵And now, this is what I will do to my vine-garden: I will take away the circle of thorns round it, and it will be burned up; its wall will be broken down and the beasts of the field will go through it;

⁶And I will make it waste; its branches will not be touched with the knife, or the earth worked with the spade; but blackberries and thorns will come up in it: and I will give orders to the clouds not to send rain on it.

⁷For the vine-garden of the Lord of armies is the people of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of his delight: and he was looking for upright judging, and there was blood; for righteousness, and there was a cry for help.

⁸Cursed are those who are joining house to house, and putting field to field, till there is no more living-space for any but themselves in all the land!

⁹The Lord of armies has said to me secretly, Truly, numbers of great and fair houses will be waste, with no one living in them.

¹⁰For ten fields of vines will only give one measure of wine, and a great amount of seed will only give a small measure of grain.

¹¹Cursed are those who get up early in the morning to give themselves up to strong drink; who keep on drinking far into the night till they are heated with wine!

¹²And corded instruments and wind-instruments and wine are in their feasts: but they give no thought to the work of the Lord, and they are not interested in what his hands are doing.

¹³For this cause my people are taken away as prisoners into strange countries for need of knowledge: and their rulers are wasted for need of food, and their loud-voiced feasters are dry for need of water.

¹⁴For this cause the underworld has made wide its throat, opening its mouth without limit: and her glory, and the noise of her masses, and her loud-voiced feasters, will go down into it.

¹⁵And the poor man's head is bent, and the great man goes down on his face, and the eyes of pride are put to shame:

¹⁶But the Lord of armies is lifted up as judge, and the Holy God is seen to be holy in righteousness.

¹⁷Then the lambs will get food as in their grass-lands, and the fat cattle will be feasting in the waste places.

¹⁸Cursed are those who make use of ox-cords for pulling the evil thing, and the bands of a young ox for their sin!

¹⁹Who say, Let him do his work quickly, let him make it sudden, so that we may see it: let the design of the Holy One of Israel come near, so that it may be clear to us.

²⁰Cursed are those who give the name of good to evil, and of evil to what is good: who make light dark, and dark light: who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter!

²¹Cursed are those who seem wise to themselves, and who take pride in their knowledge!

²²Cursed are those who are strong to take wine, and great in making mixed drinks!

²³Who for a reward give support to the cause of the sinner, and who take away the righteousness of the upright from him.

²⁴For this cause, as the waste of the grain is burned up by tongues of fire, and as the dry grass goes down before the flame, so their root will be like the dry stems of grain, and their flower will go up in dust: because they have gone against the law of the Lord of armies, and have given no honour to the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵For this reason the wrath of the Lord has been burning against his people, and his hand has been stretched out against them in punishment, and the hills were shaking, and their dead bodies were like waste in the open places of the town.

²⁶And he will let a flag be lifted up as a sign to a far-off nation, whistling to them from the ends of the earth: and they will come quickly and suddenly.

²⁷There is no weariness among them, and no man is feeble-footed: they come without resting or sleeping, and the cord of their shoes is not broken.

²⁸Their arrows are sharp, and every bow is bent: the feet of their horses are like rock, and their wheels are like a rushing storm.

²⁹The sound of their armies will be like the voice of a lion, and their war-cry like the noise of young lions: with loud cries they will come down on their food and will take it away safely, and there will be no one to take it out of their hands.

³⁰And his voice will be loud over him in that day like the sounding of the sea: and if a man's eyes are turned to the earth, it is all dark and full of trouble; and the light is made dark by thick clouds.

Isaiah 6

¹In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord seated in his place, high and lifted up, and the Temple was full of the wide skirts of his robe.

²Over him were the winged ones: every one had six wings; two for covering his face, two for covering his feed, and two for flight.

³And one said in a loud voice to another, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of armies: all the earth is full of his glory.

⁴And the bases of the door-pillars were shaking at the sound of his cry, and the house was full of smoke.

⁵Then I said, The curse is on me, and my fate is destruction; for I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies.

⁶Then a winged one came to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from off the altar with the fire-spoon.

⁷And after touching my mouth with it, he said, See, your lips have been touched with this; and your evil is taken away, and you are made clean from sin.

⁸And the voice of the Lord came to my ears, saying, Whom am I to send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me.

⁹And he said, Go, and say to this people, You will go on hearing, but learning nothing; you will go on seeing, but without getting wiser.

¹⁰Make the hearts of this people fat, and let their ears be stopped, and their eyes shut; for fear that they may see with their eyes, and be hearing with their ears, and their heart may become wise, and they may be turned to me and made well.

¹¹Then I said, Lord, how long? And he said in answer, Till the towns are waste and unpeopled, and the houses have no men, and the land becomes completely waste,

¹²And the Lord has taken men far away, and there are wide waste places in the land.

¹³And even if there is still a tenth part in it, it will again be burned, like a tree of the woods whose broken end is still in the earth after the tree has been cut down (the holy seed is the broken end).