Isaiah 1-2

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.