Category: Isaiah

Quit Your Worship Charades

1 The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

2-4 Heaven and earth, you’re the jury.

Listen toGod’s case:

“I had children and raised them well,

and they turned on me.

The ox knows who’s boss,

the mule knows the hand that feeds him,

But not Israel.

My people don’t know up from down.

Shame! MisguidedGod-dropouts,

staggering under their guilt-baggage,

Gang of miscreants,

band of vandals—

My people have walked out on me, theirGod,

turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,

walked off and never looked back.

5-9 “Why bother even trying to do anything with you

when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?

You keep beating your heads against brick walls.

Everything within you protests against you.

From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,

nothing’s working right.

Wounds and bruises and running sores—

untended, unwashed, unbandaged.

Your country is laid waste,

your cities burned down.

Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,

reduced to rubble by barbarians.

Daughter Zion is deserted—

like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,

Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,

like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.

IfGod-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn’t left us a few survivors,

we’d be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.

10 “Listen to my Message,

you Sodom-schooled leaders.

Receive God’s revelation,

you Gomorrah-schooled people.

11-12 “Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”

God’sasking.

“Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices,

rams and plump grain-fed calves?

Don’t you think I’ve had my fill

of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?

When you come before me,

whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,

Running here and there, doing this and that—

all this sheercommotionin the place provided for worship?

13-17 “Quit your worship charades.

I can’t stand your trivial religious games:

Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—

meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!

Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!

You’ve worn me out!

I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,

while you go right on sinning.

When you put on your next prayer-performance,

I’ll be looking the other way.

No matter how long or loud or often you pray,

I’ll not be listening.

And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing

people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.

Go home and wash up.

Clean up your act.

Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings

so I don’t have to look at them any longer.

Say no to wrong.

Learn to do good.

Work for justice.

Help the down-and-out.

Stand up for the homeless.

Go to bat for the defenseless.

Let’s Argue This Out

18-20 “Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”

This isGod’s Message:

“If your sins are blood-red,

they’ll be snow-white.

If they’re red like crimson,

they’ll be like wool.

If you’ll willingly obey,

you’ll feast like kings.

But if you’re willful and stubborn,

you’ll die like dogs.”

That’s right.Godsays so.

Those Who Walk Out on God

21-23 Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city

has become a whore!

She was once all justice,

everyone living as good neighbors,

And now they’re all

at one another’s throats.

Your coins are all counterfeits.

Your wine is watered down.

Your leaders are turncoats

who keep company with crooks.

They sell themselves to the highest bidder

and grab anything not nailed down.

They never stand up for the homeless,

never stick up for the defenseless.

24-31 This Decree, therefore, of the Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

the Strong One of Israel:

“This is it! I’ll get my oppressors off my back.

I’ll get back at my enemies.

I’ll give you the back of my hand,

purge the junk from your life, clean you up.

I’ll set honest judges and wise counselors among you

just like it was back in the beginning.

Then you’ll be renamed

City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City.”

God’s right ways will put Zion right again.

God’s right actions will restore her penitents.

But it’s curtains for rebels andGod-traitors,

a dead end for those who walk out onGod.

“Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines

will leave you looking mighty foolish,

All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens

that you thought was the latest thing.

You’ll end up like an oak tree

with all its leaves falling off,

Like an unwatered garden,

withered and brown.

‘The Big Man’ will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,

and his ‘work,’ the spark that starts the fire

That exposes man and work both

as nothing but cinders and smoke.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/1-e4c17b4f99b34e3213a4b0f2ba52c96b.mp3?version_id=97—

Climb God’s Mountain

1-5 The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:

There’s a day coming

when the mountain ofGod’s House

Will be The Mountain—

solid, towering over all mountains.

All nations will river toward it,

people from all over set out for it.

They’ll say, “Come,

let’s climbGod’s Mountain,

go to the House of the God of Jacob.

He’ll show us the way he works

so we can live the way we’re made.”

Zion’s the source of the revelation.

God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.

He’ll settle things fairly between nations.

He’ll make things right between many peoples.

They’ll turn their swords into shovels,

their spears into hoes.

No more will nation fight nation;

they won’t play war anymore.

Come, family of Jacob,

let’s live in the light ofGod.

6-9 God, you’ve walked out on your family Jacob

because their world is full of hokey religion,

Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus,

a world rolling in wealth,

Stuffed with things,

no end to its machines and gadgets,

And gods—gods of all sorts and sizes.

These people make their own gods and worship what they make.

A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter.

Don’t bother with them! They’re not worth forgiving!

Pretentious Egos Brought Down to Earth

10 Head for the hills,

hide in the caves

From the terror ofGod,

from his dazzling presence.

11-17 People with a big head are headed for a fall,

pretentious egos brought down a peg.

It’sGodalone at front-and-center

on the Day we’re talking about,

The Day thatGod-of-the-Angel-Armies

is matched against all big-talking rivals,

against all swaggering big names;

Against all giant sequoias

hugely towering,

and against the expansive chestnut;

Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna,

against the ranges of Alps and Andes;

Against every soaring skyscraper,

against all proud obelisks and statues;

Against ocean-going luxury liners,

against elegant three-masted schooners.

The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders,

the pretentious egos brought down to earth,

LeavingGodalone at front-and-center

on the Day we’re talking about.

18 And all those sticks and stones

dressed up to look like gods

will be gone for good.

19 Clamber into caves in the cliffs,

duck into any hole you can find.

Hide from the terror ofGod,

from his dazzling presence,

When he assumes his full stature on earth,

towering and terrifying.

20-21 On that Day men and women will take

the sticks and stones

They’ve decked out in gold and silver

to look like gods and then worshiped,

And they will dump them

in any ditch or gully,

Then run for rock caves

and cliff hideouts

To hide from the terror ofGod,

from his dazzling presence,

When he assumes his full stature on earth,

towering and terrifying.

22 Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans,

so full of themselves, so full of hot air!

Can’t you see there’s nothing to them?

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/2-0f720be7f1ee1154a5b2a86eb059c36b.mp3?version_id=97—

Jerusalem on Its Last Legs

1-7 The Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

is emptying Jerusalem and Judah

Of all the basic necessities,

plain bread and water to begin with.

He’s withdrawing police and protection,

judges and courts,

pastors and teachers,

captains and generals,

doctors and nurses,

and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades.

He says, “I’ll put little kids in charge of the city.

Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around.

People will be at each other’s throats,

stabbing one another in the back:

Neighbor against neighbor, young against old,

the no-account against the well-respected.

One brother will grab another and say,

‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders.

Do something!

Get us out of this mess.’

And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue.

Don’t put me in charge of anything.’

8-9 “Jerusalem’s on its last legs.

Judah is soon down for the count.

Everything people say and do

is at cross-purposes withGod,

a slap in my face.

Brazen in their depravity,

they flaunt their sins like degenerate Sodom.

Doom to their eternal souls! They’ve made their bed;

now they’ll sleep in it.

10-11 “Reassure the righteous

that their good living will pay off.

But doom to the wicked! Disaster!

Everything they did will be done to them.

12 “Skinny kids terrorize my people.

Silly girls bully them around.

My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley.

They’re sending you off on a wild-goose chase.”

A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows

13-15 Godenters the courtroom.

He takes his place at the bench to judge his people.

Godcalls for order in the court,

hauls the leaders of his people into the dock:

“You’ve played havoc with this country.

Your houses are stuffed with what you’ve stolen from the poor.

What is this anyway? Stomping on my people,

grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?”

That’s what the Master,

God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.

16-17 Godsays, “Zion women are stuck-up,

prancing around in their high heels,

Making eyes at all the men in the street,

swinging their hips,

Tossing their hair,

gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry.”

The Master will fix it so those Zion women

will all turn bald—

Scabby, bald-headed women.

The Master will do it.

18-23 The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles—the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, all the world’s finest in fabrics and design.

24 Instead of wearing seductive scents,

these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages;

Instead of modeling flowing gowns,

they’ll be sporting rags;

Instead of their stylish hairdos,

scruffy heads;

Instead of beauty marks,

scabs and scars.

25-26 Your finest fighting men will be killed,

your soldiers left dead on the battlefield.

The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted

with people mourning their dead—

A city stooped under the weight of her loss,

brought to her knees by her sorrows.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/3-9857d395334581c894cac803f4fde231.mp3?version_id=97—

1 That will be the day when seven women

will gang up on one man, saying,

“We’ll take care of ourselves,

get our own food and clothes.

Just give us a child. Make us pregnant

so we’ll have something to live for!”

God’s Branch

2-4 And that’s whenGod’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious.Godwill give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.

5-6 ThenGodwill bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/4-7b72ca84a2fbd41c5e9c10ad53282cb1.mp3?version_id=97—

Looking for a Crop of Justice

1-2 I’ll sing a ballad to the one I love,

a love ballad about his vineyard:

The one I love had a vineyard,

a fine, well-placed vineyard.

He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds,

and planted the very best vines.

He built a lookout, built a winepress,

a vineyard to be proud of.

He looked for a vintage yield of grapes,

but for all his pains he got junk grapes.

3-4 “Now listen to what I’m telling you,

you who live in Jerusalem and Judah.

What do you think is going on

between me and my vineyard?

Can you think of anything I could have done

to my vineyard that I didn’t do?

When I expected good grapes,

why did I get bitter grapes?

5-6 “Well now, let me tell you

what I’ll do to my vineyard:

I’ll tear down its fence

and let it go to ruin.

I’ll knock down the gate

and let it be trampled.

I’ll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for—

thistles and thorns will take over.

I’ll give orders to the clouds:

‘Don’t rain on that vineyard, ever!’”

7 Do you get it? The vineyard ofGod-of-the-Angel-Armies

is the country of Israel.

All the men and women of Judah

are the garden he was so proud of.

He looked for a crop of justice

and saw them murdering each other.

He looked for a harvest of righteousness

and heard only the moans of victims.

You Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil

8-10 Doom to you who buy up all the houses

and grab all the land for yourselves—

Evicting the old owners,

postingno trespassingsigns,

Taking over the country,

leaving everyone homeless and landless.

I overheardGod-of-the-Angel-Armies say:

“Those mighty houses will end up empty.

Those extravagant estates will be deserted.

A ten-acre vineyard will produce a pint of wine,

a fifty-pound sack of seed, a quart of grain.”

11-17 Doom to those who get up early

and start drinking booze before breakfast,

Who stay up all hours of the night

drinking themselves into a stupor.

They make sure their banquets are well-furnished

with harps and flutes and plenty of wine,

But they’ll have nothing to do with the work ofGod,

pay no mind to what he is doing.

Therefore my people will end up in exile

because they don’t know the score.

Their “big men” will starve to death

and the common people die of thirst.

Sheol developed a huge appetite,

swallowing people nonstop!

Big people and little people alike

down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks.

The down-and-out on a par

with the high-and-mighty,

Windbag boasters crumpled,

flaccid as a punctured bladder.

But by working justice,

God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be a mountain.

By working righteousness,

Holy God will show what “holy” is.

And lambs will graze

as if they owned the place,

Kids and calves

right at home in the ruins.

18-19 Doom to you who use lies to sell evil,

who haul sin to market by the truckload,

Who say, “What’s God waiting for?

Let him get a move on so we can see it.

Whatever The Holy of Israel has cooked up,

we’d like to check it out.”

20 Doom to you who call evil good

and good evil,

Who put darkness in place of light

and light in place of darkness,

Who substitute bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter!

21-23 Doom to you who think you’re so smart,

who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!

All you’re good at is drinking—champion boozers

who collect trophies from drinking bouts

And then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty

while you violate the rights of the innocent.

24 But they won’t get by with it. As fire eats stubble

and dry grass goes up in smoke,

Their souls will atrophy,

their achievements crumble into dust,

Because they said no to the revelation

ofGod-of-the-Angel-Armies,

Would have nothing to do

with The Holy of Israel.

25-30 That’s whyGodflamed out in anger against his people,

reached out and knocked them down.

The mountains trembled

as their dead bodies piled up in the streets.

But even after that, he was still angry,

his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

He raises a flag, signaling a distant nation,

whistles for people at the ends of the earth.

And here they come—

on the run!

None drag their feet, no one stumbles,

no one sleeps or dawdles.

Shirts are on and pants buckled,

every boot is spit-polished and tied.

Their arrows are sharp,

bows strung,

The hooves of their horses shod,

chariot wheels greased.

Roaring like a pride of lions,

the full-throated roars of young lions,

They growl and seize their prey,

dragging it off—no rescue for that one!

They’ll roar and roar and roar on that Day,

like the roar of ocean billows.

Look as long and hard as you like at that land,

you’ll see nothing but darkness and trouble.

Every light in the sky

will be blacked out by the clouds.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/5-f317be7c3ec294eeacc6340004d0b525.mp3?version_id=97—

Holy, Holy, Holy!

1-8 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted!—and the train of his robes filled the Temple. Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew. And they called back and forth one to the other,

Holy, Holy, Holy isGod-of-the-Angel-Armies.

His bright glory fills the whole earth.

The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke. I said,

“Doom! It’s Doomsday!

I’m as good as dead!

Every word I’ve ever spoken is tainted—

blasphemous even!

And the people I live with talk the same way,

using words that corrupt and desecrate.

And here I’ve looked God in the face!

The King!God-of-the-Angel-Armies!”

Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with the coal and said,

“Look. This coal has touched your lips.

Gone your guilt,

your sins wiped out.”

And then I heard the voice of the Master:

“Whom shall I send?

Who will go for us?”

I spoke up,

“I’ll go.

Send me!”

9-10 He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Listen hard, but you aren’t going to get it;

look hard, but you won’t catch on.’

Make these people blockheads,

with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes,

So they won’t see a thing,

won’t hear a word,

So they won’t have a clue about what’s going on

and, yes, so they won’t turn around and be made whole.”

11-13 Astonished, I said,

“And Master, how long is this to go on?”

He said, “Until the cities are emptied out,

not a soul left in the cities—

Houses empty of people,

countryside empty of people.

Until I,God, get rid of everyone, sending them off,

the land totally empty.

And even if some should survive, say a tenth,

the devastation will start up again.

The country will look like pine and oak forest

with every tree cut down—

Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps.

But there’s a holy seed in those stumps.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/6-bd3600fc57855419709a72a9f6a7268b.mp3?version_id=97—

A Virgin Will Bear a Son

1-2 During the time that Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel attacked Jerusalem, but the attack sputtered out. When the Davidic government learned that Aram had joined forces with Ephraim (that is, Israel), Ahaz and his people were badly shaken. They shook like trees in the wind.

3-6 ThenGodtold Isaiah, “Go and meet Ahaz. Take your son Shear-jashub (A-Remnant-Will-Return) with you. Meet him south of the city at the end of the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry. Tell him, Listen, calm down. Don’t be afraid. And don’t panic over these two burnt-out cases, Rezin of Aram and the son of Remaliah. They talk big but there’s nothing to them. Aram, along with Ephraim’s son of Remaliah, have plotted to do you harm. They’ve conspired against you, saying, ‘Let’s go to war against Judah, dismember it, take it for ourselves, and set the son of Tabeel up as a puppet king over it.’

7-9 ButGod, the Master, says,

“It won’t happen.

Nothing will come of it

Because the capital of Aram is Damascus

and the king of Damascus is a mere man, Rezin.

As for Ephraim, in sixty-five years

it will be rubble, nothing left of it.

The capital of Ephraim is Samaria,

and the king of Samaria is the mere son of Remaliah.

If you don’t take your stand in faith,

you won’t have a leg to stand on.”

10-11 Godspoke again to Ahaz. This time he said, “Ask for a sign from yourGod. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!”

12 But Ahaz said, “I’d never do that. I’d never make demands like that onGod!”

13-17 So Isaiah told him, “Then listen to this, government of David! It’s bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you’re making God tired. So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She’ll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us). By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions, the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture. But also be warned:Godwill bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!”

18-19 That’s whenGodwill whistle for the flies at the headwaters of Egypt’s Nile, and whistle for the bees in the land of Assyria. They’ll come and infest every nook and cranny of this country. There’ll be no getting away from them.

20 And that’s when the Master will take the razor rented from across the Euphrates—the king of Assyria no less!—and shave the hair off your heads and genitals, leaving you shamed, exposed, and denuded. He’ll shave off your beards while he’s at it.

21-22 It will be a time when survivors will count themselves lucky to have a cow and a couple of sheep. At least they’ll have plenty of milk! Whoever’s left in the land will learn to make do with the simplest foods—curds, whey, and honey.

23-25 But that’s not the end of it. This country that used to be covered with fine vineyards—thousands of them, worth millions!—will revert to a weed patch. Weeds and thornbushes everywhere! Good for nothing except, perhaps, hunting rabbits. Cattle and sheep will forage as best they can in the fields of weeds—but there won’t be a trace of all those fertile and well-tended gardens and fields.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/7-342b9396d0deef15343eeb905b9f0467.mp3?version_id=97—

1 ThenGodtold me, “Get a big sheet of paper and write in indelible ink, ‘This belongs to Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Spoil-Speeds-Plunder-Hurries).’”

2-3 I got two honest men, Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, to witness the document. Then I went home to my wife, the prophetess. She conceived and gave birth to a son.

3-4 Godtold me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Before that baby says ‘Daddy’ or ‘Mamma’ the king of Assyria will have plundered the wealth of Damascus and the riches of Samaria.”

5-8 Godspoke to me again, saying:

“Because this people has turned its back

on the gently flowing stream of Shiloah

And gotten all excited over Rezin

and the son of Remaliah,

I’m stepping in and facing them with

the wild floodwaters of the Euphrates,

The king of Assyria and all his fanfare,

a river in flood, bursting its banks,

Pouring into Judah, sweeping everything before it,

water up to your necks,

A huge wingspan of a raging river,

O Immanuel, spreading across your land.”

9-10 But face the facts, all you oppressors, and then wring your hands.

Listen, all of you, far and near.

Prepare for the worst and wring your hands.

Yes, prepare for the worst and wring your hands!

Plan and plot all you want—nothing will come of it.

All your talk is mere talk, empty words,

Because when all is said and done,

the last word is Immanuel—God-With-Us.

A Boulder Blocking Your Way

11-15 Godspoke strongly to me, grabbed me with both hands and warned me not to go along with this people. He said:

“Don’t be like this people,

always afraid somebody is plotting against them.

Don’t fear what they fear.

Don’t take on their worries.

If you’re going to worry,

worry about The Holy. FearGod-of-the-Angel-Armies.

The Holy can be either a Hiding Place

or a Boulder blocking your way,

The Rock standing in the willful way

of both houses of Israel,

A barbed-wire Fence preventing trespass

to the citizens of Jerusalem.

Many of them are going to run into that Rock

and get their bones broken,

Get tangled up in that barbed wire

and not get free of it.”

16-18 Gather up the testimony,

preserve the teaching for my followers,

While I wait forGodas long as he remains in hiding,

while I wait and hope for him.

I stand my ground and hope,

I and the childrenGodgave me as signs to Israel,

Warning signs and hope signs fromGod-of-the-Angel-Armies,

who makes his home in Mount Zion.

19-22 When people tell you, “Try out the fortunetellers.

Consult the spiritualists.

Why not tap into the spirit-world,

get in touch with the dead?”

Tell them, “No, we’re going to study the Scriptures.”

People who try the other ways get nowhere—a dead end!

Frustrated and famished,

they try one thing after another.

When nothing works out they get angry,

cursing first this god and then that one,

Looking this way and that,

up, down, and sideways—and seeing nothing,

A blank wall, an empty hole.

They end up in the dark with nothing.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/8-79dc57a03131f7b940ed5fa91a9e7e16.mp3?version_id=97—

A Child Has Been Born—for Us!

1 But there’ll be no darkness for those who were in trouble. Earlier he did bring the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali into disrepute, but the time is coming when he’ll make that whole area glorious—the road along the Sea, the country past the Jordan, international Galilee.

2-7 The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light.

For those who lived in a land of deep shadows—

light! sunbursts of light!

You repopulated the nation,

you expanded its joy.

Oh, they’re so glad in your presence!

Festival joy!

The joy of a great celebration,

sharing rich gifts and warm greetings.

The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants—

all their whips and cudgels and curses—

Is gone, done away with, a deliverance

as surprising and sudden as Gideon’s old victory over Midian.

The boots of all those invading troops,

along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood,

Will be piled in a heap and burned,

a fire that will burn for days!

For a child has been born—for us!

the gift of a son—for us!

He’ll take over

the running of the world.

His names will be: Amazing Counselor,

Strong God,

Eternal Father,

Prince of Wholeness.

His ruling authority will grow,

and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.

He’ll rule from the historic David throne

over that promised kingdom.

He’ll put that kingdom on a firm footing

and keep it going

With fair dealing and right living,

beginning now and lasting always.

The zeal ofGod-of-the-Angel-Armies

will do all this.

God Answered Fire with Fire

8-10 The Master sent a message against Jacob.

It landed right on Israel’s doorstep.

All the people soon heard the message,

Ephraim and the citizens of Samaria.

But they were a proud and arrogant bunch.

They dismissed the message, saying,

“Things aren’t that bad.

We can handle anything that comes.

If our buildings are knocked down,

we’ll rebuild them bigger and finer.

If our forests are cut down,

we’ll replant them with finer trees.”

11-12 SoGodincited their adversaries against them,

stirred up their enemies to attack:

From the east, Arameans; from the west, Philistines.

They made hash of Israel.

But even after that, he was still angry,

his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

13-17 But the people paid no mind to him who hit them,

didn’t seekGod-of-the-Angel-Armies.

SoGodhacked off Israel’s head and tail,

palm branch and reed, both on the same day.

The big-head elders were the head,

the lying prophets were the tail.

Those who were supposed to lead this people

led them down blind alleys,

And those who followed the leaders

ended up lost and confused.

That’s why the Master lost interest in the young men,

had no feeling for their orphans and widows.

All of them were godless and evil,

talking filth and folly.

And even after that, he was still angry,

his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

18-21 Their wicked lives raged like an out-of-control fire,

the kind that burns everything in its path—

Trees and bushes, weeds and grasses—

filling the skies with smoke.

God-of-the-Angel-Armies answered fire with fire,

set the whole country on fire,

Turned the people into consuming fires,

consuming one another in their lusts—

Appetites insatiable, stuffing and gorging

themselves left and right with people and things.

But still they starved. Not even their children

were safe from their rapacious hunger.

Manasseh ate Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,

and then the two ganged up against Judah.

And after that, he was still angry,

his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/9-1b641709c1c33b2052b6a238039f243c.mp3?version_id=97—

You Who Legislate Evil

1-4 Doom to you who legislate evil,

who make laws that make victims—

Laws that make misery for the poor,

that rob my destitute people of dignity,

Exploiting defenseless widows,

taking advantage of homeless children.

What will you have to say on Judgment Day,

when Doomsday arrives out of the blue?

Who will you get to help you?

What good will your money do you?

A sorry sight you’ll be then, huddled with the prisoners,

or just some corpses stacked in the street.

Even after all this, God is still angry,

his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

Doom to Assyria!

5-11 “Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger.

My wrath is a cudgel in his hands!

I send him against a godless nation,

against the people I’m angry with.

I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind,

and then push their faces in the mud and leave them.

But Assyria has another agenda;

he has something else in mind.

He’s out to destroy utterly,

to stamp out as many nations as he can.

Assyria says, ‘Aren’t my commanders all kings?

Can’t they do whatever they like?

Didn’t I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish?

Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus?

I’ve eliminated kingdoms full of gods

far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria.

So what’s to keep me from destroying Jerusalem

in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?’”

12-13 When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he’ll say, “Now it’s Assyria’s turn. I’ll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing, the way he goes around saying,

13-14 “‘I’ve done all this by myself.

I know more than anyone.

I’ve wiped out the boundaries of whole countries.

I’ve walked in and taken anything I wanted.

I charged in like a bull

and toppled their kings from their thrones.

I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured

as easily as a boy taking a bird’s eggs from a nest.

Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse,

I gathered the world in my basket,

And no one so much as fluttered a wing

or squawked or even chirped.’”

15-19 Does an ax take over from the one who swings it?

Does a saw act more important than the sawyer?

As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger!

As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails!

Therefore the Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters.

Under the canopy of God’s bright glory

a fierce fire will break out.

Israel’s Light will burst into a conflagration.

The Holy will explode into a firestorm,

And in one day burn to cinders

every last Assyrian thornbush.

Godwill destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens.

The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing

like a disease-ridden invalid.

A child could count what’s left of the trees

on the fingers of his two hands.

20-23 And on that Day also, what’s left of Israel, the ragtag survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They’ll lean onGod, The Holy—yes, truly. The ragtag remnant—what’s left of Jacob—will come back to the Strong God. Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness. For the Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe.

24-27 Therefore the Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: “My dear, dear people who live in Zion, don’t be terrorized by the Assyrians when they beat you with clubs and threaten you with rods like the Egyptians once did. In just a short time my anger against you will be spent and I’ll turn my destroying anger on them. I,God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will go after them with a cat-o’-nine-tails and finish them off decisively—as Gideon downed Midian at the rock Oreb, as Moses turned the tables on Egypt. On that day, Assyria will be pulled off your back, and the yoke of slavery lifted from your neck.”

27-32 Assyria’s on the move: up from Rimmon,

on to Aiath,

through Migron,

with a bivouac at Micmash.

They’ve crossed the pass,

set camp at Geba for the night.

Ramah trembles with fright.

Gibeah of Saul has run off.

Cry for help, daughter of Gallim!

Listen to her, Laishah!

Do something, Anathoth!

Madmenah takes to the hills.

The people of Gebim flee in panic.

The enemy’s soon at Nob—nearly there!

In sight of the city he shakes his fist

At the mount of dear daughter Zion,

the hill of Jerusalem.

33-34 But now watch this: The Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

swings his ax and lops the branches,

Chops down the giant trees,

lays flat the towering forest-on-the-march.

His ax will make toothpicks of that forest,

that Lebanon-like army reduced to kindling.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/ISA/10-2af5f86d757f01282bf01710c5f3de07.mp3?version_id=97—