Isaiah 4

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The Mountain of the Lord

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

lIt shall come to pass in the latter days

that mthe mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and nall the nations shall flow to it,

and omany peoples shall come, and say:

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.

For pout of Zion shall go forth the law,1

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations,

and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

qand they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

rnation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war anymore.

O house of Jacob,

come, let us walk

in sthe light of the Lord.

The Day of the Lord

For you have rejected your people,

the house of Jacob,

because they are full of things tfrom the east

and uof fortune-tellers vlike the Philistines,

and they wstrike hands with the children of foreigners.

Their land is xfilled with silver and gold,

and there is no end to their treasures;

their land is yfilled with horses,

and there is no end to their chariots.

Their land is zfilled with idols;

they bow down to athe work of their hands,

to what their own fingers have made.

So man bis humbled,

and each one bis brought low

do not forgive them!

10  cEnter into the rock

and hide in the dust

dfrom before the terror of the Lord,

and from the splendor of his majesty.

11  eThe haughty looks of man shall be brought low,

and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,

and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

12  fFor the Lord of hosts has a day

against all that is proud and lofty,

against all that is lifted upand it shall be brought low;

13  against all the gcedars of Lebanon,

lofty and lifted up;

and against all the hoaks of Bashan;

14  against all ithe lofty mountains,

and against all the uplifted hills;

15  against every high tower,

and against every fortified wall;

16  against all jthe ships of Tarshish,

and against all the beautiful craft.

17  kAnd the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,

and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,

and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

18  lAnd the idols shall utterly pass away.

19  mAnd people shall enter the caves of the rocks

and the holes of the ground,2

from before the terror of the Lord,

and from the splendor of his majesty,

nwhen he rises to terrify the earth.

20  In that day omankind will cast away

their idols of silver and their idols of gold,

which they made for themselves to worship,

to the moles and to the pbats,

21  mto enter the caverns of the rocks

and the clefts of the cliffs,

from before the terror of the Lord,

and from the splendor of his majesty,

nwhen he rises to terrify the earth.

22  qStop regarding man

rin whose nostrils is breath,

for of what account is he?

Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

For behold, the sLord God of hosts

is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah

support and supply,1

all tsupport of bread,

and all support of water;

uthe mighty man and the soldier,

the judge and the prophet,

the diviner and the elder,

the captain of fifty

and the man of rank,

the counselor and the skillful magician

and the expert in charms.

vAnd I will make boys their princes,

and infants2 shall rule over them.

wAnd the people will oppress one another,

every one his fellow

and every one his neighbor;

the youth will be insolent to the elder,

and the despised to the honorable.

For xa man will take hold of his brother

in the house of his father, saying:

You have a cloak;

you shall be our leader,

and this heap of ruins

shall be under your rule;

in that day he will speak out, saying:

I will not be a yhealer;3

in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;

you shall not make me

leader of the people.

For Jerusalem has stumbled,

and Judah has fallen,

because their zspeech and their deeds are against the Lord,

adefying his glorious presence.4

For the look on their faces bears witness against them;

they proclaim their sin blike Sodom;

they do not hide it.

Woe to them!

cFor they have brought evil on themselves.

10  dTell the righteous that it shall be well with them,

efor they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

11  fWoe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,

for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.

12  My peopleginfants are their oppressors,

and women rule over them.

O my people, hyour guides mislead you

and they have swallowed up5 the course of your paths.

13  The Lord ihas taken his place to contend;

he stands to judge peoples.

14  The Lord will enter into judgment

with the jelders and princes of his people:

It is you who khave devoured6 the vineyard,

lthe spoil of the poor is in your houses.

15  What do you mean by mcrushing my people,

by grinding the face of the poor?

declares the Lord God of hosts.

16  The Lord said:

nBecause othe daughters of Zion are haughty

and walk with outstretched necks,

glancing wantonly with their eyes,

mincing along as they go,

ptinkling with their feet,

17  therefore the Lord qwill strike with a scab

the heads of othe daughters of Zion,

and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.

18 In that day the Lord will take away rthe finery of the anklets, the sheadbands, and the tcrescents; 19 the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; 20 the uheaddresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; 21 the signet rings and vnose rings; 22 the wfestal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; 23 the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

24  Instead of xperfume there will be rottenness;

and instead of a ybelt, a rope;

and instead of zwell-set hair, abaldness;

and instead of a rich robe, a bskirt of sackcloth;

and cbranding instead of beauty.

25  Your men shall fall by the sword

and your mighty men in battle.

26  And dher gates shall lament and mourn;

empty, she shall esit on the ground.

fAnd seven women gshall take hold of fone man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; htake away our reproach.

The Branch of the Lord Glorified

In that day ithe branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and jthe fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. kAnd he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called lholy, everyone who has mbeen recorded for life in Jerusalem, when nthe Lord shall have washed away the filth of othe daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by pa spirit of burning.1 Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies qa cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be ra canopy. sThere will be a tbooth for shade by day from the heat, and ufor a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

The Vineyard of the Lord Destroyed

Let me sing for my beloved

my love song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had va vineyard

on a very fertile hill.

He dug it and cleared it of stones,

and planted it with wchoice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,

and hewed out a wine vat in it;

and xhe looked for it to yield grapes,

but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem

and men of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

yWhat more was there to do for my vineyard,

that I have not done in it?

xWhen I looked for it to yield grapes,

why did it yield wild grapes?

And now I will tell you

what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove zits hedge,

and it shall be devoured;1

aI will break down its wall,

and it shall be trampled down.

I will make it a waste;

it shall not be pruned or hoed,

and bbriers and thorns shall grow up;

cI will also command the clouds

that they rain no rain upon it.

dFor the vineyard of the Lord of hosts

is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

are his pleasant planting;

and he looked for justice,

but behold, bloodshed;2

for righteousness,

but behold, an outcry!3

Woe to the Wicked

Woe to those who ejoin house to house,

who add field to field,

until there is no more room,

and you are made to dwell alone

in the midst of the land.

The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:

fSurely many houses shall be desolate,

large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.

10  gFor ten acres4 of vineyard shall yield but one bath,

and a hhomer of seed shall yield but an ephah.5

11  Woe to those who irise early in the morning,

that they may run after strong drink,

who tarry late into the evening

as wine inflames them!

12  jThey have lyre and harp,

tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,

kbut they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,

or see the work of his hands.

13  Therefore my people go into exile

lfor lack of knowledge;6

their mhonored men go hungry,7

and their multitude is parched with thirst.

14  Therefore Sheol has nenlarged its appetite

and opened oits mouth beyond measure,

and the nobility of Jerusalem8 and her multitude will go down,

her revelers and he who pexults in her.

15  qMan is humbled, and each one is brought low,

and the eyes of the haughty9 are brought low.

16  rBut the Lord of hosts is exalted10 in justice,

and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.

17  Then shall the lambs graze sas in their pasture,

and tnomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.

18  Woe to those who draw iniquity with ucords of falsehood,

who draw sin as with cart ropes,

19  who say: vLet him be quick,

let him speed his work

that we may see it;

let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,

and let it come, that we may know it!

20  Woe to wthose who call evil good

and good evil,

xwho put darkness for light

and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter!

21  Woe to those who are ywise in their own eyes,

and shrewd in their own sight!

22  Woe to those who are zheroes at drinking wine,

and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

23  who aacquit the guilty for a bribe,

and deprive the innocent of his right!

24  Therefore, bas the tongue of fire devours the stubble,

and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,

so ctheir root will be das rottenness,

and their blossom go up like dust;

for they have erejected the law of the Lord of hosts,

and have fdespised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25  Therefore gthe anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,

and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,

and hthe mountains quaked;

and their corpses were ias refuse

in the midst of the streets.

jFor all this his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is stretched out still.

26  He will kraise a signal for nations far away,

and lwhistle for them mfrom the ends of the earth;

and behold, quickly, speedily they come!

27  nNone is weary, none stumbles,

none slumbers or sleeps,

not a waistband is loose,

not a sandal strap broken;

28  otheir arrows are sharp,

all their bows bent,

their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,

and their wheels plike the whirlwind.

29  Their roaring is like a lion,

like young lions they roar;

they growl and qseize their prey;

they carry it off, and none can rescue.

30  They will growl over it on that day,

like the growling of the sea.

And if one looks to the land,

behold, rdarkness and distress;

and the light is darkened by its clouds.

Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord

In the year that sKing Uzziah died I tsaw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train1 of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had usix wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

uHoly, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

vthe whole earth is full of his glory!2

And wthe foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and xthe house was filled with smoke. And I said: Woe is me! yFor I am lost; zfor I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the aKing, the Lord of hosts!

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he btouched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for cus? Then I said, Here I am! Send me. And he said, Go, and say to this people:

dKeep on hearing,3 but do not understand;

keep on seeing,4 but do not perceive.

10  eMake the heart of this people fdull,5

and their ears heavy,

and blind their eyes;

glest they see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.

11  Then I said, hHow long, O Lord?

And he said:

Until icities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without people,

and the land is a desolate waste,

12  and the Lord removes people far away,

and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

13  jAnd though a tenth remain in it,

it will be burned6 again,

like a terebinth or an oak,

whose stump kremains

when it is felled.

lThe holy seed7 is its stump.