Isaiah 1:10–20; Isaiah 6; Isaiah 8:11–9:7

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Isaiah 1:10–20

10  Hear the word of the Lord,

you rulers of yzSodom!

Give ear to the teaching1 of our God,

you people of zGomorrah!

11  aWhat to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?

says the Lord;

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams

and the fat of well-fed beasts;

I do not delight in the blood of bulls,

or of lambs, or of goats.

12  When you come to bappear before me,

who has required of you

this trampling of my courts?

13  Bring no more vain offerings;

incense is an abomination to me.

cNew moon and Sabbath and the dcalling of convocations

I cannot endure einiquity and fsolemn assembly.

14  Your cnew moons and your appointed feasts

my soul hates;

they have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them.

15  When you gspread out your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you;

heven though you make many prayers,

I will not listen;

iyour hands are full of blood.

16  jWash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

kcease to do evil,

17  learn to do good;

lseek justice,

correct oppression;

mbring justice to the fatherless,

plead the widow’s cause.

18  Come now, nlet us reason2 together, says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as owhite as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

19  pIf you are willing and obedient,

you shall eat the good of the land;

20  but if you refuse and rebel,

you shall be eaten by the sword;

qfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.


Isaiah 6

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.


Isaiah 8:11–9:7

Fear God, Wait for the Lord

11 For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and nwarned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 Do not call oconspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and pdo not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the Lord of hosts, qhim you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 And he will become a rsanctuary and sa stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many tshall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.

16 Bind up uthe testimony; vseal the teaching1 among my disciples. 17 I will wwait for the Lord, who is xhiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. 18 yBehold, I and zthe children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 And when they say to you, Inquire of the amediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of bthe dead on behalf of the living? 20 cTo the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no ddawn. 21 They will pass through the land,2 greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against3 their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 eAnd they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into fthick darkness.

For to Us a Child Is Born

4 But there will be no ggloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he hbrought into contempt the land of iZebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he jhas made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.5

6 iThe people kwho walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who dwelt in a land of ldeep darkness,

on them has light shone.

mYou have multiplied the nation;

you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

as with njoy at the harvest,

as they oare glad pwhen they divide the spoil.

qFor the yoke of his burden,

rand the staff for his shoulder,

the rod of his oppressor,

you have broken as son the day of Midian.

tFor every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult

and every garment rolled in blood

will be burned as fuel for the fire.

uFor to us a child is born,

to us va son is given;

wand the government shall be xupon7 his shoulder,

and his name shall be called8

Wonderful yCounselor, zMighty God,

aEverlasting bFather, Prince of cPeace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

dthere will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

ewith justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

fThe zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.