Rebellious Children

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

²Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for the LORD has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me.

³The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know. My people don’t consider.”

⁴Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.

⁵Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven’t been closed, bandaged, or soothed with oil.

⁷Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

⁸The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.

⁹Unless the LORD of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah.

¹⁰Hear the LORD’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

¹¹“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says the LORD. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

¹²When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?

¹³Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations— I can’t stand evil assemblies.

¹⁴My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.

¹⁷Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

¹⁸“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says the LORD: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land;

²⁰but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword; for the LORD’s mouth has spoken it.”

²¹How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in her, but now there are murderers.

²²Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.

²³Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

²⁴Therefore the Lord, GOD of Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says: “Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries, and avenge myself on my enemies.

²⁵I will turn my hand on you, thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin.

²⁶I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called ‘The city of righteousness, a faithful town.’

²⁷Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness.

²⁸But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

²⁹For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.

³⁰For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.

³¹The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”

¹This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.

³Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law shall go out of Zion, and the LORD’s word from Jerusalem.

⁴He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

⁵House of Jacob, come, and let’s walk in the light of the LORD.

⁶For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled from the east, with those who practice divination like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.

⁷Their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.

⁸Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.

⁹Man is brought low, and mankind is humbled; therefore don’t forgive them.

¹⁰Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty.

¹¹The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the arrogance of men will be bowed down, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

¹²For there will be a day of the LORD of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low—

¹³for all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, for all the oaks of Bashan,

¹⁴for all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up,

¹⁵for every lofty tower, for every fortified wall,

¹⁶for all the ships of Tarshish, and for all pleasant imagery.

¹⁷The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the arrogance of men shall be brought low; and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹⁸The idols shall utterly pass away.

¹⁹Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.

²⁰In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,

²¹to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.

²²Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?