21 How the faithful city has become a prostitute!
She was full of justice.
Righteousness lodged in her,
but now there are murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross,
your wine mixed with water.
23 Your 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.
24 Therefore 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.
25 I will turn my hand on you,
thoroughly purge away your dross,
and will take away all your tin.‡
26 I will restore your judges as at the first,
and your counsellors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called ‘The city of righteousness,
a faithful town.’
27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice,
and her converts with righteousness.
28 But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together,
and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.
29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired,
and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
30 For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades,
and as a garden that has no water.
31 The strong will be like tinder,
and his work like a spark.
They will both burn together,
and no one will quench them.”
2
1 This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 It 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.
3 Many 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.
4 He will judge between the nations,
and will decide concerning many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
5 House of Jacob, come, and let’s walk in the light of the LORD.
6 For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob,
because they are filled from the east,
with those who practise divination like the Philistines,
and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.
7 Their 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.
8 Their land also is full of idols.
They worship the work of their own hands,
that which their own fingers have made.
9 Man is brought low,
and mankind is humbled;
therefore don’t forgive them.
10 Enter into the rock,
and hide in the dust,
from before the terror of the LORD,
and from the glory of his majesty.
11 The 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.
12 For 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—
13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up,
for all the oaks of Bashan,
14 for all the high mountains,
for all the hills that are lifted up,
15 for every lofty tower,
for every fortified wall,
16 for all the ships of Tarshish,
and for all pleasant imagery.
17 The 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.
18 The idols shall utterly pass away.
19 Men 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.
20 In 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,
21 to 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.
22 Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils;
for of what account is he?
3
1 For, behold,† the Lord, GOD‡ of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support,
the whole supply of bread,
and the whole supply of water;
2 the mighty man,
the man of war,
the judge,
the prophet,
the diviner,
the elder,
3 the captain of fifty,
the honourable man,
the counsellor,
the skilled craftsman,
and the clever enchanter.
4 I will give boys to be their princes,
and children shall rule over them.
5 The people will be oppressed,
everyone by another,
and everyone by his neighbour.
The child will behave himself proudly against the old man,
and the wicked against the honourable.
6 Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying,
“You have clothing, you be our ruler,
and let this ruin be under your hand.”
7 In that day he will cry out, saying, “I will not be a healer;
for in my house is neither bread nor clothing.
You shall not make me ruler of the people.”
8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen;
because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD,§
to provoke the eyes of his glory.
9 The look of their faces testify against them.
They parade their sin like Sodom.
They don’t hide it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have brought disaster upon themselves.
10 Tell the righteous that it will be well with them,
for they will eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked!
Disaster is upon them,
for the deeds of their hands will be paid back to them.
12 As for my people, children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
My people, those who lead you cause you to err,
and destroy the way of your paths.
13 The LORD stands up to contend,
and stands to judge the peoples.
14 The LORD will enter into judgement with the elders of his people
and their leaders:
“It is you who have eaten up the vineyard.
The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
15 What do you mean that you crush my people,
and grind the face of the poor?” says the Lord, GOD† of Armies.
16 Moreover the LORD said, “Because the daughters of Zion are arrogant,
and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes,
walking daintily as they go,
jingling ornaments on their feet;
17 therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion,
and the LORD will make their scalps bald.”
18 In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces, 19 the earrings, the bracelets, the veils, 20 the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the perfume containers, the charms, 21 the signet rings, the nose rings, 22 the fine robes, the capes, the cloaks, the purses, 23 the hand mirrors, the fine linen garments, the tiaras, and the shawls.
24 It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness;
instead of a belt, a rope;
instead of well set hair, baldness;
instead of a robe, a wearing of sackcloth;
and branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men shall fall by the sword,
and your mighty in the war.
26 Her gates shall lament and mourn.
She shall be desolate and sit on the ground.
4
1 Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.”
2 In that day, the LORD’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of Israel. 3 It will happen that he who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even everyone who is written amongst the living in Jerusalem, 4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from within it, by the spirit of justice and by the spirit of burning. 5 The LORD will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all the glory will be a canopy. 6 There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.
5
1 Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up,
gathered out its stones,
planted it with the choicest vine,
built a tower in the middle of it,
and also cut out a wine press in it.
He looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
please judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?
Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
5 Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up.
I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
6 I will lay it a wasteland.
It won’t be pruned or hoed,
but it will grow briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah his pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression,
for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
8 Woe
