New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Parable of the Vineyard

1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved

A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.

My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.

2 He dug it all around, removed its stones,

And planted it with the choicest vine.

And He built a tower in the middle of it

And also hewed out a wine vat in it;

Then He expecteditto producegoodgrapes,

But it producedonlyworthless ones.

3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,

Judge between Me and My vineyard.

4 “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?

Why, when I expecteditto producegoodgrapes did it produce worthless ones?

5 “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:

I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;

I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.

6 “I will lay it waste;

It will not be pruned or hoed,

But briars and thorns will come up.

I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”

7 For the vineyard of the Lordof hosts is the house of Israel

And the men of Judah His delightful plant.

Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;

For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

Woes for the Wicked

8 Woe to those who add house to houseandjoin field to field,

Until there is no more room,

So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!

9 In my ears the Lordof hostshas sworn,”Surely, many houses shall become desolate,

Evengreat and fine ones, without occupants.

10 “For ten acres of vineyard will yieldonlyonebathof wine,

# And a homer of seed will yieldbutanephah of grain.”

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,

Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!

12 Their banquets areaccompaniedby lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;

But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord,

Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

13 Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;

And their honorable men are famished,

And their multitude is parched with thirst.

14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;

And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her dinof revelryand the jubilant within her, descendinto it.

15 So thecommonman will be humbled and the man ofimportanceabased,

The eyes of the proud also will be abased.

16 But the Lordof hosts will be exalted in judgment,

And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,

And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.

18 Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood,

And sin as if with cart ropes;

19 Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may seeit;

And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near

And come to pass, that we may knowit!”

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;

Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;

Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

And clever in their own sight!

22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine

And valiant men in mixing strong drink,

23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe,

And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!

24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble

And dry grass collapses into the flame,

So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;

For they have rejected the law of the Lordof hosts

And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 On this account the anger of the Lordhas burned against His people,

And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.

And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.

For all this His anger is not spent,

But His hand is still stretched out.

26 He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation,

And will whistle for it from the ends of the earth;

And behold, it will come with speed swiftly.

27 No one in it is weary or stumbles,

None slumbers or sleeps;

Nor is the belt at its waist undone,

Nor its sandal strap broken.

28 Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;

The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and itschariotwheels like a whirlwind.

29 Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;

It growls as it seizes the prey

And carriesitoff with no one to deliverit.

30 And it will growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.

If one looks to the land, behold, there is darknessanddistress;

Even the light is darkened by its clouds.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/5-f27c06248b847b2f313dbd5d73692d19.mp3?version_id=100—

Isaiah’s Vision

1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.

2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

3 And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lordof hosts,

The whole earth is full of His glory.”

4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.

5 Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!

Because I am a man of unclean lips,

And I live among a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lordof hosts.”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.

7 He touched my mouthwith itand said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”

Isaiah’s Commission

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

9 He said, “Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;

Keep on looking, but do not understand.’

10 “Render the hearts of this people insensitive,

Their ears dull,

And their eyes dim,

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

Hear with their ears,

Understand with their hearts,

And return and be healed.”

11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,

“Until cities are devastatedandwithout inhabitant,

Houses are without people

And the land is utterly desolate,

12 “The Lordhas removed men far away,

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

13 “Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,

And it will again besubjectto burning,

Like a terebinth or an oak

Whose stump remains when it is felled.

The holy seed is its stump.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/6-d1cfe22da39d41f8ce501da671d2e8b2.mp3?version_id=100—

War against Jerusalem

1 Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem towagewar against it, but could not conquer it.

2 When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.

3 Then the Lordsaid to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field,

4 and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.

5 Because Aram,withEphraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying,

6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”

7 thus says the Lord God: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.

8 For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered,so that it isno longer a people),

9 and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.”‘”

The Child Immanuel

10 Then the Lordspoke again to Ahaz, saying,

11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lordyour God; makeitdeep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”

13 Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?

14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His nameImmanuel.

15 He will eat curds and honey at the time He knowsenoughto refuse evil and choose good.

16 For before the boy will knowenoughto refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

Trials to Come for Judah

17 The Lordwill bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria.”

18 In that day the Lordwill whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

19 They will all come and settle on the steep ravines, on the ledges of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes and on all the watering places.

20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the Euphrates (that is,with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

21 Now in that day a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep;

22 and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat curds and honey.

23 And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines,valuedat a thousandshekelsof silver, will become briars and thorns.

24 Peoplewill come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns.

25 As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/7-cd53a250afefcf231c3cf6c682ab6236.mp3?version_id=100—

Damascus and Samaria Fall

1 Then the Lordsaid to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.

2 And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

3 So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lordsaid to me, “Name himMaher-shalal-hash-baz;

4 for before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

5 Again the Lordspoke to me further, saying,

6 “Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah

And rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah;

7 “Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates,

Eventhe king of Assyria and all his glory;

And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.

8 “Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,

It will reach even to the neck;

And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.

A Believing Remnant

9 “Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered;

And give ear, all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves, yet be shattered;

Gird yourselves, yet be shattered.

10 “Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted;

State a proposal, but it will not stand,

For God is with us.”

11 For thus the Lordspoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

12 “You are not to say, ‘It isa conspiracy!’

In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,

And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread ofit.

13 “It is the Lordof hosts whom you should regard as holy.

And He shall be your fear,

And He shall be your dread.

14 “Then He shall become a sanctuary;

But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over,

Anda snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15 “Many will stumble over them,

Then they will fall and be broken;

They will even be snared and caught.”

16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

17 And I will wait for the Lordwho is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him.

18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lordhas given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lordof hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

19 When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God?Should theyconsultthe dead on behalf of the living?

20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

21 They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward.

22 Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; andthey will bedriven away into darkness.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/8-96013fd0fcee37acbb76cc98dba7aa2b.mp3?version_id=100—

Birth and Reign of the Prince of Peace

1 But there will be nomoregloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall makeitglorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

2 The people who walk in darkness

Will see a great light;

Those who live in a dark land,

The light will shine on them.

3 You shall multiply the nation,

You shall increase their gladness;

They will be glad in Your presence

As with the gladness of harvest,

As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

4 For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,

The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.

5 For every boot of the booted warrior in thebattletumult,

And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.

6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

7 There will be no end to the increase ofHisgovernment or of peace,

On the throne of David and over his kingdom,

To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness

From then on and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lordof hosts will accomplish this.

God’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance

8 The Lord sends a message against Jacob,

And it falls on Israel.

9 And all the people knowit,

That is,Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,

Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:

10 “The bricks have fallen down,

But we will rebuild with smooth stones;

The sycamores have been cut down,

But we will replacethemwith cedars.”

11 Therefore the Lordraises against them adversaries from Rezin

And spurs their enemies on,

12 The Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west;

And they devour Israel with gaping jaws.

Inspite ofall this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

13 Yet the people do not turn back to Him who struck them,

Nor do they seek the Lordof hosts.

14 So the Lordcuts off head and tail from Israel,

Bothpalm branch and bulrush in a single day.

15 The head is the elder and honorable man,

And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.

16 For those who guide this people are leadingthemastray;

And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion.

17 Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men,

Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows;

For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,

And every mouth is speaking foolishness.

Inspite ofall this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

18 For wickedness burns like a fire;

It consumes briars and thorns;

It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame

And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

19 By the fury of the Lordof hosts the land is burned up,

And the people are like fuel for the fire;

No man spares his brother.

20 They slice offwhat ison the right hand butstillare hungry,

And they eatwhat ison the left hand but they are not satisfied;

Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.

21 ManassehdevoursEphraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,

Andtogether they are against Judah.

Inspite ofall this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/9-cebf6236001019441c8a3126ab3bb9ff.mp3?version_id=100—

Assyria Is God’s Instrument

1 Woe to those who enact evil statutes

And to those who constantly record unjust decisions,

2 So as to deprive the needy of justice

And rob the poor of My people oftheirrights,

So that widows may be their spoil

And that they may plunder the orphans.

3 Now what will you do in the day of punishment,

And in the devastation which will come from afar?

To whom will you flee for help?

And where will you leave your wealth?

4 Nothingremainsbut to crouch among the captives

Or fall among the slain.

Inspite ofall this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger

And the staff in whose hands is My indignation,

6 I send it against a godless nation

And commission it against the people of My fury

To capture booty and to seize plunder,

And to trample them down like mud in the streets.

7 Yet it does not so intend,

Nor does it plan so in its heart,

But rather it is its purpose to destroy

And to cut off many nations.

8 For it says, “Are not my princes all kings?

9 “Is not Calno like Carchemish,

Or Hamath like Arpad,

Or Samaria like Damascus?

10 “As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,

Whose graven imagesweregreater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11 Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images

Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”

12 So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem,He will say,”I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.”

13 For he has said,

“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I didthis,

For I have understanding;

And I removed the boundaries of the peoples

And plundered their treasures,

And like a mighty man I brought downtheirinhabitants,

14 And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest,

And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;

And there was not one that flapped its wing or openeditsbeak or chirped.”

15 Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it?

Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?

That would belike a club wielding those who lift it,

Orlike a rod liftinghim whois not wood.

16 Therefore the Lord, the Godof hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors;

And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.

17 And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame,

And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.

18 And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body,

And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

19 And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number

That a child could write them down.

A Remnant Will Return

20 Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

22 For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea,

Onlya remnant within them will return;

A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

23 For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord Godof hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.

24 Therefore thus says the Lord Godof hosts, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egyptdid.

25 For in a very little while My indignationagainst youwill be spent and My angerwill be directedto their destruction.”

26 The Lordof hosts will arouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the sea and He will lift it up the wayHe didin Egypt.

27 So it will be in that day, that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.

28 He has come against Aiath,

He has passed through Migron;

At Michmash he deposited his baggage.

29 They have gone through the pass,saying,

“Geba will be our lodging place.”

Ramah is terrified, and Gibeah of Saul has fled away.

30 Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Gallim!

Pay attention, Laishahandwretched Anathoth!

31 Madmenah has fled.

The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.

32 Yet today he will halt at Nob;

He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33 Behold, the Lord, the Godof hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash;

Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down

And those who are lofty will be abased.

34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an ironaxe,

And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/10-70fc5f49d0ed25aa5f29478ad21698ed.mp3?version_id=100—

Righteous Reign of the Branch

1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,

And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

2 The Spirit of the Lordwill rest on Him,

The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and strength,

The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

3 And He will delight in the fear of the Lord,

And He will not judge by what His eyes see,

Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

4 But with righteousness He will judge the poor,

And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;

And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,

And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

5 Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,

And faithfulness the belt about His waist.

6 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,

# And the calf and the young lionand the fatling together;

And a little boy will lead them.

7 Also the cow and the bear will graze,

Their young will lie down together,

And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,

And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

As the waters cover the sea.

10 Then in that day

The nations will resort to the root of Jesse,

Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;

And His resting place will be glorious.

The Restored Remnant

11 Then it will happen on that day that the Lord

Will again recover the second time with His hand

The remnant of His people, who will remain,

From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,

And from the islands of the sea.

12 And He will lift up a standard for the nations

And assemble the banished ones of Israel,

And will gather the dispersed of Judah

From the four corners of the earth.

13 Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart,

And those who harass Judah will be cut off;

Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,

And Judah will not harass Ephraim.

14 They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west;

Together they will plunder the sons of the east;

They will possess Edom and Moab,

And the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.

15 And the Lordwill utterly destroy

The tongue of the Sea of Egypt;

And He will wave His hand over the River

With His scorching wind;

And He will strike it into seven streams

And makemenwalk over dry-shod.

16 And there will be a highway from Assyria

For the remnant of His people who will be left,

Just as there was for Israel

In the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/11-d00098b2e2956e0a4796e9cf0d5884b2.mp3?version_id=100—

Thanksgiving Expressed

1 Then you will say on that day,

“I will give thanks to You, O Lord;

For although You were angry with me,

Your anger is turned away,

And You comfort me.

2 “Behold, God is my salvation,

I will trust and not be afraid;

For the LordGodis my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation.”

3 Therefore you will joyously draw water

From the springs of salvation.

4 And in that day you will say,

“Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name.

Make known His deeds among the peoples;

Makethemremember that His name is exalted.”

5 Praise the Lordin song, for He has done excellent things;

Let this be known throughout the earth.

6 Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,

For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/12-0ac481874383ff2ba0ad112c58b2f2ab.mp3?version_id=100—

Prophecies about Babylon

1 The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

2 Lift up a standard on thebare hill,

Raise your voice to them,

Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.

3 I have commanded My consecrated ones,

I have even called My mighty warriors,

My proudly exulting ones,

ToexecuteMy anger.

4 A sound of tumult on the mountains,

Like that of many people!

A sound of the uproar of kingdoms,

Of nations gathered together!

The Lordof hosts is mustering the army for battle.

5 They are coming from a far country,

From the farthest horizons,

The Lordand His instruments of indignation,

To destroy the whole land.

Judgment on the Day of the Lord

6 Wail, for the day of the Lordis near!

It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

7 Therefore all hands will fall limp,

And every man’s heart will melt.

8 They will be terrified,

Pains and anguish will take hold ofthem;

They will writhe like a woman in labor,

They will look at one another in astonishment,

Their faces aflame.

9 Behold, the day of the Lordis coming,

Cruel, with fury and burning anger,

To make the land a desolation;

And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations

Will not flash forth their light;

The sun will be dark when it rises

And the moon will not shed its light.

11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil

And the wicked for their iniquity;

I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud

And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.

12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold

And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

And the earth will be shaken from its place

At the fury of the Lordof hosts

In the day of His burning anger.

14 And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,

Or like sheep with none to gatherthem,

They will each turn to his own people,

And each one flee to his own land.

15 Anyone who is found will be thrust through,

And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

16 Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces

Before their eyes;

Their houses will be plundered

And their wives ravished.

Babylon Will Fall to the Medes

17 Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them,

Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold.

18 Andtheirbows will mow down the young men,

They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,

Norwill their eye pity children.

19 And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,

Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;

Nor will the Arab pitchhistent there,

Nor will shepherds maketheir flockslie down there.

21 But desert creatures will lie down there,

And their houses will be full of owls;

Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there.

22 Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers

And jackals in their luxurious palaces.

Herfatefultime also will soon come

And her days will not be prolonged.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/13-bee91ced0f219788c434815f81123cdc.mp3?version_id=100—

Israel’s Taunt

1 When the Lordwill have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

2 The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the Lordas male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

3 And it will be in the day when the Lordgives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved,

4 that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

“How the oppressor has ceased,

And howfury has ceased!

5 “The Lordhas broken the staff of the wicked,

The scepter of rulers

6 Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,

Which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

7 “The whole earth is at restandis quiet;

They break forth into shouts of joy.

8 “Even the cypress trees rejoice over you,andthe cedars of Lebanon,saying,

‘Since you were laid low, notreecutter comes up against us.’

9 “Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come;

It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth;

It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

10 “They will all respond and say to you,

‘Even you have been made weak as we,

You have become like us.

11 ‘Your pompandthe music of your harps

Have been brought down to Sheol;

Maggots are spread outas your bedbeneath you

And worms are your covering.’

12 “How you have fallen from heaven,

O star of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who have weakened the nations!

13 “But you said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

I will raise my throne above the stars of God,

And I will sit on the mount of assembly

In the recesses of the north.

14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.’

15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,

To the recesses of the pit.

16 “Those who see you will gaze at you,

They will ponder over you,saying,

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who shook kingdoms,

17 Who made the world like a wilderness

And overthrew its cities,

Who did not allow his prisoners togohome?’

18 “All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

Each in his own tomb.

19 “But you have been cast out of your tomb

Like a rejected branch,

Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword,

Who go down to the stones of the pit

Like a trampled corpse.

20 “You will not be united with them in burial,

Because you have ruined your country,

You have slain your people.

May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever.

21 “Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter

Because of the iniquity of their fathers.

They must not arise and take possession of the earth

And fill the face of the world with cities.”

22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lordof hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity,” declares the Lord.

23 “I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lordof hosts.

Judgment on Assyria

24 The Lordof hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand,

25 to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder.

26 This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations.

27 For the Lordof hosts has planned, and who can frustrateit?And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

28 In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:

Judgment on Philistia

29 “Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you,

Because the rod that struck you is broken;

For from the serpent’s root a viper will come out,

And its fruit will be a flying serpent.

30 “Those who are most helpless will eat,

And the needy will lie down in security;

I will destroy your root with famine,

And it will kill off your survivors.

31 “Wail, O gate; cry, O city;

Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;

For smoke comes from the north,

And there is no straggler in his ranks.

32 “How then will one answer the messengers of the nation?

That the Lordhas founded Zion,

And the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ISA/14-689920e1c531c7efbba02909a21294b1.mp3?version_id=100—