Category: Isaiah

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

2 Listen, O heavens, and pay attention, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nurtured and raised children, but they have spurned me.

3 An ox knows his owner, and a donkey knows the manger of his lord, but Israel has not known me, and my people have not understood.

4 Woe to a sinful nation, a people burdened by iniquity, a wicked offspring, accursed children. They have abandoned the Lord. They have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel. They been taken away backwards.

5 For what reason shall I continue to strike you, as you increase transgressions? The entire head is feeble, and the entire heart is grieving.

6 From the sole of the foot, even to the top of the head, there is no soundness within. Wounds and bruises and swelling sores: these are not bandaged, nor treated with medicine, nor soothed with oil.

7 Your land is desolate. Your cities have been set ablaze. Foreigners devour your countryside in your sight, and it will become desolate, as if devastated by enemies.

8 And the daughter of Zion will be left behind, like an arbor in a vineyard, and like a shelter in a cucumber field, and like a city being laid to waste.

9 If the Lord of hosts had not bequeathed us offspring, we would have been like Sodom, and we would have been comparable to Gomorrah.

10 Listen to the Word of the Lord, you leaders of the people of Sodom. Listen closely to the law of our God, O people of Gomorrah.

11 The multitude of your sacrifices, what is that to me, says the Lord? I am full. I do not desire holocausts of rams, nor the fat of fatlings, nor the blood of calves and of lambs and of he-goats.

12 When you approach before my sight, who is it that requires these things from your hands, so that you would walk in my courts?

13 You should no longer offer sacrifice vain. Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons and the Sabbaths and the other feast days, I will not receive. Your gatherings are iniquitous.

14 My soul hates your days of proclamation and your solemnities. They have become bothersome to me. I labor to endure them.

15 And so, when you extend your hands, I will avert my eyes from you. And when you multiply your prayers, I will not heed you. For your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash, become clean, take away the evil of your intentions from my eyes. Cease to act perversely.

17 Learn to do good. Seek judgment, support the oppressed, judge for the orphan, defend the widow.

18 And then approach and accuse me, says the Lord. Then, if your sins are like scarlet, they shall be made white like snow; and if they are red like vermillion, they shall become white like wool.

19 If you are willing, and you listen to me, then you will eat the good things of the land.

20 But if you are not willing, and you provoke me to anger, then the sword will devour you. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

21 How has the faithful city, full of judgment, become a harlot? Justice lived in her, but now murderers.

22 Your silver has turned into dross. Your wine has been mixed with water.

23 Your leaders are unfaithful, the associates of thieves. They all love gifts; they pursue rewards. They do not judge for orphans, and the widow’s case is not brought before them.

24 Because of this, the Lord God of hosts, the Strength of Israel, says: Ah! I will be consoled over my enemies, and I will be vindicated from my adversaries.

25 And I will turn my hand to you. And I will temper your dross unto purity, and I will take away all your tin.

26 And I will restore your judges, so that they will be as before, and your counselors as in times long past. After this, you shall be called the City of the Just, the Faithful City.

27 Zion will be redeemed in judgment, and they will lead her back to justice.

28 And he shall crush the accursed and sinners together. And those who have abandoned the Lord will be consumed.

29 For they shall be confounded because of the idols, to which they have sacrificed. And you shall be ashamed over the gardens that you chose,

30 when you were like an oak with falling leaves, and like a garden without water.

31 And your strength will be like the embers from stubble, and your work will be like a spark, and both will burn together, and there will be no one to extinguish it.

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

2 And in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be prepared at the summit of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it.

3 And many peoples will go, and they will say: “Let us approach and ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 And he will judge the nations, and he will rebuke many peoples. And they shall forge their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they continue to train for battle.

5 O house of Jacob, let us approach and walk in the light of the Lord.

6 For you have cast aside your people, the house of Jacob, because they have been filled up, as in past times, and because they have had soothsayers as the Philistines have, and because they have joined themselves to foreign servants.

7 Their land has been filled with silver and gold. And there is no end to their storehouses.

8 And their land has been filled with horses. And their four-horse chariots are innumerable. And their land has been filled with idols. They have adored the work of their hands, which their own fingers have made.

9 And man has bowed himself down, and so man has become debased. Therefore, you should not forgive them.

10 Enter into the rock, and hide in a ditch in the soil, from the presence of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.

11 The lofty eyes of man have been humbled, and the haughtiness of men will be bowed down. Then the Lord alone shall be exalted, in that day.

12 For the day of the Lord of hosts will prevail over all the proud and self-exalted, and over all the arrogant, and each one shall be humbled,

13 and over all the straight and tall cedars of Lebanon, and over all the oaks of Bashan;

14 and over all the lofty mountains, and over all the elevated hills;

15 and over every lofty tower, and over every fortified wall;

16 and over all the ships of Tarshish, and over all the beauty that may be seen.

17 And the loftiness of men will be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men will be brought low. And the Lord alone shall be exalted, in that day.

18 And idols will be thoroughly crushed.

19 And they will go into the caves of the rocks, and into the caverns of the earth, from the presence of the dread of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he will have risen up to strike the earth.

20 In that day, man shall cast aside his idols of silver and his images of gold, which he had made for himself, as if to reverence the moles and the bats.

21 And so he will go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the caverns of stone, from the presence of the dread of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he will have risen up to strike the earth.

22 Therefore, rest away from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he considers himself to be exalted.

1 For behold, the sovereign Lord of hosts will take away, from Jerusalem and from Judah, the powerful and the strong: all the strength from bread, and all the strength from water;

2 the strong man, and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the seer and the elder;

3 the leader over fifty and the honorable in appearance; and the counselor, and the wise among builders, and the skillful in mystical speech.

4 And I will provide children as their leaders, and the effeminate will rule over them.

5 And the people will rush, man against man, and each one against his neighbor. The child shall rebel against the elder, and the ignoble against the noble.

6 For a man will apprehend his brother, from the household of his own father, saying: “The vestment is yours. Be our leader, but let this ruin be under your hand.”

7 In that day, he will respond by saying: “I am not a healer, and there is no bread or vestment in my house. Do not choose to appoint me as a leader of the people.”

8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah has fallen, because their words and their plans are against the Lord, in order to provoke the eyes of his majesty.

9 The acknowledgement of their countenance is their response. For they have proclaimed their own sin, like Sodom; and they have not concealed it. Woe to their souls! For evils are being repaid to them.

10 Tell the just man that it is well, for he shall eat from the fruit from his own plans.

11 Woe to the impious man immersed in evil! For retribution will be given to him from his own hands.

12 As for my people, their oppressors have despoiled them, and women have ruled over them. My people, who call you blessed, the same are deceiving you and disrupting the path of your steps.

13 The Lord stands for judgment, and he stands to judge the people.

14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and with their leaders. For you have been devouring the vineyard, and the plunder from the poor is in your house.

15 Why do you wear down my people, and grind up the faces of the poor, says the Lord, the God of hosts?

16 And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion have been lifted up, and have walked with extended necks and winking eyes, because they have continued on, walking noisily and advancing with a pretentious stride,

17 the Lord will make the heads of the daughters of Zion bald, and the Lord will strip them of the locks of their hair.

18 In that day, the Lord will take away their decorative shoes,

19 and the little moons and chains, and the necklaces and bracelets, and the hats,

20 and the ornaments for their hair, and the anklets, and the touches of myrrh and little bottles of perfumes, and the earrings,

21 and the rings, and the jewels hanging on their foreheads,

22 and the continual changes in appearance, and the short skirts, and the fine linens and embroidered cloths,

23 and the mirrors, and scarves, and ribbons, and their sparse clothing.

24 And in place of a sweet fragrance, there will be stench. And in place of a belt, there will be a rope. And in place of stylish hair, there will be baldness. And in place of a blouse, there will be haircloth.

25 Likewise, your most handsome men will fall by the sword, and your strong men will fall in battle.

26 And her gates will grieve and mourn. And she will sit on the ground, desolate.

1 And seven women will take hold of one man, in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing, only let us be called by your name, so as to take away our reproach.”

2 In that day, the seedling of the Lord will have magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be greatly-esteemed and a source of joy to those who will have been saved out of Israel.

3 And this shall be: all who are left behind in Zion, and who remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, all who have been written in life in Jerusalem.

4 Then the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and will have washed away the blood of Jerusalem from its midst, by means of a spirit of judgment and a spirit of intense devotion.

5 And the Lord will create, over every place of Mount Zion and wherever he is called upon, a cloud by day and a smoke with the splendor of burning fire by night. For protection will be over every glory.

6 And there will be a tabernacle for shade from the heat in daytime, and for security, and for protection from the whirlwind and from rain.

1 I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my paternal cousin, about his vineyard. A vineyard was made for my beloved, at the horn in the son of oil.

2 And he fenced it in, and he picked the stones out of it, and he planted it with the best vines, and he built a tower in the middle of it, and he set up a winepress within it. And he expected it to produce grapes, but it produced wild vines.

3 Now then, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah: judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more should I have done for my vineyard that I did not do for it? Should I not have expected it to produce grapes, though it produced wild vines?

5 And now, I will reveal to you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its fence, and it will be plundered. I will pull down its wall, and it will be trampled.

6 And I will make it desolate. It will not be pruned, and it will not be dug. And briers and thorns will rise up. And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And the man of Judah is his delightful seedling. And I expected that he would do judgment, and behold iniquity, and that he would do justice, and behold an outcry.

8 Woe to you who join house to house, and who combine field to field, even to the limits of the place! Do you intend to live alone in the midst of the earth?

9 These things are in my ears, says the Lord of hosts. Otherwise, many houses, great and beautiful, will become desolate, without an inhabitant.

10 Then ten acres of vineyard will produce one small bottle of wine, and thirty measures of seed will produce three measures of grain.

11 Woe to you who rise up in the morning to pursue drunkenness, and to drink even until evening, so as to be inflamed with wine.

12 Harp and lyre and timbrel and pipe, as well as wine, are at your feasts. But you do not respect the work of the Lord, nor do you consider the works of his hands.

13 Because of this, my people have been led away as captives, for they did not have knowledge, and their nobles have passed away from famine, and their multitudes have dried up from thirst.

14 For this reason, Hell has expanded its soul, and has opened its mouth without any limits. And their strong ones, and their people, and their exalted and glorious ones will descend into it.

15 And man will be bowed down, and man will be humbled, and the eyes of the exalted will be brought low.

16 And the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will be sanctified in justice.

17 And the lambs will pasture in proper order, and new arrivals will eat from the deserts turned into fertile lands.

18 Woe to you who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and who draw sin as if with the rope of a cart,

19 and who say: “Let him hurry, and let his work arrive soon, so that we may see it. And let the plan of the Holy One of Israel approach and arrive, so that we may know it.”

20 Woe to you who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light, and light for darkness; who exchange bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight!

22 Woe to you who are powerful at drinking wine, who are strong men in contriving inebriation!

23 For you justify an impious man in exchange for bribes, and you carry away the justice of a just man from him.

24 Because of this, as the tongue of fire devours stubble, and as the heat of a flame burns it completely, so will their root become like glowing embers, and so will their offshoot ascend like dust. For they have cast aside the law of the Lord of hosts, and they have blasphemed the eloquence of the Holy One of Israel.

25 For this reason, the fury of the Lord has been enraged against his people, and he has extended his hand over them, and he has struck them. And the mountains were disturbed. And their carcasses became like dung in the midst of the streets. After all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.

26 And he will lift up a sign to nations far away, and he will whistle to them from the ends of the earth. And behold, they will rush forward speedily.

27 There is no one weak or struggling among them. They will not become drowsy, and they will not sleep. Neither will the belt around their waist be loosened, nor the laces of their boots be broken.

28 Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are taut. The hoofs of their horses are like flint, and their wheels are like the force of a tempest.

29 Their roaring is like the lion; they will roar like young lions. They will both roar and seize their prey. And they will wrap themselves around it, and there will be no one who can rescue it.

30 And in that day, they will make a noise over it, like the sound of the sea. We will gaze out toward the land, and behold, the darkness of the tribulation, and even the light has been darkened by its gloom.

1 In the year in which king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, sublime and exalted, and the things that were under him filled the temple.

2 The Seraphims were standing above the throne. One had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they were covering his face, and with two they were covering his feet, and with two they were flying.

3 And they were crying out to one another, and saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!”

4 And the lintels above the hinges were shaken at the voice of the one crying out. And the house was filled with smoke.

5 And I said: “Woe to me! For I have remained silent. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live in the midst of a people having unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts!”

6 And one of the Seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

7 And he touched my mouth, and he said, “Behold, this has touched your lips, and so your iniquities will be taken away, and your sin will be cleansed.”

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send?” and, “Who will go for us?” And I said: “Here I am. Send me.”

9 And he said: “Go forth! And you shall say to this people: ‘When you listen, you will hear and not understand. And when you see a vision, you will not comprehend.’

10 Blind the heart of this people. Make their ears heavy and close their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and then I would heal them.”

11 And I said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he said, “Until the cities are desolate, without an inhabitant, and the houses are without a man, and the land will be left behind, deserted.”

12 For the Lord will take the men far away, and she who will have been left behind will be multiplied in the midst of the earth.

13 But still, there will be a tithing within her, and she will be converted, and she will be put on display, like a terebinth tree and like an oak which extends its branches. And what will remain standing within her will be a holy offspring.

1 And it happened in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, ascended to Jerusalem to battle against it. But they were not able to defeat it.

2 And they reported to the house of David, saying: “Syria has withdrawn to Ephraim.” And his heart was shaken, with the heart of his people, just as the trees of the forest are moved by the face of the wind.

3 And the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son, Jashub, who was left behind, to the end of the aqueduct, at the upper pool, on the road to the fuller’s field.

4 And you shall say to him: “See to it that you are silent. Do not be afraid. And have no dread in your heart over the two tails of these firebrands, nearly extinguished, which are the wrath of the fury of Rezin, king of Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.”

5 For Syria has undertaken a plan against you, with the evil of Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying:

6 “Let us ascend to Judah, and stir it up, and tear it away for ourselves, and appoint the son of Tabeel as a king in its midst.”

7 Thus says the Lord God: This shall not stand, and this shall not be.

8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years from now, Ephraim will cease to be a people.

9 For the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you will not continue.

10 And the Lord spoke further to Ahaz, saying:

11 Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God, from the depths below, even to the heights above.

12 And Ahaz said, “I will not ask, for I will not tempt the Lord.”

13 And he said: “Then listen, O house of David. Is it such a small thing for you to trouble men, that you must also trouble my God?

14 For this reason, the Lord himself will grant to you a sign. Behold, a virgin will conceive, and she will give birth to a son, and his name will be called Immanuel.

15 He will eat butter and honey, so that he may know to reject evil and to choose good.

16 But even before the boy knows to refuse evil and to choose good, the land that you detest will be abandoned by the face of her two kings.

17 The Lord will lead over you, and over your people, and over the house of your father, such days as have not occurred since the days of the separation of Ephraim from Judah by the king of the Assyrians.

18 And this shall be in that day: the Lord will call for the fly, which is in the most distant parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the swarm, which is in the land of Assur.

19 And they will arrive, and they all will rest in the torrents of the valleys, and in the caverns of the rocks, and in every thicket, and in every opening.

20 In that day, the Lord will shave with a razor the ones hired by those who are across the river, by the king of the Assyrians, from the head to the hairs of the feet, with the entire beard.

21 And this shall be in that day: a man will raise a cow among oxen, and two sheep,

22 and, instead of an abundance of milk, he will eat butter. For all who are left behind in the midst of the land will eat butter and honey.

23 And this shall be in that day: every place, where there were a thousand grapevines worth a thousand pieces of silver, will become thorns and briers.

24 They will enter such places with arrows and bows. For briers and thorns will be throughout the entire land.

25 But as for all the mountains, which will be dug with a hoe, the terror of thorns and briers will not approach those places. And there will be pasture land for oxen, and a range for cattle.”

1 And the Lord said to me: “Take up for yourself a large book, and with a man’s pen write in it: ‘Take away the spoils quickly; plunder swiftly.’ ”

2 And I summoned to myself faithful witnesses: Uriah, the priest, and Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.

3 And I joined with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me: “Call his name: ‘Rush to take away the spoils; Hurry to be plundered.’

4 For before the boy knows how to call to his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be taken away, in the sight of the king of the Assyrians.”

5 And the Lord spoke to me further, saying:

6 “Because this people has cast aside the waters of Shiloah, which go forth silently, and has instead chosen Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

7 for this reason, behold, the Lord will lead over them the waters of a river, strong and plentiful: the king of the Assyrians with all his glory. And he will rise up throughout all his streams, and he will overflow all his banks.

8 And he will pass through Judah, inundating it, and he will cross over and arrive, even at its neck. And he will extend his wings, filling the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”

9 O people, gather together, and be conquered! All distant lands, listen! Be strengthened, and be conquered! Gird yourselves, and be conquered!

10 Undertake a plan, and it will be dissipated! Speak a word, and it will not be done! For God is with us.

11 For the Lord said this to me, and he has instructed this to me with a strong hand, lest I go forth in the way of this people, saying:

12 “You should not say ‘It is conspiracy!’ For all that this people speaks is a conspiracy. And you should be frightened or alarmed with their fear.

13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. Let him be your dread, and let him be your fear.

14 And so shall he be a sanctification to you. But he will be a stone of offense and a rock of scandal to the two houses of Israel, and a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15 And very many of them will stumble and fall, and they will be broken and entangled and seized.

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

17 And I will wait for the Lord, who has concealed his face from the house of Jacob, and I will stand before him.

18 Behold: I and my children, whom the Lord has given to me as a sign and a portent, in Israel, from the Lord of hosts, who lives on Mount Zion.

19 And though they say to you, “Seek from seers and diviners,” they who hiss in their incantations, should not the people seek from their God, for the sake of the living, and not from the dead?

20 And this is, moreover, for the sake of the law and the testimony. But if they do not speak according to this Word, then he will not have the morning light.

21 And he will pass by it; he will fall and become hungry. And when he is hungry, he will become angry, and he will speak evil against his king and his God, and he will lift himself upward.

22 And he will gaze downward to the earth, and behold: tribulation and darkness, dissolution and distress, and a pursuing gloom. For he will not be able to fly away from its distress.

1 In the earlier time, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali were lifted up. But in the later time, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, the Galilee of the Gentiles, was weighed down.

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. A light has risen for the inhabitants of the region of the shadow of death.

3 You have increased the nation, but you have not increased the rejoicing. They will rejoice before you, like those who rejoice at the harvest, like the victorious exulting after capturing the prey, when they divide the spoils.

4 For you have prevailed over the yoke of their burden, and over the rod of their shoulder, and over the scepter of their oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

5 For every violent plunder with a tumult, and every garment mixed with blood, will be burned up and will become fuel for the fire.

6 For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. And leadership is placed upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called: wonderful Counselor, mighty God, father of the future age, Prince of Peace.

7 His reign will be increased, and there will be no end to his peace. He will sit upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to confirm and strengthen it, in judgment and justice, from now even unto eternity. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall accomplish this.

8 The Lord sent a word to Jacob, and it fell upon Israel.

9 And all the people of Ephraim will know it. And the inhabitants of Samaria will say it, in the arrogance and haughtiness of their heart:

10 “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with squared stones. They have cut down the sycamores, but we will replace them with cedars.”

11 And the Lord will raise up the enemies of Rezin over him, and he will turn his adversaries into a tumult:

12 the Syrians from the east and the Philistines from the west. And they will devour Israel with their whole mouth. After all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.

13 And the people did not return to the One who struck them, and they did not seek the Lord of hosts.

14 And so, the Lord will disperse, away from Israel, the head and the tail, he who bows down and he who refrains, in one day.

15 The long-lived and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.

16 And those who deceitfully praise this people, and those who are praised, will be thrown down violently.

17 For this reason, the Lord will not rejoice over their youths. And he will not take pity on their orphans and widows. For each one is a hypocrite, and each one is wicked, and every mouth has spoken foolishness. After all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.

18 For impiety has been kindled like a fire: it will devour brier and thorn, and it will burn in the dense forest, and it will be interwoven with the ascending smoke.

19 The earth has been shaken by the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and the people will become like fuel for the fire. A man will not spare his own brother.

20 And he will turn toward the right, and he will be hungry. And he will eat toward the left, and he will not be satisfied. Each one will eat the flesh of his own arm: Manasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and together they will be against Judah.

21 After all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.

1 Woe to those who make unfair laws, and who, when writing, write injustice:

2 in order to oppress the poor in judgment, and to do violence to the case of the humble of my people, in order that widows may be their prey, and that they might plunder the orphan.

3 What will you do on the day of visitation and calamity which is approaching from afar? To whom will you flee for assistance? And where will you leave behind your own glory,

4 so that you may not be bowed down under the chains, and fall with the slain? Concerning all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.

5 Woe to Assur! He is the rod and the staff of my fury, and my indignation is in their hands.

6 I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will order him against the people of my fury, so that he may take away the plunder, and tear apart the prey, and place it to be trampled like the mud of the streets.

7 But he will not consider it to be so, and his heart will not suppose it to be this way. Instead, his heart will be set to crush and to exterminate more than a few nations.

8 For he will say:

9 “Are not my princes like many kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish, and Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

10 In the same manner as my hand reached the kingdoms of the idol, so also will it reach their false images, those of Jerusalem and of Samaria.

11 Should I not do to Jerusalem and her false images, just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”

12 And this shall be: when the Lord will have completed each of his works on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will act against the fruit of the exalted heart of king Assur, and against the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.

13 For he has said: “I have acted with the strength of my own hand, and I have understood with my own wisdom, and I have removed the limits of the people, and I have plundered their leaders, and, like one with power, I have pulled down those residing on high.

14 And my hand has reached to the strength of the people, as to a nest. And, just as the eggs which have been left behind are gathered, so have I gathered the entire earth. And there was no one who moved a wing, or opened a mouth, or uttered a snarl.”

15 Should the axe glorify itself over him who wields it? Or can the saw exalt itself over him who pulls it? How can a rod lift itself up against him who wields it, or a staff exalt itself, though it is only wood?

16 Because of this, the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones. And under the influence of his glory, a burning ardor will rage, like a consuming fire.

17 And the light of Israel will be like a fire, and the Holy One of Israel will be like a flame. And his thorns and briers will be set ablaze and devoured, in one day.

18 And the glory of his forest and of his beautiful hill will be consumed, from the soul even to the flesh. And he will flee away in terror.

19 And what remain of the trees of his forest will be so few, and so easily numbered, that even a child could write them down.

20 And this shall be in that day: those not added to the remnant of Israel, and those who escape of the house of Jacob, will not lean upon him who strikes them. Instead, they will lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

21 The remnant of Jacob, again I say the remnant, will be converted to the mighty God.

22 For though your people, O Israel, will be like the sand of the sea, yet only a remnant of them will be converted. The consummation, having been shortened, will be inundated with justice.

23 For the Lord, the God of hosts, will accomplish an abbreviation and a consummation, in the midst of all the earth.

24 For this reason, the Lord, the God of hosts, says this: “My people, who inhabit Zion: do not be afraid of Assur. He will strike you with his rod, and he will lift up his staff over you, on the way of Egypt.

25 But after a little while and a brief time, my indignation will be consumed, and my fury will turn to their wickedness.”

26 And the Lord of hosts will raise up a scourge over him, like the scourge of Midian at the rock of Oreb, and he will raise up his rod over the sea, and he will lift it up against the way of Egypt.

27 And this shall be in that day: his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke will be taken away from your neck, and the yoke will decay at the appearance of the oil.

28 He will approach Aiath; he will cross into Migron; he will entrust his vessels to Michmash.

29 They have passed through in haste; Geba is our seat; Ramah was stupefied; Gibeah of Saul fled.

30 Neigh with your voice, daughter of Gallim; pay attention, Laishah, impoverished woman of Anathoth.

31 Madmenah has moved away; be strengthened, you inhabitants of Gebim.

32 It is still daylight, so stand at Nob. He will shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33 Behold, the sovereign Lord of hosts will crush the little bottle of wine with terror, and the exalted in stature will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.

34 And the dense forest will be overturned with iron. And Lebanon, with its exalted ones, will fall.