Isaiah Chapter 21
Prophecy about the desert of the sea
1 A prophecy concerning the wilderness by the sea. Like a whirlwind from the Negev, so it comes from the wilderness, from the dreadful land.
2 A harsh vision has been shown to me: The treacherous one has dealt treacherously, and the destroyer has destroyed. Go up, O Elam; lay siege, O Media! I have put an end to all their groaning.
3 Therefore my loins are filled with pain; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I am overwhelmed by what I hear, and appalled at what I see.
4 My heart is stunned; horror has overwhelmed me; the night of my longing has turned to terror.
5 They set the table, they spread out the carpets; they eat, they drink. Rise up, O princes, anoint the shield!
6 For thus the Lord said to me: “Go, post a watchman, let him declare what he sees.”
7 And he saw mounted men, horsemen two by two, riding on donkeys, riding on camels; And he looked more closely,
8 and roared like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower by day, and every night on my post;
9 and behold, they come riding on horseback, horsemen two by two.” Then he spoke and said: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the idols of her gods he has broken to the ground.
10 O my people, threshed and winnowed, I have told you what I heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.”
Prophecy concerning Duma
11 Prophecy concerning Duma. Voices from Seir call to me: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
12 The watchman answered: Morning comes, and then night; ask if you wish, ask; return, come.
13 Prophecy concerning Arabia. In the forest you will spend the night in Arabia, O travelers of Dedan.
14 Go out to meet the thirsty; bring them water, you inhabitants of the land of Tema; provide bread to those who flee.
15 For they flee from the sword, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, from the weight of the battle.
16 For thus the Lord has said to me: Within a year, like the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will be destroyed;
17 and the survivors of the number of the mighty archers, the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.
Isaiah Chapter 22
Prophecy concerning the valley of vision
1 A prophecy concerning the valley of vision. What have you gained now, that you and all your people have gone up on the housetops?
2 You, full of tumult, turbulent city, joyous city; your slain are not slain by the sword, nor slain in battle.
3 All your princes together fled from the bow; they were bound. All who were found in you were bound together, though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said, “Leave me alone, that I may weep bitterly; do not strive to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 For this is a day of tumult, of anguish, and of confusion from the Lord, the Lord of hosts, in the valley of vision, to break down the wall and cry out to the mountain.
6 Elam took up the quiver, with chariots and horsemen, and Kir brought out the shield.
7 Your beautiful valleys were filled with chariots, and horsemen encamped at the gate.
8 He stripped Judah of its covering; And you looked that day toward the armory in the forest.
9 You saw the breaches in the City of David, that they were many; and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.
10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem and tore down houses to fortify the wall.
11 You made a trench between the two walls for the waters of the old pool; but you did not respect the one who made it, nor did you look from afar at the one who carved it.
12 Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, called on that day for weeping and wailing, for shaving the head and putting on sackcloth;
13 but behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and slaughtering sheep, eating meat and drinking wine, saying, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
14 This was revealed in my hearing from the Lord of hosts: “This sin will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
Shebna will be replaced by Eliakim
15 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Go, enter to this treasurer, to Shebna the steward, and say to him:
16 What have you here, or whom have you here, that you have hewn out a tomb for yourself here, as one who hews out his grave on a high place, or one who carves out for himself a dwelling in a rock?
17 Behold, the Lord will carry you away into a harsh captivity, and he will surely cover your face.
18 He will hurl you around like a ball across a wide land; there you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain, O disgrace to the house of your master.
19 I will remove you from your position and oust you from your office.
20 In that day I will summon my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah,
21 and I will clothe him with your robes and fasten your sash around him, and I will give him your authority. He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22 I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.
23 I will fasten him like a peg in a firm place, and he will be a throne of honor for his father’s house.
24 All the honor of his father’s house will hang on him: sons and grandsons, all the small vessels, from the cups to all kinds of pitchers.
25 In that day, declares the Lord Almighty, the peg that was fastened in a firm place will be pulled out; it will be broken off and fall, and the burden on it will be destroyed, for the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah Chapter 23
Prophecy concerning Tyre
1 A prophecy concerning Tyre. Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is destroyed, without a house left, without a place to enter; from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.
2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the coast, you merchants of Sidon, who used to supply you by crossing the sea.
3 Their provision came from the crops that grow with the abundant waters of the Nile, from the harvest of the river. They were also a trading post for the nations.
4 Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea, the mighty sea, has spoken, saying: “I have never been in labor, nor given birth, nor raised young men, nor brought up virgins.”
5 When the news reaches Egypt, they will grieve at the tidings of Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coast.
7 Was this not your joyous city, of ancient days? Its feet will carry it away to dwell far away.
8 Who decreed this concerning Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the nobles of the earth?
9 The Lord of hosts decreed it, to humble the pride of all glory, and to bring low all the honorable of the earth.
10 Flow like a river from your land, O daughter of Tarshish, for you will have no more power.
11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he made kingdoms tremble; the Lord commanded concerning Canaan, that its strongholds be destroyed.
12 He said, “You will no longer rejoice, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, go over to Kittim, and even there you will find no rest.
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans. This people did not exist; Assyria founded it for the inhabitants of the desert. They set up their strongholds, they built their palaces; he turned it into ruins.
14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is destroyed.”
15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of a king. After the seventy years, Tyre will sing the song of a prostitute.
16 Take up a harp and go about the city, O forgotten harlot; play a pleasant melody, repeat the song, that you may be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass at the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre; and she shall again trade, and again she shall play the harlot with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.
18 But her merchandise and her profits shall be holy to the Lord; they shall not be kept or stored up, for her profits shall be for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord, that they may eat their fill and be clothed in splendor.
Isaiah Chapter 24
Jehovah's judgment upon the earth
1 Behold, the Lord is about to lay waste the earth and desolate it, and distort its surface, and scatter its inhabitants.
2 It shall be with the people as with the priest, with the servant as with his master, with the maidservant as with her mistress, with the buyer as with the seller, with the lender as with the borrower, with the lender at interest as with the borrower.
3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste and completely plundered, for the Lord has spoken this word.
4 The earth languishes and withers; the world languishes and fades away; the exalted people of the earth languish.
5 The earth is defiled by its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants are laid waste; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are consumed, and few men remain.
7 The wine fails, the vine withers, all the merrymakers groan.
8 The mirth of the tambourines has ceased, the noise of the revelers is stilled, the joy of the harp is silenced.
9 They will not drink wine with singing; strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city is broken down through worthlessness; every house is shut up so that no one may enter.
11 There are cries for lack of wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the gladness of the land is banished.
12 The city is left desolate, and its gate is broken down in ruin.
13 For so it will be in the midst of the land, among the peoples, like an olive tree shaken, like gleanings after the vintage.
14 They will lift up their voices, they will sing for joy at the greatness of the Lord; from the sea they will cry out.
15 Therefore glorify the Lord in the valleys; On the shores of the sea, let the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, be called.
16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs: “Glory to the righteous one!” And I said, “My misery, my misery, woe is me! The treacherous have dealt treacherously; they have dealt treacherously with the treachery of the faithless.”
17 Terror, pit, and snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the land!
18 And it shall come to pass that he who flees from the sound of terror shall fall into the pit; and he who comes up from the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare; for the windows of heaven shall be opened, and the foundations of the earth shall tremble.
19 The earth will be utterly broken, completely shattered, and violently shaken.
20 The earth will reel like a drunkard and reel like a hut; its sin will weigh heavily upon it, and it will fall, never to rise again.
21 In that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven in heaven, and the kings of the earth on the earth.
22 They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit, and shut up in prison, and after many days they will be punished.
23 The moon will be ashamed and the sun confounded, for the Lord Almighty reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his elders he is glorious.
Isaiah Chapter 25
Song of praise for the favor of Jehovah
1 O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago with perfect faithfulness.
2 For you have turned the city into a heap, the fortified city into ruins; the stronghold of foreigners into a city that will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore the strong people will honor you; the city of powerful nations will fear you.
4 For you have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall.
5 Like heat in a parched place, so you humble the pride of foreigners; like heat under a cloud, you wither the growth of the mighty.
6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, of rich meats and of well-blended wine.
7 On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that covers all peoples, the veil that enfolds all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever; the Sovereign Lord will wipe away tears from all faces and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.
9 In that day it will be said: “Surely this is our God; we waited for him, and he saved us. This is the Lord; we waited for him, and we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, but Moab will be trampled down in its place, as chaff is trampled down in a dung heap.
11 He will stretch out his hand through it, as a swimmer stretches out his hand to swim; he will bring down its pride and the skill of its hands.
12 He will bring down the strength of your high walls; he will humble it and cast it to the ground, to the dust.
Isaiah Chapter 26
Song of trust in Jehovah's protection
1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; God has set up salvation as its walls and ramparts.
2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation, the keeper of truth, may enter in.
3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God is everlasting strength.
5 For he has brought down those who dwelt on high; he has humbled the exalted city, he has laid it low to the ground, he has cast it down to the dust.
6 The foot will trample it, the feet of the afflicted, the steps of the needy.
7 The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
8 Yes, Lord, we wait for you in the path of your judgments; your name and your renown are the desire of our souls.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit longs for you. When your judgments are in the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.
10 Though mercy is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in the land of uprightness they deal iniquity and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. But those who envy your people will see it and be put to shame; fire will consume your enemies.
12 Lord, you will grant us peace, for you have accomplished all our works for us.
13 Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but you alone will we remember.
14 They are dead, they will not live; they are dead, they will not rise again; for you punished them, and destroyed and blotted out all memory of them.
15 You increased the nation, O Lord, you increased the nation; you gained glory for yourself; you extended all the borders of the earth.
16 O Lord, in their distress they sought you; they poured out a prayer when you chastised them.
17 Like a pregnant woman about to give birth, who writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we before you, O Lord.
18 We conceived, we were in labor, we gave birth to wind; we have brought no deliverance on earth, nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Wake up and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will give birth to her dead.
20 Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by.
21 For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their sins against him; the earth will disclose the blood shed on it and will no longer cover up its slain.
Isaiah Chapter 27
Liberation and return of Israel
1 In that day the Lord will punish with his fierce, great, and powerful sword Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent; he will slay the dragon of the sea.
2 In that day sing of the vineyard of red wine.
3 I, the Lord, watch over it and water it constantly; I guard it night and day, so that no one may harm it.
4 I am not angry. Who sets thorns and thistles against me in battle? I will trample them down and burn them up.
5 Or does anyone break my fortress? Let them make peace with me; let them make peace with me.
6 The days will come when Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Has he been wounded like those who wounded him? Has he been killed like those who killed him?
8 You will punish him with measure in his offspring. He will sweep them away with his fierce wind on the day of the east wind.
9 Thus the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this will be the full fruit, the removal of his sin: when he makes all the altar stones like crushed lime stones, and the Asherah poles and incense altars are no longer erected.
10 For the fortified city will be desolate, the inhabited city abandoned and left like a wilderness; there the calf will graze, there it will lie down, and it will wither its branches.
11 When its branches wither, they will be broken off; women will come and set them on fire; for this is a people without understanding; therefore their Maker will have no mercy on them, nor will their Maker have compassion on them.
12 On that day the Lord will thresh from the Euphrates River to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, the Israelites, will be gathered together one by one.
13 On that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were scattered throughout Assyria and those who were exiled to Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
Isaiah Chapter 28
Condemnation of Ephraim
1 Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of their glorious beauty, which sits atop the fertile valley of those who are bewildered by wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has one who is strong and mighty; like a stormy hailstorm and a raging whirlwind, like the rush of mighty flooding waters, he powerfully casts down to the ground.
3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled underfoot.
4 And the fading flower of their glorious beauty, which sits atop the fertile valley, will be like early fruit, the first of summer, which, as soon as one sees it, he swallows it up as soon as he has it in his hand.
5 In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people;
6 and a spirit of judgment to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 But these also have erred through wine, and through strong drink have they become foolish; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they have become confused through wine; they are bewildered by strong drink, they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For every table is full of vomit and uncleanness, so that there is no clean place.
9 To whom will he teach knowledge, or to whom will he make understanding of doctrine? To those weaned from the breast, to those just taken from the breast?
10 For precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little;
11 for with stammering lips and a foreign tongue he will speak to this people,
12 to whom he said, “This is the rest; give rest to the weary; and this is the refreshing”; yet they would not listen.
13 The word of the Lord will be to them commandment upon commandment, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little; until they go and fall backward, and are broken, snared, and taken captive
Warning to Jerusalem
14 Therefore, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem, hear the word of the Lord.
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have made an agreement; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, it will not reach us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we take shelter”—
16 therefore, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will never be shaken.
17 I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the hiding place.”
18 Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be trampled underfoot.
19 As soon as it begins to pass, it will sweep you away; for it will pass by morning, day and night; and it will be truly terrifying to understand what you hear.
20 The bed will be too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too small to wrap yourself in.
21 For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim, he will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his strange work, and to perform his task, his strange task.
22 Now therefore, do not scoff, lest your bonds be made stronger; for I have heard from the Lord, the Lord of hosts, a decreed destruction upon all the earth.
23 Pay attention, and hear my voice; listen, and hear my words.
24 Does a plowman plow all day long? Does he break up and crush the clods of the earth?
25 When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, set the wheat in rows, the barley in its appointed place, and the spelt along its proper border?
26 For his God instructs him and teaches him what is right;
27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over cumin; rather, dill is shaken out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.
28 Grain is threshed, but it is not threshed forever, nor is it crushed by the wheel of its cart, nor broken by the teeth of its threshing sledge.
29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts, making the counsel marvelous and the wisdom magnificent.
Isaiah Chapter 29
Ariel and his enemies
1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David lived! Add one year to another, let the festivals continue their course.
2 But I will distress Ariel, and she will be mournful and sad; she will be like Ariel to me.
3 For I will encamp against you all around, and besiege you with camps, and raise up siege works against you.
4 Then you will be humbled; you will speak from the ground, and your speech will come from the dust; your voice will be like a ghost from the ground, and your speech will whisper from the dust.
5 The multitude of your enemies will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the mighty like chaff that passes by; it will be suddenly, in a moment.
6 You will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind, tempest, and a flame of consuming fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, and all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who put her in distress, will be like a dream in the night.
8 And it will happen to them as one who is hungry and dreams, and seems to eat, but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty; or as one who is thirsty and dreams, and seems to drink, but when he wakes up, he is tired and thirsty; so will the multitude of all the nations that will fight against Mount Zion.
Israel's blindness and hypocrisy
9 Stand still and marvel; be confused and blinded; be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed the eyes of your prophets and covered the heads of your seers.
11 The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book. If someone gives it to one who can read and says, “Read this,” they will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”
12 If the book is given to one who cannot read and says, “Read this,” they will say, “I cannot read.”
13 Therefore the Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught;
14 Therefore, behold, I will again stir up the wonder of this people by a great and awesome wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their discerning men will vanish.
15 Woe to those who hide their plans from the Lord, whose deeds are done in darkness, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 Surely your wickedness will be regarded as the potter’s clay. Shall what is made say of its maker, “He did not make me”? Shall the vessel said of him who formed it, “He did not understand”?
Redemption of Israel
17 Will not Lebanon in a very little while become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be considered a forest?
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of gloom and darkness.
19 Then the humble will rejoice in the Lord, and even the poorest of men will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the violent will come to nothing, and the scoffer will be consumed; all who are watchful to do evil will be destroyed,
21 those who ensnare people with their words, who set a snare for the one who reproves in the gate, and pervert the cause of the righteous by lies.
22 Therefore the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says this to the house of Jacob: “Jacob will no longer be ashamed, nor will his face grow pale;
23 For he will see his children, the work of my hands, in their midst, who will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and fear the God of Israel.
24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding, and those who murmur will learn doctrine.
Isaiah Chapter 30
The futility of trusting in Egypt
1 Woe to the rebellious children, declares the Lord, who carry out plans that are not mine, who make alliances that are not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin!
2 Who go down to Egypt without consulting me, to find strength in Pharaoh’s power and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!
3 But the strength of Pharaoh will turn to shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt to disgrace.
4 When their princes are in Zoan, and their ambassadors arrive in Hanes,
5 they will all be ashamed of the people who are of no use to them, who do not help them, who bring them no benefit, but will be a source of shame and disgrace to them.
6 The prophecy concerning the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of trouble and distress, from which come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who will not profit them.
7 Surely Egypt will offer help in vain and to no avail; therefore I cried out to her that her strength would be to remain still.
8 Go now, and write this vision on a tablet before them, and inscribe it in a book, that it may remain until the latter day, forever and ever.
9 For this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who would not hear the law of the Lord;
10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right, but speak to us smooth things, prophesy lies.”
11 Forsake the way, turn aside from the path, remove the Holy One of Israel from our presence.
12 Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word and trusted in violence and iniquity, and have relied on them,
13 therefore this sin will be to you like a breach in a high wall, stretching out and collapsing suddenly and unexpectedly.
14 It will be shattered like a potter’s vessel, broken without mercy, so that among the pieces there is not a shard to carry fire from the hearth, or to draw water from the well.
15 For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you will be saved; in quietness and trust will be your strength.” But you were unwilling,
16 but you said, “No, we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee; we will ride on swift horses. Therefore your pursuers will be swift.
17 At the threat of one, a thousand will flee; at the threat of five, all of you will flee, until you are left like a mast on a mountaintop, and like a banner on a hill.
Promise of God's grace to Israel
18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all who wait for him.
19 Surely the people will dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you will weep no more. He who is gracious will be gracious to you; at the sound of your cry, he will answer you.
20 Though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will no longer be hidden from you, but your eyes will see them.
21 Your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it,” without turning to the right or to the left.
22 Then you will defile the overlay of your silver images and the clothing of your molten gold images; you will discard them like filthy rags; “Get out!” you will say to them.
23 Then the Lord will give rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the bread of the ground will be plentiful and rich; in that day your cattle will graze in spacious pastures.
24 Your oxen and donkeys that plow the land will eat clean grain, winnowed with shovel and sieve.
25 On every high mountain and every lofty hill there will be streams and rivers of water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the Lord binds up the wound of his people and heals the bruises he inflicted.
Jehovah's judgment on Assyria
27 See, the name of the Lord comes from afar, his face burning with consuming fire; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is like a consuming fire.
28 His breath is like a flooding torrent; it reaches up to the neck, to sift the nations with a sieve of destruction; a bridle is in the jaws of the peoples, causing them to stray.
29 You will have a song like the night of the Passover, and gladness of heart, like one who goes with a flute to come to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.
30 The Lord will cause his mighty voice to be heard and will show the descent of his arm, with the fury of his countenance and the flame of consuming fire, with a whirlwind, a tempest, and hailstones.
31 For Assyria, which struck with a rod, will be broken by the voice of the Lord.
32 Every stroke of the rod of justice that the Lord lays on him will be accompanied by tambourines and harps; he will fight against them in tumultuous battle.
33 For Topheth has long been prepared and made ready for the king, deep and wide, its pyre of fire and abundant wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
Isaiah Chapter 31
The Egyptians are men, not gods.
1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses, who rely on chariots because they are many, and on horsemen because they are strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!
2 But he is wise and will bring disaster; he will not go back on his word. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against those who help evildoers.
3 The Egyptians are mere mortals, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, both helper and helper will stumble; they will all perish together.
4 For the Lord said to me, “Like a lion or a young lion roaring over its prey, though a band of shepherds gathers against it, it will not be terrified by their shouting or cowered by their crowd; So the Lord Almighty will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
5 Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver, preserve and save.
6 Return to him against whom the Israelites have so deeply rebelled.
7 For in that day people will cast away their idols of silver and gold, which your sinful hands have made for yourselves.
8 Then Assyria will fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of man will devour it; it will flee from the sword, and its young men will become slaves.
9 And in fear its stronghold will pass away, and its princes in terror will abandon their banners, says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Isaiah Chapter 32
The Just King
1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.
2 And that man will be like a hiding place from the wind, and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen attentively.
4 The heart of fools will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will speak swiftly and clearly.
5 The vile person will no longer be called generous, nor the deceitful person called generous.
6 For the vile person speaks vile things, and his heart devises wickedness, to practice ungodliness and to speak mockery against the Lord, leaving the hungry soul empty and depriving the thirsty of drink.
7 The weapons of the deceitful person are evil; he plots wicked schemes to ensnare the simple with lying words, and to speak against the poor in judgment.
8 But the generous person will devise generous plans, and by generous things he will be exalted.
Warning to the women of Jerusalem
9 You complacent women, rise up and hear my voice; you trusting daughters, listen to my words.
10 In a little more than a year, you complacent ones, you will be in anguish, for the vintage will fail, and the harvest will not come.
11 Tremble, you complacent ones; be dismayed, you trusting ones; strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your loins.
12 Beating their breasts, they will mourn for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13 Thorns and thistles will grow up on the land of my people, even on all the houses where there is joy in the city of joy.
14 For the palaces will be deserted, the multitude of the city will cease; the towers and fortresses will become caves forever, where wild donkeys rest, and cattle make their pen;
15 until the Spirit is poured out on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.
16 Justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness will abide in the fruitful field.
17 The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
18 My people will live in peaceful dwellings, in secure homes, and in undisturbed places of rest.
19 When hail falls, it will fall on the mountains, and the city will be utterly laid low.
20 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, and let the ox and the donkey roam free.
Isaiah chapter 33
Jehovah will bring salvation
1 Woe to you, plunderer, who have never been plundered! Woe to you, traitor, who has never been betrayed! When you finish plundering, you will be plundered; when you finish betraying, it will be done to you.
2 O Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for you. Be our strength in the morning, our salvation in times of trouble.
3 The peoples fled at the sound of the storm; the nations were scattered when you arose.
4 Their plunder will be gathered like caterpillars; they will swarm over them like locusts.
5 The Lord, who dwells on high, will be exalted; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 Wisdom and knowledge will be the abode in your times, and salvation will be abundant. The fear of the Lord will be their treasure.
7 Look, her ambassadors cry out in the streets; the messengers of peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways are destroyed, travelers cease; he has broken the covenant, he despises the cities, he holds no man in contempt.
9 The land mourns, it languishes; Lebanon is ashamed, and withers away; Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are shaken.
10 “Now I will arise,” says the Lord, “now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.”
11 You conceive chaff, you give birth to stubble; the breath of your fire will consume you.
12 The peoples will be like lime burned in the fire; like thorns cut down, they will be burned with fire.
13 Hear, you who are far away, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge my power.
14 The sinners are astounded in Zion, trembling grips the godless: “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting flames?”
15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who detests the gain of oppression, who shakes his hands from accepting a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from looking on evil—
16 he will dwell on the heights; his refuge will be the fortress of rocks; his bread will be supplied, and his water will be sure.
17 Your eyes will see the King in his beauty; they will behold a land that stretches far away.
18 Your heart will imagine horror and say, “Where is the scribe? Where is the one who weighs the tribute? Where is the one who lists the most prominent houses?”
19 You will not see that proud people, a people of obscure speech, of stammering tongues that you cannot understand.
20 Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful habitation, a tent that will not be taken down, nor its stakes pulled up, nor any of its cords broken.
21 For there the Lord will be our Mighty God, a place of rivers and broad streams, where no galley with oars will go, nor any mighty ship pass.
22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he himself will save us.
23 Your ropes are slack; they do not hold its mast steady, nor set its sail taut; then the plunder of many spoils will be divided; the lame will seize the spoil.
24 No one living there will say, “I am sick”; the sin of the people who dwell there will be forgiven.
Isaiah Chapter 34
The wrath of Jehovah against the nations
1 Come near, you nations, gather together to hear; and you peoples, listen. Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world and all that comes out of it.
2 For the Lord is angry with all the nations, and his wrath is upon all their host; he will destroy them and give them over to slaughter.
3 Their slain will be thrown out, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will melt with their blood.
4 All the host of heaven will be dissolved, and the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll; all their host will fall, like a leaf falling from a vine, and like a leaf falling from a fig tree.
5 For my sword will be drunk in the heavens; behold, it will descend on Edom in judgment, on the people I have devoted to destruction.
6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; For the Lord has sacrifices in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will fall with them, bulls with calves; their land will be drenched with blood, and their dust will be saturated with fat.
8 For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 Her streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into sulfur, and her land into burning pitch.
10 It will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise perpetually. From generation to generation it will be desolate, and no one will ever pass through it again.
11 The pelican and the hedgehog will possess it; the owl and the raven will dwell in it. The measuring line of destruction will be stretched out over it, and the plumbs of desolation.
12 They will call its princes princes without a kingdom, and all its great ones will be nothing.
13 Thorns will grow in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; it will become a haunt for jackals and a playground for ostriches.
14 Wild animals of the desert will meet with hyenas, and the wild goat will cry out to its mate; the owl will also make its home there and find rest for itself.
15 There the screech owl will nest, lay its eggs, hatch its young, and gather them under its wings; there also the vultures will gather, each with its mate.
16 Search the book of the Lord, and read: not one of these was missing; none was missing its mate. For his mouth commanded, and his Spirit gathered them together.
17 He cast lots for them and divided them with a measuring line; they will possess it forever; from generation to generation they will dwell there.
Isaiah Chapter 35
Glorious future of Zion
1 The wilderness and the solitary place will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like the rose.
2 It will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and sing for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the feeble knees.
4 Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; he will come to save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy. For waters will burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
7 The parched ground will become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, in their lair, there will be reeds and rushes.
8 A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for those who walk on it; even fools will not go astray on it.
9 No lion will be there, nor will any wild beast go up on it, nor will they be found there, so that the redeemed may walk there.
10 The ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Isaiah Chapter 36
Sennacherib's invasion
1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
2 The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a large army from Lachish to Jerusalem against King Hezekiah. He camped by the conduit of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field.
3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, went out to meet him.
4 The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What confidence do you have in yourself?
5 I say that your counsel and might for war are empty words. Now then, on whom do you rely that you should rebel against me?’”
6 Behold, you are putting your trust in this brittle reed, in Egypt, on which, if anyone leans, it will pierce his hand and go right through him. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
7 And if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, and who said to Judah and Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”?
8 Now therefore, I urge you to give hostages to the king of Assyria, my lord, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you can provide riders to ride them.
9 But how can you resist one commander, the least of my lord’s servants, though you are trusting in Egypt with its chariots and horsemen?
10 Did I now come to this land to destroy it without the Lord? The Lord said to me, “Go up to this land and destroy it.”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah, for the people on the wall will hear it.”
12 The Rabshakeh said, “Did my master send me to speak these words to you and your master, and not to the men on the wall, who are about to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah, saying, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!
14 This is what the king says: ‘Let Hezekiah not deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.’”
15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “Surely the Lord will deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: “Make peace with me and come out to me, and each of you will eat from your own vineyard and fig tree, and each of you will drink water from your own cistern,
17 until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.”
18 Beware lest Hezekiah deceive you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Have the gods of the nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
20 What god among the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?
21 But they kept silent and did not answer him a word, for the king had so commanded, saying, “Do not answer him.”
22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
Isaiah Chapter 37
Judah is delivered from Sennacherib
1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, and wearing sackcloth, went to the house of the Lord.
2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and blasphemy, because the children are about to be born, but there is no strength in them to deliver them.
4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to blaspheme the living God and to revile him with the words the Lord your God heard. Therefore, pray for the remnant that is left.’”
5 So Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah.
6 Then Isaiah said to them, “Say this to your master: ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 I am going to put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, but I will cause him to perish by the sword there.’”
8 So the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had withdrawn from Lachish.
9 When he heard of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you,” he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 “Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’”
11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, how they have destroyed them; and will you escape?
12 Did the gods of the nations deliver those whom my ancestors destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who lived in Telassar?
13 Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
14 Hezekiah received the letters from the messengers and read them. Then he went up to the house of the Lord and spread them before the Lord.
15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying:
16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
17 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; And hear all the words of Sennacherib, whom he has sent to blaspheme the living God.
18 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the lands and their territories,
19And they gave their gods over to the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of human hands, wood and stone; therefore they destroyed them.
20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Concerning your plea to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22 these are the words that the Lord spoke against him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and scorns you; the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you.
23 Whom have you reviled and blasphemed? Against whom have you lifted up your voice and raised your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel.’”
24 Through your servants you have reproached the Lord, and you have said, “With the multitude of my chariots I will go up to the heights of the mountains, to the slopes of Lebanon; I will cut down its tallest cedars, its choice cypresses; I will reach its highest peaks, the forest of its fertile fields.
25 I dug and drank the waters, and with the tread of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.”
26 Have you not heard that I have ordained it long ago, that I planned it in days of old? And now I have brought it to pass, and you shall be to reduce the fortified cities to heaps of rubble.
27 Their inhabitants are of little power; they are dismayed and confused; they are like grass of the field and green herbs, like hay on the housetops, which withers before it is ripe.
28 I know your ways, your going out and your coming in, and your fury against me.
29 Because you have raged against me, and your arrogance has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your lips, and I will turn you back the way you came.
30 And this will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from itself; and in the third year you will sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 And the remnant of the house of Judah, and what escapes, will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
32 For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who escape. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
33 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not enter this city, nor shoot an arrow there; He will not come before it with a shield, nor will he raise a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came, he will return, and he will not enter this city, declares the Lord.
35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.
36 Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people arose early the next morning, there were all the dead bodies.
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and took up residence in Nineveh.
38 While he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and fled to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.
Isaiah Chapter 38
Hezekiah's Disease
1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.’”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord.
3 He said, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:
5 “ Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.
6 I will also deliver this city for you from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.’”
7 And this will be the sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do what he has promised:
8 I will make the shadow cast by the sun on the sundial of Ahaz go back ten steps. So the sun went back ten steps.
9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, of the time he was sick and recovered from his sickness:
10 I said, “In the prime of my life I will go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the rest of my years.”
11 I said, “I will not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living; I will no longer see humankind among the inhabitants of the world.”
12 My dwelling place has been removed and taken from me, like a shepherd’s tent. Like a weaver I have cut off my life; sickness cuts me off; you consume me between day and night.
13 I counted until morning. Like a lion he has crushed all my bones; from morning to night you make an end of me.
14 Like a crane or a swallow I moaned; I croaked like a dove; I lifted up my eyes on high. “O Lord, I am oppressed; strengthen me!”
15 What shall I say? He who told me has done it himself. I will walk humbly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
16 O Lord, by all these things men will live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit; for you will restore me and make me live.
17 Behold, great bitterness came upon me in my peace, but it pleased you to deliver my life from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
18 For Sheol cannot exalt you, nor can death praise you; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living, he will praise you, as I do this day; the father will make known your faithfulness to his children.
20 The Lord will save me; therefore we will sing our songs in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives.
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Take a lump of figs and place it on the boil, and he will recover.”
22 Hezekiah had also said, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?”
Isaiah Chapter 39
Hezekiah receives the envoys from Babylon
1 At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had recovered.
2 Hezekiah was pleased with them and showed them his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointments, his entire armory, and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
3 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What are these men saying, and from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah answered, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.”
4 Then he said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah said, “They have seen everything in my house, and there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty:
6 The days are coming when everything in your palace, and all that your ancestors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left,” declares the Lord.
7 “Some of your own descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away and made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
8 Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good.” He added, “At least let me have peace and security in my days.”
Isaiah Chapter 40
Jehovah comforts Zion
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been forgiven, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling in the wilderness: “Prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up, and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked places shall become straight, and the rough places smooth.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice said, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them; surely the people are like grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
9 Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God comes with power, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd: He will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom; he will gently lead those that are with young.
The incomparable God of Israel
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor?
14 Whom did he consult for guidance? Who taught him the path of justice, or taught him knowledge, or showed him the way of understanding?
15 Surely the nations are like a drop from a bucket to him; they are regarded as dust on the scales. He sweeps away the islands like dust.
16 Lebanon is not enough for fuel, nor are all its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing in his sight; they are regarded by him as less than nothing, as though they were not.
18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare to him?
19 The craftsman prepares the carved image, the goldsmith overlays it with gold and forges silver chains for it.
20 The poor man chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skilled craftsman to make a carved image that will not topple.
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; he stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings the powerful to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
24 They are as though they had never been planted, as though they had never been sown, as though their stump had never taken root in the earth; as soon as he blows on them, they wither, and the whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 “To whom then will you liken me, or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who created these things, who brings out their host by number; he calls them all by name; not one is missing, because of the greatness of his power and the strength of his dominion.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, and his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.