Isaiah 36:7

36:7 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar.’

Isaiah 36:18

36:18 Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” Has any of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?

Isaiah 36:1

Sennacherib Invades Judah

36:1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Isaiah 10:1-34

10:1 Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead,

those who are always instituting unfair regulations,

10:2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,

and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice,

so they can steal what widows own,

and loot what belongs to orphans.

10:3 What will you do on judgment day,

when destruction arrives from a distant place?

To whom will you run for help?

Where will you leave your wealth?

10:4 You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners,

or to fall among those who have been killed.

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again.

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead,

a cudgel with which I angrily punish.

10:6 I sent him against a godless nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry,

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down like dirt in the streets.

10:7 But he does not agree with this,

his mind does not reason this way,

for his goal is to destroy,

and to eliminate many nations.

10:8 Indeed, he says:

“Are not my officials all kings?

10:9 Is not Calneh like Carchemish?

Hamath like Arpad?

Samaria like Damascus?

10:10 I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols,

whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s or Samaria’s.

10:11 As I have done to Samaria and its idols,

so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.”

10:12 But when the sovereign master finishes judging Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. 10:13 For he says:

“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,

by my strategy that I devised.

I invaded the territory of nations,

and looted their storehouses.

Like a mighty conqueror, I brought down rulers.

10:14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest,

as one gathers up abandoned eggs,

I gathered up the whole earth.

There was no wing flapping,

or open mouth chirping.”

10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,

or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it?

As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,

or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

10:16 For this reason the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. His majestic glory will go up in smoke.

10:17 The light of Israel will become a fire,

their Holy One will become a flame;

it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s briers

and his thorns in one day.

10:18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard

will be completely destroyed,

as when a sick man’s life ebbs away.

10:19 There will be so few trees left in his forest,

a child will be able to count them.

10:20 At that time those left in Israel, those who remain of the family of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them. Instead they will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. 10:21 A remnant will come back, a remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 10:22 For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back. Destruction has been decreed; just punishment is about to engulf you. 10:23 The sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, is certainly ready to carry out the decreed destruction throughout the land.

10:24 So here is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, even though they beat you with a club and lift their cudgel against you as Egypt did. 10:25 For very soon my fury will subside, and my anger will be directed toward their destruction.” 10:26 The Lord who commands armies is about to beat them with a whip, similar to the way he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will use his staff against the sea, lifting it up as he did in Egypt.

10:27 At that time

the Lord will remove their burden from your shoulders,

and their yoke from your neck;

the yoke will be taken off because your neck will be too large.

10:28 They attacked Aiath,

moved through Migron,

depositing their supplies at Micmash.

10:29 They went through the pass,

spent the night at Geba.

Ramah trembled,

Gibeah of Saul ran away.

10:30 Shout out, daughter of Gallim!

Pay attention, Laishah!

Answer her, Anathoth!

10:31 Madmenah flees,

the residents of Gebim have hidden.

10:32 This very day, standing in Nob,

they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain –

at the hill of Jerusalem.

10:33 Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies,

is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power.

The tallest trees will be cut down,

the loftiest ones will be brought low.

10:34 The thickets of the forest will be chopped down with an ax,

and mighty Lebanon will fall.

Isaiah 24:1-23

The Lord Will Judge the Earth

24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth

and leave it in ruins;

he will mar its surface

and scatter its inhabitants.

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people,

the master as well as the servant,

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant,

the seller as well as the buyer,

the borrower as well as the lender,

the creditor as well as the debtor.

24:3 The earth will be completely devastated

and thoroughly ransacked.

For the Lord has decreed this judgment.

24:4 The earth dries up and withers,

the world shrivels up and withers;

the prominent people of the earth fade away.

24:5 The earth is defiled by its inhabitants,

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation,

and broken the permanent treaty.

24:6 So a treaty curse devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt.

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear,

and are reduced to just a handful of people.

24:7 The new wine dries up,

the vines shrivel up,

all those who like to celebrate groan.

24:8 The happy sound of the tambourines stops,

the revelry of those who celebrate comes to a halt,

the happy sound of the harp ceases.

24:9 They no longer sing and drink wine;

the beer tastes bitter to those who drink it.

24:10 The ruined town is shattered;

all of the houses are shut up tight.

24:11 They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine;

all joy turns to sorrow;

celebrations disappear from the earth.

24:12 The city is left in ruins;

the gate is reduced to rubble.

24:13 This is what will happen throughout the earth,

among the nations.

It will be like when they beat an olive tree,

and just a few olives are left at the end of the harvest.

24:14 They lift their voices and shout joyfully;

they praise the majesty of the Lord in the west.

24:15 So in the east extol the Lord,

along the seacoasts extol the fame of the Lord God of Israel.

24:16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs –

the Just One is majestic.

But I say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed!

Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!”

24:17 Terror, pit, and snare

are ready to overtake you inhabitants of the earth!

24:18 The one who runs away from the sound of the terror

will fall into the pit;

the one who climbs out of the pit,

will be trapped by the snare.

For the floodgates of the heavens are opened up

and the foundations of the earth shake.

24:19 The earth is broken in pieces,

the earth is ripped to shreds,

the earth shakes violently.

24:20 The earth will stagger around like a drunk;

it will sway back and forth like a hut in a windstorm.

Its sin will weigh it down,

and it will fall and never get up again.

The Lord Will Become King

24:21 At that time the Lord will punish

the heavenly forces in the heavens

and the earthly kings on the earth.

24:22 They will be imprisoned in a pit,

locked up in a prison,

and after staying there for a long time, they will be punished.

24:23 The full moon will be covered up,

the bright sun will be darkened;

for the Lord who commands armies will rule

on Mount Zion in Jerusalem

in the presence of his assembly, in majestic splendor.

Isaiah 29:1-24

Ariel is Besieged

29:1 Ariel is as good as dead –

Ariel, the town David besieged!

Keep observing your annual rituals,

celebrate your festivals on schedule.

29:2 I will threaten Ariel,

and she will mourn intensely

and become like an altar hearth before me.

29:3 I will lay siege to you on all sides;

I will besiege you with troops;

I will raise siege works against you.

29:4 You will fall;

while lying on the ground you will speak;

from the dust where you lie, your words will be heard.

Your voice will sound like a spirit speaking from the underworld;

from the dust you will chirp as if muttering an incantation.

29:5 But the horde of invaders will be like fine dust,

the horde of tyrants like chaff that is blown away.

It will happen suddenly, in a flash.

29:6 Judgment will come from the Lord who commands armies,

accompanied by thunder, earthquake, and a loud noise,

by a strong gale, a windstorm, and a consuming flame of fire.

29:7 It will be like a dream, a night vision.

There will be a horde from all the nations that fight against Ariel,

those who attack her and her stronghold and besiege her.

29:8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming that he is eating,

only to awaken and find that his stomach is empty.

It will be like a thirsty man dreaming that he is drinking,

only to awaken and find that he is still weak and his thirst unquenched.

So it will be for the horde from all the nations

that fight against Mount Zion.

God’s People are Spiritually Insensitive

29:9 You will be shocked and amazed!

You are totally blind!

They are drunk, but not because of wine;

they stagger, but not because of beer.

29:10 For the Lord has poured out on you

a strong urge to sleep deeply.

He has shut your eyes (the prophets),

and covered your heads (the seers).

29:11 To you this entire prophetic revelation is like words in a sealed scroll. When they hand it to one who can read and say, “Read this,” he responds, “I can’t, because it is sealed.” 29:12 Or when they hand the scroll to one who can’t read and say, “Read this,” he says, “I can’t read.”

29:13 The sovereign master says,

“These people say they are loyal to me;

they say wonderful things about me,

but they are not really loyal to me.

Their worship consists of

nothing but man-made ritual.

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed.

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.”

29:15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead,

who do their work in secret and boast,

“Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?”

29:16 Your thinking is perverse!

Should the potter be regarded as clay?

Should the thing made say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?

Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

Changes are Coming

29:17 In just a very short time

Lebanon will turn into an orchard,

and the orchard will be considered a forest.

29:18 At that time the deaf will be able to hear words read from a scroll,

and the eyes of the blind will be able to see through deep darkness.

29:19 The downtrodden will again rejoice in the Lord;

the poor among humankind will take delight in the Holy One of Israel.

29:20 For tyrants will disappear,

those who taunt will vanish,

and all those who love to do wrong will be eliminated –

29:21 those who bear false testimony against a person,

who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate

and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges.

29:22 So this is what the Lord, the one who delivered Abraham, says to the family of Jacob:

“Jacob will no longer be ashamed;

their faces will no longer show their embarrassment.

29:23 For when they see their children,

whom I will produce among them,

they will honor my name.

They will honor the Holy One of Jacob;

they will respect the God of Israel.

29:24 Those who stray morally will gain understanding;

those who complain will acquire insight.