Turn aside from the way, stray off the path. Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.”

Your children hurry back, while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.

“Listen to me, O family of Jacob, all you who are left from the family of Israel, you who have been carried from birth, you who have been supported from the time you left the womb.

They pronounce the guilty innocent for a payoff, they ignore the just cause of the innocent.

Those who put their hope in Cush and took pride in Egypt will be afraid and embarrassed.

Stop trusting in human beings, whose life’s breath is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration?

Why do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?” The sovereign Lord who commands armies has spoken.

But then one of the seraphs flew toward me. In his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.

‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

In a burst of anger I rejected you momentarily, but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,” says your protector, the Lord.

We all growl like bears, we coo mournfully like doves; we wait for deliverance, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

Even these men stagger because of wine, they stumble around because of beer – priests and prophets stagger because of beer, they are confused because of wine, they stumble around because of beer; they stagger while seeing prophetic visions, they totter while making legal decisions.

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I look the other way; when you offer your many prayers, I do not listen, because your hands are covered with blood.

So Isaiah replied, “Pay attention, family of David. Do you consider it too insignificant to try the patience of men? Is that why you are also trying the patience of my God?

Look, the Lord’s day of judgment is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, destroying the earth and annihilating its sinners.

When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, and from the hard labor which you were made to perform,

Please let the Moabite fugitives live among you. Hide them from the destroyer!” Certainly the one who applies pressure will cease, the destroyer will come to an end, those who trample will disappear from the earth.

Joy and happiness disappear from the orchards, and in the vineyards no one rejoices or shouts; no one treads out juice in the wine vats – I have brought the joyful shouts to an end.

So I say: “Don’t look at me! I am weeping bitterly. Don’t try to console me concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.”

“The rebellious children are as good as dead,” says the Lord, “those who make plans without consulting me, who form alliances without consulting my Spirit, and thereby compound their sin.