Indeed, a man will grab his brother right in his father’s house and say, ‘You own a coat – you be our leader! This heap of ruins will be under your control.’

I heard the voice of the sovereign master say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?” I answered, “Here I am, send me!”

He said, “Go and tell these people: ‘Listen continually, but don’t understand! Look continually, but don’t perceive!’

“These people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and melt in fear over Rezin and the son of Remaliah.

Indeed this is what the Lord told me. He took hold of me firmly and warned me not to act like these people:

(9:1) The people walking in darkness see a bright light; light shines on those who live in a land of deep darkness.

Later the Lord explained, “In the same way that my servant Isaiah has walked around in undergarments and barefoot for the past three years, as an object lesson and omen pertaining to Egypt and Cush,

This is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “Go visit this administrator, Shebna, who supervises the palace, and tell him:

Go, my people! Enter your inner rooms! Close your doors behind you! Hide for a little while, until his angry judgment is over!

You will hear a word spoken behind you, saying, “This is the correct way, walk in it,” whether you are heading to the right or the left.

You will sing as you do in the evening when you are celebrating a festival. You will be happy like one who plays a flute as he goes to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock who shelters Israel.

A thoroughfare will be there – it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it; it is reserved for those authorized to use it – fools will not stray into it.

No lions will be there, no ferocious wild animals will be on it – they will not be found there. Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,

But those who wait for the Lord’s help find renewed strength; they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, they run without growing weary, they walk without getting tired.

This is what the true God, the Lord, says – the one who created the sky and stretched it out, the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, the one who gives breath to the people on it, and life to those who live on it:

Who handed Jacob over to the robber? Who handed Israel over to the looters? Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned? They refused to follow his commands; they disobeyed his law.

When you pass through the waters, I am with you; when you pass through the streams, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not harm you.

This is what the Lord, your protector, says, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you in the way you should go.

Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys his servant? Whoever walks in deep darkness, without light, should trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

Look, all of you who start a fire and who equip yourselves with flaming arrows, walk in the light of the fire you started and among the flaming arrows you ignited! This is what you will receive from me: you will lie down in a place of pain.