He gives strength to those who are tired; to the ones who lack power, he gives renewed energy.

“Present your argument,” says the Lord. “Produce your evidence,” ¹  says Jacob’s king. ² 

For your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with sin; your lips speak lies, your tongue utters malicious words.

Why are your clothes red? Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat? ¹ 

He said, “Certainly they will be my people, children who are not disloyal.” ¹  He became their deliverer.

Look, I have decreed: ¹  I will not keep silent, but will pay them back; I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, ² 

For look, I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth! ¹  The former ones ²  will not be remembered; no one will think about them anymore. ³ 

For ¹  you will nurse from her satisfying breasts and be nourished; ²  you will feed with joy from her milk-filled breasts. ³ 

At that time ¹  the sovereign master ²  will again lift his hand ³  to reclaim ⁴  the remnant of his people ⁵  from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, ⁶  Cush, ⁷  Elam, Shinar, ⁸  Hamath, and the seacoasts. ⁹ 

that sends messengers by sea, who glide over the water’s surface in boats made of papyrus. Go, you swift messengers, to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people, ¹  to a people that are feared far and wide, ²  to a nation strong and victorious, ³  whose land rivers divide. ⁴ 

“At that time,” ¹  says the Lord who commands armies, “the peg fastened into a solid place will come loose. It will be cut off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off.” ²  Indeed, ³  the Lord has spoken.

A man uses it to make a fire; ¹  he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. ² 

who fulfills the oracles of his prophetic servants ¹  and brings to pass the announcements ²  of his messengers, who says about Jerusalem, ³  ‘She will be inhabited,’ and about the towns of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt, her ruins I will raise up,’

Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ¹  you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’ and are descended from Judah, ²  who take oaths in the name of the Lord, and invoke ³  the God of Israel – but not in an honest and just manner. ⁴ 

Look, all of you who start a fire and who equip yourselves with ¹  flaming arrows, ²  walk ³  in the light ⁴  of the fire you started and among the flaming arrows you ignited! ⁵  This is what you will receive from me: ⁶  you will lie down in a place of pain. ⁷ 

No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, ¹  or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, ²  for my people will live as long as trees, ³  and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced. ⁴ 

If the Lord who commands armies ¹  had not left us a few survivors, we would have quickly become like Sodom, ²  we would have become like Gomorrah.

Jerusalem certainly stumbles, Judah falls, for their words and their actions offend the Lord; ¹  they rebel against his royal authority. ² 

He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” ¹ 

A baby ¹  will play over the hole of a snake; ²  over the nest ³  of a serpent an infant ⁴  will put his hand. ⁵