The Lord’s messenger ¹  went out and killed 185,000 troops ²  in the Assyrian camp. When they ³  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ⁴ 

¹ “Here is my servant whom I support, my chosen one in whom I take pleasure. I have placed my spirit on him; he will make just decrees ²  for the nations. ³ 

The Lord emerges like a hero, like a warrior he inspires himself for battle; ¹  he shouts, yes, he yells, he shows his enemies his power. ² 

I solemnly make this oath ¹  – what I say is true and reliable: ²  ‘Surely every knee will bow to me, every tongue will solemnly affirm; ³ 

Pay attention to me, my people! Listen to me, my people! For ¹  I will issue a decree, ²  I will make my justice a light to the nations. ³ 

I am ready to vindicate, ¹  I am ready to deliver, ²  I will establish justice among the nations. ³  The coastlands ⁴  wait patiently for me; they wait in anticipation for the revelation of my power. ⁵ 

Yet do not depart quickly or leave in a panic. ¹  For the Lord goes before you; the God of Israel is your rear guard.

Look, I create the craftsman, who fans the coals into a fire and forges a weapon. ¹  I create the destroyer so he might devastate.

Indeed you will go out with joy; you will be led along in peace; the mountains and hills will give a joyful shout before you, and all the trees in the field will clap their hands.

For just as the ground produces its crops and a garden yields its produce, so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance ¹  to grow, and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations. ² 

“For the sake of Zion I will not be silent; for the sake of Jerusalem ¹  I will not be quiet, until her vindication shines brightly ²  and her deliverance burns like a torch.”

“They will go out and observe the corpses of those who rebelled against me, for the maggots that eat them will not die, ¹  and the fire that consumes them will not die out. ²  All people will find the sight abhorrent.” ³ 

many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple of the God of Jacob, so ¹  he can teach us his requirements, ²  and ³  we can follow his standards.” ⁴  For Zion will be the center for moral instruction; ⁵  the Lord will issue edicts from Jerusalem. ⁶ 

So the Lord told Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub ¹  and meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. ² 

For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, ¹  to punish the sin of those who live on the earth. The earth will display the blood shed on it; it will no longer cover up its slain. ² 

Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. ¹  Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

Look up at the sky! ¹  Who created all these heavenly lights? ²  He is the one who leads out their ranks; ³  he calls them all by name. Because of his absolute power and awesome strength, not one of them is missing.

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 

In the same way, the promise that I make does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. ¹  No, it is realized as I desire and is fulfilled as I intend.” ²