<p class="poetry">All of you, gather together and listen!p> <p class="poetry">Who among them<n id="1" /> announced these things?p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s ally<n id="2" /> will carry out his desire against Babylon;p> <p class="poetry">he will exert his power against the Babylonians.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">They intended to bury him with criminals,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">but he ended up in a rich man&#8217;s tomb,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">because<n id="3" /> he had committed no violent deeds,p> <p class="poetry">nor had he spoken deceitfully.p>

<p class="poetry">For your husband is the one who made you &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">the <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies is his name.p> <p class="poetry">He is your protector,<n id="1" /> the Holy One of Israel.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He is called &#8220;God of the entire earth.&#8221;p>

<t /><p class="poetry">This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Promote<n id="1" /> justice! Do what is right!p> <p class="poetry">For I am ready to deliver you;p> <p class="poetry">I am ready to vindicate you openly.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">For I will not be hostile<n id="1" /> foreverp> <p class="poetry">or perpetually angry,p> <p class="poetry">for then man&#8217;s spirit would grow faint before me,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">the life-giving breath I created.p>

<p class="poetry">Like an animal that goes down into a valley to graze,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">so the Spirit of the <sc>Lordsc> granted them rest.p> <p class="poetry">In this way<n id="2" /> you guided your people,p> <p class="poetry">gaining for yourself an honored reputation.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">Since ancient times no one has heard or perceived,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">no eye has seen any God besides you,p> <p class="poetry">who intervenes for those who wait for him.p>

<p class="poetry">You assist<n id="1" /> those who delight in doing what is right,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">who observe your commandments.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.p> <p class="poetry">How then can we be saved?<n id="4" />p>

&#8220;For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;so your descendants and your name will remain.

<p class="poetry">His dominion will be vast<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and he will bring immeasurable prosperity.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He will rule on David&#8217;s thronep> <p class="poetry">and over David&#8217;s kingdom,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">establishing it<n id="4" /> and strengthening itp> <p class="poetry">by promoting justice and fairness,<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">from this time forward and forevermore.p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s intense devotion to his people<n id="6" /> will accomplish this.p>

At that time the <sc>Lordsc> announced through<n id="1" /> Isaiah son of Amoz: &#8220;Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and take your sandals off your feet.&#8221; He did as instructed and walked around in undergarments<n id="2" /> and barefoot.

<p class="poetry">When its branches get brittle,<n id="1" /> they break;p> <p class="poetry">women come and use them for kindling.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">For these people lack understanding,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;p> <p class="poetry">the one who formed them has no mercy on them.p>

<p class="poetry">For you say,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;We have made a treaty with death,p> <p class="poetry">with Sheol<n id="1" /> we have made an agreement.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">it will not reach us.p> <p class="poetry">For we have made a lie our refuge,p> <p class="poetry">we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

Don&#8217;t listen to Hezekiah!&#8217; For this is what the king of Assyria says, &#8216;Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me.<n id="1" /> Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

&#8220;O <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim!<n id="1" /> You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky<n id="2" /> and the earth.

&#8220;Please, <sc>Lordsc>. Remember how I have served you<n id="1" /> faithfully and with wholehearted devotion,<n id="2" /> and how I have carried out your will.&#8221;<n id="3" /> Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I will guide them down paths they have never traveled.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,p> <p class="poetry">and level out the rough ground.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">This is what I will do for them.p> <p class="poetry">I will not abandon them.p>

<p class="poetry">No one thinks to himself,p> <p class="poetry">nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;I burned half of it in the fire &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">yes, I baked bread over the coals;p> <p class="poetry">I roasted meat and ate it.p> <p class="poetry">With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?p> <p class="poetry">Should I bow down to dry wood?&#8217;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">Shout for joy, O sky, for the <sc>Lordsc> intervenes;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">shout out, you subterranean regions<n id="2" /> of the earth.p> <p class="poetry">O mountains, give a joyful shout;p> <p class="poetry">you too, O forest and all your trees!<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> protects<n id="4" /> Jacob;p> <p class="poetry">he reveals his splendor through Israel.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">For this is what the <sc>Lordsc> says,p> <p class="poetry">the one who created the sky &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">he is the true God,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">the one who formed the earth and made it;p> <p class="poetry">he established it,p> <p class="poetry">he did not create it without order,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">he formed it to be inhabited &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I am the <sc>Lordsc>, I have no peer.p>