Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! ¹  Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity! Did you not smash ²  the Proud One? ³  Did you not ⁴  wound the sea monster? ⁵ 

I look, but there is no one, among them there is no one who serves as an adviser, that I might ask questions and receive answers.

Approach me! Listen to this! From the very first I have not spoken in secret; when it happens, ¹  I am there.” So now, the sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his spirit. ² 

“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.

This is what the Lord says: “Where is your mother’s divorce certificate by which I divorced her? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? ¹  Look, you were sold because of your sins; ²  because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother. ³ 

What more can I do for my vineyard beyond what I have already done? When I waited for it to produce edible grapes, why did it produce sour ones instead?

Listen to me, you coastlands! ¹  Pay attention, you people who live far away! The Lord summoned me from birth; ²  he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world. ³ 

I cry out ¹  until morning; like a lion he shatters all my bones; you turn day into night and end my life. ² 

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

The Lord who commands armies is about to beat them ¹  with a whip, similar to the way he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb. ²  He will use his staff against the sea, lifting it up as he did in Egypt. ³ 

Look at the land of the Chaldeans, these people who have lost their identity! ¹  The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals. They erected their siege towers, ²  demolished ³  its fortresses, and turned it into a heap of ruins. ⁴ 

Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Did you not make ¹  a path through the depths of the sea, so those delivered from bondage ²  could cross over?

Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know? Who announced it ¹  ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct’? Indeed, none of them decreed it! Indeed, none of them announced it! Indeed, no one heard you say anything!

Though the Lord desired to crush him and make him ill, once restitution is made, ¹  he will see descendants and enjoy long life, ²  and the Lord’s purpose will be accomplished through him.

But look, there is outright celebration! ¹  You say, “Kill the ox and slaughter the sheep, eat meat and drink wine. Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” ² 

For this reason my stomach churns; ¹  cramps overwhelm me like the contractions of a woman in labor. I am disturbed ²  by what I hear, horrified by what I see.

You did not hear, you do not know, you were not told beforehand. ¹  For I know that you are very deceitful; ²  you were labeled ³  a rebel from birth.

It ¹  furiously struck down nations with unceasing blows. ²  It angrily ruled over nations, oppressing them without restraint. ³ 

The Lord revealed the following message during the year in which King Sargon of Assyria sent his commanding general to Ashdod, and he fought against it and captured it. ¹ 

Those who put their hope in Cush and took pride in Egypt will be afraid and embarrassed. ¹