Stop trusting in human beings, whose life’s breath is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration?

Why do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?” ¹  The sovereign Lord who commands armies ²  has spoken.

O my downtrodden people, crushed like stalks on the threshing floor, ¹  what I have heard from the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel, I have reported to you.

Is this really your boisterous city ¹  whose origins are in the distant past, ²  and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

But Pharaoh’s protection will bring you nothing but shame, and the safety of Egypt’s protective shade nothing but humiliation.

This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you!

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you since the very beginning? Have you not understood from the time the earth’s foundations were made?

For this reason the sovereign master himself will give you a confirming sign. ¹  Look, this ²  young woman ³  is about to conceive ⁴  and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him ⁵  Immanuel. ⁶ 

The Lord who commands armies told me this: ¹  “Certainly this sin will not be forgiven as long as you live,” ²  says the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies.

So this sin will become your downfall. You will be like a high wall that bulges and cracks and is ready to collapse; it crumbles suddenly, in a flash. ¹ 

The sovereign master ¹  will give you distress to eat and suffering to drink; ²  but your teachers will no longer be hidden; your eyes will see them. ³ 

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. ¹ 

For at that time ¹  everyone will get rid of ²  the silver and gold idols your hands sinfully made. ³ 

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 

Pay attention and come to me! Listen, so you can live! ¹  Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ²  you, just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ³ 

You will be called, ‘the Lord’s priests, servants of our God.’ ¹  You will enjoy ²  the wealth of nations and boast about ³  the riches you receive from them. ⁴ 

I ¹  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they should keep praying all day and all night. ²  You who pray to ³  the Lord, don’t be silent!

To you this entire prophetic revelation ¹  is like words in a sealed scroll. When they hand it to one who can read ²  and say, “Read this,” he responds, “I can’t, because it is sealed.”