Isaiah 1
1
1The #Num. 12:6vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the #2 Chr. 26—32days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
The Wickedness of Judah
2#Jer. 2:12Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!
For the Lord has spoken:
“I have nourished and brought up children,
And they have rebelled against Me;
3#Jer. 8:7The ox knows its owner
And the donkey its master’s crib;
But Israel #Jer. 9:3, 6does not know,
My people do not consider.”
4Alas, sinful nation,
A people laden with iniquity,
#Is. 57:3, 4; Matt. 3:7A brood of evildoers,
Children who are corrupters!
They have forsaken the Lord,
They have provoked to anger
The Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away backward.
5#Jer. 5:3Why should you be stricken again?
You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart faints.
6From the sole of the foot even to the head,
There is no soundness in it,
But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;
They have not been closed or bound up,
Or soothed with ointment.
7#Deut. 28:51, 52; 2 Chr. 36:19Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8So the daughter of Zion is left #Job 27:18as a booth in a vineyard,
As a hut in a garden of cucumbers,
#Jer. 4:17As a besieged city.
9#2 Kin. 25:11, 22; Lam. 3:22Unless the Lord of hosts
Had left to us a very small remnant,
We would have become like #Gen. 19:24; Rom. 9:29Sodom,
We would have been made like Gomorrah.
10Hear the word of the Lord,
You rulers #Deut. 32:32of Sodom;
Give ear to the law of our God,
You people of Gomorrah:
11“To what purpose is the multitude of your #(1 Sam. 15:22)sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or goats.
12“When you come #Ex. 23:17to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?
13Bring no more #Matt. 15:9futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and #Joel 1:14the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
14Your #Num. 28:11New Moons and your #Lam. 2:6appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing them.
15#Prov. 1:28When you spread out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
#Ps. 66:18; Is. 59:1–3; Mic. 3:4Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.
16“Wash#Jer. 4:14 yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
#Rom. 12:9Cease to do evil,
17Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.
18“Come now, and let us #Is. 43:26; Mic. 6:2reason together,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
#Ps. 51:7; (Is. 43:25); Rev. 7:14They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.
19If you are willing and obedient,
You shall eat the good of the land;
20But if you refuse and rebel,
You shall be devoured by the sword”;
#Is. 40:5; 58:14; Mic. 4:4; (Titus 1:2)For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
The Degenerate City
21#Is. 57:3–9; Jer. 2:20How the faithful city has become a harlot!
It was full of justice;
Righteousness lodged in it,
But now #Mic. 3:1–3murderers.
22#Jer. 6:28Your silver has become dross,
Your wine mixed with water.
23#Hos. 9:15Your princes are rebellious,
And #Prov. 29:24companions of thieves;
#Jer. 22:17Everyone loves bribes,
And follows after rewards.
They #Is. 10:2; Jer. 5:28; Ezek. 22:7; Zech. 7:10do not defend the fatherless,
Nor does the cause of the widow come before them.
24Therefore the Lord says,
The Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel,
“Ah, #Deut. 28:63I will rid Myself of My adversaries,
And take vengeance on My enemies.
25I will turn My hand against you,
And #Is. 48:10; Ezek. 22:19–22; Mal. 3:3thoroughly purge away your dross,
And take away all your alloy.
26I will restore your judges #Jer. 33:7–11as at the first,
And your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward #Is. 33:5; Zech. 8:3you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
27Zion shall be redeemed with justice,
And her penitents with righteousness.
28The #Job 31:3; Ps. 9:5; (Is. 66:24; 2 Thess. 1:8, 9)destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together,
And those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
29For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees
Which you have desired;
And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens
Which you have chosen.
30For you shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fades,
And as a garden that has no water.
31#Ezek. 32:21The strong shall be as tinder,
And the work of it as a spark;
Both will burn together,
And no one shall #Is. 66:24; Matt. 3:12; Mark 9:43quench them.
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Isaiah 1: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 1
1
Messages of Judgment
Quit Your Worship Charades
1The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
2-4Heaven and earth, you’re the jury.
Listen to God’s case:
“I had children and raised them well,
and they turned on me.
The ox knows who’s boss,
the mule knows the hand that feeds him,
But not Israel.
My people don’t know up from down.
Shame! Misguided God-dropouts,
staggering under their guilt-baggage,
Villainous gang,
band of vandals—
My people have walked out on me, their God,
turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,
walked off and never looked back.
5-9“Why bother even trying to do anything with you
when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?
You keep beating your heads against brick walls.
Everything within you protests against you.
From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,
nothing’s working right.
Wounds and bruises and running sores—
untended, unwashed, unbandaged.
Your country is laid waste,
your cities burned down.
Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,
reduced to rubble by barbarians.
Daughter Zion is deserted—
like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,
Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,
like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.
If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn’t left us a few survivors,
we’d be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.
10“Listen to my Message,
you Sodom-schooled leaders.
Receive God’s revelation,
you Gomorrah-schooled people.
11-12“Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”
God ’s asking.
“Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices,
rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don’t you think I’ve had my fill
of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me,
whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that—
all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
13-17“Quit your worship charades.
I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.
Let’s Argue This Out
18-20“Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”
This is God’s Message:
“If your sins are blood-red,
they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
they’ll be like wool.
If you’ll willingly obey,
you’ll feast like kings.
But if you’re willful and stubborn,
you’ll die like dogs.”
That’s right. God says so.
Those Who Walk Out on God
21-23Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city
has become a whore!
She was once all justice,
everyone living as good neighbors,
And now they’re all
at one another’s throats.
Your coins are all counterfeits.
Your wine is watered down.
Your leaders are turncoats
who keep company with crooks.
They sell themselves to the highest bidder
and grab anything not nailed down.
They never stand up for the homeless,
never stick up for the defenseless.
24-31This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
the Strong One of Israel:
“This is it! I’ll get my oppressors off my back.
I’ll get back at my enemies.
I’ll give you the back of my hand,
purge the junk from your life, clean you up.
I’ll set honest judges and wise counselors among you
just like it was back in the beginning.
Then you’ll be renamed
City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City.”
God’s right ways will put Zion right again.
God’s right actions will restore her prodigals.
But it’s curtains for rebels and God-traitors,
a dead end for those who walk out on God.
“Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines
will leave you looking mighty foolish,
All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens
that you thought was the latest thing.
You’ll end up like an oak tree
with all its leaves falling off,
Like an unwatered garden,
withered and brown.
‘The Strong Man’ will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,
and his ‘work,’ the spark that starts the fire
That exposes man and work both
as nothing but cinders and smoke.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.