1This is a vision that God showed to Isaiah, the son of Amoz. It was a message about his country, Judah, and the city of Jerusalem. #1:1 Jerusalem was the capital city of Judah. God showed it to Isaiah at the time when Uzziah, then Jotham, then Ahaz and then Hezekiah were kings of Judah.

God's people are guilty #1:2 In chapters 1-5, Isaiah describes the people who live in Judah and in its capital city, Jerusalem. They have problems because they are not obeying God. God says that he will punish them.

2Hear the Lord, those who live in heaven! #1:2 When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It is his own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there. Listen to him, you people on the earth! Listen carefully because the Lord has spoken! He says, ‘I have helped my children to grow. I took care of them but now they have turned against me!

3An ox knows its master. A donkey knows the place where its master feeds it. But Israel's people do not know me. My people do not understand me.’

4Oh! Israel, you are a nation of people who do not obey me. The people are guilty of many evil things. Their sins are like a heavy weight on their backs. They are a family of people who do wicked things. They have turned away from the Lord, the Holy God of Israel. They have turned their backs against him.

5You continue to fight against God. Why do you do that? God will continue to punish you. You are weak and you hurt all over. Your mind and your body have great pain. 6From the bottom of your feet, to the top of your head, everywhere hurts! There are wounds all over your body that are still bleeding. Nobody has cleaned your wounds or covered them. Nobody has put olive oil on them to make them better.

7Your land has become useless. Fire has destroyed your towns and cities. Foreign people have taken the crops from your fields, while you stood there and watched. Strangers have destroyed everything in your country.

8Jerusalem is now like a hut in a vineyard or in a field of crops. It stands there alone, with its enemies all round it.

9Unless the Lord Almighty had left some of us alive, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been completely destroyed, like Gomorrah.

10Yes, you are like the rulers of Sodom, so listen to the Lord's message! You are no better than the people in Gomorrah! So listen to what our God is saying to you.

11The Lord says, ‘All your sacrifices are not important to me. I have received too many sacrifices that you have burned as gifts to me. I have received too many sheep and fat animals. I do not want any more blood from bulls, goats and lambs that you have offered to me as sacrifices. They do not give me any pleasure.

12You come to worship me in my temple. But are you doing what I want? Did I ask you to march round the temple yards with all your animals?

13Do not bring any more useless gifts to offer to me! I do not like your incense. You like to have feasts at new moons, or on Sabbath days. But because of your sins, I hate all your holy meetings.

14I hate your new moon feasts and your holy meetings. They have become like a heavy load for me. I cannot carry it any longer!

15When you lift up your hands to pray to me, I have to look away. Even if you pray very many times to me, I do not listen to you, because your hands are full of blood. #1:15 ‘your hands are full of blood’ means that they have killed people, and they have done many bad things.

16Wash yourselves and make yourselves clean! Remove your sins, so that I no longer see them. Stop doing evil things!

17Instead, learn to do what is right. Be honest and fair in what you do. Help people who are in pain. Make sure that widows and children who have no family receive justice.’

18The Lord says, ‘Please come, so that we talk about this together. Even if your sins are like a red stain, they will become as white as snow. Even if they are bright red, they will become like white wool. #1:18 God is saying that he will forgive them, even if their sins are very bad. A stain is a strong mark that spoils something that is nice.

19I will forgive you if you agree to obey me. If you are ready to do that, you will again eat plenty of good food from the land. 20But if you refuse to obey me and you turn against me, you will die in war.’

That is what the Lord himself has said.

Jerusalem is guilty

21Oh! Jerusalem! Once you loved the Lord, as a wife loves her husband. But now you have become like a prostitute! At one time, the city was full of justice, and honest people lived there. But now the city is full of murderers!

22Your pure silver has become dirt. You have mixed water with your best wine.

23Your rulers have turned against God. They are friends of robbers. They all accept bribes and they love to receive gifts. But they do not help widows or children who have no family. They do not make sure that they receive justice.

24So the Lord says this. He is the Lord Almighty, Israel's Mighty One. He says, ‘Oh! I will punish my enemies as they deserve. I will pay them back!

25I will turn against you, Jerusalem. I will make you pure again. But you will be like metal that burns in a very hot fire to remove all the dirt.

26Then I will again give you honest judges, as you had a long time ago. I will also give you wise officers, as you had before. After that, you will be called “The Righteous City” and “The Faithful City”.’

27God will use justice to make Zion free. He will do what is right for those who return to serve him.

28But he will destroy people who turn against him, and those who continue to do wrong things. People who no longer trust the Lord will live no more.

29You will become ashamed because you trusted special oak trees to help you. You worshipped idols in your special gardens, and you will be ashamed because of that.

30You will be like an oak tree with leaves that have become dry. You will be like a garden that has no water.

31Even your most powerful men will disappear. They will be like a piece of string that burns in a fire. Their sins will be the fire that destroys them. They and their sins will burn together, and nobody will put out the fire.

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Isaiah 1

1THE VISION OF ISAIAH THE SON OF AMOZ, WHICH HE SAW CONCERNING JUDAH AND JERUSALEM; IN THE DAYS OF UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AHAZ, HEZEEIAH, KINGS OF JUDAH.

2 Hear, O ye heavens; and give ear, O earth:

For Jehovah speaketh.

I have nourished and brought up children;

And they have rebelled against me.

3The ox knoweth his owner,

And the ass his master's crib:

But Israel doth not know;

My people doth not consider.

4Wo to the sinful nation, people laden with iniquity,

Seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters:

They have forsaken Jehovah,

They have despised the Holy One of Israel;

They are gone away backward.

5Upon what part will ye be smitten any more, should you still revolt?

The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint:

6From the sole of the foot even unto the crown of the head, there is no soundness;

But wounds, and lashes, and fresh stripes:

They have not been pressed out, neither bound up,

Nor mollified with oil.

7Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire;

Your land, strangers devour it before your eyes;

It is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8And the daughter of Zion is left alone, as a shed in a vineyard;

As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a city that is saved.

9Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us the smallest remnant,

We had been as Sodom, we had become like unto Gomorrah.

10Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O ye princes of Sodom!

Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah!

11Why to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah:

I am cloyed with the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;

And in the blood of bullocks, and of lambs, and of he-goats, I have no delight.

12When ye come to appear before me,

Who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13Bring no more insincere oblation,

Incense! it is an abomination unto me;

The new moon, the sabbath, and the proclaiming of an assembly,

I cannot endure: it is iniquity, even the solemn assembly.

14Your new moons, and your appointed festivals, my soul hateth:

They are a burden unto me; I am weary of bearing them.

15And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you;

Even when ye multiply prayer, I will not hear:

Your hands are full of blood.

16Wash ye, make ye clean;

Remove ye far away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes;

Cease to do evil:

17Learn to do good; seek after justice; correct the evil-doer;

Do justice to the orphan; plead for the widow.

18Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah:

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow;

Though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.

19If ye be willing and obedient,

Ye shall eat the good of the land;

20But if ye refuse and rebel,

Ye shall be devoured with the sword:

For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

21How is the faithful city become an harlot!

She that was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in her;

But now murderers!

22Thy silver is become dross;

Thy wine mixed with water.

23Thy princes are rebellious, and associates of robbers;

Every one of them loveth a bribe, and hunteth after rewards:

For the orphan they procure no justice;

And the cause of the widow cometh not before them.

24Wherefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the mighty One of Israel:

Ah! I will ease me of mine adversaries,

And avenge me of mine enemies.

25And I will direct mine hand against thee,

And entirely melt out thy dross,

And remove all thy tin:

26And I will restore thy judges, as at the first;

And thy counsellors, as at the beginning: Afterward thou shalt be called,

The town of righteousness, the faithful city.

27Zion shall be redeemed with judgment,

And those that return unto her, with righteousness.

28But the destruction of revolters and of sinners shall be together;

And they that forsake Jehovah shall perish.

29Then shall men be ashamed of the grove of teberinths, which are your delight;

And ye shall blush for the gardens, which ye have loved:

30For ye shall be as the teberinth, whose leaves are withered;

And as a garden, wherein there is no water.

31The powerful shall become as tow,

And his work as a spark of fire;

And they shall burn both of them together; and none shall quench them.

Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.

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Isaiah 1

Isaiah 1