Yeshayah (Isaiah) 1
1
1The vision of Yeshayahu son of Amots, which he saw concerning Yehuḏah and Yerushalayim in the days of Uzziyahu, Yotham, Aḥaz, Ḥizqiyahu – sovereigns of Yehuḏah.
2Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth! For יהוה has spoken, “I have reared and brought up children, but they have transgressed against Me.
3An ox knows its owner and a donkey its master’s crib – Yisra’ĕl does not know, My people have not understood.”
4Alas, sinning nation, a people loaded with crookedness, a seed of evil-doers, sons acting corruptly! They have forsaken יהוה, they have provoked the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, they went backward.
5Why should you be stricken any more? You continue in apostasy! All the head is sick, and all the heart faints.
6From the sole of the foot, to the head, there is no soundness in it – wounds and bruises and open sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.
7Your land is laid waste, your cities are burned with fire, strangers devour your land in your presence. And it is laid waste, as overthrown by strangers.
8And the daughter of Tsiyon is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9Unless יהוה of hosts had left to us a small remnant, we would have become like Seḏom, we would have been made like Amorah.
10Hear the word#“Word” and “Torah” (teaching) are used as synonyms. of יהוה, you rulers of Seḏom; give ear to the Torah#“Word” and “Torah” (teaching) are used as synonyms. of our Elohim, you people of Amorah!
11“Of what use to Me are your many slaughterings?” declares יהוה. “I have had enough of ascending offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats.
12“When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courtyards?
13“Stop bringing futile offerings, incense, it is an abomination to Me. New Moons, Sabbaths, the calling of gatherings – I am unable to bear unrighteousness and assembly.
14“My being hates your New Moons and your appointed times, they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.
15“And when you spread out your hands, I hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I do not hear. Your hands have become filled with blood.
16“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Stop doing evil!
17“Learn to do good! Seek right-ruling, reprove the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18“Come now, and let us reason together,” says יהוה. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19“If you submit and obey, you shall eat the good of the land;
20but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword,” for the mouth of יהוה has spoken.
21How the steadfast city has become a whore! I have filled it with right-ruling; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.
22Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water.
23Your rulers are stubborn, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and runs after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow reach them.
24Therefore the Master declares, יהוה of hosts, the Mighty One of Yisra’ĕl, “Ah, I shall be eased of My adversaries, and I shall be avenged of My enemies.
25“And I shall turn My hand against you, and shall refine your dross as with lye, and shall remove all your alloy.
26“And I shall give back your judges as at the first, and your counsellors as at the beginning. After this you shall be called the city of righteousness, a steadfast city.”
27Tsiyon shall be ransomed with right-ruling, and her returning ones with righteousness.
28And the destruction of transgressors and of sinners is together, and those who forsake יהוה 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.
31The strong shall be for tow, and his work for a spark. And both shall burn together, with no one to extinguish.
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Yeshayah (Isaiah) 1: TS2009
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Copyright© 1993 – 2015 by the Institute for Scripture Research (ISR). 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.