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.”
Currently Selected:
Isaiah 1: MSG
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
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.
Isaiah 1
1
1This is the vision which Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw about Judah and Jerusalem at the time of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
The LORD Accuses Israel of Sin
2Listen, heaven, and pay attention, earth!
The Lord has spoken,
“I raised ⌞my⌟ children and helped them grow,
but they have rebelled against me.
3Oxen know their owners,
and donkeys know where their masters feed them.
But Israel doesn’t know ⌞its owner⌟.
My people don’t understand ⌞who feeds them⌟.
4“How horrible it will be for a nation that sins.
⌞Its⌟ people are loaded down with guilt.
They are descendants of evildoers
and destructive children.
They have abandoned the Lord.
They have despised the Holy One of Israel.
They have turned their backs on him.
5“Why do you still want to be beaten?
Why do you continue to rebel?
Your whole head is infected.
Your whole heart is failing.
6From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head
there is no healthy spot left on your ⌞body⌟—
only bruises, sores, and fresh wounds.
They haven’t been cleansed, bandaged,
or soothed with oil.
7“Your country is devastated.
Your cities are burned down.
Your fields are destroyed right before your eyes by foreigners.
Your fields are devastated and taken over by foreigners.
8My people Zion are left like a hut in a vineyard,
like a shack in a cucumber field,
like a city under attack.”
9If the Lord of Armies hadn’t left us a few survivors,
we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Israel’s Corrupt Religion
10Listen to the Lord’s word, you rulers of Sodom!
Pay attention to the teachings from our God, you people of Gomorrah!
11The Lord asks, “What do your many animal sacrifices mean to me?
I’ve had enough of your burnt offerings of rams
and enough fat from your fattened calves.
I’m not pleased with the blood of bulls, lambs, or male goats.
12When you appear in my presence,
who asked you to trample on my courtyards?
13Don’t bring any more worthless grain offerings.
Your incense is disgusting to me,
so are your New Moon Festivals, your days of rest—holy days,
and the assemblies you call.
I can’t stand your evil assemblies.
14I hate your New Moon Festivals and your appointed festivals.
They’ve become a burden to me,
and I’m tired of putting up with them.
15So when you stretch out your hands ⌞in prayer⌟,
I will turn my eyes away from you.
Even though you offer many prayers,
I will not listen because your hands are covered with blood.
The LORD Invites Israel to Turn Away from Sin
16“Wash yourselves! Become clean!
Get your evil deeds out of my sight.
Stop doing evil.
17Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Arrest oppressors.
Defend orphans.
Plead the case of widows.”
18“Come on now, let’s discuss this!” says the Lord.
“Though your sins are bright red,
they will become as white as snow.
Though they are dark red,
they will become as white as wool.
19If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land.
20But if you refuse and rebel,
you will be destroyed by swords.”
The Lord has spoken.
Jerusalem’s Future
21How the faithful town has become a prostitute!
She was full of justice,
and righteousness lived in her.
But now murderers live there!
22Your silver is not pure.
Your wine is watered down.
23Your rulers are rebels, friends with thieves.
They all love bribes and run after gifts.
They never defend orphans.
They don’t notice the widows’ pleas.
24That’s why the Lord, the Lord of Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says,
“How horrible it will be when I take revenge on my opponents!
I will avenge myself against my enemies.
25I will turn my power against you.
I will remove your impurities with bleach.
I will get rid of all your impurities.
26I will give you judges like you had long ago,
advisers like you had in the beginning.
After that you will be called the Righteous City,
the Faithful Town.”
27Zion will be pardoned by ⌞the Lord’s⌟ justice,
and those who return will be pardoned
by ⌞the Lord’s⌟ righteousness.
28Rebels and sinners will be crushed at the same time,
and those who abandon the Lord will come to an end.
29You will be ashamed of the oaks that you wanted to worship
and embarrassed by the garden that you have chosen for your gods.
30You will be like an oak whose leaves wither
and like a garden without water.
31Strong people will become tinder for a fire,
and their work will be the spark.
Both of them will burn together,
and there will be no one to put out the fire.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.