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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Isaiah 1: MSG
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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.
Yesha 'yahu (Isa) 1
1
1This is the vision of Yesha‘yahu the son of Amotz, which he saw concerning Y’hudah and Yerushalayim during the days of ‘Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz and Y’chizkiyahu, kings of Y’hudah:
2“Hear, heaven! Listen, earth!
For Adonai is speaking.
“I raised and brought up children,
but they rebelled against me.
3An ox knows its owner
and a donkey its master’s stall,
but Isra’el does not know,
my people do not reflect.
4“Oh, sinful nation,
a people weighed down by iniquity,
descendants of evildoers,
immoral children!
They have abandoned Adonai,
spurned the Holy One of Isra’el,
turned their backs on him!
5“Where should I strike you next,
as you persist in rebelling?
The whole head is sick,
the whole heart diseased.
6From the sole of the foot to the head
there is nothing healthy,
only wounds, bruises and festering sores
that haven’t been dressed or bandaged
or softened up with oil.
7“Your land is desolate,
your cities are burned to the ground;
foreigners devour your land in your presence;
it’s as desolate as if overwhelmed by floods.
8The daughter of Tziyon is left
like a shack in a vineyard,
like a shed in a cucumber field,
like a city under siege.”
9If Adonai-Tzva’ot had not left us
a tiny, tiny remnant,
we would have become like S’dom,
we would have resembled ‘Amora.
10Hear what Adonai says,
you rulers of S’dom!
Listen to God’s Torah,
you people of ‘Amora!
11“Why are all those sacrifices
offered to me?” asks Adonai.
“I’m fed up with burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fattened animals!
I get no pleasure from the blood
of bulls, lambs and goats!
12Yes, you come to appear in my presence;
but who asked you to do this,
to trample through my courtyards?
13Stop bringing worthless grain offerings!
They are like disgusting incense to me!
Rosh-Hodesh, Shabbat, calling convocations —
I can’t stand evil together with your assemblies!
14Everything in me hates your Rosh-Hodesh
and your festivals;
they are a burden to me —
I’m tired of putting up with them!
15“When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
no matter how much you pray,
I won’t be listening;
because your hands are covered with blood.
16“Wash yourselves clean!
Get your evil deeds out of my sight!
Stop doing evil, 17learn to do good!
Seek justice, relieve the oppressed,
defend orphans, plead for the widow.
18“Come now,” says Adonai,
“let’s talk this over together.
Even if your sins are like scarlet,
they will be white as snow;
even if they are red as crimson,
they will be like wool.
19If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the good of the land;
20but if you refuse and rebel,
you will be eaten by the sword”;
for the mouth of Adonai has spoken.
21How the faithful city has become a whore!
Once she was filled with justice,
righteousness lodged in her;
but now murderers!
22Your silver is no longer pure,
your wine is watered down.
23Your leaders are rebels, friends of thieves.
They all love bribes and run after gifts.
They give no justice to orphans,
the widow’s complaint doesn’t catch their attention.
24“Therefore,” says the Lord, Adonai-Tzva’ot,
the Mighty One of Isra’el,
“I will free myself of my adversaries,
I will take vengeance on my enemies.
25But I will also turn my hand against you!
I will cleanse your impurities as with lye
and remove all your alloyed base metal.
26I will restore your judges as at first
and your advisers as at the beginning.
After that, you will be called
the City of Righteousness, Faithful City.
27Tziyon will be redeemed by justice;
and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
28“Rebels and sinners together will be broken
and those who abandon Adonai be consumed.
29You will be ashamed of the sacred oaks you desired,
you will blush at the gardens you chose;
30for you will be like an oak whose leaf fades,
like a garden without any water.
31The strong will be like tinder
and [the idol’s] maker like a spark;
both will burn together,
and no one will put them out.”
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