Study Desk

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth! For Jehovah has spoken: I have nursed and brought up sons, but they have rebelled against Me.

The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's manger, but Israel does not know; My people have not understood.

Woe, sinful nation, a people heavy with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, sons who corrupt! They have forsaken Jehovah; they have scorned the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged backward.

Why will you be stricken any more? Will you continue the revolt? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint.

From the sole of the foot even to the head, no soundness is in it; only a wound and a stripe and a fresh blow; they have not been closed, nor bound up; nor was it softened with oil.

Your land is a desolation; your cities burned with fire. Foreigners devour your land before you; and behold , ruin, as overthrown by foreigners.

And the daughter of Zion is left a booth in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

Except Jehovah of Hosts had left a remnant for us, a few, we would be as Sodom; we would be as Gomorrah.

Hear the Word of Jehovah, rulers of Sodom. Listen to the Law of our God, people of Gomorrah.

What good to Me are your many sacrifices, says Jehovah? I am sated with burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fattened cattle, and the blood of bulls; nor do I delight in the blood of lambs and he goats.

When you come to see My face, who has required this at your hand, to trample My courts?

Do not add to bringing vain sacrifice; its incense is an abomination to Me. I cannot endure the new moon and sabbath, the going to meeting, and the evil assembly.

My soul hates your new moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them .

And when you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you. Yea, when you multiply prayer, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves, purify yourselves. Put away the evil of your doings from My sight; stop doing evil.

Learn to do good, seek justice, straighten the oppressor, judge the orphan, strive for the widow.

Come now and let us reason together, says Jehovah: Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as the crimson, they shall be like wool.

If you are willing and hear, you shall eat the good of the land.

But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.

Oh how the faithful city has become a harlot! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it. But now, murderers!

Your silver has become dross; your wine is diluted with water.

Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe, and is pursuing rewards. They do not judge the orphan, nor does the cause of the widow come to them,

and says the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Alas! I will be eased of My foes, and avenge Myself of My enemies.

And I will return My hand on you, and refine your dross, as with lye, and turn aside all your alloy.

And I will return your judges as at the first; and your advisors, as at the beginning; then you shall be called the city of righteousness, a faithful city.

Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her returning ones with righteousness.

And the ruin of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together. And those who forsake Jehovah shall be consumed.

For they shall be ashamed of the trees which you lusted after; and you shall be ashamed of the gardens that you have chosen.

For you shall be like a tree whose leaf fades, and like a garden that has no water in it.

And the strong shall be for tow, and his work for a spark; and they shall burn both together; and no one shall quench them .

The Word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

And it shall be in the last days, the mountain of the house of Jehovah shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it.

And many people shall go and say, Come and let us go up to the mount of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach from His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For out of Zion the Law will go forth, and the Word of Jehovahfrom Jerusalem.

And He shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.

Oh house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled from the east, and are spirit-knowers like the Philistines. And they clap hands with children of foreigners.

And his land is filled with silver and gold. There is no end of his treasures. And his land is full of horses; his chariots also do not have an end.

And his land is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.

And man bowed down; and man was humbled, but You do not lift them up.

Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from fear of Jehovah, and from the glory of His majesty.

The lofty eyes of man shall be humbled, and the pride of men shall be bowed down; but Jehovah, He alone, will be exalted in that day.

For the day of Jehovah of Hosts shall be on all the proud and lofty ones, and on all that is lifted up; and it will be abased;

and against all Lebanon's cedars, high and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan;

and against all the high mountains; and against all the lifted up hills;

and against every tall tower; and against every fortified wall;

and against all the ships of Tarshish; and on all desirable craft.

And the pride of man shall be humbled; and the loftiness of men shall be abased; and Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day.

And the idols shall completely vanish.

And they shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, for dread of Jehovah, and from the glory of His majesty; when He rises up to make the earth quake.

In that day a man shall throw his silver, and his golden idols which they made for him to worship to the hole of the burrower and to bats;

to go into the crevices of the rocks, and into the clefts of the cliffs, from the dread of Jehovah, and from the glory of His majesty; when He rises up to make the earth quake.

Cease yourself from man, whose breath is in his nostril, for in what is he to be esteemed?

For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, takes away the stay and the staff from Jerusalem and from Judah; the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water;

the mighty man, and the man of war; the judge and the prophet, and the one divining, and the elder;

the commander of fifty and the exalted of face; the counselor and the skilled craftsman; and the expert enchanter.

And I will give young boys to be their rulers, and caprices shall rule over them.

And the people shall be crushed, man against man, and a man on his neighbor. The boy will be insolent against the elder, and the despised against the honorable.

When a man shall take hold of his brother, at his father's house, saying , A cloak! Come, you be a ruler for us; let this ruin be under your hand.

In that day he shall swear, saying, I will not be one who binds up; for there is no bread nor a cloak in my house; you shall not make me a ruler of the people.

For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen; because their tongue and their doings toward Jehovah are to rebel against the eyes of His glory.

The expression of their faces witnesses against them; they have declared their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it . Woe to their soul! For they have dealt evil to themselves.

Say to the righteous that it is well; for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings.

Woe to the wicked! For the evil, the doing of his hand will be done to him.

As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over him. Oh My people, those leading you cause you to go astray, and they swallow the way of your paths.

Jehovah stands up to plead His cause, and stands up to judge the peoples.

Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of His people, and their kings. For you have eaten up the vineyard, the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

What do you mean that you crush My people, and grind the faces of the poor, says the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts?

And Jehovah says, Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with stretched out necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and make a tinkling with their feet;

So Jehovah will make the crown of the daughter of Zion scabby; and Jehovah will lay their secret parts bare.

In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of the ankle bracelets, and the headbands, and the crescents,

the pendants, and the bracelets, and the veils;

the turbans, and the leg ornaments, and the sashes, and the houses of the soul, and the amulets;

the rings and nose jewels;

the festal apparel and the outer garments; and the mantles, and the purses;

the mirrors and the fine linen; and the turbans and the veils.

And it shall be, instead of a smell of perfume, there shall be an odor of decay. And instead of a sash, a rope. And instead of well set hair, baldness. And instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty.

Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war.

And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall sit bare on the ground.

And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing, only let your name be called on us; collect our shame.

In that day the Branch of Jehovah will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth for pride and for glory for the survivors of Israel.

And it shall be, he remaining in Zion, and he who is left in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one who is written among the living in Jerusalem;

when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and the blood of Jerusalem shall have been rinsed away from its midst by a spirit of judgment, and by a spirit of burning.

Then Jehovah will create a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, over all the site of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies; for on all the glory will be a canopy.

And there shall be a booth for a shade from the heat, and for a refuge, and for a hiding place from storm and rain.

Now I will sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard: My Beloved has a vineyard in a fruitful horn.

And He dug it, and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in its midst, and also hewed out a wine vat in it. And He waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced rotten grapes.

And now, O people of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I ask you, judge between Me and My vineyard.

What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Who knows? I waited for it to yield grapes, but it yielded rotten grapes.

And now I will make known to you what I will do then to My vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be burned. I will breach its wall, and it will become a trampling ground.

And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but briers and thorns shall come up. And I will command the clouds from raining rain on it.

For the vineyard of Jehovah of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is His delightful plant. And He waited for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry!

Woe to those touching house to house, bringing near field to field until the end of space, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!

Jehovah of Hosts has sworn in my ears, If not, many houses shall be a waste, large and beautiful ones without one living in them .

Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning to go after fermented drink, tarrying in the twilight while wine inflames them!

And the lyre and the harp, the timbrel and flute, and wine are at their feasts; but they do not regard the work of Jehovah; yea, they do not see the work of His hands.

For this My people go into exile without knowledge, and his men of glory into famine; and his multitude is parched with thirst.

So Sheol has enlarged its appetite, and opened its mouth without measure, and her glory and her multitude, and her uproar, he who exults in her, shall come down in it.

And man is bowed down, and man is humbled, and the eyes of the proud are humbled.

But Jehovah of Hosts is exalted in judgment, and God the Holy One is proven holy in righteousness.

Then the lambs shall feed as in their pasture, and strangers shall eat the waste places of the fatlings.

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with ropes of a cart;

who say, Let Him hurry and hasten His work, so that we may see; and let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, so that we may know!

Woe to those who say to evil, good; and to good, evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe to those wise in their own eyes, and discerning in their own sight!

Woe to those mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mix fermented drink;

who justify the wicked for a bribe, and turn aside the righteousness of the righteous from him!

So, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the flame burns up the chaff; their root shall be like rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up like dust, because they have rejected the Law of Jehovah of Hosts; and despised the Word ofthe Holy One of Israel.

On account of this the anger of Jehovah is kindled on His people, and He has stretched out His hand against them, and has struck them; and the mountains quaked, and their dead bodies were as filth in the midst of the streets. In allthis His anger does not turn away, but His hand is stretched out still.

And He will lift up a banner to distant nations, and will hiss to them from the ends of the earth; and, behold, it shall come with swift speed!

None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none will slumber nor sleep; nor shall the waist cloth of their loins be opened, nor the thong of their sandals broken;

whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses' hooves shall appear as flint, and their wheels like a hurricane.

Their roaring shall be like a lion; they shall roar like young lions. Yea, they roar and seize the prey and carry it away; and no one shall deliver.

And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; when one looks to the land, and lo, darkness! Distress! And light shall be darkened by its clouds.