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ISAIAH INSTITUTE TRANSLATION

  Isaiah

1

Isaiah 1

Israel’s ancient apostasy typifies an end-time apostasy, with salvation reserved for some who repent.

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz which he beheld concerning Judea and Jerusalem during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah:
2 Hear, O heavens! Give heed, O earth!Jehovah has spoken:I have reared sons, brought them up,but they have revolted against me. 3 The ox knows its owner,the ass its master’s stall,but Israel does not know;my people are insensible. 4 Alas, a nation astray,a people weighed down by sin,the offspring of wrongdoers,perverse children:they have forsaken Jehovah,they have spurned the Holy One of Israel,they have lapsed into apostasy.
5 Why be smitten furtherby adding to your waywardness?The whole head is sick,the whole heart diseased. 6 From the soles of the feet even to the headthere is nothing sound,only wounds and bruises and festering sores;they have not been pressed out or bound up,nor soothed with ointment.
7 Your land is ruined,your cities burned with fire;your native soil is devoured by aliens in your presence,laid waste at its takeover by foreigners. 8 The Daughter of Zion is leftlike a shelter in a vineyard,a hut in a melon field,a city under siege. 9 Had not Jehovah of Hosts left us a few survivors,we should have been as Sodom,or become like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of Jehovah,O leaders of Sodom;give heed to the law of our God,you people of Gomorrah! 11 For what purpose are your abundantsacrifices to me? says Jehovah.I have had my fill of offerings of ramsand fat of fatted beasts;the blood of bulls and sheep and he-goatsI do not want. 12 When you come to see me,who requires you to trample my courts so?
13 Bring no more worthless offerings;they are as a loathsome incense to me.As for convening meetings at the New Monthand on the Sabbath,wickedness with the solemn gatheringI cannot approve. 14 Your monthly and regular meetingsmy soul detests.They have become a burden on me;I am weary of putting up with them. 15 When you spread forth your hands,I will conceal my eyes from you;though you pray at length, I will not hear—your hands are filled with blood.
16 Wash yourselves clean:remove your wicked deedsfrom before my eyes;cease to do evil. 17 Learn to do good: demand justice,stand up for the oppressed;plead the cause of the fatherless,appeal on behalf of the widow.
18 Come now, let us put it to the test,says Jehovah:though your sins are as scarlet,they can be made white as snow;though they have reddened as crimson,they may become white as wool. 19 If you are willing and obey,you shall eat the good of the land. 20 But if you are unwilling and disobey,you shall be eaten by the sword.By his mouth Jehovah has spoken it.
21 How the faithful cityhas become a harlot!She was filled with justice;righteousness made its abode in her,but now murderers. 22 Your silver has become dross,your wine diluted with water. 23 Your rulers are renegades,accomplices of robbers:with one accord they love bribesand run after rewards;they do not dispense justice to the fatherless,nor does the widow’s case come before them.
24 Therefore the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts,the Valiant One of Israel, declares,Woe to them! I will relieve meof my adversaries,avenge me of my enemies.
25 I will restore my hand over youand smelt away your dross as in a crucible,aand remove all your alloy. 26 I will restore your judges as at the first,and your counsellors as in the beginning.After this you shall be calledthe City of Righteousness, a faithful city.
27 For Zion shall be ransomed by justice,those of her who repent by righteousness. 28 But criminals and sinnersshall be altogether shatteredwhen those who forsake Jehovah are annihilated.
29 And youb will be ashamed of the oaks you cherishedand blush for the parks you were fond of; 30 you shall become like an oak whose leaves wither,and as a garden that has no water. 31 The mighty shall be as refuse,and their works a spark;both shall burn up alike,and there shall be none to extinguish.

  • a25 Hebrew kabbōr, as with potash/lye, emended to kakūr; compare 48:10.
  • b29 Hebrew they.


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