Category: Isaiah

The Sign of the Naked Prophet

1 Under the orders of Emperor Sargon of Assyria, the commander-in-chief of the Assyrian army attacked the Philistine city of Ashdod.

2 Three years earlier theLordhad told Isaiah son of Amoz to take off his sandals and the sackcloth he was wearing. He obeyed and went around naked and barefoot.

3 When Ashdod was captured, theLordsaid, “My servant Isaiah has been going around naked and barefoot for three years. This is a sign of what will happen to Egypt and Ethiopia.

4 The emperor of Assyria will lead away naked the prisoners he captures from those two countries. Young and old, they will walk barefoot and naked, with their buttocks exposed, bringing shame on Egypt.

5 Those who have put their trust in Ethiopiaand have boasted about Egypt will be disillusioned, their hopes shattered.

6 When that time comes, the people who live along the coast of Philistia will say, ‘Look at what has happened to the people we relied on to protect us from the emperor of Assyria! How will we ever survive?’”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/20-6e3615c98796ce16040553e87b53c44b.mp3?version_id=68—

A Vision of the Fall of Babylon

1 This is a message about Babylonia.

Like a whirlwind sweeping across the desert, disaster will come from a terrifying land.

2 I have seen a vision of cruel events, a vision of betrayal and destruction.

Army of Elam, attack! Army of Media, lay siege to the cities! God will put an end to the suffering which Babylon has caused.

3 What I saw and heard in the vision has filled me with terror and pain, pain like that of a woman in labor.

4 My head is spinning, and I am trembling with fear. I had been longing for evening to come, but it has brought me nothing but terror.

5 In the vision a banquet is ready; rugs are spread for the guests to sit on. They are eating and drinking. Suddenly the command rings out: “Officers! Prepare your shields!”

6 Then the Lord said to me, “Go and post a sentry, and tell him to report what he sees.

7 If he sees riders coming on horseback, two by two, and riders on donkeys and camels, he is to observe them carefully.”

8 The sentry calls out, “Sir, I have been standing guard at my post day and night.”

9 Suddenly, here they come! Riders on horseback, two by two. The sentry gives the news, “Babylon has fallen! All the idols they worshiped lie shattered on the ground.”

10 My people Israel, you have been threshed like wheat, but now I have announced to you the good news that I have heard from theLordAlmighty, the God of Israel.

A Message about Edom

11 This is a message about Edom.

Someone calls to me from Edom, “Sentry, how soon will the night be over? Tell me how soon it will end.”

12 I answer, “Morning is coming, but night will come again. If you want to ask again, come back and ask.”

A Message about Arabia

13 This is a message about Arabia.

People of Dedan, you whose caravans camp in the barren country of Arabia,

14 give water to the thirsty people who come to you. You people of the land of Tema, give food to the refugees.

15 People are fleeing to escape from swords that are ready to kill them, from bows that are ready to shoot, from all the dangers of war.

16 Then the Lord said to me, “In exactly one year the greatness of the tribes of Kedar will be at an end.

17 The archers are the bravest warriors of Kedar, but few of them will be left. I, theLordGod of Israel, have spoken.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/21-4bf3c37de0049d6447a138e3b5ff8f6a.mp3?version_id=68—

A Message about Jerusalem

1 This is a message about the Valley of Vision.

What is happening? Why are all the people of the city celebrating on the roofs of the houses?

2 The whole city is in an uproar, filled with noise and excitement.

Your people who died in this war did not die fighting.

3 All your leaders ran away and were captured before they shot a single arrow.

4 Now leave me alone to weep bitterly over all those of my people who have died. Don’t try to comfort me.

5 This is a time of panic, defeat, and confusion in the Valley of Vision, and the SovereignLordAlmighty has sent it on us. The walls of our city have been battered down, and cries for help have echoed among the hills.

6 The soldiers from the land of Elam came riding on horseback, armed with bows and arrows. Soldiers from the land of Kir had their shields ready.

7 The fertile valleys of Judah were filled with chariots; soldiers on horseback stood in front of Jerusalem’s gates.

8 All of Judah’s defenses crumbled.

When that happened, you brought weapons out of the arsenal.

9-10 You found the places where the walls of Jerusalem needed repair. You inspected all the houses in Jerusalem and tore some of them down to get stones to repair the city walls. In order to store water,

11 you built a reservoir inside the city to hold the water flowing down from the old pool. But you paid no attention to God, who planned all this long ago and who caused it to happen.

12 The SovereignLordAlmighty was calling you then to weep and mourn, to shave your heads and wear sackcloth.

13 Instead, you laughed and celebrated. You killed sheep and cattle to eat, and you drank wine. You said, “We might as well eat and drink! Tomorrow we’ll be dead.”

14 The SovereignLordAlmighty himself spoke to me and said, “This evil will never be forgiven them as long as they live. I, the SovereignLordAlmighty, have spoken.”

A Warning to Shebna

15 The SovereignLordAlmighty told me to go to Shebna, the manager of the royal household, and say to him,

16 “Who do you think you are? What right do you have to carve a tomb for yourself out of the rocky hillside?

17 You may be important, but theLordwill pick you up and throw you away.

18 He will pick you up like a ball and throw you into a much larger country. You will die there beside the chariots you were so proud of. You are a disgrace to your master’s household.

19 TheLordwill remove you from office and bring you down from your high position.”

20 TheLordsaid to Shebna, “When that happens, I will send for my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

21 I will put your official robe and belt on him and give him all the authority you have had. He will be like a father to the people of Jerusalem and Judah.

22 I will give him complete authority under the king, the descendant of David. He will have the keys of office; what he opens, no one will shut, and what he shuts, no one will open.

23 I will fasten him firmly in place like a peg, and he will be a source of honor to his whole family.

24 “But all his relatives and dependents will become a burden to him. They will hang on him like pots and bowls hanging from a peg!

25 When that happens, the peg that was firmly fastened will pull loose and fall. And that will be the end of everything that was hanging on it.” TheLordhas spoken.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/22-5640ac1f44050b8bc2c8661fc5a0c777.mp3?version_id=68—

A Message about Phoenicia

1 This is a message about Tyre.

Howl with grief, you sailors out on the ocean! Your home port of Tyre has been destroyed; its houses and its harbor are in ruins. As your ships return from Cyprus, you learn the news.

2 Wail, you merchants of Sidon! You sent agents

3 across the sea to buy and sell the grain that grew in Egypt and to do business with all the nations.

4 City of Sidon, you are disgraced! The sea and the great ocean depths disown you and say, “I never had any children. I never raised sons or daughters.”

5 Even the Egyptians will be shocked and dismayed when they learn that Tyre has been destroyed.

6 Howl with grief, you people of Phoenicia! Try to escape to Spain!

7 Can this be the joyful city of Tyre, founded so long ago? Is this the city that sent settlers across the sea to establish colonies?

8 Who was it that planned to bring all this on Tyre, that imperial city, whose merchant princes were the most honored men on earth?

9 TheLordAlmighty planned it. He planned it in order to put an end to their pride in what they had done and to humiliate their honored ones.

10 Go and farm the land, you people in the colonies in Spain! There is no one to protect you any more.

11 TheLordhas stretched out his hand over the sea and overthrown kingdoms. He has commanded that the Phoenician centers of commerce be destroyed.

12 City of Sidon, your happiness has ended, and your people are oppressed. Even if they escape to Cyprus, they will still not be safe.

13 (It was the Babylonians, not the Assyrians, who let the wild animals overrun Tyre. It was the Babylonians who put up siege towers, tore down the fortifications of Tyre, and left the city in ruins.)

14 Howl with grief, you sailors out on the ocean! The city you relied on has been destroyed.

15 A time is coming when Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of a king. When those years are over, Tyre will be like the prostitute in the song:

16 Take your harp, go round the town,

you poor forgotten whore!

Play and sing your songs again

to bring men back once more.

17 When the seventy years are over, theLordwill let Tyre go back to her old trade, and she will hire herself out to all the kingdoms of the world.

18 The money she earns by commerce will be dedicated to theLord. She will not store it away, but those who worship theLordwill use her money to buy the food and the clothing they need.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/23-2b781e0582be3b6b9de630c0cd8e0c39.mp3?version_id=68—

The Lord Will Punish the Earth

1 TheLordis going to devastate the earth and leave it desolate. He will twist the earth’s surface and scatter its people.

2 Everyone will meet the same fate—the priests and the people, slaves and masters, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, rich and poor.

3 The earth will lie shattered and ruined. TheLordhas spoken and it will be done.

4 The earth dries up and withers; the whole world grows weak; both earth and sky decay.

5 The people have defiled the earth by breaking God’s laws and by violating the covenant he made to last forever.

6 So God has pronounced a curse on the earth. Its people are paying for what they have done. Fewer and fewer remain alive.

7 The grapevines wither, and wine is becoming scarce. Everyone who was once happy is now sad,

8 and the joyful music of their harps and drums has ceased.

9 There is no more happy singing over wine; no one enjoys its taste any more.

10 In the city everything is in chaos, and people lock themselves in their houses for safety.

11 People shout in the streets because there is no more wine. Happiness is gone forever; it has been banished from the land.

12 The city is in ruins, and its gates have been broken down.

13 This is what will happen in every nation all over the world. It will be like the end of harvest, when the olives have been beaten off every tree and the last grapes picked from the vines.

14 Those who survive will sing for joy. Those in the West will tell how great theLordis,

15 and those in the East will praise him. The people who live along the sea will praise theLord, the God of Israel.

16 From the most distant parts of the world we will hear songs in praise of Israel, the righteous nation.

But there is no hope for me! I am wasting away! Traitors continue to betray, and their treachery grows worse and worse.

17 Listen to me, everyone! There are terrors, pits, and traps waiting for you.

18 Anyone who tries to escape from the terror will fall in a pit, and anyone who escapes from the pit will be caught in a trap. Torrents of rain will pour from the sky, and earth’s foundations will shake.

19 The earth will crack and shatter and split open.

20 The earth itself will stagger like a drunk, sway like a hut in a storm. The world is weighed down by its sins; it will collapse and never rise again.

21 A time is coming when theLordwill punish the powers above and the rulers of the earth.

22 God will crowd kings together like prisoners in a pit. He will shut them in prison until the time of their punishment comes.

23 The moon will grow dark, and the sun will no longer shine, for theLordAlmighty will be king. He will rule in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and the leaders of the people will see his glory.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/24-ba0deddcf53e355f0f4ac315a13d45bc.mp3?version_id=68—

A Hymn of Praise

1 Lord, you are my God;

I will honor you and praise your name.

You have done amazing things;

you have faithfully carried out

the plans you made long ago.

2 You have turned cities into ruins

and destroyed their fortifications.

The palaces which our enemies built

are gone forever.

3 The people of powerful nations will praise you;

you will be feared in the cities of cruel nations.

4 The poor and the helpless have fled to you

and have been safe in times of trouble.

You give them shelter from storms

and shade from the burning heat.

Cruel enemies attack like a winter storm,

5 like drought in a dry land.

But you,Lord, have silenced our enemies;

you silence the shouts of cruel people,

as a cloud cools a hot day.

God Prepares a Banquet

6 Here on Mount Zion theLordAlmighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world—a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine.

7 Here he will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations.

8 The SovereignLordwill destroy death forever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone’s eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. TheLordhimself has spoken.

9 When it happens, everyone will say, “He is our God! We have put our trust in him, and he has rescued us. He is theLord! We have put our trust in him, and now we are happy and joyful because he has saved us.”

God Will Punish Moab

10 TheLordwill protect Mount Zion, but the people of Moab will be trampled down the way straw is trampled in manure.

11 They will reach out their hands as if they were trying to swim, but God will humiliate them, and their hands will sink helplessly.

12 He will destroy the fortresses of Moab with their high walls and bring them tumbling down into the dust.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/25-faf896a99f18259f10a8ec985c211156.mp3?version_id=68—

God Will Give His People Victory

1 A day is coming when the people will sing this song in the land of Judah:

Our city is strong!

God himself defends its walls!

2 Open the city gates

and let the faithful nation enter,

the nation whose people do what is right.

3 You,Lord, give perfect peace

to those who keep their purpose firm

and put their trust in you.

4 Trust in theLordforever;

he will always protect us.

5 He has humbled those who were proud;

he destroyed the strong city they lived in,

and sent its walls crashing into the dust.

6 Those who were oppressed walk over it now

and trample it under their feet.

7 Lord, you make the path smooth for good people;

the road they travel is level.

8 We follow your will and put our hope in you;

you are all that we desire.

9 At night I long for you with all my heart;

when you judge the earth and its people,

they will all learn what justice is.

10 Even though you are kind to the wicked,

they never learn to do what is right.

Even here in a land of righteous people

they still do wrong;

they refuse to recognize your greatness.

11 Your enemies do not know that you will punish them.

Lord, put them to shame and let them suffer;

let them suffer the punishment you have prepared.

Show them how much you love your people.

12 You will give us prosperity,Lord;

everything that we achieve

is the result of what you do.

13 Lordour God, we have been ruled by others,

but you alone are ourLord.

14 Now they are dead and will not live again;

their ghosts will not rise,

for you have punished them and destroyed them.

No one remembers them any more.

15 Lord, you have made our nation grow,

enlarging its territory on every side;

and this has brought you honor.

16 You punished your people,Lord,

and in anguish they prayed to you.

17 You,Lord, have made us cry out,

as a woman in labor cries out in pain.

18 We were in pain and agony,

but we gave birth to nothing.

We have won no victory for our land;

we have accomplished nothing.

19 Those of our people who have died will live again!

Their bodies will come back to life.

All those sleeping in their graves

will wake up and sing for joy.

As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth,

so theLordwill revive those who have long been dead.

Judgment and Restoration

20 Go into your houses, my people, and shut the door behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until God’s anger is over.

21 TheLordis coming from his heavenly dwelling place to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The murders that were secretly committed on the earth will be revealed, and the ground will no longer hide those who have been killed.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/26-282099ccf529f33dfe0ec0a780e54d7c.mp3?version_id=68—

1 On that day theLordwill use his powerful and deadly sword to punish Leviathan, that wriggling, twisting dragon, and to kill the monsterthat lives in the sea.

2 On that day theLordwill say of his pleasant vineyard,

3 “I watch over it and water it continually. I guard it night and day so that no one will harm it.

4 I am no longer angry with the vineyard. If there were thorns and briers to fight against, I would burn them up completely.

5 But if the enemies of my people want my protection, let them make peace with me. Yes, let them make peace with me.”

6 In the days to come the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, will take root like a tree, and they will blossom and bud. The earth will be covered with the fruit they produce.

7 Israel has not been punished by theLordas severely as its enemies nor lost as many people.

8 TheLordpunished his people by sending them into exile. He took them away with a cruel wind from the east.

9 But Israel’s sins will be forgiven only when the stones of pagan altars are ground up like chalk, and no more incense altars or symbols of the goddess Asherah are left.

10 The fortified city lies in ruins. It is deserted like an empty wilderness. It has become a pasture for cattle, where they can rest and graze.

11 The branches of the trees are withered and broken, and women gather them for firewood. Because the people have understood nothing, God their Creator will not pity them or show them any mercy.

12 On that day, from the Euphrates to the Egyptian border, theLordwill gather his people one by one, as threshing separates the wheat from the chaff.

13 When that day comes, a trumpet will be blown to call back from Assyria and Egypt all the Israelites who are in exile there. They will come and worship theLordin Jerusalem, on his sacred hill.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/27-bb2aa7ebfaf97f79b270c37753f65545.mp3?version_id=68—

A Warning to the Northern Kingdom

1 The kingdom of Israel is doomed! Its glory is fading like the crowns of flowers on the heads of its drunken leaders. Their proud heads are well perfumed, but there they lie, dead drunk.

2 The Lord has someone strong and powerful ready to attack them, someone who will come like a hailstorm, like a torrent of rain, like a rushing, overpowering flood, and will overwhelm the land.

3 The pride of those drunken leaders will be trampled underfoot.

4 The fading glory of those proud leaders will disappear like the first figs of the season, picked and eaten as soon as they are ripe.

5 A day is coming when theLordAlmighty will be like a glorious crown of flowers for his people who survive.

6 He will give a sense of justice to those who serve as judges, and courage to those who defend the city gates from attack.

Isaiah and the Drunken Prophets of Judah

7 Even the prophets and the priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them.

8 The tables where they sit are all covered with vomit, and not a clean spot is left.

9 They complain about me. They say, “Who does that man think he’s teaching? Who needs his message? It’s only good for babies that have just stopped nursing!

10 He is trying to teach us letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson.”

11 If you won’t listen to me, then God will use foreigners speaking some strange-sounding language to teach you a lesson.

12 He offered rest and comfort to all of you, but you refused to listen to him.

13 That is why theLordis going to teach you letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson. Then you will stumble with every step you take. You will be wounded, trapped, and taken prisoner.

A Cornerstone for Zion

14 Now you arrogant leaders who rule here in Jerusalem over this people, listen to what theLordis saying.

15 You boast that you have made a treaty with death and reached an agreement with the world of the dead. You are certain that disaster will spare you when it comes, because you depend on lies and deceit to keep you safe.

16 This, now, is what the SovereignLordsays: “I am placing in Zion a foundation that is firm and strong. In it I am putting a solid cornerstone on which are written the words, ‘Faith that is firm is also patient.’

17 Justice will be the measuring line for the foundation, and honesty will be its plumb line.”

Hailstorms will sweep away all the lies you depend on, and floods will destroy your security.

18 The treaty you have made with death will be abolished, and your agreement with the world of the dead will be canceled. When disaster sweeps down, you will be overcome.

19 It will strike you again and again, morning after morning. You will have to bear it day and night. Each new message from God will bring new terror!

20 You will be like the person in the proverb, who tries to sleep in a bed too short to stretch out on, with a blanket too narrow to wrap himself in.

21 TheLordwill fight as he did at Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to do what he intends to do—strange as his actions may seem. He will complete his work, his mysterious work.

22 Don’t laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard theLordAlmighty’s decision to destroy the whole country.

God’s Wisdom

23 Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you.

24 Farmers don’t constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting.

25 Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley,and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain.

26 They know how to do their work, because God has taught them.

27 They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size.

28 They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains.

29 All this wisdom comes from theLordAlmighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/28-e328727945a914af7978c2eab11449b5.mp3?version_id=68—

The Fate of Jerusalem

1 God’s altar, Jerusalem itself, is doomed! The city where David camped is doomed! Let another year or two come and go, with its feasts and festivals,

2 and then God will bring disaster on the city that is called “God’s altar.” There will be weeping and wailing, and the whole city will be like an altar covered with blood.

3 God will attack the city, surround it, and besiege it.

4 Jerusalem will be like a ghost struggling to speak from under the ground, a muffled voice coming from the dust.

5 Jerusalem, all the foreigners who attack you will be blown away like dust, and their terrifying armies will fly away like straw. Suddenly and unexpectedly

6 theLordAlmighty will rescue you with violent thunderstorms and earthquakes. He will send windstorms and raging fire;

7 then all the armies of the nations attacking the city of God’s altar, all their weapons and equipment—everything—will vanish like a dream, like something imagined in the night.

8 All the nations that assemble to attack Jerusalem will be like a starving person who dreams he is eating and wakes up hungry, or like someone dying of thirst who dreams he is drinking and wakes with a dry throat.

Disregarded Warnings

9 Go ahead and be stupid! Go ahead and be blind! Get drunk without any wine! Stagger without drinking a drop!

10 TheLordhas made you drowsy, ready to fall into a deep sleep. The prophets should be the eyes of the people, but God has blindfolded them.

11 The meaning of every prophetic vision will be hidden from you; it will be like a sealed scroll. If you take it to someone who knows how to read and ask him to read it to you, he will say he can’t because it is sealed.

12 If you give it to someone who can’t read and ask him to read it to you, he will answer that he doesn’t know how.

13 The Lord said, “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized.

14 So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless.”

Hope for the Future

15 Those who try to hide their plans from theLordare doomed! They carry out their schemes in secret and think no one will see them or know what they are doing.

16 They turn everything upside down. Which is more important, the potter or the clay? Can something you have made say, “You didn’t make me”? Or can it say, “You don’t know what you are doing”?

17 As the saying goes, before long the dense forest will become farmland, and the farmland will go back to forest.

18 When that day comes, the deaf will be able to hear a book being read aloud, and the blind, who have been living in darkness, will open their eyes and see.

19 Poor and humble people will once again find the happiness which theLord, the holy God of Israel, gives.

20 It will be the end of those who oppress others and show contempt for God. Every sinner will be destroyed.

21 God will destroy those who slander others, those who prevent the punishment of criminals, and those who tell lies to keep honest people from getting justice.

22 So now theLord, the God of Israel, who rescued Abraham from trouble, says, “My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame.

23 When you see the children that I will give you, then you will acknowledge that I am the holy God of Israel. You will honor me and stand in awe of me.

24 Foolish people will learn to understand, and those who are always grumbling will be glad to be taught.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ISA/29-d4e8b52b84568e384a88b25b4d18566d.mp3?version_id=68—